I apologize that this post is a day late. I actually had it written on Wednesday, then that evening our kitchen drain got clogged and we had another disaster on our hands. I spent the last two days staying away from the house so my mom could use liquid plumber, which didn't work and she had to take the sink apart, and it's still not completely fixed. It's been an ordeal. Just one more thing to add to this crazy, ridiculous month. Anyway, here's the post I originally wrote. Thanks for your prayers for us!
This EI life is never easy. But sometimes it goes past being difficult to just plain ridiculous. The last month or so has been like that for me.
We had the worst pesticide spraying ever in our neighborhood! It contaminated our garage and laundry room and almost everything in our kitchen. My sweet mom spent days scrubbing out kitchen cupboards, soaking our dishes in vinegar, washing the walls, mopping the floor, etc. We had to throw out some organic food that got contaminated. I used the same 5 dishes (that didn't get contaminated, praise God) for days. We're still not quite finished putting things back to "normal" in the kitchen.
Not only that, but since the laundry room was full of the awful pesticide, I couldn't go out there. So my mom has been doing all my laundry again. It's taken several times of soaking and washing to get all the pesticide out of my laundry. It's been ridiculous!
In the midst of all this, I've still been detoxing like crazy. Toxins are coming out so fast (especially while I'm sleeping at night) that every evening I spend an hour or more detoxifying my bedroom - washing the wall next to my bed, mopping the floor, putting on clean bedding and curtains, etc. Because of all this, I haven't been able to get to bed til midnight or later most nights. Not a good thing for my body.
We have 5 air purifiers we rotate through the house, but my mom still coughs when she's near me (that's when you know you're detoxing a LOT). I'm thankful to be getting rid of more toxins, but at the moment the process feels pretty ridiculous!
I could go on about several other problems I'm dealing with right now, but I don't want to depress you. =) My mom said that she'd never have thought of doing laundry as a "trial." Trials are things like losing homes or jobs, or going through cancer, etc. And while those are awful things, I think "trials" aren't always the big catastrophes. Sometimes they're made up of so many small difficulties that life just feels overwhelming. I admit that's about how my mom and I feel right now. We'd sure appreciate your prayers.
Right now we're holding on to God's promises - that He won't gives us more than we can bear, that He's always with us, that He does work all things for our good somehow. He is still faithful, even when life is ridiculous.
Friday, September 25, 2015
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Some Random Health Notes
The last three weeks have been pretty awful for me. Our neighbors took turns spraying pesticides, then last week someone near us sprayed industrial strength pesticide. That one was so awful it contaminated almost everything in our garage and house. We are still in recovery and decontamination mode, and I've barely been able to keep up with daily needs. I'm behind on emails and blog posts. So today I thought I'd just post some random health notes that I've been thinking about lately.
Dangers of Pesticides
Obviously this has been on my mind. Pesticides/herbicides are designed to kill and destroy. To say that they can kill pests/plants without causing harm to humans is simply untrue! They are poisons. They do damage. They may not kill a human right away, but the toxins in these products cause all kinds of health problems, including cancer, reproductive problems, and brain impairments such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.
If you aren't already aware of the dangers, please check out these articles which give specific details about how/why pesticides are so dangerous - to people, pets and the environment.
And please keep sharing this information with others so we can work together for a healthier world.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/29/pesticide-exposure.aspx
http://www.nrdc.org/health/pesticides/
This site lists some alternatives to pesticides -
http://www.pesticide.org/
Resource for Parkinson's
I did some research for a friend lately about Parkinson's. Ironically, I learned that there's a proven link between exposure to pesticides and Parkinson's. High numbers of gardeners/landscapers who regularly used pesticides, later were diagnosed with Parkinson's. This makes sense because many of the chemicals in pesticides directly affect brain function.
The good news is that I found a wonderful resource about recovering from Parkinson's!
http://www.parkinsonsrecovery.com/
I was impressed with this site because it expresses many of the same concepts I've learned, such as:
- the body is able to heal itself when we provide the help it needs
- recovery is possible
- always look for root causes
- then use various natural means to help the body resolve those root causes
If you know someone dealing with Parkinson's, this is a great resource. There's a ton of information on the blog, plus there are archived radio programs and much more.
Eat the rainbow
One other note is something I heard in an interview with a nutrition expert. She mentioned this concept about diet of "eating the rainbow." I thought it was a fun way to evaluate and pursue a healthier diet. She suggested you take three days and simply write down everything you eat. Then on the fourth day, take markers and put a corresponding colored line next to each item. So if you ate an apple, put a red line. If you ate bread, put a white or brown line. Etc.
She said most people eat a majority of white/brown/yellow foods. (Mostly starches, processed foods, grains, junk food, etc.) By putting colored lines next to each food you'll get a visual representation of what your diet looks like. If you eat a lot of green or orange foods, you'll notice that right away. If you're missing blue, purple or red foods, you'll see that too.
Since listening to her interview I've been inspired to eat a more rainbow-like diet. =) I went to the health food store and came back with blueberries, kiwi, apples and a tangelo.
I realize eating a healthy diet is a tough thing, with so many individual variables. But I hope maybe this idea will give you something fun to try. =)
Ok, that's all for today. I hope your week is going well.
Blessings,
-Joanna
Dangers of Pesticides
Obviously this has been on my mind. Pesticides/herbicides are designed to kill and destroy. To say that they can kill pests/plants without causing harm to humans is simply untrue! They are poisons. They do damage. They may not kill a human right away, but the toxins in these products cause all kinds of health problems, including cancer, reproductive problems, and brain impairments such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.
If you aren't already aware of the dangers, please check out these articles which give specific details about how/why pesticides are so dangerous - to people, pets and the environment.
And please keep sharing this information with others so we can work together for a healthier world.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/29/pesticide-exposure.aspx
http://www.nrdc.org/health/pesticides/
This site lists some alternatives to pesticides -
http://www.pesticide.org/
Resource for Parkinson's
I did some research for a friend lately about Parkinson's. Ironically, I learned that there's a proven link between exposure to pesticides and Parkinson's. High numbers of gardeners/landscapers who regularly used pesticides, later were diagnosed with Parkinson's. This makes sense because many of the chemicals in pesticides directly affect brain function.
The good news is that I found a wonderful resource about recovering from Parkinson's!
http://www.parkinsonsrecovery.com/
I was impressed with this site because it expresses many of the same concepts I've learned, such as:
- the body is able to heal itself when we provide the help it needs
- recovery is possible
- always look for root causes
- then use various natural means to help the body resolve those root causes
If you know someone dealing with Parkinson's, this is a great resource. There's a ton of information on the blog, plus there are archived radio programs and much more.
Eat the rainbow
One other note is something I heard in an interview with a nutrition expert. She mentioned this concept about diet of "eating the rainbow." I thought it was a fun way to evaluate and pursue a healthier diet. She suggested you take three days and simply write down everything you eat. Then on the fourth day, take markers and put a corresponding colored line next to each item. So if you ate an apple, put a red line. If you ate bread, put a white or brown line. Etc.
She said most people eat a majority of white/brown/yellow foods. (Mostly starches, processed foods, grains, junk food, etc.) By putting colored lines next to each food you'll get a visual representation of what your diet looks like. If you eat a lot of green or orange foods, you'll notice that right away. If you're missing blue, purple or red foods, you'll see that too.
Since listening to her interview I've been inspired to eat a more rainbow-like diet. =) I went to the health food store and came back with blueberries, kiwi, apples and a tangelo.
I realize eating a healthy diet is a tough thing, with so many individual variables. But I hope maybe this idea will give you something fun to try. =)
Ok, that's all for today. I hope your week is going well.
Blessings,
-Joanna
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