Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Paleo Thanksgiving

Part Two of my Thanksgiving post!  So I left off Monday at our Paleo Thanksgiving, and while we finished cooking the last elements of our dinner Cassie and I chatted about the whole Paleo thing, which, as I said, gave me some ideas for a blog post.

So here I am!

One thing I've noticed and I said to Cassie that night was that it seems as though a lot of people tend to over-think the whole Paleo thing, assuming off-the-wall ingredients need to be purchased and a lot of thought needs to be put into it, when really it's not that difficult at all.  Odd ingredients need only be purchased if you intend to do a lot of baking, because that's where you start replacing wheat flour with nut flours, sugar with honey, vegetable shortening with palm shortening, or vegetable oil with coconut oil.  But really, that's not all that difficult either.  Or at least I thought it wasn't.  We've got the internet at our fingertips!  There are websites upon websites, blogs upon blogs created by people who are dedicated to this lifestyle and have tons of recipes to share.  Ditch your Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and look up some Paleo cakes and cookies.  Or look at my growing list of recipes - they're all tried and true and absolutely delicious!

But seriously, how often do you bake if it's not a special occasion?  So why bake up a storm on Paleo?  I usually buy a 5lb bag of almond flour on Amazon and that lasts me a good 3-5 months in the freezer.  Sure, almond flour is expensive up front, but considering how long it takes me to go through it, it's not that bad.

Before I get too much further, if you're not sure what the point of Paleo is, read this blog post I wrote awhile back on the science of healthy eating.  Paleo is basically eating whatever foods would have been available to our pre-agricultural ancestors.  Meats, vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts, and seeds.  It's off-limits if it's been through some sort of process to get to your plate - so no grains, sugars, anything that's packaged in a box or a bag, etc.  Avoiding grains and sugars is a good idea, anyway, as they don't provide many nutrients that your body would need to process and use up all the carbohydrates that are in them.  They spike your blood sugar, putting your insulin to work, increasing your body's inflammatory response, and a whole slough of health issues can potentially arise, added to the fact that if weight-loss is your goal, it'll definitely impede your progress.

There's a bit of gray area to Paleo, though.  For instance, white potatoes.  Just a lot of carbohydrates and not a lot of nutrients to back them up.  Not good if you're trying to manage your blood sugar (which everyone should be doing, not just diabetics).  But, they're still grown in nature and not in a factory, which is why I consider it gray area.  Same with peanuts, beans and legumes.  Some Paleo "professionals" consider them off-limits, I personally think it doesn't hurt every now and then.  I haven't researched it much so don't quote me on that.  But, like potatoes, they're grown by nature and not in a factory.  Dairy is another questionable food.  Milk really isn't good for you.  It's been through way too much processing, most cows are given extra hormones and sometimes steroids to produce more, and that does get into their milk, which then we in turn drink.  Plus, it's just not natural for a mammal to drink another mammal's milk.  We're humans, not baby cows.  If you can find cheese and yogurt from clean sources then I don't have too much of a problem with that, but milk... ugh.  We replaced it a long time ago with almond milk and coconut milk and I haven't missed it.

As for dinner, it's really not that hard.  You can be as basic or as creative as you want.  Throw some chicken breasts in the oven with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper - that's Paleo.  Or get on Pinterest and find things like Peach Balsamic Rosemary Chicken - still Paleo.  And absolutely delicious, by the way!  See what I mean?  Don't be intimidated.  It's not hard.  Our dinners consist of a meat and two vegetable sides.  We're busy - I usually stick to easy, simple things, and if I find myself with extra time then I get on Pinterest and find creative recipes to experiment with.  But what it comes down to is meat and vegetables.

Sometimes it's chicken with green beans and cooked carrots.
Or we'll have pork steaks with salad and sauteed zucchini.
Maybe I'll make fish or shrimp with steamed broccoli and roasted asparagus.
Or maybe beef steaks with roasted tomatoes and brussels sprouts.

Or throw in some homemade applesauce - so easy, just roast some cored, sliced apples with a little cinnamon until tender and send it through the food processor.  Voila.  What's in season?  Butternut squash?  Roast that up like I did Sunday night.  Zucchini?  Saute it in a pan with some oil and spices.  Leafy greens?  Salads - make your own vinaigrette - half oil, half vinegar of choice (usually balsamic or red wine or apple cider is good), a little honey, lemon juice, herbs and spices of choice, boom.

Mix and match the above options.  Try new and different vegetables.  Remember my stir-fry post?  Doesn't get much easier than that!  Steaming, roasting, sauteing - if you've never done it before just look it up on YouTube, then give it a try.  If you've done it once you can do it again.  And sometimes we just don't have time to cook.  I admit, I'll open a can of green beans and boil them in a pot with salt and pepper.  It's fine!

If you have a little extra time and creativity, throw together some paleo tortillas (here's my flaxseed tortilla recipe but hang tight, I've got an even better recipe coming up soon), whip up some guacamole, brown some ground beef with chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and cumin, saute some onions and bell peppers, and you've got yourself paleo taco night.  Or cook a spaghetti squash, roll up some meatballs, find a pasta sauce with no added sugar (or make your own), and you've got classic spaghetti and meatballs.

See what I mean?  Paleo is not hard.  Eating clean is not hard.

Since converting to Paleo we've only had to go grocery shopping once a month.  I stock up on the basics, build our meat supply back up, and after that I rely on the local co-op for produce.  It comes twice a month (every other Thursday) and has a big enough variety of fruits and vegetables that I've got side dishes figured out for me and I didn't even have to think.  Get a meat out of the freezer in the morning to thaw for the evening, or the night before if I want to make it in the crock pot, and I'm good to go.

Breakfast is always some variation of bacon, sausage, ham, eggs, veggies, omelets, etc.  Easy.  Sometimes I'll make some pancakes and store them in the freezer if I'm wanting a break from bacon and eggs, but honestly I'm not interested in those kinds of breakfasts anymore - I've gotten myself to the point where the first thing I crave upon waking is some sort of protein.  It's nice to have more kid-friendly options on hand though.  Harlee loves scrambled eggs, but sometimes he's not interested in that.  I grew up eating Pop-Tarts and sugary cereal, like most kids I'm sure.  But there's no way I'd willingly start my kids' day on a heap of sugar like that.  Sometimes I'll cave and allow that stuff as a snack, but not very often, and not very much (but I have a little weak spot for that kind of stuff yet soooo... yeah.).  However, I can throw together some sweet potato brownies in my sleep, they're so easy, and they're GOOD for you while being sinfully delicious at the same time.  I have NO problem with Harlee eating those for breakfast!

Then lunch is usually something left over from the night before, or a salad, or tuna salad, or whatever.

Get it?  Paleo is easy.  Eating clean is easy.  You can do it.

Okay so I had a little Paleo Thanksgiving Sunday night and it turned out great!  It was just me and my kiddos and Cassie and her kiddos, but it was perfect.  I think she's been interested in the whole Paleo thing, so hopefully this gave her a good glimpse into what a Paleo meal might look like, and I'm going to share it with you so you can see, too!  I made a little more than I usually do, since it was a special occasion, but honestly I could make this meal any night of the week.

dinner!
The main entree was chicken drumsticks.  Since kids outnumbered adults 3:2 I figured creating a kid-friendly meat would be a good choice, and I know I always liked drumsticks as a kid!  Still do, honestly...  Anyway, this recipe was a Pinterest find and it looked yummy.  It's from GimmeSomeOven, and I must say, I was right!  It was yummy!

 Lemon, Garlic, & Thyme Drumsticks (with my modifications)

10 Chicken drumsticks, rinsed
5 tbsp olive oil
zest of one lemon plus 3 tbsp lemon juice
5-6 garlic cloves, minced (or 3-4 tsp garlic powder)
2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

I split everything in half into two ziplock bags (except the salt and pepper - save that for later) and tossed to coat.  Put the bags in the fridge and marinate for a few hours.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and arrange the drumsticks on a greased baking dish, then season with salt and pepper.  Bake for 55 minutes or until the juices run clear.  Serve hot and enjoy!


I prepped these earlier in the day and when Cassie and the kids arrived I popped them in the oven and we went downstairs to workout while they baked.  They were just about done when we were finished so it worked out perfectly!

I also made green beans, which I prepped earlier and sealed in a bag in the fridge until it was time to cook them.

Garlic Parmesan Green Beans





1lb green beans, trimmed and washed
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder or 1-2 minced garlic cloves
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Toss green beans with oil, garlic, salt, and pepper and arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Roast in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until tender.  Sprinkle with cheese immediately after removing from oven.


So easy, and so yummy!  I chose this weekend to experiment a bit with Elliot's tummy... I know I consumed dairy at my parents' house and at Justin's family's house, and so far Elliot was doing just fine, so I thought maaaaaybe he was outgrowing his dairy intolerance.  I'm not so sure though.  I ate the Parmesan green beans and the next day he wasn't too happy.  But he is dealing with teeth too, so hard telling.

While the chicken was finishing up and the green beans were doing their thing, I made butternut squash in the skillet.  Usually I roast this too, but it worked out great on the stovetop so I'm thinking I may go this route in the future.  It was certainly easy enough!

Savory Butternut Squash

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed, and cut into cubes
2-3 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 tsp dried parsley

Toss ingredients together, transfer to a skillet and cook, stirring frequently, over medium-high heat until cooked through and easily pierced with a fork.


I'm not a huge fan of sweet vegetables, like the butternut squash or sweet potatoes, unless they're prepared more on the savory side.  Sweet potatoes with butter and cinnamon and marshmallows?  Barf.  But as crunchy salty fries?  Sure, I can work with that!  Same with the butternut squash... I'm a bit picky... but prepared this way, they're delicious.

Cassie brought a quinoa dish, which was super yummy!  Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is a grain, so it's technically not Paleo, but it's one of the healthiest grains you can consume, plus it's a naturally gluten-free grain, so that puts it on the nice list too.  I'm not really on a weight-loss mission, so avoiding carbs for that reason isn't high on my priority list, but instead I'm trying to get a few more healthy carbs into my diet for the sake of breastfeeding.  Quinoa is a good option!


Harlee was like a Snickers commercial after dinner.  He was such a monster up until he had something to eat, then he was his happy self again.  He and Cassie's kids chased each other around the house and had pillow fights in the living room, which I found quite entertaining to watch.  I love seeing Harlee interacting with other kids and having fun.  It's a great feeling as a mom :).

pillow fight!
Cassie's kids provided us with dinner music
That's when we decided to bust out dessert - I revisited my vegan pumpkin "cheese"cake.  In case you missed that post, here's the link!  You HAVE to make this.  It's easy, it's healthy, okay so it's a bit high in calories but - it's healthy!!  Just take it easy and don't eat the whole pan.  You'll want to, it's that good, so just try to have some self-control.  I can't wait to start experimenting with other varieties of this cheesecake.  Cherry... Turtle... Chocolate raspberry... So many possibilities!

So good I was halfway through before remembering to snap a picture!

I guess Cassie didn't get enough baby holding in during the workout :-)
Getting selfies with Harlee is hard - he hates the camera!
Stella, on the other hand... :-D
Helping Henry with dessert, or stealing it...?
 And that was our dinner!  Yummy, easy, and healthy.  Does it get much better than that?  I'm so grateful that I found Paleo.  That I started this journey a few years ago.  It really has been a journey, too, from Harlee's birth to Elliot's birth three years later.

On Thanksgiving Day I scrolled through Facebook reading everyone's declarations of gratitude, which made me think of everything I'm grateful for too.  Of course I'm grateful for my husband, my kids, the roof over my head, but it goes so much deeper than that too.  I'm grateful for the kind of person my husband is.  That I really, truly did marry my best friend - the person I'm excited to see every day, the person I can talk to about anything, the person I want to go out and have adventures with and experience new things with, my rock and supporter.  I'm grateful for the lessons my kids brought into my life.  I'm actually grateful for the difficulties and struggles - the postpartum depression after Harlee's birth, the struggle of becoming a new mom to a colicky baby, the anger and resentment that came with all that, questioning if I made a huge mistake somewhere and I was actually never meant to be a mother... It was so hard at the time.  It took me three years to really heal from all that, and the biggest healing element of it all was facing my biggest fear and doing the scariest thing I've ever done in my life - getting pregnant again.  I'm a totally different person than I was three years ago, and I love who I am today.  I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the struggles I faced.  And that has now become my encouragement for others going through struggles - hang in there, it's happening for a reason, and if you hold strong and pull through it, you're going to be an even stronger, more amazing, brilliant human being than you ever could have imagined.

I'm grateful for the things I discovered along the way on my journey towards healing.  Like Paleo, as I mentioned earlier.  A healthy lifestyle that's easy to follow and allows me to be just as creative in the kitchen as I was before.  Crossfit - a workout routine that's fun and invigorating that's developed strength in me that I never knew I had.  Even running - my need to get back in shape after having Harlee was what led me to try running, and I love it!  And the ultimate test of strength - my natural homebirth with Elliot.

I'm grateful I was raised with a natural mindset, and spent the early years of my life learning about herbal remedies and homeopathy, so that I had a good foundation of knowledge on natural healing to build from as began creating a family.  And I'm grateful that I get to share that knowledge through this blog!

 I could go on for days about things I'm grateful for.  This house that we designed ourselves, my job that I love and the clients that I get to help, and my amazing friends that have come into my life, especially my workout buddies!

I think focusing on the things we're grateful for only draws more things into our lives to be grateful for.  That's what I've found, anyway.  So, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend filled with lots of reflection on the good in your life, so that you continue to enjoy more of the wonderful things life has to offer!

Monday, December 1, 2014

A Day in the Life of Jami: Thanksgiving, Viruses, Earaches, and Preventive Health Care

Sooo it's been nearly a month since I've posted.  I've wanted to, trust me, but finding the time to has been next to impossible.  I got both the boys in bed right now without passing out myself, though, so here I am.  I'm going to catch up.  I've got so much catching up to do I don't even know where to start...

In fact, I have so much to say, I think I'll break this post into two parts.  The first on being an update on life, the second one being my Paleo Thanksgiving.

So, first of all, I can say that this fall/entering into winter has not been kind to us.  We've been sick enough, and I'm sick of it!  Okay so it could be worse - Harlee is the only one who got sick this month, the rest of us are hanging in there.  But we've all had our turns!  Wednesday Harlee woke up in the middle of the night/early morning with a 101 fever and a headache.  We put a cold washcloth on his head and rubbed a bit of peppermint oil on his temples and within minutes he said his head felt better and he went back to sleep.  The next morning the fever was still there, so I gave him a FluGuard tablet (homeopathic remedy) but wasn't real sure if that would do the trick - usually those homeopathic remedies have to be used right at the first sign of symptoms.  I made up a remedy cocktail blend in his juice for him consisting of:
Childlife Multi Vitamin & Mineral
Childlife First Defense
Colloidal Silver

He will not take chewable vitamins.  I've tried all kinds, he won't do it.  So I've turned to liquids and I've been thrilled with the Childlife brand.  This was my first time trying the colloidal silver, though.  Silver is naturally antibacterial.  It's pretty amazing, really.  Have you ever heard of the Norwex cleaning products?  Their cloths have silver imbedded into the fibers.  I had a Norwex party a couple weeks ago - she smeared raw chicken on my counter.  Yeah.  Then swabbed it with a sanitation test swab from the health department to show it was, of course, unsanitary.  Then wiped it down with the cloth - no chemicals, just wet with water - and then swabbed it again: sanitary.  Amazing.  So colloidal silver is silver particles suspended in water, so you can get those same antibacterial affects internally.

I went to work and instructed Justin to dilute some oregano oil and rub it on his chest and rub Thieves oil on the soles of his feet.

On my lunch break I ran over to the Healthy Nut and bought some liquid Olive Leaf Extract (seriously everyone needs to own this stuff (though I prefer capsule form) - it's so amazing) to add to Harlee's juice and boost his system even more.

Justin and I started taking more olive leaf extract ourselves, along with Young Living's Inner Defense capsules, added to our regular daily supplements (which includes Juice Plus).  So far we've been in the clear!

Well, either it was a short-lived virus, or all the stuff I gave Harlee worked, because by evening he was all better and the next morning he was ready for Thanksgiving!

It snowed Wednesday, so I snapped a picture of our winter wonderland ♥

We went to my parents' house for an afternoon meal.  I stuffed myself like I do every year...

I was feeling crafty!

Dad and Harlee selfie

Opa and Elliot

Oma and Elliot

No tryptophan crash for us!!

Then Justin had to go to work :-P.  Yeah, gotta love his line of work.  He's a boilermaker, and basically the hall calls him whenever jobs come available and he can either take them or turn them down.  So a job came up this weekend, Thursday through Sunday, night shift, and it's kinda hard to turn that down with that kind of pay soooo he packed up the leftovers and headed out.  Same thing the next day - had dinner with his stepdad's family and headed out again.

Made one for Grandma and Papa too

Harlee playing with Cousin Claire and Uncle Kirk

He discovered the carrot cake...

Elliot getting some love from Grandma and Great-Grandma

Chilling with Great-Grandpa

By the way, Justin is prone to sinus infections and he seems to get one almost every time he starts a new job on nights.  He was hacking and carrying on Friday morning so I loaded him up with even more olive leaf extract, vitamin C, and inner defense.  I also diffused Thieves oil in the bedroom while he slept.  The hacking has since subsided and there are no signs of a sinus infection.  Horray!
 
My friend Rachael came over to keep me company Friday night, which is always fun!  Saturday my friend Kim celebrated her 30th birthday and annual chicken soup gathering, which was conveniently moved to the afternoon so Justin got to go, although it was only for a short while.  I could have blogged that night... The boys both passed out and I honestly thought about sitting down to write but found The DaVinci Code on tv and decided to watch that instead because I love that movie.

I was determined to write tonight, though.  Today (Sunday, which is now yesterday to you readers) was a rather productive day.  Justin came home around 9am and went to bed, I dropped Harlee off with Grandma, and Elliot and I went to town to pick up a few things for dinner that night.  I decided to have Paleo Thanksgiving with Rachael and Cassie after our Sunday workout, and I was super excited!  Picked up Harlee and headed back home where I managed to get a few loads of laundry done, cleaned the bathrooms, swept and mopped the floors, got all the dishes loaded in the dishwasher, vacuumed the rug, tidied up Harlee's playroom, PLUS got the chicken marinading, peeled and cut up a butternut squash, trimmed and prepped green beans, got my vegan pumpkin "cheese"cake started, all while being mom to a 3-year-old who needs help going potty, needs a toy fixed, needs the channel changed, etc., etc., AND a 4-month-old who happens to have the remains of an earache and wants to be held constantly.

How the heck I pulled all that off I have no idea.  But I got pretty much all of that done before Justin woke up at 2:30.

Earache - yeah, not fun.  Elliot had been a bit fussy for a few days and then I noticed he was rubbing his fist on his ear.  I poked around it and he fussed some more, so I put a homeopathic earache drop in it and he settled down right away.  Got him in to see our pediatric chiropractor and she looked in his ear and confirmed that yes, it was a bit red in there.  I started rubbing lavender oil around his ear (not in it - don't do that) and kept up with the homeopathic drops as well as adding in homeopathic Pulsatilla.  Within a couple days he was back to himself again and caught up on sleep.  Then I guess it must have crept back in because he was back to fussing this morning (which, again, to you readers was yesterday morning) and rubbing his ear again.  This time I texted the chiropractor and asked what else I could do and she said put a little breastmilk in his ear.  I had heard of that before... and I had heard of it actually working... so what's the harm?  I'd give it a try.  I syringed a little in his ear from what I had pumped the other day, diluted some Thieves oil and rubbed it around his ear and on the bottoms of his feet, and he was pretty content after that.  I let him play on the floor while I got a few things done (see list above), then when he fussed again I'd hold him, put lavender around his ear, and he'd fall asleep, which is when I continued on with the above list.

Cassie was kind enough to bring over a bottle of wine this evening.  As I recap my day I am amazed that I completely forgot to pop it open and toast my productivity and the fact that my sanity is still in tact...  How did I forget about it??  Crazy.

Unfortunately Rachael wasn't feeling well so she backed out, but Cassie came over with her two kids and we got in a somewhat successful workout!  By somewhat I mean we had to take a break for her son to go potty and for me to call Santa because my son was NOT behaving.  Not sure what his deal was my holy moley he was crabby.  So I got Santa on the phone and told him to put Harlee on the naughty list.  I thought that would work better than it did... no, Harlee continued on with his meltdown so we continued on with our workout and let him be.  With Elliot being fussy with his ear and wanting to be held constantly, we incorporated him into our workout and did:

5 Rounds
20 squats holding Elliot
10 burpees
10 lunges each leg holding Elliot
10 deadlifts (90lbs)


Basically we passed him back and forth - she held him and did squats while I did burpees, I held him and did lunges while she did deadlifts, so on and so forth.  All that up and down motion must have been pretty soothing to him because it lulled him to sleep, which worked perfectly - at the end of the workout I transferred him to his swing and we got on with dinner!

Cassie and I chatted about the whole Paleo thing, and our conversation gave me some ideas of what I can talk about here on the blog.  I started writing my ideas tonight, but it got so long I decided to write a separate post just for that topic!

So that's a wrap for this post.  Hope you learned something from my story about Harlee's bug and Elliot's earache!  Can't imagine rushing my kids to the doctor over things like that and possibly getting drugs to treat them.  Obviously that's necessary in some cases, but I feel like pharmaceuticals are way over-used in today's world.  Being able to treat my kids with natural remedies that don't cause harmful side-effects is definitely something I am very grateful for!

And on that note, hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Friday, November 7, 2014

A Day in the Life of Jami: My Medicine Collection

So I was all excited about this new series... And now it's almost been a month and I haven't written another post in it.  That's what I get for being busy I guess.  I should try to schedule blogging into my day.  It can't be that hard, can it? I mean, I schedule my clients at certain times on certain days of the week, I schedule appointments for the family on my days off, I schedule working out every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday (and add in work-outs as the opportunities arise). That's just how things get done, it's scheduled in.  Aaaaand that's why my laundry piles up... Because I don't schedule it in... But we won't go there.

Justin got sick a couple days ago.  Pretty sure my mom shared it, because she had the same symptoms.  Nothing major like the virus we all got hit with awhile back, but still no fun.  He was tired and achy and whatever this was attacked the digestive system.  So that was no fun.  I got him taking homeopathic FluGuard, which I had never tried before so he was kinda my guinea pig with that one, he was taking shots of oregano (see his strep throat adventure to learn more about that), and I upped his olive leaf extract, vitamin c, and echinacea/goldenseal (good for the immune system - I should probably write a post about those). He also had a low sugar intake, as I've been trying my best to be more strict with Paleo cooking at home, and I know that helped.  Sugar weakens the immune system - it heightens your body's inflammatory response so it more or less steals all the attention from your immune system, which isn't good when you've got a bug or virus needing attention first.  I believe he recovered quicker than my mom did, and I'm fairly certain diet played a big role in that... But I pester my mom enough about needing to form clean eating habits so I won't drag it out here ;-).

In the meantime, I was diffusing Thieves oil all over the house, rubbing it on our feet each night, plus I made a cleaner in a spray bottle - I put half witch hazel and half hydrogen peroxide (I would have used rubbing alcohol but we seem to be out) with several drops of Thieves, Purification, and Oregano and sprayed it all over everything - the furniture, the bed and bedding, pillows, rugs, surfaces, everything.

All has been well.  Until Harlee and I got hit by allergies.  Our noses are like faucets, ugh it's awful.  My throat is getting scratchy because of the drainage too.  And speaking of sugar earlier, I've been bad and stole more than my fair share of Halloween candy... so I'm really not giving myself the best chance at recovering quickly.  Harlee's been good and drinking more water than juice, plus I rub RC and Raven oil blends on his chest and that seems to help clear him up.  I'm sitting here with a cup of hot jasmine green tea with honey and lemon oil.  It's my fourth cup this morning.  I've been using lavender around my nose, which seems to help but goodness gracious does it make me sleepy... I also rubbed oregano oil around my nose (diluted with coconut because it burns) to help dry things up, which also seems to help.  I'm trying to talk myself into gargling a bit of oregano oil in a shot of my tea, but I haven't done it yet.  It's horrible.  Well, it's horrible for like two minutes, then after the hellfire in your mouth and throat wears off it turns out to be a fantastic resolution to a sore throat.  And that's what I need right now.  It's getting past the hellfire part that has me stuck...

All this excitement made me decide this is a good opportunity to share my medicine drawer contents with you.  I also got several requests for that since I posted that picture of my special delivery on Facebook.  A couple weeks ago my iHerb order came in -  I swear I get way too excited about that.  I usually try to place a big bulk order every so often - all our vitamins, immune boosters, general supplements, etc.  Then when it arrives I feel like Christmas came early.

So in this box I got cod liver oil, which is a great source of Omaga-3s and DHA.  Oscillococcinum (don't ask me how to actually pronounce that) which is a great homeopathic remedy for the onset of the flu, as is the bottle of FluGuard, and after our recent bout of that I decided I should be armed in case we ever get hit again.  I also ordered some colloidal silver, which needs a post all its own.  It's a natural antibiotic, again, a great thing to have on hand in the event of a nasty virus.  There's a bottle of vitamin C, a few bottles of liquid vitamins for Harlee (he will not take chewables or gummies for some reason, so instead I put these in his cup of juice or whatever hes drinking and it's been working great.  There's also a bottle of Echinacea/Goldenseal for immune support and pau d' arco, which is also great for the immune system.

All this got added to my medicine drawer:


I'm super proud of this drawer.  It's so much easier to locate different things than it was when I used to have everything in a cabinet, but best of all it's becoming quite full with a great variety of remedies!  I've got my growing supply of essential oils in the bottom left corner (and that's not even all of them - my most frequently used ones are in the diaper bag), my most commonly used homeopathic remedies in the bottom right corner, then throughout the middle-right I've got a bunch of herbal remedies, vitamins, etc like olive leaf extract, vitamin c, echinacea, vitamin d, and so on.  I've got things in here in place of common conventional medicine cabinet items like papaya instead of Tums or Rollaids (and it works way better and tastes better, too), homeopathic eye drops and ear drops, and the multitude of essential oils play roles like lavender for wound healing (to replace Neosporin), peppermint for headaches (although we do have ibuprofen in there, that's the only conventional medicine we've got I think) and also for digestive upset for cases beyond the scope of papaya, Purification oil in place of anti-itch cream, the list goes on and on, and continues to grow as I learn more and find more!  In the back I've got replacement bottles of things like my Juice Plus and olive leaf extract and cod liver oil - basically the things I take daily as a supplement, plus the things I don't want to run out of like Harlee's vitamins and elderberry syrup, which I add in with his vitamins if it seems like he might be coming down with something or if he's been around other people who were sick.  I'm currently giving that to him with his vitamins.  The temporal thermometer is in there, a tub of coconut oil for diluting essential oils, and a bottle of witch hazel for mixing up cleaners, bug sprays, etc.  Oh I also have Little Remedies fever reducer, too, just in case.  Little Remedies seems like a good brand of products for conventional medicines without the conventional additives, so in the event of a high fever striking that my natural remedies aren't strong enough for, I've got a safe alternative.  Luckily we haven't really needed it though, as peppermint has always helped keep fevers from creeping up too high.

Ta da!  That's my collection so far!  I'll say it again, I'm quite proud of it.  It just makes me feel really good that I've got plenty of things to help us stay healthy or recover if we do get sick, while at the same time not pumping us full of harmful chemicals or risking the side effects of conventional drugs.  Justin's learning his way around the drawer too, which is great.  I'm so glad he's open to learning more about alternative medicine, and I've enjoyed watching his trust in it grow as everything we use continues to work.  We're definite in the same boat as parents - we want to keep our kids and ourselves healthy in the safest ways!

I should get back to work now - I'm off on Fridays so this is when I try to get things caught up like laundry, cleaning, and obviously blogging :) (which obviously doesn't always happen).  Have a great weekend!

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Three Recipes in One! Two Vegan Cheesecakes and Glazed Mixed Nuts

I've gotta say, this whole dairy-free thing has led me to all kinds of wonderful discoveries!  These vegans, they sure know how to make some fabulous desserts!  Cheesecake in particular.  Justin and I both love that stuff.  It's so bad for you though... and now it's definitely off-limits for me since Elliot can't handle it when I eat any dairy products.  But that doesn't stop me!  Heck, that's what led me to the Paleo lifestyle over two years ago - I refused to give up indulging in guilty pleasures, so I found ways to replace them with healthier versions.  Same goes for this - I can't have dairy?  I'll find replacements!

In this case, cream cheese is replaced with cashews.  Oh my goodness, do they come to the rescue... I'm not even a big fan of cashews, but you really can't tell that's what this is made of!

Lucky you, I'm sharing three recipes with you in this post!  Two "cheese"cake recipes and an amazingly delicious (and equally amazingly simple) glazed mixed nuts recipe.

I'll start with the original recipe I discovered and tried for the first time.  We were having a couple friends over for dinner, Gordon and Sandy, whom we normally go out to Tequila's with, but now with two little ones it's just easier to have people over rather than hope the odds are in our favor that both babies are on their best behavior at a restaurant (not entirely likely, which makes going out to eat more stressful than it is enjoyable).  So I made this cornish hen recipe, with a salad and roasted potatoes on the side (okay so potatoes aren't Paleo but they're at least tolerable for Elliot!), but I wanted something for dessert too.  Gordon is a major chocoholic, so I knew chocolate had to be involved.  And cheesecake sounded really good... so off to Pinterest I went in search of a vegan cheesecake recipe, and voila, I found this one from Lexi's Clean Kitchen.  It did not disappoint!

So here's the recipe, with my tweaks:


Cookie Dough Cheesecake

For the crust:


2 cups almond flour
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
4 tbsp pure maple syrup
Dash sea salt
Mix all ingredients until combined.
Line a 7x11 (or 8x8, which is what I used) glass baking dish with parchment paper
Spoon in crust mixture and flatten evenly

For the filling:

2 cups raw cashews, soaked in water overnight
2-3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
Dash sea salt
1/3 cup Enjoy Life's mini chocolate chips
Extra chocolate chips for sprinkling on top
Discard the water the cashews had been soaking in.
Combine soaked cashews, coconut oil, vanilla, maple syrup, and salt in the food processor.
Blend until creamy and smooth.
Once blended, add in chocolate chips and spread mixture evenly over crust.  (My mixture was a bit warm from the coconut oil having been freshly melted so the chocolate ships melted a bit, which turned out fantastic)
Sprinkle chocolate chips on top.
Place in freezer for 4-6 hours.
Remove, slice into bars, and store in refrigerator.


Lexi was kind enough to provide nutrition facts: (someday I need to go back through my recipes and include this info...)
  1. Serving: 15 bars
  2. Amount per serving: 1 bar
  3. Calories: 253
  4. Fat: 20g
  5. Carbs: 16
  6. Protein: 6g

This "cheese"cake successfully won the approval of Gordon the Chocoholic (well, all of us, really), and they couldn't guess what the main ingredient was that replaced the traditional cream cheese.  I knew I would definitely be making this again!

And today, I did!  Once again we found ourselves with an opportunity to go out to dinner with a couple friends, Clay and Barbi, but we didn't have anyone available to watch the boys.  So, instead, we ordered from Tequila's (which is where we usually go) and ate at our house instead.  Clay likes to order a cheesecake dessert they have on the menu, and I didn't want him to miss out on dessert!  But since it's pumpkin season, I decided to tweak the above recipe to make it a pumpkin cheesecake instead.  I also decided to top it with a fantastic, yet ridiculously simple recipe I had made for a friend's daughter's birthday party a couple months ago - maple glazed mixed nuts.  They're so good it's crazy.  And I still can't get over how easy they are to make.



Here's what I came up with for the Pumpkin Cheesecake:

Make the crust as explained above.

To make the filling: 

2 cups raw cashews, soaked in water overnight
2-3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
Dash sea salt
1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin puree
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Discard the water the cashews had been soaking in.
Combine soaked cashews, coconut oil, vanilla, maple syrup, and salt in the food processor.
Blend until creamy and smooth.
Once blended, add in the pumpkin and spices, and stir to combine.
Spread mixture on top of the crust.

 To make the topping:

Follow the recipe below, but instead of two cups of whole nuts use 3/4 cup of pecans, chopped, and 2-3 tbsp pure maple syrup.

Spread the glazed pecans over the cheesecake, place in freezer for 4-6 hours, then transfer to the refrigerator before serving.  Slice into bars, and enjoy!


Everyone loved the "cheese"cake!  Again, you can't even tell that cashews are the main ingredient!  The texture and flavor are amazing, and I love how I didn't feel weighted down and almost exhausted after eating it like I would normally feel after eating a real cheesecake.

And now, I leave you with the last recipe, which I got from Bit of the Good Stuff:


Glazed Mixed Nuts:
 
 2 cups of nuts (I used walnuts, pecans, and almonds)
4 tbsp pure maple syrup

Preheat a dry frying pan (skillet) on medium-high heat.
Add the nuts and dry fry for 2 minutes, stirring continuously.  Add the maple syrup and continue stirring for about 3 minutes, until the nuts are fully coated and the syrup has caramelized and become very sticky.
Spread the nuts on a piece of parchment paper.  As they cool, the nuts will dry and become shiny, and no longer sticky.  Store in an airtight container.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Vegan Mozzarella Cheese


Harlee helping spread the sauce
Elliot is definitely dairy intolerant.  It makes things tricky for me when cheese is involved, but otherwise I've been totally fine with it.  Unfortunately, I had been craving pizza for a week or so and pizza is just not the same without cheese.  So I just kept trying to remind myself that one day I would no longer be breastfeeding and then look out, Dicarlo's, because I'd be going on a major pizza binge!

Then I found a recipe for vegan mozzarella cheese on OneGreenPlanet.org.  I thought, what do I have to lose?  I'm going to give it a try!  I'm still pretty strict about eating Paleo (at home... I'll admit I'm not as strict as I should be when we go out) so I made my dairy-free cauliflower pizza crust recipe and tried my hand at this vegan cheese.

Harlee is quite the little chef!

It was so weird... once it thickened up it totally took on the consistency of cheese... Crazy!  Fortunately it's really easy to make, tastes awesome, and keeps well in the fridge.  So all you dairy-intolerant people, fear not, for now you can enjoy pizza again!

Here's the recipe from the website:
  • 1/4 cup raw cashews soaked in water for several hours or overnight
  • 1 cup hot water
  • 2  tbsp + 1 tsp tapioca or arrowroot powder (I used arrowroot)
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 small garlic clove, minced
  • 3/4  tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
  1. Blend all ingredients together in a high speed blender until completely smooth, or with an immersion blender, for about 1 minute.
  2. Pour into a small saucepan and cook, stirring constantly over medium high heat.  Once the mixture starts clumping up, reduce heat to medium and keep stirring.
  3. Keep stirring for another 2-3 minutes until you have a big melty blob of "cheese" that's goopy and stretchy.
  4. Remove from heat and let cool a bit while you assemble the pizzas
  5. For pizza, once it's cooled just pick apart pieces of the "cheese" and stretch it out over your pizza crust.  It's weird stuff, but you can work it to make it cover the pizza.  Then just bake it according to the crust instructions posted in the link above!
     
 Enjoy!

Mine is the bottom left pizza and the rest are made with regular mozzarella.  Could you tell?
looks totally legit!

Friday, October 17, 2014

A Day In the Life of Jami: A New Series!

I enjoyed writing my Diary of a Pregnant Crossfitter series.  I kinda miss having a series - a way to check back in on a certain topic and continue writing about it, and also a way to make this blog more, well, bloggy.  Personal.  Interact with my readers, that sort of thing.

So, new series!  I was back and forth on titles... "A Day in the Life of"-something was a given, as I decided to write this to capture snippets of my lifestyle and hopefully show that being healthy isn't hard, and to also show that I'm human and make mistakes as I'm trying to be healthy.  But "A Day in the Life of a Paleo Mom" was too restrictive to diet/food topics.  "A Day in the Life of a Crossfit Mom" was too restrictive to fitness.  Plus those things don't exactly define me - Paleo is a guideline for my diet, and Crossfit is only some of my exercise routine.  "Holistic Mom" - too geared toward medicine.  The "Mom" thing in general - there's more to me than just Mom!  Finally I just settled on "Jami".  Because I'm me, and this is what I do.

This idea started recently, after a friend of mine suggested I write a post about how I get Justin on board with my lifestyle choices, as that's a problem for a lot of couples - usually the woman wants to be healthy and the husband/partner isn't on board (but sometimes I've seen it the other way around too).  I don't know, he just goes along with it...  I suppose I got lucky!  How should I write about that?  I realized it'd be hard to write about it without just talking about our lifestyle in general.  And that's what made me think, I should just give you little glimpses into our lives - healthy food choices, making time for exercising, natural medicine, husband-wife partnership, child-rearing, general thoughts, and, of course, mistakes!

And that's all who I am!  So welcome to A Day in the Life of Jami!

Today (Friday) is my day off.  I have a lovely advantage of being able to create my own schedule, of which I am grateful for every. single. day.  It finally worked out to have a couple of friends over this morning to work out in my patio gym, and their kids came along too.  Harlee is definitely getting some lessons in sharing!

I was super sore from yesterday - I had personal training at Flex (so glad to be back there!) and I got to max out on dead lifts - see just how much weight I can pick up.  Before I got pregnant I could lift 205lbs.  Which I was pretty stoked about!  The most I picked up while pregnant was 175lbs, and I may have been able to do more but obviously didn't want to risk overdoing it.  And that's how I was the entire pregnancy - I did what I knew I could handle, and not an ounce more.  So without pushing myself to my limits and beyond, I figured I probably lost some strength.  Added to the fact that I haven't been working out near as much after Elliot's birth, I was certain I did.  I went to Flex telling myself if I could lift 160lbs, I'd be happy.  Well, we kept adding on the weight and adding on the weight, and I kept picking it up and picking it up, until finally the bar loaded with 220lbs was just not coming up off the ground.  215lbs was my max - a whole 10lbs more than I left off before my pregnancy!  How did THAT happen?  Oh my goodness I was so giddy with excitement, it was a great feeling!

And this is why I work out.  I love that feeling, I love the endorphins, I love feeling good about myself.

After personal training I met up with my friend Rachael and we attempted to go for a run but we wound up at the park goofing off instead.  I found out I can still do a back bend, starting from a standing position, and then get back up again.  I can also do (a very uncoordinated) front flip.  Hadn't done that since before I got pregnant, so again I was pretty excited!  My back, however, was not.



So today, I'm feeling it.

For the warmup we did tabata step-ups and squats.  Then for the WOD we did four rounds of 65lb back squats, 20lb overhead lunges, 40lb hang cleans, and sit-ups (Teresa, who's pregnant, did push-ups instead).  It was easy enough for my soreness, but challenging enough that I didn't feel like it was pointless.  And I had fun, as usual!  Elliot decided to stay awake through the whole thing, though, so a couple of times I did the squats and lunges with him in my arms.  My back was totally okay with subbing out the 65lbs for 13.5lbs!

At one point Brittany's little guy played a little too rough with Elliot and left a little scratch on his head.  She felt terrible, but he didn't know any better so I wasn't upset.  It's a good thing to mention in this post, though, because when most parents would probably run for the Neosporin (he did break the skin a bit), I ran for the lavender oil.  I put a little bit on my fingertip and rubbed it across the scratch, then I did it again a couple hours later, and it's clearing up just fine.  Lavender is fantastic for healing wounds - scratches and scrapes, bug bits, burns, you name it.  It's soothing as well, which is definitely helpful with wounds of any sort!  I like to avoid drugs, chemicals, and strange ingredients any chance I get, so I use essential oils instead.  They're pretty awesome!  (Message me if you want to know more!  I'll hook you up!)

Justin was out doing whatever he needed to do for deer hunting preparation, so this afternoon I took the boys with me to run some errands.  We reeeaaallllyyyy need to go grocery shopping.  But, I'm pleased to say we haven't need to go to a grocery store for a whole month!  We usually do our shopping at Aldi's - can't beat the prices, plus they've really been making leaps and bounds in offering a wider selection of organic and gluten-free/dairy-free products, which is right up our alley!  In the meantime I sign up for the local co-op every other week, which gets us a huge bag of fruits and veggies for $23.  Since going Paleo, grocery shopping has been waaaay cheaper and easier, and is why it's been possible for us to only need to go shopping once a month.  We were out of any kind of meat, though, so I took the boys to our local grocery store and stocked up on meats from the Pick 5 for $20 selection.  I came home with a bunch of pork chops, chicken breasts, and bratwurst.  I'll freeze them in packs of 5 pieces and then cook about 5 of them at a time.  Like yesterday I made our last batch of pork chops and we'll eat them for lunch (or breakfast, nothing wrong with that!) until they're gone.

That's all for now, I'm going to go pop some homeopathic Arnica for my sore muscles and get on with the rest of the evening!


Monday, October 13, 2014

Artificial Sweeteners: Don't. Just don't.

I just realized I haven't written a post about this very important topic, so it's high time I get on that.  I wrote a little about it when I was first discovering Paleo and I posted a grain/sugar-free cinnamon roll muffin recipe.  But that was not enough.  This topic deserves a whole post all its own, because it's very important.  Maybe even more important to me than it ever has been before, because I feel it hits closer to home now than it ever has before.

We are approaching the 1-year anniversary of my Granny's passing.  It's still so strange that she's gone... that she's never met Elliot (well, physically anyway, I know she's with him and all of us in spirit, but it's not the same when you're still a selfish mortal, ya know?), that I haven't gotten to see her watch Harlee become a big brother, to be so proud of what a big boy he's become and what a great brother he is.  They were SO close.  Sometimes I think he loved her more than me!  But I totally get that because, well, it's Granny!  I wrote about my thoughts on the whole experience of her passing in my post about the Cure for Cancer, which I encourage you to read because I feel it's also full of very important information and food for thought.  It's important because I share with you how to prevent cancer.  Pretty big deal, especially if you've ever lost a loved one to cancer and don't want to see it happen to you or anyone else you love.  I lightly touch on the subject of artificial sweeteners in that post, and I shared a few links, but I've decided to go a little bit more in depth here.  Granny died of pancreatic cancer.  She was diabetic, and, as I'm sure most diabetics are guilty of, she turned to artificial sweeteners instead of sugar, since her body couldn't handle sugar when consumed.  But, to put it simply, artificial sweeteners are carcinogens - they cause cancer.  Her pancreas was in a weakened state due to the diabetes, so where is a good place for cancer to strike?  The weakened pancreas.  Why did cancer strike?  In my opinion, I believe her over-consumption of the carcinogenic artificial sweeteners are a major culprit.  Sweet & Lo in her tea, diet sodas on lunch outings, etc.

*Just want to add that Granny didn't start drinking the "Pink Poison" because of diabetes, she actually had been drinking it long before she knew she was diabetic - it was a diet method for her.  She was always overweight in her older age, so obviously that diet method didn't work out too well for her...

I recently learned a friend of mine, whose name I won't mention, has told people that diet soda is okay if you're on a weight-loss or body-fat-loss mission.  I refrained from totally flipping out on him :).  But with information like that going around, I feel more eager to share the REAL facts and get people to understand that, no, diet soda is NOT okay in ANY circumstance, and it WILL NOT help you if you're trying to lose weight or body fat!!  (In fact it can have the opposite affect and make you fat, but I'll be getting to that in a moment.)

What's wrong with diet soda?  It's considered "diet" because it's sugar-free.  Instead of sweetened with sugar, it's sweetened with a chemical additive known as aspartame.
Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious, including seizures and death.
One of the scariest things about aspartame, to me, is the fact that when aspartame is heated, the chemical bonds break down and methyl alcohol is released, and when exposed to temperatures above 96 degrees, methyl alcohol converts to formaldehyde.  What is your body temperature?  98.6?  So you're drinking formaldehyde.  Awesome.

Too much formaldehyde exposure can lead to some pretty serious diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS) and Alzheimer's Disease.  A research study has also been done on aspartame, linking it to blood cancer:
...the most comprehensive and longest human study — spanning 22 years — that has ever looked at aspartame toxicity. The study evaluates the effect between aspartame intake and cancer, and they found a clear association between aspartame consumption and non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and leukemia.
Interestingly enough, the longest study prior to the 22-year study was only four and a half months.  Many studies have been done on aspartame, yes, but none lasted long enough to see long-term effects.  As many of you diet-soda drinkers know, there aren't really any short-term, immediately noticeable health repercussions related to drinking diet soda (or using artificial sweeteners, etc.).  So therefore, it must be safe!

Sure, it's safe, if you don't mind setting yourself up for cancer or Alzheimer's or other terrible illnesses in your old age.  I'm sure your 80-something-year-old self will be thanking you.

But what about weight-loss?  Sugar makes you fat, right?  All those calories?  So artificial, zero-calorie sweeteners seem like a great go-to if you're on a weight- or fat-loss mission, of course!

Not so fast.  Studies have shown that eating artificial sweeteners might hinder your body's ability to estimate calorie intake, causing you to overindulge on food.  In addition, a study from 1986, which included nearly 80,000 women, found that those who used artificial sweeteners were significantly more likely than non-users to gain weight over time, regardless of initial weight.  Another study shows:
The San Antonio Heart Study examined 3,682 adults over a seven- to eight-year period in the 1980s.
When matched for initial body mass index (BMI), gender, ethnicity, and diet, drinkers of artificially sweetened beverages consistently had higher BMIs at the follow-up, with dose dependence on the amount of consumption... Saccharin use was also associated with eight-year weight gain in 31,940 women from the Nurses' Health Study conducted in the 1970s.
Similar observations have been reported in children.
Need I really say more?  Like it can cause migraines, destroy tooth enamel, lead to depression, increase your risk for osteoporosis, heart attacks or stroke, etc.?

Of course I've read articles that say aspartame and artificial sweeteners are safe.  About how studies done on animals in labs have proven that it doesn't cause cancer.  Probably because humans are the only animals that don't have the proper mechanisms in their cells to process aspartame and simply pee it out - other animals do.  Which is why the lab rats were just fine in the studies.  And of course the FDA wants us to believe it's safe, too - it sure would be a HUGE liability on them if it turns out aspartame DOES cause cancer, and they wouldn't want that, now, would they?

But maybe I'm just a conspiracy theorist.

All in all, though, I think it's safe to say we should all avoid this poison food additive and spare our health in our years to come.  I really don't want to lose any more loved ones to cancer.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/11/11/aspartame-dangers.aspx
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/11/07/aspartame-causes-blood-cancer.aspx
http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20739512_11,00.html

Saturday, September 27, 2014

The Dreaded Flu (or whatever the heck that virus was)

I'm FINALLY getting the chance to write about our adventure with the flu a couple weeks ago.  Being sick sure does suck, and it was a grueling week when it hit us all, to say the least.  I don't know how doctors do it, really.  Figuring out what to prescribe a sick person in hopes of making them better.  Hoping you've given them the right thing and not something that'll potentially make them worse and then dealing with guilt.  On top of that, dealing with multiple sick people on a regular basis, always having to tap into your resources to give the right diagnosis, prescribe the right medicine, know what to expect for recovery, etc.  Oh wait, I know how some doctors do it - they don't actually care or invest emotion into their patients.  Not all of them - I don't want to lump them all in that category.  But unfortunately way too many of them see a sick person for a couple of minutes, scribble out a prescription, and wave them off to the pharmacy.

This would be why we don't go to conventional doctors.  Thank goodness we have a trustworthy team of homeopathic doctors right across the river, or I don't know what I'd do!  Have to go to school for it myself, I suppose...  (Maybe someday...... :) )

Anyway.  After dealing with all of us being sick, including myself, I was wiped out.  Stressed out, exhausted, I needed a vacation (could still go for one, maybe...).  Everyone just needs to be healthy and quit making me worry about them.  Of course we're all going to get sick at some point or another.  It annoys me when some all-natural-minded people are like, "Oh we never get sick, we live a healthy, natural lifestyle!"  Please.  No, I don't care what you're doing or how healthy your lifestyle is, we're all prone to catching bugs or viruses or whatever's floating around out there.  It develops our immune systems.  We need to get sick SOMEtimes to HAVE a properly functioning immune system.

Well, ours got a great workout a couple weeks ago.  It started with Harlee on Labor Day weekend.  He wasn't feeling the greatest Sunday afternoon, and next thing we know he's got a fever and is throwing up everywhere.  Not fun.  So I put some peppermint oil on his feet (to help bring the fever down - it has a cooling effect on body temperature) and on his belly (to help settle any nausea he may be experiencing).  I also put Thieves oil on his feet to help support his immune system, encouraged him to drink lots of water, and let him sleep all day.  He kept perking back up and wanting to go out and play, but as soon as he tried to play he'd crash again.  Monday morning we had the Boilermaker's Labor Day picnic.  We skipped the parade because Harlee was still feeling a little sluggish, but his fever had been gone since 3am that morning so we were feeling hopeful that he was on the mend.  He insisted he wanted to go to the picnic, so we packed his umbrella stroller so he didn't have to overexert himself too much and the four of us went to enjoy the day with Justin's union co-workers.  It was a fun day and Harlee did great, despite being a little slow-moving.  Whew!  Glad that was short-lived!

We made it through the week without any issues, but Friday was a blistering hot day and Justin had been helping out some friends with their lawn business and got home feeling pretty wiped out.  At first he just thought he overdid it in the heat.  It didn't take long to realize that radiating heat coming off of him was actually a fever, especially when he complained of body aches to go with it.  Greeeaaatt.  I diffused Thieves oil, made him take olive leaf extract, and by Saturday morning, he was feeling better, and joined a friend of his at the St. Jude's benefit at the Shooting Complex.  I stayed home with the boys and suddenly realized I wasn't feeling too spunky.  I didn't feel as though I had a fever, but I was starting to feel achy and fatigued.  I took a ton of olive leaf extract, diffused more Thieves, took Young Living's Inner Defense capsules (basically Thieves and oregano in a capsule for a huge immune boost), took probiotics, and rested as much as the kiddos would let me.  Once Justin got home I was feeling much better.  100% better, actually.  We had a wedding reception to get to that evening, so thank goodness we both made a comeback!  We both figured it was over with.

Sunday morning my friends Rachael and Cassie came over for a workout, which was a lot of fun.  I love having people over to work out - it's a lot more motivating than doing it alone!  Justin and I were both still feeling great, and still feeling like we had beat whatever that was we caught.  After the girls left, Justin mentioned Elliot felt a little warm.  Uh oh.  I took his temperature and, yep, he must have caught what we had.  Oh well, ours was short-lived, so hopefully his would be too.

I spoke too soon.  By Sunday afternoon I was starting to feel like crap again, and so was Justin.  All kinds of things ran through my head - what is this?  How long is it going to last?  Is this what Harlee had?  Does Elliot feel this crappy?  God I hope I didn't share it with anyone like my friends at the wedding (especially a few pregnant friends and the bride and groom, who had a honeymoon to enjoy) or Rachael and Cassie who were just at my house!!

Justin and I had fevers around 102-103.  Body aches, chills, fatigue, horrible pressure in our heads... it was not fun.  Elliot was drowsy and had a fever around 99-100.  I kept an eye on it, but I didn't want to give him any drugs because we need fevers to fight off whatever this is we were inflicted with.  I put peppermint oil on his feet like I did for Harlee, and ran the diffuser with Thieves.  Justin and I took a ton of olive leaf extract again and also the Inner Defense capsules.  I looked through my homeopathic remedies book for suggestions for what to do with a fever, and Aconite seemed to be the best match, so I gave some to Elliot.  It seemed to help, as his fever went down to the low 99s and sometimes dropped back to 98.

Monday morning was horrible.  I'm not one to normally get headaches, so I can safely say this was the worst headache I'd ever had in my life.  My eyeballs hurt.  I couldn't look up or down or side to side, and if I turned my head too quickly it felt like my brain was rattling around in my skull.  I still felt fatigued, my whole body ached, and the chills I had made me want to stay hidden under the covers.  Justin was in the same condition.  Elliot's fever was dangerously close to 102.  We were not getting better, and with a fever like that in a 7 week old, I'm not messing around.  I called the pediatrician to get him in, and scheduled an appointment for early that afternoon.  In the meantime I tried giving him Little Remedies fever reducer, because that was just too high for such a little guy and we needed to do SOMEthing, but he proceeded to puke it back up.  So much for that.  I stayed on top of the Aconite, and his fever crept back down to 99 again.  We took turns taking scalding hot showers, which, even though we had fevers, worked wonders for the chills we were experiencing.  I let the hot water pour over my face, which actually helped relieve some of that hideous pressure.  On top of all this, Justin and I both noticed our throats were feeling slightly sore.  I really didn't want to deal with a sore throat - what we were already dealing with was plenty, thanks.  Justin went straight to the bottle of whiskey and grabbed the oregano oil - after his strep throat experience, he doesn't mess around with sore throats anymore and knows just how to nip this stuff in the bud, and so do I thanks to that learning experience!  He made a shot of whiskey with a drop of oregano oil, and made one up for me too.  That stuff is awful, as I'm sure I've mentioned before.  The oregano, that is.  Ugh, it burns sooooo bad... But once the hellfire in your mouth is over with, it's amazing the difference it makes.  I gargled and forced myself to swallow it, knowing I wanted that oregano to work its magic internally as well, and amazingly, I found relief.  It cut the body aches in half, got rid of the fatigue, and helped ease the headache a little more.  Thank goodness, I was now feeling more optimistic about the journey to St. Louis to see Elliot's doctor.  Before, there was no way we were fit to drive.

I had my mom come rescue us - Harlee had not caught this evil bug, thank goodness, but, therefore, he had way more energy than we were capable of dealing with in our condition.  She took him home with her and we spent the morning sleeping until it was time to leave.  One more shot of whiskey and oregano, another round of olive leaf extract and Inner Defense, loaded Elliot up, and off we went.

Turns out we had the flu.  Awesome.  That beast can lurk around for 10 days sometimes!  Of course we weren't showing signs of fever when we got there, and Elliot didn't appear to be sick, go figure - he was alert enough and still nursing fine and wetting his diapers and was overall pretty content. To help us out, doc recommended the homeopathic remedies Eupatorium, and Pulsatilla for Elliot.  She encouraged me to stay in touch with the office about Elliot's fever - she was concerned that it could develop into something much more serious like bacterial meningitis.  If he showed signs of lethargy and loss of appetite along with the high fever, we should probably take him straight to Children's Hospital.

Back home we went.  Justin proceeded to try to continue seeding the lawn, while I rested inside with Elliot.  Not long after, Justin came back in, put ice on his head, and laid down.  Obviously he over exerted himself again..  We both still felt like crap, and fevers returned for all three of us.  Ugh.  With the pediatrician's words of concern in mind, I obsessively checked Elliot's temperature and about drove myself nuts.  Justin kept reminding me that he's alert and still nursing like normal, which was comforting but with the fever still there I couldn't help but worry.

A warm bath helped Elliot's fever come back down, and after getting him out of the tub I put Thieves on his feet, then diluted a drop of Oregano oil in a couple teaspoons of a carrier oil (I used Young Living's natural vegetable oil but anything works - coconut oil, almond oil, jojoba oil, etc.) and rubbed a fingertip full on his chest, then added a drop of Frankincense to the mix and rubbed a bit of that up and down his spine.  Obviously there was excess, so I rubbed the rest on me and Harlee's necks, chests, and abdomens.  It's a good idea to dilute essential oils for babies, as they're so much smaller than us adults and we don't want their tiny livers to have to work too hard to process that high concentration of the plant's healing components that are in the oils.

Another high dose of olive leaf extract, some added vitamin C and probiotics (less vitamin C for me in case too much became present in my milk and upset Elliot's belly), more Inner Defense, Thieves on our feet, /thieves and Frankincense in the diffuser, and off to bed we went.

Tuesday we were finally feeling better.  The fevers were gone for Justin and me, but we both felt like we had been hit by a bus.  We kept up with the supplements and oils, and Justin was the first to notice a splotchy red rash covering his body.  I brought Elliot in to the chiropractor that evening, and she adjusted us both to help our immune systems continue to fight this off for good.  She felt optimistic that we were all on the mend.  That evening I got the same rash Justin had.  Knowing that rashes are usually a form of detoxification for the body, and our skin being our largest organ that's the quickest exit route for toxins, I was feeling optimistic that we might actually be done dealing with this.  Justin's fever hadn't returned since he noticed his rash, and he'd been feeling back to normal.  I was feeling like myself again too.  More supplements, more oils both externally, internally, and diffused, another warm bath for Elliot because he wasn't quite over this yet and still had a low fever, and we all went to bed.

Wednesday I felt 100% like myself again, and pretty certain it had run its course for Justin and me.  Elliot seemed to be doing better too, and Harlee still showed no signs of contracting this nasty virus himself.  I noticed Elliot had the same speckled rash that Justin and I both had too, so I was feeling even more hopeful that this was finally over with, as that rash signaled the end for both of us the day before.  We took the boys to my parents and Justin and I went out to lunch together and did some grocery shopping.  It was our 4 year wedding anniversary, so what better way to celebrate?  Haha :).  I'm just glad we weren't sick and had to celebrate our anniversary in misery!  Mom said Elliot did fine, though his fever was still at 99 when we came back to pick them up.  He ate fine and remained alert and his usual wiggly baby self all day, though, so she wasn't worried.

The fever was still concerning to me, though.  I wanted it to go away for good.  I especially wanted this to quit messing with my head - I thought the rash meant it was over with, why was the fever still present?  Justin reminded me of how ours came and went, and just when we thought we were getting better it would come back again, and since Elliot has what we had then we can expect the same of him.  But still.  He's 7 weeks old and tiny.

And I'm responsible for him.

That was the worst.  He couldn't tell me how he felt, what he needed, what he thought, nothing.  I had to guess.  I had to hope that my instincts were correct.  That was scary, too - what if I assumed everything was fine when really he had something dangerous that needed medical attention?  Or what if I let my fear get the better of me, take him to the hospital for testing, only to find out he didn't have any issues and we went through a bunch of unnecessary procedures?  I was tired and still in recovery mode myself, I was stressed, and under those conditions I wasn't as in tune to my instincts as I would have liked to be.  I leaned on Justin a lot for his input too, as his paternal instincts have always been surprisingly on-key, and just kept an eye on Elliot, hoping for the best.  His fever was still in the 99s Wednesday evening, so I stuck him in the tub once more with Lavender and Frankincense in the water, and finally just broke down.  I cried and cried.  It was awful.  I was maxed out - stressed about Elliot's health, stressed from being doctor mom starting with Harlee the previous weekend and then to Justin, Elliot, AND myself all at once, which is hard enough when you're in good health, and so much worse when you feel like crap yourself, stressed from trying to stay in tune with my maternal instincts in doing what's best for my little guy, and worrying that I was doing it all wrong and missing something important.  Thanks to Harlee's life lessons, I'm no stranger to hoping for the best only to find everything wind up the complete opposite.

I consulted my homeopathy book, decided to give Belladonna a try for little man, then I oiled everyone up, fired up the diffuser again, and held Elliot in my arms as we went to sleep Wednesday night.  I'm not religious at all, but this was the second time in less than two months that I found myself praying to whoever would listen for everything to just be okay.  Please just let everyone be okay.

And FINALLY Elliot woke up fever-free and remained that way the rest of of the day Thursday.

I needed a vacation.

So, that's my story of how we kicked a nasty virus that potentially could have stuck around much longer than it did, thanks to essential oils (peppermint, lavender, Thieves, oregano, and Frankincense), homeopathy (Aconite and Belladonna at home, Eupatorium and Pulsatilla from the doctor), herbs and supplements (olive leaf extract, probiotics, vitamin C), and lots of rest and patience.

And I hope I never have to deal with something like that again!

By the way, once all this was over I mixed a spray bottle with half water, half rubbing alcohol, and about ten drops each of Thieves, Purification, oregano, and lemon oils and sprayed EVERYTHING.

The end.