Mind Xdreamz

Wellness Blog - Page 2

One of my first purchases was from Sunshine health food store for a product called Colon Cleanze. I took the capsules for week or so. I also started working out on mini-trampoline and stationary bike 30-40 min x 3-4 times a week. I began eating Ezekiel breads and cereal regularly. Prior to this I had not eaten white bread at all, except once in awhile on burgers or fish sandwiches, but I had always eaten wheat or rye or sourdough bread and of course, homemade bread at the restaurant that my husband and I would go where we he'd been a "regular". Sometimes I would indulge in a flaky biscuit at other restaurants. About the only refined sugar I ate was in the form of chocolate. I even quit the chocolate for a couple months.

After a couple of visits to two different acupuncture doctors I quit taking my prescribed Zyrtec drug - late October, and the bedtime wheezing went away after approximately one week. I was beginning to understand. The drugs had actually been keeping me down! This gave me the courage to quit taking Singulair in December.

At this point I was weighing myself, weekly, clothed, when I was out grocery shopping. A large standing scale said I weighed between 193-195 lbs. I also weighed myself at my chiropractor’s office, and it always agreed with the grocery store scale. This had been my weight for quite a while. The first week of December my husband and I went on a three day cruise. I have no idea how much weight I gained on the cruise or from the holidays but when I got back on the scale after Christmas I weighed 201 lbs. I was depressed. I’d been doing a lot of great things for my health but the weight was coming back on! I could have screamed out of frustration!

I went back to my health food store and got little tests from the nutritionist. She had me test my saliva and take my underarm body temperature first thing in the mornings for three days. My morning body temperature was running around 96 degrees and my saliva showed the overgrowth of yeast. I bought the Candi-Gone yeast cleanse. I followed the cleanse regimen for two weeks beginning a week before Christmas 2005. I didn’t exercise during this time, actually I didn’t work out much in the month of December. After two weeks on the yeast cleanse, upon the nutritionists advice, I had my first colonic with Leslie at HealthQuest (Titusville, FL). It was really a pleasant experience and nothing was unusual or surprising. I didn’t lose any weight like some health and wellness people claim, but I did feel lighter and proud of myself for making all this effort. I had two more colonics that month with Leslie and thought I'd return at least once per year, just for preventive maintenance.

After the new year, I bought the Tony Little Scale off HSN. I began a routine of therapies starting in November: therapeutic massages even hot stone massage with Dory Valentine at HealthQuest, cupping (a form of massage that gets toxins out), two cranial sacral therapy sessions - also at HealthQuest, and began regular raindrop therapy sessions with Nora Ross using essential oils.

The only resolution I made was fully commit to what all I’d started doing. So, though it had been years since I’d taken any kind of exercise class, my massage therapist, Dory kept telling me she taught yoga so I gave it a try. I signed up for the six week classes because I knew if I paid for 6 weeks I’d go for at least part of them. I began working out with Dory at yoga classes (1 hour x2 per week Tues/Thurs 8-9pm) first week of January 3^rd, 2006.

It was at this same time that I began coughing (not quite as bad as last July when I had been sick but bad enough that I would lose bladder control – less than before though). I began searching out remedies for that. I bought the book called “Healing Oils of the Bible” and began treating myself nightly with olive, grape seed or castor oil along with two drops of each (front and back) of eucalyptus essential oil and tea tree oil (melaleuca). Dory had told me to take grape seed oil and olive leaf oil and mix a couple drops of each in a glass of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and drink once or twice a day. I tried that too. But I was still coughing.

I went back to the nutritionist, Linda Harrison at Sunshine Health foods, and told her what all I was doing. I’d also called my acupuncture doctor Joan Massey, as my husband was so upset at this point he wanted to take me to the hospital. My acupuncturist told me to only do the castor oil with tea tree and eucalyptus oils combined with a heating pad at night. Linda told me I was doing too much. And that it was just the yeast that my body had to expel. I was detoxing.

I had a little routine I would perform, just before going to bed, of anointing myself with a combination of essential oils - mostly eucalyptus, tea tree, peppermint, lavender and so forth, some of these I used individually and some, such as one called “sinusitis” are blends. I put the carrier oil on my chest and back first, (either grape seed, olive oil, or castor oil which helped when I was coughing from detoxing – I coughed for about the last two weeks in January) then rub on the essential oils.

When I was detoxing in January and coughing like a fiend it became so bad that I called my acupuncture doctor! She told me to put the eucalyptus and tea tree oil along with castor oil on a warm towel, or a wet towel with plastic wrap between the towel and an electric heating pad, to do this at night before bed. The only problem was that it felt so good I’d fall asleep with the heating pad on and I know that wasn’t good! Eventually, I went to see Linda at the health food store. She told me to take 2-3 garlic capsules to quiet the cough. The garlic worked! I’m sure the oils were working too but the garlic worked immediately!

Specifically, Linda told me to take 2-3 garlic capsules and check to see if that would ease my cough. If two worked, then record the results and time it to see how long I could go without coughing. If I needed three, take three, etc. Well, that worked! I took two capsules first, and didn’t cough for two hours. When I woke up coughing I took 3 more and slept the rest of the night.

I stayed on the garlic capsules for 4-5 days, only taking them at night. The cough did start to calm down in about a week then the second week the cough brought out a lot of mucous. I also tried a thyroid supplement from Linda too. And I lost about 5 lbs in one month.

It seemed at first I actually gained weight doing what all I was doing to detox, and the colonics did not make me lose any weight contrary to what I’d read.

Not to lose momentum in my endeavor to get healthy and lose weight, even when I was coughing, I started doing an hour of DVD aerobics and incorporated weight training into my regimen (beginning with 2 lbs weights) and working out with “The Biggest Loser” workout DVD Jan. 11^th – the day after my 44th birthday. I feel the yoga really helped me to breathe better as well. Between the oils, the yoga and garlic I could feel, really feel, my lungs get stronger!

I’m also using behavior modification to help me focus on goals. I’ve been going back to my old Jenny Craig teachings and keeping a food log of what and why I eat. That helped me before and I think it’s been good to do. It brings a real awareness. As well, I’ve been working through a process called THT which is outlined in the book “Tapping the Healer Within” with much success! As weight loss is about so much more than losing weight. I want to heal my body and repair it and I realize it’s a mind-body thing. Stress and emotions play a crucial role in our health and overall vitality!

I’ve been studying, researching and doing a lot of reading on natural healing in general to point me to all of these things. And I remained open minded when my acupuncture doc would suggest things, such as cranial sacral and cupping, which I had never heard of before. I’ve spent some money of course doing all of these things but the way I looked at it, if I could get off my asthma medication (I have remained off the meds, woo-hoo!) and actually heal my body instead of masking the symptoms, whatever money I spent was worth it and it’s all non invasive and painless.

Here’s a list of the books I highly recommend:  

Oregano Oil (Nature’s Answer to Bacterial, Viral, and Fungal Infection)

Eat Right for your Blood-Type (and corresponding pocket book to show all the foods I am supposed to be eating, and abstaining from.)

The Biggest Loser (The weight-loss program to transform your body) as well as their DVD workout program

The Liver Detox Diet

Several websites aided my research: http://www.healthynewage.com/197502.html

I was blessed to have a nutritionist counseling program at my local health food store - who also provided informative free newsletters. I've taken the focus off “losing weight” and put it on reaching a healthy target weight. I've logged food using a website: http://www.calorie-count.com

I’m focusing on living healthy, eating holistically (mostly a raw diet either utilizing fresh local produce or organic), exercising consistently – doing squats and lunges daily to keep the blood pumping, walking, salsa and belly dance, yoga and weight lifting, getting acupuncture treatments when I feel appropriate, taking Chinese herbs and so on to cure ills and to bring my body, spirit and mind into balance.

Continue reading... for my current "summary" of eating / exercise...