White to green: Fighting obesity

Woes, like bad health, stalk us.  In time, we wonder "how did our family get all those extra pounds?".  Seems like yesterday, we were slender and flexible like Aspen saplings.   What happened to us?

There's a deadly alien, on the prowl.  It came from over the ocean.  It is nanook white.  It is the sugar in our food and soda; it is the flour in our bread; it is potatoes and rice.  It gets inside us and takes over.  It makes us gorge ourselves, to feed itself.

One of the unforgettable moments in film "Alien" is the emergence of baby alien through the chest of its host.  Perhaps that last bowl of breakfast flakes wasn't sweet enough for it?

Survivors of obesity, caused by the alien, all tell a similar story.  They fought the alien as one fights any disease.  They put one over on the critter, gradually substituting whole, nutritious and fresh foods, the ones our families used to eat, and avoiding empty-calorie, 'white'-alien foods.  They committed to a tug of war -- never letting go of the winning lifeline to good health.  We all are what we eat.  Over a period of months, the alien was transformed, from animal to vegetable, sprouting roots and branches of that Aspen we all have inside.

From then on, only healthful foods appeal.  The leaves of the Aspen nourish our cells.  Survivors go to the convenience store and find next to nothing of interest; we go to an occasional feast and, out of politeness, sample some of the foods we no longer crave, wanting only what is good for us.  No more made-by-a-mad-scientist foods for us.  We control our weight, instead of the other way around.  We are our own masters, once again.

Survivors are reborn into harmony with the Earth and with their ancestors.  We feel blessed to have healed ourselves sooner instead of later.  A little hozhoji goes a long way, sprouting, within ourselves, branches, catkins and shimmering Aspen leaves.