Changing my Definition of Health

"Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers." -3 John 1:2

There is a belief out there that is commonly referred to as the Prosperity Gospel that believes that God's will for all of us is to be wealthy and never get sick. It goes further to assume that if one is suffering either physically or financially, then they must not have enough faith, or they are not praying enough, or something is wrong with them spiritually. They use the verse above to "prove" their theory. Then there is the evangelical church (which I grew up in and am still part of) that goes the complete opposite direction and says that health and wealth have nothing to do with God or the state of our spirituality. Being in "good health" is nice to wish for, but not focused on at all as a responsibility we have to God.

In our western culture, the term "health" is basically synonymous with being thin. Whenever someone speaks of someone who is "unhealthy" aren't they usually implying that the person is overweight? When we see commercials on television for "healthy" food, doesn't it usually come with guarantees of low calories, low fat, low cholesterol, etc.? But what is health, really? According to dictionary.com, health is defined as "the general condition of the body or mind with reference to soundness and vigor; freedom from disease or ailment". Funny how it doesn't say anything about how thin or fat someone is, but focuses on lack of disease and soundness and vigor of the body.

As Christians, do we fall into the same trap the world does thinking of health in terms of "fat" and "skinny"? Do we make New Year's resolutions with the rest of the world to lose a few pounds? If so, why? Are we under the misguided impression that if we lose weight, we will therefore be healthy?

Ok, so why am I asking all of these questions? Surely its not a sin to lose weight, so who cares if someone thinks they are healthy because they lost a few pounds? I am writing all of this because I have been learning more and more about what a healthy body looks like and I believe God wants us to be good stewards of the shell he has given us to reside in while we are here on earth.

I used to think that illnesses like cancer, as horrible as it is, "just happens" to some people. Now I realize that cancer grows in the body when it is exposed to certain substances, chemicals or toxins. It seems so straight-forward when we think of Lung Cancer. Its no secret that breathing Nicotine can cause lung cancer, but when it comes to other types of cancer, the answers don't come as easily. However, I think its a little more black and white than what popular culture has lead us to believe. Now, I want to stop a minute and clear one thing up. In no way am I suggesting that it is anyone's fault that they get cancer. Whereas the dangers of smoking are widely known, few people commonly know the dangers of preservatives, food additives and other dangerous substances found in our food. Many people have unhealthy habits and they have no idea the type of harm they are causing in their bodies. Also, unlike the "Health & Wealth" prosperity folks, I am not saying that someone is less spiritual in any way because of an illness they have contracted. In fact, those are the times that draw many to the Lord and increase their faith. "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick." -Mark 2:17. God is our ultimate physician and it is natural to cling to Him when we are suffering.

I used to be an "everything in moderation" kind of person. No harm in eating fast food, as long as you don't eat it every day. Junk food is fine to enjoy from time to time as long as one is not eating it all the time. I was always the person who could eat horribly and not gain much weight from it. People would say how "lucky" I was. However, now that I'm realizing that every time I eat junk food I am incurring harm to my body, I don't feel lucky anymore.

For what its worth, I am not standing high on any "eating healthy" pedistal looking down on the "lowly" people who eat the standard junk that is the typical American diet. I have posted previously that I am a recovering sugar-a-holic. In fact, I gave into temptation today and went through the drive-thru at Burger King. I won't say that eating fast food is a sin, but just that God has shown me that its not something he wants for me and probably by extention its not what he wants for ANY of his children. If this makes you uncomfortable, I would challenge you to pray about it, start doing your research about the benefits of healthy eating and think about what you want the quality of your life to be. I think there is a lot of truth to the notion that how you eat may not add years to your life (although it may if you avoid certain illnesses that might take you earlier than you would otherwise go) but it will increase the quality of those final years. I think of my grandmother who believed very strongly in herbal remedies. I wrote her off for a long time as "crazy Grandma" with all her garlic pills and acidophilus! She definitely had some health issues going on (including a heart problem) but do you know how she died? She passed on quietly and peacefully sitting at the kitchen table with family. They didn't even know she had passed....I think some thought she had fallen asleep! If I could choose how to go, that'd be it! Who's to say if her peaceful passing was a result of her lifestyle or if God was just merciful to her, but I like to think there's a connection with how she lived her life.

The bottom line is that for me to tackle this new healthy lifestyle, its going to take me depending fully on God for the strength to pass on my cravings, saying "no" to the bad and "yes" to the good. Here's a short little video that gives you a starting place to start thinking about how the food we eat can restore us and keep us in good health.

Being a Mom is Hard Work!

Can I just say that again......Being a Mom is HARD WORK! It really is. Today I was reading a blog where a fellow Mom discussed how she felt she was losing her identity, questioning who she really is and I have to say I can totally relate to that! Sure I love my kids and do not regret for a minute the sacrifices I've made to be at home with them, but sometimes I think back to "before the kids" and I can't help but long for some of that peace sometimes. I really don't think that's bad. I also don't think its bad for us to take care of ourselves. We spend so time taking care of our children and our husbands that we sometimes forget to take a break for ourselves.

Now, the sad thing is that as I read some of the comments under the article I found so much judgement of this mother who just needed to vent a little. "Get over it" some said. "You're being selfish." My knee-jerk reaction is to yell at the naysayers: So you think you're the perfect mom? You've never had a moment of weakness? You're ALWAYS 100% at the top of your game and never feel like you're losing yourself to the title of "Mom"? It just reminds me of all the judgements we make about other mothers and really challenges me to not fall into that trap. I'm as guilty as anyone of judging the choices other mothers have made.....is that the type of woman Christ wants me to be? Of course not! My hope and prayer is that we will all be women of intregity, women who encourage others, women who say "I know its hard...hang in there". When others see our kindness, our compassion, our love....that's when they will see Jesus in us.

Treating Infections Naturally

About a week ago, I had a health issue going on and was afraid of what it might be. I was having abdominal pain, back pain and I felt like I needed to use the bathroom constantly! I was afraid it might be a bladder infection. I knew the symptoms well since I have had two UTIs (both during pregnancy) in the past. As I tried to figure out what I should do, I weighed my options:

Option 1: Go to a doctor.....ok, scratch "doctor" since I don't have one....I could probably go back to the midwife practice at the hospital....or a walk-in clinic....or something. Regardless, I know what the outcome will be: they will write a prescription for antibiotics, which I don't want to take.....ok, let's move on to another option. (cost of this option would be $35 copay + cost of antibiotics so probably = $40-50 total).

Option 2: Go to my naturopathic physician, Dr. Jen. I LOVE Dr. Jen! I'm sure she could whip up some great herbal concoction and my bladder infection would be under control in no time! Cons to this plan are that since my insurance doesn't cover naturopathic, I'd have to pay out of pocket, so with the office visit plus the cost of the herbs, it'll probably be over $100.

Option 3: I could search the internet for home remedies for a bladder infection. This would definitely be the lowest cost option and if it doesn't work, then maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and go for either option 1 or 2 (preferably option 2 if we can scrape together the money).

So, I started Googling away to find ideas for battling this infection naturally. Here is what I did:

1. Drink LOTS of water! When you are sick, water can be your best friend! Drinking lots of it is always a good idea, but especially when you are ill! It flushes your body of all the nasty stuff that invades it and (in my opinion) is the BEST way to get well naturally. I read recently that you should drink half your body weight in ounces of water. For me, that means at least 65 oz. of water per day. (For perspective, a 2 liter pop bottle is 64 oz.)

2. Cranberry juice. Now, I'll have to be honest. I went out and bought 100% cranberry juice at Trader Joes....however, it is still sitting in my kitchen unopened. My bladder infection was gone before I even had the chance to try this remedy to see if it worked. But, since its a popular remedy, I'll share it here. You're supposed to drink 24 oz. of unsweetened cranberry juice (very important that it says 100% juice and not a cocktail) in 24 hours. Of course, you can break it up (someone suggested drinking 3 8-oz. glasses every 6-8 hours.) Some enzyme or something in the juice is supposed to kill the bacteria that causes the infection..... or something like that.

3. Up your vitamins! Super important to take extra vitamins when you are sick. I started taking Airborne again, mainly for the super high amounts of Vit. C and the many immune-system-boosting herbs that it contains. I made sure to take my Vit. D supplement, fish oil and probiotics.

4. Nix the sugar! This has definitely been my struggle. I *love* sugar!!! I know its horrible for me, but its the one temptation I give into over and over again. I also crave it when I am sick (comfort!) which is the WORST time to give in and consume it. Sugar actually shuts your immune system down, did you know that? Since I felt horrible and was trying to avoid medicating myself, I asked myself if I could give up sweets for one day. So, I did. It was hard and I was tempted to cheat, but I held my ground. I wish I could say that I haven't had sugar since, but I have. Some day I hope to cut out sweets completely (or only have an occasional dessert) but its a process. Side note: please understand that there *is* a hierarchy of sugar. Some are better than others. Natural forms of sugar (as in fruit, honey, molasses, agave, etc.) does not harm your body in nearly the dramatic way that refined sugars do (white table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc.).

5. Take Garlic! I know what you're thinking...."Ok, now she's gone off the deep end." Trust me, when I first heard of taking garlic to treat illness, I wasn't really buying it either....but then I tried it. I now swear by garlic! The more I learn about certain foods, the more I realize that God gave to us *so many* natural foods and herbs to heal our bodies. Garlic is just one...but its a biggie! Garlic is a natural antibiotic and wonderful at treating infections. Its also a natural anti-fungal, which is great news for me as I've had issues with toenail fungus for most of my life! Now, there's many ways to take garlic. You can go to a vitamin store and buy pricey capsules. I prefer to go the cheap route and spend $1 (or less!) on a bulb of fresh organic garlic. When treating for illness, its important to take garlic in its raw form. Cooking it neutralizes the properties that make it so wonderfully healthy (not that it becomes unhealthy....its just not as potent). Once I actually tried to eat a clove of raw garlic and it almost made me throw up! So, now I advise against that (lol)! The best way I have found to take it is to mince up 2 or 3 cloves (or one very large clove) and put it on a teaspoon. I then grab a tall glass of water, put the garlic in my mouth, take a large sip of water and swallow. HUGELY IMPORTANT NOTE: Do Not Chew the Garlic! If you do, it will be like biting into a raw onion, your face will feel like its on fire and you will probably either throw up or impulsively spit it out. That was my experience, anyway. I have found that as long as I swallow without chewing, I barely taste it on its way down. Funny though, Chad assures me that my breath smells like garlic for hours afterward, so now I've learned to only take it right before bed (and not face the hubby while sleeping!).

So, there are the five things I did to successfully treat my bladder infection naturally. (Well, ok, I really only did 4 since I never did the cranberry juice!) It only took about one day....the second day I felt amazingly better. As a disclaimer, please don't substitute my judgement for your own and always discuss health matters with your health care provider, whether that be a traditional MD or a naturopathic physician. I really don't see any harm in trying these ideas first and then you can always see a doctor if these remedies don't work. This is a sensitive issue locally here in Portland because there was a very recent, highly publicized case of parents who were found guilty because they didn't take their son to a doctor and he died of a (very treatable) urinary blockage. My heart goes out to this family and although I believe strongly in the power of prayer, obviously more needed to be done for this boy. I do wonder if they had tried some natural remedies along with praying for him, if that would have saved his life....we'll never know.

In closing, I found this video that offered another natural treatment for urinary tract infections (bladder infections). This one I haven't tried, but if I ever have another one, I may give it a shot, just to see if it works.

Focus on Nutrition

Although I haven't posted much about nutrition on this blog, it has definitely been a focus of my mothering, especially over the last three years in treating Alayna's eczema. Discovering that she has food sensitivities to dairy, peanuts, tomatoes and carrots forced me to stop relying on prepackaged foods and casseroles with lots of ingredients and get back to basics, making simple meals from scratch. By doing this, I've become aware of so many ingredients in our foods that we avoid simply by eating fresh food (i.e. perservatives). I never knew the harm that these perservatives can wreck on our bodies until recently. I watched an interesting documentary recently called The Beautiful Truth that I thought was very eye-opening. The premise is that food directly affects our health either negatively or positively and we can avoid and even treat illnesses and disease (cancer) with certain foods. I've always favored natural treatments over drugs, so I found the information very valuable.



There's also some great info in the film about the use of flouride in our drinking water and mercury fillings in our teeth. The information confirmed my gut feelings as I decided against giving my children flouride pills (which they encourage here in Oregon where the water is not flouridated). We still use flouride toothpaste and the kids get flouride treatments at their regular dental cleanings. I personally feel this is a much better use (and has more research to prove it actually works!) than adding it to our drinking water or taking pills.

Another resource that really helped me connect the dots with Alayna's eczema is the Eczema Natural Healing website. Until then, every time Alayna would have a flare-up, I'd try to figure out which specific food caused the reaction. When I couldn't figure it out, I started wondering if it was an environmental sensitivity (maybe a type of fabric in her clothes or the type of soap or detergent we used). After reading the site creator's story, I began to realize that it might not be one specific thing that was causing Alayna's problems. It could be that she was malnourished (which actually didn't surprise me, she is a three-year-old after all). So, now my big challenge is to make sure that my picky eater is consuming fruits and vegetables. I started buying Superfood Green Juice (which is available at most natural food stores) and make sure that my kids drink at least one glass a day. It is a bit on the expensive side (different brands range from $5-$9 for 64 fl. oz.) but if I were to compare the price to what one pays for the average prescription at the pharmacy, its rather cheap! Hopefully we'll be able to purchase a juicer at some point at which time I can stop buying the juice and make it myself with fresh organic fruits and veggies!

To finish off, I'd like to share a recipe for taco seasoning that I found online. I looked this up because I forgot to buy taco seasoning once and wanted to make tacos. Instead of making a special trip to the grocery store, I figured I probably had all of the spices to make it myself. The best part is that I completely avoid MSG and any other fillers that commercial taco seasoning contains. Now that I've made this several times, I will never go back to store-bought brands. It tastes amazing!

The Four Preventative P's

I was reading a blog called Academic OBGYN and found a fascinating article about handling slow labor. After the article, I always read the comments....sometimes just a handful of opinions since a lot of these blogs will boast hundreds of comments. Near the top I found a comment by Amy Romano, who is a pretty well known and respected midwife who writes a blog for Lamaze International called Science and Sensibility. In her comment she took a moment to talk about what she calls "The Four Preventative P's":

I give a talk on optimizing labor progress and talk about “Four Preventive P’s” rather than the 3 P’s and other variations, all of which I think address how to treat rather than prevent dystocia.

Briefly, the four P’s are:

Permission – freedom of movement, autonomy in decision making, freedom to vocalize, throw up, ask for help, or whatever it is the woman needs to do to get her baby out.

Physical environment – there are some intriguing pilot studies showing beneficial effect of simple alterations like removing the labor bed and/or giving women freedom to rearrange furniture and props in her own room.

People – continuous support from a doula or other trained labor companion has many documented benefits and should be the standard of care.

Practices – avoid routine use of interventions that slow labor down. Avoid arbitrary time limits, etc.

Of course, you don’t get the Four Preventive P’s in most hospital environments.

I had a thought after reading this that this could be a birth plan for any mother planning a natural childbirth. Its short, easy to read and gets right to the point. If her doctor or midwife has problems with any of these four things, it would be a good indication that she isn't going to get the birth she wants and should look for a new provider. Also, I like how it simplifies the requuests to four items. Sure, there are a lot more than four things asked for here, but since it basically bullet-points four things, it doesn't look like such a long laundry list of requests.

What do you think? Would this work as a birth plan?

The Reason for the Season

The biggest challenge for me during the Christmas season is to stay focused on Christ. Its so easy to get bogged down with buying presents and family get-togethers (and of course working in retail doesn't help!). I love the music that accompanies the montages of clips from The Nativity Story.



If you haven't seen The Nativity Story yet, I highly recommend it. Its not the best piece of movie making ever, but definitely a great one to watch together as a family and remember what Christmas really is all about!



Of course, I'll always love a Charlie Brown Christmas!



Remember David Archuleta from American Idol? The quality of this video isn't the best, but his voice is just beautiful and this happens to be my favorite Christmas song. I could have chosen a lot of different versions of this song, but I wanted to choose someone to whom I know this song actually means something. Enjoy!

ACOG Changes Its Name

In a sort of at-least-they-are-finally-being-honest-and-upfront-about-what-they-really-are way, I'm glad to see ACOG has changed its name from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Now there is no question as to what their purpose is and I don't sound like quite so much of a conspiracy-theorist when I suggest that they are more of a political group than an educational one.