Now Its: Eat to Live...

More changes...well not really. Lets just say as part of my schooling reading Eat To Live by Joel Fuhrman is my current read. I decided to give it a try for educational purposes, research, guinea pigging myself, etc. What have I got to loose? HAHAHA!!!!*laughs hysterically. Ok, 30 lbs. Hey, its better than last year at this time I needed to loose 40 lbs. I'm doing some things right, but you know, just not enough.

In fact I'm nervous. I finally followed thru submitting the second hair hair sample for analysis. I have to admit I'm afraid. My nurse friend, we'll call her Mrs. Tomuchschool, will tell me I haven't improved, or I've gotten worse. I didn't go to church today, (reasons hinted at below) and she probably has my report. The first report nearly killed me!

 Truth be told, I'm still not feeling well. Better; lots better, but not really well.

1) My legs swell randomly - recently really bad; I could feel my ankles jiggle when I walked.

2) I still get so extremely winded

3) My heart beat in my ears is still there at times.

4) Oh, and looking at some photos of myself last night of our get-a-way last week...I swear I look like Hillary, without the make up! Shoot, now you know what I look like!  My eyes are so stinking puffy!

5) I still have trouble getting this weight off in spite of cleansing and elimination improvement.

6) I'm still tired

7) Now, this is a bummer: I'm skipping periods (cleansing?) and while I didn't skip this month it's back with a vengeance!

Thought I would make a list, again, do the diet, again and see if there are any changes, again...remember the Prime? Gosh I was so psyched over that, now I'm just "over that".

So, tomorrow morning, a Monday, I begin Eating To Live. The 6 weeks vegan challenge.
I'm not going to tell anyone. I'm just going to do it, and see if there are any changes for the better or worse, would I recommend this to a friend, would I dare to bully my mom into doing this, would I beg my husband to give this a try, would I try and work this into the family menu...

It's an experiment. And all I have to do is eat more fruit and veggies...or not.

Dr. Christopher's 3 Day Cleanse

I live to write about it! In fact as I write I am on my 3rd cleanse.

The instructions are all over the internet or you can get a copy of the 3 Day Cleanse book which I found great to have on hand as there's a lot of really good information in the booklet.
Herbs First  and The Herb Shop are just a few places to go for the book and herbs.

The following is an outline of a few things that went on as a newbie.

My first apple juice cleanse:

Day1~

• Some pains under right rib 
• In flight to the lady's room every time I drink anything -Details omitted
  
• Slight headache increasing toward evening to a bad one - it left when I remained perfectly still, so I was able to go to sleep.
• Towards evening a growing thunderstorm in my belly
• Completely missed my period

Day 2~

• Lost 4lbs- yik! a lot of junk.
• Color of BMs turning yellow and very loose (sorry , but I thought this was notable enough to mention)
• Felt very tired and heavy
• Rested as often as I could
• Started aching in my upper thigh and hip muscles

Day 3~

• The pain and discomfort in my hips and thigh muscles was almost unbearable! It kept me from sleeping. The only thing that gave me relief was some Tiger Balm...Sen Sei would have been nice but I didn't have any. The Epson salt soak felt nice and probably did me good but as soon as I cooled off the pain was right back...some good detoxing going on I suppose.
• Thunderstorm in belly continues.
• Headaches not so bad
• Not a lot of energy - I did loose quite a bit of sleep from the aches and pains.

Day 4 and after ~

• Lost 6 lbs of accumulation of water and junk
• First meal was 1 apple, 3 dried figs, and soaked almonds chopped together. Yummy (this has become a staple)
• Every day making an effort to eat right and keep up the herbal routine. Didn't do so hot...
• The pain in my lower trunk continued for 3 more days after the cleanse.
• A lighter feeling

The second cleanse I did was with apple juice as well, but I used distilled water. Distilled water is a hungry water and I imagine ideal for pulling to it all toxins, mucus, and other collections of crud out of the system. Come on clean lymph!

There was no pain whatsoever in this round. But the thunderstorms in my belly began to feel and sound like hurricanes! I got a clue after a while to take 2 of the Lower Bowel formula and the storm was gone in less than a half hour!

I gained most of the weight back and my ankles swelled worse every day sometimes even before noon. I'm certain that it was all water.

I wonder tho: I  started, stopped, started and completely stopped my cycle in the matter of 3 days. Going to change the cleanse date further from my cycle. Not sure why this happens. This cleanse is actually high in calories, so it's not like I'm starving myself.


The third cleanse (starting today) I'm trying out the carrot juice. I really thought it would be disgusting but so far it's really pleasant. Clean and fresh tasting - "chewing" my juice like a good girl. It looks like I'll need to juice 10 to 15lbs of carrots to get a gallon of juice per day. Whoa, this is going to get expensive...

I do feel so in control about the cleansing project, a little proud of myself, and this time I have a buddy! Christian decided to join me. He's using apple juice. Poor guy had to work today, but when he gets back I plan on helping him with a salt scrub and a castor oil fomentation.

I have been on the extended (Lower Bowel, Liver, Kidney, and Red Clover formulas) part of the cleanse for about 2 months now. I have committed to the mucusless diet (don't call me a vegan tho!), and making slow progress - dairy and eggs seemed easy enough to let go of then suddenly sugar and bread became a problem!! Well, I'll admit I have been struggling with energy (not sleeping well and tired, I tend to do that) and too many hormonal days - enter Hormonal Changeas!

 So, here I'm now noticing a few important things:

1. I never thought I would be able to eliminate 3x a day, and most of the time I do! In fact I am cutting down, very slowly, on how much LB I was taking. This is great news!
2. Where the swelling in my legs was getting worse it's now improving greatly.
3. I'm able to increase my cayenne intake to 1/2 tsp 2x a day...big step for me - working on that 3rd dose.
4. Still keeping away from coffee!
5. My weight has been dropping the last few days with out fasting. Is this a trend or fluke? 

So that about covers it for the cleansing at this point. I feel like a nap anyhow.

Family Herbalist

Hey, that was fun! Yes, I am now a certified Family herbalist. Now I can really mean it when I say I am studying for my Master Herbalist certification. I can't believe the amazing things I have learned and I actually think  it's sticking!

I had serious doubts about going with the SNH (Dr. Christopher's School of Natural Healing), maybe it wasn't glitzy or new age enough for all the other things I've been looking into the last few years, mainly muscle testing...I'll not be distracted here. Bottom line I believe that this is a most God glorifying program, acknowledging the Creator at every turn! The clincher for me was the "Fundamentals of Herbology "video (part of the FH course) - it was the last assignment. Then and only then did I really believe that this is the way the Lord would have me go. I'm not even sure I can put a finger on why I resisted this avenue but I was in torment for about a month, wrestling, praying, researching and getting nowhere.

The truth is I could not really say exactly why I wanted to be an Herbalist until the word "Vitalist" was explained in the video. This is what I've believed in all my life! This is what I want to be identified with, and taught! The wholistic approach. I believe this way in my spiritual walk, I should learn to apply it in my natural journey as well! So, this was me, easily swayed, and vulnerable, way too excitable; a wave upon the sand. This is me now, a sponge, still excitable, but having direction.

Today happens to be day #1 of my second cleanse. My head feels a bit tight but it's much easier now having been off of coffee for over a month. Just taking it easy, couching it, crocheting all day and listening to "A Healthier You" programs, and getting inspired! And staying near the ladies room too , I might add!

I purchased the next level: Nutritional Herbalist" a few weeks ago, it's slow going with our family birthday stretch, holidays, etc. I'll dig in deep after the new year and our routine settles (wishful thinking). But I'm on my way and so very satisfied with this decision.