Candida Cleanse

I think most people are aware of yeast issues.  But I also think a lot of people downplay how widespread of a problem it is.

I have a long, long history of antibiotic use, beginning at less than a week old.  Growing up I took antibiotics for chronic ear infections, chronic UTIs, chronic tonsillitis & several bad bouts of bronchitis.  Of course back in my childhood years they also gave antibiotics (erythromycin) anytime I was sick, even if it was viral.  And in 2008 I had a really severe spider bite that was MRSA+, for which I received tons & tons of heavy duty antibiotics (both oral & IV) & was even hospitalized for a short time during the treatment.  The tonsillitis subsided in my teen years.  The ear infections subsided in my early 20s.  The UTIs still occur occasionally, though I've now learned that they stem from Interstitial Cystitis & if I can keep that under control I can mostly avoid the UTIs.  That is my constant goal these days.  The bronchitis gets me still occasionally, but not nearly as often.  I now use propolis as my defense against coughs (I learned this from my mother in law) & it really does help me in most cases.  I had tried to use a pill form of propolis (simply because it's easier & not as messy) not too long ago but it didn't seem to be very effective I have to admit.  So I've returned to using the pasty form & it's working great once again.

Back in 2008 (right before I got pregnant & right after the spider bite incident) I was meeting with a naturopath doctor to address my chronic UTIs.  I desperately wanted to find the root cause & find a way to put a stop to them & my primary doc wasn't helpful at all in this regard.  As we reviewed my medical history (& she was taking notes) I finally came face to face with just how much antibiotics I had taken over the course of my lifetime.  I was actually quite shocked.

The naturopath doctor did some tests & found that I had a "leaky gut" & that I wasn't digesting fats properly.  My digestive system was not in good shape, which isn't too shocking given the amount of antibiotics I have ingested.  Right when we were about to begin treatment for this I found I was pregnant.  The doc chose to wait on treatment.  She said that some of the herbs she had planned for me were considered safe during pregnancy (& some were definitely not) but she still didn't like to give them, just to be extra safe.  I was supposed to meet with her once per trimester & then we would resume the treatment plan after the birth.  But of course none of this was covered under insurance & anyone with kids knows that budgets get tighter with the birth of a child, not to mention going down to being a one income family from being a dual income family.  And so it got put off & I still haven't gone back.

During the pregnancy I had a UTI & had to take antibiotics.  And during labor I had a fever & was given IV antibiotics.

I was concerned about Lil J's digestive health, that it might be adversely affected because of the state of my own digestive health at the time I got pregnant & also due to antibiotics during pregnancy & labor.  I've been giving him probiotics since shortly after birth in hopes that that would help him overcome any issues he might have.

I was struggling myself with skin fungal issues.  I started seeing another alternative med doc after my own primary doc not being any help at all.  (the alternative med doc was at the same office at the naturopath, but the naturopath was off work due to having a baby of her own at the time)  I tried lots of things with little success.  Finally, about 7 months after Lil J was born, I changed my diet.  I did a super strict anti-fungus diet for about 2 months & it REALLY helped.

Shortly after Lil J was born I somehow discovered a TV show called "Know The Cause" & I chose to follow his diet plan to accomplish this.  I purchased the eating plan book & the recipe book & followed it to a T for 2 months.  ALL my skin issues went away.  (I still hope to return to the naturopath doc at some point to see if I still need to do more to fully restore my digestive health)

I remember discussing Lil J's digestive health with the alternative med doc but we both agreed it was near impossible to do anything while he was an infant.  One of the big things that you have to remove from the diet is dairy & he was on a cow-based infant formula, so that wasn't really doable.  He's had a fungal foot issue (much like athlete's foot) since he was an infant.  I have tried tons of creams & am still using one that sort of keeps it from getting worse, but never gets rid of it.  I've had my suspicions that this is related to his digestive system & an overgrowth of yeast in his system.  Each morning after his bath I completely dry out the toe area with a hair dryer & then apply cream & then his socks.  At one point the fungus had spread from the toe area to the entire bottom of the feet.  But I have managed to get it confined back to just the toe area & keep it just there.  But I have NEVER been able to eradicate it COMPLETELY.

To make matters worse, once he was able to start eating he was only willing to eat wheat!  He wants toast, pretzels, crackers, things like that.  So I've known in the back of my mind that putting him on a candida cleanse would be a nightmare, because he would just refuse to eat.  But I've also known that at some point I was going to HAVE to do it.

For a while now (maybe a year or so), his breath (especially when he first wakes up after a nap or in the morning) is very yeasty.  And then last Friday when I was brushing his teeth at bedtime I saw it--YEAST growing on the back of his tongue.  He has thrush.  (I always brush lower teeth, upper teeth, tongue, & palate  in that order & I saw it while I was brushing his tongue)  I knew that I could no longer postpone treating this.  I prayed over him, explained the situation to my hubby, & asked him to pray & to be supportive during this tough time.

So starting Saturday morning we began.  Based on my own past experience I know that you can take all the supplements you want, but if you don't change the diet you won't get anywhere.  You have to starve the yeast.  Dairy has already been removed from Lil J's diet for a while now, but wheat & sugar & corn still needed to be removed.  I am not going to be quite as strict as I was when I did this myself, it's just too hard & drastic for a toddler who doesn't understand, especially as picky as he is.  My own diet was completely grain free.  I am allowing Lil J to still have brown rice (which still allows him his rice milk & rice cakes & puffy rice cereal).  And I'm allowing almonds, his favorite nut.  And I'm allowing a small amount of fruit still, since he really likes it.  I know all about sugars & starches feeding the yeast, but he's not even 3 yet, this is REALLY hard on him, my goal is to be successful but also understanding & working with him as well.

It's tough, don't get me wrong.  It's VERY tough.  Every time I serve him something to eat he throws a tantrum.  And later on, his hunger gets to him & he gives in & eats some of what I've served.  Some of it he's still refusing though.  He's eating nut based crackers, turkey slices, rice cakes, almond milk yogurt for the most part.  I am allowing a small amount of pureed fruit or fruit leathers each day.  I'm working hard on getting him to eat some fresh fruits & veggies during this time, but as of today he's still refusing.

I have to report that 24 hours into this his breath was normal again, not yeasty.  And as of this morning (48 hours in) his athlete's foot is already almost gone.  I am still praying & hoping we can get this squared away COMPLETELY & quickly.  And I am also hopeful that we can change his future eating habits for the better during all of this.

I also ordered "ThreeLac".  It's a supplement that my alternative doc had told me to take when I was struggling with my own fungal issues.  I was never able to find it at that time & had given up.  But as I was googling about the issue specific to toddlers I ran across ThreeLac & quickly remembered why it sounded familiar & ordered it.  I am hoping it will also be helpful & effective.

Prayers would be much appreciated as me & Lil J continue to work on healing our digestive systems.  :)

Vegan Challenges

I personally have never really liked meat.  I especially dislike ground meat, but just meat in general is something I've never liked, from a very young age.

So, for me at least, going vegetarian was a very easy thing.  People always act like "how do you survive? what do you eat?"  I can tell that most people really do like meat & to go vegetarian is/would be a major challenge for them.

Somewhere in the past year to year & a half I've been gravitating towards a vegan diet, as I've surely mentioned previously in this blog.  Technically speaking I really should say "strict vegetarian" rather than "vegan" since vegan pertains to a whole lifestyle rather than just a diet, BUT since most people don't know what "strict vegetarian" means I continue to use the term "vegan". (I still refuse to give up honey, still believe it has major health benefits, even though it's not part of a vegan diet)  I should also add that I would really like to some day include more vegan aspects to my lifestyle, but at this time my closet is not vegan & I cannot afford to replace the non-vegan items that are in there.

It was actually quite easy for me to give up all but eggs & cheese.  And after a little adjustments in the baking end of things getting rid of eggs wasn't all that hard either.  But cheese has remained a challenge for me.  (It's funny to me that now that I don't eat eggs at all, when I do eat a baked item that has egg in it I can actually usually taste the egg--& it doesn't taste good to me at all)

I suppose everyone has at least one thing that would be/is tough for them to do without.  I remember reading in one of my vegan cookbooks.  The author was talking about her early days as a vegan & how tough it was & how, when she first tasted a tempeh burger, she "knew she was gonna be ok" as a vegan.  I read that & thought of myself, who couldn't care less about not eating burgers.  Heck, burgers are something I NEVER ate, even when I wasn't a vegetarian, since it's ground meat & I HATE ground meat.  But I can relate to what she was referring to when I consider cheese.

I have always loved cheese.  Now it's not something I eat a lot of or even on a daily basis.  But I sure do like it.  And it's been a tough one to give up completely.  I often think of my hubby, who has a dairy allergy, & just wish I could just be like him & never eat it.  I consider him lucky, but he doesn't see it that way, hehe.

Now I did consider just not pushing it, & being a strict vegetarian with the exception of honey & cheese.  BUT since the whole nuclear disaster in Japan the milk (at least here in California, not sure how far-spread it is) now contains radiation.  And cheese is being made out of that milk.  So that REALLY encouraged me to go 100% dairy free.  It also makes me want to get my toddler off of cheese, which is the only dairy he was still consuming.  At some point, when my stepkids have moved out, my home will be 100% dairy free.  :)  That's gonna be soooo awesome!!

I have tried several types of vegan cheeses in the grocery stores.  Most are downright nasty.  There is one brand, Daiya, that is actually somewhat decent.  But it's a bit pricey & ultimately it still is a very processed food.  It is made out of tapioca.  It comes shredded in bags & comes in cheddar, mozarella, & pepper jack varieties.  It's the best of all I tried in the grocery stores.  I started learning that there were options for making your own vegan cheeses at home.  Thus these are far less processed foods.  The question for me was "how do they taste?"

First I made a vegan "crock cheese spread".  You know, those spreadable pasteurized process cheese food products, it's a duplication of a cheddar version of one of those.  It was REALLY yummy.  The texture wasn't identical, nor was the color, but the flavors sure were.  One of my favorite things of all is simply cheese & crackers & this one really fits the bill for this for me.

A couple of weeks ago I made a nacho cheese sauce out of cashews, but I wasn't too crazy about it.

Yesterday I tried a different recipe for a nacho cheese sauce & it was amazing.  The color wasn't quite identical, but the flavor & even the texture were really good.  Another fave of mine is nachos.  That has always been my fave junk food, when I feel the need to pig out & eat "junk".  Now I can have a much healthier version of "junk" when I pig out.  So long as it tastes the same (which it does) it's all good to me.

I should also add that my super super picky toddler also loves both of these vegan cheeses I have made.  Yesterday we were both dipping tortilla chips into the cheese & eating it up.  And today he requested a quesadilla, which I used the nacho cheese for & he's now eaten two of them!!  That alone makes it worth it, even though it's not even hard to make them.

There are more recipes for vegan cheeses that I plan to try, but just based on these two alone I find myself saying to myself "I'm gonna be ok", just like the author in my cookbook did.

At home I probably follow a vegan diet more than 95% of the time.  But when we eat out I revert to a vegetarian diet, rather than vegan.  It just seems impossible to me to eat out as a vegan, unless you go to an actual vegan restaurant.  Luckily we very rarely eat out, so it's not a big deal to me really.

Detox

This is a topic I am becoming increasingly interested in: detox.

Now, I am not referring to the type of detoxing most people think of.  That of detoxing from narcotics, alcohol, or other recreational drug use.

I am referring to detoxing your body of toxins for health purposes.  For years I've heard of people doing various types of "cleanses" & it sounded like a good thing to do, but I honestly had no idea how to do such a thing.

My hubby is adamant that such things are not healthy for us.  He believes our bodies are designed to detox themselves.  And he says that when he has tried it in the past he didn't feel well, so also because of this he feels it's a bad idea.  HOWEVER, I have to disagree with my hubby on this topic.

Our bodies are designed for detoxing, to a certain extent. Yes, the liver & kidneys & lungs & spleen & lymph system do a lot of detoxing.  But things have changed.  Nothing is natural anymore.  And these unnatural elements are all around us, totally bombarding our bodies.  In the air we breathe, foods & drinks we ingest, lotions & soaps we put on our skin, etc.  And I know for a fact that mercury attaches itself to tissues in your body & will not be removed without some specific detox efforts.  I haven't researched enough to say for certain, but I would wager a pretty strong bet that mercury is not alone in that situation.

Nearly a year ago I was diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis (IC).  It's a bladder condition that is much like a stomach ulcer, but in the bladder.  As a nurse I already know that mainstream medicine has little to offer someone with IC.  And the little they do have to offer isn't very effective or helpful.  So I chose to research alternative medicine & natural treatments for IC.

It was while doing this research that I learned that a cause of IC (& fibromyalgia as well) is, generally speaking, an overly toxic body.  And once the body is detoxed symptoms will decrease & possibly disappear.

But there's a bit of a catch with IC.  Because when you detox the toxins you are removing from your body are going to be dumped into the bowel & bladder to be permanently removed from the body.  But the poor bladder can't handle a huge toxin dump when it has IC, so, at least with an IC diagnosis, you have to detox very slowly & gently.

And so I began a very slow & gentle detox.  I also learned what foods are too acidic for my bladder & have reduced &/or eliminated those.  For over a decade I was diagnosed with chronic (minimum every 6 months) urinary tract infections (UTIs, aka bladder infection).  What I now learned was that when the bladder would get irritated due to IC (known as a "flare") it was much more susceptible to bacterial overgrowth & that's what was causing all the UTIs.  I did a very slow & gentle detox.  Since detoxing I haven't had a single UTI & next month will mark one year UTI free.  I am quite pleased about that.

The book I read about IC being caused by a toxic body was written by a woman who lived through it herself.  And what she learned was that her IC (& fibromyalgia) was ultimately caused by her mercury dental fillings.  She had 13 or 14 of them.  Once she got them replaced with non-mercury fillings & detoxed she was healed.

I had 7 mercury fillings in my mouth.  In the last few months I had 4 of them replaced (they were old & cracked, not by my request).  I first had 3 of them done, on the left side of my mouth.  After that I did another detox, very slow & gentle.  I did see symptoms of detox appear & then go away & so I assumed I was done & stopped the detox.  About 6 weeks later I went back to have one replaced on the right side of my mouth.  I again did another detox afterwards, with the same symptoms appearing & then going away.  And so I thought I was pretty much done as far as detoxing goes.  Sure, I still have 3 small mercury fillings in there, but in the grand scheme I felt pretty good about it all.

The book I read recommended marshmallow root tea & colostrum tablets for a gentle detox that the bladder can handle.  The marshmallow root gave me REALLY bad acne, which I'm not sure if it's just a bad reaction or a symptom of detoxing toxins.  After each visit to the dentist I used colostrum tablets & chlorella tablets.  I also wanted to use a cilantro tincture, but wasn't able to obtain one.

Just recently I've been making some small adjustments to my diet.  It's such a hassle for me, I just don't feel good & don't have enough energy if I don't really focus on eating well.  In doing research on nutrition for a vegan athlete I came across info on how good chlorella is for us & that everyone should be consuming it daily.  It did mention that it helps detox the body.  The author of this info says he puts it in a daily smoothie along with other stuff.  I guess I should've heeded the advice of the author of my IC book & been wary of this, BUT I was tending to think these days that my bladder was fully healed & since I had done several small detoxes fairly recently I wasn't expecting anything to happen.

Initially upon taking chlorella daily I started getting really bad acne, mostly on my forehead area (I have to wonder why such a specific area for the skin to show detox??).  I thought about it, knowing it's a symptom of detox, but honestly didn't think much of it.  A few days into it & BAM I got hit HARD, REALLY HARD.  Both bowel & bladder had horrible symptoms of major detoxing.  I am trying to focus hard on healing my bladder, so have put all chlorella (& most other supplements) on hold for now.

I am sad to see that my bladder is not 100% healed.  I am surprised to see that there was obviously some sort of toxin lurking in my body.  I am relieved to know that I got it out, however.  I will definitely continue detoxing, at a slower & gentler pace, once my bladder is all healed up.

I sure do wish there was a test I could do that would reveal to me what exactly was eliminated from my body.  I'm sure there is a test, but I mean I wish it was accessible to me.

Of course my hubby was like "see, see how you're feeling & what you're going through?  It's not good for you" But I still disagree.  I still think it's one of those things that has to get worse before it gets better.  I still think that toxins sitting in your body for God only knows how many years will lead to health problems & possibly even cancer.  There's no way I will stop detoxing my body now that I'm getting the hang of it.

Would love to hear from others: opinions, thoughts, experiences, etc.

Post Partum Body Image & other ramblings Part 2

I wrote a blog with this same title a while back.  I have been concerned with health & fitness since I was very young.

To me health & fitness go hand in hand.  I find it odd that some people can eat healthy & yet not care about physical fitness.  And then there are people who care about physical fitness yet live on junk food.  I've never understood it, they totally go together in my mind.

And so when I speak of postpartum body image it's not so much about the physical (vain) aspect of it.  It's a matter of getting my muscles strong & fit once again, after having been so stretched out during the pregnancy.  This is mostly true of my "core" muscles as they refer to them in pilates.  Basically it's the whole torso area.

While I was pregnant I was concerned about getting back in shape after having the baby.  This was mostly due to my age, being pregnant in my late 30's.  Body's aren't as forgiving & don't snap back as easily & quickly as you get older.  During my pregnancy I mapped out my post partum fitness plan & I stuck to it well.  It has evolved as time has passed, obviously.  Of course you start out gradually & work your way back to where you were before you were pregnant.  But I recall "hoping" I'd have my body completely back in shape by the time he turned 1, but just in case I was allowing myself until he turned 2.  This was just a mental note to myself, as I didn't want to be crushed if I couldn't get my body back in shape in one year.

I did gain A LOT of weight while pregnant (47 lbs to be exact) & I did lose most of it quickly.  Within a couple of weeks most everyone was telling me it looked like I had never been pregnant at all.  But of course from my perspective my body was not the same & it certainly wasn't as strong or as fit.  And by the time he turned 1 it still wasn't.  I was a bit sad, but figured I'd give myself another year.  And so that year passed & he turned 2.  And while I was definitely more fit than I was when he turned 1, I still didn't feel as fit or as strong as I had before being pregnant.

Next month he will be 2 1/2 & I am just now really feeling back to my old self.  I feel very fit & strong & I've lost some more weight (still at least 7 lbs heavier than I was before getting pregnant at best).  I am very happy to report that I feel like I finally got my body back.  :)

The only exception is with pilates.  Prior to getting pregnant I was at the level of a professional pilates instructor.  I LOOOVED pilates & was perfect at doing it.  I loved the challenge of the difficult moves & building up the strength to be able to do them slow & controlled like the instructors.  I continued to do "pregnancy pilates" through my first 2 trimesters of pregnancy (I also did pre-natal yoga & spinning).  But after he was born I kept trying & just absolutely couldn't do pilates.  I just couldn't engage the muscles properly.  I kept trying & would give up, & would promise myself to try again later.  And I would, but it would always be the same.

So a month or two ago I decided to keep at it on a regular basis.  I've been doing it about once a week for maybe 6 weeks now.  I would really like to do it more than once a week to be able to reach my goal with it sooner, but I just don't have the time.  I also do weight lifting/strength training & running, & I don't want to skip either those.  I have ALWAYS tried to focus on a balanced fitness plan of 4 components (strength, cardio, pilates, & stretch).  I am still trying to fit in more stretch time, so I certainly can't dedicate more time to pilates.

Since I had a c-section that means that my abdominal muscles were actually cut.  And I already know that a cut muscle will NEVER regain the strength it had prior to being cut.  So I am extremely doubtful that I will ever reach the same level I was at with pilates prior to pregnancy, but I do think I can do better than I am currently at.

When I was 12 I had surgery on my chest/rib cage to repair a ribcage deformity I was born with.  They cut my chest muscles when they did that surgery.  And prior to that surgery I had very good chest strength.  I could do a million pushups, etc.  Ever since, no matter how hard I work, I have not been able to come even close at regaining my chest muscle strength.  And so, because of that experience, I know that my abdominal strength is going to be a real challenge for me.

Quite some time ago I had actually gone through my closet & thrown out a lot of clothes (mostly tops) that just didn't work now that I had a baby.  Most of them were too short & I didn't want to be showing my "mommy tummy" off.  So my closet has been pretty empty all this time.  There was also a small section of tops that were tight &/or clingy & they really showed my "mommy tummy" but I put them aside in the closet, in their own little section as it were, to be tried on again at a later time when I had lost more weight.  And that time has come & I tried them on & only had to toss one of them.  There was one that was just a tad too short, but made me uncomfortable.  All the clingy ones now worked for me.  And my stepdaughter recently put out of a bag of give-away clothes that I chose to go "shopping" in (she says she doesn't mind & I am not too prideful to do that) & so now my closet is looking much fuller. :)

But overall I am very pleased that my body is totally feeling back to normal & strong these days.

Vegan Ramblings

Almost a year ago I decided to return to my vegetarian ways for a multitude of reasons.  I had been a vegetarian from age 15-25, for 10 years.  People always ask me if it's hard to give up meat, but for me it's not, although it seems that that is not the norm.  For some reason I have just never been a big fan of meat.  I would eat the meat just because it's there & I'm supposed to, but I really liked all the meatless dishes & side dishs SOOOOO much more than the meat!

So, as I was saying, almost a year ago I returned to my vegetarian ways.  I had pulled out some of my old favorite recipes & was happy as can be.  But my hubby sadly commented that he couldn't share any of the dishes with me because most of them contained dairy.  I had actually never noticed that so many vegetarian recipes do contain dairy.  The sadness I saw in my hubby's comment affected me & I decided to start looking for dairy free vegetarian meals so that I could share with him more.

I started finding that the easiest way to make sure a recipe was dairy free was that it was vegan.  I had actually never considered following a vegan diet.  I never thought it was doable for me.  For some reason I saw it as an "all or nothing" type of thing.  I have to admit that I hate (& refuse to) be really legalistic about a diet.  So if I see roast beef or prime rib or a turkey sandwich & I find myself wanting it I'm gonna eat it, I allow myself that freedom.  That being said, it's really super rare that that would happen for me.  But I think it was this point that made me first cross the line from vegetarian to vegan.

My one form of entertainment that I CANNOT live without is reading.  It's like therapy for me.  I HAVE to always be in a book.  It takes me waaaaay longer to get through a book now that I have a toddler, but I am still ALWAYS in a book.  My hubby & stepson have the TV to watch (they are NOT book worms, they LOVE TV)  I gave up all my magazine subscriptions to save money, but I occasionally order a book, usually on amazon because it's cheaper.  So for a while now I've been working on vegan books.  I first started with one that was all about WHY you should be a vegan.  The next one covered some of that & also had recipes.  I remember reading it & then looking at the recipes & feeling like they were so foreign.  A lot of the ingredients were not items in my kitchen already, at least not on a regular basis.  Some were things I've never heard of. 

I love to cook & I am a pretty good cook.  But I had to admit that I felt uncomfortable & awkward trying to cook vegan.  So I decided I needed more recipes, but wanted some plain old regular type recipes, nothing unusual & weird (at least to me).  So I went looking at the local health food store, on their book rack.  I found one & bought it.  I have to admit my toddler was being fussy & I was feeling really rushed.  So I didn't look at it too thoroughly, but I liked that it was ALL recipes, there were no chapters on WHY you should be a vegan.  I didn't need that info, just needed to get cooking.  Once I got home & had put my groceries away & had time to look at the book I realized it was ALL latin based recipes.  How awesome is that??  I also really liked the style of it & looked up the author, only to find that she had co-authored several other vegan cookbooks as well.  So over the course of the past year I have gotten the other cookbooks.  I love that the style of it is REAL cooking, not using expensive processed pre-made vegan foods.  One of the many reasons I went vegan was to save money & I do eat for VERY CHEAP these days.  And these cookbooks follow along with that line of thinking, which I love.

So now that I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable with the basics of vegan cooking I pulled out that first cookbook that I had gotten.  The one that seemed so foreign to me.  And I now find that very few of the recipes &/or ingredients feel that way to me.  I am now definitely engulfed in the vegan world I guess.  I am still always trying out new recipes & am very cautious & skeptical, but am happy to say that most of them are much better than I expected them to be.

Personally I think any move you make toward eating better is a good thing.  And any meal or day you eat vegetarian or vegan is awesome!  But I am finding that a lot of vegans don't feel that way.  Honestly, I don't understand why we can't just get along.  Why are some vegans being all snotty about this?  We all have the same goal in mind--to be healthier.  But I have found that there are vegans who insist that it's an "all or nothing" thing.  That if you aren't following a STRICT vegan diet & complete way of life (no leather, no cosmetic products that are tested on animals or have animal byproducts in it, etc) you CANNOT call yourself a vegan.  Some argue that they should call themselves a "strict vegetarian" & others argue that they should say they follow a "plant based diet".  Personally all this terminology is very childish & irritating to me.

Conversely there's the other side of the spectrum where I see a new generation of vegans.  I guess I'd say they're a little more like me.  They consider avoiding honey "old school" vegan ways.  Personally I refuse to give up honey & doubt that I'll ever change my mind on that matter.  But I am very aware that that is not vegan, since honey is produced by an animal. 

I guess that's all the rambling I have for now.............

Ramblings on exercise, chronic pain, diet--a whole bunch of stuff really

Alright, I've been too busy to blog lately & not really in the mood either.  But in the middle of my very stressful week (it is an EXTRA stressful week this week) I feel the need for a distraction & I've had these thoughts rolling around in my head lately & feel the need to get them out, whether anyone is interested or not.

I started working out when I was 19.  It all started for health reasons--I always have people asking me for workout advice & their questions are centered on the physical looks they want to get.  And I have to admit I'm not the person to ask about that sort of thing.  My goal is to be strong & healthy.  Sure, I do appreciate the physical benefits that come along with it, but it's not my goal or my focus. 

When I started working out I didn't know ANYTHING about working out.  I learned everything the hard way--ok I know it's hard to believe, but there was no internet back then, no you tube & other web sites chock full of info pouring into your home.  And looking back it is absolutely amazing to me how resilient the young body is.  I never ate an athlete's diet back then, it took me a few years to realize the importance of stretching after a workout, etc.  But as I entered my 30s I started noticing my body didn't recover & bounce back as easily after a workout.  If I got injured it didn't heal up & recover as quickly as it used to.  Now by this time I did have internet & learned about protein shakes to be used after workouts.  Somewhere in my early 30s I started the protein shakes (initially soy, but I had a bad reaction, so then I stuck with whey) & I've never been able to live without them since, at least as long as I'm working out regularly.

Last August I made the decision to return to my vegetarian ways (I had been a vegetarian from age 15-25) for a long list of reasons.  And as time passed several reasons have pushed me to make the move to a vegan diet instead.  I can't remember exactly when it happened, it was so gradual, but it's been a few months now I'd guess. Along with the vegan way of life I ditched my whey protein shakes for brown rice protein shakes.

I recently had about a month (maybe 2 months?) of horrendous neck/shoulder/upper back pain.  I went to a chiropractor, but the benefits didn't last, even though they sent me home with exercises to do (& I did them faithfully).  The pain continued & became worse & worse.  It was becoming unbearable.  Driving was becoming unsafe because I couldn't even turn my head in either direction.  I was praying for wisdom.  It seemed to me that it was more muscular pain than bone pain, so I didn't bother to rush back to the chiro right away.  (I was taught in physical therapy years back that tense muscles were the major cause of my problem at that time & that I could go to a chiro all I wanted & get adjusted again & again, but if I didn't deal with the tense muscles the tense muscles would just keep on pulling the bones out of place.)  I started wondering if I was lacking something, nutritionally speaking.  I found some info on magnesium, but it didn't sound like my issue.  I found some info on hormones, but again didn't quite sound like my issue. 

On my own (most likely God whispering my ear, I am not trying to take the credit for this myself) I started wondering about protein.  Being a vegan I couldn't return to a whey protein source.  And I had to admit that the brown rice protein shakes never really helped much after my workouts.  So I started doing some research & found a soy protein shake that I really, really like.  Now those who know me well know that I am a bit anti-soy.  It's not that I think soy is a bad thing, but I do think moderation is important & since soy (& corn) is in absolutely EVERYTHING moderation is hard to achieve.  So I do try to avoid it as much as I can.  Plus I've had a bad reaction in the past to both soy protein shakes & soy milk, so that makes me hesitant as well. 

But I was really happy to find one that is made of FERMENTED soy (and the ingredients pass my requirements!).  In my research in the past I've learned that fermented soy products (soy sauce, miso, tempeh) are much more healthy for you than non-fermented soy (tofu) is.  So to find a shake that is made from fermented soy really made me happy.  And then the day after I drank my first shake my pain was less, not gone, but less.  I've drank a shake every day & my pain decreased & decreased until it was completely gone.

So this led me to wonder about people who struggle with chronic pain.  As a nurse I've seen plenty of it, it's a huge problem in the world.  Even though I've had my own injuries & struggles with pain I have always refused to turn to pain meds, which is usually what docs want to do.  Doctors always want to start with medication &/or surgery to solve problems.  But I've seen so many people who have been on the pain meds for years & they are so addicted & depressed & still in pain because they've built up such a tolerance to the meds.  It's a really sad situation & I've seen it over & over & over & swore to myself that I wouldn't end up like that.  And I've always admired my stepfather because he lived with horrendous debilitating pain (caused from a WW2 injury) & he didn't end up like that, relying on pain meds.  And I know there are people who, if they heard my thoughts on this, would insist that they have an injury that is causing the pain, that there's no way it's diet related.  And maybe this isn't the case for EVERYONE, BUT I have to say that I have a pretty major injury myself, a couple actually (neck injury & compression fracture in my lower back).  And it is those areas in my body that seem to be weakest & when things aren't right they are the first place to hurt.  So that still leads me to wonder if people with chronic pain couldn't lessen (or eradicate completely) their pain through diet.  Maybe not everyone, but I would venture to guess that at least some of them could.

Now maybe not everyone would be needing protein (& even then if they are consuming lots of protein I'd say try different forms of protein, there's plenty out there to choose from), it could possibly be something else they are lacking nutrition-wise.  But the fact remains that our country continues on a path of being over-fed & under-nourished because so much processed food & junk food is consumed.  So it does stand to reason that that this theory could be correct, eating so much processed food & junk food could easily lead to a deficiency in any number of things that the body needs.

Anyways, that's all I have to ramble about today.......

All or Nothing?

When I was 15 I became a vegetarian.  I remained a vegetarian for 10 years.  I remember one of the greatest books I have ever read was at that time.  It was "The Gradual Vegetarian" by Lisa Tracy.  My mom had bought it for me.  It's a fabulous book not only for those wanting to be vegetarian, but also for those who just want to eat healthier.  It's a book that really inspires me.  I love to read it again & again over the years just for inspiration.  I also love that it's from before the world-wide-web era.  There is no mention in it anywhere of any websites, which I happen to think is REALLY cool.  It was also written prior to organics, at least prior to them being a big deal.  So there's no mention of that either, but I know if it was revised it would certainly touch on the organic topic as well.

During my college education I had to take a communications (aka speech) class.  There were different options to meet this requirement.  I didn't like the idea of the public speaking class where you have to give a lot of different types of speeches in front of the class.  But I also didn't want to wimp out & take the class where you don't give ANY speeches.  So I chose a class that covered a wide array of communication topics & at the end of the semester you give one speech in front of your classmates.  I chose to do a persuasive speech.  And my topic was "why you should eat organic".  I remember my teacher wasn't positive about my topic, she felt I should change it & gave me permission to change it if I wanted to do so.  But I felt very strongly about wanting to do this particular speech.  There were 2 other classmates that were older than me, but the rest of the class was all fresh out of high school.  Even the teacher was in her early 20s!  I thought that I could really make an impact, plant a seed per se.  I have to say that when I got started on my speech it was tough.  I did consider giving up on it & changing to an easier topic.  This was mostly due to there being SO MUCH info & having to eliminate & really focus on what's most crucial to cover in such a short time.  BUT I stuck with it & made it work.  I also learned A LOT about organics/conventional foods along the way that has been valuable to me.  My teacher was REALLY impressed.  I got an A.  My teacher made a comment after my speech that struck me as odd.  She told me that I did really open her eyes, that she had always viewed an organic lifestyle as an "all or nothing" thing.  And I had touched on prioritizing & choosing what types of foods you wanted to make sure are organic.  I remember thinking how odd, why on earth would someone think it's an "all or nothing" thing.

Fastforward to current time.  I'm not an Oprah fan, I rarely watch her show.  I used to REALLY dislike her I must say.  But then I realized it's not really HER that irritates me, it's the way the general public hangs on her every word & follows whatever she says.  That's what irritates me.  And I have to admit that's not really HER fault.  She does try to use her influential name to do good & I know if I was her in position I'd do the same thing.  Occasionally I see that she has an interesting guest (Michael Pollan for example) or topic & I will DVR it & watch it.  She recently had an episode where Oprah & some of her staff went vegan for one week.  I thought it sounded interesting, so I DVR'd it & watched it.  I can't remember the name of the lady who was running the whole "vegan for one week" campaign.  But she wrote a book called "The Veganist", that much I do remember.  I don't agree with her on everything, but I was absolutely blown away when she said that her husband is "veganish".  You see, at home he eats her vegan cooking, but if he eats out he eats whatever he wants. 

Now I must say that I first learned of vegans back when I read "The Gradual Vegetarian".  I have always known that I could NEVER be vegan because I can't give up honey.  Not just because I like honey, which I do, but I also use honey in medicinal ways that I could never give up.  And so, because of this, I have NEVER pursued being a vegan.  But after watching this Oprah show I suddenly realize that being vegan doesn't HAVE to be an "all or nothing" thing.  That is exactly how I've viewed it all these years, without even realizing I was viewing it that way.  And that's what reminded me of my speech teacher.  At this point in my life I would also have to say that I cannot give up my whey protein shakes.  You see, the older I get the slower my body recovers.  I first started working out when I was 19 & I NEVER used protein shakes or any sort of recovery system for my body after a workout.  My body just naturally recovered quickly on it's own.  But once I got into my 30s I started finding that my body's recovery was slowing down.  And so I did some homework & I now ALWAYS have a whey protein shake immediately after my workout.  I know there are other types of protein shakes out there, but my body responds best to whey.  I have no plans to stop using my whey protein shakes.

Last August or September I returned to my vegetarian ways once again, for a wide variety of reasons.  And now I am definitely looking more & more into vegan options.  I don't like being legalistic, so I'm not holding myself to a super strict vegetarian rule.  If I see meat & want it I will eat it.  I have to admit that since September this has only happened a couple of times & each time when I taste it I am soooo disappointed & don't even finish it, LOL. 

"The Gradual Vegetarian" also touches on macrobiotics.  Back when I was  a teen a lot of the ingredients were too hard to find & it all seemed a little too far from mainstream eating for me to pursue.  But as the years have gone by I keep stumbling on macrobiotics & am becoming more & more interested.  So I plan to also continue to learn more about it & incorporate it's ways into my diet as well. 

So that's all, just some health/food rambling for today.....

Today's Ramblings--a wide variety

While I know that we can never remove ALL the toxins around us we can definitely take steps to REDUCE those toxins & thereby improve our health.  One of the greatest books I've read: Not Just a Pretty Face really impacted me in this regard.  It made me stop & think about what I was putting ON my body as well as what I was putting IN my body.  I recommend the book highly.  And since reading that book I've been using natural products--soap, shampoo, makeup, etc.  I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to READ LABELS--your food, your cosmetics, toiletries, etc--READ THE LABELS & do some research on those ingredients & decide for yourself if you really want to continue to use that product. 

But I have to admit that buying those products (at Henry's, Whole Foods, & Mother's Market) can get expensive.  Enter vitacost.  I love this online company.  They offer a wide range of products.  In addition to toiletry items they also offer supplements.  They offer most of the brands that are available in the health food stores.  And they offer all of these things for less money than the health food stores.  As if that's not enough incentive, we don't pay sales tax when we buy from them & we do pay it in the health food stores.  And shipping is a flat rate of $4.99.  They do offer more rapid shipping for more money, but don't waste your money, they ship FAST, as long as the item is in stock.  I recently ordered on a Sunday night & my shipment arrived Tuesday morning.  This company is phenomenal.

I also wanted to ramble regarding a new product I am buying from Vitacost.  It's from a company called "amazing grass".  My diet always falls short on fruits before anything else.  And I do often fall short on veggies as well.  So I decided to look for one of those green powder drinks to try out.  After doing a lot of comparing I decided on one from the amazing grass company.  They do have several to choose from, but this is the one I chose: Amazing Grass Berry & Greens.  I also liked that they offer 2 for kids, a chocolate variety & a berry variety.  Now I know my son well enough to know that he'll choose berry over chocolate 10 times out of 10 on any given day.  So I ordered him this: Lil J's Berry Drink. 

I hadn't planned on getting him one, I was really just looking for one for ME, but when I saw that they had them for kids too I suddenly realized what a great idea that is for him, nutrition-wise I mean.  It's funny because when I was pregnant I kept imagining myself (later on of course, not while he was still a baby) creating all sorts of healthy drinks for my child.  And it's amazing to me, because my son definitely prefers to DRINK his calories rather than EAT them any given day.  And so I have tried my hardest to make sure he's getting good nutrition in his drinks, especially since he's such a picky eater.  I have found that I need to be careful though, at least until he's potty trained.  Some drinks are acidic & will give him a rash.  He has VERY sensitive skin, just like me.  :(   And so I've added this drink daily for him (just as I've done with mine) & he LOVES it (& it's not acidic for him at all).  So he gets that one & his kefir--which are both calorie & nutrition rich.  And then he gets a couple of sippys of diluted juice along with some foods, whatever he is willing to eat at the time.  He's still super picky about what he's willing to eat & it varies on a daily basis.  Hubby has finally seen the full extint of this now that he's been here all week.  I know he thought I was exaggerating before now. 

I do know that they make pediasure, but all those drinks like that, geared for a variety of age groups & health situations, I refuse to buy.  I, personally, do not think they are healthy.  I truly believe you can make  far healthier drinks on your own.  It makes me sad to see people turn to those drinks.  And I know they have their reasons, but I promise you "I" will never buy those for myself or my loved ones.  They are so processed & synthetic it's ridiculous.  They are made by the people who believe nutrition is simply science & they know everything about that science.  I sooooo dislike that mindset.  If you have a loved one that is using those types of drinks PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE consider making them some really healthy nutrition & calorie rich drinks yourself & take them to them.  At least try.  It could make all the difference in the world for them.

I guess that's all I have to ramble about today--touched a little on the importance of what we put ON our bodies & praised vitacost.com & Lil J's nutrition, a well rounded blog me thinks.

Weight Revisited (& health in general)

So I followed Suzanne Somers diet for close to 2 weeks.  Then I got sick.  I was nauseated & had a bad headache & was very dizzy for a little over a week.  When I'm nauseated all I can stomach is carbs.  So of course I fell off my diet.

But I have to admit I was not enjoying this diet at all.  I wasn't feeling good, not in a healthy detoxing my body sort of way, but in a heavy, eating too much protein sort of way.  It was also a little too expensive to keep up right now.  Our finances are tight & I've been working hard to stretch the expensive food items like meat--lots of stir fries, pasta dishes, etc to stretch our budget right now.

So I did some thinking about my weight, my health, & food in general.  I know that technically I am not overweight, yet I still like the way I feel & look when I'm a few pounds lighter than I currently am.  I struggle back & forth with this all the time.

And for several years now I have been studying the food system in our country & it is oh so disgusting.  We buy a lot of organic & try to eat as healthy as we can.  But I just keep on learning more & more awful things.  I was a vegetarian for 10 years at one point in my life (from age 15-25).  I ended up stopping just because I didn't like having to be so legalistic about it once you label yourself a "vegetarian".  Like if I was eating out & wanted soup I couldn't order soup with a meat broth, that sort of thing.  So at the age of 25 I decided to just eat whatever I really "wanted" to eat.  And of course I ended up going along with the mainstream eventually & eating meat on a daily basis.

Now there are some meat items that I do enjoy, like roast beef, turkey sandwiches, & a few others.  But for the past couple of days I have stopped eating meat & am doing fine.  Of course it's a little more challenging when I'm cooking for a family of devout meat eaters, but I am confident that I can make it work.  Eating out was never a problem for me in the past when I was a vegetarian, so I'm not even worried about that at all.  Of course I will still allow myself dairy & eggs & fish on occasion, especially when eating out.

This should also help to cut down on our grocery budget as meat is our biggest expense & now I won't be eating any.  So that's also a plus.

So for now I'm putting any dieting plans on hold & just trying to get back into the vegetarian swing of things & I'll see where my weight ends up & then later on decide if I still want/need to lose a few pounds.

For the Love of Cheese

Cheese is a food that people usually feel strongly about. They either love it or hate it.

I am one who LOVES cheese. I love lots of different types of cheeses. And I really can appreciate a good quality cheese versus a rubbery grocery store wannabe cheese. I don't think there is any other food that I am quite so particular or passionate about.

I have to wonder where I acquired my love of cheese from. I think back to my childhood & I can't remember having anything other than boring (not even real cheese I might add) american cheese in the house. Bleh I say! This is one food I don't eat & could easily go for the rest of my life without ever laying eyes on it again. I don't care for "pasteurized process cheese food" Nastiness I say!

Now for the most part I am picky about my dairy products being organic, but it is nearly impossible to find good organic cheese. I really don't understand why this is. I guess there's just not enough demand for it. There are a few varieties out there, but they honestly don't taste good.

I have to admit that one of the things I love about Costco is that they have really good quality cheeses. I usually buy my cheeses there. They do sell a cheddar that is hormone free & that is the one I always buy, but none of the others make any claims like that on their labels.

Right now I have in the house cheddar, parmesan (the REAL parmesan), mozarella (the REAL stuff, not the rubbery stuff you find at grocery stores), smoked gouda, & queso fresco. I don't think I could ever narrow it down to only ONE favorite, but I guess my top 3 would be cheddar, smoked gouda, & queso fresco.

Now one time when we were in Tijuana we stopped at a cheese shop. It was so amazing, the cheeses were so fresh & so good. If you ever go to Mexico you truly HAVE to seek out a cheese shop. They let you sample before you buy. I remember we brought home a white cheddar, panela, crema, & queso fresco. My hubby says his all time favorite cheese is panela. My hubby is also lactose intolerant :( I have to admit the panela was really good, but I still prefer queso fresco myself. And I have tried lots of panelas around here (even going to Mexican grocers) & none are anywhere near as good as the one we got in TJ. The queso fresco at Costco is honestly the best one I have tasted this side of the border.

When lil J was first starting on finger foods I would sometimes give him cubes of smoked gouda & sometimes make him quesadillas with smoked gouda. One day we went to an appointment with a lawyer & it took much longer than expected. Traffic was so bad we couldn't get home fast & lil J was hungry & we had no food with us (I now almost never leave the house without some form of snack or food for him because this happened). I remember we went to Rubios--hubby & I were hungry too & we agreed that we could order lil J a quesadilla. We couldn't believe how he refused to eat the quesadilla!! He sniffed it & licked it & threw it aside & cried for food. Yep, I'm raising a little cheese snob, LOL! He wanted his smoked gouda. He does now eat cheddar also & I plan to introduce him to other varieties as well.

So yeah I guess I'm a bit of a cheese snob. But I think that's the only food I am that way about. And I don't really get extreme about it. But I sure do enjoy my cheese. :)

Weight

A very touchy subject for a lot of people--weight.

I must admit I've been pretty lucky, never really been overweight before. But of course I like to be thin & work hard to maintain my weight. Sometimes I am criticized by people because I want to lose a little weight yet I'm not technically overweight. Well that's my business is all I can say. I'm not trying to achieve being underweight & having less body fat is healthy.

When I was younger (all the way up to my mid 20s) I could eat & eat & eat, I could easily out-eat most people, even men!! And I never gained a pound either, no matter what I was eating!

While in my late 20's I went back to school, I was in the LVN program (licensed vocation nurse). Now this is a FULL time program--beyond full time actually. You are in school a minimum of 40 hours each week & then have TONS of homework on top of that. Add to that the fact that I worked on the weekends & it's total insanity. The LVN program is a full year, including summer school. You carry well over 20 units each semester, with the exception of summer school, I think it was around 18 units for summer school.

By the end of this year I realized I had gained about 20 pounds. This was the first time in my life I had ever gained weight. I realized my stress level was very intense, I was in my late 20s, & knew I had to do something fast.

I was able to lose 15 of those 20 lbs. I did it just by eating smaller portions & doing more cardio. Those were the easy days, the 20s. I always hear people in their 20s (early 20s even!) complaining how hard it is to lose weight & I always warn them they had better get control of their weight now & not later cuz it only gets harder & harder as time goes on.

Of course even though I lost those 15 lbs I was still in school working on my pre-reqs for the RN program (registered nurse). And I was working full time too. Life was still stressful & I was entering my early 30s. I gained a few pounds due to that. And I also found that in my early 30s there was no more easy weight loss like before.

So I got myself a pedometer & followed a plan in a book called "the step diet". You just keep increasing your steps each week & eating less food. I have to say it worked. I got the weight off in time to enter the RN program.

Now because I was already an LVN I only had to do the second year of the 2 year RN program. It was semesters 3 & 4. I have to say that the 3rd semester was really a cake walk for me. I did really well in both clinical & lecture & had very little stress (there is always "some" stress in nursing school no matter what) & I didn't gain any weight at all. But the 4th semester was very tough & really kicked my butt & I did end up gaining 15 lbs.

After I graduated I was determined to drop those 15 lbs. For several months I kept trying to eat healthy, small portions, workout more, etc. None of it made any difference now. I was in my mid 30s now & it was even harder than the early 30s!! I did try to do the step diet again & had no success at all.

I was getting really frustrated & around that time my cousin shared with me that she was doing the south beach diet & having success with it (& that she had done it before & had success then too). I decided to give it a try. I did feel like I needed a structered set of rules to follow.

At first glance I didn't think I could do it. Giving up carbs was impossible for me. But then I decided to take a look at it from a different angle. How was I going to sit back & let my body & it's cravings dictate what I put in my mouth? I got kinda angry about it & I allowed that anger to fuel me. I saw it as a challenge & when my mind is put to something nothing will stop me & so I did the diet & had great success. I was the thinnest I had been in a lot of years. And I was very happy.

I have always wanted to make sure I turn 40 at my goal weight because I know it only gets harder once you turn 40 & it's hard enough now already. I was actually pleased that I was done with school, I felt there should be no more reasons to ever gain weight again in my life & was thrilled at this thought.

And then I found I was pregnant. Not only was I pregnant but it was a long & hard pregnancy for me. I had morning sickness the entire pregnancy & had major food aversions to tons of foods. About the only foods I could stomach & keep down were carbs. Plus there was tons of stress--we had a huge fire in our community, 6 houses surrounding us burned & this caused a great deal of smoke damage to our house, etc. This along with modified bed rest at the beginning of the 3rd trimester all contributed to the whopping 47 lbs I gained during the pregnancy.

Once the baby was born I had lost 27 lbs (the baby, placenta, water bag, all the extra blood volume, & the fluid from swelling). So I had 20 more to go. I kept trying to get back on the south beach diet & I was doing it all according to the plan & I did lose some weight but not much. And I've been stuck for a really long time now.

I'm turning 38 next month & still want to turn 40 already at my goal weight. I have to do something & I have to do it fast. So I decided to try Suzanne Somers eating plan. It's a low carb plan with food combining involved. I did try food combining when I was a teen (from the fit for life book) & I sure did feel great while doing it, it was just too strict for me to keep it up long term. And Suzanne even mentions this program & the fact that she feels it is TOO strict. I am just starting it today, so we'll see how it goes. I have to admit I like the fact that I can have carbs, I just have to not have them with any fat or protein.

I grew up watching my mom & sister go from one fad diet to the next & never be satisfied. I promised myself I would never end up like that. While trying out diets makes me nervous that I am headed in that direction, I still feel that I am not like that.

Number one: I will never put my weight before my health. I will never follow a diet that will harm my health in the process of losing weight. (I have to admit I saw them try several diets that were outright not healthy)

Number two: I don't believe at all that I am doing fad diets, I am only interested in changing my eating habits for life.

I have to admit I do make modifications wherever I don't agree.

Like with the south beach diet: he tells you to use artificial sweeteners & margarine. I absolutely refuse to use either of these, they are made in laboratories with chemicals, they have no place in my body, so I refuse to eat them. I learned to give up sugar completely & used butter in moderation. He also made a big deal about only using low fat & no fat dairy & I didn't always follow that, depending on what it was. To me it's important that dairy is organic (sans hormones & antibiotics) & it can be difficult & sometimes impossible to find low fat organic dairy, & so I would prioritize organic over low fat & would still eat full fat dairy at times.

I like the fact that Suzanne Somers is very into eating healthy & eating REAL food. This is why when I tried to think of what diet to try next her name came to mind. I respect her as a person & wanted to give her plan a try. I am happy to see that she is anti-margarine & anti-artifical sweeteners. Although she has her own sweetener (somersweet) that she's really pushing, but I still don't plan to use it. I'm sure it's great & I'm sure it's healthier than the artificial ones out there, but I would just rather give up sweets. It's shocking to me that people refuse to see that as a legitimate alternative. No sugar & no sugar substitutes, it's not that impossible to do.

So today is day one of starting her diet. I hope to have great success on this. We shall see.....

Whooping Cough

The government is declaring an epidemic in the state of California for an increase in cases of whooping cough.

My first thought is of how they declared the swine flu epidemic last year.

I see that they try to create a panic. The attempts to control the public & get them to do what they want (vaccinate) they use fear to do so. If they scare the people enough the people will give in & accept just about anything. (I am reminded of the whole 911 issue in regards to this, but I don't want to get that far off topic)

I would bet some serious money that there is another reason behind them pushing the whooping cough deal. They have an excess of vaccine sitting around or some other reason like that.

Now there are more cases than usual of whooping cough in the state of California, but of the 900 & something cases there have only been 5 deaths. And those deaths were all in children less than 3 months old.

As a nurse I know that whooping cough is most dangerous for those less than 3 months old & it's still somewhat of a risk for anyone less than 1 year old. My first thought is that no vaccine is ever going to protect a child less than 3 months old. The whooping cough has a series of 3 or 4 vaccines (it varies depending on which schedule you're following). Full immunity is not achieved until all of those shots are given, which certainly isn't going to be at less than 3 months of age. Sure you can argue that even if your kid doesn't DIE it can still get sick. But I have to scratch my head & wonder about everyone acting like getting sick is such a bad thing. I was sick as a kid, many times as I recall. It's a normal part of life & helps build the immune system. It's the way God designed it. There's nothing abnormal or wrong about getting sick. And we are way too rushed in this day & age & country--and I very strongly dislike this attitude I see of not having time to deal with sickness, especially for a parent to not have time to deal with a sick child. That's just totally ridiculous to me.

I know that in the Mexican culture (at least in the old days) you weren't supposed to take a baby out of a house until it was at least 3 months old. This may sound silly & it may be hard to do in this day & age & country, but it really is good advice. By keeping the baby at home you decrease all the germs it will be exposed to out in public, etc during the early days when it's immune system is weakest. I know there's the other side of the fence that likes to argue that exposing the child to germs builds the immune system. And I do agree, up to a point. Being exposed to germs DOES build up the immune system, but I don't think it's a good idea to just let them be exposed to absolutely everything under the sun. There are some really deadly man-made germs out there these days. I personally was not able to keep little J at home at all when he was brand new. Life was just too busy & I had to go grocery shopping & banking & other errands, etc & of course there was church. He's been in a church nursery since he was 6 days old!

And my second thought in regards to the whooping cough issue is this: the vast majority of adults are no longer immune to whooping cough. You must get a booster shot every 10 years to maintain immunity. So I have to wonder, & I am quite irritated about, the govt pointing the finger at unvaccinated kids spreading whooping cough when all these adults are perfectly capable of spreading it to all kids that are unvaccinated & also those too young to have completed their vaccine series.

I am sure there will be some who think I only feel this way because little J is already over a year old & out of the supposed danger zone. But I can assure you that is not the case at all.

I did stop to consider what I would do if little J was a newborn RIGHT NOW with this going on. Would I change my mind & get him vaccinated? But no, I wouldn't. To me our biggest risk is the nursery at church. When we were at our last church little J got sick from there twice I think. Of course the system there was not very good in retrospect. You weren't allowed to take children into the sanctuary & the so-called "family friendly" overflow building asked us to take him to the nursery the one time we went there with him. And no one at the nursery ever spoke up if an obviously sick kid came through, especially if it was a pastor's kid, etc.

Here at our new church they turn away obviously sick kids & kids are welcome in the sanctuary (though they do ask you to sit in the back & they have seats reserved in the back for parents with kids). While little J had the chicken pox we left him at home with big sister for 3 weeks because he was contagious, but once all his scabs were off we went back, he was no longer contagious. They have a pager system here & not even 5 minutes after we dropped him off they were paging us. We went back & they had him in a quarantine room (with one of the nursery workers holding him, he was totally calm & fine about it, they didn't do it in a way that scared him) & they wanted to know what all the spots on him were. They said they couldn't have him with the other kids until they knew what they were dealing with. Once we explained that he had just had the chicken pox they were totally fine, but we were glad to see how thorough they are.

Anyways, back to the point. When little J was a newborn the whole swine flu thing was going on. I did take him to the nursery (at our old church even), which was a risk, I just prayed over him each time & when I went out in public, like grocery shopping, he was in his car seat & I would put a thick blanket over it to try to keep any germs flying through the air away from him, since flu is airborn transmission (so is whoopping cough). I know that the germ particles are small enough to pass through a blanket, but at least it's one extra layer of protection, better than having nothing there at all.

That's my ranting for now, I just wanted to share my thoughts (& possibly give an alternate way of looking at the govt's doings) on the whole whooping cough issue that's going on.

Frontline: The Vaccine War

I have no clue how many people who might be reading this would've watched this show. But I saw a posting about it on Facebook & set my DVR to record it.

I also saw some comments about it on Facebook where a lot of people were upset about it, saying it was pro-vaccine & didn't present the info fairly. I have to say that I don't agree with that at all.

I actually thought the info was presented very well & from every angle possible.

I am not anti-vaccine, I just want SAFE vaccines. And because I don't feel they are safe I am not vaccinating my son.

I can see & appreciate what the medical (pro-vaccine) side is doing. They want to protect against & eradicate these awful diseases. And they did accomplish this with smallpox. Had I lived prior to that I never would've thought it was possible, but they did it.

This show discussed the possibility of future outbreaks because more & more people are choosing to not vaccinate their kids. And they mentioned the fact that most parents right now didn't grow up with some of the diseases (ie measles, mumps, rubella, polio, whooping cough) & it makes it easier for them to dismiss the need of the vaccine, which I would have to say is true.

The problem I see is that the govt is sitting back & complaining about the people choosing to not vaccinate their kids. Yet they refuse to listen to the people, they refuse to work on making SAFE vaccines. They are just hard-headed, insisting that they are already "safe enough". The problem to me is that the govt has a god-complex. They only see the big picture & that what they are doing is so important for the good of the people that minor (to THEM) issues of a few kids being seriously injured or dying is not a big deal. They have their statistics (of the cases that are proven, most are not & so many cases aren't even counted in those statistics) & go on & on about how so few get injured or killed, blah blah blah. This is the whole problem to me, they simply don't care. When that kid that's hurt is YOUR KID it really is a big deal & that's what the govt is just not getting & it's simply because they don't care enough in my opinion.

I am 37, soon to be 38. Vaccines these days are VERY different from vaccines when I was a kid & I think a lot of people don't realize this. They differ a lot in how they are engineered. And they also differ in the fact that there are SO MANY MORE now than there used to be, I do think they are getting a bit carried away I have to say. And it also differs in how many a child receives at one time with each visit to the doctor--they get soooo many at a time now it's unreal.

That's all for now, just some ranting based on responses I saw from people to this show.

Maybe someday the govt will get it & find a way to make safer vaccines, & also stop getting so carried away about how many diseases to vaccinate for (I mean, seriously, the chicken pox does not need a vaccine), but I'm not holding my breath.

Vaccines

This is most definitely a hot topic. I have kept my opinion quiet (with the exception of those who ask me), but now that my son has the chicken pox the fact that I am not vaccinating my son is out in the open.

I always heard comments on both sides of the fence, but before becoming pregnant I never took the time to decide which side of the fence I was on. Once I was pregnant I knew I had to make a decision.

Now I certainly am not a "know it all" type of person, although my mother keeps making comments that leave me to believe that this is what she thinks of me. I try to keep an open mind, I LOVE doing research &, being a nurse, medical research is right up my alley so to speak. But of course not everything can be proven beyond a shadow of doubt. And so when it comes to those areas you really have to trust your instincts.

And that's so true with a lot of parenting issues. You just have to trust your instincts, don't always wait until you can prove things 100% or you most likely will end up having some major regrets.

I've said it before & I'll say it again: I have never felt anything so powerful as the instinct to protect my child from harm. It is an amazing thing & nothing I have ever felt prior to having my son. I have always felt protective of my family & loved ones, especially with medical stuff. I want to be there for them helping them understand & helping them make decisions & letting the docs know that they better be on their best behavior, but of course I don't step in & do this unless I am asked or welcomed. And this isn't quite the same as my drive to protect my son from harm.

As I was trying to decide for myself (well, for little J really) my cousin shared with me the most valuable piece of info in making this decision in my opinion. It is this: either decision is based on fear, so what do you fear most? the possible harm of the vaccine or the possible harm from the disease? That may not be word for word how she put it, but that was the jist of it & that helped me sum it all up & make my decision.

As a nurse A LOT of people ask me for my opinion on vaccines. Prior to being pregnant & doing all this research I always told people I honestly wasn't educated enough to give an opinion on either side of the fence & that was the truth. And now that I have my son I share with people what my cousin shared with me & I also remind them that only THEY can make this decision. I am in no way judging people for vaccinating their kids & I am not trying to sway people to not vaccinate their kids. It is entirely a personal choice. (although I have to say that the chicken pox vaccine really irritates me & just seems so pointless--you only have to get chicken pox ONCE in your life & we all used to do this & now suddenly everyone is so scared of chicken pox, just doesn't make sense to me)

But let me get to the bottom line. There are two major deciding factors for me.

1) Pharmaceutical companies just don't care about people. All they care about is making money. How many instances have we had where medications &/or vaccines are pulled off the market or recalled because they are hurting people? I am absolutely convinced that they KNOW it's going to hurt people (or at least SUSPECT, based on their studies & trials) but they want to make as much money as they can prior to it getting pulled.

2) I am not a true conspiracy theory kind of person, but I do believe, WITH ALL MY HEART, that there is a hidden agenda with vaccines. I don't know what that agenda might be & I certainly can't prove it. But based on experiences as a nurse as well as research, & also based on instincts I truly believe this with all my heart & absolutely cannot in good conscience vaccinate my son because of this.

So those two reasons really narrow it down, that's really my bottom line as to my decison. But like I said before, I do not judge others for vaccinating & I'm not gonna try to convince people to not vaccinate their kids. It's a personal choice that we all must make. I just wanted to share my reasons for anyone who might be trying to understand now that my decision is out in the open.

Michael Pollan's "Food Rules"

This was the latest book I read. It's really short, a VERY quick read indeed. But I really loved this book. I highly recommend it to EVERYONE. Well everyone that EATS, that is (& that would be EVERYONE, would it not?).

So I'm gonna post here his food rules. The book has a page or two of further explanation of each rule, so if anyone wants that on any particular rule just comment & let me know.

First allow me to explain how the book is set up. It is set up in 3 parts. He asks that you adopt AT LEAST ONE (but you can certainly adopt MORE than that) from each section.

His bottom line is this: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." And so the first section of the book deals with the first sentence--it deals with WHAT to eat. The second section of the book deals with the third sentence--WHAT KINDS of foods to eat. And the third section deals with the second sentence--HOW MUCH to eat.

So, without further ado, the FOOD RULES


Part One--What should I eat? (eat food)
1)Eat food (not "edible food-like substances")
2)Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food
3)Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry
4)Avoid food products that contain high fructose corn syrup
5)Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed among the top 3 ingredients
6)Avoid food products that contain more than 5 ingredients (he emphasizes not to be too strict on this, it depends on what it is, but you get the idea)
7)Avoid food products that contain ingredients that a 3rd grader cannot pronounce
8)Avoid food products that make health claims
9)Avoid food products with the wordoid "lite" or the terms "low fat" or "nonfat" in their names
10)Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not (ie margarine, soy-based mock meats, etc)
11) Avoid foods you see advertised on television
12) Shop the peripheries of the supermarket & stay out of the middle section of the store
13) Eat only foods that will eventually rot
14) Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature
15) Get out of the supermarket whenever you can (ie farmers' markets, health food stores, etc)
16) Buy your snacks at a farmers' market
17) Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans
18) Don't ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap
19) If it came from a plant-eat it; if it was made in a plant-don't eat it
20) It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car
21) It's not food if it's called by the same name in every language (think Big Mac, Cheetos, Pringles, etc)

Part Two--what KIND of food should I eat? (mostly plants)
22) Eat mostly plants, especially leaves
23) Treat meat as a flavoring or a special occasion food
24) "Eating what stands on one leg (plants) is better than eating what stands on two legs (fowl), which is better than eating what stands on four legs (cows, pigs, & other mammals). (this is a Chinese proverb & he states he is disappointed that it does not include fish)
25) Eat your colors
26) Drink the spinach water (save water that veggies were cooked in & use in soups or drink it--full of nutrients)
27) Eat animals that have themselves eaten well
28) If you have the space, buy a freezer (stock up on good meats while on sale & buy produce while in season at it's cheapest in bulk & freeze them)
29) Eat like an omnivore
30) Eat well-grown food from healthy soil
31) Eat wild foods when you can
32) Don't overlook the oily little fishies
33) Eat some foods that have been predigested by bacteria or fungi (ie fermented foods & dairy products)
34) Sweeten & salt your food yourself
35) Eat sweet foods as you find them in nature
36) Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk
37) The whiter the bread the sooner you'll be dead
38) Favor the kinds of oils & grains that have traditionally been stone-ground
39) Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself from scratch
40) Be the kind of person who takes supplements--and then skip the supplements
41) Eat more like the French, or the Japanese, or the Italians, or the Greeks
42) Regard non-traditional foods with skepticism
43) Have a glass of wine with dinner

Part Three--HOW should I eat (not too much)
44) Pay more, eat less (ie quality over quantity when it comes to food)
45) ....eat less (calorie restriction in animals slows the aging process & increases their health)
46) Stop eating before you're full
47) Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored
48) Consult your gut (regarding portion size)
49) Eat slowly
50) The banquet is in the first bite (no other bite will taste as good as the first)
51) Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it
52) Buy smaller plates & glasses
53) Serve a proper portion & don't go back for seconds
54) Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper
55) Eat meals (not snacking &/or grazing all day)
56) Limit your snacks to unprocessed plant foods
57) Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does (don't eat gas station mini-mart food)
58) Do all your eating at a table
59) Try not to eat alone
60) Treat treats as treats
61) Leave something on your plate
62) Plant a vegetable garden if you have space, a window box if you don't
63) Cook
64) Break the rules once in a while

Sweet Nothings

In late 2007 I became a bit obsessed with sugar. I mean this in the sense that is probably the opposite of what you are thinking. I became obsessed with getting it out of my diet. I had always been a big carb eater. But in late 2007 I went on the South Beach diet--I had some weight from nursing school that I wanted to lose & was having a hard time getting it off.

The first week or two was really, really tough. I was dizzy, didn't feel well at all. I was actually astonished at my reaction to the lack of sugar in my diet. (for those who aren't nutritionally knowledgable carbs get broken down into glucose in our bodies & affect us just like sugar basically, so you 'could' actually cut sugar out of your diet & not get the results I got if you're still eating lots of carbs) People kept insisting that sugar couldn't do that, it had to be caffeine withdrawals or something like that. But I gave up caffeine back in January of 2003. There was no other explanation than sugar withdrawal.

After the dizziness & feeling sick passed I started noticing how steady my energy level was throughout the day. I REALLY liked this. I began to think it over & I realized that if you ingest something that makes your blood sugar spike up (sugar, carbs, etc) it's also going to end in the blood sugar crashing & bottoming out (what goes up must come down). This is what had been causing my energy level to go up & down so erratically as it had for so many years. I really liked the way I felt on the South Beach diet.

Sometime during this diet my mother in law brought me some info she had on sweeteners. It listed natural sweeteners & how they affected the blood sugar. This was exactly what I was needing to know. Things like maple syrup & honey do cause the blood sugar to spike, even though they are natural. But things like stevia, agave, brown rice syrup, barley malt, & lo han don't. So I then started using those sweeteners. I use all four (have not been able to find lo han for sale anywhere, although it is in my protein shake powder), it just depends on which one I want (based on flavor) for what I'm eating at the time. And there are plenty of things that I just don't sweeten. I've learned to appreciate it's natural taste. This is true especially of drinks like herbal tea (which I used to put a ton of sugar in) & herbal coffee.

As far as stevia goes, I have heard a lot of complaints about it's taste & I have actually tasted some that doesn't taste good. But I remember reading an article somewhere that said it's important to get a really good quality stevia. I was just speed-reading that article, but I do recall it was something about cheaper brands of stevia use all parts of the stevia plant & the better quality brands use only the parts that are sweetest (I cannot recall which part this was though since I was just speed-reading the article).

You may be wondering why I haven't mentioned the big artificial sweeteners: saccharin, aspartame, etc, etc. I refuse to ingest these & I believe they are VERY dangerous chemicals. I don't believe for one second that they are safe at all for us. As a nurse I have seen a HUGE increase in seizure activity in people of all ages, races, etc & in questioning these people I have noticed ONE connection: they all use artificial sweeteners. I know that is not very conclusive evidence, but if you take some time to do some research you will find a ton of bad info on them. I really don't bother because I just don't consume them. (Margarine also falls into this category as far as I'm concerned--just say no to margarine & use some real butter PLEASE)

As a side note: not too long ago there were society norms that appear to have vanished almost overnight. These were norms that said things like "you don't drink soda with breakast", "you don't eat cake for a meal", "you don't eat chocolate in a meal". Sweets & pastries & things of that nature were reserved as a special treat. I think this is a good norm. But somehow it has vanished as I said before. If you take a walk down the cereal aisle it's really really scary. There is chocolate & sugar EVERYWHERE. I was talking with someone recently & they were recounting what they eat throughout the day & were astonished to realize how much sugar they were consuming. It was at every single meal! And this is by no means unusual at all. Even among people like my family, who don't shop at normal grocery stores & consider themselves health-food eaters.

And even if you are proud of yourself for reading labels & not consuming sugar take a closer look. Yet another culprit that is really going to spike your blood sugar (& a huge part of why so many people are diabetic these days) is corn. Corn & corn by-products are in TONS of foods. I have met diabetics who don't understand why they can't get their blood sugar under control when they don't eat any sugar, yet they don't realize they're consuming corn syrup & other corn derivatives at every meal. Corn is very unhealthy for us for a wide variety of reasons--someone recently asked me if there are any health benefits to eating corn & I couldn't think of anything aside from maybe fiber, but you can certainly get fiber elsewhere. Just say no to corn!

There are a lot of people who shrug their shoulders & feel that it's impossible to not eat all this junk. It's been a long time since I've shopped in a regular grocery store, so I can't say how hard it is there. But a lot of regular grocery stores offer healthy brands too. And there are more & more health food stores out there all the time. It's amazing to me how many products you can buy that are sweetened with things like fruit juice & agave & barley malt & rice syrup as opposed to sugar & corn & artificial sweeteners. The same goes for the trans fats (hyrdogenated & partially hydrogenated). I know a lot of people who say they can't stop eating it because it's in everything. Whole Foods market is committed to not selling ANY product that has trans fat in it. It's certainly not in ANYTHING we buy & bring into our home. And of course even if you can't find processed foods without bad ingredients, then why not try rethinking your diet & STOP buying processed foods.....trust me you will benefit from it more than you can imagine.

One last thought. The author Michael Pollan (has written a few really great books on food) has a new book out called "food rules". I plan to get this book at some point when money allows. I saw him interviewed & heard the premise of the book & I love it! Things like "don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" (his example was yogurt in a tube--is it yogurt? is it toothpaste?); and he said when it comes to unhealthy foods (like cake, pastry, french fries)--go ahead & eat them as long as you make them yourself from scratch. Not only are they healthier that way, but he also feels that because they are extra effort to make that this will limit how often you are willing to make them & that this is really how often we SHOULD be eating those types of foods. I really like this motto. The world is eating french fries on a daily basis, yet we all know it's not healthy & they shouldn't be. If you had to take the time to make them yourself from scratch you would eat them a lot less, though, & this is what's best for your body. I just really liked his ideas & can't wait to read that book.

Rant of the day: remove the cause or teat the symptoms?

Our medical system in this day & age tends to treat symptoms. This is what I always refer to as a band-aid to cover up the root cause.

Everyone is always going on about finding a cure for cancer. This absolutely kills me, I cannot stand it. I think a far better option would be to find the cause & remove it. But of course no one would make any money off of that option.

I have recently experienced on my own with some skin issues finding the cause & removing said cause. This comes after many years of applying band-aids that sometimes do (& most of the time don't) work.

But I notice time & time again as I share my experience & try to help others that all they want to know is what pill to take. This idea of taking a pill (be it medicine or vitamin or herb, etc) & making no other lifestyle changes is so ingrained in people. It's astonishing to me. I love the old saying "if you always do what you've always done you'll always get what you've always got". This saying is soooo true. And if you don't change your lifestyle (diet, activity, etc) then nothing else is going to change.

Are we really this lazy? We can't even be bothered to make some small changes in order to improve the quality of our lives??

Apparently we are this lazy. I can't even begin to tell you how many people want to complain about their symptoms yet they don't want to make changes that would remove those symptoms.

That's all for now, just needed to vent a bit.........