My daughter’s gym membership will be coming to an end soon…the first of June when she quits her job to leave for the summer work program in upstate New York. For the last two months I have been the only one using the membership and I’m really going to miss it when it is finished! I have met so many nice people here in our little town and it has been a pleasant hour or so  to start each day in that manner. But, I keep telling myself that at least it is summer now and I can walk out at the lake or in town around the high school track. I have many available options open…but the gym was definitely a pleasure for me!

What do you do to keep in shape or just have some alone time?

So far on this little series on health, I’ve talked about what I do on a daily basis as far as food is concerned. This time I would like to talk about what to do once you’re sick…

Generally, my children have not had ear infections, rarely are sick and they have not had antibiotics. I generally only use the medical profession for trauma or crisis intervention. You need stitches, you’ve broken your arm or you do have an infection that has gone out of your control. In these instances, I think the medical profession does a good job. (I would like to talk to them about their costs for these services…but wouldn’t we all?! lol) BUT, I do not use the medical profession as a ‘health care provider’. In general, I don’t believe they offer you good health, but ways to treat your symptoms. I worked as a nurse’s aide and I saw this over and over. But of course, if the problem is not solved, what do you do? KEEP COMING BACK!

Now, what I am about to say, keep in general terms. This is what I do and it has worked wonderfully for me for almost 15 years. I am not a doctor and I do not have a medical degree. I am a normal person that has five children and I wanted to find alternatives to what I was being offered. What I say here is for those that are seeking answers, that are willing to try something else. This is not a magic bullet. Alternative measures take time. It takes our bodies many years of abuse to make it ill and toxic, but we all want an overnight fix!

I believe that most illness usually comes from toxic levels in our body. Think about it logically. If you continually drink…your liver will eventually give out. If you smoke…your lungs will suffer, if you never eat any roughage or fiber…your colon will not work. These three things alone can manifest themselves in the order listed above in cancer of the liver, lungs and colon. Yes, there are people that die of cancer in those areas that haven’t drank, smoked or eaten garbage in excess, but I really do think that is extremely rare. Again, the medical profession wants us coming back. If our problem is solved, we won’t be back!

So again, we go back to prevention of these things through our diet. If you take a lot of antibiotics and pain pills, you are making your body more toxic. You are treating the symptoms that you have and not the real problem.

When you do become sick, there are some pretty simple rules to follow, ones that people used to follow because it was pretty much common sense. I mean, the things I’m talking about are not deep!

1) Fever burns off the infection. You can let a fever go, generally anything above 104 or 105 is the area when you can start having convulsions and other problems. You can try older remedies such as cool cloths and tepid baths to lower the fever. People used to use rubbing alcohol to do the same thing. My sister, the chiropractor recommends drops of lemon juice in your ear to relieve fever. Your body needs that fever to fight off the bacteria or virus. If you subdue it with Tylenol, etc. you are giving your body a false sense of feeling good and you will not ‘act’ sick. You need bed rest when you have a fever so you do not damage your internal organs from stressing them too much. Children are especially bad for this because they get the pain reliever and they feel better and they want to run around and play. Not a good thing to do! Their body needs time to fight the infection and then heal. Now, if my children have been sick during the day, I usually do not give them fever or pain reducer. I do the other things that I have mentioned. In the afternoon and evening, a fever and the general sense of feeling poorly will get worse. At times I will give my child something to lower the fever and make them more comfortable to sleep, because rest heals the body, but that is at night only. Again, we do have some modern day inventions that will work. The key is not to OVERUSE them and harm our bodies.

2) When you are sick and especially if you have a fever, your body needs plenty of fluids. I would not recommend this be in the way of soft drinks or Kool-Aid. The more sugar you put in your body at this time, the more the infection feeds on it. Fruit juice…which does have fructose, water and green tea would be good choices. These all detox the body, which it really needs. That bacteria needs to be flushed out of your body. Your kidneys, liver, intestines need to be flushed. After an intestinal or stomach virus, you could benefit from eating yogurt with ACTIVE LIVE CULTURES. Read the labels, some yogurt does not have this. I would recommend yogurt without sugar in it and then adding fruit, but do what you can.

When my family becomes really sick…I do use food supplements. I have used Standard Process for almost 15 years. I use certain things to treat a virus, strep, staph, etc. Chiropractors are not allowed to use these supplements to treat illness this way for legal reasons. But me, as a lay person can talk about it. But, that will have to be saved for another post for those that are interested.

Remember, if you are interested in managing your own health…it takes time. It doesn’t happen over night. It takes work and discipline, but after awhile, it becomes a way of life. Yes, we all are going to die, for those of you that say it just doesn’t matter. Our spiritual life is much more important than our physical one. I do want to emphasize that. But what I’m saying is…why not make it a way of life, so you don’t think about it, and why not live healthy and the best that you can be until God takes you home?

This will conclude this little mini-series on health. I’d welcome any questions from you all or stories on what has worked for you. Happy and Healthy living in this wondrous body God has given us for a time!

Well, I’m going to be lazy today and not write a long post. But you can read some great stuff by just checking out the comments written under ‘More Tips’. There are some great conversations going on and I love the feedback. It’s making me think!

I’ve also checked out some sites you all have mentioned and just some on my own. Again, I really like what Kevin Trudeau is saying about many things. They really make sense. I guess I should make the time to read the book I borrowed from my mother! I read his first book on the subject of health, drugs, medical profession about a year ago. If I knew how, I could give you his website here, but alas, I’m still computer illiterate in many areas!

It’s a beautiful sunny day again, with temperatures supposedly in the 60’s. I haven’t been out yet today. I didn’t make it to the gym this morning, but I hope to before AWANA tonight. That should make me just about exhausted to run around after 40+ children! LOL

Have a great day!!

I’ve loved the comments coming from this! Thanks so much for those of you commenting and sharing what you do.

Instead of posting today, you all should just read my comments back to Gina under ‘A Salad a Day’! lol She had asked a great question, one that we all probably struggle with.

But, this post is for more little tips on some of the easy things I do to keep healthy.

We need to remember that our body has a ph. The more acidic we are, the more susceptible to colds, flu, headaches, etc. that we are. Sugar, especially refined sugar makes your body more acidic rather than alkaline. So, in flu season or times of high stress, I try to avoid sugar for me and my children. We aren’t always succesful because high stress times are usually holidays when you guessed it…there’s lots of sugar around. So, during those times especially we all take a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (again, the least refined kind) each morning. Kevin Trudeau, whom I mentioned before, says to take a teaspoon before each meal and that will help with weight loss. So far I haven’t remembered to do that so I can’t offer much opinion on that one! We also always use lemon in our water because it does the same thing for your ph.

Another thing we do is distill our water. We use a WaterWise distiller, also found on the internet. We’ve had one for over 10 years now and we absolutely love it. The water supply in most areas is not great as you all probably know. Many things are added which you do not need, chlorine and flouride to name just a couple. I do cook with the distilled water, but I don’t usually wash the vegetables in it. Mainly because I would go through so much distilled water! Our distiller runs constantly as it is. So for this reason I use vegetable wash to clean the vegetables.

There are many thoughts on drinking distilled water, I side with the one that says your body does not utilize or absorb the minerals found in water. You get better absorbsion and usage of minerals from green, leafy vegetables. Some believe that these minerals can even build up in organs and parts of your body. I do believe this, but I don’t know of a good source of information to go to on that at this time. I would also say here, water is still much, much better for you than drinking carbonated drinks. So, even if you have to drink your tap water or buy bottled water, you’re still better off.

Now, this is still on the topic of food, but kind of off the subject a little. One that I know most women will enjoy. I love chocolate, but as I grow older, it is beginning to bother me in the form of headaches when I eat it. My son has migraines when he eats it and it stirs up my daughter’s asthma. If we eat organic, or even dark chocolate without all the additives, it does not bother us. The organic, dark chocolate also appeases my craving much better too! I just wanted to throw that in there. I’ve noticed even some regular grocery stores carrying it.

Well, on to my day and I’m looking forward to hearing from you all!

Last time I talked about foods to eat and keeping it simple. This time I would like to say more on that and why to do that.

Remember, the least amount of handling and additives possible keeps foods better for you. Your body does not need colorings, processed fats, preservatives or a lot of sugar to function well. These items actually hinder the inner workings. Your body does need a lot of fruits and vegetables in order to function properly. The enzymes in these help other food to break down and digest. We usually have a salad every day for our main meal at noon. We usually have a meat with it. For us it’s usually ground turkey or chicken. It is cheaper and is leaner. As I said before…if I had a good source of red meat, I would use that more. But, unfortunately, so many cattle are raised in feed lots these days rather than open range. How healthy would you be confined to a small space, no exercise, etc. ? So much of the meat in stores today is full of hormones. You can imagine what that is going to do to your body. Again, we don’t eat all organic food like some people I know, I can’t afford that. Not for a family our size. But you can keep these bits of information in your mind and make wise choices. If you eat meat, (and our family are not vegetarians) remember that fruits and vegetables have the enzymes to digest it better.

Now while we are on the meat subject, my sister shared a bit of information with me while she was at Chiropractor College. Chiropractors at her college had to do over a year in ‘dead lab’ as they called it. Chiropractors have to know the muscle and bone structure of the body very well, thus the reason for such a long time there when a a medical student will just have a short rotation. My sister said you could always tell when a person had eaten a lot of meat and not much in the way of fruit and vegetables during their lifetime. The meat would not digest and would start to line the intestinal wall. That is not a good thing. Over time that will ruin the intestines ability to digest and process food. Now that may not be a pleasant thought, but it did get my attention. She said that too much pasta and bread will do the same thing. I know pasta is cheap and we used to eat a lot of it for that reason. But we don’t anymore for the above reason. Dried beans are almost as cheap and much, much better for you, plus they offer protein. One vegetable that is wonderful for ’scrubbing’ the intestines is broccoli! Eat it raw please whenever possible. Cooking destroys many of the good traits of fruit and vegetables. There are a few exceptions of course…tomatoes are also good cooked because they release antioxidants, but they are still wonderful raw.

Again…I am not a doctor or nutritionist. These are things I have learned over many years that I’m sharing with you in a concise format. This is from much reading and learning what works on my part. And, this is from seeing GREAT results in others living this way. Again, why be sick, fatigued, taking expensive prescriptions when there are better options that actually work? For those of you that would like to investigate some of this further…there are many books and things you can look up on the internet. Kevin Trudeau has written a couple books on health and the medical profession which I found very informative on certain things. You can learn more about him on the internet.

Just remember…always use your head. God provided us with great minds and the ability to think. If something you read, hear…even if a doctor says it and it does not even sound logical to you…investigate it further. Don’t be led astray just because they may have an ‘education’ and you don’t. They are still human and wrong about many things!

For me and my family, I think the easiest and the most inexpensive thing to do is change what we eat. We ARE what we eat. We live in a society today that lives on fast food and prepared meals and we wonder why obesity and diabetes and the problems associated with those two health concerns alone are so prevalent.

God made our bodies a certain way. We need an assortment of nutrients, vitamins, carbohydrates, sugars, proteins, fibers, the list goes on in order for our bodies to work correctly. Foods that have the least amount of refining and handling by man are the very best for us. Think of the way people used to eat just fifty years ago. They didn’t pop something into the microwave, or drive to the nearest fast food chain. They were at home and usually prepared a meal. You usually ate what was the most affordable and available to you. If you had cattle, you probably ate that along with a garden. If you farmed, you grew a lot of things on your own, including animals. If you were in a city, you had to shop, obviously, but the foods were not so processed and the additives and colorings were not used as much as today.

Now, I’m a stay-at-home mother and I have a large garden each year. I know that is not possible for many of you. But, when I don’t have my garden, we still eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. Beans, lentils and rice are a main staple of our diet. Again, the least amount of processing possible. For those of you that work outside the home, the crock pot is a wonderful thing. Beans, lentils, oatmeal…so many things can be cooked in that and ready to go. Bread machines are a great way to have bread that you can make…again, choose flours that are not processed or bleached. I’ve even been trying rice flour in recipes because I’m hearing so much about wheat and the gluten. I almost enjoy it more! For me that is wonderful because I LOVE bread!

So many people say it’s so expensive to eat healthy. I won’t even say what our grocery budget is most weeks. It is so low that it would be ridiculous to even say. But, we manage to eat very well on that. No, we can’t buy pre-packaged foods and I make almost everything from scratch, I would probably buy more meat if I had a good source for it, but we eat well.

What we don’t eat and if we do, very occasionally…pop, soda, whatever your area of the country calls it. Fried food, dessert, candy, drink mixes, etc. Of course we have some of these things every now and then, but the point is that they are not a way of life for us.

I grew up eating this way. When I was first married, I tried eating at fast food restaurants, buying all the things that I thought I was missing out on as a child. The result…I gained weight, started having more health problems.

Remember, just keep it simple. If there is anything added or processed, it’s not the best for you. The produce aisle should be your favorite part of the store, not the candy section!

The results of this on my children…of course for them personally, they think it’s torture and that they are missing out. Just the same as I did as a child. But, I do bake for them, I just do it from scratch. The good results…they have never had antibiotics, no ear infections, rarely are ever sick. If they do get sick, they recover very quickly. I don’t vaccinate now, although I did with my first two daughters. But that is a topic for another time.

So, remember…you are what you eat, garbage in garbage out. More on that next time…

I just finished talking with a dear friend that is at home with three precious daughters…all very sick with influenza. They have been in my thoughts and prayers since the oldest became sick at the beginning of the week. So far this winter, our family has managed to avoid anything other than a slight fever and some crabbiness last week with our youngest. But, the winter still has a little more time to wreak havoc!

When I think of our health there is so much that comes to mind. My friend keeps saying that I should blog on some of the things I’ve learned over the years. I can be pretty opinionated with some of it, (now that I’m older that is!!) but I do enjoy talking about it and learning new ideas and techniques myself.

I think the biggest attribute that comes to mind is the incredible ability our bodies have to take care of themselves; rejuvenate, heal…if just given half a chance. When you think about it, we all put our bodies through some rough times; eating foods we shouldn’t, lack of sleep, working too hard, no exercise, and they generally just keep working for us. Now, I’m not talking about our bodies lasting forever and not growing old…after the Garden of Eden that is no longer possible, but I am talking about living each day of your life in a body that is the best that it can be because you take care of it. Why be sick and miserable, taking loads of prescriptions if there are other alternatives?

So over the course of a few days, weeks, whatever it takes and I have time for…I would like to bring up some ideas for discussion, some things that I’ve learned over the years and work well for me and my family. I would also like to say that I did not learn these all on my own. My sister is a chiropractor, my brother a massage therapist and personal trainer and my mother has had a very interesting life as far as her health goes. I’ve learned A LOT from these three people. I would also like to say that ‘alternative’ health care is a bad word for some people, and for some reason Christians can take acception to it because of the New Age movement. Believe me, I tread carefully in this area. I believe that God created our bodies, and He has given us the responsibility to care for them. Each of us has the volition to decide in the way we think is best. I prefer to go the most simple, natural way possible, always remembering that my life is in God’s control.

So, please come back and let’s see if we can all learn some new and exciting ways to take care of ourselves!