Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 3, 1 March 2008 — New attitudes and health behaviors in the new year [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

New attitudes and health behaviors in the new year

£ £ ■ i at Healthy. Be Active. rH Get Fit for Life." 1 JTh-. ifc the message sent to all veterans from HealthierUS Veterans. Their eampaign initiative is based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPyramid. They ean be found at www.healthierusveterans.va.gov. As a combat disabled veteran, the VA checks me out periodically. Blood test, polyp eheek of the eolon, swellings; or any probable symptoms relating to Agent Orange, such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, chloracne (a skin dis-

order), respiratory cancers, type 2 diabetes, prostate cancer, etc. Water gain, low red blood eell count, an increase of blood pressure and high cholesterol, and my consistent weight gain are my physician's and nutritionist's greatest eoneem. As a rancher and fanner, I've had to deal with this hall and ehain to the point of total exhaustion and depression. But I still hump, still pressing forward as I did in the jungle, whether feeding and watering the cattle and horses, the goats, the ehieken and rabbits, or clearing and plowing and tilling land, to planting kalo, eggplant and pumpkin. Designing and planning victory garden plots and aquaculture fanning ponds, or practicing soil-conservation measures as well as taking care of

my mo'opuna, and still having a special love-hate relationship with the wife is unending. It's ongoing until the last breath. And lately I've felt the last breath for me draw nearer. I've had tons of weight-reduc-tion experiences from soup-only diets, acupuncture, human growth honnone treatments, only meat diets, only bread diets, only water diets, only coffee diets, only vegan diets to the Wai'anae diet to the starvation diet. Years back, Hui Mālama Ola Nā 'Ōiwi, based in Hilo, sponsored Dr. Shintani's Wai'anae Diet project. As a participant I lost nearly 30 pounds within a 21-day period and eontinued losing weight well after the program ended. But then I began drifting away and went back to old habits. I couldn't get rid of the fatty foods, especially pork, from my diet. I went back to mounds of rice choked with meat and not many vegetables. But 2008 starts a new beginning, and I'm doin' it again, but with a different set of attitude and behaviors. In the physical sense, I don't want to "look" 19 again, I think aging the way I have has put certain lines on my face that you ean only get by what life throws at you and being able to "eat it" and survive. Rather, I'd like to "feel" like I'm 19 again, where my knees don't aehe from carrying this load, where my belly won't hang like an awning over my pants, and where my rear will be able to hold up

my pants with a regular belt and no need for suspenders — where I ean quit going to the big and tall store and become a Sears customer onee again and wear nice-fitting clothes, totally getting out of the 60s look and into this new millennium. I wanna feel good about myself again and have the energy to do all that I ean before leaving this great and beautiful world; that's the attitude I'm grasping. The behaviors I'll get from those who

support my endeavors and those I want to help support. It's reciprocating; it's a two-way street of give and take. I don't wanna die because I was too fat. When the time does eome when the good Lord calls up my number, there'll be six guys carrying my coffin, not 10. Jeno Enoeeneio writes about the many hats he wears. This is the third of a three-part series concerning our heahh. S

NĀ PĀPALE • MANY HATS

By Jimmy F. "Jenū" Enūeeneiū

Jeno Enoeeneio enjoys outdoor activities as part of a new attitude and health plan. Photo: leno Enoeeneio.