Gut Health and why it's so important!

I learned about gut health around 4 years ago. My natural doctor and Dr. Wahl's talk about a leaky gut and gut health a lot. I was rather confused what in the world a leaky gut was until it was explained to me. What is a leaky gut? Leaky gut, also known as increased intestinal permeability, is a digestive condition in which bacteria and toxins are able to "leak" through the intestinal wall. The sad thing is mainstream medical doctors do not recognize leaky gut as a real condition. 

Symptoms of a leaky gut are:

• chronic diarrhea, constipation or bloating
• nutritional deficiencies
• fatigue
• headaches
• confusion
• difficulty concentrating
• skin problems, such as acne, rashes, or eczema
• joint pain
• widespread inflammation

I wrote a blog post on sugar HERE a couple weeks ago. Sugar is one way to cause a leaky gut and destroy good gut health. Avoid eating refined sugars, processed foods, refined oils and minimize your alcohol intake to help your gut health. 

Breakfast I try to have a smoothie with spinach, berries, coconut or almond milk, collagen peptides and chia seeds. We do eat a lot of eggs. I will either fry an egg in coconut oil until they are crispy which is my favorite way to eat them or I like to scramble them with some onions, jalapenos, and spinach. My boys love to eat scrambled eggs with salt. They need salt on their eggs or they won't eat them. I use pink Himalayan salt. 

Lunch I make a large salad. I use all different kinds of lettuce - romaine, arugula, spring mix. Whatever type of lettuce I feel like that week. I try to mix it up, so I don't get sick of the same thing. Then I add in the toppings - shredded carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, grilled chicken, sauerkraut, some nuts if I have them, and Whole 30 ranch. I think it was the Doctors on tv who were talking about how a really good salad has to be mixed really well. It's so true! Once you get everything into your salad it needs to be mixed well! It just makes the salad that much better! 

I started added sauerkraut or kimchi to my salads in the past year. Fermented foods are really great for gut health. Please read the ingredients on the fermented foods you are eating. Make sure there aren't colors, sugars etc added to it. If you are eating fermented foods with additives it pretty much defeats the whole purpose of adding them to your diet. 

A typical lunch for me. 

By having a smoothie and eating a large salad for lunch this pretty much will get 6-9 cups of veggies into my diet for the day. At dinner I might have some paleo tortillas for tacos, baked potato, paleo chicken pot pie or some other type of paleo starch to my dinner. 

Bone broth, sauerkraut, kombucha, are my go to items for helping my gut health besides eating a paleo diet and lots of veggies! I can't say enough of how great bone broth is for you! Not just for your gut health, but also your joints. Getting the collagen for your joints is so important! If you struggle with an autoimmune disease or inflammation add some bone broth into your diet. If you are buying bone broth please pay attention to the ingredients. 

Chris Freytag one of my favorite trainers always says fruit will not make you fat. This is such a good reminder for me. There are times when I want something sweet. Grabbing watermelon, berries, a banana with almond butter is so much better for you than grabbing a Reese's peanut butter cup. Here is what is in a Reese's peanut butter cup - milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, nonfat milk, milk fat, lactose, soy lecithin, pgpr, emulsifier), peanuts, sugar, dextrose, salt, tbhq (preservative), citric acid (to maintain freshness). 

When you are grabbing a banana with simple almond butter you are eating 2 natural items. You are not worrying about dextrose, citric acid and who knows what else being added to it. I feel fruit has been given a bad rap over the years. It has too much sugar, too many carbs, it's not good to eat it all the time - all lies! It's a natural thing that your body can easily process! If you have a leaky gut you may need to consider limiting the amount of fruit you eat until you get your gut health in a good place. 

Have you ever heard of gut health or a leaky gut? What are things you do to keep a healthy gut?

Refined sugars and your body!

When I started my weight loss journey almost 10 years ago sugar was one thing that really was eye opening. When I was doing the HCG diet I really had to pay attention to ingredients in things. Then when I started eating paleo again back to the sugar watching. 

Have you ever looked at the grams of sugar in that Starbucks drink? What about in the ketchup, crackers, lunch meat, or the processed foods you are eating? Start looking at ingredients on the things you are eating and see how many of them have sugar added to them. 

Here is a list of refined sugar. 

• white flour.
• evaporated cane juice.
• instant starches.
• corn syrup.
• high fructose corn syrup.
• brown sugar (made by adding molasses back into refined white sugar)
• fructose.
• processed artificial sweeteners

Here is what the Cancer Center had to stay in 2016:

"The body breaks down refined sugar rapidly, causing insulin and blood sugar levels to skyrocket. Because refined sugar is digested quickly, you don't feel full after you're done eating, no matter how many calories you consumed. The fiber in fruit slows down metabolism, as fruit in the gut expands to make you feel full".

Refined sugars may increase your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. They're also linked to a higher likelihood of depression, dementia, liver disease, and certain types of cancer.

In the brain, excess sugar impairs both our cognitive skills and our self-control. For many people, having a little sugar stimulates a craving for more. Sugar has drug-like effects in the reward center of the brain. Scientists have proposed that sweet foods—along with salty and fatty foods—can produce addiction-like effects in the human brain, driving the loss of self-control, overeating, and subsequent weight gain.

The NIH did a study in mice modeling autoimmune issues gave them sugary water and saw the diseases worsen by activating inflammatory immune cells. The findings suggest that a low-sugar diet may help prevent or treat autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's disease and multiple sclerosis.

Sugar stimulates the production of free fatty acids in the liver. When the body digests these free fatty acids, the resulting compounds can trigger inflammatory processes. Different kinds of sugar may contribute more or less to inflammation.

If you have any type of autoimmune diseases sugar is not your friend whatsoever! I can really tell a difference when I eliminate sugar from my diet. My inflammation really seems to decrease and my I don't crave sugar either. When I am eating sugar on a daily basis my craving for sugar is insane! I also feel my entire body become inflamed in a short amount of time. 

It blows my mind how people do not pay attention to the amount of sugar they are putting in their bodies every single day. I keep seeing all these people making coffees on social media adding tablespoons upon tablespoons of sugar to their coffee. People do you know what this is doing to your body? You are poisoning your body on a daily basis adding all that sugar. 

If I am going to use sugar or give my kids sugar I like to use maple syrup or honey. They are a natural sugar that your body can process. I would like to challenge you to pay attention to the amount of refined sugars you are consuming on a daily basis. Try cutting them out and see how you feel. Also think about what your kids are eating and how much refined sugars they are eating. Mamas we need to consider what our kids tiny bodies are consuming and setting them up for a healthy adults. Our world is consumed with autoimmune diseases, cancers, heart disease, high cholesterol and so much more. Refined sugars are related to so many of these diseases!

I really feel I need to share more about living healthy, multiple sclerosis and easy ways to help people live a healthier lifestyle. I feel this is part of my calling as a person and mother. I can only control what my children eat, but I can help other mothers make better choices for their kids if they want the help. 

Paleo Whipped Coffee

Paleo Non Dairy Whipped Coffee!!! Testing out new coffee recipes seems to be my quarantine past time. I keep hearing about whipped coffee all over social media. The regular whipped coffee has a lot of refined sugar. I try to avoid refined sugar, so I decided to try to make a paleo non dairy version. 

Recipe:

1 TBSP instant coffee

4 TBSP hot water

1 TBSP coconut sugar

Blend this all together - I put it in my ninja blender for 1-2 minutes

I warmed 1/2 cup almond milk & 1/2 cup coconut milk. I poured the milk into my mug and put the whipped coffee on top. Then I slowly stirred it all together. Sooooo yummy!

You could also make this iced by not warming up your milk and pouring it all over ice. I like it both hot and cold. Whipped coffee is amazing! It changes up the daily cup of black coffee into a fancier latte! Have you tried whipped coffee?  Let me know if you try this paleo non dairy version! 

I'm Back!

I have realized blogging goes to the back burner when I have a baby. When I had G I took a break too. It takes a little while to find your groove and be able to do it all again. 

I took a break from social media over Good Friday and Easter. It was really helpful to me to just give my brain a break from all the scrolling. It helped me come up with some things I wanted to share and realize I do miss blogging. I just haven't been able to fit it in. When Cash was first born I felt all I did was sit and nurse all day long. It's true that is about all I did. I was constantly feeding him. 

Then we packed up all our belongings and moved from California to Texas during the Christmas season. When I think back to all that I am like how in the world did we do all that? Well it wasn't easy, there was plenty of stress, anxiety, tears and frustration. My only tip is do not move during Christmas with kids. Putting your house on the market while trying to keep it decluttered during Christmas was a major struggle.

That wasn't our timing for the move. We had been trying to move for 6 months. The entire move was God's timing. We had been trying to move to Sacramento prior to Cash being born. It just didn't happen. I remember being sooooo frustrated because nothing was working out. The middle of September I went in for more tests. I remember thinking is there a reason why the Sac move isn't happening before I went in for tests? I pushed that thought away because things would be the same. Normally my doctor emails me with the results within a day - things are the same we will do scans again in a year, but that email didn't come. I was just going to contact her to see what was going on. She called me a few days after the scans. When I saw her calling I knew it wasn't good. There were new spots and some were growing. I remember getting off the couch and going to my bedroom to talk to her. I had a baby 6 weeks old. How could this be happening?  We decided to have a baby because things have been so stable. 

I took a week after that news and just decided California wasn't an option for us anymore. If I wanted to be with the best doctors for my cancer we needed to move by MD Anderson. Once we made a decision things started happening. We put our house on the market - sold it in 6 days - had a bidding war over it. We flew to Texas to look for a house and Art to interview for 2 jobs. We looked at 34 hours in 2 days. As we got on an airplane headed back to CA we put an offer in on a house. Art had 2 job offers. It was going so fast! 

While all this was happening I remember thinking don't push doors open. If a door isn't opening let it be. I had spent so much time praying over all these changes. I had put it all in God's hands to handle. In the past when I have pushed to get things done things have become a mess. This time I was impatiently patient. It was really hard to be patient. 

I plan to write a blog post on my experience with MD Anderson and the care I have received since we moved. It's TRULY amazing!!!! 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thursday! Maybe today you needed to hear to just be impatiently patient. It's ok to be frustrated with the fact everything isn't working out! 

Gestational Diabetes Test while Eating Paleo

I have ate a paleo diet during this pregnancy. I felt it was important to hopefully keep any MS attacks at bay while I’m pregnant and hopefully have a less severe attack afterwards. Autoimmune issues seem to go into remission during pregnancy then rear their ugly heads with a vengeance after you give birth.  

I did a lot of google searches to see what people did for the gestational diabetes tests that didn’t drink that nasty drink. I was determined I would not drink that stuff. You can google it to see what’s all in it and decide if it’s right for you. For me it wasn’t the right choice. It has corn, dyes, and sugar. Things I don’t consume. I feel drinking that stuff would make my sugar go insane and wouldn’t give me a clear reading.  I did do the glucose test when I was pregnant with G. I felt extremely awful the rest of the day after the test was over. 

I had read about different tests that some doctors will do instead. When my doctor brought up that I needed to get my test I had done my research as to why I wouldn’t take the test. I told her my reasons. She tried to tell me medicals reasons why I should. I asked her for other options. I was very clear I wouldn’t drink the glucose drink. I asked for another test or told her I would check my sugar daily. Thankfully they allowed me to get my sugar tested after fasting 8 hours and used those numbers. I passed with flying colors. Actually my fasting numbers were almost below normal. 

I really feel that eating a paleo diet has helped me have a much more normal pregnancy than I had with G. This baby is growing on track and my sugar has been stable. My fasting sugar levels were high with G. I was able to keep it controlled with diet. He ended up being induced because they didn’t feel he was growing well inside me. These are things I’m not experiencing this time. I also know that every pregnancy is different. I do feel having a healthy diet has helped me greatly with my MS and this pregnancy. I do experience MS issues daily, but it isn't as severe as when I was eating anything and everything. 

Disclaimer: these opinions are all my own. You need to follow your doctors advice. 

What actually is Grace?

I feel this year I have been learning the actual meaning of grace in my life and what the Bible actually teaches. I feel mans teaching has been so wrong over the years. I went to see Jen Hatmaker in February. She talked about the Good Samaritan helping the certain man in Luke 10. One thing that really got to me was how the Bible talked about this certain man. In the Bible it doesn't talk at ALL about what this man had done. It doesn't mention if he was homeless, drug addict, a great man, provoked the thieves etc. It just talks about the people who didn't help him and the one man who did. WOW! To me that was so powerful. There are so many times we don't help people because we don't think they deserve to be helped. I don't think that is what God wants from us. To make a judgment or determination who needs to be helped. Well I helped them one time, they screwed up and they don't deserve to be helped again. Think if God treated us that way? 

God is gracious and loves to give us good gifts. We do not have to strive in life for anything. We do not have to be good enough or do the right thing in order for God to give us grace, the desires of our heart or to be there for us. His grace is undeserving, unwarranted and something we can't earn. His grace is freely given to us. So often I was taught the reasons I went through trials were because I did something to deserve these trials. That I won't see God's grace through trials because I haven't earned his grace. Yikes! This is a horrible teaching and it isn't what the Bible teaches at all. You get to the point you don't want to even try anymore because what's the point. 

Over the years I have been through a lot in my life. I have always seen God take care of me. I have been through a lot of crap in life. There is so much of my life that I have not shared on my blog. I have shared some of the crappy parts here. Growing up my parents didn't shelter us from the trials of life. Instead we all prayed about them as a family and tried to trust God. People can say well children shouldn't experience that stress. I can see that point. I have to say that experiencing the trials life threw at us as a family from a young age has helped me deal with trials as an adult. Some times trials happen because of bad decisions or because there aren't boundaries in place, but that does not mean God's grace isn't there for us!!!!!! Those are lessons you have to learn in life. 

I love the song Reckless Love by Cory Asbury. It really has spoke to me while we have been going through some rough times in life. Sometimes we need to just stop and let God love us. Let Him show us his grace! 

Reckless Love Lyrics

Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me

You have been so, so good to me

Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me

You have been so, so kind to me

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine

I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah

When I was Your foe, still Your love fought for me

You have been so, so good to me

When I felt no worth, You paid it all for me

You have been so, so kind to me

And oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine

And I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah

There's no shadow You won't light up

Mountain You won't climb up

Coming after me

There's no wall You won't kick down

Lie You won't tear down

Coming after me

There's no shadow You won't light up

Mountain You won't climb up

Coming after me

There's no wall You won't kick down

Lie You won't tear down

Coming after me

There's no shadow You won't light up

Mountain You won't climb up

Coming after me

There's no wall You won't kick down

Lie You won't tear down

Coming after me

There's no shadow You won't light up

Mountain You won't climb up

Coming after me

There's no wall You won't kick down

Lie You won't tear down

Coming after me

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine

And I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah

Songwriters: Caleb Culver / Cory Asbury / Ran Jackson

Monday Thrive - October 30

1) There are things as a mother I never imagined saying. 

 - If you decide to pick your nose and eat your boogers I am going to have to take the ipad away from you. 
- No, I do not smell, the smell is from the porta-potty. After my toddler announced to the entire pumpkin patch that I stunk!
- Please do not eat that donut off the floor of Dunkin Donuts that you just dropped. 
- We do not take our shoes off at the play ground to run around. You need to leave your shoes on until we get to the car. 

There are so many other things I say that I just can't think of right now. I need to start writing these things down. lol

2) Life has been crazy lately. I actually have traveled a lot this fall. I don't travel much anymore since I stopped working. G and I went to visit my cousin in Texas for a long weekend. Then I went on a girls trip which was absolutely amazing! Art, G and I are getting ready to go on vacation. We planned this trip long before I went on all these others mini trips. I am really excited for our vacation. The 3 of us haven't ever gone on vacation alone. We have gone on lots of trips to see people or taken people with us. It's going to be very nice for the 3 of us to just relax on the beach. 

3) I haven't been posting menu ideas for awhile because I feel like we have been eating the same things every other week. I go to Costco, buy whatever veggies they have, grab meat from Amazon or Costco and throw it together. My energy level has been awful lately. Part of this was because I went off paleo for a few days a month or so ago. I suffered for weeks trying to get back on track. In the future I will have 1 cheat item instead of a cheat days. Wow it really is not good for my MS. I had so many issues after not eating paleo. Also I realized every year for the past 4 years in October I really battle MS. My 2 major attacks were in October. The other 2 years when I didn't have an attack I just struggle with things terribly. I can't figure out why. My vitamin d level is good. October has been warm for us, so it isn't the lack of sunshine. I have actually gotten more sun in the past month than I do in like December or January. Our vacation is coming at a great time. Hopefully the rest and relaxation will really help me. 

4) I am looking forward to the holidays! My sister and her fiance` are coming for Thanksgiving. We are going to celebrate Christmas with her while she is here. It will just be so nice to have her here. Packages keep arriving from Amazon that my sister has ordered. G thinks he needs to open them and check what auntie has sent. Trying to explain to a toddler the boxes can't be open aren't going well. 

I am going to put up my tree before Thanksgiving this year. :::gasp:::: I know before Thanksgiving!!! I want it up before my sister comes and I don't want to do it while she is here. We have way too much tourist activities to be attending. 

5) Last week we lost one of MTC friends. I met her last year at the conference. It's hard to believe one year later she is gone. This is what gets me with MTC. One day people are working, functioning normal life and the next day they are in hospice. If you don't use Smile Amazon please consider it! Each purchase Amazon will donate money to a charity. Medullary Thyroid Cancer really could use the money for research. There is such little research that has been done for MTC. We really need to find a cure. Right now more research is being done than has probably ever been done. I donated some of my tumor tissues recently to help with the research. I am not sure if they will find a cure during my lifetime, but any way I can help to hopefully one day find a cure is so important to me. 

I hope everyone has a spooky Halloween tomorrow!!! G is LOVING Halloween this year! I love that he is so into holidays! 

Put your Health 1st in 2017!

My life was changed in May 2016 when I was encouraged to start eating Paleo by my doctor. I was having so many health issues. I honestly thought within a couple years I would need a cane or wheel chair. I felt horrible! I could barely go for a walk without needing to rest for a couple days. I was barely able to get the normal daily tasks done. Chasing a toddler was extremely exhausting. 

The thought of never eating bread or dairy again was very overwhelming. I am German and Italian....seriously no pasta or bread? Do you know how I was raised? I was raised on flour based foods. Then I remembered when I did the HCG diet. I lost 80 pounds not eating foods with flour. I felt really great when I was doing certain stages of that diet which didn't have gluten or dairy. If I was able to do it before, so I could do it again. 

I had my entire grocery list made out on a Thursday when I was encouraged to change my diet. I told my doctor ok well I guess I will go home and make a whole new grocery list. And I did! I totally changed what I fed myself and my family. I am not going to make different meals for George or Art. If it wasn't healthy for me to be eating all these things then my toddler maybe shouldn't be eating those things either. 

During this time I came across Dr. Wahls. Another life changing event. I started following the Wahls Protocol. As I would read her book I just couldn't imagine how my body would even start to heal with just foods. I was willing to take the chance. If it worked for her then it might help me. She was a lot worse off then I was, but I felt my health was headed to a bad place like Dr. Wahls experienced. 

Fast forward to the present. Eating the Paleo diet has not changed my cancer at all. I have actually had additional growth on some of the cancer spots. My MS has changed drastically. If you have read previous posts and new posts that will be coming out you will see my fitness level has greatly improved. Right now I can see my life not needing a cane or wheel chair. 

Over Christmas I ate some non-Paleo food items. Oh boy! Usually I am SUPER careful about what I eat. I decided to allow myself to eat somethings I liked in the past. Lesson learned it isn't worth it. My body was achy, stomach hurt, bloating, and just feeling like garbage. I can't do dairy period! 

If you have any health issues I HIGHLY recommend you try eating the Paleo diet! It really has been life changing for me. I will say the first 4-6 weeks were super hard. It got boring trying to figure out what I could eat and getting sick of the same things. I felt I wouldn't be able to ever eat out at a restaurant. Over the past few months I have been able to change recipes to make them Paleo friendly. When a recipe calls for milk I use coconut milk. When it calls for butter I use ghee. Flour - I use tapioca starch or almond flour. You slowly start to learn what substitutes for things. You also learn to look ahead at menus and pick items you can eat when you eat out. You can ask them to hold certain ingredients and let them know your food allergies. 

Some people are able to add cheese and rice back into their diets without experiencing any problems. I think it all depends on your health and body. I can't add those things back in. I tried and it didn't work for me. I don't think you can expect to see a huge difference in how you feel within a couple days. When I look back to how I felt in April of 2016 to how I feel in December 2016 it is night and day. 

Getting to a healthy place isn't a sprint. You have to take it like a marathon. Slow and steady. 

1. Start to get some sleep! Your body needs sleep badly! So many people don't sleep properly. You need 7-9 hours of sleep each night. If you aren't able to sleep at night try to get a little nap. A 20 minute nap for me really helped heal my body. I use to nap 4-6 days a week for about 20-30 minutes. Now I rarely nap. I still love my Sunday afternoon nap while listening to a football game. Something so calming about those naps. 

2. Change the foods you eat! If you are eating processed food and feel terrible...shocker it's probably because it is processed. How can you expect your body to process these foods? If it has a package of dry ingredients did that come from a field? That is going to sit in your body for who knows how long trying to figure out how to process it. I could go on and on about this. 

3. Exercise! Even if it's for 20 minutes a few times a week. Find something you like. Take your kids for a walk to feed the ducks that crappy bread you shouldn't be eating. lol YouTube has a lot of free workouts. I love Chris Freytag workouts. You can find a lot of them on YouTube. 

4. Start reading the labels of the products you use. Look up ingredients on products to figure out exactly what is in the product. If your lotion has some strange things listed on it google those words. You will probably find out you are putting harmful chemicals on your body. 

You can't jump into this all head first. I did things slowly. I did the food, sleep, exercise and then products. I still struggle with sleep. It is midnight and here I am writing a blog post. Tomorrow I will probably need a nap. MS is a killer for messing with your sleep. Sometimes sleep aids work and something they don't. 

Fitness

I have missed running! I have tried to run over the past four years, but I ended up needing 4-7 days rest after running. I ran a 5K in September 2012. I ran after that regularly until January 2013. Once I had cancer I struggled to get back into running. Then the whole MS crap happened and I just didn't have the energy. Even this past spring I tried to run. I spent days exhausted barely able to function. I thought my running days are over. It was hard on me mentally because I am young. I see lots of other people doing it why can't I? 

Over the past few months I have walked, lots of cardio, yoga and ran a little. It would feel so good to run even a little bit. When I was out for a walk I would run short distances. I would pick a goal and run to that place. Then walk some etc. Similar to Couch to 5K. Well imagine the day when I was able to run a couple miles! I was ECSTATIC!!!! It felt so amazing! I didn't need days to recover either. 

I told my dad that I went for a run. He said he didn't understand exercise. Why not just do some work for 20-30 minutes. Go for a walk and check some fence. Mow a lawn. Take the neighbors dog for a walk. Oh boy! Here is the rancher talking! I called him the other day to let him know I took some of his advice. Instead of going for a walk I cleaned up our back yard for two hours! He said I only needed to do about 20 minutes of continuous movement. It wasn't necessary to do hours. lol Oh dad! 

When I first started working out 3-4 days a week I felt it was kind of hopeless. Would I ever get my weight back down or feel good again. I have just listened to my body. If I have felt really exhausted or didn't sleep good I haven't pushed myself to work out. Other days I try to get at least 25 minutes of exercise in. George loves it when I run. He will say go fast momma go fast! 

It's been a long road to getting back to where I was prior to January 2013. Part of me never will be. I am below the weight I was then, I can exercise again like I did back then and I finally moving on with life outside of the black cloud that has hung over our heads. 

I Continue to Fight Strong!

Recently I wrote a blog post called I Fight Strong! Since I wrote that blog post I have had to start a fight again. This time with an insurance company. I have spent a lot of time this year fighting doctors and insurance. I got to the point I was seriously exhausted and beat down from fighting. I just wasn't sure if I had the fight left in me. I told Art I was at the point I wanted to just give up fighting everyone, but I couldn't. I couldn't give up because there is a little boy who needs his mom. If she doesn't fight for her health no one else can or will. 

I dug down deep to have the strength to fight another fight. It was a long week of gathering information, preparing documents and sent it off hoping for a good outcome. I spent a week praying asking God to help me through yet another fight. On the day I was supposed to hear what the insurance company would decide I read this:

I was able to stop my worrying for just a couple hours. Later that day I got a phone call that things had been approved. I hung up the phone and cried. Then I reminded myself just how strong I am. How I fight strong because cancer, doctors, MS or insurance companies aren't going to bring me down!

Lavender & Frankincense Oils

I have struggled with sleeping since I had my thyroid removed. I have a hard time falling asleep, staying asleep and any bright lights. I sleep so sensitive now it is rather frustrating. Melatonin helps me at times. It will work for a week or so then all of a sudden it does the opposite. It will cause me to be WIDE awake. Very irritating. 

Recently I bought some roller balls to put oils in. I made one up with oil, lavender and frankincense. If I put it on the bottom of my feet about 30 minutes before bed it relaxes me and I go right to sleep. I am always looking for natural ways to help me sleep. 

Frankincense can help with MS symptoms because it aids with the blood flow. MS is another lovely thing that causes a ruckus with getting sleep. Between the thyroid and MS issues I don't think I would ever sleep. I wish I had known about some of these tips back when G was first born. When he would lay down for a nap I couldn't sleep. There were times I would toss and turn for the 2 hours he napped. When I would start to fall asleep he would wake up. 

I wish I would have been open to trying oils and sleep masks back then. I think I could have possibly avoid another MS attack. 

Nap Tips for Adults!

I am going to probably bore people with my Terry Wahls praises. I hope I am able to attend one of her conferences one day. 

People with MS have a lot of trouble sleeping. I really noticed this after I had George. I just couldn't nap in the day. I have always been able to nap on a Sunday, laying on the couch watching football, but otherwise forget it. Dr. Wahls talks about this in her book The Wahls Protocol. I was like FINALLY I understand why I am struggling so much. 

I try to take a nap every day. I know that isn't a reality for most people. People with MS really should be napping to let those cells recover and to help with fatigue. You don't need a 2-3 hour nap. A 20-30 nap does wonders on your body. 

Here are some tips I have for taking naps. 

1. Get a sleep mask. When I had George the hospital gave us a cheap face mask that Art kept. He took it on our last vacation. Well I stole it and I slept so good with it. When I came home I bought a good one. Art refers it to my eye bra. This is the one I bought from Amazon for $12. 

2. Follow a similar routine you do before bed at night. I will have a cup of tea after lunch, set an alarm for 45 minutes, put in my mouth guard, put on my eye mask and turn on my bore friend. The minute George lays down for his nap I lay down. That way I can get a good 20-30 minutes in. I also like to get things done around the house when he is napping. This helps me be able to nap and get stuff done. 

3. I struggle with being able to shut my mind off. The best thing I found was a Podcast called Sleep with Me or known as my Bore Friend. I couldn't even tell you what the guy talks about, but what I can tell you is I am asleep before the 15 minute podcast turns off. I set the alarm on the podcast for 15 minutes, so it turns itself off. 

4. There are times I don't set my alarm. My body knows to just sleep for about 30 minutes during the day. I will wake up automatically now. In order to sleep good at night I can't sleep more than about 30 minutes. I also found that I don't sleep as well at night if I don't get a nap. 

5. Try reading before you go to sleep. Reading always puts me to sleep no matter how good the book is. 

6. Background noise! This is a huge thing for me. I am such a light sleeper these days. I put the bathroom fan and a regular fan on beside my bed. The sound of the fan helps drown out everything else. These fans also help George and I both sleep. I have had to get mean and put the dog in the garage during nap time. Sammy barks every.single.day when we are napping. I got sick and tired of George getting woke up after 30 minutes. Now it is just part of the routine. Sammy doesn't even pout. He just runs to the garage. He barks his head off while we are napping. Thankfully we can't hear him with the fans. I do know he barks because when I leave the bedroom I hear him barking at the mailman or delivery trucks. 

I wish I could be like Art and fall asleep in 2 minutes after he lays down. What are some ways that help you fall asleep at night?

MS & Wahls Protocol!

I have debated for awhile if I wanted to write about my diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. It took me a good four months before I could even accept that I had it. This past October I had a really bad MS attack that led to an actual diagnosis. It was so bad I had trouble walking. I was dragging my left side. I had to take two rounds of strong antibiotics to get the numbness to go away. My entire left side was numb for about a month. It was horrible! 

Then came the doctor appointments where I was told I needed to start on MS medication in order to try to avoid attacks. Ugh I had been dreading this conversation. I did some research on my own and determined I better do it, so I am not in a wheelchair by forty. I was not in a good place health wise. I also started doing some research on vitamins. I added some new vitamins to my daily routine immediately. 

I started taking a weekly MS medication. It made me feel HORRIBLE for about 3-4 days. By the time I started to feel better it was time to take it over again. I changed medications to a daily injection. When the doctor told me I would need to switch to a daily one I cried. It was more the thought of it all. Once I started it just became part of my day. Now George even thinks this is normal. He sees me load my injection pen with my shot. He knows what needs to be done and preps it for me at times before I load the shot needle. Thankfully I haven't experienced anymore horrible reactions from the medication.

It has been about six years ago since I started my weight loss journey. While I did the HCG diet I was really opened up to how much sugar is in foods. It just made me look at food differently. Then I got cancer and my opinion of processed foods took another turn. When George started eating I was a maniac reading every label, making most of his food and refusing to let people feed him anything with sugar. And now our entire diet as a family has changed. 

I have said for years the reason there is so much disease, cancer, health issues is because of our food. FINALLY I found a doctor that actually believes the same thing. Terry Wahls has changed my world. My goal is to get my body/cells healed over the next year and to get off the MS medication for good! If you have any health issue I would really encourage you to read The Wahls Protocol. 

Let me just say it is HARD! It is hard not eating a donut on National Donut Day or grabbing food when you are hungry out and about. I will say though the way you will feel following this protocol outweighs the sugary treats. It was about a month ago we started eating Paleo. I jumped in head first not even knowing what in the world I was doing. The first week I just did the best I could. I made changes for myself and the guys slowly. Now we are full blown Paleo. I do cook George some pasta, rice or carbs, but for the most part he eats like us. I buy him some organic crackers for snacks. I don't freak out if he eats something non-organic with a friend. 

I have lost weight without being hungry. Art has lost weight not following things 100%. I would say Art follows it about 85%. Art use to eat fast food, sandwiches, and a lot of processed foods every day. When we were going to go to Texas on vacation he asked me to make him salads for lunch instead. I didn't stop doing that when we came back. I can't remember the last time I bought a loaf of bread. 

I am not scared of what the future holds for me. I don't worry about will I need a wheelchair or cane at 40. Instead I look forward to the day I can run a 5K again. Watch the Tedtalk on YouTube with Terry Wahls. She has changed my world and given me hope for the future.