Preparing for Changes in 2014

It's after 4pm and I JUST realized it's Friday, meaning Guilt-Free Friday, meaning I need to blog something...  I haven't been cooking much lately, which is sad.  Christmas cookies?  Yeah, didn't happen - only the two recipes I posted, and I hardly ate any of them.  Just haven't been interested.  It's been a... different... month for me.  I have to apologize to all you readers for going MIA, but I fully intend to get back into the swing of things as soon as possible.  There have been a lot of changes happening, all good ultimately, but they've sort of interfered with my life and lifestyle.  Why must the holiday season be so difficult for someone trying to live a healthy lifestyle??  I have fallen off the Paleo wagon so badly it's embarrassing.  But I must say, I am SO proud of and SO happy for all of you who did so well sticking with it.  I watch some of your posts on Facebook or your messages to me and see that you're trying out some of my recipes for family gatherings and you're doing so well with it.  That's awesome.  That's what I wanted - to help you all find an easy, enjoyable way to switch over to a healthy lifestyle.  I have a few things on my plate that's made it a bit more difficult than before to stick with certain things, which I promise to share more about within the next month or two, but I'm working hard on psyching myself up to start fresh again with the New Year.  2014 will come with a lot of changes that were inspired by events in 2013 - eye openers that reminded me we're not invincible, that we need to take extra care of ourselves NOW to enjoy our lives both now and LATER.   I want that for everyone else too.  I want everyone to see what I've seen, to know what I know, and to feel the motivation to take care of yourselves before it's too late.  Let's all make 2014 a year of positive changes.

One of my blogging New Year's resolutions is to focus more on mental health.  That's one thing I've been struggling with, which I know is probably 80% related to my poor diet lately, but also hormonally and possibly due to circumstances as well.  But it's something that's ignored way too often.  Something that's brushed over like it's not really worth considering or taking into account.  Like it doesn't matter when it comes to the big picture of general health.  But it does, and I know that for a fact personally.  I want to talk more about the importance of sleep, the importance of exercise, and get more into how diet affects your mood and mental health.  How hormones work and why they're so important and how to take care of them. I also want to talk about alternatives to psychiatric drugs, which I feel are SO dangerous and over-prescribed and can lead to problems far worse than what you were dealing with to begin with.

And for my personal New Year's resolutions - to get back into my healthy lifestyle stronger than before.  To exercise more.  To make sure my family is healthy and strong.  And to inspire more people to work towards better health and to realize the importance of taking care of yourself now.

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday season.  We've got one last Christmas gathering tomorrow night and then it's on to New Year's celebrations and onward into 2014.  I'm excited for the new year.  It's going to be a good one!

Guilt-Free Sunday: Snickerdoodles

Here I go again, shirking my duties.  I'll be honest, I've been feeling pretty crappy over the weekend.  Head cold gone totally out of control... sinus pressure that made my head feel like someone poured cement into my skull, drainage that made it hard for me to keep anything down... I'll spare you the rest of the details.  I'll admit, I've been slacking a bit on the natural prevention.  I know it's the season to get sick.  I know everyone around us has been getting sick - Harlee's around other kids at the babysitter's, I'm working directly on people all day at my job - we're bound to contract something.  It was pretty stupid of me not to take precautionary measures like the Thieves oil on our feet every night or taking olive leaf extract supplements or upping the vitamin C or ecchinacea. And now this happens.  Harlee got it too but his didn't last as long.   I didn't get so lucky.  Finally yesterday we went to the chiropractor and got us both adjusted and she did acupuncture in my face for my sinuses.  That was a first!  I've had acupuncture tons of time before but never in my face.  Well it worked!  I'm going to have to blog about acupuncture one of these days.  I can't get over how amazingly effective it is for EVERYthing.  I felt my sinus pressure shifting and moving, lots of popping and cracking in my head, and I felt like I had a whole new skull after that.  Except instead of draining out my nose, it continued to drain into my stomach.  Made for an unpleasant day.  Finally this morning I'm starting to feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel.  Figured I'd at last get this blog post up.  Which I did not write in advance - had I done that you would have seen it sooner.

Oh well, here it is now.  Snickerdoodles!  I stole this recipe from Elana's Pantry and altered it a bit.  I made it exactly the first time and while it was absolutely delicious it was hard to work with.  Very crumbly.  So I added an egg and everything worked out great after that.  I think her intent was to make it a vegan recipe, but that doesn't apply to me.  Eggs are so crazy good for you, why would you ever omit them?

For those of you who attended my last healthy eating class in Red Bud, these are not the snickerdoodles we served there.  Those were okay, but had molasses in them, which isn't an ingredient I'd usually associate with snickerdoodles.  To me, a snickerdoodle is a basic sugar cookie rolled in cinnamon and sugar and smooshed flat.  That's what I grew up on anyway.  Well these hit the nail on the head!  I tried making snickerdoodles last year and they weren't very good either.  I'm so happy I finally found the recipe that works!  I'll be sticking with this one.

Here's how it goes:

2 cups almond flour
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/4 cup coconut oil or pastured butter
2 tbsp honey
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar for dipping
1 tbsp cinnamon for dipping



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a mixing bowl beat together the egg, oil or butter, and honey.  Stir in the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon until you get a dough.  Scoop a small spoonful of dough and roll into a ball - I made mine about the size of a ping pong ball or just a touch smaller.  Briefly dip the ball in a bowl of water then place in the bowl of palm sugar and cinnamon and coat.  I found it best to designate one hand for dipping in water and one hand for dipping in the sugar mixture - reduces the mess that way.  Place the ball on a parchment paper line baking sheet.  Continue to place the balls on the sheet until full, spacing about two inches apart.  Flatten all of them with the palm of your hand.  Place in the preheated oven for about 7-9 minutes.  Let cool and enjoy!

Guilt-Free Friday: Double Chocolate Sweet Potato Cake Cookies and Snow Ice Cream

It's cookie baking season!  I've got some good ones to share this time.  I was almost late posting this, it's been an eventful day, but I'm here just in time.  Unfortunately I forgot to snap a picture of these and they all got eaten up before I realized that, so I'm just going to have to make them again, darn...
*Update: just made more and now there are pictures, see below!  But they looked better on my phone than they do on the computer... but hopefully you get the idea...

A little update, here's our house as of Monday this past week - all the stone is finished on the garage and on that section that juts out, but obviously I haven't been too on-the-ball with the camera, so I'll have to get you an updated picture soon.  But we have soffit, siding, garage doors, custom kitchen backsplash windows, and a lot of progress on brick and stone.  And 8-10 inches of stone that came a bit too early, otherwise the masonry would be done... but oh well.

Here's our pretty town all lit up for Christmas... minus the giant bradford pear trees that used to really add something to the scene but I guess it's still pretty without them...

Justin got a deer!  Yay for meat in the freezer!  Not sure what kind of face Harlee is making there... hard to take pictures in the dark...

He LOVED the snow.  He did not want to come inside!

I finally convinced him to come in by bribing him with snow ice cream.  It was YUMMY!  Just fill a bowl up with snow, pour in about 1/4 cup of almond milk or coconut milk, a packet of stevia (like 1/4 tsp probably), and we added some chocolate chips too.  Mix it all together and voila!  Good stuff!

Had to get the kiddo some snow boots.  Those things are expensive knowing that they'll only be worn a handful of times... oh well, we'll make lots of memories playing in the snow in them.  I also dropped my phone in the toilet.  That was nice.  I hate how dependent I am on my phone, and how lost I felt without it, but I guess that's what happens when you run a business off the thing.  So we battled the nasty conditions and headed north to get me a new phone and Harlee some new boots.  Glad that's over with!

So.  The cookies.  Oh my these are heavenly.  They're based off of the sweet potato brownie recipe, but I got tired of picking brownies out of the pan and figured it would be easier to grab a cookie instead.  I altered the recipe so they'd hold up better like a cookie, and with great success!  They're super cakey and moist, mmm... These are definitely on my Christmas cookie list!  Once I make another batch I'll post a picture of them.

One fun memory of my Granny was last year she somehow got roped into making cookies every month for a good friend of the family.  I can't remember how exactly that all went down, I think he said he didn't think she'd make it an entire year delivering cookies to him every month, so she took it as a challenge and successfully made 12 batches of cookies, all with entertaining jokes attached like delivering them in a giant popcorn tin but stuffing the bottom 3/4 of it with packing peanuts so he THOUGHT he was getting a lot.  I think she delivered one batch in a hospital bed pan too...  Anyway, now that she's no longer with us, he wasn't sure who was going to supply him his Christmas cookies, so I offered, saying I needed a guinea pig for my healthy recipes.  He was a bit leery of the "healthy" aspect... but nonetheless I had Justin drop these cookies off for him and didn't tell him they were made of sweet potatoes, and he responded with great praise for them.  He loved them, and was very surprised to find out about the secret ingredient!  Harlee loved them too, and I must say I couldn't get enough, so they definitely passed the test.  Delicious.  Go make them.  Here's how:


2 small sweet potatoes, baked at 425 degrees for about 30-40 minutes or until soft and skin is peeling off.

3 eggs at room temperature

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1/2 cup honey (or liquid sweetener)

2/3 cup almond flour

3 tbsp coconut flour

4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

3/4+ cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Let the sweet potatoes cool to room temperature.  Beat the sweet potatoes and the eggs until soft peaks form.  Mix in the coconut oil and honey.  Add in all the dry ingredients except the chocolate chips and mix into a thick, sticky batter.  Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts (if you're adding those).  Spoon about a tablespoon of batter onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, each spoonful spaced about an inch or so apart (they don't spread out much).  Flatten them out a bit, as they don't do that very well on their own.  Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes.  Let cool and try not to eat them all at once!

Guilt-Free Friday-Turned-Saturday: Pop-Tarts / Breakfast Pastries

Here's little man with Daddy at the Red Bud Lighted Parade

I was doing good for awhile there, posting Guilt-Free FRIDAY recipes on FRIDAYs.  But, I've been on a slight bit of overload lately, and yesterday just slipped out from under me.  The new house has finally been picking up a little more momentum and Harlee started potty training - he's been at it for a little over a week now and he has been doing AWESOME - spent the last two days going potty all by himself without me having to ask him.  Goodbye diaper days!!  I can honestly say I don't understand those parents who get all teary about their kids growing up - I LOVE it.  I love all these new phases and next steps he enters into.  Like lately his imagination has been developing.  He'll sit at the stove with me and play with utensils over an empty pan and say he's cooking eggs.  He'll ask me to "taste" them but warn me that their "too hot".  THIS is what I've been waiting for.  I'm not really a newborn kind of person.  But this imaginative toddler thing?  LOVE it.  I don't miss those baby days at all but I made sure to savor them while they were there, just as I am doing with these days, and I can't wait for all the new adventures his little life brings us.

But on top of all that, I've been needing to get ready for the Christmas home tour put on by the Red Bud Chamber of Commerce.  No, the new house is not on the tour - that seems to be the popular question - the current house we live in is on the tour, in hopes that somebody might be interested in buying it, as it's for sale.  Since we have to move and all.  But I wasn't sure if the move would happen before Christmas or not, so to be on the safe side (and not have to unpack and repack and unpack and repack a whole bunch of Christmas decorations) I decorated for Thanksgiving.  But before we did that we had to pack up the majority of our junk and start hauling it out to the new house.  It's insane how much stuff a small family can accumulate through a few short years.  So many boxes are moved out to the new house and I don't even miss any of it... I think I'm just going to have a huge garage sale or something just so none of it has to come into the new house once it's finished.  But anyway.  It was a lot of work, balanced amongst Justin working 13 hour shifts 7 days a week for a month and a half, me picking up more clients at my business, and trying to run the household as we know it.  Craziness!  Needless to say I rejoiced when Justin got laid off from this last job.  Whew!  Mostly because he cleans better than I do... :)  We packed and moved and cleaned and scrubbed and I got it all pulled together today while Justin sat in a tree waiting for the right deer to walk by, and I must say I'm pretty pleased with it.

Last night was the Run Rudolph Run 5k and the Red Bud Lighted Parade (see picture above of my cute hunters watching the floats go by), on top of a busy day at the office and preparing for the tour Sunday.  So needless to say Guilt-Free Friday did not happen.  But it's happening now!  Better late than never!  I have so many recipes... double chocolate cake cookies, cranberry orange brownies, peanut butter birthday cake with chocolate fudge icing - all big hits with requests to share the recipes - but this has been sitting in my archives the longest, and since creating the first recipe I've come up with two flavor options, so I figured I better get this one out of the way first.  Plus everyone who's sampled these have begged me to post, so here it is!


Okay so sticking a Kellogg's Pop-Tart in the toaster and eating it is really WAY easier than making these guys by hand, but they're sooooooo bad for you... I'm so embarrassed at the thought that I'd consider Pop-Tarts an actual breakfast even into my early adult years.  Thank goodness I discovered Paleo/clean eating and put a stop to that thought process!  Yeah they're pretty tasty, I'll give them that, but NOT breakfast.  Processed pastry crust with processed sugary "fruit" filling with artificial colors and ingredients... why would anyone want to start their day on that?  Why is that considered okay?  Probably because it's quick and easy.

Unfortunately, these are not quick... they're not too difficult but I still can't say they're easy either.  But they're REALLY good, and they're WAY better for you than those totally unhealthy Pop-Tarts.  So just make up a bunch of them when you're feeling ambitious and stick them in the freezer to save for those rushed on-the-go days!  Because they can't get any easier if they're already pre-made!

So, set some time aside, clear some space in your kitchen, and get cracking!

Crust: (adapted from a sugar-cookie recipe from Elana's Pantry)

3 cups almond flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup honey
1 egg

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl with a hand mixer (or whatever you've got on hand) until a dough forms.  Press half the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper and roll out to about 1/8" thin.  Cut with a pizza cutter into 2"x3" rectangles and place in the freezer.  Don't skip the freezer part - this dough is super sticky and impossible to work with unless it's set up in the freezer a bit.

Filling:

4 cups fruit (berries, diced apples, etc)
3/4 cup water
3-4 tbsp maple syrup (depending on how sweet you want it)
*If you're using apples, add 2 tsp cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until thick and bubbly and jam-like.

Pop-Tarts / Pastries:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Take your crust out of the freezer, place one of the sheets of parchment paper on a baking sheet and carefully transfer half of your cut rectangles onto the sheet.  Spoon a bit of filling onto each rectangle, take one of the remaining rectangles and place over top and pinch the edges down with a fork.  Place in the oven a bake for 8-10 minutes or until crust is golden brown.  Eat warm or let cool and enjoy!

 Or you can press the dough into muffin cups and fill them that way - they make cute little mini pies!  Bake about 10-15 minutes.

Guilt-Free Friday: Paleo Pie Crust + Paleo Mayo/Ranch Dressing = Veggie Pizza

Four recipes in one post?? Jackpot!  All at once you're going to learn how to make a pie crust, how to make mayonnaise, how to turn that into ranch dressing, and how to combine all those to make the popular party food, veggie pizza!  Which is rather convenient considering all the family gatherings you have coming up with the approaching holidays, right?

A bunch of us moms got together one evening for some social time for us and playtime for our kiddos, and turned it into a potluck-style dinner, which worked great.  Chili, hot dogs, and dessert were all accounted for, but I've come to a point in my life where if I don't have a veggie with my meal then I feel all out of sorts.  It's weird.  I realized this the night my whole family was all together after Granny's funeral helping polish off some of the donated food.  Huge pan of lasagna, huge pan of spaghetti, and lots of garlic bread.  I felt so lost.  So many carbs... no balance... agh...  I'm pretty certain that was when my body decided to revolt and make me sick.  So now I'm being careful when I attend gatherings.  Sure I'll indulge and eat crap but it's nice to have some balance.

So I volunteered to bring some sort of veggie to this gathering, and of course my mind wandered to the classic veggie pizza - you know - Pillsbury biscuit crust, ranch dressing loaded with processed junk and preservatives, shredded cheese (did you know that stuff also has a bunch of additives that help keep it in shredded form and not clump together? yum yum...), and veggies on top to make you feel like you're eating something totally healthy.  But not really.

I needed to switch up the crust and the dressing.  Cheese, eh, I'd throw it on there even though dairy is still gray area in my book, but I shred my own cheese so I know it's ONLY cheese that I'm eating.

So I found this pie crust recipe on Elana's Pantry  and I doubled the recipe plus added some baking powder to fluff it up a bit.  Here's what we've got:

4 cups almond flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp melted coconut oil (refined so you don't have the flavor, unless you want that)

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350°.  Combine all four ingredients in a bowl and mix by hand or with a hand mixer until a dough forms (you might have to get in there with your hands too).  Place between two sheets of parchment paper and roll out into a rectangle, about 1/4" thick.  Trim the edges smooth if you're OCD about that.  Transfer to a baking sheet and bake for 8-12 minutes.  Let cool before adding any toppings.

Then for the mayo, which is so crazy easy I know I'll be making it all the time, I found this recipe on Eat Live Grow Paleo, and here's how it goes:

1 egg

2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon yellow mustard

3/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

 

Combine egg, garlic, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper in a food processor.  Once thoroughly combined, keep the processor running and begin pouring a very SLOW, THIN stream of oil into the mixture.  It should begin to emulsify.  Keep the stream slow and steady until all the oil is incorporated.  Mine is actually a lot thinner than I would expect mayo to be when it's done, but after refrigerating it for a bit it thickens up and acts just the way I want.  Yummy!  Bring on the chicken salad!  This recipe makes one cup.

 

Okay so turn that into ranch dressing with:

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp dill

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp paprika

Mix it all together with your cup of mayo and voila!  If you'd like it a little thinner, add some unsweetened coconut milk to it, about 1/4 cup is probably about all you need, and pour that over a salad!

THEN, chop up some cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots, take your cooled crust, slather it with ranch dressing, shred some cheddar cheese on top of it, and top with the veggies and take it to a party!  Ta da!

Guilt-Free Friday: Strawberry Chicken & Spinach

I'm not very creative when it comes to naming dishes.  So if anyone has a better idea, do share!  But for now, I'm naming it pretty much what it is.  It is also super delicious.  Sometimes I just impress myself!  I love strawberry or raspberry vinaigrettes anyway, and I was kind of in the mood for something like that but also wanting something simple, plus I had a bunch of spinach to use up.  So, voila, this happened!  And I am rather proud of it!  I'll be making this again, for sure!

I'm currently working on a ranch dressing, and ultimately a veggie pizza, so stay tuned for that, I'm pretty excited to see how it turns out!

Here's how today's recipe goes:

1/2 cup refined (preferably expeller-pressed) coconut oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into cubes
1 1/2 cups spinach, stems removed,
1 cup strawberries, divided
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
crumbled blue cheese (optional)

Cut about 3 strawberries into small pieces and place in a medium saucepan with the chicken, coconut oil, and vinegar and cook over medium heat.  Just before the chicken is cooked all the way through, add in the spinach and walnuts and stir until chicken is thoroughly cooked and spinach is wilted.

Remove from heat and serve hot topped with remaining strawberries (sliced) and blue cheese crumbles (optional).  Enjoy!

Seizing the Moment and the Irrelevance of Age

It's late at night and I'm awake thinking about aaaalllll kinds of things.  I decided instead of lying there listening to Justin and Harlee breathe while staring at the ceiling processing my thoughts (or attempting to, anyway), I'd just start writing them down here.

It all started with my thoughts on moving my business to a ground-level location (I'm on a second floor - not good when you're wanting to help fix people but the people you want to fix are too injured to make it up the stairs...) and all the different options that come with that, to new promotional ideas for the business, to continuing my education in a different field later on down the road and where I want to take that, and then I went off on a different tangent thinking about our new house and how I feel pretty determined to start fresh when we move and convert, officially, to chemical-free, meaning making my own cleaners, detergents, and personal products, and then I must say I got kinda excited at the thought of making my own lotion bars and experimenting with different scents and healing properties with essential oils.  Then I thought about how I could blog about that once I get it all underway, which got me thinking about this blog and how I'd like to publish a cookbook with the recipes I've shared on Guilt-Free Fridays and design meal plans and stuff like that...

And there's your glimpse into my crazy mind, which usually resembles a busy intersection at rush hour most of the time.  My brain needs a traffic light or something.

This jumbled mess of thoughts led me to think about how grateful I am to only be almost-28.  There's so much I want to do, so much I'd like to achieve, and being young gives me the chance to get to all of it eventually.

But then I thought about Granny, and how we all thought she could at least have another 5-10 years left in her.  And I thought about Justin's dad, who passed in his 40s.  I thought about a recent tragedy of the death of a wonderful young guy in town not long ago, at the young age of 25.  I thought about a good friend of Justin's who passed in high school.


And suddenly I realized, being 28 has nothing to do with anything.  Sure, I could assume I'm just over a quarter of the way through my life, but I don't know that.  I could be halfway through.  I could only have a quarter left to go...  We just don't know when our time is up.  I can't just go about my business right now being grateful I'm young and assuming I'll get around to doing stuff later.  What if there isn't a "later"?

So, out of all these thoughts going in all different directions, I did pull from it the valuable realization that age is irrelevant, and that if I want to achieve something, then I should just do it now.  Well, within reason - it's really not feasible for me to start over with school at this point in my life, and that IS something that will need to wait awhile (and I'm totally okay with that).  But why assume I'm going to start making lotions and soaps when I move to the new house?  I could start experimenting with it now.  Why decide I'm not going to put a cookbook together until next year or the year after?  I could just do it now, or at least get a start on one.  I don't want to get wiped out tomorrow and have people say, "Poor Jami, so many dreams and goals she could have achieved right away if only she had just done it instead of assuming she had time to get to it later..."  Or worse, I don't want to all of a sudden find myself in my 50s or 60s and think, man, I wish I had done that when I was younger instead of putting it off assuming I'd find time for it later.

And so here I am, instead of lying in bed staring at the ceiling hoping to drift to sleep, putting off sharing these thoughts in a post for some other time, I'm writing these thoughts out to share with you now so that maybe I can help motivate you to stop putting things off too and grab life by the horns and live in the now.  Stop thinking you don't have time and instead make time.  If you want to learn to play the guitar, then make time for it and do it.  Think of how grateful you'll be in a few years from now that you decided to take the plunge and just go for it.  If you want to run a marathon, then just start training now instead of saying, oh, maybe next year.  If you've been following this blog and like all the recipes I post and the information I share and want to make the change to living a healthier lifestyle, then just do it now instead of assuming it'll be a New Year's resolution or something.  Just go for it.  Dive into life.  Set yourself up so that you won't have any regrets in the future.  And if you are in your 50s or 60s and you happen to be someone who's thinking, "Man, I wish I had taken up mountain climbing years ago, I could be climbing mountains now," then go take up mountain climbing now, there's no reason you can't!  Remember, age is irrelevant.  What if you wind up being someone who'll magically live to be 150?  I know that's far-fetched but seriously, think about it, suddenly 50 or 60 isn't very old anymore, is it?  We don't know when our time is up.  So just live life in the moment and make every moment count.

And that's my motivational speech for the night, thank you overactive brain.  Hope you enjoyed it.  Now go do something productive that you can look back on when you're 80 and say, "Man I'm glad I did that!"

The Cure for Cancer - Part II

Yeah, I'm back with more to say on the cancer topic, and I apologize in advance if I climb higher and higher on a soap box again this time, but, sorry, I kind of feel a little strongly about the subject after recent events.  I've had a few friends lose loved ones to cancer as well recently, so it hits even closer to home.

It was mentioned to me that I could have possibly come off as offensive in my last post, referring to breast cancer research fundraiser items as "pink junk".  And suddenly I've become hyper-aware of this "merchandise" - I'll drive through town and see signs outside of shops saying their "breast cancer jewelry is 20% off" and I can usually count at least 5 people a day, if not more, wearing shirts that have pink ribbons on them.  So, yeah, with that post boasting over 200 readers (yikes when did this blog become so popular?), I guess it's possible I could have offended somebody.

So I'll just take this moment to apologize to any of you that I may have offended.  I honestly didn't intend for anything I said to be taken that way.

I just don't want to see any of you keep pouring your money into this billion-dollar-a-year industry that doesn't seem to be making any headway with "finding a cure".  I'm sorry, it's been around since at least 1913, and we haven't gotten anywhere yet?  We just keep poisoning cancer patients with chemo, time after time after time.  For over 100 years.  A good friend of mine's sister had breast cancer, and after beating it she did all the walks and participated in all the fundraisers and sported her pink merchandise, and suddenly it dawned on her - where is all this money going?  Look at all these people doing the walks - wearing the pink - donating, donating, donating... Where is that cure, already?  She stopped donating, feeling as though she finally saw the light.

If you truly believe your money is going towards helping the "doctors" "find a cure" and donating towards the "research" makes you happy and feel good about yourself, then by all means do it.  I do feel good intentions are worth something great in the long run, and filling your heart with the good feeling that you did your part to help out is definitely worth something too.  So I'm not stopping you if this is the case.

Actually, I just found a great article written by Barbary Jacoby, a breast cancer survivor herself, who is irritated by all the "pink stuff".  Here's an excerpt from it:

 "Here is my suggestion.  Why not take a portion of your company’s profits and make a direct contribution to the breast cancer organization of your choice.  Let me know what you have done by posting signage at your venue or in your advertising.  I don’t need to buy a T-shirt that says that I am a breast cancer survivor but I do need to buy T-shirts and I will buy from you because of what you are doing to help this cause.  I will still watch my favorite football teams but they don’t need to run up and down the field in pink uniforms to let me know that they support breast cancer awareness.  I don’t know of a single survivor who wants to wear the pink ribbon all of the time.  Everyone who knows us knows that we are survivors and they don’t need to be reminded of it on a daily basis.  And as a matter of fact, I don’t want to be reminded of it all the time myself nor do I want to be defined by the fact that I am a survivor.  And for those who have lost the battle to breast cancer, believe me when I say that is not the reason that they want to be remembered.  They want to be remembered for the loving, caring, giving and wonderful mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers or friends that they were."

My heart goes out to anyone who is battling any kind of cancer, and to the people who have lost loved ones to it.  I know multiple people personally, have several relatives, and I can only begin to imagine not only the physical strain it puts on the body, but the emotional toll it must take too.  It's an ugly thing to have to deal with.  So, truly, I don't mean to offend anyone with my views on the organizations trying to raise money to put a stop to this.  I hope that's really what they're doing.  But I don't trust them enough to donate, and that's just my opinion.  I do know I want to take matters into my own hands when it comes to my health and my family's health, and prevent this ugly illness in the ways I trust and believe in.

But I'm not telling you to stop donating, I'm just telling you to think.  Here's what I do feel like I want to tell you to do though: Look out for yourself and your loved ones and prevent cancer from happening in the first place.

As some of you may have seen on my recent Facebook status, I had a great conversation with a lady that started out with her giving her sympathies about my grandma, and saying that she's got several friends who recently lost loved ones to cancer, and pancreatic cancer in particular.  "What is going on?  Why does this keep happening?  What causes this?" She asked.  It was so refreshing to hear.  I hardly ever hear anyone question the cause, it's always about curing it after it's already happened.  So I took the opportunity to give her my two cents.  "I'll tell you my thoughts," I said.  "I feel it's a mix of different causes, the two main ones being too many medications with damaging effects on our organs, blood, and cells, and the other being the kind of diet we eat, which is filled with processed junk, synthetic ingredients, and artificial additives.  We should not be putting chemicals in our body, and we should be eating food that originated from the earth and not a factory."  She wholeheartedly agreed with me when I told her diet soda and artificial sweeteners were probably a HUGE factor when it comes to cancer, in particular pancreatic cancer (which is the organ in charge of regulating blood sugar).  We talked about vitamins, how they're full of synthetic ingredients too.  I said you need to be careful which ones you take, and I proceeded to tell her to STOP taking her Women's One-A-Days, that they're just as bad for her as diet soda.  I don't know if she did that or not... but it felt good to at least raise her awareness.

I guess we can't really be safe from anything in the long run.  I mean, there's toxins in the very air we breathe, and in the end those toxins could cause us to develop cancer, too.  But it doesn't hurt to try to do what we can to reduce our chances of getting it.  What are cancer cells?  Defective cells our bodies made by accident.  What could make those cells get out of control?  A weakened immune system, and further damaging our cells by consuming junk that is full of crap our systems don't know how to process or digest.

I know I'm repeating a lot of the same things I said in my last post.  But I feel so strongly about this.  And there are so many people in my life that I care about, and now I and so many of my friends have kids of our own, I just don't want to see any of you head down this road, and I don't want to lose any of you the way I lost Granny.  Don't set yourselves up for it.

And again, I'm sorry if what I said about the pink junk was offensive, but it's simply how I feel.  I don't want to hear people complain about not being able to afford to eat clean but then turn around and donate to cancer charities.  The cure lies in your pantry, in your choices in how you care for your body and your loved ones around you.  Stop waiting around for a "cure", we've been waiting for it for over 100 years, take responsibility and prevent it from happening to you in the first place.


http://truth-out.org/news/item/9716-jobs-for-the-cure-does-your-donation-go-to-cancer-research-or-salaries-and-overhead   ← this is a very interesting read, just saying...

Guilt-Free Friday: Honey Mustard Chicken Stir-Fry

Well, no cute Halloween or Fall-themed recipe here.  So I figured I'd pull one out of the archives.  I hope everyone else had a better Halloween than Harlee did.  Our little construction worker was all ready to go, I spent the afternoon at the sewing machine making his vest and his tool belt, only for him to crash at 4pm, curled up in a ball on the couch watching a movie... and feeling rather warm :(.  His fever never got higher than 100, so I left it untreated (here's why), loaded him up with essential oils, and sat on the couch with him to snuggle.  I tell you what, there is some wicked junk going around, seems like there's no escaping it this time around.  I was feeling a little queasy a few days ago, shortly after spending a long day at my grandmother's wake hugging or shaking the hands of hundreds of people, so I'm thinking one of those well-intentioned hugs shared a little more than just sympathies with me..... added to the fact that my immune system was down because of all the junk I'd been eating the past few days, it's no wonder I caught something.  So apparently I had to share it with my son too.  What a nice mom I am!  He insisted on going to Oma and Opa's house and Grandma's house, so we shifted our plans of visiting all the different family members down to visiting just two houses and then going home to watch The Great Pumpkin.  Fortunately he's getting back to being his perky self this morning, so whatever it was that he had was short-lived.

So this is a dish from a previous night.  I was in the mood to cook something, but it was turning out to be another late night with Justin's crazy work schedule, so I decided I'd try out a stir fry.  Then I'd only have to think about one dish, no sides, because all the meat and veggies are right there having their own happy little party together in one bowl.  Easy.  I like easy.  And this is actually the first stir fry I've made in my Paleo life, so I'm pretty proud of myself, and I believe there will definitely be more to come, and probably soon!  This tastes amazing and smells amazing as it's cooking, too.  I honestly can't wait to make it again.  Maybe I will, I do have more of those veggies to use up!


3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1/2 cup refined coconut oil (so it doesn't have the coconut flavor) or 1/4 cup butter
1 large carrot, cut into small sticks
1 1/2 cups cut green beans (about 1 1/2" long)
2/3 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 medium yellow onion, sliced width-wise
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp yellow mustard

Prepare ingredients first.  Place chicken and coconut oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat.  Let cook for about 5 minutes and add carrots and green beans.  Cook for about 5 more minutes and add the mushrooms a yellow onions.  Stir together for a few minutes and add remaining liquid ingredients and combine.  Cook until chicken is cooked through, carrots and green beans are tender, and onions are translucent.

The Cure for Cancer

Today marks the one-week anniversary of my Granny's passing.  I've had a lot of thoughts to process since she was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer a bit over a month ago, and I've decided today is a good day to share some of them.  She was an amazing woman who had a lot of love to give.  Sure, she had her flaws just like the rest of us, but overall the love she poured into her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren's lives was insurmountable.  We all believe my grandpa's passing eight years ago left a huge hole in her heart, and that she was secretly hoping to join him soon rather than living on for eight more years without a companion by her side.  Her family and friends filled her up, but couldn't quite compare to what my grandpa gave her while he was here with her.  I couldn't hold that against her - I know I'd be left with a huge void if I ever lost Justin.  When she was diagnosed with cancer, I think, after some time to process it, she realized she'd soon get to return to be with Grandpa again.  I feel amazingly blessed to have been able to chat with her the week before she passed, both of us knowing the fate that awaited her and both of us embracing it.  She expressed that it was what she wanted - she was looking forward to crossing over, to being with Grandpa again and watching us from above.  And I felt certain she would be - she wouldn't miss any of the excitement that would happen in Harlee's life and she'd be there for all of our future endeavors and accomplishments.  Only down-side was that I wouldn't get to see her face, hear her excitement, or feel her hugs.  But I knew she'd be there.  And I feel her with us now already.  I can truly say I'm happy for her, thanks to the conversation we had before she passed, knowing how much she was looking forward to this next chapter in her soul's life, and knowing she'd still be with me, and with all of us, as we continue on living.

My Granny's passing really lit a fire in me, a fire to share these thoughts I have with the rest of the world, or at least my community.  I feel that what I've learned about cancer in these past few weeks, and how I've come to feel and think about it, need to be shared, and so I'm sharing it as a tribute to her.  Cancer.  It's like a dirty word.  People ask me what happened to Granny, I explain it was pancreatic cancer.  Cancer.  People snarl at it.  Get angry at it.  Say hateful things about it.  Talk about how many people this dirty, awful thing has taken.

I have so many new feelings that have been stirred up about this topic since Granny came down with it and was shortly thereafter taken by it.  I've never thought too much about cancer, it never really hit close to home until recently.  Sure, I knew people dealing with it, battling it, who have died from it, sure I recognized the pain not only the cancer patient endured but the families and loved ones as well.  And as you all know, I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist.  I never liked donating to cancer research fundraisers because, well, I just don't think that's where my money is going.

I have a friend that did volunteer massages at a cancer ward in a big hospital.  She relieved the stress of not only the patients receiving chemo and radiation treatments but also their families.  She spoke with a few doctors about chemo and radiation.  "If your mom came down with cancer, would you recommend she do chemo and/or radiation?" she asked them.  Their answer?  Absolutely not.

So why are they administering it to others' moms?

My uncle in Arizona has been dealing with cancer, and fortunately, with the aid of a naturopathic doctor, has actually been fairing well through it.  He receives chemo treatments, but supplements it with tons of herbal remedies, homeopathic remedies, and acupuncture, as well as a healthy diet.  He got to know several of the nurses there as he continued to return for more and more treatments.  Then one day he realized one of the regular nurses wasn't there, so he asked what happened to her.  "She just found out she has pancreatic cancer," they replied.  "Oh," he responded, sorry to hear that.  "Will she be receiving treatments here too then?"  "No," the other nurses told him, "she chose to leave and deal with it on her own."  Does that not say something?  This nurse has seen all these people come through, and not die of CANCER but instead die miserably of CHEMO.  And now she has cancer and decided, chemo is not the way I want to die, thank you.

Chemo.  That's a dirty word in my book.  I've seen what chemo has done to people.  Granny looked better dying of cancer than I've seen people look as they die from chemo.  It's poison.  It kills you slightly slower than the cancer does.  It shreds you of ever bit of fighting power your immune system possibly has left in you.  And it's your immune system that you need the most when it comes to battling something as "awful" as cancer.  I'm so grateful Granny opted against chemo.  I hate to lose her.  I miss her so much already.  But I'm glad the cancer took her in a much more graceful way than chemo would have.  Who knows how long she would have been stuck her suffering, dying slowly of the poison chemo.  I wouldn't want that for her, or anyone.

Some people wonder if I'm going to support cancer research.  Hell no.  I'm even angrier about this crap now.  The stupid pink tshirts and jewelry and hats and MERCHANDISE surrounding breast cancer is ridiculous and sickening.  MERCHANDISE should be sold to promote bands, performing artists, movies and tv shows, athletes and sports teams.  But it's being sold for CANCER??  What the hell is a pink tshirt going to do for you to prevent breast cancer?  Really??  Is that pink tshirt doing anything for your family member who has breast cancer??  "Oh, my aunt has breast cancer, I should buy a tshirt!"  WHAT??

But what about future generations?  Here's the problem I'm seeing: too many people are worked up about the people currently battling cancer or who have died from cancer.  Nobody is focusing on PREVENTING cancer so themselves or their children or grandchildren don't have to die of such an awful fate.  Why search for a cure?  It's like we're anticipating it coming, and then when it does we can cure it.  Ta-da!  No.  It shouldn't work like that.  What CAUSES cancer?  Why is nobody researching that?  If we know the CAUSE, we can then know how to PREVENT, and then we won't get it in the FIRST PLACE, and therefore not need a CURE, and then we don't have to go waste our money on pink merchandise!!

I'll tell you how to cure cancer.  It's quite simple, really.  Prevent it.  And how do you prevent it?  Build up your immune system.  We all have cancer cells.  That's right, all of us.  It's not just the luck of the draw or bad genetics whether you come down with cancer or not; EVERYONE faces the possibility of getting cancer, because we all have the cells that can start it growing.  They're defective cells that our body created more or less by accident.  Only our bodies also have defense mechanisms to detect and prevent these cells from turning into something dangerous, like metastasized tumors.  The power of these defense mechanisms relies on the strength of our immune system, and what we put in our body to either feed and fuel our good cells, or further damage and defect them.

Processed foods (even your 100% whole grain bread), chemical-laden foods with artificial ingredients and preservatives, dangerous pharmaceutical chemical drugs (even the common ones like Tylenol and ibuprofen that's in everyone's medicine cabinets), even things like sugar or alcohol - they all damage our cells and suppress our immune systems.  And what happens to damaged cells in an environment with a weak immune system?  Hmmmmm...

This is partly why I've suddenly gotten so gung-ho about healthy eating.  Healthy eating doesn't just make you lose weight to achieve a nice-looking body.  Healthy eating determines how that body functions for the rest of its time here on earth.  This is why I'm trying to stress to everyone that it's SO IMPORTANT to eat a healthy diet.  Food is what fuels us.  What we consume and put in our bodies is what's dispersing into our cells to feed them and keep us moving and functioning.  If we put crap in our bodies, we'll eventually feel and function like crap.  Pretty simple, right?

Genetics plays a role, yes.  Like Type 2 diabetes seems to run in my family - Granny's dad had it, I think his dad before him had it, other relatives of hers had it, and next thing we know it turns out she was at risk for it as she found out her blood sugar started hovering in the danger zone several years ago, and eventually she was officially diagnosed with it.  What's the main organ involved with diabetes?  The pancreas.  It's what's controlling blood sugar levels.  So it's not surprising that Granny had damaged cells in her pancreas.  But how did they turn into cancer?  Suppressed immune system.  How did it become suppressed?  Maybe it could have been the medication.  But one thing I feel pretty certain about is her diet.  For years, so far back that I can't even remember, Granny has always drank diet soda and sweetened her tea with Sweet & Lo.  Don't even get me started on that crap, but let me just say aspartame, the "sweetener" in those as well as thousands of other products on the market, is a horribly dangerous chemical that has been linked MULTIPLE times to causing cancer.  It damages cells BIG time.  Here's a good article explaining just how dangerous it is and why.  And if you clicked that link and read it or even skimmed it then you should have a pretty good idea of how horrible and dangerous it is.  So not only was she consuming such a dangerous chemical (and don't worry, I tried my hardest to convince her to stop, but she was pretty set in her ways, unfortunately) but her diet wasn't very healthy either.  I think since my grandpa passed in 2005 she's kind of fallen into a slump.  She didn't want to bother with cooking anymore since it was just her by herself, and instead turned to the convenience of processed, packaged foods.  Suppressed immune system.  Diabetes started kicking in, and actually the only thing that helped her control it was when she turned to the Atkins diet a couple years ago (which is what inspired me to look into it and begin converting my own diet and lifestyle), which is essentially a low-carb diet.  And I already talked about the science of carbs and how they affect blood sugar, so it makes sense that her diabetes would be better under control on that diet.  But she fell off the wagon, and went back to the convenience of processed foods.  Added to the evil chemical aspartame in her diet soda and sweetener, and I honestly think her pancreas was doomed all along.  And that really breaks my heart.

Now that I have an emotional connection to the devastating affects of cancer, and I personally know the feeling of loss from someone who's been taken by it, I feel even more strongly about this.  I think of all the others out there who know this feeling of loss.  And sadly there are a LOT of us.  And I know for a solid fact each of you reading this post right now knows someone or several people personally who've either battled or died from cancer.  Stop buying your pink merchandise.  If you want to buy merchandise, go to a concert.  If you want to fight cancer, save the money you would have spent on pink junk and go buy whole foods to stock in your home instead, so that you and your family are at a lesser risk to face this illness in the future.


http://cancersolutioncenter.com/articles
 http://www.healthline.com/health/type-2-diabetes/genetics
 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/11/07/aspartame-causes-blood-cancer.aspx
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/11/11/aspartame-dangers.aspx

Happy One-Year Blogiversary!!

I meant to post this yesterday, but as most of you probably know, my Granny's soul departed last night, so I was a bit preoccupied.  I intend to post about that soon, but who knows when I'll get to it, as life is a bit hectic at the moment.  Fortunately I had this post written up ahead of time, so all I have to do is click and share.  Glad I was prepared, go me!

I've been at this Naturally Jami blog for a whole year already... I'm so glad I converted my blog domain over.  A few of you probably remember it being "Once Upon the Papenbergs", and I thought I was going to blog about our little family happenings and whatnot, but I never did.  Mostly because everyone else did, and our little family happenings weren't much different than other families'.  Except for one thing.  Our mostly-natural lifestyle.

Thus the conversion.  And now, one year later, I've covered a lot of topics, created a Facebook page (and attempting to figure out Twitter), and complete strangers are calling me and emailing me wanting advice.  It's so cool!  Of course I have to remind everyone I'm NOT a doctor, but I guess growing up with the natural first-aid lifestyle does give me a leg-up.  Not everyone can think on that level.  Most people have had pharmaceuticals ingrained into their heads, and grew up being taught that you're to turn to drugs when you're ill or wounded.

But some of you have been burned by insurance companies (who only seem to want to deal with Big Pharma), have been hurt by careless doctors carelessly prescribing drugs, or have suffered side-effects from certain drugs and have realized the hard way that pharmaceuticals may not be the way to go.  I guarantee ALL of you have seen loved ones suffer from the dangerous side effects of pharmaceuticals.

I don't do drugs.  I don't deal with drugs, and I don't let my family deal with drugs.  I will ONLY touch them if I find myself or a family member in a dire emergency (e.g. infections that got out of control before naturaceuticals could fix it).  Fortunately that hasn't been the case for us.  Sure, we get sick, we're not super-human, but I've been able to treat and reverse all of our ailments using natural remedies 98% of the time.  I did get a UTI once that cranberry and vitamin C weren't reversing fast enough, so I turned to antibiotics (and HEAVY doses of probiotics, PLEASE read the post about that topic).  And Justin got blood poisoning once while cleaning fish and wound up in the hospital for a couple days - definitely had to let the medical community intervene on that one.  Which leads me to say that yes, medical doctors definitely have their place, they definitely save lives in countless occasions, and they're hugely important when it comes to emergency situations.

But I don't talk about emergency situations.  If you got bit by a brown recluse, and your skin is eating itself in front of your eyes, please seek medical attention now.  I don't have a natural remedy for that and if I did it's probably not in your medicine cabinet nor is it growing in your yard.  If your kid just ate poison, take him to the hospital.  I don't have a natural remedy for that either and if I did you'd be stupid to take the risk of trying it.

However, if you or your toddler or child has a fever of 101 at most, please don't administer Tylenol or any other fever-reducers.  You're only going to make the fever last longer.  If you or your kid got a cut or scrape, don't rush to the Neosporin.  In fact, just throw that away.  Keep some lavender essential oil on hand and use that instead.

That's what I do.  That's what this blog is for.  I'm here to help you make simple decisions in non-emergency situations that help you avoid the harsh chemicals in common pharmaceuticals, and ultimately avoid the side-effects they cause.

Another purpose of this blog has been for preventive care.  There are so many ways to keep your body in good health to avoid the need for pharmaceuticals, or even the natural remedies I tell you about too.  Clean diet and exercise are hugely important to good health, and I've posted TONS of recipes in the past year to help you make healthy eating fun and easy.

I have to say writing this blog has been so fulfilling.  I love knowing that I've helped people, I love finding out that I'm not alone in my desire to live a more natural lifestyle (or in my belief that the pharmaceutical industry is out to get us...), and I love getting to research more topics to continue to share with everyone.

I hope everyone has enjoyed reading so far, and please remember that if you have any questions or are interested in learning more about certain topics, don't hesitate to ask!  I love sharing my thoughts!

Guilt-Free Friday: Pumpkin Blondies

Whew, almost too late posting this, and I don't want to miss yet another Guilt-Free Friday! Especially with this recipe.  I've already made it twice, and looks like a third batch will be coming up soon!  They're SO GOOD.  It's pumpkin season, so time to make some pumpkin recipes!  I roasted my first pumpkin, and it worked well!  So no more canned pumpkin puree for us!
Roasting a pumpkin is pretty easy.  Find a smallish pumpkin, they've got better flavor, and follow my spaghetti squash instructions and scoop out the meat when it's done cooking.  Then send it through a blender (or send a hand blender through it, much easier).

I was going to make a bunch of different recipes out of one pumpkin, but these blondies are so popular at my house that I've just been making them over and over!  I based it off of the sweet potato brownie recipe, and tweaked it to work with the pumpkin flavor.  Harlee's been requesting them for breakfast.  And ya know what?  That's okay!  Ah, the joys of the Paleo lifestyle!

Here's the recipe:




1 cup pumpkin puree

3 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted (melt it in your dish in the preheated oven - then your dish is greased and ready to go too!)

1/3 cup honey (or liquid sweetener)

3 tbsp coconut flour

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp cloves)

1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix pumpkin, eggs, oil, and honey in a bowl.  Add flour, spices, baking powder, and salt, and mix until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Transfer batter to your greased baking dish and bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes.  Let cool, and enjoy!

In Honor of Halloween: Scare Tactics

Figured this would be a good topic to cover in honor of a holiday that's all about scary things and fear!  I had written this awhile back but never published it.  I decided now is a good time to get it out there.

I need to vent a little bit.  It feels odd knowing I'm about to get all opinionated and get up on my soap box while bearing in mind that there are a LOT of people reading this... It's crazy how much this blog has grown in popularity... I always just think it's small since it only shows like 21 or 22 followers on the side bar... but apparently that's just through Google and there are WAY more than that reading... judging by the fact that I've gotten stopped by total strangers a couple of times already who ask me, "Hey, are you the author of that blog?"  Super cool... but at the same time a little intimidating!!

But I need to vent.  I'll try to be as nice as I can.  As I mentioned in one of my previous posts about my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week, a close family member fell ill.  She's not doing well, but I'll write about that in a future post.  What I'm writing about happened about two-ish months ago.  Well, since she fell ill I've gotten to see just how SCREWED UP the medical system is.  She's diabetic, and had switched over to a doctor in Belleville because she was getting tired of her Red Bud doctors.  Well she certainly jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire with this move.  This doctor woman decided she needed to be on cholesterol medication, blood pressure medication, an insulin injection for her diabetes, and some other diabetes medication.  My family member tried to argue with her about the cholesterol and blood pressure meds, as they're pretty much pointless and going to cause you more harm than good in the long run (I'll probably write individually on these topics soon), but the doctor insisted that if she doesn't get on these meds then she's going to die.  So she took them, because she certainly didn't want to die!

This happens A LOT.  It happened to me, it's happened to other family members, it's happened to friends, it happens to the majority of people out there.  Scare tactics.  I don't know who these doctors think they are getting off using these measures to FORCE patients to obey their orders, but it's not fair, it's not kind, and it's not dignified.  It's like doctors forget we are PEOPLE with feelings and thoughts and concerns, and most importantly that we have the ability to make decisions for ourselves.  And when we're put under that kind of pressure from doctors using scare tactics, the majority of us forget that we're people with feelings and thoughts and concerns and the ability to make decisions for ourselves.

If you have a doctor or go to a doctor that likes to use or has used scare tactics to make you agree to taking a prescription or having a procedure done or even going into surgery, or doesn't take kindly to you asking further questions about his or her advice, FIND A NEW DOCTOR.  Have enough self respect to not let people BULLY you into decisions regarding your HEALTH AND WELL-BEING.  We are fortunate enough to live in a day and age where information is at our fingertips.  We can do our own research, we can talk to people who have been there and done that, we can make informed decisions for ourselves.

If you're told to get on a drug or told to have some sort of procedure done and something in the back or your head or the pit of your stomach is causing you a little discomfort about the idea of that drug or procedure, sending up a red flag, then allow yourself some time to think about it before doing it.  If your doctor is telling you you're going to die if you don't take the prescription they're pushing on you, go find a more respectful doctor.  Doctors should be here for us to guide us down a road of health and well-being.  How is scaring us and putting horrible ideas in our heads helping us at all?  Doctors don't control you, govern you, or live in your body - you do.  Doctors should be looked to for advice, not for orders.  And then do your own homework when it comes to the advice you get.  Make sure that advice really does suit you.  What are the side effects?  Who else is on this medication that you can talk to?  How long has it been available - is it something newly released on the market that doesn't have much research to back it and you can't know what you're getting yourself into?  What are some alternatives to this drug - in what ways can you adjust your lifestyle to give yourself the chance to not even need it in the first place?

Being sick is scary.  Being diagnosed with a disease is even scarier.  Too many doctors take advantage of that frightened state of mind and talk you into doing things that may not exactly be necessary.  I mean, let's face it, we're all vulnerable and gullible when we're scared, aren't we?  We'll do anything to save the day, and more than likely do it without hesitation.  And doctors know that.  So if they can offer you a drug that could MAYBE save the day, the patient just does what they're told.  Anything to live!  Anything to save their health!

What if that drug makes things worse?  Or what if it fixes the problem at hand, but gives you far worse problems down the road?

My wish for the world is that everyone learns to take their health into their own hands.  Take responsibility for this body you've been given.  And I hope to someday see a day that doctors become respectful advisers. Sure, there are some out there, but not nearly enough.  Doctors are not God.  They do not live in your body and know what you experience on a day-to-day basis.  You do.  Doctors have an education to work off of, but that doesn't mean they have all the answers.  Listen to their advice, but follow up on it before jumping into it.  And run away FAST if they try to bully you into a decision.

The Mysterious Charley Horse

All in one week I think I've had at least four clients bring up the question of charley horses.  What are they and what causes them exactly, and what can we do to prevent them?

MY question is, where the heck did a muscle spasm get the name "Charley Horse"?

I guess that's not as important though.  Because these guys are PAINFUL, and I guarantee if you're in the midst of one you are NOT thinking, "Hmm, why is this experience called a charley horse, anyway?"

And because they are so painful, I would guess that's why people are asking me what causes them and how to avoid them.  They want to get rid of this problem ASAP!


Charley horses are muscle spasms, and those can occur in any muscle in the body, but most commonly they occur in the legs.  What's happening is the muscle contracts involuntarily and is unable to relax.  Normally they'll either occur during sports or intense exercise, or on the contrary at night while sleeping or just when waking up.  They are generally caused by overuse or injury, or dehydration.  They can also come from not having enough minerals in your body like potassium or calcium.  Another cause could be irritation in the nerve that connects to the muscle.  Remember my post about chiropractic care?  That can explain how to avoid nerve interference.

So what can you do about them?  Massage is a good option, and if it occurs in the calf then gently rubbing from behind the knee and down towards the foot can help encourage the muscle to relax.  Applying heat to the muscle helps as well, as warming the muscle fibers helps them to soften and loosen up.  If you seem to be prone to them lately, try soaking in a bath of Epsom salts regularly.  Cutting back on alcohol, coffee, or caffeine intake may help as well, as these are diuretics and can dehydrate you.

Be sure to get in some good stretches before and after any kind of exercise, and also before going to bed and upon waking in the morning.  Drink plenty of water (one good way to know how much water to drink is to consume, in ounces, half your body weight in pounds - for example if you're 150lbs, drink 75oz of water), especially when it's hot outside or if you're sweating a lot such as during exercise.  You may also want to look into a good potassium or calcium supplement (preferably from a whole foods source but definitely non-synthetic), and Vitamin E is also a good helper when it comes to healthy muscles (but this vitamin is HIGHLY important to take in whole food form as the synthetic version of vitamin E has been linked to cancer).

As for the term Charley Horse, it possibly comes from American slang from the 1880s and the pitcher Charlie Radbourn (aka "Old Hoss") who supposedly suffered from cramps.  We're not the only ones with weird names for these cramps though - in the UK they're called a "dead leg", in Australia they're called a "corky", in Norway they're called "thigh hens", Israel and Finland call them "wooden legs", and Italy has all kinds of names for them like "old woman" (nice) in the northwest, "donkey's bite" in the south, or even a "water buffalo" in central areas.  I guess "Charley Horse" isn't alone in its weirdness...

Reminds me of Lamb Chop's Play-Along though...

Happy stretching!



http://www.healthyanswers.com/general-health/2008/03/hold-your-charley-horses/
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002066.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_horse