Decline to Resign has multiple meanings.
1. Your health declines until you die? 2. You refuse to give up? 3. You resign yourself to whatever will be – will be?
I have been wrestling with this quite a bit lately. I am not as well as I would like to be. It seems like I am fighting a new health problem every day! I believe with all my heart that the right diet can heal most illnesses but sometimes just being WFPB is not enough!
Every day I read comments on my Facebook page where someone is not getting the results they want from a WFPB diet! They think they are failing! I know it isn’t just me that feels this way! I am right there with you!
Recently I picked up a copy of Cleanse to Heal by Anthony William. Anthony professes to be a medium which may offend some people here, but his books make sense to me! What I like the most is that he is writing for the people who suffer from chronic diseases and he offers information to help them heal! He isn’t tricking anyone or trying to sell a product or plan. He offers compassion and insight! As someone who suffers from chronic diseases, I welcome his teachings.
A year or so ago we did a 90 day cleanse from Anthony’s Thyroid Healing book. We got great results but didn’t stick with it long enough. I managed to get off of blood pressure and thyroid medication but I continued to have some underlining health problems! I just learned to live with them.
When this book came out, my husband and I did two 3-6-9 cleanse’s back to back with very positive results. By the end of the second cleanse, we were seeing the needle move on the scale. Before that, we were consistently gaining a little at a little weight and it was difficult to get it off! Our blood pressures were that of a child.
It wasn’t until we did the cleanse that I realized how much we were doing wrong! We WERE doing quite well on WFPB but I didn’t realize we were still eating things we shouldn’t!
Now being on a WFPB diet is quite enjoyable to me. I quickly got to the point I didn’t miss meat. Dairy took a little longer because I truly love butter, cheese, sour cream and the like. I have made some very tasty dishes though that I would have missed out on otherwise! Where I fail is when I push the bar a little and use a little coconut or avocado oil. I am not completely gluten free. I use organic corn products. I air-fry foods. Sometimes I use vegan panko or bread crumbs on food. I am guilty of having several fatty items in one meal (nuts, avocado, coconut, seeds, olives). I avoid processed food, GMO’s, and hard to pronounce food additives but I DO use some from time to time. (Bread is considered a processed food), My biggest offender though is to have something fatty and sweet at the same time.
Now Anthony does not advocate any particular diet. He is not WFPB! He even recommends eating some salmon or trout on occasion. He DOES have a list of foods that exacerbate certain health issues and unfortunately, it includes some of what I just mentioned.
So it’s not just eating WFPB. It is about avoiding foods that do not allow me to heal. I need to address all of my issues and stick with a detox plan until I am healed!
When I first went WFPB, I had lost quite a bit of weight and was feeling great. I was getting my energy back and had dodged a bullet as far as my health was concerned. However, this diet is not easy, especially while traveling.
I decided that I would continue a strict diet at home but not worry so much about it when I traveled or socialized. Big mistake. I’ve gained as much as seven pounds from one meal! It didn’t take long before all of my old symptoms returned. I felt awful, defeated, disillusioned and well, depressed!
Now to the point of “Decline to Resign”.
We were friends with a couple that were about 20 years our senior. I watched them go through the three phases of decline to resign. My friend I will call Ellie, was in failing health and frequently in and out of hospital’s. Her husband, Giles, had leukemia that was in remission for 20 years. Despite their health, we enjoyed their company and dined out frequently. Ellie and Giles ate like teenagers and gave little thought to any link between their food and their health. They would complain about acid reflux, bloating, weight gain, high blood pressure, IBS, Diverticulitis, and other obvious food related illnesses but it didn’t sway their choices.
They resigned to live their life as they wanted and take the consequences.
Ellie broke her hip and while she was in rehabilitation, Gile’s found that his cancer was no longer in remission. After that, I watched their health decline in record time. I think food was a big part of it! They moved into a retirement facility and no longer had any choice to eat healthy. I would watch in horror as her facility would serve hotdogs, fried chicken, BBQ brisket, pasta alfredo, fried fish….. all things I didn’t eat even before I was WFPB. Everyone knows they don’t serve healthy food in retirement homes, nursing homes, rehab centers or hospice care, but what they DO serve is truly appalling.
Anyway, Ellie explained to me that everyone at the facility knew they were “on the way out”. The last little bit of joy they had was food and they wanted to eat like every meal was their last.
Total resignation!
Giles and Ellie have been gone a few years now and now I feel I have begun my downward decent. It started with a fall when I got a little dizzy. My blood pressure was having extreme high’s and low’s. I had stress fractures in three places on my arm and I had pain from torn muscles. Just about the time that got better, I started having issues with neuropathy! The nerve pain was incapacitating.
Then I caught Covid-19! This was right after we did the 3-6-9 detox twice. I believe it saved our lives but we are still not back where I was health wise.
I’ve found a strict detox diet to help immensely but a detox diet 100% of the time is difficult. Such a low fat diet seemed to make us both weaker as well, although that could have been from the virus. My husband and I decided to slack off of our strict diet for a few weeks between father’s day and our anniversary (4th of July).
Well, one SAD meal too many and I had a gallbladder attack. OMG, thought I was headed to the hospital but I had a few ideas to help me feel better until morning. The next day, I thought I could ride it out.
What I am noticing is that every set back knocks me down a little more and I never come back 100%. My health has declined considerably since I was 55. I thought I would easily make it to my mid 80’s and possibly longer since we made the change to a WFPB diet. I am not sure sure now. I fear I am on a downward spiral but is it to be expected with age?
Giles said frequently…. “a healthy diet doesn’t help anyone live longer, it just seems that way”.
So I look to myself for the inspiration and strength to keep going and try to be as healthy as I can be. It is about declining to give in to my pain, my exhaustion, my depression, my final resignation that I can’t do this anymore.
Is it worth it to carefully watch what you eat in an attempt to be healthy as long as possible?
Will eating a healthy diet honestly keep you off drugs and out of the hospital?
Is it better to just do what you want, take the consequences and health problems that go with it?
I would love to hear people’s thoughts on this topic.
Regarding the photo…. I thought this was a perfect image for someone who wants to live life to the fullest, even if they are using a walker!
Thank you FROPKI.COM for this image.
