Toxicity

If you haven't joined me on my new challenge page, click HERE it's a page where we gather people together to challenge ourselves to become better mentally and physically. Whether your goals are weight related or not, this is a great page where we evaluate the way we think in conjunction with our goals. I've come to realize that when our heads are full of clutter, we aren't able to fully flourish as the people we were designed to be. Please spread the word about the challenge, the more people participating, the better the encouragement and motivation will be for each of us participating.

My cleanse has been disrupted by antibiotics and infection. My body is struggling lately, and I've started to read Alejandro Junger's book "Clean" which outlines the toxicity of our Earth and our bodies and how it all ties together. I've been having a lot of symptoms over the years, symptoms my body has been yelling "HELP ME" over, yet I've not heeded it's call. I'm 34, and as of late, I've experienced chronic joint pain, headaches, dizziness, skin infections, low immune system, fatigue, muscle pain, back pain, head fogginess, easy bruising, moodiness, and more. I've had every lab test in the book, and guess what?! They are all NORMAL.

In Dr. Junger's book, he shares his story of a similar barrage of symptoms. TOXICITY and not toxicity like you hear about in modern medicine relating to massive infection or overdose, poisoning, etc; but toxicity from our exposure to environmentals, medications, pesticides in food, hormones in food, chemicals in food, additives, preservatives, and things we can't avoid like pollution, etc. Dr. Junger shares a cleanse program in this book that has changed many lives, even endorsed by Gweneth Paltrow. So, I will continue to read and continue to share with you, but my goal is to begin a 21 day cleanse using "Clean" starting December 1. In the mean time, I will still begin my challenge on November 21 along with the challenge group, incorporating "Clean" when I return from vacation.


So, yes, my current cleanse was interrupted due to a skin infection that occurred in my ear canal, requiring a visit to the emergency room and a visit to an ENT for two minor procedures to attempt to drain the infection. Now I am on mega antibiotics and antibiotic/steroid ear drops to boot. Not exactly the best way to cleanse your body. It is what it is, however. I was on antibiotics about 8 weeks ago when I came down with bronchitis that lasted 6 weeks. As you can see, I'm desperate to heal my body and modern medicine is NOT doing the job. So, I'm taking matters into my own hands December 1.

One of the things I've struggled with for years is losing weight. I can exercise 2 hours a day 4-5 days a week, have caloric deficits 90% of the time yet I lost 4 pounds in 6 months. Some of that is food combinations, I can't do a high carb load diet, which I am learning and I've got to stay away from sugars. It was a year ago that I stopped working out 2 hours a day, when I forfeited my gym membership for a new house. I swore to myself that I would keep up with it at home, I bought a treadmill on Craigslist and a weight set, along with a couple of workout videos. Did I keep up with it? No, the distraction of things to do at home insured my treadmill collected dust. So, here I am a year later, and desperately trying to find the combination that works for me. As I'm learning, this process will have to start with detox, clean the plate before you fill it up again.

My hopes are to find that not only does my body start repairing itself with the cleanse, but that my mind clears and the entire process becomes an easier task. Mind and body are connected, when our body is toxic, our mind is toxic. We can't think clearly, we are depressed, etc. When we clean out our body, our mind no longer has a rush of toxins either which makes the whole body healing process a lot more enjoyable (so I'm told……). I have to say "Clean" is a very interesting book…Dr. Junger does have some more metaphysical, new age thoughts, which are NOT me, but I can see past those and gain valuable scientific information in spite of our differing belief systems.

I can hardly wait to finish the book, get a good plan in place, and begin. We will be traveling for Thanksgiving which will be an interesting way to start a new challenge. My goals are to avoid overindulgence an do my best to incorporate eating cleanER then I normally would in a holiday setting. I really can't believe I'm saying "holiday." Is it really that time of year again? My goal this season is to lose weight, gain clarity and start healing my body; unlike years past where I binge on sugar and find myself 10 pounds heavier.

Please do join my challenge, I don't want to try to do this alone. I thrive best when a community of people are sharing ideas and successes, and my best guess is many people do.

Until next time…..

Head Space

Wow, has it really been almost a month since I've been on this thing? Sadly, yes. My trip threw me off of my plan....well, actually, I threw myself off my plan. I have trouble once I get distracted or disrupted in my plan, with getting back ON it. So, here we are over a month later, and I'm trying to get myself back on track.

Right now, I'm cleansing, trying to detox because my body has been exhibiting a lot of symptoms that I should not be having at my age. Rather than take piles of medications, I'm trying to do it naturally...and heal my body through nutrition. Not to worry, I'm still incorporating my Eat Clean Diet, but am doing some supplementation and cleanse products to try to jump start this process of detoxing.

Over the last couple of months, I've been having joint pain, fatigue, chronic infections, chronic illness....and I love my Doctor, but I will not pollute my body with a bunch of symptomatic cures when the real true cure is addressing the root of the problem. I just watched this video on this page ----> http://www.cleanprogram.com/ it uses the analogy of a tree that is struggling, wilting, dying.....and how modern medicine's approach is to paint the leaves and glue them back on the tree rather than nurse the tree nutritionally back to health. Painting the leaves WOULD be absurd, yet our medical community does it daily. I sometimes fight my doctors about what I will and won't take. If I have a serious infection, I will take antibiotics, but I am highly sensitive to medications and don't tolerate them well in general. So, sometimes it's a battle and some of the Doctors I've seen in my lifetime don't think the patient is qualified to do their own research and decide they don't want to take certain medications. Don't hear me wrong, I respect Doctors, they save lives they help me get well...but certain things I know I just can't do.

Getting with the program, following through with a cleanse, is hard. We can talk the talk, many of us, but walking the walk seems like it's impossible sometimes. I'm just trying to be real here. I want to motivate people with this blog, but I have to be real about what happens in my head. My head is exactly why I've struggled with my weight for so long. It goes something like this: gah, I hate how I look...I hate myself in pictures....look at that nasty fat.....omg my butt in those jeans looks like some old woman....negativity, negativity, negativity. Somewhere I learned to loathe what I see, and just when I think it's not so bad, who I see in the mirror isn't looking as bad as I think...I'm slammed with a family photo and there I see three chins (maybe not really) staring at me. I obsess, I beat myself up, I hang on it. Then instead of doing anything about it, I look for my solution in food. psssttt..hey you.....don't you know you are making it worse?! RIGHT?! The logic leaves my head completely.....there lies the difficulty of finding how to get out of my own head space. Stop being negative, find something good to say (my waist looks thinner, I'm strong, I can't run X miles). There's a lot to be thankful for, yet somehow we can tend to get wrapped up in a negative cycle and get nowhere but backwards!

So, I'm working on it a day at a time. I don't have the cure.....but I'm searching for that thing...that AHA moment. In the mean time, here's some notes I took while on a ustream chat with Jesse Brisendine, a very motivating life coach and personal trainer. Check him out here: https://www.facebook.com/1Year1000Challenge

*YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET RESULTS BY GIVING 10%
*FULLY COMMIT
*THERE WILL BE DOWNS
*CHANGE DAY TO DAY THOUGHT PROCESSES IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE THINGS
*THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY IS DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS.
*IF YOU MAKE THAT CHANGE, THE SKY IS THE LIMIT
*"IF" IS A DREAM KILLER…IF YOU PUT CONDITIONS ON YOUR DREAMS IT WILL KILL THEM.

These are all in CAPS for a very good reason, I even took the notes in CAPS....these are things I need to yell at myself EVERY DAY.

That's it for now...until next time.....remember YOU are worth it. Don't forget that

(the products I'm cleansing with are a couple of different things I'm trying, but am not sure I'm sold. Until I know whether I am....I will stay silent about them. If they do amazing things, I will share with you all)