Rantings & Praise ~shell

Herbs, Oils and Blood Results Oh My!! Well, hopefully you follow my blog and know what this post is all about! If not, then I ask you to please peruse the past blogs. I shall recap some: I had been bedridden for many years. I was suffering from obese anorexia, giving myself many ailments. One of the greatest would be cirrhosis of the liver, but the list was very long: Diabetes (Levels to 500! now at 70's for four years straight.) Kidney disease Cirrhosis of the liver (Not alcohol, sexual, drug, no hep related! All non eating. Now in final stages.) Portal hypertension (Was digressing 10 points monthly to a deathly low, turned about with herbs.) Morbid obesity Fibromyalgia (No signs for 4 years.) IBS (No signs for 4 years) High Blood Pressure (No signs for 4 years) I was bedridden and chair bound. That in itself is it's own story, saved for another day. I took over 20 pills daily, which only gave me grave physical consequences on top of all that...

I was going to blog about my herb and vitamins regime. Yes, I took my gym hours and applied them to writing hours. Then I got sucked into an abyss of debated communication of social media. Yes, that is what I started to do with my much coveted time. Well, of course that has inspired me to write this blog, and yes, I will get to the much anticipated post about my herbs. Genderfunktification.  When I debated this, I used a curse-word in the middle of my newly coined word. I am ear deep in the past. Death dates. birth-dates, genealogy, memories, pained, joyful....what a plethora of stuff. I knew I would have to go through this to do what was necessary to finish my book. As I am extremely emotional right now, I feel the need to stay away from the Woman's March topics of today. Trust me when I say I have so much to say about the subject. If you know me, then you know I have much to say about MOST subjects. I have been a victim. I have been raped, gang raped, ridicul...

Recipes of Delicious Healthiness! Hi There! This is a post of a different flavor. Since I just started this blog, there will be many facets to it. Fitness, Diet, Spirituality, Life Coaching, Recovery from many addictions and disorders. Today's blog entry is about two of my very favorite dishes! (I have a third favorite, Banga Calda, a condiment, which will be added to this blog with my favorite Marinara.) I had promised some social media pals that I would post the following recipes. I then decided this blog would be a great place to post them. That way anyone could grab them, when ever they wanted them. I quit eating pasta about 4 years ago, and as the granddaughter of Italian immigrants (my maternal great grandparents didn't speak English.) It is absurd to think I could do such a thing. My Nonnie would make homemade ravioli and pizzas from scratch, as well as the traditional turkey and hams for the holidays. All of her pastas were homemade. I love Italian cuisine bu...

Social Media Repost: OMG!!! OH MY GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD....Not in taking the Lord's name in vain kinda OMG...but in exclamation of Ohhh FU*&in' AAAAAAAAAA Again, the impossible has happened. Doctors said it was impossible. (They have said that to me more than you can imagine.) They said that I might be able to stop my platelets from falling but they will not get better....ever. They started falling, every test...bit by bit... 142, 130,120,all the way down to 113...any further dropage... and funky chicken. It was getting quite scary. This isn't even about the cirrhosis.. this is my portal hypertension...blood is so thin it can't heal. okokok...I have been on this herbal, self educated, self prescribed daily regimen. Granted, I do not take one western medicine pill, but I do take more herbs than you can fit in your mouth. I need to chew the capsules because I can not digest even the thinnest capsule. If I forget to brush my teeth after t...

Dancing at the gym is a gift. It is one that I have given myself as a reward for no longer being bedridden. . I have worked hard at it. I do not reward myself with a cake, candy or  any food. I reward myself with dance and sometimes a good racquetball game. I am sure it is frowned upon by some of my more traditional gym mates, but it is seriously part of my daily routine. Dancing was one of the things I missed most  while laid up in bed all those years, (as well as racquetball.)  Life is toooooo short. I must dance!  I do it between cable stretches and weight lifting. Today I use the strongest band that I can buy. I have broken a few, but I keep at it! I wear my wireless headphones so no one hears what I am spastic about. For a while (especially here in TN,) I was the only one in the gym with wireless headphones and people truly thought I marched to my own inward drummer. Now, the headphones are all the rage and everyone is be-bopping around....

Blessed Are They That Mourn Blessed are those who mourn , for  they  shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4 Well, Gee, it sure doesn't feel like it sometimes...but I assure you, it is true. A big part of my fitness regime is the bodily work out. Another very important part deals with emotional fitness, and Spiritual fitness. For me, they all need to work together. It is imperative,  for me,  to truly seize any day, or moment. As I write my current book, so much comes up, emotionally. The flooding memories/feelings try to rob me of my joy.  Memories, regrets, fears...Oh my..... and then days like today hit. Today is my youngest brother's birthday. It is his first birthday since he died.  Yikes.  I have been through these heartaches before: My mother's, father's, both my younger sisters and an ex husband.  Birthdays seem to hit me the hardest. We celebrated them, always. We would do so, even when there were months between conver...

What do you know about Obese Anorexia? I am sure you have heard that your body will store fat if it goes into starvation mode. I had some biopsies and lumpectomies in the early 90's. Doctors were a bit paranoid, me being a multi generational breast cancer genetic risk. I lost my mother to cancer, (after she fought it for 14 years, ) in 1979. In the mid 90's, while being part of a research study at UCLA, I found out that all of my  DNA "markers" had been knocked out of whack. It was due to many circumstances, including early pregnancy and a hysterectomy at the age of 20. There were other factors as well. It was during the height of the discovery of the Breast Cancer Gene. In 1991 I was a gym rat already and a performing musician. I was never an obese child and always somewhat of an athlete. During the doctors exploratory procedures, I had gained a few pounds, perhaps 10, and started a long journey of a horrible eating disorder. I never ate "fast food...

Moments, live them to their fullest. MICHELE LITTLEJOHN-LUCCKETTA · MONDAY, JANUARY 2, 2017 28 Reads The following is a reprint from New Years 2017. It is as applicable today as it was last year, except sadly, I lost my young brother this past year. It is important to me , that any reader that follows my blog, reads my books or listens to anything that I have to say, know the following. Hence the reprint. Bless you, ~shell ************************************* I wrote a quote yesterday that inspired me to write this note. “Dance like everyone is watching, and ask them to join in...” Michele “shell” Luccketta Gone are the days of being ashamed to rejoice, be happy, joyous and excited! Gone are the days of hiding this light under a bushel. Many find it boastful. “How dare you brag on how good you got it! We are all busy bitching and moaning because life is hard!” “See Reality” “Wake up Pollyanna.” “Well not everyone has it as good as you do. Let us wallow in our ...