I know this much is true.

Eighties song I am listening to on my walkman. 
 
But also the title of this post because I've been meaning for awhile to write a little more about why I am writing this blog, aside from the fact that it is a thoroughly enjoyable exercise in self-indulgent narcissism.  That's the main reason, but there's another too.
 
Why am I keeping an up to the minute diary of my experiences as I transition to CR and hopefully live this way until our friends the researchers come up with a better idea?  Why am I discussing what I ate, when I ate it, how I felt about it, why it was great and why it was hard, and all the stupid mistakes I make with the entire world? 
 
Because I feel like if we are ever going to turn CRON from something that a few brilliant, self-disciplined people do into something that is accessible to anyone who wants to try, we have to have some examples of people who do it.  Dean Pomerleau, a long term CR person, does a great job of showing others what it's like in his webpage, which you can find at http://deanpomerleau.tripod.com/.  He's amazing, clearly one of the smartest people out there and also one of the nicest if his posts to the list are any indication of what he's like in real life.  He gets interviewed a lot in the popular press, and his lifestyle of eating the same meal twice a day, everyday, is something of a curiosity to the mass media.  But I worry that if the perception that the rest of the world has about CR is that it can only be practiced by people with iron self-discipline and a PhD, we won't get the rest of the world to take us seriously.  And why should we care?  Because I strongly suspect that the more people we can get to take us seriously and try our way of life, the more funding and support we'll get for the kind of research that can take us to higher levels of life extension.  I can't do the research, but I can convince people that they should fund it.  And I can convince people that they should give it a try.  I am, after all, an organizer.  I've spent my entire adult life trying to convince people to do things that are very, very hard, but are the one thing that will truly help them achieve the life they want to live. 
 
As a young woman who works hard, plays hard, and does all kinds of silly things, I am living proof that anyone can do this.  If I can do it, so can you.  Why allow the food industry to tell us how long we will live and how healthy we will be when our food choices are entirely within our own control?  Why be satisfied with less health, less happiness, and less life?  CRON isn't perfect, and neither is my attempt to practice it.  But if we all work together, we will learn more, get better, and I believe we'll all have a whole lot of fun. 
 
Thanks for reading, whoever you are. 
 
I guess I should eat dinner now.