I-Search Background

When I was first married, over 17 years ago, I became very close
with my sister-in-law. She was always a very quiet person, keeping
to herself at family gatherings a lot. She and I had that in common.
Neither of us liked crowds, but we both married into a very large
and noisy family. Go figure. Our husbands were quite the same.
Funny, outgoing, and loved to interact with people. The men in
this family could be a lot of fun. But on their other side, they were
very much controlling in their family life. Most of them thought
a woman's place should be home cooking and cleaning. This was
the beginning of me observing my brother-in-law putting his wife
down and telling her how worthless she was. I found my husband
to take on some of these qualities once we were married. Bits
and pieces started to come out. The difference between our
lives was that I was brought up to be a strong, independant
woman who did not tolerate these behaviors from my husband.
At first I did, but as a few months went along, I stood up for
myself. Funny thing was, my husband didn't realize how he
was treating me until we talked about it. I've never had him
treat me disrespectfully again, which is a great accomplishment
being raised with those beliefs.

My sister-in-law turned to food when she felt bad about herself.
She ate foods high in fat and low in healthy nutrients. Her battle
with depression began. She saught help from therapists, only to
be medicated. When that medicine didn't help any more, they
increased or switched the dose.

We decided to try to shed some pounds together, so we joined
Weight Watchers. I will never forget this time in our lives. We
had such good times. We started a healthy lifestyle that lasted
for a couple of years. Every Wednesday night was girls night out.
We went to the meetings, sharing stories with others that were
inspirational and celebrating lost pounds throughout the room.
After the meeting we had our "cheat" meal for the week. We
walked together every day and enjoyed each others company.
I had never seen her so chatty and funny. She and I had lost
weight, gained energy and enjoyed life. We then decided to
grocery shop together, which helped keep each other in tact
of healthy eating at home. Every other week we made an
afternoon of it. We clipped coupons and made our list of meals
for the week together. We then traveled to Bangor, shopped
and had lunch together.

After a while, her family started making it difficult for her to
enjoy herself. When I picked her up for our Wednesday meetings,
they made fun of us, calling it our Fat Farm class. When we
went grocery shopping, she would have to beg her husband for
money. It was the same battle every time. An arguement about
how much he would allow her, and then the lecture of bringing
excess change back to him. After a while she gave up going.
She gained a lot of weight and became severely depressed,
and at many times even suicidal. Her battle has gone on for
a very long time now. Her family all adapted the bad eating
habits and no physical activity. Her husband and son now take
medication for depression. When her husband snaps and treats
people badly, he blames it on not having a large enough dosage
of meds. He contacts his doctor and gets an increase. The cycle
continues.

From my own personal experiences, I know how my diet can
influence my moods. When I was in high school I had a bad
habit of starving myself. I would go days without a proper
meal. Mountain Dew, coffee, and peanut m&ms were my diet.
I could barely keep my eyes open during classes. I became
very thin and weak. A lot of it started when my cheering coach
gave us her famous lecture of what we needed to look like to
stay on her team. A friend of mine who was not much larger
than me and had muscular legs was embarrassed in front of
everyone when the coach told her she needed to drop weight.
My greatest fear was being next. It took me many years to
realize no matter how much you starve yourself, you body
will not turn into a model's body just by wishing it. But what
I really discovered was that without proper nutrients, I became
depressed. Nothing made me happy. I had a hard time dealing
with even small situations. But it didn't stop me from the yo-yo
effect of crash dieting and then gorging myself. I thought as
long as I looked the way others thought I should, then life
was good. I played this game with myself for years before
I completely understood that I can be fit and eat healthy
and not become overweight. It was actually the opposite.
When I started eating more calories, but the right calories,
my body looked and felt the best ever. But even better, my
mind became stronger and I felt a complete happiness I had
missed for quite some time. I liked myself again.

I know that I feel better with proper diet and exercise. I hope
to find concrete answers and maybe help my friend along the
way, which is my motivation for picking this topic.

Process Essay

It was the middle of Spring. The air felt new. The sun
was warm on my face. Winter had finally passed.
The ground was awakening from a long winters nap.
Trees began to stretch and the grass began to peak
through the soil. I found myself standing in my yard
staring at the empty flower beds, trying to decide
how to make it beautiful this year. My plan of attack
is the same each year. First, I clean up the mess from
the previous year. Secondly, a decision to expand the
flower beds or keep them the same as last year has to
be made. Third and final decision, is what flowers
will I be planting.

My first step, cleaning up the yard and flower beds
is my least favorite of the process. Pulling left over
weeds, raking the yard and preparing the soil takes
a bit of time. I suppose it's my least favorite only
because I am so anxious to get started with the new.

Second step of the process is my decision to keep the
scene the same or do I change things around this
year. Most of the time I add to what I already have.
When I decide to expand, my job consists of drawing
what I have in mind. Calculating what and how
much materials will be needed. Gathering or buying
what I have come up with for materials and
putting it all into place.

Once the beds are clean and prepared, my third and
final step is to decide what type of flowers are going
to go into which bed. My hanging pots are usually
quite easy to choose. I always choose an annual that
climbs. My beds that sit on the ground, I carefully
choose size, color and arrangement of how they will
fit together. On the outside of the beds I have space
for perennial flowers and bushes. Each year I try to
add a new perennial. Once all the decisions are made
and I've purchased what I need, I get to work and
start planting.

It's a great deal of work to do this each year. The bugs
are thick. The sun is hot. I'm so sweaty that the dirt
sticks to my skin, and my nails are blackened. But
each year I look forward to the whole process. The
end result is breathe-taking, beautiful and colorful
new life that I've helped get started and nurtured
along it's journey. I love to watch them grow and
blossom throughout the summer. The final outcome
is worth all the hard work and effort put into the
process of gardening.

I Search Why & What

Why I chose my topic:

My topic was chosen for a couple of reasons. A dear friend
of mine has been battling with depression for more than 15
years. It controls every aspect of her life. Her children have
grown up in a house of despair. Now their home is full of
depression. Her husband and son also suffer with the disease.
There eating habits are the same. High fat, processed foods
from a package or fast-food is what they eat most days of
the week. Vegetables and fruits are never seen in their
home. They are overweight and do not exercise. Rather
than work at improving their health, they say they would
rather just take pills on a daily basis.

There was a time in my life when it was hard to focus on the
positive. I was so unhappy, tired and down on life, even
though I had nothing to complain about. My weight was at
an all-time high. I had more health problems than anyone in
there twenties should have. I either starved myself or
over-indulged on high-fat foods. Looking back I realize that
my poor eating habits contributed to a snowball effect of
poor health and poor mental stability. So this topic was
chosen not only because of wanting to help friends and
family who suffer and can be helped, but also because I
know the benefits of a healthy lifestyle change through
my personal experiences.

Questions I would like to find the answers to:

1. Can food cause depression?

• What types of foods cause the symptoms?
• What types of foods help prevent these symptoms?

2. Can the depression be reversed if diet is altered?

3. Does physical inactivity play a role in depression?

• If so, why?

4. Can it help reverse the symptoms if activity is added

to ones daily activities?

What I know about this subject before research:

Looking back at both situations explained above, I truly believe diet plays a major role in our lives. Our bodies need certain amounts and varieties of nutrients in order to function properly. Without good balance, our bodies are affected in different ways; weight, mood, energy level,
to name a few. I know from personal experience when I eat a well-balanced, low-fat "clean" diet, my energy level is high, I feel great and I am completely happy and content with my life even on the worst of days. I also know from personal experience when I eat a poor diet, I don't have enough energy to make it through my day, I am very moody and feel like I can't handle even the smallest amount of stress or chaos that comes my way. I hope to find more depth to what I already know. I hope to find out what types of foods and which varieties help promote healthier happier lives. I hope I find that certain types of depression can be improved with the help of a proper diet and exercise. And that pills are not the answer for everyone. They are suitable maybe to jump start someone on the way to recovery, but I feel should not be an alternative to fixing the real problem.

Classification Essay

Our vegetable garden gave more tomatoes this year than
we know what to do with. Big, beautiful delicious tomatoes.
It's now time to prepare them so we can enjoy them all
winter long. There are many ways to choose how to preserve
tomatoes, but there are only three ways that we enjoy
keeping them.

First batch of tomatoes are the diced tomatoes that we
can. Once we steam the skins off, we then cut them into
little tiny pieces, place them in mason jars and seal them
in the pressure cooker. The diced tomatoes are usually
used to mix with pasta or mix into to soups during the cold
winter days.

The next bunch of tomatoes we then turn into spaghetti
sauce. Once again the skins are steamed off. This time the
tomatoes are cut in four and put into a large cooker and
simmered overnight. The next day I start to add my spices,
onion, green peppers, hot peppers and fresh garlic. Towards
the end of the cooking period, we then add tomato paste to
thicken the sauce. Once the sauce is ready it gets put into
jars and again sealed in the pressure cooker. The sauce is of
course used to make spaghetti suppers or chop suey.

Lastly, we make the salsa. It's quite similar to the sauce,
but not cooked as long and not thickened. I add onion,
peppers, jalapeno, hot peppers, red pepper and spices. The
hotter the sauce, the better the salsa. Once again, the salsa
gets added to jars and sealed with the pressure cooker. Salsa
in our house has one giant purpose that my mother-in-law
spoiled everyone with. A night time favorite in our house,
called chips and cheese. You first place nacho chip onto a
plate, slice cheese onto the chips, then melt. Once the cheese
is melted a spoonful of salsa is placed on each chip. We
usually end up making a few platefuls before it's all said
and done.

Our garden takes a lot of time and care. The hot sun beats
down on us causing us to sweat. The dirt sticks to our skin
and the bugs won't stop biting. But even with the summer
long dirty nails and stained fingertips, in the long run it's
more than worth it to fill our house with vegetables we
grew from our own garden.

Intro 1 & 2 Classifications

Intro #1
Our vegetable garden gave more tomatoes this year than we
know what to do with. Okay, we do this every year. We
plant a lot, give a lot away and than can, can, can. There
are many different ways to keep tomatoes throughout the
winter. But there are three ways that we pack them away.


Intro #2
The tomatoes were plentiful in our garden this year. Big
beautiful, delicious tomatoes. It's now time to prepare
them so we can enjoy them all winter long. There are
many ways to choose how to preserve tomatoes, but
there are only three ways that we enjoy keeping them.

Outro Cause Essay - New

It's a lot of hard work. The bugs are thick, I'm hot, sweaty
and filthy dirty. My nails are black because I refuse to wear
gloves. I love the feel of getting into the soil and planting
new life. The end result is breath-taking, colorful and
beautiful flowers that resemble artwork. To watch it grow
and blossom the entire summer is such a joy.

Intro 1 & 2 Cause Essay - New

Intro #1
It was the middle of Spring. The air felt new and the sun was
warm on my face. Winter had finally passed. I was in my yard,
standing and looking around my empty flower beds trying to
decide how to make it beautiful this year. I always need to have
a plan of attack each year when it's time to spruce up the yard.
My first step is to clean up last years leftovers. Secondly, I need
to decide if I will expand the flower bed or keep it just the same.
Third and final decision, is what flowers will I be planting.

Intro #2
Spring is a beautiful time of year. Everything is so new and fresh.
The ground awakens from a long winters nap. Trees start to stretch
and yawn. The grass peaks through the soil. It's also time to make
colors burst from my flower beds. I have much to decide and
am anxious to get started. My plan of attack beings. What steps do
I need to take to clean up last years leftovers? What will I plant this
year? Is it time to expand the flower beds or do we like them the
way they are?