Category Archives: nutrition

July 2, 2016 · 8:27 PM

Why I’m A Natural Health Dropout

pexels-photo-68563

I used to be very adamantly against pharmaceuticals. I remember after the birth of my first son – 19 years ago – they offered me Tylenol with codeine and I declined. Then they wanted me to take a stool softener, and I declined that too. I was kind of obnoxious about it too, now that I think about it. I didn’t need that stuff. I had my supplements and my herbs (and if essential oils were as big a thing back then as they are now, I’m sure I would have used those too). I had my ideals. I had my self-righteous resolve.

Over the next several years, I would spend a lot of time studying, reading about, and learning about natural health and nutrition. I took several courses, and I earned a handful of certificates. I was passionate and motivated and… have I mentioned obnoxious yet?

And then I got gall stones… in a gall bladder that eventually got inflamed and infected. Then I got gall stones lodged in my bile duct. Then I got pancreatitis. Then I needed surgery. Next was kidney stones, followed by hydronephrosis and a stent. A couple of years later, it was two rather painful shoulder surgeries in as many years, one involving detaching my bicep and reattaching it on a different spot on my bone, held in place with a permanent metal screw.

Suffice it to say, I made my peace with allopathic medicine.

Over that tricky six year period, there were narcotics, there were muscle relaxants, there were antibiotics, there were anti-emetics, there were sleep aids. Last year I tried, and eventually rejected, a medication prescribed for suspected fibromyalgia. It’s not that I’m proud to say I took all of that… but I’m not ashamed of it either. I made informed decisions, I took what I needed, and I took it all responsibly. At the time of this writing, I’m taking a mood stabilizer (which is making a world of difference for me) and am in the process of carefully weaning myself off of a benzodiazepine, prescribed during an acute time of crisis when I began treatment for bipolar disorder. I’m not ashamed of that either.

And the thing is, I never abandoned anything I learned when I studied natural health. In fact, having bipolar and wanting to get well has necessitated my paying more attention to it than ever before. I absolutely understand the importance of nutrition. I know how inextricably our stress levels are tied to our health. I’m exercising, six days a week. I’m taking a careful supplement regimen, designed with the help of my doctor. I’m meditating daily. I’m not drinking any alcohol. I’m using essential oils, for all kinds of things. I’m working hard to develop better sleep patterns (even giving up watching TV in bed, one of my favorite things, in an effort to create healthier habits). Self-care and natural health are wonderful things indeed.

But there’s a balance.

I don’t think I truly understood that balance until I went through my own health crises, and to an even greater extent until I was met with my former self, again and again, in the form of people whose version of “help” included chastising me for my choices. There was the one who messaged me after my second shoulder surgery, not to offer up a “get well soon” but to lecture me about the dangers of prescription painkillers. There was the one who, after I’d already had my gall bladder removed, told me why I should never have done it, and how I should have just healed it naturally instead. There were the countless others, who no matter what the issue, were convinced that I just needed to take more supplements/get better sleep/eat more whole foods/take more walks in the sunshine. I saw in real time the black and white thinking to which I myself had once subscribed. I saw the danger of, and felt the sting of, polarity. I saw how many people tried to shame me (and who continue to try to shame me) for not taking a solely natural approach.

I saw judgment – So. Much. Judgment. – from family members to friends to strangers alike.

That’s the natural health movement that leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth. That’s the natural health movement that I no longer want to be a part of.

I can’t help but wonder what would happen if we just trusted one another to make informed decisions. To learn not just about treating disease but about maintaining health. To weigh the pros and cons of all our options. To educate ourselves about natural remedies and pharmaceuticals both. To learn about risks of side effects versus possible benefits. To respect that my path to health is different from your path is different to your best friend’s neighbor’s path. To completely remove shame from the equation.

And if you ever have to have your bicep drilled back into your humerus, I hope that your recovery goes as smoothly as possible. I hope that you’re given all your options to control the pain, and that you make the choice that best works for you…. whether it’s a steady regimen of Vicodin or a thrice-daily walking meditation session in a sunny meadow.

I promise not to judge you either way.

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Filed under about me, health, natural health, nutrition

August 27, 2014 · 9:06 AM

Book Review: 100 Days of Real Food, by Lisa Leake

I have been so looking forward to receiving and reviewing this book.* I’ve reviewed many different things on my blog, but this may well be my favorite to date. It’s a book, and it’s about FOOD! Two of my favorite things.

The first thing that you need to know is that this is just a really lovely book. Visually stunning. It is big and heavy (I love that!) and filled with gorgeous pictures. Particularly in this day and age of e-books and digital recipes, I truly appreciate a bound, paper book that I can hold in my hands as I flip through the pages. I may have even smelled it in order to inhale that “new book” smell. The layout is clear and organized, the pictures of the recipes are mouthwatering, and the pictures scattered throughout of Lisa Leake’s family and children provided a really nice, personal touch.

As for the content itself:

The first third of the book is an introduction to get you started on your journey to ditching the processed stuff, and eating and cooking with real, whole foods. What is real food, you ask? She covers that, as well as outlining the changes you can start making to improve your diet. She even includes 14 weeks of challenges for a step-by-step approach to making slow and gradual dietary changes. Week 1’s challenge is to include two fruits or vegetables with every meal. Pretty doable, right? She also gives detailed tips and information on shopping, meal planning, budgeting, and getting the whole family on board. This section is invaluable, especially for those who are just starting out.

Following the introduction are the 150+ pages of recipes and their accompanying beautiful photos. They are organized by type of recipe – breakfast, lunch (including a whole section for lunch box ideas), snacks, dinner, desserts (desserts!!), and homemade staples such as salad dressings and sauces – so it’s easy to quickly flip to and find the section that you want. The recipes themselves are simple, clear-cut, and easy to follow. They don’t call for any crazy or hard-to-find ingredients, and they don’t ask you to do anything that’s intimidating for someone who’s new to cooking from scratch. The recipes use food as their ingredients, and give you an easy step-by-step plan for preparing it, no matter who you are or how experienced (or inexperienced) you may be in the kitchen.

Homemade Cinnamon Raisin Quick Bread with cream cheese. I love these lunch box ideas!

Another nice touch is the inclusion of the list of recipes organized by dietary need in the back of the book. You can quickly and easily find all the recipes that are, for example, gluten-free, vegetarian, or dairy free, without having to search through the entire book. Leake truly thought of everything, and as such has succeeded in making one of the most user-friendly cookbooks I’ve ever read.

If you’re someone who is wanting to get back to basics and start eating good whole foods with simple ingredients, get this book. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to see if I have everything I need to make the mini chocolate truffles….

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to leave a positive review, and all opinions are my own.*

That Which Makes Me Very Grumpy

I blame Flylady. Well, Flylady and my good friend Jess.

If you’re not familiar with Flylady, it’s basically a housekeeping system that teaches you to get in the habit of doing a morning and evening routine every day (dishes, laundry, swooping the bathroom, etc), along with one bigger chore, with the goal of getting and keeping your house running smoothly. It’s the exact opposite of anything I’d naturally be drawn too… but it’s actually quite perfect for people like me: people who’ve admitted to themselves that they function a lot better in less chaos, but who tend to make a mess everywhere they go.

Anyway, on Friday my job was to mop the floors. Actually, it was technically just to mop the kitchen floor. But if I had out a wet mop all ready to go, why stop at the kitchen? Why indeed. So I get my mop ready, fill the sink with water, and get started on the kitchen (which, if I’m being honest, was WAY overdue for a mop). That’s when all four kids – who’d been happily involved in their own projects up until that very moment – suddenly desperately needed me, in four different directions. It turns out that mopping is sort of like going to the bathroom in that regard.

I put out their fires, with less patience than I would have liked, and went back to mopping. I was grumbling for no reason before I even left the kitchen. There were spots everywhere, I kept having to stop to put something else away, and there was another *&%$ fruit sticker stuck to the floor in front of the fridge. If I could get some help once in awhile… grumble grumble grumble.

By the time I’d made it out through the pantry into the other room, I lost it. I was tripping over Tegan’s latest 27 costume changes all over the floor. I needed to put in another load of laundry. Someone had to clean the mice cage. Something had clearly been spilled and only halfway wiped up, and there was another something that I can only guess was once gum or Silly Putty that had hardened into a black, concrete mound of glue under Spencer’s desk.

Before I knew what had happened, I’d had a totally unwarranted Jekyll and Hyde/Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk transformation. I was snapping at everyone, I was flinging stuff around, and I nearly burst into tears when I found one of my favorite pens without its cap. Spencer was – rightfully – looking at me like I’d gone crazy, and Paxton was still staring straight ahead at his computer screen… his only defense sitting as absolutely still as possible.

And that’s when I saw my raving lunatic self, took a (rather mortified) big breath, apologized to the kids, and said to myself, “What is wrong with you??”

Then I remembered.

The day before, I’d just begun a juice fast.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I like to do a good cleanse/fast a few times a year. It’s really important to detox, especially if you’ve been eating a lot of sugar or processed foods (or, in my case, a ton of NSAIDS) Plus, it’s February, and the new year, and I was still carrying 5 holiday pounds. I knew from experience that a week or two of juicing would do wonders. So when my friend Jess said, “Hey, want to do a juicing blitz with me??” I said “Sure, sign me up!”

Now if you’ve ever done any type of cleanse, you know that the first few days are unpleasant: I get headaches and a host of other physical detox symptoms. I crave things. I feel foggy. I sometimes get dizzy.

All child’s play compared to just how GRUMPY it makes me.

By day four or five, I feel fantastic. Lighter, mentally clearer, more energetic, ready to take on the world. But day two? I’m a beast. And I always forget that part. So while Jess was writing a lovely blog post about the juicing and all its benefits, I couldn’t write anything, largely because I was too focused on wanting to inflict major bodily harm on any and all inanimate object that got in my way.

So, my advice to you, should you ever choose to do a juicing fast (and you really should; It’s so good for you. And I’m on day 5 now, so I’m very much in the zone of “WOOOO HOOOO, juicing ROCKS!!”): Go easy on yourself and the people around you. Treat yourself gently, and with patience, and with grace.

And for the love of all that is good and holy, don’t even think about mopping.

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Filed under about me, food, learning, life, natural health, nutrition, rant

September 5, 2011 · 5:30 AM

Won’t they just eat junk food all day?

This is all unschoolers eat, right?

“One question that I have from reading your blog, is how you reconcile your nutritional beliefs/values .. with the concept of unschooling – I ask this because this is a really difficult issue for me – letting go of media/bedtimes/respectful parenting, we are already somewhere down the line with all of this, but I cannot see myself buying “junk” food/keeping it in the house – I was just interested in your take on this.”

If you’ve ever watched one of those unabashedly biased nightly “news” pieces about unschooling – or read any number of unschooling articles in the mainstream media – you’ll know that unschoolers are often depicted as eating nothing but junk food all day. Since they’re given the freedom to choose, they’re feasting on donuts and chips and sodas at all hours of the night and day… because that’s what a child would choose, right? Because of pervasive misconceptions such as these, the above question is one that I receive often, in various forms. Is that one area where you just don’t give them freedom? Don’t you worry that they’ll choose nothing but junk food? I know my child would just eat candy all day…

Let me start by saying that as someone who has studied nutrition, I do think it’s important to know about food. Absolutely. Parents are doing themselves and their children a disservice if they’re not educating themselves at least on the basics. We should know what’s in the food we’re eating, and why some choices are better than others. Why the white flour products don’t have the nutrition of their whole grain counterparts. Why commercially grown produce is so inferior to that which is grown organically. Why packaged “kids” foods like Goldfish crackers are no different nutritionally than feeding your kids cookies (in fact, as long as I’d made them myself, I’d much prefer the cookies). As parents we should know why it’s not a super idea to be serving up hot dogs or boxed macaroni and cheese or chicken nuggets with any regularity. If for no other reason, because we can’t expect our kids to understand what it means to eat a clean, healthful diet if we don’t understand it ourselves.

From an unschooling perspective, I also believe that eating is personal. Just like adults, kids should have autonomy when it comes to what they do and do not put in their body, at what time, and for what reason. THEY are the ones who know when they are hungry, when they are full, what makes them feel good, and what doesn’t… not their parents, and not the clock. And yes, I believe in freedom and choices when it comes to food. I believe that eating should be both functional and pleasurable, not something to be used as reward or punishment or fodder for a battle. None of the above is healthy (either physically or mentally) and it hurts me as both an unschooler and as a nutritional consultant to see the pressure, control, and stress that parents will sometimes place on their children over the issue of food.

So to answer the original question from up above: how do I reconcile the two perspectives? I buy lots of interesting, real, whole foods. We don’t eat fast food – no one ever asks – and we rarely buy boxed, bagged or otherwise processed stuff. We involve the kids in the entire process, and everyone gets an equal say in what we’ll eat for the week. We look up new recipes together. We talk about the pros and cons of various “diets” our friends or families are trying. We give the kids freedom, choices, and information. They know why we buy what we regularly buy, and they also know that on those occasions that they ask for chips, candy or other “extras”, that the answer will be YES. They are welcome to eat anything in the cabinet, refrigerator or freezer anytime… whether it’s before dinner, after dinner, or during dinner.

I think one big misconception that people have about this is that giving kids freedom and choices means just leaving them the heck alone, keeping the pantry stocked with Cheetos, soda, and Ring Dings, and letting them have at it. That can’t be much further from the truth. We maintain an open line of communication about food like we do everything else, and we stock the house with the things that they love, enjoy, or want to try. Nine times out of ten they’re snacking on fruits, vegetables, and nuts because that’s what they choose. But if they’re craving cookies, we’ll make some. If they’re craving cupcakes, we’ll make those too. If they’re craving cheap, sugary, artificially dyed confections from the dollar store, I’ll drive them.

The question remains though…. What would I do if it went too far and one of my kids suddenly wanted to eat nothing but junk food, white flour, and candy? It’s honestly never been an issue. They know real food, and they know that that isn’t it. They know that those things don’t make them feel good. And sure, they enjoy candy now and then. They like ice cream as much as the next guy. And would they happily eat pizza, pretzels, and potato chips at a Super Bowl party? You bet. But because none of it is “forbidden”, and they know that they’re always free to choose, they’ve learned to trust themselves, trust their bodies, and trust their instincts.

And I trust too.

I also wrote about food freedom in this post.

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Filed under food, freedom, nutrition, parenting, unschooling

January 19, 2011 · 7:01 PM

I earned a piece of paper

This came in the mail today, so I’m all like, official and stuff. I received an email several days ago with my final grades… which, out of principle (grades don’t matter), I won’t post. But I will say this: the school is of the opinion that I did me some good learnin’.

So, I’m looking at this certificate and I’m thinking a couple of things…

1. I really, really need to do a follow-up post to my What Are You Passionate About? post about schools and degrees, extrinsic rewards and the importance – or non-importance – of things like certifications and tests and grades.

2. Although the person who scoffed and dismissed it because it was “just a certificate” program, as opposed to a Bachelor’s, sort of hurt my feelings at the time, I am over it. I worked hard for it. I studied hard for it. I put a lot of time and effort into it. I learned and digested a lot of information in the past year. Certificate or no certificate, validation or no validation… it was something I was passionate about, and I did it. And I’m proud of that.

3. If I keep it on the table much longer, it will, without a doubt, be spilled on by the end of the evening.

Back into its plastic sleeve it went, to be tucked away with all the other things of its kind, never really to be looked at again.

I’m excited to be done with that part of my journey, and I can’t wait to start the next piece of the adventure.