Saturday

I went to bed last night with a barely noticeable headache. I figured I was just tired and it would be gone by morning. When I woke up this morning, it was throbbing so bad it made me nauseas. This was the worst headache I’ve had since I resolved to not take painkillers, and I really didn’t know if I’d make it through this one without having to take something. With all the work I’ve done toward detox and building my immune system in my gut, knowing medications like Advil/Tylenol are detrimental to that process is a big deterrent, but it HURT! I had to do something.

So I guzzled 16 oz of water. Then 32 oz of coconut water. Then took an Epsom salt bath with baking soda and essential oils (wintergreen, clove, helichrysum). I was feeling mildly better after the bath. No longer nauseas, but still in a lot of pain and very tired. My two-year old snuggled up on the couch with me and watched tv while I napped. Again, felt marginally better when I woke up. But not great. At this point the headache was sort of coming and going. If I was very still or laying down, I couldn’t feel it. But if I stood up or tried to do anything (particularly if it involved bending over) the pain came shooting back.

I ate these.

And drank more water. And slathered helichrysum oil over my neck and shoulders. By 1pm, my headache was completely gone, my energy was back, and I felt fantastic. 100 %. Good thing, too, because I was going to have a lot of nursing to do in the evening…

But first, lunch. Soy-free vegenaise, basil, yellow tomato, and roasted red pepper on homemade gf/egg free farmhouse seed bread. With black bean hummus and carrot sticks

And a smoothie. Kale, strawberries, 3 dates for sweetness, almond milk, sexy chocolate mix (cacao, carob, maca), 5 brazil nuts, and vanilla extract.

So, my husband came home early this evening from a work trip because he wasn’t feeling well and my daughter has had a very mild cough with slight congestion all week. And they both decided to have their sicknesses peak this evening.

As soon as I found out my husband was on his way home with a sore throat and feeling achy (aka fever), I started this soup. A whole organic chicken, onions, garlic, ginger, carrots, celery, splashes of white wine and apple cider vinegar, herbs from the garden (rosemary, thyme, sage, and basil), and 8 cups of water.

I’m pretty sure this soup is one of the top 5 most delicious things I’ve ever made. It was amazing.

But on to tonight’s nursing duties. As soon as my husband walked in the door, I made him get in an Epsom salt/baking soda bath with oils geared toward fighting infection and relieving pain (myrrh, eucalyptus, lemongrass, wintergreen, and clove) and made him use eucalyptus castile soap for washing. I gave him a mug of mullein tea and a spoonful of honey with a drop of thieves essential oil to soothe his throat and fight the infection at the source. Then gave him a foot, hand, and back massage attempting to follow the raindrop technique championed by Young Living Oils. The technique calls for the following oils: Valor (a blend), oregano, thyme, basil, wintergreen, marjoram, Aroma Siez (another blend, which I do not own, so I substituted helichrysum), and peppermint. I also put rosemary and helichrysum on his feet, and peppermint on his scalp and forehead to help with the fever.

When I was almost done with his massage, our daughter woke up from her nap. She was generally fussy (which is nothing new this week), but then started complaining about her right ear. She’s almost 3, and has never had an ear infection before. But it was very clear that her sinus funk had morphed into an ear infection. GREAT!

I rubbed her down with myrrh, eucalyptus, and helichrysum oils diluted in a carrier of grapeseed oil. And put thieves directly on the soles of her feet.

They both ate their soup.

And she drank two baby bottles of mullein tea before falling asleep.

I felt my headache coming back as soon as everybody else was asleep, so I forced myself to drink 32 oz of water before going to sleep myself. Problem solved! Oh- I also put 2 drops of therapeutic grade frankincense oil under my tongue to protect myself from whatever nastiness has invaded our family. And sprayed the whole house down with a thieves disinfectant concoction: clove, cinnamon, lemon, and rosemary oils with a bit of witch hazel and lots of filtered water in a spray bottle. It smells like Christmas around here.

Of course, after all those liquids baby girl consumed, her diaper couldn’t handle her overnight output, so we were up changing sheets at 4am, but it was obvious that she was feeling much better at this point. She was happy and not complaining about her ear at all. I put a few drops of apple cider vinegar in her ear anyway, to help fight the infection at the source. Gave her a bottle of almond milk laced with probiotics and put her back to sleep.

The husband woke up, too, and was obviously much improved. Was even talking about going back to work. Considering how sick and out of it he was a few hours ago, that’s just crazy talk. He needs to take at least one full day to rest.

But let me just say that I am utterly impressed with the power of essential oils, natural remedies, and food as medicine. The more I experiment with these things, the more I trust their efficacy. And I’m so happy to be able to do something for my sick family that supports their healing systems rather than being toxic to their bodies like conventional medicine. And I’m so grateful that I was physically well enough to care for them during this time. After 3 years of being the sick one, it’s nice to care for others for a change.

Saturday

Woke up with a headache this morning. Thinking it’s partially due to dehydration and partially due to blood sugar imbalance because of my sweet, high carb dinner last night. I drank lots of water and had this for breakfast (brown rice with sautéed beet greens and an organic egg)… and the headache immediately started to improve. I rubbed some essential oils (clove, lavender, chamomile) around my shoulders and neck, an inhaled them from my hands for a bit. The headache was gone in a couple of hours. Yay for avoiding Advil!

Carrot/ginger/orange juice. Great immune booster with all the vitamin A from the carrots and vitamin C from the orange juice. And the ginger revs up your digestive system. I’m building up my tolerance to the flavor and heat of ginger in my juices, and am using more and more every day. It has so many medicinal properties. I ended up drinking more than 48 ounces of this juice throughout the day, this was just my first glass.

Lots of snacking going on today. Gluten free toast with natural peanut butter, cinnamon, and xylitol.

Hummus and gf crackers.

Sweet treat: banana chips. (These do have some added sugar. I don’t know WHY they do that. I’m sure they’d be sweet enough on their own.)

Mouth is feeling irritated, so I’m reverting to comfort food. Good thing my new comfort food is super healthy. Mashed roasted cauliflower with garlic and onions. It doesn’t look too pretty, but it’s soooo good. This would make a good dip, too. But I just ate it straight, like mashed potatoes.

Blackberries.

Really dragging and feeling tired tonight. The in-laws took baby girl for the night, and I didn’t even realize the extent of my exhaustion until she was gone. Needing something nourishing and healing. Enter my new favorite cookbook, Nourishing Meals. I made some adjustments. Used nori seaweed. Omitted the carrots (since I’ve already consumed so much carrot juice today). Omitted the chili flakes (since I’m a wuss when it comes to spicy heat). Replaced the cabbage, onions, and cilantro with chunks from my frozen nutritional boost greens (kale, celery, and parsley) leftover from juicing. And I added a container of cubed tofu. Since miso soup at restaurants always have tofu cubes and I figured I could use some protein.

The actual recipe.

My version. Very hearty.

Saturday

Still planning to drink all the usual juices today, but I’m going to eat normally as well. Decided to continue as before for now- including grains (except wheat) but moderating them a bit, and minimizing animal products, with the focus being on finding pastured, grass fed, organic products.

Breakfast was 16oz signature greens, gf toast with coconut spread, and fruit.

Lunch was 12oz ginger lemon aid, 12oz red beet elixir, and Kashi cereal with kefir.

My daughter’s art activity while I was juicing- she painted with leftover juice foam. This stuff is versatile! Nourishes our bodies and our creativity!

Got a massage today (thanks, Mom!) So I’m drinking LOTS of water to flush out any additional toxins that stirred up along with the detox. I feel great. One tiny lesion coming up as the last one fades away. I could totally go the rest of my life with one lesion at a time. Though it lets me know I’m not quite in balance yet.

Had 2 Larabars as a snack while health food shopping with my mom. Coconut cream pie and peanut butter chocolate.

Had frozen leftovers for dinner. I intended to eat all 3, sharing them with my daughter, but she didn’t eat much, so we didn’t eat the shrimp dish. Just the stir-fry and broccoli soup. Plus carrot cake juice and almond delight.

Made my first attempt at homemade toothpaste. Baking soda, xylitol, coconut oil, thieves oil, crushed up calcium/magnesium tablets, and a pinch of himilayan sea salt. From what I’ve read, this should do a good job of remineralizing our teeth. The coconut oil, xylitol, and thieves oil all have antifungal, antibacterial, or otherwise anti microbial properties. The baking soda and sea salt will polish, and the calcium/magnesium tablets and sea salt will remineralize. It tastes pretty good. I didn’t follow an exact recipe. I found a bunch of different recipes on Pinterest and kind of made up my own thing based off of those.

If we like this toothpaste and use it long term (never to buy conventional toothpaste again?) I’ll find a better container to keep it in. Possibly something that we can squeeze it out of. In the meantime, an old baby food jar will work.

It’s driving me nuts that I spelled thieves wrong on the label. In an exercise against my perfectionist tendencies, I’m purposefully not correcting it. I mean, who cares, right? We’ll see if I make it through the night without fixing it.

Had 2 squares of 70% chocolate and dried apple rings as a late night snack. I’ve had well over 64 oz of water today and I still feel thirsty. I normally have a hard time making myself drink water, so I’m glad it’s been easy today. Wonder if it has anything to do with the detox process and/or the massage. I hope it’s flushing out toxins! I want that crap outta my body!

Tuesday’s Breakfast

Had an early play date with a friend, and woke up late, so packed our breakfast to take with us. I had a faux cream cheese and strawberry sandwich on gf bread, a handful of additional strawberries, a handful of grapes, about 16 ounces of carrot/orange juice, and 2 cups of green tea.

Sorry I didn’t get picks of everything. Too busy playing and talking… and I forgot.

When I woke up this morning, I felt really good. I’d had a horrible night of night sweats, so I was wet and cold, but energized and ready for the day (after a hot shower). Then, as I thought about previous bouts with severe night sweats, I decided there might be a connection with nights that I’ve taken Epsom salt baths. Epsom salts are supposed to reduce inflammation and draw out impurities. And I’ve always heard about sweating out toxins. So, maybe that’s what’s happening, and maybe I should be happy when I wake up in a cold pool of sweat in the middle of the night. At any rate, I’m going to try to be more aware and see if there seems to be a connection going forward. And I’ll ask my integrative doc about it.

Last night, I used 1 and 1/2 cups Epsom salts, 1/4 cup baking soda, and 2 cups apple cider vinegar. AC vinegar is supposed to help alkalize your body’s pH (one of my main goals) and it fights unfriendly bacteria and fungus overgrowth. My integrative doc is pretty sure that my test results will show a general candida overgrowth. While a tiny film of thrush on my tongue is the only current, outward evidence of this, I figure it can’t hurt to start attacking through my body’s biggest organ- my skin.

I’ve also taken up dry brushing. I read about in Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Diet book, and it’s supposed to stimulate the lymphatic system- or something? Here’s a link with more info. And the brush pictured looks exactly like the one I got at Target for this purpose.

http://www.jashbotanicals.com/articles/skin_brushing.html