Compromising the Immune System, A Wellness Journey #2

Wow! What a time of it, we have had around here!! My husbands family had a reunion over the weekend so we planned to go down for it. On Wednesday we got the chance to send the children ahead and since they don't see their grandma very much I thought that would be a good idea! Plus that meant Steve and I could have valentines day to ourselves! <3
 During flu season?? Yep, bad call! But I didn't think about it and sent them on their way. They had a GREAT time but dropped everything we've been learning! (Of course they did, they're CHILDREN!) LOL

Steve (in the black) and his siblings! :) 

 Wednesday night my children didn't get to sleep before midnight, Thursday night they didn't either and they were eating more sugar and processed foods those two days then they had probably had in months at our house! Whee!!! I got there Friday evening and tried to rein them in with no success whatsoever! :(  It happened to be a very stressful weekend for me simply because I am just now learning the value of this wellness journey and I did not know how to handle direct conflict in front of my children over the decisions I was making. As a result I let them do as all the other kids were doing (like if they didn't wanna eat their protein they could just have cake instead) and warned them over and over that they are gonna get this cold/flu that is going around! Shiny especially was a handful! And she was really the one I was most worried about. Sure enough! She got sick! SO, so sick!! Sunday evening she had a sore throat and Monday morning a fever. She never got a really high one so I gave her no Tylenol, trying to let the fever do it's job.
 All week she had a headache and fever and I instructed her on the whys and how's and explained the best I could what sugar really does to the body. She seemed to understand and even asked questions. (A first from her! She LOVES sweets and breads.)
 She ran a fever and was miserable til Thursday when she seemed a little better with no fever but still very listless. Then Friday evening her fever came back and Saturday morning she woke me early and she was hot!!! I checked and she had 103 fever. I wasn't overly worried although slightly alarmed. But a little while later it was up some more so I gave her Tylenol. She threw it up. She just kept getting worse all day and I was getting more and more afraid. When she coughed blood up tho, I panicked!! I was SSSOOO scared!! We gathered around her as a family and laid our hands on her and prayed! While we were praying she broke out in a sweat and by the time we were finished she was cool to the touch with no fever! She has been on the mend since! Praise God!!!

 Several yrs ago (after the Red 40 fiasco with my son) when I started trying to not eat to many store bought things and make a lot more of my own stuff, I noticed that we were suddenly healthier. Plus I started taking Monavie (wellness juice) and giving it to my children about the same time. Since then I can count on one hand how often we have been even slightly sick! Most times if we did get a 'bug' of some kind it didn't make us nearly as sick as everyone around us.
 That got the wheels in my head turning!! Less sugar/additives, less flu... More antibodies, less everything bad... Hummmm....
 And if Red 40 can make a child as smart as my son into a zombie, WHAT else are we eating that is killing us in a slow and painful death!?!?!?!?
 So I started searching for answers. I never really felt like I had quite got it tho until I was at a talk given by a nutritionist , Mark McDonald. He explained how sleep is SO important to your body healing itself and balancing your blood sugar.  He also talked about how you should eat in threes, six times a day to keep your blood sugar stable. As long as your blood sugar is out of balance, you can't successfully lose weight. Since I struggle a lot with low blood sugar 'crashes', it just made perfect sense to me!!
 Eating sugar, especially refined sugar, can compromise your immune system for up to 5 hrs! For someone with a bad immune system already, that is a really bad problem! Huge!!!
 I already have one autoimmune issue, Vitiligo. I certainly don't need anymore!! Plus, I have learned that most of the health problems I have can be handed down to my children! Not cool!! Not cool, AT ALL!!! :( No way, I wanna have them go through what I have! That is why I am so dead set on there being a better way then the average American lives!!
 In the recent months I went from using 2 five pound bags of sugar a WEEK, to 1 or 2 a month! That was huge for me since we love, love, love our southern sweet tea.... *snif* But this was one spot where I could decide to let it or leave it. We chose to leave it. I have a feeling that might happen more as we go along but don't really know... :)
 This is also why it will be huge for me to stop using the refined sugar altogether! But since sugar is what was making me gain weight then I don't want it! :D
 I do have a praise report on Shiny. I have often tried to convince her that honey was good but she refused to eat it, wanting sugar or no food at all. But since her sickness she has happily eaten honey and has refused white/brown sugar on anything. She did drink some sweet tea but had milk right after "to balance out the sugar"!I thought that was terribly cute and let her do it! *tears* I am so thrilled with this change in her!!!
 There is more to come in this story! Thank you to all who have commented, shared and emailed me! It is a huge encouragement to me! :)
 Blessings to all! :)

To Blog Again! A wellness journey...

 Yay! I FINALLY discovered why I couldn't get to my blog and what to do about it! Blogging with Amy is a good place to find all sorts of answers as to why and how and what! Please check her out! :) At this point I am choosing to stay with Blogger although I am not the happiest camper with them, right now! ;) I don't really know what is my fault and what is theirs tho, so I won't say to much about my unhappiness!
 If you have been to my blog before you probably read that we had a time of sickness with my Dad as he fought and conquered cancer. We praise God daily for His Healing and the strength and knowledge He gave Dad to fight this disease. I spent a lot of time with them last winter when he was in the hospital and then gave my 'baby' sister a place to stay this summer. It's been a long journey and I am glad it is passed!!

Dad at the beach since the cancer. 

 Now we are on a new journey and this one I am hoping to blog about.
 Today's blog will be giving some history and what I am trying to accomplish! :)
  When I was a teenager, my lifestyle caught up with me and my health started a swift and thorough decline. I seemed to catch every 'bug' out there and started with all kinds of other issues. I started doctoring with a medical Dr which lead to lots of antibiotics and medications and more and more problems. I got Lyme's from a tick bite which didn't help anything! I also had an appendectomy. Then I got married and four months later, pregnant. My Thyroid was already bad but that pregnancy pushed me over the edge! It SWELLED! And choked me!! So we did surgery, removing 1/3 of the Thyroid. During and after this pregnancy I suddenly seemed to have no control whatsoever over my body and I gained 60lbs in what seemed to me almost overnight! I could eat a cookie or cake and the next three days gain at least 1 lb. I dieted and prayed and kept right on gaining. It was very frustrating and I lost the battle to depression. Deep depression! And utter sickness... Just sick, and no idea why.
 Meanwhile we discovered that something was wrong with my son and that started my very slow journey to regaining my health and his. (more on this below)
 I got pregnant with my daughter and gained 20 lbs during that pregnancy. So I was 80lbs overweight with no clue what to do. I tried SO many things. Nothing worked for long!
 Plus, on top of it all, I was one of those people who declared that I would never have a picky eater! Either they would eat what I put before them or they wouldn't eat. Well, my little girl won't eat. And she gets thinner and thinner and whiter and whiter and suddenly you learn that sometimes you can't control everything!! That was me!
 So NOW, we are off  to 'get healthy'! :D I have learned SO much in this battle but again I am only starting! I am posting some pictures of me when I was at my heaviest and some pictures of my children.

These two pictures (above) are me, 80lbs overweight

 This is me now. I have lost weight but not nearly enough. I am holding my picky eater princess! :)

Drinking Coffee 

Me and mine 

My son! My favorite boy in the world!! :)

We are setting goals and changing our life style even more then I ever have.

 When my son was 2 , I accidentally discovered that what the Dr's were trying to tell me was Autism was really an allergic reaction to Red 40, a very common food dye. That was what started me on this slow journey of a 'wellness' lifestyle in this modern 'sickness' world! 

I am learning how to use the Internet for research and the first thing we will be changing is completely eliminating refined sugar from our diets. This is a 4 month goal. So by the end of June I want to have completely switched from using refined sugars to using honey and unrefined sugar. Plus we have a goal to wrap up our sugar intake to occasional rather then normal! That means desserts once in awhile NOT every meal! And no sugary stuff for breakfast anymore! :)

 Wish us luck! ;) 

 Blessing to all!!!

Pan fish Creole

Pan fish (Blue gill, Crappie, ect) are a wonderful part of summer. There are the fun times catching them and lots of ways to fix them. This is one of our favorites! 

The recipe calls for 

1/4 cup each  chopped onion, celery, and green pepper

1 cup diced tomatoes

Pinch of dried parsley flakes

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp olive oil

3/4 cup chicken broth

1 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 tsp salt, more or less to taste

1/2 tsp each dried basil, oregano, and thyme

1/8 tsp each red, black and white pepper

Dash Paprika

1 lb pan fish fillets

Gather ingredients. 

Drizzle oil in skillet and add veggies and garlic. 

Fry about 5 minutes.

Spread the fillets in a 9x13

Add tomato paste, 

seasonings, broth, and diced tomatoes.

Bring to a simmer and 

cook for about 5 minutes more.

Spread veggies over fillets and cover tightly with foil.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Remove cover and flake fish. 

Stir lightly.

Serve over hot rice! :)

I freeze chopped veggies, chicken broth and tomato paste in the correct amounts and then I always have the stuff on hand and it doesn't waste, like the leftover tomato paste, etc. I also use minced garlic canned in olive oil for quick and easy, and length of storage.

Steve and I like to use Creole Seasoning on this to spice it up while the kids enjoy it the way it is! :)

This is not very spicy so if you like it hot, add red pepper flakes and use one small can of Rotel instead of the diced tomatoes.

But beware!!! Its hot that way! 

The Little Brown Mouse

Today as my kids and I were cleaning up I was reminded of a story I loved when I was a little girl.

I would sit on my Gramma's lap and listen as she read. It was one of my favorites and I chose it over and over. She read with great expression, too! 

Maybe that is why it helped me so much, later on in life...? 

The lesson stuck anyway.

I want to share it with ya'll. It might not be exactly right but it is as I remember it and you will get the point, I think! :)

 The Little Brown Mouse

The little brown mouse with a little brown dress loved to dance and she loved red!! She danced to bed at night and danced out of bed in the morning. [Without coffee???? Wow, she is amazing] She danced through the streets to market and she danced home again. She only stopped to eat her lunch and dinner! 

She didn't clean and she certainly DIDN'T sweep the floor!

But one day Grandma Mouse stopped by for a visit! She was beautiful and wise and VERY clean! She did not sit down because Little Brown Mouse only had one chair and it was piled high with 'stuff' and was very dusty. Grandma Mouse ran her finger over the chair and said softly,'Why Little Brown Mouse, you should clean first and then dance in a clean house!'

But after Grandma Mouse left did Little Brown Mouse listen? 

NNNOOO!!

 She said to herself;

'Tomorrow, I will clean and scrub 

all day in the house,

 But today I will dance 

 like a Little Brown Mouse!'

And she danced out of the house and down the street to market. On the way there she passed the Dress Maker's Shop and there in the window was the most beautiful red dress the Little Brown Mouse had ever seen!

She stopped and looked at the dress. Then she said to herself, 'I MUST have that dress!' So she went in and bought it. They wrapped it up real pretty and she danced all the way home with the package under her arm. 

At home she took the dress carefully from the box and slipped it on. It was perfect! Twirling and spinning and skipping, she danced all day. That night she put it carefully in the box and went to bed.

In the morning she awoke and slipped the beautiful red dress on.

 It was SO beautiful she said to herself, 

'I can't scrub the house in this dress so I will go to Market first'.

 So she danced out the door and down the street. On the way to market she went past the Florist and there in the window she saw a beautiful Red Rose Hair Clip.

She stopped to look at that hair clip. Then she said to herself 

'I MUST have that Hair Clip!' 

So she went in and bought it!

 With the rose in her hair the Little Brown Mouse danced all the way home, stopping often to admire herself in the windows. At home she forgot about cleaning and danced the day away. 

And Pretty, Wise Grandma Mouse stopped by again.

She didn't stay. Sadly she ran her finger over the table and said softly,

 'Little Brown Mouse NEEDS to clean her house!'

But the Little Brown Mouse said to herself, 

'Tomorrow, I will clean and scrub 
all day in the house,
 But today I will dance 
 like a Little Brown Mouse!'
So she danced the day away.
The next morning the Little Brown Mouse awoke and clipped the Red Rose in her hair. She slipped on the pretty red dress and looked at herself in the mirror. Then she said to herself, 'I am to pretty to scrub my house,so instead I will go to Market first'.

So she danced down the street to Market. 

On the way she passed the Shoe Makers Shop and there in the window she saw a sparkling pair of red shoes! 

She stopped and looked at those shoes. Then she said to herself 'I MUST have those shoes'!! So she went in and bought those beautiful red shoes! 

She danced all the way home! And she danced till dinner and she danced afterward. She danced far into the night. Finally she changed into her nightie and crashed into her bed! 

In the morning the sun came in and woke the Little Brown Mouse. She sat on the edge of her bed tired and yawning. Then she saw her dress!! It was covered with dust! So was the rose. And her shoes were kicked off under the table and they looked terrible. 

The little Brown Mouse got up, dressed in her brown dress. She picked up her Red Dress, shook off the dust and hung it in her closet, then she blew off the rose and put it in its box. She cleaned her shoes and set them in her closet. 

And then she filled a bucket with hot, soapy water and with a rag she scrubbed her house til it shone! 

 Then she put on her red dress, her red shoes and her red rose and she went dancing about the house singing,

 'Its better to rub and scrub

 all day in the house

 and dance at NIGHT

 like a Little Brown Mouse!'