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

Falling Out of Healthy Eating: A Learning Experience

Nobody's perfect, right?  I'm certainly not.  I have a confession to make: I haven't been very paleo since that awful week that's already been a month ago (how did that happen??).  It's amazing how some pitfalls in the road can throw you completely off track.  Suddenly crap happens in life and you lose motivation to stick with all your good habits.  That's me.  I've been managing to stay on track during the main meals of the day - my usual bacon and eggs or paleo granola cereal with almond milk for breakfast, salads for lunch, and some kind of grain-free dish for dinner with plenty of veggies.  But oh, I find myself at my mom's, and before Harlee and I leave I grab some cookies out of her snack cabinet.  Or I'm at the gas station and, oh, those peanut M&Ms sure do look good... And little by little, before I know it, I've had WAY more sugar than one person needs in one day.  Why does that happen so easily??   We've been having a lot of family gatherings lately, too.  Birthday parties with cake and ice cream and junk in general, bridal and baby showers with lots of sugary junk food.  Wedding receptions with lots of carbs and cake and alcohol.  I've gotten so off track that I find myself craving junk now... It's awful, and making it even harder to get back on the wagon.

This weekend has been the worst, and yet the biggest eye-opener.  I agreed to bake cookies for my sister-in-law's baby shower.  And there's nothing paleo about these cookies... She loves my family sugar cookie recipe, so I HAD to make those for her, and this was the first time I bought flour and sugar in over a year, plus the first time it has been in my house and the first time I've worked with it in over a year.  It was stressful and terrible.  Thank goodness the cookies turned out okay in the end.  But I forgot what a pain in the a$& working with flour is in comparison to almond flour and coconut flour like I'm used to.  My kitchen was the biggest messiest disaster it's ever been in a long time, and I was just frustrated.  And convinced I'm never going to deal with flour and sugar EVER again.

Of course I kept eating the broken or not-pretty cookies as they came out of the oven.  I felt sooooo sick afterwards.  Paleo cookies don't make me feel that way... They just make me full, and when I'm done I'm done.  These made me want to keep coming back for more, and I was reminded of how addicting sugar is.  And how heavy it weighs in your gut after eating too much... bleh.

Add that to the Fete at the Fort, a beer-tasting event at Fort de Chartres in Prairie du Rocher, and my weekend was toast.  And so was I after 7-8 different samples of beers... Of course then there was picnic food - brats and hotdogs and burgers and all those things come with buns.  And I ate enough to last me a few days...  I just kept thinking, oh, it's a cheat day.  Anything goes!

Doesn't work like that.  Especially when I've been eating my feelings for the last few weeks and I've had some sort of "cheat" almost every day...  That adds up.

And I've noticed quite a few things since I've been going back to my crappy eating habits.  Things that I considered "normal" in my life, or "hereditary" or "something I'll just have to live with".  Even things I figured I could just treat with herbal remedies, but never really considered that I don't have to deal with it at ALL.

My allergies have been flaring up, and they've been mild-to-non-existent this past spring and the previous fall.  I've always had a postnasal drip every morning that was very aggravating and disgusting, but I figured that just ran in my family (my mom and grandma deal with that too) and I was doomed to have it too, but I have apparently been taking for granted that that's been GONE for quite awhile up until recently, and here it is back again.  My energy levels are screwy.  I feel crabby more than what I think is humanly necessary.  I've been getting way too much acne.  My system just feels... off.  Oh and I'm getting a little thicker around the middle.  NOT OKAY.  I'VE WORKED TOO HARD TO GET RID OF THAT!!!

What am I doing to myself?

And, not only that, but how many others out there are just accepting mild ailments as "normal"?  Allergies, skin problems, mood issues... Stuff people treat with medicine of some sort, whether conventional or natural - could all be treated just by adjusting the diet, and then you don't need to take any form of medicine at all!

This weekend has been eye-opening, and motivational.  I have revisited issues I used to deal with that have been gone since I started eating clean.  I don't want these issues back in my life.  It's time to stop cheating so much and get back on the wagon.

It's okay to cheat every now and then.  Like I said, nobody's perfect, and sometimes you need those little cheats to not make you feel so restricted.  A grain-free/sugar-free diet doesn't need to feel restrictive in the first place - with all the recipes I've been sharing you should feel like your life can go on as it always was - but every now and then it's nice to just have some peanut M&Ms.

Just not every day... :-\

For those of you who feel my pain, I've created a new Facebook group called Clean Eating Support.  You don't have to be Paleo or anything, just avoid processed food and otherwise do what you feel is good for you.  Let's encourage each other to stay on target!!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/168208870047999/

Car Trouble

So you're getting ready to leave for work, and you notice one of your tires might be a little low.  "Oh well," you think, "I'll be fine driving to work today, I'll do something about it later."  Then you notice it's getting even lower, and affecting your driving.  "Okay, fine," you think, and you air it back up.  Ah, that's better.  Before you know it, it's low again.  Day after day, commute after commute, you keep airing it up, and it keeps going back down.  Until suddenly it just can't take it anymore and you find yourself stranded on the side of the road with a blown out tire.

How many of you readers are thinking, "Wow, how stupid, if it were flat again that fast I'd look to see what the problem was!" or "Take it in to get it checked out!"  Maybe there was a nail or something stuck in it.  Maybe there was a small leak somewhere.  Either way, you're all thinking that was a pretty stupid scenario, right?  I mean who wouldn't look into that before letting it get so bad that you're stranded on the side of the road?

Here's another one.  And this is a true story, from my mom's younger years, and it kind of makes me laugh.  She'd be driving along and would hear some strange clunking sound in her car.  Wasn't sure what it was.  Her solution to the problem?  Just turn the radio up!  Can't hear the clunking anymore!  Problem solved!

How many of you are at a loss for words on that one?  Jaws dropped in disbelief?  Who would do that to their car!?

Most people take really good care of their cars.  Regular maintenance, oil changes, tire rotations, inspections, the works.  If it's doing something that doesn't seem quite right or normal, you do what you can do to check it out, but if you can't find anything on your own you take it in to the professionals to diagnose, figure out the cause of the problem, and fix it.

Now think about something:

Do you take that good of care of your own body?  Maybe you pitched a lot of baseball in your younger years.  Now you notice you have trouble lifting your arm up over your head.  Pop a pill to relieve the pain, right?  Or maybe you sit at a desk all day or drive a truck all day, and you have this pain in your butt that's starting to radiate down your leg.  Pop a pill, it'll make it go away.  Maybe your blood pressure is a little high.  Here's a pill to regulate that!

Do you see the correlation here?  Popping pills is just like turning the radio up, or just simply airing up a tire that continually goes flat every day.  There's an underlying cause to the problem, and all you're doing is covering up the symptoms.

So what about the cause of the problem?  Does it just magically go away when you cover up the symptom with a pill?

You need to find a way to get to the root of the problem - figure out what's CAUSING those symptoms and address that cause.  Sometimes pain is bad enough that you need to do something immediately, I understand, and there have been plenty of times that I've had to take a few ibuprofen just to be able to function.  But don't think that's going to make everything all better.  Sure it may help you for the time being, but let's not forget something happened somewhere inside of you to cause the problem in the first place.  If you've got a headache right now, sure, do what you need to do to get through the rest of the day, but make an appointment with a chiropractor or massage therapist.  You could have a vertebra out of alignment or an overly tight muscle that's causing that headache.  That ibuprofen isn't going to magically fix that, it'll only hide it.  I can speak from experience from the many clients I've treated with frozen shoulder or rotator cuff issues, or sciatic nerve problems, or headaches.  I get to the root of the problem - the underlying issue that's causing your pain or restricted motion - and fix that.  Once that's fixed, the symptoms will go away too.  And you won't have to keep popping pills.

Same thing with other health-related issues, like high blood pressure.  Those things can be addressed just by altering your diet or exercising.  Making a few simple lifestyle changes can get your blood pressure to a more regular level, and you can avoid all the detrimental side effects of the medication.  Win-win.

Don't get stranded on the side of the road when it comes to your health.  If you've got a problem, find the cause and fix THAT - don't just turn the radio up and pretend it's not there.