How many of you remember the comedy duo Hale and Pace? Their best known characters were two menacing gentlemen, dressed as bouncers, who referred to themselves as “Da Management.”

If you would like to be reminded, or see them for the first time, this was their inaugural sketch. Watch it now, because there will be spoilers later. bit.ly/3WvAjYf

Those of you who read my blogs regularly, will know I have a serious autoimmune health issue going on. I keep going back and forward to the hospital for reviews and tests and change medication as frequently as some people change their underwear. So far nothing has worked. The latest “exploration” revealed that things have become much worse. Grave faces were pulled, and I now have to take eight tablets a day, each the size of small cannonballs. “And,” said the pharmacist sternly, “You must not chew them, or crush them or even cut them in half.”

The medics can only do so much and, quite frankly, what they can do doesn’t seem to be working. 

As with everything in life, it’s time to take some responsibility myself.

If you read around, and do some Googling on autoimmune diseases, you discover there is quite a lot you can do.

·       Adopt an exclusion diet to identify any foods that might trigger your immune response.

·       Reduce your stress.

·       Take regular exercise.

·       Rest and ensure you get enough sleep.

Which is where we introduce The Management – who want to put on a TV comedy show.

“We went straight to the top man,” they say. “Because we don’t bother with no underlings.”

Well, who is the top man (or woman)? It is we, ourselves; it is us. As I said in my blog last week, we are in control of our reasoned choices and our actions. It is up to each of us to make our own decisions about our health and to stand by those decisions in the face of others who may think they know better than we do what is best for us.

The Management told the man at the top, “We want a very large budget.” I think that is the equivalent of us saying, “I want an easy way of doing this.”

There is no easy way. The exclusion diet is challenging. No sugar, grains, diary, eggs or legumes. Just meat and green vegetables with some fruit.

Reducing one’s stress levels means talking hard decisions and may mean giving up parts of your life you love, or where you feel really needed. It may need a radical change in lifestyle.

Taking regular exercise sounds much easier, but it takes discipline.

Resting and getting enough sleep is possibly the most difficult of all.

Hale and Pace got their show. So long as they promised not to go over the top. So long as they promised not to spend too much money. So, they promised.

They lied (and it’s gloriously funny).

If you don’t take the medicine (lifestyle as well as the horse-tablets), you won’t get the results. If we lie to ourselves, we only cheat ourselves. And, it’s not funny.

We are our own Management. Let’s manage ourselves wisely.

Mary

A Moodscope member