Friday, February 10, 2012

Breast Milk Awesomeness

I have been a mother for a little over 5 years now.  I have a 5 year old daughter, and two boys ages 3 and 1.  Since I have been a mother I have taken my kids to the doctor maybe 7 times between all of them, and have never had antibiotics.  Maybe I just haven't found a doctor I like, but all of my experiences taking my kids to the doctor haven't benefited us AT ALL! 

Here's a preview of one of my visits.  I took my 3 month old baby to the pediatrician that I had seen a handful of times because he was having acid reflux.  Usually I go to the Doctor as a last resort, when I have utilized all other resources.  This time I was reading a favorite blog of mine about another woman and her baby's acid reflux and how he gave her a list of foods to cut out to help.  So I figured I would go to get the same list and some other ideas.  I went, and he gave me a...prescription?!  I asked him about diet and he said there was no correlation.  That was it.  You can imagine my disappointment!  And this is usually about the norm of what happens when I seek some kind of western medical intervention.  I then went home, threw the prescription away, and did my own research on my diet.  I cut out a bunch of foods that I thought were contributing and I also remembered about an oil that I had called Digestzen from Doterra.  Between the diet and the oil, his acid reflux was just a memory.  And that's just one example of what usually happens when I take my kids in.

Don't get me wrong, if my kids break a bone, or slice their hand open, I will definitely take them in.  They know what they are doing when it comes to accidents.  Western Medicine is really good at putting people back together again. If we're talking infectious disease, they just don't have what it takes.  

Now, this doesn't mean I let my kids wallow in misery and sickness.  I have many great resources from my oils, to herbs, some great books on Natural Health, the internet and my midwife/medicine woman.  

This brings us to my current awesome healing story!  My 3 year old son wakes up about an hour after falling asleep and he's crying.  My husband and I just thought he needs to pee, because that's usually why they wake up crying.  I took him to the bathroom, but he is still squirming around in bed and crying every 5 or ten minutes.  I knew something was wrong, and would ask him where he was hurting, but all he could do was cry.  Finally, at about 1:30 in the morning he is screaming at me telling me his ear hurts!  So there it was, an ear infection.  So I run to get my Basil essential oil and garlic oil to put in and around his ears.  I begin rubbing the oil around his ear and ask him if I can put some garlic oil in his ear.  He, of course, says no.  He doesn't want anything in there  probably thinking it would just add to the pain.  The Basil soothed him enough to put him to sleep for maybe 2 minutes, then he wakes screaming even louder.  It was then that I randomly remembered how amazing breast milk is for any kind of infection!  So I ask him if I can put some mommy milk in and he tells me yes.  I fill his ear with my milk and he IMMEDIATELY calms down and falls asleep.  I let the milk sit there for about 10 minutes and then turned him over to drain his ear.  He slept the rest of the night and a good part of the morning without any pain.  This even surprised me how quickly it soothed and healed his ear.  With this success rate I was thinking they should prescribe breast milk for ear infections instead of antibiotics! 

Moral of the story?  I don't really know.  Breastfeeding is awesome, maybe? Take from it what you will.  I just had to share how quickly it took his pain away.  I have found that I usually know what to do for my kids if I just listen to my instincts.  Fever?  Lots of fluids.  Infection?  There are some amazing products out there that have no side affects like antibiotics do.  Look into it.  Seriously.  The Health Food store is one of many good resources for my family's health.  Doterra is another, and researching the internet on over health has also been a great asset.  I don't claim to know more than a doctor, by any means, but I do know my kids more than anyone.  In terms of mild illnesses I think anyone can take matters into their own hands without seeking medical attention and prescriptions.



Friday, February 3, 2012

Let Food Be Thy Medicine and Medicine Be Thy Food


So last night, as I told you in my last post, I took my family to this AWESOME raw foods class  by my even AWESOMER(Oh, yes, I did just write that) friends Rachel, and Chris Talley. 
It was super inspiring, and we will for sure be making some changes to our diet.  In the mean time, my wonderful husband was inspired to write a post on health.  So this is a guest post by none other than Aaron Merrill! 
 Take it away babe!

Just read an article called "$1.1 Trillion: What the 10 Leading Causes of Death Cost the U.S. Economy"
Link: http://247wallst.com/2012/01/18/1-1-trillion-what-the-10-leading-causes-of-death-cost-the-u-s-economy/2/

Here are the first three:
1. Heart Disease> No. of deaths: 595,444> Change since 2000: 25% decrease in death rate> Total cost: $190 billion
2. Cancer> No. of deaths: 573,855> Change since 2000: 7.5% decrease in death rate> Total cost: $227 billion
3. Chronic Lung Disease (Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases)> No. of deaths: 137,789> Change since 2000: Total cost: $65 billion

What are we to do? Take a pill? radiate ourselves? then take more pills? Well, you could take that route. But what if there was another way? A way that may seem bizarre only because it seems too simple. It is to make nutrition your medicine. Better put: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” ― Hippocrates
Why would is this so hard to believe? Maybe because the majority of our food today is so far removed from its natural, whole form.  We process all the life giving, healing qualities out of it!

Maybe it's hard to believe because we can't imagine that the modern processed foods doing anything more than just fill our bellies. 

Whole foods have been time tested, and have proven themselves to be the best nutrition for both humans and animals. This is a mere fact and if it weren't, so I wouldn't be here writing this. By this mere fact, I have trust in the above quote by Hippocrates. Highly processed foods and even genetically modified foods obviouly have not yet proven themselves as a benefit to our health. In fact, just looking at the current state of our country's health status (reference above) and what the majority of our diet and lifstyles are, tells us these foods are not passing the test and should tell us to stay away.  We are still free to choose what goes into our bodies. :-)

Whole raw foods have been for the first time in history been accessable very easliy, yet we have not taken advantage of it. I don't intend to judge one bit. Life is to be enjoyed, and a part of that is eating. Even eating tasty foods. I will not lie. So, this is for those who want a certain result in their physical health. On the other hand the stories and experiences are piling up about the awesome benefits of whole raw foods and I think it's time we give it a try. 

Whole raw foods are delicious, but they also give us that extra energy to truly be able to live our lives!   I don't want to barely live because I love eating processed, dead foods.  Rather, I want to live, feeding my body what it needs for optimal health and vitality!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

A Post On Health

I was introduced to the concept of raw food long long ago when I met my amazing midwife Rachel Talley.  She was apprenticing at the time for my midwife with my first birth and we just instantly connected.  After my daughter was born I remember her talking to my aunt about raw food and how it saved her life, or something to that matter.  I was a little woozy, so it I'm sure I didn't pick it all up.  

 So, basically, if you ever meet a raw foodist, or are wondering what the heck that means, it is a vegan diet of whole uncooked fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and anything else deemed as basically grown from the earth. 
It is also referred to as a living diet because this diet is rich in living enzymes.  Once you cook a food over 120 degrees(I think this is accurate, if not, its close) you are killing the enzymes that are in it.  Why are enzymes so important you ask?  Well, enzymes are responsible for digesting our food.  Our body does make enzymes, but when we eat too much cooked foods we deplete our bodies supply of enzymes.  A diet rich in living foods is also going to have all of the vitamins and minerals that your body needs and doesn't get from the traditional diet.  This is just the tip of the iceberg.  There is so much more that I just don't want to type. :)  Bottom line is it is super healthy.  Google it, and read all the amazing stories of how people changed their health around by eating raw. I think I may even have a few blog links to the right if anyone is interested.  Some really good documentaries to watch on the health subject are Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, Food Matters, and Forks Over Knives.  Those are all on Netflix!
So this brings us to me.  I have had health problems for a while now.  Nothing too serious, (yet anyway) but enough for it to make life uncomfortable.  I have been revamping my diet for about 5 years now to attempt to make things better, and I have!  I took out the white bread and added wheat, I added more fruits and vegetables to my diet, I doubled my water intake, cut out processed boxed foods, substituted milk for almond milk, I try to cook whole foods and use all natural products without fillers and toxic stuff. You name it, I probably did it! 

So, the thing that I noticed that made the most difference was eating more raw foods, so that's what I'm going to attempt even further.  My lovely friend Rachel is having a raw foods class tonight at her house and I am getting pretty excited!  She is the queen of making raw foods delicious and some even taste like healthy versions of the things you eat every day.  I actually made a raw cheesecake(yes, you read that right) last week that was delicious!

My goal is health, pure and simple.  I'd also like to pass that message on to my kids, and anyone else who is listening.

Happy Eating!