Health

It's now almost nine months since I quit eating pig meat, almost six months since I quit eating most other kinds of meat (chicken, turkey, and occasional fish being the only exceptions, and I'm thinking of phasing out those), and over two months since I quit alcohol. I try to walk at least a mile for exercise each weekday, and I'm finally starting to lose some of the weight I gained during the period of immobility before and after last year's surgery.

A couple of weeks ago I got a stomach-ache, and I realized it was ages since the last time I'd had one. I used to get them all the time. I feel like I'm getting fewer headaches too, though it's hard to be sure. Certainly the experience of waking up queasy and exhausted after drinking too much the night before is one I don't miss.

While in general people today are far healthier (with the glaring exception of the epidemic of excess weight) and longer-lived than ever before, there are still improvements almost all of us could make. It takes effort -- very definitely it takes effort -- but the rewards are well worth it.