I missed everyone!!!

Hi Everyone!

I'm sorry for not writing sooner. I had a family emergency that has taken up almost the last 3 weeks of my time, not including all of my emotional energy.

I received a call at 2:00 a.m. just about three weeks ago that my mother's heart had stopped and she was rushed to the emergency hospital. She had gone into septic shock from a urinary track infection undetected at the nursing home where she lives. Septic shock is extremely dangerous. It is what Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets died of in 24 hours. The nurse who called me said to get up to New York as fast as I could and if I had funeral arrangements it might be a good time to bring them up. Needless to say, my life was turned upside down. Within 20 minutes I had a flight up to New York at 6:55am and I was at the hospital by 9:00am by my mother's bedside. My sister met me there, and we had to make the hard decision as what to do. We are both extremely close with my mother, and even though she is 78 years old, you are never prepared for a call like that.

There was one full week of not knowing if my mother was going to live or die, then another week of wondering if she would ever get off the respirator. I'm happy to say, that with all of my family and friends prayers, she is miraculously doing great. Even the doctor's don't know how she survived such an infection at her age.

Please accept my apologies for not getting back to you all. Things are good now and I'm BACK!!

This is a great opportunity to speak about lifes stresses and how we all use food, or don't, to deal with stress in our lives. Out of the three weeks that this was going on, I thank G-d!, only turned to food once. Now all of you know that took a lot of courage and strength not to turn to food EVERY DAY!!! But I used the tecniques of breathing and realizing that food is NOT going to make my mother live. Don't misunderstand me...it was a CHALLANGE every day not to turn to food as my drug to deaden the pain of what was going on. I am NOT sitting here saying it was easy...I just breathed. I mean REALLY!!!! It was a struggle...every minute!!! But in retrospect, it made me so much stronger and I'm so much happier that I was able to have that strength. The one time that I did...it did what I wanted it to do and that was make me so tired that I just fell asleep and didn't have to "deal." Pizza, chocolate chip cookie, tuna sandwich, more cookies, eggplant hero...NEED I SAY MORE!!! I'm human...it's ok because the NEXT day I was back on track. Frankly, I felt horrible the next day, which actually gave me an incentive to stay on track. (Gotta look at the positives!!!!)

So the moral is.....FOOD IS NOT GOING TO MAKE ANYTHING BETTER IN A BAD SITUATION. EVERRRRRR!!! It seems that way in the short run, but in the long run it is only destructive!!! Here are some tips:

1. Breath. Breath again and then Breath again. 10 times.

2. Turn to items that are lower in sodium.

3. GET BACK ON TRACK ASAP!!!!!

4. Finally, and most importantly....THERE IS NO BEGINNING AND NO END...IT'S A JOURNEY. You're not "bad" if you stray and eat things that aren't healthy....YOU'RE HUMAN! No Shame!!!!

Now everyone go out and go for a walk!!!! I'm glad I'm back and I'm glad my mom is too!!!! :)

Keep me posted everyone!!!!! Warmly, Susan