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

New attitudes and health
behaviors in the new year

By Jimmy F. “Jeno” Enocencio

“Eat Healthy. Be Active. Get Fit for Life.” That's the message sent to all veterans from HealthierUS Veterans. Their campaign initiative is based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPyramid. They can be found at www.healthierusveterans.va.gov.

As a combat disabled veteran, the VA checks me out periodically. Blood test, polyp check of the colon, swellings; or any probable symptoms relating to Agent Orange, such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, chloracne (a skin disorder), respiratory cancers, type 2 diabetes, prostate cancer, etc. Water gain, low red blood cell count, an increase of blood pressure and high cholesterol, and my consistent weight gain are my physician's and nutritionist's greatest concern.

As a rancher and farmer, I've had to deal with this ball and chain 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 chicken and rabbits, or clearing and plowing and tilling land, to planting kalo, eggplant and pumpkin. Designing and planning victory garden plots and aquaculture farming 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-reduction experiences from soup-only diets, acupuncture, human growth hormone 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 continued 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 can 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 ache 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 can quit going to the big and tall store and become a Sears customer once 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 can 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 come when the good Lord calls up my number, there'll be six guys carrying my coffin, not 10.

Jeno Enocencio writes about the many hats he wears.
This is the third of a three-part series concerning our health.