May 17, 2026 — Setúbal, Portugal I am a retired nurse. I have been carefully observing my own body for fifty years. I keep spreadsheets. I ran elimination diets before they were talked about in mainstream […]
The Experiment I Didn’t Know I Was Running Read Post »
When the Food Noise Stopped I read an article in the New York Times recently about GLP-1 drugs, the weight loss medications that have taken medicine by storm. The researchers were astonished by something they hadn’t
The Silence I Didn’t Know I Was Missing Read Post »
What Nobody Tells You About Eating Well Abroad I almost got arrested buying groceries. Not really, but it felt that way. And understanding why it happened taught me something important about what it actually takes to
Brain Strain and Bread Read Post »
A Story About AI, Courage, and Finding Home. People ask me how I picked Setúbal. Had I been there before? No.Did I have relatives there? No.Did I speak Portuguese? A few words, learned in the past
Setúbal, Portugal feels like home and I have never been there. I have been thinking about leaving the United States since 2016. Not casually. Seriously. But I live on a modest fixed income, and I could
It Feels Like Home and I’ve Never Even Been There Read Post »
It feels like home. Isn’t that strange?It is not strange at all. I have not been there. Not in person. But I have walked the streets on Street View. I have mapped the route from R.
In 1991, a winter morning on an Alabama farm taught me what real food as nourishment actually means. Some lessons stay with you. Jean and Carol — two remarkable women and partners — were farmers a
The Year Food Became Real Read Post »
For people managing chronic illness, the question of how to eat well often starts in the wrong place. The current discussion about ultraprocessed foods sounds a lot like something I’ve been experimenting with in my own
What If We Started With What’s Good? Read Post »
For years, I could not reliably raise my heart rate high enough to qualify as aerobic activity.
Medication limited me.
Injury complicated things.
My body did not respond the way it once had.
I could move.
But I could not generate aerobic effort in a way that was consistent and sustainable.
That changed this week.
From Trying to Move to Knowing How Read Post »
By the summer of 2025, walking had become part of my life. Not something I forced…
I looked forward to my daily walks. I liked leaving the car at home and not having to worry about finding parking in the city. I enjoyed riding the bus so I could walk in different neighborhoods. Movement had become a source of pleasure and independence.
I had become the person I had once only imagined becoming:
a person who enjoyed movement.
On Movement, Part 3: Moving with Awareness Read Post »
Finding a way to move when your body makes movement hard is not about motivation. It is about finding the right support.
I spent most of my adult life trying to find movement enjoyable, without much success, until last summer. What finally changed was not motivation, but method.
On Movement, Part 2: Learning to Move Without Loving It (Yet) Read Post »
This is the first in a series on movement, chronic illness, and what it actually takes to find your way back to your body. Before puberty, I loved movement. I was the hula hoop champion in
On Movement, Part 1: Before I Learned to Stop Moving Read Post »