As I sit down to write this, I wonder where to begin. I’ve
wanted to share this experience for the last little while, but it’s
overwhelming, and lengthy. Now that it’s June, I find the timing appropriate
since it’s officially been an entire year since I began exercising on a regular
basis. I’ve exercised consistently for an entire year! This is certainly an
anniversary of sorts for me; a marked beginning for sure.
Yesterday, I took some extra time to really breathe. I got
up early and went on a jog and I couldn’t believe how changed I feel. I
remember how desperate I felt last year at this same time, and how free I feel
now.
This post isn’t about exercise, however. While exercise has
benefited me on just about every side throughout the last year (read about it here), my diet was so
poor. I tried to justify to myself, as I had for so many years, that food
didn’t matter. I remember pondering on New Year’s how thankful I was for the
changes that I had made in my general fitness, but I knew my diet could
improve. I made no changes, though, really. Mr. Keller and I love to eat. And I
hated the thought of how restrictive an actual ‘diet’ would be. So I did
nothing.
Fast forward to the middle of February, I began noticing
that over the course of the previous six months, my fibro and chronic fatigue
symptoms seemed to be changing, and not in a good way. I started to develop
different pains in my knees and numb fingers and arms, constant ringing in my
ears and overall, my body hurt in a different, worse way. My body was so
inflamed all the time. I hadn’t been able to wear my wedding ring since
October, which had never happened at all in the past (not even in pregnancy).
Usually, I would wake up inflamed and my swelling would subside later in the
day, but this was more constant, and it never went away. I was becoming
concerned about MS, or Lupus, thinking that many of the newer symptoms I began
having were reflective of those. On top of this, I was filled with anxiety
about everything. Especially social situations, and especially church. I can’t
pretend that I’ve ever loved going to church. A room full of people makes me so
uneasy. It takes a lot for me to get there Sunday mornings. But I hadn’t been
to Relief Society for over a year. And whether I would have admitted then or
not, I was becoming dysfunctional.
One Sunday in the middle of February, I woke up feeling sick
as usual, but when I got out of bed, it was hard for me to walk. It was like I
couldn’t move my legs right. It was not like a pulled muscle or back pain. It
was a paralyzing feeling; a numbness. I thought back to what could have
triggered something like this, since I can usually track my ‘bad days’ to
certain triggers, but I couldn’t think of anything. I stayed home from church
that day and I remember feeling worried and desperate and lost at what I should
do. I had always been adamant about not taking any sort of pharmaceutical
prescriptions, but I also knew that I wasn’t functioning, and something else
was happening inside my body. I remember kneeling down in my room. It was so
quiet since the boys were at church. I folded my arms and looked up at the
ceiling and I asked for help. My prayer was for help.
I sat down and googled a few things, and then felt prompted
to google ‘Doterra For Fibromyaligia’. I had been sold on Doterra’s essential
oils since October, when I ordered several products to help me through the
winter. I had googled this before, but I wanted to see if anything new stood
out to me. It brought me to a website that a woman had created to share her
story about how she healed her body through Doterra oils and through NAET
treatments. I had never heard of NAET before. It stands for Nabudripad’s
Allergy Elimination Technique. Basically, the idea of it is that chronic
illnesses and the majority of other health issues stem from our body reacting
to allergens. Through kinesiology and acupressure on the twelve meridians of
your spine, they identify and treat allergies and are able to sort of ‘restart’
your body’s memory of these allergens so that your body doesn’t recognize them
as such anymore. A cure for allergies. As I researched more, I was shocked by
how many people had found success in this simple treatment and I was anxious to
try it myself. I found a doctor in Idaho Falls and made an appointment to see
him. I was anxious to give this a try. The first appointment, the doctor
explained to me in more detail how it works and the reason why they can only do
one allergen per appointment. The full treatment is around 40 treatments (I
think? I can’t remember.). I remember feeling immediately overwhelmed at this,
because I knew this would never work. There were no doctors in Pocatello that
were certified with NAET and traveling back and forth that many times to Idaho
Falls seemed daunting. And really, what if it didn’t work? I went home and
prayed about it. I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to go ahead with
NAET treatments, but I did get back on the lady’s website and read more about
what else she did to help her body heal, and I was very impressed with how she
explained why diet is so important. She also talked a lot about Doterra
products and how she was able to cleanse herself through the products. I
remember making a marked decision to apply our money towards the Doterra route,
instead of the NAET route. I promptly ordered several of the products and when
they came, I hopped on Edge Essentials to get some advice on the best way to
use the products. Edge Essentails is a Facebook support group for Doterra
users. It allows us to be able to communicate with each other in an open forum,
asking questions and advising about Doterra products.
I specifically asked for instruction on how to use their Zendocrine
cleanse, as I had just ordered that and wanted to begin using it, and the
response I got lead me to a video presentation that had been recorded from a
Doterra conference and uploaded to youtube. Looking back, I recognize this as
the direct answer to my prayer. This video presentation changed my life. (Click here to watch/listen to the presentation.)
Doterra's Melissa Guthrie is the presenter and the theme
of her 1 ½ hour presentation is detoxification and internal cleansing of the
body. I immediately began watching it, doubting I would get through the entire
thing, since it’s quite lengthy. Well, I watched the entire thing (and then
watched it two more times). It was like I was having a million ‘lightbulb’
moments at once. Light entered my mind. It all made sense. It talked about how
we, as a society, are on major toxic overload. We are exposed to and digest
toxins in such an excess that we are literally shutting down our bodies. It
talked about the toxins that are in our beauty products, lotions, soaps,
laundry detergent, household cleaners, pharmaceutical prescriptions and over
the counter pain killers. It talked about the harmful chemicals in our water,
in our air, and perhaps the biggest of all, the toxins in the food we eat.
It talked about how our body’s natural ability to detoxify
itself is so bogged down, we begin to develop health issues like chronic
fatigue, fibro, lupus, chrons disease, irritable bowl, add, adhd, autism,
depression and anxiety disorders and many many more.
She explained in detail what happens inside our bodies when
our major organs, stomach and digestive tract aren’t able to function like they
should, and how they are all connected. You can’t have a stomach issue without
having issues elsewhere. Nothing is ever isolated. Your body is so intricate
and universally depends on all parts of your body as a whole to maintain good
health. And ultimately, she explained in great detail the physics of how
certain Doterra products can help cleanse, renew, restore and heal your body.
She also talked about diet and how important it is to eat
good food. And not only to eat good food, but what eating bad foods really does
to your body. In addition to this video, I had also been researching more on
organics and genetically modified foods and how to label-read and recognize bad
ingredients.
So here we are, in the middle of February, I decided without
much thought, we were going to jump right in with both feet. We were going to
change.
And we did. Cold turkey, I stopped buying at least 95
percent of what I would have bought the week before. I stopped buying seasoning
packets, mayo, deli meat, chips, Yoplait yogurt, sour cream, tortillas,
storebought bread, boxed cereal, granola bars, fruit snacks, boxed treats,
candy, canned foods and canned soups. There wasn’t a thing on my usual grocery
list that I ever bought again. These foods were poisoning us and I steadfastly
knew it. I just knew it. It all made sense to me. I don’t know why exactly I
began to believe this with such a passion, but I did. And I never looked back.
God helped me.
Costco became my best friend. We switched to buying most
produce and fruits in organic form, and if not organics, at least non-gmo. I also
use organic flour and organic sugar now, and all my baking supplies are either
organic or at least non-gmo. It took a long time for me to be able to find
things we could safely buy and eat. I was so incredibly shocked at how
deceiving food companies are. Companies like Nature’s Valley, who, with a name
like that, you’d think would produce healthy foods. Not so. Their granola and
granola bars are extensively GMO. I couldn’t believe how nearly every label I
would read had something bad added in. Even the produce we buy. You may think
you’re making a healthy decision, but you really can’t comprehend the amount of
chemical/hormone/antibiotic involved in growing and harvesting produce, dairy
and meats. And we consume these foods.
I began to realize, not only was I on extreme toxin
overload, my body was starving for nutrients. I weighed more than I ever had
before (except during my two pregnancies), but I was starving. Every symptom my
body was relaying to me was telling me this.
We began having green smoothies every single morning. We cut
out all fast food, making it a point to go out for dinner (for real food) just once
a week. Mr. Keller began exercising too, and it didn’t take very long for us to
begin feeling a significant difference in our health.
I didn’t have all the suggested Doterra products for their full
30-day cleanse that was recommended in the youtube presentation, but I did have
a few. And I knew I would do everything exactly as instructed, but I knew that
I wanted to divide up the different cleanses and do them consecutively, instead
of all at once.
I had what I needed to do the Zendocrine Cleanse, and so I
began this. And oh, how sick I was! So sick! My body and head hurt so bad and
my brain was in a fog. Not knowing exactly if this was part of the cleanse, I
assumed this was my body beginning to detox my major organs. I remember at the
end of one day, I was feeling so emotional and discouraged, wondering if this
was really even going to help me, since I was feeling much worse. I asked Jared
to bless me. I sat in the kitchen and cried, as I heard in the blessing exactly
what I needed to hear. The blessing validated that was I was on the right path.
In the blessing, I was told I needed to endure the long weeks ahead. This gave
me the encouragement and the conviction I needed to know that I was on the path
God wanted me to be on. I desperately didn’t want to be grasping at straws in
this endeavor. It was costly and it was taking all the energy I had to keep
going; to keep educating myself and to keep with the routine I had began with
healthy meals, green smoothies daily, and the cleansing process itself,
accompanied with flushing my body with water. It was this blessing that helped
me know that God was the one leading me. I was applying myself, educating
myself and working hard at this, but this blessing helped me see the light at
the end of the detoxification haze; that there was a promise and hope for
healing.
After the first two weeks of the Zendocrine cleanse, I began
feeling a lot better. And another two weeks after that, I completed it. I then began
GX Assist, which is a gastro and intestinal cleanse. I did this for ten days,
then I began their PB Assist, which is their probiotic capsule. The idea of
this is the gx cleanse cleans your digestive system out, and then the probiotic
restores the healthy gut flora/bacteria in your stomach and intestines.
And after all the cleansing, I ordered my first shipment of
their Lifelong Vitality Trio, which is essentially a set of nutritional
supplements, or what you would take in replacement of a daily multivitamin. The
trio is comprised of three different bottles of capsule supplements. One is a
micronutrient complex with all the vitamins and minerals, one is an omega
complex and one is a cellular complex. I’ve been on these for two months now,
after finishing my cleansing and these have changed my life. I will never be
without these products ever again. We have thrown hundreds and hundreds (and
probably thousands, if I really added it up) over the last several years at
herbal supplements and remedies to try to help with the health issues I have
struggled with. I can say with confidence that nothing has ever helped me like
these supplements have, and like this diet change has.
Mr. Keller had been on a monthly prescription for stomach
issues for the last three years and within one month of changing our diet, he
was able to go off of it completely. He’s now nearly symptom-free. He’s down
nearly twenty pounds (since February). We talk daily about how thankful we are
that we have been able to see and feel changes within ourselves.
I remember feeling so desperate at the beginning of the
year, struggling to come to terms with the fact that chronic illness may just
be my struggle in life. I remember the thought came to me, though, through my
doubt, that Heavenly Father wanted for me to be healthy. I kept feeling so
guilty about how my health was affecting my role as mother, and how sad it was
that my children were seeing me being left behind because I was unable to cope
with social situations and church and other activities. While I can identify
with the fact that some people simply have ail bodies in comparison to others,
I also can bear witness that there are daily decisions that we make that
directly affect our health. There are very blunt consequences to poor diet, and
those consequences become more harsh with every passing day (and with age),
until one day, there may be irreversible damage that you can’t come back from.
I have come to understand that our daily choices of how we care for our bodies
through exercise and food determine everything. I read a quote that basically
stated you either get healthier or less healthy with each bite you eat. There
is no way around this fact. It is true.
Genetically modified, hormone and
chemical infested food cause illness and disease and these foods are everywhere
we turn. The consequences of consuming these foods will eventually be
manifested in one way or another in your health. There is no way around it. It’s
easy to unknowingly justify consuming these foods because it is so difficult to
identify the ingredients. Educating yourself is absolutely imperative. It takes
time and it takes energy. But it is so worth it. And your body immediately begins
thanking you.
There’s a proverb that says, “Let thy food be thy medicine
and thy medicine be thy food.” I can testify that this is true. Both Mr. Keller
and I have been so struck by how we were abusing the word of wisdom for so
long. And how the word of wisdom is not just about what we should not do to our
bodies, but what we must do for our bodies. It’s a commandment to exercise our
bodies and to eat good, whole foods. How our bodies need movement and
stretching and deep breaths! Our bodies are so incredibly miraculous. And they
need nourished; physically, spiritually and internally.
I cannot begin to express my gratitude for the wellness I feel.
Almost every morning, I tell Jared how strange it is to wake up being able to
move. The absence of pain. This is a miracle in my life. While I regret so much
the years I abused my body, I’m so thankful to have the knowledge I have now. It
is a treasure to me.
I’m thankful I did not give up on my body and that I did not
give up on Heavenly Father. For all the prayers and blessings I’ve had
throughout the years, I can testify that the difference was that I somehow
opened my heart to listen. It was like Heavenly Father was saying (like he does
so many times), I’m waiting to bless you, please follow where I’m leading. There
was (is) work involved and change required. It was painful. But the blessing
and the health I’m feeling now is such a miracle. It’s such a gift. I have
learned how resilient our bodies are. They are smart and incredible and Godly. And
it is never too late to change.
---------------------------------------------
I wanted to write a bit now about the process I sort of
took. This was all new territory to me, so it was really an education process. And
I’m still learning. It’s overwhelming to make big changes like this, but I
think the most overwhelming part was that I didn’t really have a guideline to
follow. So, for anyone who may ever read this, if you’re looking to make a
change, this next part is for you.
In a more condensed, lesser-winded version (or not), here’s
what we’ve done, and the following paragraphs are some suggestions. I will also
mention that I don’t believe these are things you can pick and choose from,
when hoping to make a change and feel a difference in your overall health. I
firmly believe, as I always have, that when you’re making changes like this,
everything works together to bring about the result, or the benefit. Sure,
exercise will make you feel better and it is good for you, but what I’ve found
is nothing, NOTHING can compensate for a poor diet. I know that the wellness I
feel today has come about because I’ve consistently done a list of things. Here’s
this list – each is so important.
-Exercise daily
-Eat a non-gmo food diet
-Drink green smoothies daily
-Reduce toxin exposure (drinking filtered water, using
all-natural cleaning supplies, and wearing all-natural deodorant)
-Detoxifying with Doterra products
-Daily supplements (Doterra products)
For anyone wanting to make a change, here’s where to start.
Exercise
Start with a goal of at least twenty minutes a day, five
days a week. Find a piece of exercise equipment that you can have in your home.
This is a must. I know these take up space and can be expensive. But there are
plenty of used treadmills or ellipticals on craigslist. I spent $50 on mine and
it makes all the difference having something in my house for days when I just
don’t feel like I have the time to exercise. In all reality, I do have the
time, and it’s a lot easier to make yourself follow through, especially on days
when you don’t feel up to it. 20-30 minutes a day is all you need. Work up from
there as you can. The equipment takes up space, yes, but having it hanging out
in your house reminds you, and you somehow feel more accountable. We also have
our elliptical by our tv downstairs. I’m much more apt to exercise if I have
something to watch to make the time go by.
Diet
The first step to changing is educating yourself on how to
recognize what ingredients are bad. This took me a while and it took a while to
train myself to look on the back of each label before I put each item in my
shopping cart. It was tedious for maybe a month, but after that, now we just
buy the same things, so it’s not as time consuming.
We’ve successfully eliminated all GMO ingredients in our
diet, and we try to buy organics when we can. As a rule of thumb, USDA Organic
foods are usually non-gmo foods, but non-gmo foods aren’t necessarily organic. My
rule of thumb is it has to be non-gmo, or we don’t buy it. But I do try to buy
organic as often as I can.
Unfortunately, it’s fairly difficult to find items in
organic form in our town. Fred Meyer is a decent source (but spendy), and Costco
has a fairly good selection, too, but we don’t have a Natural Grocers or Trader
Joes. I think this is why it took me a good month or so to figure out where to
buy things we could actually eat. This was probably the hardest part. Costco is
where I do most of my shopping now. Winco has a few organics, too. Walmart is
horrid with organics. Maybe eventually this will change a bit.
As far as produce goes, a friend suggested a good rule of
thumb is if we consume the skin of the produce, it should be organic.
Costco shopping list:
Organic ancient-grain bread, organic flour, organic corn and
peas, organic spinach, frozen berries for my smoothies and several other
produce items at Costco. Costco has a Windset Farms brand of produce that is
greenhouse grown, which means very minimal pesticides are used, and they’re
produce is certified non-gmo. Costco also has other organic produce from time
to time, depending on the season. I’ve bought organic blackberries and
watermelon there recently. They are constantly switching things out. They also
have Kirkland organic tortilla chips, the Kettle brand of potato chips
(non-gmo), organic wheat crackers for the boys, organic Cascadian Farms granola
bars.
Things we eat on a regular basis:
Tillamook brand of butter and cheese (Tillamook cows aren’t
given rbst growth hormone). Organic brown eggs, organic whole milk, local raw
honey, ancient grains bread, quinoa, brown rice, raw almonds, ancient grains
chips from Costco, meat that is from hormone-free animals. I’m still searching
for grass-fed beef. We do buy our meat now from a butcher in Utah, his cows are
hormone-free, but they are grain-fed, which means they are likely fed
genetically modified corn. Still much better than grocery store meats. We eat
lots of Foster Farms turkey, as well.
My go-to green smoothie recipe:
I don't have a fancy blender (although I'd love one someday!). I just use a normal blender, and blend in the following order.
-3 big spoonfuls of Chobani greek yogurt (plain, unsweetened)
-1 to 1 1/2 cups of Silk Unsweetened Original Almond Milk (the Silk brand is non-gmo and doesn't add carrageenan to their milk like Blue Diamond does). I also never measure this. I add what I want.
-4 big handfuls of organic baby spinach -- mine comes triple-washed already, but I rinse it again.
Then I blend these three ingredients.
-Add 2 fresh bananas.
-Blend.
-Add 2-3 handfuls of frozen blueberries
-Add 2-3 handfuls of frozen pineapple (pineapple has wonderful health properties and is a natural anti-inflammatory)
-Blend.
-Add 2-3 handfuls of frozen strawberries.
-Blend.
This makes about three full glasses of smoothie, one each for Mr. Keller and I, and the boys split half. Or if they decide they don't want to drink it, as they do from time to time, I will drink another full one at lunch.
My go-to green smoothie recipe:
I don't have a fancy blender (although I'd love one someday!). I just use a normal blender, and blend in the following order.
-3 big spoonfuls of Chobani greek yogurt (plain, unsweetened)
-1 to 1 1/2 cups of Silk Unsweetened Original Almond Milk (the Silk brand is non-gmo and doesn't add carrageenan to their milk like Blue Diamond does). I also never measure this. I add what I want.
-4 big handfuls of organic baby spinach -- mine comes triple-washed already, but I rinse it again.
Then I blend these three ingredients.
-Add 2 fresh bananas.
-Blend.
-Add 2-3 handfuls of frozen blueberries
-Add 2-3 handfuls of frozen pineapple (pineapple has wonderful health properties and is a natural anti-inflammatory)
-Blend.
-Add 2-3 handfuls of frozen strawberries.
-Blend.
This makes about three full glasses of smoothie, one each for Mr. Keller and I, and the boys split half. Or if they decide they don't want to drink it, as they do from time to time, I will drink another full one at lunch.
How to educate yourself on GMOs:
Here are a few websites:
http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/tips-for-avoiding-gmos.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/030005_GMOs_foods.html#
Here's a website on the list of artificial sweeteners:
http://www.liveto110.com/complete-list-of-artificial-sweeteners/
This is a list of the genetically modified crops in the US:
Corn, soybean, canola, cottonseed, sugar beets, papaya, zucchini
and yellow squash.
Once you start looking at labels, you’ll find the majority
of the things you’re used to buying have some sort of corn or soy byproduct. It’s
in just about everything.
This is a list of high-risk GMO foods:
Canned soups, frozen food, infant formula (it makes me
cringe thinking about how I fed both my boys conventional formula, when I could’ve
bought organic. The ingredient list is frightening on formula.), sweetened juices,
boxed cereals, vegetable oil and canola oil, tofu, meat, milk, soft drinks.
Another thing I learned is never trust the front of the box.
Phrases like ‘all-natural’, or ‘natural flavors’ are not to be trusted. The
ingredient label is where you have to look each and every time.
Other high risk things I want to shout at the world not to eat or
drink:
Deli meats (especially ham), diet soda of any kind, flavored
drinks like crystal light, artificial sweeteners of any kind, canned soups,
milk that is not organic and eggs that aren’t organic brown eggs.
Other things that I’ll never buy/cook with again:
Wheat thins, traditional fruit snacks, goldfish crackers,
tortillas, tortilla chips, potato chips, Yoplait or no-name brand yogurt, boxed
cereal, granola bars, canned cream of chicken/mushroom soup, Hidden Valley
Ranch packets, bbq sauce, mayonnaise, ketchup, shortening. I could add and add
and add to this list.
DoTERRA
Without trying to sound like that one annoying friend who sells
food storage and purses and nail sets and cleaning supplies, I just want to be
up front with some simple information on Doterra. Doterra is latin for ‘gift of
the earth’. Their company launched in 2008 and their essential oils,
supplements and essential oil blends are 100% natural and certified therapeutic
grade.
It’s a one-time fee of $35 to join (and $20 each year after
that), and you then become a product consultant/wellness advocate. There are no
monthly fees or minimums, nor any stipulations on having to sign others up
(although, there is a whole beneficial business side of it all, if you’re interested
in extra income). Simply put, by joining, you have access to buying products at
wholesale pricing, which is a considerable price break. You also have the
option of enrolling in a loyalty rewards program where you receive point credit
on future orders, as well as receive free products, too.
I’m a Wellness Advocate for Doterra. While I joined for the
wholesale pricing, and not for the ‘advocate’/business part of it, I feel such
a passion for their products now, I will be sharing my favorites on a regular
basis. With continuing Vintage Farm, Doterra won’t be a main business focus for
me, but it has become a passion and I want to share with others how these
products have helped my body detoxify and heal itself in a natural way. That being
said, I can help with the enrollment process (it’s simple!) and I am happy to
answer any questions, or even order product for anyone interested in trying
them out before officially signing up.
I firmly believe in these products. It took very little time
for me to see how pure they were in comparison to the many other supplements
and oils I’ve bought in the past. These products were without a doubt an answer
to my many prayers – prayers that I had been saying for years.
They have helped me with anxiety, depression, weight gain,
inflammation, fatigue, pain, headaches, bloat, yeast issues, the list goes on.
I’ve ‘come back to church’, as my husband would put it, after technically being
inactive for a year. Along with my Fibro symptoms, I’ve lost weight and my
anxiety is manageable and much less than it was before. I attribute this to
Doterra.
Here are the detoxification products that brought me out of
my eternal fatigue (9+ years), along with the pricing for each product.
Membership: $35
Zendocrine (major organ cleanse) Capsules: $24.50
Zendocrine Essentail Oil: $24.50
GX Assist and PB Assist (stomach/intestinal cleanse and
probiotic blend): $60.50 for the pair
Lifelong Vitality Trio: $74.50
Terrazyme capsules: $37.50
Digest Zen essential oil: $31.00
Slim and Sassy essential oil: $24.50
The full cleanse and renew regimen cost is roughly $310, plus tax and shipping. Keep in mind, however, that each cleanse can be broken up. I bought the two Zendocrine products one month, and the GX and PB Assist the next month. And the third month is when I began the Lifelong Vitality Trio, which is the set of products I've been taking daily ever since. I also use Terrazyme, Digest Zen and Slim and Sassy on a daily basis. The cleansing products are to be used every other month or so, when needed.
With an order that big, there are promotional products you would be receiving as well. I'm still very new to the Doterra world, but I do know that with each product I order, I accruing points that act as cash towards my next order, in addition to free product I receive each month.
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Lastly, here's a condensed-condensed version of the steps I took, and the steps I'd suggest taking should you want to make this same lifestyle change:
-Watch/listen to the Doterra webinar on Cleansing and Detoxifying Your Body Naturally (click here). This is where it all started for me. Again, this video changed my life. If you want to make changes in your life, you have to educate yourself on WHY these changes are so important and how your health depends on simple choices you make each day. Once you have the understanding and knowledge, the difficulty of making changes becomes much easier. This video is imperative.
-Educate yourself and be able to identify preservative and
GMO ingredients.
-Read every ingredient label before putting something in
your grocery cart. Keep your phone close and google ingredients when you need
to, if you aren’t familiar with them. I still do this all the time.
-Eliminate all GMO ingredients.
-Buy organic when you can. When you can’t, you can always
look for the blue ‘Non-GMO’ label that many companies are now putting on their
foods.
-Drink filtered water. Brita is inexpensive and works well
enough, although it doesn’t filter fluoride.
-Drink a green smoothie for breakfast each day.
-Keep yourself fed, don’t let yourself get too hungry.
-Exercise at least 20-30 minutes, five days a week.
-Try not to eat past 7pm each night.
-Have one YOLO meal where you eat out each week, but make
sure it is NOT fast food. Eat at a real restaurant.
-Make a treat each week. We make oatmeal cookies on Sundays
and sometimes on Wednesdays. My baking cupboard is entirely non-gmo now, and so
I know that when I do make treats, it’s real food.
-Eliminate other sources of toxin intake – prescriptions
(antidepressants, birth control), tap water, deodorant, lotions, cleaning
supplies. I replaced my deodorant with Tom’s brand available at Fred Meyer and
sometimes Walmart, and I cannot tell you have quickly I noticed a difference in
underarm pain. My underarms were sore to the touch for as long as I can
remember. Anytime we would rough house or wrestle with the boys and my
underarms would get hit, I would actually cry because they would hurt so bad.
The pain is gone now. I also replaced a few cleaning supplies. I use vinegar
water for topical cleaning and the Meyer brand of cleanser for our tubs. It occurred
to me one day after having an immediate reaction to cleanser residue when I
bathed right after cleaning the tub that this is a major source of toxin. Our
bodies soak up the residue long after we wash the cleanser away.
-Don’t give up! If you have a day or two where you fall off
the wagon, get back on. If you stay consistent for one simple month, it won’t
take you long to realize the impact these changes have on your health, or on
the other side, the impact poor choices have on your health. I can’t express
enough that the reason this has worked so well for us is that we never set out
to lose weight, or to ‘diet’. This is a lifestyle change. And it has benefited
us in just about every aspect of health. We’re never hungry. We eat good, yummy
food and it is real! Real food is satisfying and delicious. And perhaps the
biggest blessing (and miracle of it all) is the way we feel.
I am healing. It makes me emotional to even type those
words. While I know God has performed much grander miracles in this world, this
is a miracle to me. I feel loved and so blessed.
We are well.
Hollie Keller
hollie.keller@yahoo.com
Hollie Keller
hollie.keller@yahoo.com
Amazing that food is everything. I learned that during my weightloss journey. I am still learning. We try to buy organic and nonGMO as we can afford too. With having to be gluten free I have become a label activest as well. I clean with vinegar and essential oils (not the expensive ones, but they are working for cleaning). I also use Norwex cleaning clothes. They are pretty amazing. I am constantly making changes. I have Hashimoto's (autoimmune disease which results in hypothyroidism) unfortunately all the good greens raw I cannot eat as they hurt the thyroid. I am trying to heal my gut. Such a slow process. Your product for gut ckeanse intreges me. I would like to know more. Gluten is an evil, evil product for me. It makes me so sick. I make everything gluten free. I don't eat a lot of bread or goodies even gluten free too many calories. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Please email me more on the gut cleanse, better yet, I will fbook inbox you my phone number. Thanks Hollie :)
ReplyDeleteThis was so good Hollie! Thanks for sharing!! Your story so closely parallels mine in so many ways!! Keep up the wonderful journey!! :)
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