WHY I EAT TRADITIONAL FOODS

     When I became pregnant with my third child (Rachel) in September 2011, I was on pharmaceutical medication for depression, bipolar disorder and ADD. I have struggled with symptoms of these illnesses pretty much my entire life. I have also struggled with chronic UTI's (Urinary Tract Infections), especially since getting married and having children.
        During the early weeks of my pregnancy, I experienced such strong fatigue that I was sleeping 18-20 hours a day. Now, I know you might be thinking that maybe I was just letting myself sleep this much, but even when I tried my hardest to be awake I would end up having seizures and falling asleep again no matter where I was or what I was doing. Basically, I was not functioning well enough to even take care of myself (like eat enough, shower, change my clothes, etc.), let alone my two oldest children.

       It didn't take long for me to determine that things were unacceptable. While family and friends did what they could, there was not enough accessible help to deal with that much disfunction. Worst of all, I was too tired to take the time to explain to people what was going on. No one (besides us) really knew how bad things were, because the only time I would talk to or see people was when I was awake and feeling well. If you only saw someone and talked to them when they were feeling fine, you would not be able to determine truly how things were for them otherwise.
       I thought, at first, that maybe my body was just getting used to pregnancy again, but my fatigue and severe chronic pain kept causing too many issues. I should also mention that my meds had already contributed to my 60+ lbs of weight gain over the previous 4 years and in order to just keep my mood issues at bay I had to increase dosages and adjust my medication several times a year. Along with many other health issues that seemed to accompany the medications, I was still not in a place mentally or emotionally that I could maintain healthy relationships or deal with normal daily stressors. I also still felt a lot of the "guilt" that comes along with mental illness and had almost completely abandoned all good active spiritual practices such as personal prayer, scripture study and church attendance. I spent a good portion of my awake time trying to fix things. I finally realized that only God could give me the answers to my problems, so I prayed. Now, I don't mean to sound pious at all, I certainly had my moments where I cursed God (I do regret ever doing it, even though I never truly meant it), but I just mean to let you know that I do know that it was much through spiritual inspiration that I was led to traditional foods and living.
       The first step I was inspired to take was to get off of the medications. I know that most would say I should have done it under the supervision of a doctor, but I was inspired to specifically get off of the medication without the interference of a doctor. I will always stand by that because I know it was by the Spirit of God that I was instructed to do it that way. I started weaning myself a little by reducing the dose of one medication every few days. After the first couple days of a lower dose, I felt a bit better. It was obvious that my pregnant body was fatigued because the medication was a poison to it. Now, as a disclaimer, I am not suggesting that everyone on prescription medication should just quit taking their meds, I am only telling my story. Anyway, the prompting to just jump of all the medications completely came to me, but I doubted it and kept the slow weaning going. I went back to feeling just as terrible, so I prayed about the previous prompting to quit "cold turkey" and it was confirmed to me that it would be the best way. I was warned that it would not be easy and that I would go through a seemingly lengthy detox period, but I wanted and needed the fastest and healthiest way to get off of the medications that were creating more problems than they were solving.
      I would like to say that everything turned around really quickly and that I felt great and life just got better, but it didn't. My detox period (which lasted almost my entire pregnancy) was quite miserable and very difficult. However, it taught me to deal with my issues in a natural and healing way. I also realized how truly addicted I was to all of my medications. Although I had immediately and completely quit taking the ADD meds (which were narcotics) as soon as I learned I was pregnant, I still had cravings for them and the other meds throughout my pregnancy. In fact, some days, even when things are not so much of a struggle, I still crave certain of those medications (especially the ADD narcs). I used to be too ashamed to admit that I was addicted, but now I realize that it is not necessarily a sin to be addicted. It is however, wrong to give in to the addiction, which I did not and still do not do. I must also point out that while I was addicted to prescription medications, I never abused them. There is a big difference between the two-- addiction can cause one to abuse something. I took my medication according to my doctor's instructions, which is not abuse.
      The second step I took was to look for alternative methods of dealing with mental illness. I was a little at a loss at first, so I did what most people of my generation do-- I "Googled" it. I was led to www.alternativementalhealth.com. I encourage everyone to check it out. If you do not struggle with mental illness yourself, I am sure someone you know does (even if it is not "diagnosed"). I started reading the material available on and through this inspired site. A lot of it talked about nutritional issues like vitamin and mineral deficiencies often being the possible cause of mental illness. I suppose I always knew that had something to do with it, but it never made sense (or worked) for me to simply supplement with a pill. This provoked me to spend most of my time for the remainder of my pregnancy researching the matter.
     The third significant step came when we were driving somewhere and I was talking to Richard about how I thought it would be cool to raise livestock at some point. I suppose my interest in it mostly came from being very involved in FFA in high school. It always made sense to me that people should get more in touch with agriculture, since it is a strong foundation in agriculture that will bring abundance to any people or nation. We passed a field with a few cows in it, so the thought of a having a dairy cow jumped into my head. I got excited and curious and jumped onto some local classifieds on my phone to see how much a dairy cow would cost initially, but quickly found myself confused at which kind of dairy cow I would want. So, I did some research on dairy cows and came across the website www.realmilk.com. I read through quite a bit of their information because I found it intriguing. I was then led to the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) website. I then became very passionate about learning all I could about the topics I frequently saw discussed on the WAPF site.
     Over the next few months, I spent several hours a day researching nutrition and health. I would pray each day that I would come across the most timely information for me and my family. We found a source for raw milk and began purchasing it and consuming it quite regularly. We have since converted pretty much entirely to a traditional diet and I have read most of Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and some of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston A. Price.
    Our lives have only been getting better and my health has improved drastically. I could easily make a long list of issues that I previously dealt with daily as a struggle that I now either don't have to deal with anymore or I can more easily take them on as challenges. We get sick much less often, to a lesser degree (shorter illness, less suffering, etc.), and I have much more energy (without the use of strong energy drinks or other caffeine sources as I felt stuck using while on medications and eating modern foods).
     I strongly believe that anyone that dismisses the changes we have made in our home has never really tried them in their own for any length of time. A lot of people are not convinced that the types of changes we have made could or would be very relevant for themselves or their own families, but they are not the people that have done the tremendous research that I have done as a mother and eater. Our modern society has made us so far removed from our food that it is such an inconvenience to prepare and/or cook all our meals ourselves, so we let someone else do it. I am not saying that we should only ever eat food of our own making, but I am saying that we outsource too much of our lives. If we understood our food and learned to enjoy our food more, we would want to stay more connected to it and the preparation of it.
      My two biggest recommendations for any person that wants to even try to explore a whole new world of health, vitality and closeness with their family are:
1. Eat a 100% grass-fed steak. They taste AMAZING! AND they are way more nutritious! They also do not need hormones or anti-biotics to grow well and stay healthy, so the meat is a lot safer. We get ours at Utah Natural Meat, but I recommend that you look for a source near you if you live very far away from Salt Lake City, UT. Once you taste how great a grass-fed steak is, you will want to find out the awesome nutritional value of it. (Red meat and saturated fats are not bad for you!!! To say otherwise is to promote propaganda that stems from the companies that profit from you avoiding good, quality animal fats & protein.)
2. Do the research. Learn about your food. Even if you decide that you are just fine on the standard modern American diet (whichever version you currently subscribe to), you need to know that our food rights are in grave jeopardy. I believe that you have the right to eat at MacDonald's several times a week if you choose to eat that way, but I do not think that my access to nutrient-dense foods (such as raw milk) should be the cost of promoting big business interest. Raw milk is the most heavily regulated agricultural product after marijuana because the FDA and USDA like to claim that it is "inherently dangerous". Well, according to their own statistics, a person is 22,000 times more likely to get sick from any other food than they are from raw milk. This number does, in fact, take in to account that about only 3% of Americans currently drink raw milk, so it is not just about the fact that only a few people drink it. If they (government agencies) are trying to not only tell us what to feed ourselves and our families, but they are limiting our food choice with their policies-- we are in big trouble with all of our other human rights. I encourage you to not only watch the many enlightening food documentaries released in the last few years, but please take the time to read an article or two a week from the WAPF journals. Go ahead and question what they say and reference the studies they talk about. I have done this enough times to know that I can trust what they are talking about. You don't have to spend several hours a day on research as I did, but make it a point to educate yourself regularly about the issue of your health and nutrition.

    I really hope and pray that the information I put on my blog will make a difference in at least one person's life. I have no underlying motives to promote the kind of lifestyle that I live. I will always be open and honest about my choice to feed myself and my family food that I deem suitable for the miraculous temples that God has given us. I believe I have that right of stewardship for my family and I will do anything necessary to protect that God-given right and duty. Please post any comments or questions you have about what I have written. One day, I hope to finish writing and publish my book about my story and the reasons I believe in what I do. Take care and bon appetit!

LIVING FOODS

One of the biggest changes to my family's diet has been the addition of more living foods. In a lot of reading that I have done, I have found that the qualities of living foods are an essential part of human diet (if we hope to have and maintain good health for generations). In my quest to provide various types of living food, I have found many great resources. One of these resources is a company (called Cultures for Health) that distributes various types of living cultures from kefir grains to yoghurt cultures to kombucha cultures and sourdough starters. Below is a link to check out their many great products. I encourage everyone to seek out a way to put more live (and "enzymatic") food into their diet.

 http://www.culturesforhealth.com?a_aid=505d29d828299

FAVORITE FOODS

The question this week is:

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOD?

It can be a complete entree or an ingredient that just makes everything you eat better. Mine is anything dairy-- especially raw milk and butter! Mmmmm! Nothing yummier than fresh milk, cream and butter from a grass-fed cow. Now you will hear me get on my soap box about raw milk, cream, butter and various other "taboo" foods, but give what I say a try and you'll be certain (as I am) that a lot of nutrition advice out there is very misguided. However, this week will be more about the taste, texture and comfort of food. So, let your mouth water and let's talk about TASTY! I am not just a nutrition fanatic-- I'm also a CULINARY ARTIST! While I would never advise anyone to eat a lot of carbs, I myself have a sweet tooth--- so don't be afraid to share your "food weaknesses". Everyone has them.

Please leave a comment below. (Even if all it says is "ice cream" or whatever your favorite food is.) I love hearing from you.

NO MORE STRESS- WE'RE MOVING ON!

        Ok, so we can only discuss stress so long before it becomes stressful. Since this is my blog and I have the freedom to do pretty much whatever I want--- I want to talk about food (and nutrition). The topic of food and nutrition have been a pretty big part of my life lately. I hope to make it a much bigger part of all of your lives. Some of you will learn things you never knew, some of you will be intrigued and do some of your own further research on the topic, some of you will skim the information and not think too much of it, and some of you will decide to disagree with me--- all of these are just fine. I am just hoping that you will bear with me as I stand on one of my "soap boxes" for a bit. I also do hope that you will open your mind to what I have to offer in this area. I may not have a degree in the field (yet, anyway), but if you knew how much research I have done on the subject you might petition for any reputable university to grant me a degree on the subject.
        Over the next several weeks (and possibly months) I will be putting up posts related to food and nutrition. Don't forget to check out the "Super Food" and "Super Funny" pages as well. I'd also love to hear feedback on what you like (and what you don't like) here on my blog. While I am not just doing this blog to please other people, I do want it to be pleasing enough that I can share it with many other people. Thanks so much for being a part of my world.

BEST STRESS RELIEF TIPS I'VE HEARD IN A WHILE-

I don't know how many of you are familiar with energy therapy or Carol Tuttle (a well known energy therapist), but I have been studying it a bit lately and it is what has worked the best for managing my bipolar and depression symptoms. We've done some gemstone therapy along with EFT and other energy techniques, but I just stumbled upon this clip (from Carol Tuttle) that has really helped me realize what I need to do more to properly relieve and effectively deal with stress on a regular basis. If you are not familiar with Carol's work, I highly recommend reading her book "Remembering Wholeness" first. Then I recommend moving onto her energy profiling materials. She actually offers a lot of free information and assistance, so many of you may be able to catch on to things without much (if any) of an initial investment. However, getting her books will help anyone a lot. I realize some of you may feel a little resistant to it at first, but give it a chance. I promise it isn't freaky like some people might be worried about. Anyway, I am either going to post the link or see if I can have a way for you to view the clip I mentioned right here on the page.

First, here is a link to check out Carol Tuttle products (which I highly recommend):

http://www.caroltuttle.com/cmd.asp?af=1490508

STRESS & FOOD

Ok, so today is another survey. I guess I am just a very curious person-- but that's a healthy stress. (I assume, anyway.) I love asking questions and I love when people take the time to answer them honestly. Thanks!

1. Do you eat more, less or the same when you are more stressed?

2. What foods are you most likely to eat when under stress?

3. Are there any foods that seem to relieve stress for you?

4. What foods might make you more stressed?

TOPIC OF THE WEEK: STRESS MANAGEMENT

After last week's final post, I decided to address the issue of stress management. Now, I don't necessarily intend to give a whole lot of advice in this area (I'm really not an expert, if you couldn't tell), but I feel it is an important issue to address. I am going to kick things off with a survey. Take a minute and post a comment in response with your answers numbered to correspond with the following questions:

1. On a scale from 1-10 (1 being "pretty much all good" and 10 being "mostly negative"), how would you rate most of the stress you have in your life?
2. How often do you take a vacation?
3. What do you usually do to relieve stress?
4. Do you think you deal with stress in a healthy way?

Thanks for checking this out. You are all awesome.

DISHWASHING TIPS

* Cutting knives stay sharp longer if you hand wash them.
* Wash your cast iron with salt. It keeps it seasoned, but is sanitary. You only need a teaspoon or two; simply moisten the pan, sprinkle on the salt, scrub, and rinse clean. If the pan is really dirty, you can also use baking soda.
* Add 1/2 to 1 cup of vinegar to your dishwasher to help rinse dishes. (I know a lot of people already know this, but I posted it for those that don't know about this yet. Doing this has helped a lot, especially with our glass dishes.)
* Instead of thoroughly rinsing your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, simply wash them twice (one wash immediately after the first). You will actually save water and time. Make sure that you have any heat dry setting off (so that your dishwasher doesn't dry the food permanently onto the dishes) and turn on the second cycle right after the final rinse on the first cycle. You only need soap for one of the cycles, but it may be a good idea to add a splash of vinegar to the other cycle. If some of your dishes still aren't clean, they are probably easier to just hand wash anyway. If a lot of your dishes do not get clean enough after two cycles, you need to fire your dishwasher-- it is making way too much work for you and costing you too much money. (After all, isn't a dishwasher useless if it doesn't wash the dishes for you?!) If you have to fire your dishwasher, but can't get a new one right away, use it as drying rack when you don't have time to towel dry.
* Cook burned food off a pan with vinegar. It is the same idea as using a wine reduction in cooking. The acid in the vinegar (or you can use cola) will help separate heavily burned food from a pan, especially when it is heated. Restaurants use vinegar to degrease by pouring vinegar on a hot griddle. However, I recommend a milder approach (due to the fumes, their method can make it hard to breath) by putting the vinegar in before heating.
* Let your little ones "prewash" the dishes! I have learned that when I wash the dishes by myself, it can take a while. This is especially true if the dishes have piled up at all or if anything has "crusties" on it. My kids are young enough that they still like to be helpful, but it used to stress me out to have them wash dishes because I felt it only made a mess and I had to "rewash" the dishes anyway. But, one day I realized that their "washing" was a great way to get the dishes rinsed off enough to make my turn easier. So, now I throw a towel or two on the floor, remove all the knives and easily broken dishes to a different corner of the kitchen, give each kid a sponge or scrubber of their choosing and let them have at it. It gives them great practice and makes it faster for when I get to "finishing" them.

Hope these tips help! Let me know what you think.

LAUNDRY TIPS

These are just a few things that have made doing laundry a lot easier for us.

1. Safety pin socks together before putting them in the dirty hamper. This way there is virtually no risk they will get separated while doing laundry, which we all know makes for a lot of "odd socks". I got so sick of socks being lost, I even put a safety pin on one sock in every pair of socks (for the whole family) and we wear them with the safety pins on them (since our socks are typically concealed by our pants). While my husband and son have expressed they don't like the pins all that much, they have no excuse for not pinning their socks together.

2. Treat stains right away. Now, I realize that most stain removers recommend that you treat the stain shortly before washing, but I don't know who has the time to go through an entire load to treat stains and then wait the recommended 3-5 before washing. I used to do it that way and I was so exhausted and irritable just from doing laundry. I also despised my kids too much every time they got their clothes dirty (ridiculous, I know). Since then, I have learned that if you have a good stain remover, it shouldn't really matter too much when you use it. I will post more stain removal tips and recipes later. This tip is more for the sake of time. I have found that treating stains either shortly after they appear on clothing or in the evening when changing into pajamas is a great way to make sure they get treated without having to be tedious when actually washing the clothes.

3. Do laundry your way. Some people feel it is more efficient to have a specific day that they do all their laundry, while others may do better pacing themselves throughout the week by doing a load or two each day (or every other day for smaller households). I am of the opinion that each person needs to find their own style. This may require some experimenting and open-mindedness. I used to think that a laundry day would suit me, but I have since learned that random loads are more effective for me. Whereas, my husband is usually more efficient having a laundry day to do most or all the laundry in one day. If you do not have your own washer/dryer, you may not have much of a choice, but if you are close enough to where you do your laundry you may want to try each style out a few times to see which one leaves you less stressed.

4. Don't fold (or iron) your clothes. Some of you may have just had a heart attack. I get it. I used to think that clothes should never be put away unless they were "ready", which either meant folded or ironed. My husband introduced me to the idea of putting away clothes once they were clean, even if that meant they didn't get folded or ironed. I resisted initially, but have come to realize that it was much more efficient to get them put away than to wait until I had time to fold and iron all of them. When he was gone for over 5 months for military training, I went back to my old ways for a little bit. One day, I realized that the clothes got more wrinkly, and even dirty again (without being worn), when I left them in the baskets (or in piles) waiting to be taken care of. Once I gave myself permission to just put them away, it relieved a lot of stress, helped my house be less cluttered, and I realized that it was easier to iron certain clothes as I used them versus all at once. Plus, if you hang stuff up, the wrinkles often work themselves out by the time you wear that article of clothing anyway, so I just started hanging more things up. Which brings me to:

5. Hang it! I have found that (where ever and whenever possible) it is much easier and more practical to hang most of my clothes than to keep them in drawers. While growing up, we had much more dresser space than closet space, so most of our clothes had to be folded and put in drawers. We really only had space to hand dresses, skirts, and other "Sunday" clothes. As a teenager and young adult, I noticed some of my friends kept a lot of their casual clothes in their closets (hung up). I just thought it was different, but had no idea it could be better. Now as an independent adult, I have learned that it can be much easier to hang most of my clothes. I really only use my drawers for clothes that don't wrinkle easily (or that it doesn't matter): underwear, socks, jeans, and pj's. Life is so much easier now.

Well, I will post more laundry tips as I remember them. I hope these are helpful. Perhaps I am the only one that did not know these earlier in life. At least they are here for my reference.

Topic of the Week: Housekeeping

This week we will be discussing housekeeping. I have a few of my own housekeeping tips, but I welcome each of you to take a quick moment and post any you have. Housekeeping is a pretty big topic, so we will come back to it in future weeks. In order to keep my blog interesting, I am going to switch the topic each week. I will post at least one tip each day. I'd love to hear any feedback on the tips I give and how they work for each of you.
Here is my first TIP OF THE DAY:

 TIMESAVER TIDYING 
1. Set a timer for 3-5 minutes & go to the room or area you would like to tidy up.
2. Start the timer and clean on "super speed" until the timer goes off.
3. When the timer goes off, stop cleaning. You may move to a different area, task or room, but only allow yourself to work on each room or large area for the short allotted time.

* You could finish your cleaning for the day in as little as 15-20 minutes!
* This is great for those that especially despise cleaning the house.
* Involve your spouse or kids-- they are much more likely to help if they are promised that it will only be for 15-20 minutes (or less) total. Just make sure you keep the promise!
 * Each household member could do this at different times of the day to make it more convenient for busy families.
* DO NOT set a timer for longer than 10 minutes for adults and 5 minutes for kids (or anyone that hates cleaning)! You want to keep cleaning a positive, fun, quick and easy thing!
* Make sure everyone knows that the time limit standard only works if they are quickly cleaning the entire time. Do not let yourself get distracted. If you find you get distracted during a certain time limit, shorten it-- you will have more confidence and feel less tied down.
* Try it out for a few days or a week and leave a comment on how things went!

First Day of Blogging

Hi, Everyone. This is my very first day blogging. I know, it is 2012! So, I am fairly behind the times for my generation. I just hope I get this right by at least making my blog interesting. Maybe someone will even look at it one day and read an entire post. Either way, here is my outlet. The best part is, now I don't have to keep track of a journal. I guess there is no turning back now.... I'm a blogger!