My Piccolo (little) Thoughts

The Best Inflammation Product EVER

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 02:32:00 +0000

I have tried sooo many different products to help with my really bad chronic inflammation. I finally found this a few months ago:

Zyflamend

(If you put in iHerb coupon code - REB993 - enter it in the shopping cart (before checkout) - you will receive an instant $5 discount on your first iHerb order.)

I noticed a difference within a few hours and then a really big difference a few days later and now, 8 months later I still can tell a big difference. This product has changed my life. I highly recommend it to anyone with stiff joints, bad backs, etc. I go to the Chiropractor a whole lot less often now too so it more than pays for itself.

Coconut Oil

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:51:00 +0000

Here's another article from Real Foods on coconut oil i found interesting and thought you would too:

How to Use Coconut Oil

Use in place of other oils, margarine, butter, shortening, etc. for all cooking needs, as it is one of the very few stable cooking oils.

Use as an ingredient when juicing or making smoothies.

Consume it straight, by the tablespoon, and use it in place of other oils on salads.

Use as a healer - in particular, many people have experienced meaningful results with Candida, thyroid, weight loss, viral diseases, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and irritable bowel, etc.

Use as an excellent massage oil.

Use as a skin lotion for healthier, younger skin.

Coconut Oil and the Skin

For thousands of years, women in tropical countries have used coconut oil to moisturize their skin, lips, make lotions and soaps, as a hair conditioner, and many other things. Because coconut oil has a natural creamy texture and is free from pesticides and other chemicals and contaminants, it is really ideal for body care uses. Its small molecular structure allows for easy absorption, giving both the skin and hair a soft smooth texture. Just the coconut oil by itself makes an ideal ointment for the relief of dry rough and wrinkled skin and it is safe and natural.

An ideal lotion is one that not only softens the skin, but protects it against damage, promotes healing and gives it a more youthful, healthy appearance. Pure virgin coconut oil is the best natural ingredient for skin lotion available. It prevents destructive free-radical formation and provides protection against them. It can help to keep the skin from developing liver spots, and other blemishes caused by aging and over exposure to sunlight. It helps to keep connective tissues strong and supple so that the skin doesn't sag and wrinkle. In some cases it can even restore damaged or diseased skin. The oil is absorbed into the skin and into the cell structure of the connective tissues, limiting the damage excessive sun exposure can cause.

Coconut oil will not only bring temporary relief to the skin, but it will aid in healing and repairing. Unlike most lotions, it will have lasting benefits. It can help bring back a youthful appearance. Coconut oil will aid in removing the outer layer of dead skin cells, making the skin smoother. The skin will become more evenly textured with a healthy "shine". While doing this the coconut oil will penetrate into the deeper layers of the skin and strengthen the underlying tissues.

Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

It is a stable, healthy saturated fat that contains zero trans fats.

It is a medium chain fatty acid which is quickly absorbed, metabolized and converted to energy.

It supports healthy metabolic functions, promoting natural weight loss.

It supports the immune system.

It provides anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal properties.

It functions as an anti-oxidant.

It promotes healthy skin and hair.

My Personal Statement

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:49:00 +0000

I've been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life lately and what my goals are so I came up with a personal statement. I want to share it with everyone in an effort to really commit myself so here is my first draft:

My goals in life are not about doing something but about thinking differently. Overcoming our negative thoughts are one of the hardest but most important things we can do in our lives. When our thoughts change, our actions will follow.

I want to experience maximum joy and peace given my circumstances. This means I need to spend as much time in my life as possible in doing things that bring me joy like:

Teaching my children to be good
Helping my children be awesome
Spending time with my husband
Playing with my children
Preparing good meals for my family
Reading scriptures
Doing my calling and other church things like volunteering for things
Exercising
Decorating my house nice
Crafts
Playing my flute
Preparing for the future
Taking and organizing pictures
Having a clean, organized house
Working on my family history

In order to have time to do the things I want to, I need to spend less time doing things that don't bring me joy. I will achieve this by:

Being happy and grateful with what I have. It's not about where we live or what we have.
Having positive, optimistic, ambitious, consistent thinking. Don't be afraid to have joy. We are what we think.
Making sure I'm never to busy to read my scriptures, exercise and do my church calling.
Being healthy.
Simplifying. Try to buy less “stuff” that just clutters the house and mind and takes away from my joy.
When fixing up the house, focus on organization, saving time, saving money and preparing for the future. A place for everything and everything in it's place.
Going to bed right after my children go to bed (try to be in bed by 9pm)
Making maximum profits in my business with minimal effort.
Becoming financially independent so that everyone in our family can spend the maximum time doing things that bring them joy.
Paying off the house and car as early as possible so we can be free from debt
Eventually finding a way that Norm can have a job that brings him joy and passion and more time with the family.

The Healthiest Foods on Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:23:00 +0000

I recently read this article and thought it was a good summary of a lot of my thoughts on food:

Forbes 7/7/09 magazine article by Jonny Bowden Ph.D.; CNS; a board-certified nutritionist (summarized below):

This interesting article says there is no perfect diet for human beings. Folks have thrived on a variety of diets without the ravages of degenerative diseases that are so epidemic in modern life. The common thread in these diets is that they're all based on whole foods with minimum processing... such as nuts, berries, beans, raw milk, and grass-fed meat. Whole, real, unprocessed food is almost always healthy, regardless of how many grams of carbs, protein or fat it contains.

These healthy foods do not have bar codes and they are extremely low in sugar. (The number of modern or ancient societies known for health and longevity that have consumed a diet high in sugar would be...let's see... zero.)

Real food (whole food with minimal processing) contains a virtual pharmacy of nutrients, phytochemicals, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, anti-inflammatories and healthful fats, and can easily keep you alive and thriving.

Berries

Berries are low in calories, high in fiber and loaded with plant compounds that improve memory and help fight cancer.

Nuts

Nut-eaters have lower rates of heart disease.

Beans

Beans are notorious for their high fiber content and are a part of the diet of people-from almost every corner of the globe-who live long and well.

Protein

Protein is a feature of every healthy diet ever studied. The word "protein" comes from a Greek word meaning "of prime importance."

Meat

Meat can be a health food if the meat comes from animals that have been raised on pasture land, have never seen the inside of a feedlot farm and have never been shot full of antibiotics and hormones.

Raw Milk

Countless devotees believe raw milk to be one of the healthiest beverages on the planet.

Wild Salmon

Wild salmon, whose omega-3 content is consistently higher than its less-fortunate farm-raised brethren, gets its red color from a powerful antioxidant called astaxathin. The combination of protein, omega-3s and antioxidants makes wild salmon a contender for anyone's list of great foods.

Eggs

Another great food: eggs-one of nature's most perfect creations, especially if you don't throw out the all-important yolk. (Remember "whole" foods means exactly that-foods in their original form. Our robust ancestors did not eat "low-fat" caribou; we don't need to eat "egg-white" omelets.)

Vegetables

There are no "bad" vegetables, but some of them are superstars. Any vegetable from the Brassica genus-broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale-is loaded with plant chemicals called indoles, which help reduce the risk of cancer.

Fruits

Apples deserve their reputation as doctor-repellants: they're loaded with fiber, minerals (like bone-building boron) and phytochemicals (like quercetin, which is known to be a powerful anti-inflammatory and to have anti-cancer properties). Some exciting new research suggests that pomegranate juice slows the progression of certain cancers. Other research shows it lowers blood pressure.

Tea

Jonny Bowden said tea deserves special mention. It is the second most widely consumed beverage in the world (after water). All forms of tea are loaded with antioxidants and anti-inflammatories.

Onions, Garlic and Shallots

Garlic has been used for thousands of years for its medicinal properties; hundreds of published studies support its antimicrobial effects as well as its ability to lower the risk of heart disease. A number of studies have shown an inverse relationship between onion consumption and certain types of cancer.

CONCLUSION

A healthy diet doesn't have to contain every one of the "healthiest foods on earth," but you can't go wrong putting as many of the above mentioned foods in heavy rotation on your personal eating plan.

Baked Potato Salad Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:35:00 +0000

I got this recipe from a lady in our ward and every time I make it for something, I always get at least one person asking for the recipe, so here it is for everyone. Just like any potato salad recipe, the measurements aren't exact so just make it kind of how you would like it. The idea is that it's everything that goes in a baked potato.

Bake some potatoes (either in foil or not) - leave them a little on the al dente side
Let them cool down all the way on the counter then cube them with a knife and leave about half the skin on
While the potatoes are cooling, cook a pound of bacon
Mix together:

Potatoes
Bacon
1/2-3/4 cup sour cream
cube of melted butter
green onions (you may saute them in butter first if you wish)
grated or cubed cheese

Let sit in the fridge for a while so the flavors can meld together and it's cold

Redmond Heritage Farms Eggs

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:28:00 +0000

Real Foods in Orem, UT is where I get a lot of my great information about truly healthy, natural real foods. It's about getting back to eating healthy like they did in pioneer times and how eating healthy can change your whole life. Here's an excerpt from an email I just got and I thought it was really interesting about eggs.

Eggs are a near perfect food with a balance of protein and nutrients.

Whip whites to add air to dishes, use the yellow to add a creamy richness, or mix them together to hold things together.

Yolk color is determined by what the bird eats. Deep yellow to orange egg yolks are richer in carotenoids. Yolks contain about ½ the eggs protein and all of the fat as well as most of the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. The whites contain protein and no fat.

Contrary to what you may have heard, eggs do not increase bad cholesterol. Nor do they increase the risk of heart disease or stroke for the average person who is not at high risk. Bad Cholesterol, LDL, is based upon what you eat (or don't eat). (Hu, F.B., M.J. Stampfer, et al. 1999) (JAMA 281 (15):1387-94.)

The breed of the hen determines shell color. Egg color is simply an aesthetic preference.

Fresh eggs are best. Proper handling and temperature will help eggs stay fresh. Inappropriate temperature and humidity will age an egg. (A week-old egg can actually be fresher than a day-old egg.) You will notice the yellows stand up and are perky when you crack them with fresh eggs. In the shell, the older the egg, the more it will float in water. Fresh eggs sink. But older eggs aren't all bad. Older egg whites are more watery and broken down so they will whip up more easily.

Fresh eggs will have a more noticeable chalaza (the egg white strand that anchors the yolk in place). It is supposed to be there and does not need to be removed. If your egg white is a bit cloudy, you can be assured of a very fresh egg. And, believe it or not, a bright red blood spot would also indicate a fresh egg. The spot can be removed for aesthetics; but it does not make the egg inedible.

Redmond Heritage Farms hens are free to roam about in pastures instead of being locked in small crowded cages. If allowed to truly roam free in pastures, chickens will eat seeds and pick up additional nutritional value. Eggs from chickens on pasture are higher in Omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin E and Vitamin A. The yolks are deeper in color when chickens get good food and sunshine and therefore contain valuable antioxidants..

"Cage-free" does not guarantee access to the outdoors. There are no inspections to verify the claim cage-free. "Free-range" doesn't necessarily guarantee pasture. It could be dirt or concrete and still be free roaming.

Cooking Tips

You don't need a nonstick pan to make perfect breakfast eggs, just make sure the pan is warm enough, but not so hot that it smokes or that the butter, once you put it in, burns. Get the pan nice and warm before adding your butter (you don't need much); once that's swirled around and melted you'll see it bubble a little. Then crack your eggs on a flat surface, not the edge of the bowl, and add your eggs to the warm pan with the melted butter (or olive oil, if you prefer, but butter tastes so good with eggs!). The trick is the temperature of the pan, the butter added after it gets warm, and the eggs added after the butter is foamed to prevent eggs from sticking. Timing is everything.

Salt is very important to eggs, but add it after the eggs start cooking. Freshly ground pepper is a good addition to eggs too. Avocado, tomatoes and fresh herbs like parsley, dill and cilantro go particularly well with eggs.

The best way to make boiled eggs is not to boil them at all but rather bring the water up to a boil with the eggs in there, then turn it off and cover it for 15 minutes. After that drain and rinse with cold water, don't be afraid to crack the eggs when you drain as that will help the peeling process. You can tell an egg is boiled because when you spin it and then stop it. It stops. A non-cooked egg will continue to spin after you stop it.

Storage Tips

Store eggs in the carton them come in (not in plastic egg holders that come with the refrigerator). Store them inside the refrigerator, not on the door. You want to keep eggs cool at a constant temperature. You can freeze egg whites for later use.

Egg Fun Facts

A hen needs about a day to a day and a half to make each egg.

Egg size is actually determined by the age of a hen. The older the hen, the larger the egg.

Fresh eggs keep in the fridge for about a month. Hard boiled eggs keep for a week.

Sleep Update

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:35:00 +0000

Well, I think we're finally starting to figure it out. Kayla got a little better for a week or two and then was worse than ever. She would wake up and cry for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night. She was driving the whole family crazy. Well, finally on Saturday night I couldn't take it anymore and did some research on the internet and found a book I thought sounded good so I went and checked it out from the library. I am very glad I did.

It's called Good Night, Sleep Tight by Kim West. I really liked it because it told me what I needed to do and why to help Kayla sleep better. I learned that I was doing several things to help us get sleep in the short-run but they made things worse in the long run. I learned that a lot of the problem was that she wasn't sleeping enough in the day and going to bed too late at night so she was overly tired at night. I started feeding her when she woke up from sleep and not right before bed and started putting her down drowsy but awake. She outlines a schedule and I followed it and did "The Sleep Lady Shuffle" (well, sort of). It's gentler than just letting her cry it out because you learn soothing techniques like patting her, sushing, and giving her a lovey (or small blanket/object for her to become attached to). She also has a separate section for each age group with how much she should be sleeping and a sleep schedule, etc.

By the third day she went 10 hours without eating in the night and only woke up for a few minutes a few times and then put herself back to sleep.

I highly recommend the book. You can get it here:

Just for the record, the Probiotic worked well for her gas and we're still giving her that but apparently, the seemingly constant feeding she was doing before made it a lot worse, according to the book. I didn't do the Horary Cycle thing well enough to be able to comment on it one way or the other.

We're keeping our fingers crossed, but it sure has been nice the last 2-3 days to go to sleep knowing there is a chance I will actually be able to sleep.

tags: baby, sleep, restless, naps, sleep lady, Good Night Sleep Tight: The Sleep Ladys Gentle Guide to Helping Your Child Go to Sleep, Stay Asleep, and Wake Up Happy, sleep crutch, lovey, soothing techniques, cry it out, cio, sleep through the night, nap training, sleeping coaching, third nap, sleep cues, reflux babies, nighttime nursing, down drowsy, sleep training, dream feed, motion sleep, co-sleeping.

Teething

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:30:00 +0000

I hate teething. Kayla was doing great sleeping and all was going well until she started teething about two months ago. It's caused all sorts of problems and she doesn't even have any teeth yet. The biggest problem is that she now sleeps no more than three hours at a time and most nights she will sleep for 1-3 hours and then is up often every hour after that. She also has a lot of gas problems that keep us all up in the middle of the night. I've tried a lot of different things and haven't been able to fix it. I finally asked Dr. Frazier today what I should do.

First of all, he said that teething babies have high acidity levels. They have too high of the wrong kind of acid and that causes a lot of their problems. It makes their drool acidic so Kayla developed a rash where she drooled. It makes their pepe more acidic so they get bad diaper rash, and I didn't realize this but it causes them to have gas because they don't properly digest their food because of the acid level. So the simple solution he gave me is to give her a little probiotic once a day. It is supposed to help get her acidity down and help the gas. We're going to try it starting tonight so hopefully that works.

The other thing we are going to try is the Horary Cycle. Basically I am going to simulate acupressure points on both Kayla and me every two hours until she starts sleeping well again. I'll let you know if it works. I sure hope it does.

Paper or Plastic? Or neither?

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:49:00 +0000

This is from an article I received from Real Foods today:

It seems like it should be an easy choice, but there's a lot more to each bag than meets the eye.

Paper comes from trees -- lots and lots of trees. The process of clear-cutting results in massive habitat destruction and long-term ecological damage. It takes approximately three tons of wood chips to make one ton of pulp. The pulp is washed and bleached, and both stages require thousands of gallons of clean water. Recycling requires a chemical process in order to bleach and separate the pulp fibers.

Plastic bags are typically made from oil, a non-renewable resource. Plastics are a by-product of the oil-refining process, accounting for about four percent of oil production around the globe. Like paper, plastic can be recycled, but it isn't simple or easy. Recycling involves essentially re-melting the bags and re-casting the plastic.

Did you know that, worldwide, we use an estimated one million plastic bags each minute? Somewhere between 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used and discarded EVERY year. Of those, only 1 percent or so are recycled – at a cost higher than what it would cost to produce a brand new one. The rest ends up in landfills, in our oceans, and as litter strewn across the globe.

Many people don’t realize that plastic bags don’t biodegrade. They photodegrade, slowly breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits, which contaminate soil and waterways, where it enters the food chain - as animals mistake these tiny bits and pieces for food. Additionally, it takes 11 barrels of oil to produce one ton of plastic bags, which means we’ve used up some 11 billion barrels of a non-renewable resource to satisfy our want for convenience.

This plastic pollution causes seabirds, marine mammals, and fish to die. And, it’s not just marine animals that are poisoned by all this plastic. You too are now ingesting plastics every day, and being exposed to a potentially deadly mix of plastic chemicals and additives. What happens to your body when you breathe, eat, drink, and absorb all of this plastic? Dr. Mercola says the results are obesity, declining fertility rates and other reproductive problems, cancer, and more.

Choose reusable canvas or cloth bags! It’s the way to go.

My comments:
Although I know it's better to use cloth, I usually forget to bring mine so what I really need to do is just store them in my car. Just an idea.

Exercise

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:30:00 +0000

I had always heard that after you have a baby and nurse, the pounds just miraculously disappear. Well, I've found that's not necessarily true. Until about three weeks ago I hadn't lost a single ounce since a week after I had Kayla. I was eating well and exercising some but it just wasn't happening.

At that time I noticed that a DVD called "30 Day Shred" had been a best-seller for a long time and was really high on the list. So, I bought one and thought I would give it a try. Jillian Michaels from "The Biggest Loser" is on it. I've never seen the show but it sounded like a workout I could do. Plus, I've always heard that in order to lose weight you need to build muscle because muscles burn fat. I REALLY like the workout because you just do each exercise for 1/2 minute to 1 minute. I can do anything for that long. You do like 3 minutes of weights, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs. Then repeat it 3 times.

After the first time of doing it, I felt so good. My back felt so much better and I had so much blood in my head and rushing through my body. For the first week or a little more, I was really sore even though I only worked out for 20 minutes. It's only been about 3 weeks now and I haven't lost as much weight as Jillian says you can, but I've lost 2 pounds but my pants fit like I lost 5 pounds or so. Since I only have about 15-20 pounds to lose, I'm really happy about the 2 pounds because the last pounds are harder to lose and because nothing else seemed to be doing the trick.

Besides losing a little weight, my back is doing a lot better. I think a lot of the problems I've been having with it is just that it was wimpy and needed some more muscles. The muscles help hold it in place and the exercising and increased circulation really help with the soreness.

I also have a lot more energy and seem to get more done in the day even though I take out 30 minutes or so to exercise. It's just so much better than simply walking. It's definitely harder to do but I feel so empowered when I do some of the moves and I can feel my body slowly changing - even if no one else can tell yet.

You can buy it here:

I guess my whole point of this article is that our bodies are meant to be used and if we don't use them as God intended, we won't be able to use them when we want to.

Kayla Rebecca

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:42:00 +0000

I thought this would be a good place to write some of my thoughts about my labor experience and post some pictures.

As posted in other blogs, it was a complete miracle that we were able to get pregnant. I was blessed to have a very smooth pregnancy. That doesn't mean there weren't a few issues, but I really felt good right up until the last few days and the majority of my issues were from the actual physical presence of the baby. I know a lot of the reason for this was that I tried to take care of myself. That means I went to Dr. Frazier and got good nutritional supplements that helped support my body. I also tried to eat really healthy and went on walks right up until the end. I tried to look at labor as a marathon and I knew I need to train properly if I wanted the race to go smoothly. One of the main side effects of the pregnancy I noticed was that it just made everything harder. Like, if I had to get up in the middle of the night I was more tired the next day than if I wouldn't have been pregnant.

I started preparing for labor well ahead of time. One of the first things I did for this was to attend the childbirth class I talked about in an earlier post. My main objectives in this class were to eliminate any fears I had about labor, be informed, develop a birth plan, learn coping techniques, and learn how to make my labor the best experience possible. I was able to accomplish all of these objectives and the class was VERY helpful. I would strongly recommend the classes to any of you that are expecting in the Utah County area, even if this isn't your first birth (birthingyourway). It was so nice to know how to work with the hospital and to know more in-depth about the different interventions and twists and turns that labor can throw at you. I also had Heather Shelley be my doula and I was really glad it worked out. There were a few key moments I was really glad she was there for. (A doula is usually a midwife who comes to the birth just to help you and your husband have a good experience. She doesn't do any of the medical part but she was able to help me be more comfortable and confident. She knew what to do in certain circumstances when there was no nurse around and my husband nor mother didn't really know what to do.)

The other main thing I did was go to Dr. Frazier. I started acupuncture with him about two months before my due date. We started out by just doing an overall balancing of energy for the first couple of sessions. Then the last few times he did my "go" points, which will help start labor if your body is ready and, if not, will help get your body ready for labor. I always felt a lot better after going to him. The main objective of doing the acupuncture is so that when your body goes in to labor, your energy is balanced so it can flow freely and you don't experience as much pain and the labor goes more smoothly and quickly.

Now, every week when I went to the OB/GYN she would measure me. You are generally about the same centimeters as months that you are. Up until about 32 weeks, I measured right on. But at the end I was measuring quite small. I wasn't complaining. My belly never got really huge and my husband's family typically has small babies. At 37 weeks I measure 35 cm. but then at 38 weeks I measured 34 cm. So the doctor was a little concerned and had me get a non-stress test at the hospital. I showed being a little low on amniotic fluid. I was an 8 and they like it to be at least a 10. So they scheduled me to come back in a week. I drank tons of liquid and rested way more than I wanted to because it is supposed to help.

It was also at this time that I started having a lot of pre-labor symptoms. I was really tired and I would have about 20 contractions in a day. They didn't hurt or anything but, if nothing else, they made me start thinking that I could go in to labor at anytime. I felt like things were changing in my body. I already knew the baby dropped (which is probably a lot of the reason my measurement went down) but I could swear the baby was working her way down even farther. I know this was helped a lot by my walks.

Well, then I went in for my scheduled non-stress test thinking it was no big deal. However, the lady there said my fluid was down to 4.2 and I would need to stay in the hospital and be induced that day. I was disappointed and she didn't quite understand that. I guess a lot of women would be happy to get it over with. However, I knew that with pitocin it would be harder to have it naturally. Plus, I was really looking forward to starting labor on my own and seeing when it would happen and what it would be like. It's an amazing thing to me that your body knows when you are ready and knows what to do all on it's own and I wanted to experience this.

There were a few benefits of being induced though. To me the best part was that it was in the middle of the day. I had just had breakfast and a good night's sleep and had plenty of energy for labor. I was also nice to just get it over with.

Well, they checked me thinking that since I still wasn't due for a week and since this was my first time, that I would need some gel to help ripen my cervix. It turned out I was 70% effaced, soft, 1.5 cm. and at -1 station. The nurse was the most surprised by the baby being down that far. I wasn't surprised. I could have told her she was down really low. Because I was almost ready to start labor on my own, I knew that this labor could still be smooth and a good experience. I talked to the nurse and told her I wanted to do it as natural as possible. She was good to work with and the doctor agreed to put me on a low dose of pitocin and to not break my water unless things didn't progress well on their own. My doula advised me not to let them break my water if possible because my fluid was already really low and because it makes the contractions more painful and it really wasn't necessary that early on in labor.

So they started the pitocin a little after noon. I had called my husband at 11am and knew he wouldn't be able to be there until around 2pm. I knew it would take a while to get things going so I figured the best use of my time would be to walk. I started out by pacing back and forth by the side of the bed. The nurse found the only telemetry unit and hooked that on to my IV stand. I was surprised when she said she would have to find it and wasn't sure if it was charged or if it worked. I thought a lot more women than that walked up and down the halls. Anyway, after a while, pacing got boring so I walked up and down the hall in front of my room. At this point, and right up until the end, walking is what felt the best. When I would walk, the contractions were stronger and more consistent. My main objective was to get as little pitocin as possible. It also helped to just walk through the contraction. For the first several hours the contractions just felt like the cramps you get at that time of the month. They slowly got worse but it took a long time before they got really bad. Around 2pm my husband and mom got there. It was great to have people to talk to and keep a light conversation going. They helped me walk and pulled the IV stand for me. As the contractions got worse and worse, it became kind of a game for me to just keep walking during a contraction and pretend I wasn't having one. That was an advantage of not being in the room. In the room, everyone just sits and stares at the monitor and compares the contractions, etc. When walking, it not only helped me deal with the contractions and made them stronger and more consistent, but my husband didn't know when I was having one.

After several hours of being on my feet, my legs were just getting tired. They had a fairly comfortable chair and I was able to sit in that for a while and just try to relax and let the contractions come. I tried moving around to find comfortable positions and we also stimulated my acupuncture "go" points during my contractions. At first they didn't hurt all that much, but they got to the point where the points hurt way more than the contractions and we had to stop doing it. The reason I stimulated the points was so my energy could flow freely and let the contractions come on more effectively. It worked. A little after this, things really starting pick up. I just couldn't seem to get comfortable in any position. A little after 6pm the nurse came in to check me before she left for the day. I was 90% effaced, 1+ station, but only 3 cm. So, I figured I was about half way there and it would probably be another six hours or so. So, I sat back on the chair and listened to my relaxation scripts and tried to get through the contractions. After maybe 10 minutes or so, I just felt like I had to get in a different position. The contractions were just getting too intense. When I stood up, I trickle of water went down to the floor. My water had broken. Well, after that things went really fast. About all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball on the bed. I just couldn't stand up or kneel or anything because my legs were just shaking. The contractions became a force to reckon with. I started to feel like I was in my own little world with just me and the baby. Yes, my doula was there doing hip presses and my husband and mom were there but it was all about me and the baby. The thought occurred to me that I might be in transition but I figured there was no way I was because she just checked me and I was only at 3 cm.

During the whole labor, I felt really good and had good, strong energy. I was trying to enjoy the experience and focused on being positive and getting the baby out. All the things I said out loud may not have been totally positive. I said things like, I think this is the point that I can see why people get an epidural and I can't do this for six more hours. But then my mom said well, maybe you won't have to. It's amazing how encouraging words really help at that point. Inside I just felt good and positive and thought things like: I'm doing this. I can't believe it's finally time. I need to focus on making the contractions effective. I need to try and relax and just let my body open up and do what it knows it needs to do. I was also surprised at how little pain I experienced. It hurt but it was more because my entire body was involved in getting the baby out. It was more like an intense force was taking over my body and there was nothing I could do about it but let it take over and just get through it.

During the whole labor, it felt like I needed to go #2 but it was stuck. I tried going but nothing would come. Eventually it got to the point where I really felt like I needed to go #2. My doula suggested I get up and try to go because, if nothing else, going #1 would help relieve pressure. I hurried to the bathroom in between contractions and went a tiny bit of #1 but I felt like if I could just relax, then the #2 would come out. My doula told me to just relax and see if it would come out. Well, I relaxed but #2 didn't come out. Instead, I could feel burning and the head. I said something about how it was burning and the doula hurried and pulled the nurse's cord and I hurried back to the bed.

Then the baby started pushing. Well, maybe it was my body. I couldn't stop it. The baby wanted out. They told me there was a little lip left and not to push yet, but it was really hard to do because I wasn't pushing. My body was doing it all by itself. Finally after three contractions or so the doctor was there and they said I could push. It felt really good to push. It wasn't hard to do. My body knew what to do. I only pushed for about three contractions worth before Kayla was out. It was the awesomist feeling ever. It felt really cool when she was crowning. My contractions stopped for what seemed like a long time and I just laid there with a head between my legs. Then it felt really neat on the next contraction when I pushed her out. I could feel her floppy little body come out and then I got to hold her.

The labor went so quickly and smoothly. I went from 3 cm. to deliver in less than an hour and the whole labor was only 7 hours, which is great for a first-time mom on pitocin. I really didn't experience hardly any pain at all. I felt good the whole time and really positive. I felt like my body was working and that it knew what to do and all I had to do was let it do it. I didn't think I had any fears going in to the labor and was happy to find out that I really didn't have any fears. I knew I could do it without an epidural or anything else and it was such a good feeling in the end when I did do it. A lot of the reason I didn't want the epidural was for the baby. Among other things, I knew it would help her breastfeed easier. She picked it up right from the start (a few minutes after delivery) and didn't have any problems. It is taking longer for me to figure it out all the way but I am definitely getting there now.

The after-birth part was almost worse than the labor. It was hard to sit there and get stitches (I tore since I pushed her out faster than I probably should have). I also felt a lot better when I held her. I only got to hold her for a few minutes before they took her away and dressed her. They said her lips were blue. Part of me had enough to deal with from the stitches and everything, but looking back I know it would have helped to hold her. They took her to the nursery soon after delivery and about the time she left, I just started shaking and shaking. People said that is normal and is because of the shock of delivery and all of a sudden not having a baby in you, etc. but I know I wouldn't have shaken for nearly as long or as hard if I would have held her. She was gone to the nursery for such a long time. I mean, it was like an hour or two since they were really busy. That was really hard.

In our case, we chose to deliver at the hospital because that's what our insurance would cover. I knew there would be differences between a birthing center and the hospital, but I figured most of the differences would be during the labor. I actually didn't really have many complaints about the labor part in the hospital. It was the after-birth part that I didn't like. I didn't like having my baby taken away from me. I didn't like nurses coming in constantly to check vitals on me and the baby. I didn't like them asking me if I wanted this or that medication or when the last time me or my child went to the bathroom. I didn't like that they said my baby was a little small for her age and so they needed to poke a needle in her every six hours to check her blood sugar. I didn't like them telling me when to breastfeed. I didn't like how they made me watch some movie before I could go home. I mean, the nurses were really nice and were just doing their job but a lot of that would be avoided in a birthing center so I hope I can do that next time.

Kayla is so fun to have around. The children love her. I won't lie and say it's been easy all the time. My poor husband has really had to work hard. He made all my meals and went back and forth to the hospital. He was dad and mom for several days while all I did was sit on the couch and watch him and ask for things myself. My husband is the one putting the children in bed and feeding them, etc. My family has also helped out a ton. It would be a lot harder without them. They all took turns taking care of my older children while we were in the hospital and I barely worried about them because I knew they were well taken care of.

My daughter still just constantly asks to hold Kayla and my son tries to give her kisses all the time. They are both good helpers and love to get things and bring them to me. Kayla seems like a good little baby - at least so far. She nurses for a long time. In the day she nurses pretty often but at night she will sleep for sometimes 4-5 hours at a time. She is already growing and looking healthy and getting chubby cheeks and filling out all over. It's so fun to watch her grow. I really enjoy breastfeeding her and feel a special bond with her when I do. I would definitely do the pregnancy and labor over again - just not for quite a while because, for me, the pregnancy was the easy part. It's taking care of the children after that's the hard (and most rewarding) part.

This whole experience was quite different than adopting. I can't say that one is better than the other. They both have more or less the same results - a baby. Adopting is hard because you don't know when you will get your baby, it's way more expensive and way more paperwork. It's really hard to be ready at any moment to get on a plane and then hard when you can't go home right away and have to live in a hotel. But there are benefits like it's not nearly as physically demanding and you get to take them to the temple to be sealed to you. That is a definite highlight and advantage over having your own. It's too bad every child doesn't get to experience that.

With Kayla I really enjoyed the pregnancy and having an idea within a few weeks of when we would have her and the delivery was amazing. But the after-birth part was difficult and the whole process was a lot more physically demanding than adopting. I suppose it all depends on how your adoption experiences were and how your pregnancy was.

I wouldn't say that I felt any less bonded with my adopted children than I have with Kayla. I think it's because in all cases you do a lot of bonding with your children before they are born - no matter how you get them. And then when you see them for the first time, it really don't matter how you got them. They are yours. You just can feel it deep inside. It's like: "Oh, there you are. I've seen you before and it's nice to get to know you again."

Overall I just feel really grateful and blessed. The whole experience was great and something I really thought I may never get to experience. It was such a spiritual journey to get to this point and my life will never be the same again. Each child is such a miracle. It's so amazing to me that your body knows what to do from the very beginning of your pregnancy and you really don't have to do anything to make it happen (once it's started). I know that we were supposed to have Kayla when we did - just like our other children. I'm so grateful for the direction I received from the Lord to get her here. The whole process was truly a spiritual journey.

The night after I delivered her, I almost didn't sleep at all. I just laid there and smiled for hours and thought about everything over and over. I just felt so blessed and loved and grateful and happy. My joy could not be contained.

Our First Natural Child Birth Class

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:13:00 +0000

The following is a brief summary of some of the things I learned in our first natural child birth class this Friday. I know not all of you that read my blog are interested in pregnancy, but I'm posting for my benefit at least. I do want to point out that some of this information is just from my memory and I may not remember it entirely correctly.

Nutrition
As described on this website: Blue Ribbon Baby, a lot of common pregnancy problems like toxemia, pre-eclampsia, premature labor, and low birth weight can be solved by following a healthy diet during pregnancy. Dr. Brewer has a very high success rate of like 99% of previous high-risk women not having any of their previous high-risk problems by following his diet. The diet can also help with excess weight gain, swelling, and energy.

This is a simplified summary of the diet:
70g protein - a lot of women think they are getting more protein than they really are. 70g of protein is roughly 1 pound of meat a day. Of course, it's healthier to get it from a wide variety of other sources like milk, eggs, legumes, nuts and bread. My teacher recommends you keep track of how much you actually eat for a week and make sure you are getting enough because this is very important.

Real Salt to taste - As I've talked about in another post, regular salt isn't good for you but Real Salt or another natural salt will really help, especially with energy levels, swelling, and hypertension. Your body needs it to cope with the huge increase in blood in your body.

Lots of water - drink to thirst and drink lots and lots.

Our teacher also says NO:
Splenda, aspartame, high fructose corn syrup

Stages

1st - In the first stage of labor contractions are irregular and not as intense. They last like 30 seconds and can have 20 minutes or so inbetween them. The important part in this stage is to remember that the contractions are relatively short and in the time inbetween contractions you feel pretty much normal and it's a good time to rest, sleep, eat, etc. so you have energy for later.

2nd - You should follow the 4-1-1 rule for first time moms and the 5-1-1 rule for subsequent pregnancies. That's contractions 4 minutes apart lasting at least a minute each for at least an hour. The reason for this is that if you go to the hospital before this point, there's a good chance that the fight or flight adrenaline response will kick in when you get to the hospital and everything will shut down as a natural reaction and you will end up getting sent home and it may take days before you end up going back.

Transition - This is when most women request an epidural. The contractions get a lot more intense with a lot less time inbetween. This stage doesn't usually last more than two hours and usually no more than 20 contractions. Then it is typical for contractions for stop for a while. This is because your uterus switches from side-ways pushing to up and down pushing. After this stage you are ready for pushing.

Pushing - One of the good things about having the baby naturally is that you feel the urge to push. The pushing works best when you follow your natural urge to bear down and relax when the urge subsides.

Recovery - With a natural birth recovery is much faster and you may feel like going home within a few hours. If you have an epidural, it takes up to two weeks before you get over it.

Position

There are things you can do to help get your baby in the ideal position for labor. This can help prevent a lot of problems, like breech (bottom first) and posterior babies (the back of their head against your spine during labor and can be very painful and take a lot longer). For more information, go to: Spinning Babies

Relaxtion

We started learning some relaxation techniques that can really help before and during labor. It is possible to get in such a state of relaxation during labor that you don't really feel the pain and make the labor go a lot faster and smoother.

I'll try to post each week any new information I get. I am also reading a great book called "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" and it is very interesting so I'll try to get a summary of that on here too.

The Beef Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:33:00 +0000

I don't follow the news much, but apparently there was a news story about the inhumane treatment of cattle at slaughterhouses and the largest beef recall in American history. One of the websites I get emails from but have never bought anything from came out with this statement about it and I thought you might find it interesting. I'm sure it's a little biased since it's coming from a grass-fed beef company so just keep that in mind. I thought you may learn something though.

The beef "industry" is an ugly machine. The only similarity that we have to the industrialized commodity beef market is that the product that we start out with is the same: cattle. So that you understand, there are different types of slaughterhouses in the beef industry. I will break them down into 3 categories: non-fed, commodity beef, and us.

The one caught on video specializes in non-fed beef, meaning that the cattle typically processed there are not raised for beef, they are old or sick dairy cattle, old or sick cows and old or sick bulls. "Downer" cow is a term given to cattle that are too sick or too weak to stand or walk. Some of these cattle come from feedlots, some from dairies. Unfortunately, most of the beef served at fast food places comes from these types of cattle, oh yeah, and your kids school lunch.

Commodity beef is the market that takes feedlot animals, typically less than 30 months of age and slaughters them for grocery stores and restaurants. Cattle at a commercial feedlot (factory farms) are typically force-fed grain. A cattle's body is not made to digest large amounts of grain. Because grain is not the cows natural diet, its body begins to shut down (it would be like us eating only ice cream). As the body begins to shut down, the immune system weakens and is unable to fight off disease and sickness. In order to combat this, the cattle are given a daily dose of antibiotics with their feed. The majority of these cattle make it through in good enough condition to get slaughtered in the commodity market.

Most of the slaughterhouses that process these types of animals are huge facilities that can process thousands of animals a day. Most of these plants use a stun gun, a small handheld tool that fires a steel rod into the cow's brain and "stuns" it, rendering it incapacitated, but not dead. The cow is then hung upside down and its throat slit. Because the animal is not dead, the heart still continues to pump out the blood. Because of the amount of animals and the speed at which they are processed, sometimes the stun gun doesn't entirely stun the animal and a second shot is necessary.

Now, lets talk about us. Our animals begin their lives in wide open ranges. Our 1000 cattle roam 250,000 acres. Once we select an animal for our beef program, it is taken to our grass farm. If one of these beef cattle gets sick, we do doctor them and then pull them out of our beef program. Our beef animals are never fed anything but grass or hay (if necessary) and are never given any antibiotics or growth hormones. Because of their diet, there is literally zero chance of food borne illnesses like mad cow, salmonella, or e. coli. Once they reach their optimum weight, they are taken to a small USDA approved butchering facility in Richfield, Utah. Our butcher kills and processes 12 beefs a week. Our process is a little old-fashioned. The cattle are killed instantly. The animals are then dry-aged for up to 21 days. The end result is a delicious, healthy humane product that the commodity markets will never be able to duplicate.”

We want to thank you all very much for your interest in our beef and for being of the select few that care about where your food comes from. Events like the one caught on tape, are an everyday occurrence. Hopefully people will take notice and start to make changes, and not just let this be forgotten in a couple of weeks. If any of you have any questions regarding this email or any of the recent events, or if you would like to place an order of safe, humanely treated beef, please feel free to give me a call at the numbers listed below.

Bar10 Beef

Oils. What's really good and bad for you. Part 1.

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:41:00 +0000

I started out writing this blog thinking I could write just a quick, concise blog on the subject. But, now I've decided there is just too much information out there I need to sort through before I come to any conclusions for myself. So below is my introduction to oils and then I will do a few additional blogs looking in to some of the different oils and issues before I reach my conclusion.

This subject sure has a lot of controversy and no perfect answers. First of all, I believe it's healthy to use a wide variety of fats to get the different nutrition and for different uses. Second, I believe that "traditional" fats are much better for you than "processed" fats. I believe Heavenly Father gave us everything on the earth that we need to be healthy and we don't need to invent new things. Some people won't agree with you. Some people will say that oils like canola are perfectly fine for you. But I again go back to my two points above. Plus, because of my health and food allergies, I seem to be more sensitive to things like oils, and I really feel tons better when I eat the good oils than when I eat the bad oils. I don't need scientific evidence to help make up my mind.

This is some information I've piece together from a few different sources that focus on traditional eating.

The following nutrient-rich traditional fats have nourished healthy population groups for thousands of years:

Butter
Beef and lamb tallow
Lard
Chicken, goose and duck fat
Coconut, palm and sesame oils
Cold pressed olive oil
Cold pressed flax oil
Marine oils (I think they mean from fish and other marine life)

Other good oils:

Pine nut
Hazelnut
Sunflower
Macnut
Grapeseed

The following new-fangled fats can cause cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, sterility, learning disabilities, growth problems and osteoporosis:

All hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats and oils
Soy, corn and safflower oils
Cottonseed oil
Canola oil
All fats heated to very high temperatures in processing and frying

Also:

Do not use polyunsaturated oils for cooking, sauteing or baking
Avoid deep fried foods

I will next do a blog on the bad oils and why they are bad for you.

Resources:
Smoke Points
Wikipedia
Weston Price

Real Salt

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:39:00 +0000

The Redmond Corporation actually owns the health food store I go to all the time. Their No. 1 Product is Real Salt. I really like it because it's tastes a lot better than regular sea salt plus it has all the natural trace minerals in it that are striped from normal salt. I think every cook should use it because it tastes so much better and is so much better for you. Here is what the Redmond Corporation says about Real Salt:

Salt Your Way to Health
Source: “Salt Your Way to Health” by David Brownstein, M.D.

The Difference between Refined Salt and Unrefined Salt
Salt is salt, right? No!

Unrefined salt is in its natural form and has not been altered by man. It contains many different minerals and elements that are useful for the body and necessary for life. The minerals are not removed and no chemicals have been added. It is a whole food product which is easily utilized by the body. It contains magnesium and potassium which are essential for a healthy immune system. Magnesium and potassium were meant to be ingested at the same time as sodium and chloride are ingested.

Refined salt has been harvested mechanically from various salt mines as brine (a highly concentrated solution of water and salt). Prior to evaporation it is often treated with chemicals to remove minerals (referred to as “impurities”) which are sold for use in industry. Chemicals used to treat refined salt can include sulfuric acid or chlorine. Next, water is evaporated under high compression and heat which disrupts the molecular structure of salt. Finally, almost all of the moisture in the salt is removed in a fluidized-bed dryer. It may contain anti-caking, free-flowing, or conditioning agents (including sodium ferrocyanide, ammonium citrate, and aluminum silicate). None of these products have any positive effects in the body. Dextrose, also known as refined sugar, is used as a stabilizer so that iodide will stay in the salt.

Acidity and Alkalinity
In an acidic body, the pH is lowered, while in an alkaline body, the pH is elevated. For optimal health, body pH should be neutral (about 7.2). Enzymes are sensitive to pH changes. They will lose most of their function when the pH is altered. Immune system cells are unable to protect us when pH is imbalanced. Minerals are one of the most alkalinizing agents to the body. Using unrefined salt promotes a healthy pH. (Cancer and chronic illness are two consequences of an acidic pH.)

Problems with Low-Salt Diets
Low-salt diets have been recommended for years. However, a low-salt diet is not effective at significantly lowering blood pressure for the vast majority of people. Research does not support that a low-salt diet is healthy. Although it may modestly improve the blood pressure in a salt-sensitive individual, it has other negative consequences in the body. Low-sodium diets have been shown to cause multiple nutrient deficiencies, including depletion of minerals such as calcium and magnesium, as well as depletion of potassium and B-vitamins. (Calcium, potassium and magnesium deficiencies are related to the development of heart disease.)

Unrefined salt, as part of a holistic program, has an ability to help lower both total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels. In addition, unrefined salt is a necessity when treating any condition associated with elevated insulin levels (diabetes, polycystic ovaries, and obesity). Salt is a necessary ingredient in the diet that allows the body to detoxify toxic substances such as bromine. Most conventional doctors and mainstream organizations have failed to grasp the difference between refine salt and unrefined salt. Our bodies were meant to function optimally with adequate mineral levels and adequate salt intake. Only the use of unrefined salt can provide both of these factors.

Hypertension (Blood Pressure) and Salt
Although medical training teaches that a low-salt diet is good and a high salt diet is bad, Dr. Brownstein’s experience promoting a low-salt diet to treat high blood pressure was not successful. He never saw any positive benefits with a low salt diet. There is little data to support low-salt diets being effective at treating hypertension for the vast majority of people. None of the studies looked at the use of unrefined salt, which contains many valuable vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, potassium and calcium, which are vital to maintaining normal blood pressure. When nutrient imbalances are corrected, blood pressure will often normalize itself. The use of unrefined salt will not cause an elevated blood pressure. Furthermore, due to its abundance of minerals, it can actually help lower the blood pressure in hypertensive patients. Of course, too much of anything can be a problem for the body. The amount of unrefined salt needed is directly related to the amount of water you consume. Dr. Brownstein recommends using ¼ tsp of unrefined salt for every quart of water ingested.

Are Low-Salt Diet’s Harmful?
Researchers have reported that a low-salt diet has been associated with a greater than 400% increase in risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack) in men. Low-salt diets have been shown to raise fasting insulin levels. Insulin resistance is a widespread problem and is associated with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Also, LDL cholesterol levels have been shown to be elevated in individuals consuming a low-salt diet (related to the onset of cardiovascular disease). One hypertensive researcher commented that a low-salt diet “is meaningful therapy for only a fraction of the hypertensive population and might be deleterious for the majority.”

Refined salt should be avoided
Refined salt needs to be avoided – it is a toxic, dangerous substance that fails to provide the body with any benefit. Long-term ingestion of refined salt leads to cellular problems as well as the onset of chronic illness. Chronic illness is often associated with nervous system disorders including anxiety, brain fog, headaches, and seizures.

What about High-Salt Diets?
Although there are many factors to consider. in Japan, the coastal population is estimated to have a salt intake double the average U.S. salt intake. The average life expectancy there exceeds the life expectancy in the U.S.

Salt and Water
Water and salt are both necessary for metabolism, detoxification, and transportation of nutrients as well as optimal functioning of the hormonal, nervous and immune systems. Sodium regulates the electrical charges throughout the body (abnormal sodium levels can cause the onset of seizure disorders). The brain relies on sodium and water to transmit nerve impulses. Other minerals involved in nerve conduction include magnesium, calcium and potassium. Without adequate amounts of all these substances it is impossible for the brain to function normally.

Dehydration is a common problem today. A chronically dehydrated body will lead to a poorly functioning brain and a poorly functioning nervous system. Many conditions in the body improve simply by correcting a water and salt deficit. Plan to optimize your health by ensuring adequate intake of salt and water. This is the foundation of any healthy treatment plan. All functions of the body depend on adequate water and salt in take for optimal functioning. (See http://curezone.com/foods/watercure.asp for further information.)

Salt and the Adrenal Glands
An adequate amount of healthy, unrefined salt is vital for the adrenal glands to function optimally. Adrenal exhaustion is frequently associated with immune system disorders. One reason we are seeing such an increase in immune system disorders is due to the lack of unrefined salt in our diet and the excess use of refined salt.

Salt and the Thyroid Gland
Hypothyroidism occurs when there is inadequate production of thyroid hormone. Some of the symptoms include brittle nails, cold hands/feet, cold intolerance, constipation, depression, difficulty swallowing, dry skin, elevated cholesterol, eyelid swelling, fatigue, hair loss, hoarseness, inability to concentrate, infertility, irritability, menstrual irregularities, muscle cramps/weakness, nervousness, poor memory, puffy eyes, slower heartbeat, throat pain, weight gain. Some of the conditions causing thyroid problems include iodine deficiency, mineral deficiencies, genetic tendencies, heavy metal toxicities, and infections. Sea salt is a natural source of iodine. However, it does not provide the daily recommended dosage. Iodine is widely available in seafood (kelp). Dairy products and plants grown in soil that is rich in iodine are also excellent sources. Note: fluoride and chlorine inhibit iodine uptake in the body.

Iodine in Refined Salt
Potassium Iodide is generally added to refined salt. According to the Material Safety Data Sheet at www.ScienceLab.com this is a toxic chemical which can cause a variety of adverse health problems, including gastrointestinal tract irritation, behavior problems, respiration problems, fever, lymph node enlargement, salivation, nasal discharge, sneezing, conjunctivitis, fever, headache, laryngitis, bronchitis, anemia, skin rashes, anorexia, thyroid gland/hypothyroidism and goiter. It can cause adverse reproductive effects and birth defects based on animal data.

Salt and Detoxification
Low-salt diets will worsen the toxicity of bromine, a toxic element that is being ingested in increasing amounts in our modern world. (Bromine is used as an antibacterial agent for pools and hot tubs. It is in some carbonated drinks, medicines and bakery products. It tends to stay in the body for long periods of time and can cause iodine deficiency.) We should eat organic food, grown without pesticides. Dr. Brownstein has seen bromine excreted in large amounts in many of his patients when they are prescribed both iodine and unrefined salt. Soaking in a tub of warm water with 1-2 cups of unrefined salt is not only a soothing thing to do; it also facilitates the removal of toxins from the body.

The Uses of Salt
The use of unrefined sea salt can help with many common ailments, including adrenal exhaustion, runny nose, asthma, circulation, detoxification, diabetes, dry skin, exercise, fatigue, gastritis, hyponatremia (low sodium levels), insect bite including bee sting, insomnia, lipids, muscle cramps, osteoporosis, phlegm, poison ivy, and preservation.

Redmond RealSalt

We are fortunate to have a high quality sea salt right here in Utah. Check it out at www.realsalt.com or come to the store for a taste. An ancient sea once covered this area. Over time it evaporated and left undisturbed deposits of pure, natural sea salt. This underground deposit has been protected from modern day pollutants and it contains over 50 naturally occurring trace minerals, including iodine. Nothing is added or removed. it is simply crushed and bagged. And, besides being highly nutritious, it tastes great!

Resources:
Real Salt

Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:59:00 +0000

Want to lose weight or be healthier? The number one thing I've found helpful is to not eat high amounts in sugar.

Quick summary: sugar is so bad for you because it raises your blood sugar too high and then you drop down too quickly. When your blood sugar drops down, your body goes in to starvation mode and stores fat. So basically sugar is turned in to fat and can lead to obesity much faster than fats may, depending on the type of fat you are talking about.

So the best way to lose weight is to keep a constant blood sugar level. You can do this by eating at least a fistful of protein with each meal and less than a fistful of carbs and/or sugar with each meal. The more complex the sugar, the longer you will have energy and the more constant blood sugar level you will have. Therefore, it is best to avoid white carbs because they don't last as long. For example, whole wheat bread lasts a lot longer in you than white bread.

It is best to avoid or have small amounts of "white carbs," like white bread, bagels, white rice, pasta, white flour, etc. It is better to stick with things like 100% whole wheat bread (if it doesn't say 100%, then it likely only has a small amount of whole wheat in it), whole wheat pasta, brown rice, etc. You can also avoid carbs altogether and focus on more vegetables and fruits. Fruits are okay in moderation because they are natural and your body can deal with them a lot better. Some vegetables contain carbs but I still wouldn't cut them out. Don't forget the corn is not a vegetable - it is a grain and should only be consumed in moderation. It doesn't have much nutrition.

Last but not least, the worst form of sugar that I know of is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

What is HFCS?

HFCS is not the run of the mill corn syrup found on the grocery store shelf, nor is it the fructose naturally found in fruits and honey. HFCS is a highly refined clear liquid derived from corn starch. Food manufactures love to use it because of its long shelf life an it's relative low cost.

Why is HFCS Bad for us?

The main reason I think it is so bad is because it is fake. It's man-made and anything man-made is not as good a Heavenly Father-made.

Since HFCS's widespread introduction in the 1980's North American obesity rates have skyrocketed. When HFCS is ingested, it travels straight to the liver which turns the sugary liquid into fat, and unlike other carbohydrates HFCS does not cause the pancreas to produce insulin; which acts as a hunger quenching signal to the brain. So we get stuck in a vicious cycle, eating food that gets immediately stored as fat (mostly in your mid-section) and never feeling full.

Where is HFCS found?

HFCS is found in almost everything we eat today. However, the worst culprit has to be soft drinks. A single 12 oz can of cola has up to 13 tsp of sugar, most of it fructose from HFCS. There is HFCS hidden in many of our other foods as well, like ketchup, relish, yogurt, cookies, and most alarmingly in low-fat diet foods. Manufactures substitute HFCS for the fat in food like mayo and salad dressings, then mark them as diet foods.

How Can We Avoid HFCS?

Avoiding HFCS will take a lifestyle change for the better. The first food to go has to be the soft drinks; this includes fruit punch, fruit cocktails, and Kool-Aid since they are all laden with HFCS.

Second, eat more meals at home. Restaurant foods are mostly prepackaged foods reheated and served to you. Use of HFCS in these foods is wide spread because of their increased shelf life.

Third, diet while you shop. Since you are going to be eating most of your meals at home, you're going to want to fill your cupboards with the best foods. While shopping, read the labels, if HFCS, fructose, or modified corn starch appears within the first five ingredients place it back on the shelf an move on. Sounds easy right? Wrong. As you make your way through the store you will begin to realize just how much of what you have been eating on a daily basis contains HFCS. A lot of foods that are passed off as "diet" foods, like most yogurts, diet drinks and bars, pasta sauces, and tons of other things on store shelves. Just look at the labels of things in your cupboard and fridge. You may be surprised.

Reducing HFCS will not alway be easy, but the health benefits are well worth it. You will feel stronger and more vital, it will lift your mood and give you increased concentration. Limiting your intake of HFCS will not only shrink your midsection but also do wonders for your over all health.

It may take self discipline to change your diet and way of thinking, but it always pays off in the long run. You may think something like: well, I only live once so I want to enjoy it while I am here. Well, I can tell you that you will enjoy life a lot better if you feel better and it is worth the sacrifice. I figure that we are what we eat and if we fake crap then we will feel like crap. We will have a lot of unexplained health problems that will only continue to get worse. We are given our bodies as a gift and I think it's our job to try to take as good of care of them as possible.

Additional Resources:
Weston Price
Wikipedia
Atkins
HealthMad
No Weight Gain

I'm Pregnant!

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:40:00 +0000

As you may already know, I am pregnant. I am due about August 6th. I figure a lot of you are wondering how it happened after being married for 11 1/2 years. While it's hard to pinpoint exactly what made it happen, I believe it was a combination of several different things that I will try to explain, although I'm sure I will leave some things out. I am doing this mostly to try to help others that may be having problems conceiving and hope that some things that worked for me will work for you too.

Spiritual

It's hard to ellaborate on something like this on a blog, but I did feel like I would get pregnant but it wouldn't come without a lot of work on my part. I felt that I need to take an active role in the process because Heavenly Father must follow the laws of nature. I felt very inspired and guided throughout the whole process.

PCOS

The first thing I did was to address my PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). A little less than 1 1/2 years ago, before I knew about Absolute Health, I found a website that sold a natural product to help PCOS (see Insulite website). It has several parts to it, but the two most important properties are the hormone balancing and the insulin control.

What is so great about balancing your hormones with herbs like Vitex (Chaste Berry Tree) and Wild Yam Root is that it helps your body balance itself. Regular doctors try to guess at how much of what hormone to give you to force your body to do something. The herbs help your body balance itself.

The other important part of PCOS control is helping your insulin resistance problems. I was able to get off glucophage, which I thought was helping until I started this system. Taking the right nutritional supplements helps train your body how to properly react after you eat food.

So, I did the system for about six months and during that time my body went through a lot. Especially the first month or two, I went through a lot of cleanses and had a lot of headaches as my body was trying to "reverse gears." I noticed positive changes right away though and that made it a lot easier.

Now, while I think that the Insulite system was good and worked well for me, it is actually quite expensive and I was able to get better and cheaper stuff at Absolute Health. By the time I started with Absolute Health, I was actually able to take just a good overall female supplement and then Diaplex by Standard Process for the insulin part. I am still on this and really like it. The Diaplex contains things to help my pancreas and other organs deal with sugar better and it also has enzymes to help my body break down my food better so I get more nutrition out of what I eat and so I don't digest it too fast.

Wheat Germ Oil

After my hormones were balanced, I told the doctor at Absolute Health that I would like to try to get pregnant. One of the first things he recommended was Wheat Germ Oil. Why this is so important is that it is mainly vitamin E, but it is a great source of vitamin E. It's so much better than taking just a straight vitamin E supplement. My doctor says that your sex glands and organs just love vitamin E and Wheat Germ Oil is the best source. Both you and your husband need to be on it and you need to get on it a few months before you want to conceive because it can take a while for your body to really soak it up.

General Health

Then I worked on a lot of what I will call general health issues. We worked on clearing out the Candida fungus, which I know caused a lot of my problems in the first place. My doctor explains that the candida is naturally in your stomach and when it is under control it is good, but when it takes over and starts going systemic, your ovaries are really close to your stomach and they are one of the first things to be affected by the fungus. By clearing up the fungus from my body, it allowed my body to work a lot better overall, plus by clearing up the Candida from my ovaries and such, it allowed them to work correctly.

I also discovered all my food allergies. I think this helped because my body was able to relax more and not be so stressed and tired all the time. Stress is really hard on your body, especially when you are trying to get pregnant. Another side benefit of my food allergies that a lot of things I am allergic to aren't very healthy for you. So I eat a lot healthier than I used to because I have to. Well, I don't have to. I choose to.

I'm also sure that losing 50 pounds of excess body fat didn't hurt matters either.

I also think that the importance of not eating processed food is really underestimated is today's society. There are so many little things, like soy milk for example, that can really mess up your hormones. I believe that Heavenly Father put foods here on the earth for our benefit but when we go and alter them and add junk to them, our bodies aren't made to handle these things and we have all sorts of health problems.

I know that eating "real" foods has helped me a lot. These foods don't need flavor enhancing because they taste good to begin with. They don't need to be "enriched" because they already have the good stuff in them. I think if people would think of food more as medicine, it would help them realize that what you eat affects your whole body, especially in the long run. You can only abuse your body for so long before it will start reminding you that it needs some attention.

All I am saying is that there are so many things that can be wrong with any give person and that the general health things I did may not be your problem. But you need to look at any underlying health problems. What is really causing your symptoms? Are there hidden things in you that you don't even know about? That's why I like Absolute Health - because they can tell you what those things are.

Mucus

Now, I know this is kind of gross, but mucus is extremely important when trying to conceive. Some things I take to help this is take a supplement called "Krebs Ionized Chelates," which is basically a really great Calcium/Magnesium/Potassium mineral supplement.

The other thing I do is go and get Bio-Cleanses. You can read about these on Absolute Health's website. But you basically stick your feet in water and they stick an electrode in the water and it sends negative ions in to your body. All the bad stuff in your body is chemically attracted to them. Then the machine turns to positive and the negatively charged particles are then attracted to the positive energy in the water and all this nasty stuff comes out of your body. I have a lot of problems with my lymph system being inflamed all the time and this helps pull a lot of the dead debris out of my lymph system. I also get a lot of black flecks, which are strongly charged chemicals. Why this is good when you are trying to conceive is that it helps thin your mucus, which helps make a "happy place" for the sperm to do their thing.

My Husband

Now, it is important not to leave the man out of this. In our case, both of us had the infertility problems. My husband took the Wheat Germ Oil and a "man" supplement that I'm not sure what's in it. Then the main thing that helped is in his last computer test they found high amounts of toxic sulfur in his system and a really high concentration in his manly area. He is on homeopathic drops to help this. Obviously, they are starting to work already.

Taking Charge of Your Fertility

I found this great book called "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" by Toni Weschler. This is a great book. I wouldn't have been able to conceive without it. It helps your understand your body so much better. It helped me understand that when I was on Clomid, I wasn't actually ovulating even though my cycles were regular. It helped me realize the signs of ovulation and just generally how the female body works. It helped me realize that we had been trying at the wrong time of the month.

It was on the second cycle of charting with this method that we conceived. It is so amazing that after all this time we conceived naturally. Our doctor said he had several things he could do to help us get pregnant and he actually has about a 90% success rate in helping couples get pregnant. We hadn't even started any of the things he said he could do to specially help us get pregnant. He wanted us to get healthy first so it would work better. Well, I guess we were healthy enough.

We're still in shock that this all worked so well. I remind myself that this is kind of like the man that Jesus told to go wash in the river three times and the man said it was too easy or something. It seems like all the stuff the doctors tell you to do should work better because it's harder and more scientific or something. But really through small and simple things, great things can come to pass.

My testimony

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:02:00 +0000

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on testimony today and at the end bore my testimony. I typed it all out since it was a talk and that's how I still give talks. But the advantage I have of that is that there's somewhat a record of what I said. I want to put the end of my talk on here, which is my testimony because I know not all of you were there. This is how I wrote it ahead of time and not exactly how I gave it but pretty close.

I'm going to bear testimony about two gospel truths I have been focused on lately. They are trust and eternal perspective. As many of you know, we didn't get Megan until we had been married for over eight years. That took some trust in the Lord. To know that we can't put timetables on the Lord and that whatever the Lord thinks is best is what I really wanted, even if it didn't fit in with my plans. I had to constantly remind myself to keep the eternal perspective in mind. That life isn't a big race to see who can have the most grandchildren. That eternally things will work out. A lot of people aren't given the opportunity to have children, get married, or they died at a young age, or are divorced, etc. It makes it a lot easier to accept these things if we don't expect our lives to go a certain way. If we just trust that whatever the Lord wants is the best thing for us.

Well, this has been driven home lately. I had a few premonitions about Megan and Tyler. Like before we got Megan I had this reoccurring thought, and it may have first been a dream, that in the future I would have a conversation with a person and they would ask me which one of the ways we got our children was the best. I say something like, well, my first child was really great because we waited for so long and she was so sweet and it was so new. My second child was great because it happened so fast. Then the third child was great because I got to experience childbirth, which is very different from adoption. And then after that, the rest is history. Well, I've had this run through my mind hundreds of times. It made me prepared when Tyler was born because even though it was so soon, I kind of knew it would be.

Well, then after Tyler I had no desire whatsoever to think about adoption anymore. I had a mental block whenever I would think about it. I just had the reoccurring thought that I needed to just wait and that I wouldn't have to worry about how the next child would come. It was actually very relieving to not worry about things. Well, then my health got really bad and I had a lot of little problems after the stress on my body from taking care of two little babies. It seemed impossible that I would ever be able to have a child. My infertility problems were worse than ever.

Well, to make a long story short, about a year ago I prayed a lot about what I could do to prepare myself to get pregnant. I knew it wasn't just going to happen over night. I had a feeling I was going to really have to work at it. Well, it turned out that I slowly received inspiration about what I could do to change my health. I would say I ended up have 20 or more inspirations of things to do that, in the long run, have really added up to something big.

I am not the same person I was a year ago. My body has permanently changed for the better. I hope to never go back to my old self. I'm not there yet. I still have some things I am trying to clear up and they may take years, but I am on the way and feel like I am a partner with the Lord in healing my body. I have noticed many positive signs that my body is working better inside. But the best one of all is that I am now pregnant. I am due on August 6.

I can't believe how guided I have felt in this whole process. Like someone has been taking my hand and showing me exactly what to do. I've had so many prayers where I asked the Lord for me to get pregnant, but then I would think, what's the point of asking? I know he will do whatever is best for me. I KNOW that. Well, he says it is still nice to ask. So my main prayers would focus on what I could do to get pregnant. I continue to put all my trust in the Lord in this pregnancy.

It's a scary thing after such a long time, but I know that whatever is supposed to happen will. I can't put any expectations on the Lord. I know that what is supposed to happen will. I am grateful that the Lord answered my prayers and that this new blessing has happened in our lives and I pray that you will be able to put all your trust in the Lord too. It's a great feeling to really do it not just hope that you can or wish that you could. I would now like to bear testimony that:

Testify God is our Father and Jesus is the Christ.

The plan of salvation is centered on the Savior’s Atonement.

Joseph Smith restored the fullness of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Book of Mormon is evidence that our testimony is true.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Real Milk

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:55:00 +0000

When my favorite health food store closed a few months ago, I was forced to look around for another health food store. What I found is a unique store that changed my way of thinking about a lot of things called Real Foods in Orem, UT. It emphasizes going back to the traditional way of eating and preparing food. Over the next few blogs I will attempt to explain some of the things I have learned from there.

The current milk that most people eat nowadays is from cows fed grain, soy and other "dead foods". They are also given hormones and antibiotics, which are passed through the milk to the drinker. It then has to be pasteurized to destroy all the bad things in it. The problem with this milk is that during pasteurization all the good things are destroyed, including taste, enzymes, vitamins, etc. It has been proven to cause allergies, heart disease, and cancer.

This store has what they call Raw Milk or Real Milk. The cows are fed live grass so they have a lot of nutrients in their bodies because the food is live. Then the milk is really high quality and naturally low in germs and high in nutrients. It doesn't have to be pasteurized, homogenized, and have additives because it's natural and the cows are much more disease resistant because they eat the real food.

One of the best parts is that people who are lactose intolerant can drink it with no problems because the naturally occurring enzymes aren't destroyed by pasteurization. The drink also gets lots of vitamins, minerals, omegas, enzymes, and other good stuff. Milk is once again healthy for you and tastes a lot better because it is full-fat and the taste isn't destroyed. It is also healthier to drink this full fat milk because even though it has full fat, it's kind of like avocados and is the good fat for you.

If you are interested in learning more, please go to:
Real Milk

(I also put a link to the store so you can get some of your own if you want.)

Soy Alert

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 23:18:00 +0000

I've been reading about how soy is actually really bad for you. I had been drinking soy milk as an alternative since I'm allergic to regular milk, but after learning this information, I decided I better stop. Some of the bad things processed (not natural or fermented) soy can do:

Can stunt growth in children
Increase the body's need for vitamin D
Increased risk of cancer
Prevent ovulation
Cause hypothyroidism
Lowers testosterone in men
Causes infertility in animals
Soy contains high level of aluminum, which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidney
Free glutamic acid or MSG is formed during soy food processing
They are also bad for the environment because of the large amounts of herbicides that create toxic runoff

These are just a few examples. If you are interested in learning more, go to:
wesonprice.org

You on a Diet by Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, M.D.

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:44:00 +0000

I became interested in this book after seeing Dr. Oz on both Oprah and a TV show on Discovery Health. They approach weight loss from a scientific standpoint. I find it interesting because a lot of the things they say to do to lose weight are things I am already doing. I think this book has some good tips for weight loss. Here's some of the ideas from the book:

Don't Undereat - if you don't, you're body will go in to starvation mode and you will actually gain weight. Eat often, in the form of frequent, healthy meals, and snacks.

Don't eat foods that have any of the following listed as one of the first five ingredients:
Simple sugars
Enriched, bleached, or refined flour (this means it's stripped of it's nutrients)
High-fructose corn syrup

These foods will cause your system to short out your hormones and send your body confusing messages about eating. The result is fat.

Don't confuse thirst with hunger - a lot of times you think you may be hungry but you're really just thirsty. Drinking a lot of water also helps keep everything flowing well and gets toxins out of your body.

Watch your carbs - They make you hungry after about two hours. Also make sure that most of your carbs are complex, such as whole grains and vegetables.

Have some healthy snacks on hand like V8 juice, a handful of nuts, pieces of fruit, cut-up vegetables, or even salsa and guacamole.

Eat slower so you have time to get the message from your body that you are full.

Use a smaller size plate - They have actually proven that you eat more when you have a big plate.

Make sure you don't have food allergies

Eat foods with anti-inflammatory properties like:
Omega-3 Fatty Acids - found in fish oils, walnuts, olive oil, canola oil, and a lot of other things
Soybeans
Flaxseed
Whole grains such as rye
Fruits
Vegetables
Rosemary
Grapes
Dark Chocolate
Cabbage
Spinach
Garlic

Avoid trans fat - or hydrogenated vegetable oil. They clog everything up.
Limit saturated fats - found in meats and dairy products

Eat a handful of walnuts 20 minutes before you eat a meal. It will help you feel fuller so you won't eat as much.

Make sure you don't have medical problems causing your weight, like hormonal imbalances.

Walk or do any physical activity for at least thirty minutes a day - no excuses. Also try to incorporate strength and flexibility exercises in to your routine.

I thought it was an interesting book and a little different way to approach weight loss. He also said on Oprah that foods you should be eating every week to help your heart are tomatoes (cooked so they have lots of lycopene), extra virgin olive oil, nuts, garlic, and leafy greens.

My Weight

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 04:13:00 +0000

Over the past year I have lost over 40 pounds! Hooray! When people ask me how I am doing it, I often don't know how to reply. It's not like I'm on a specific diet or anything. I've totally changed everything about my health and losing weight is one of the side effects.

Let's start at the beginning. Before I had all these health problems, I was very happy with my weight. Didn't think much about it. Then when I started having all these health problems, I gained like 30 pounds in a few months even though I didn't change anything. I wasn't eating any more food than normal and exercising about the same. I know a lot of it was my blood sugar. It was just out of control. I went to a doctor and got on Glucophage/Metformin and that helped slow it down and then I changed my diet to try to keep my blood sugar under control. I slowly gained about another 20 pounds over the next year or so until I finally got to a point where at least I wasn't gaining weight any more.

I stayed at this point for like five years. I tried hard to lose weight. I exercised a lot and ate pretty good - at least from the viewpoint of regular thinking. I felt bad almost all the time even though I was trying really hard to be healthy.

When I finally started taking some herbs to help get my hormones balanced, I was finally able to lose about five pounds. Finally all the work I was doing was starting to pay off. Then when I discovered my food allergies that helped some more. By the time I had my first computer test at Absolute Health I had lost about 10 pounds. Then I just slowly kept losing weight.

I think of it as a side effect to becoming healthy. I'm sure that eating much healthier because I am forced to because of my food allergies help. Eating large amounts of protein and vegetables and low carbs is always good to lose weight. I also continue to try to exercise as much as possible. I mostly workout for about half an hour on my elliptical machine and go on walks for 30-60 minutes. Once a month or less I lift weights or something like that. I try to exercise every day but some weeks are a lot better than others. I do have a life, after all. I do feel better and lose weight faster when I exercise.

I also think I'm losing weight because of all the supplements I'm taking at Absolute Health. They help cleanse toxins out of my body and since a lot of those are stored in fat, it takes the fat out too. The enzymes also help break down my food so my body can use it more efficiently and not store it as fat. I am also on a great nutritional supplement from Absolute Health to help regulate my blood sugar and that does a great job at helping my blood sugar stay under control so I can lose weight easier.

I would say I average about 3/4 a pound a week of weight loss. I would like it to be more, but I am not complaining. That's a healthy amount. I'll sometimes go like 2-3 weeks without losing weight and then lose like three pounds in a few days sometimes. Our bodies are really interesting. My weight loss has definitely slowed down now. I still feel pretty large in my tummy area and on my arms and neck. Especially when I am bloated from food allergies, I still feel like I can lose a lot of weight. But, I'm not doing all this to lose weight. To me, it's just another sign that my health is getting better.

So, the bottom line is that I've changed so many things in my daily life that I really have no idea exactly why I am losing weight. I'm sure it's all the things combined. I do know that I appreciate being thinner a lot more now than I used to. I do know that my goal is to be healthy and I'm not on the type of diet where I'm going to get to a certain weight and then stop. I made life changes and I'm not about to stop now.

Recipes I Can Eat

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:44:00 +0000

I really enjoy my new diet. I've found that even though I tend to buy more expensive ingredients, I buy a lot less little things and I actually spend about the same amount of money that I used to. I also find that if I eat things in their natural state as Heavenly Father put them in the earth, then I feel a lot better. I figure that Heavenly Father made our bodies so they could process the foods that he put here on the earth for us. All these man-made foods are difficult for our bodies to digest and, as a result, we develop a lot of chronic conditions. This is our body trying to tell us to eat differently. I also spend a lot less time making my food - or at least it's easier to make because it's so simple. Here's what I eat:

With every meal I drink filtered water. I see no need to drink anything else because the sugars in anything else aren't good for you - plus it helps me easily get a lot more water in to my system than I used to.

Then I eat a large amount of meat. Usually around half a pound. It's a lot for someone like me to eat that much, but I feel so much better when I do. It helps keep my blood sugar in line. If I don't eat enough meat then I feel awful and gain weight and my blood sugar gets out of control.

For lunch every day I eat steak. This is because I can't think of any other meat I want to eat. I rarely have steak for dinner because my husband doesn't like it very much so it's something I can eat and know what I'm going to eat every day and I haven't gotten sick of it after almost a year. I used to not really like steak, but now I really like it. Here's how I cook it. I heat up a frying pan on almost medium heat for about five minutes so it's nice and hot and have my thawed, preferably almost room temperature, steak waiting. I put Real Salt and pepper on it. Then I put a little grapeseed oil in the fry pan and throw my steak in. Then more salt and pepper. Just a few minutes on each side so it's nice and browned on the outside and pink in the middle. Then I take the steak out and throw in a ton of spinach. Just fill it to over-flowing. Then I salt and pepper that and throw in a bunch of coconut oil. While that's cooking and in between turning, I cut a clove of garlic and throw that in for the last minute or so. I look forward to this every day. It's so good and simple and good for me. I feel so good when I eat this.

Then for dinner, I try to get more variety:

Chicken Salad
Cook some chicken in a frying pan
While that's cooking, put in a bowl:
Whatever salad green you like, like a spring mix or spinach
Whatever fruits and/or vegetables you like (I mostly do apples and/or red grapes)
Green onion
Chopped, untoasted almonds (they are a lot cheaper to buy a big bag of whole ones at Costco and just chop them. They taste better chopped but it's more work and you cook most of the nutrients out of them)
Pumpkin seeds
Then I make a simple dressing by mixing and matching: olive oil, lemon juice, fresh garlic, coconut oil, honey.

Meat and Vegetables
A lot of nights I just eat a meat like plain chicken, pork chops, hamburger, etc. and a huge pile of vegetables. Maybe put some chopped, raw almonds over the chicken or some barbecue sauce or some honey to dip. I also love to make homemade french fries and onion rings. They are easy to make homemade with a Fry Daddy and something I can eat so I don't feel deprived.

Vegetables
I cook my fresh vegetables very similar to my steak. Heat up a pan then put in some oil, throw in the chopped vegetables, salt and pepper and let them lightly brown. Then for the last minute add some chopped garlic. This is great for string beans, snap peas, zucchini, spinach and almost every vegetable I've tried it with.

I've also been making squash a lot lately. Cook any kind upside down at 350 for half an hour, turn it over and put in some coconut spread and let it cook for another half hour or so. Yummy.

Coconut Chicken
Cook some chicken tenders, onion, and salt & pepper in a frying pan like normal with some coconut oil or olive oil. The last 3-4 minutes add a bunch of spinach. Then add something for flavor, like fresh ginger, jalapeno, garlic, basil, or rosemary. Next dump a can of coconut milk over it and let it heat up for a minute or two. Serve over pasta (or rice).

Bacon Chicken
Cook some tenders and bacon in the same pan at the same time. I only use about 1/4 a pound of bacon - just for the flavor. Cook some spaghetti in a pan at the same time. When the chicken is almost done, add a vegetable like spinach or zucchini until that's cooked then add some flavor like fresh herbs. Then dump the cooked spaghetti and some more olive oil over the whole thing and fry the pasta like stir-fry until it's a little dry and maybe crunchy. Yummy, fast, and easy.

Pork Roast
I used to love getting pork when I would eat eat because I couldn't figure out how to make it at home. Now it's so easy, I make it a lot. 24 hours before you want to eat, get out your pork roast (frozen is fine and I like the pork butt or the shoulder). Throw it in a crock pot and put in some salt & pepper. Let it cook on low all night and day (break it up once or twice). It will basically shred itself after 12 hours or so. For the last half hour or hour, put it in a pan in the oven at 350 so it's nice and golden brown. This also gets a lot of the weird flavor out of it and makes it look more appealing. Then I just eat it with some Goodwood Barbecue sauce and a vegetable.

Chili - Sometimes I make this but I can't use any spices and only canned tomatoes so it's hard to make it any good to eat. It does help when I cook stew meat for like 12 hours on low in the crock pot. Sometimes I'll put it on Navajo Fry Bread. Anything with fry bread is good.

Misc - there are other recipes on my blog that I make every once in a while but they aren't part of my daily cooking.

Southwestern Egg Rolls

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:38:00 +0000

* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast half
* 2 tablespoons minced green onion
* 2 tablespoons minced red bell pepper
* 1/4 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
* 2 tablespoons frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
* 2 tablespoons diced jalapeno peppers
* 1/2 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
* 1/3 teaspoon salt
* 1 pinch ground cayenne pepper
* 5 (6 inch) flour tortillas
* 1 quart oil for deep frying

DIRECTIONS

1. Rub 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over chicken breast. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, cook chicken approximately 5 minutes per side, until meat is no longer pink and juices run clear. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in green onion and red pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, until tender.
3. Dice chicken and mix into the pan with onion and red pepper. Mix in corn, black beans, spinach, jalapeno peppers, parsley, cumin, chili powder, salt and cayenne pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, until well blended and tender. Remove from heat and stir in Monterey Jack cheese so that it melts.
4. Wrap tortillas with a clean, lightly moist cloth. Microwave on high approximately 1 minute, or until hot and pliable.
5. Spoon even amounts of the mixture into each tortilla. Fold ends of tortillas, then roll tightly around mixture. Secure with toothpicks. Arrange in a medium dish, cover with plastic, and place in the freezer. Freeze at least 4 hours.
6. In a large, deep skillet, heat oil for deep frying to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Deep fry frozen, stuffed tortillas 10 minutes each, or until dark golden brown. Drain on paper towels before serving.

Shrimp Pasta Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Becca's Thoughts) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:38:00 +0000

Shrimp Pasta Salad

salad shrimp
pasta
pepper
onion
1 Tbl. red wine vinegar
1 Tbl. canola oil
basil
lemon juice
sugar
salt
pepper
cayenne
cucumber
zucchini
tomato
asparagus
beans