Category Archives: Healthy Living

Negative Pregnancy Tests and Running

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I’m four weeks deep into my half marathon training with eight more to go.  Today I ran 7 miles, which is the farthest I’ve ever run without walking in my whole life.  I felt unstoppable and fierce.

I got another negative pregnancy test this month.  On Mother’s Day.  After being seven days late.  It was terrible timing, causing the day to feel bittersweet.

Since then I’ve cut back on nursing and will probably have to stop nursing all together if these next couple months are unsuccessful as well.  It seems maybe the nursing is affecting my ability to conceive.

So I’ve been running.  It’s the perfect waiting tool.  If I’m not pregnant yet at least I’m going to run the darn longest race I ever did run, right?  I might as well go into my second pregnancy in killer shape and with a strong resolve.

I’m trusting in God’s timing and perfect plan for our family.

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And here’s a picture of a horse running because that is Cameron’s favorite animal right now.  He calls is a “wourse,” but he means horse.

My First Cleanse

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sambazon-cleanse

A few weeks ago I decided to do a cleanse.  Mostly because of my caffeine addiction.  I LOVE coffee.  In fact, I usually love it about twice a day.  But what I don’t love is when I drink a cup and then want to take a nap – which is what had been happening.

So one day while I was in Costco doing my normal shoppy-shop trip where I go in to buy one item or two and I come home with twenty, I saw a pack of cleansing juice in the refrigerated juice section.  I suppose it was a moment of impulse, but I bought two.  One for me and one for my unsuspecting husband.  The juices didn’t expire until July so I figured we would have a few months to build up the courage to try a cleanse.

When I got home I looked at the booklet that came with the juices to figure out what I had gotten myself into.  The cleanse consisted of three days of preparation and three days of the actual cleanse.  So altogether it was a six day cleanse.

First 3 Days:

No caffeine
No alcohol
No animal products
No artificial ingredients or sweeteners

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Last 3 Days:

Still keeping with the rules of the first 3 days, follow the meal plan and drink a cup of the provided juice three times per day.

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I know that cleanses are not some kind of magic, but I will tell you that I’m very glad I did it.  It was my first ever cleanse and I really did feel better towards the end of it (the first few days were slow and painful without caffeine).  It also helped me realize just how much processed stuff I was eating and showed me how healthier alternatives are really very doable.  We loved the roasted beet salad recipe that was for lunch one of the days and I plan to make it again soon.

My husband lost about 7-10 lbs that week surprisingly (no working out, just diet change) and I lost about 2 which I have since put back on purposely cuz I ain’t need dis butt to get no skinnier.

So who knows if we will do one again or when.  I’m thinking it might be something good to do once or twice a year if I start feeling sluggish or need to get back on track with more healthy food choices.

Also, while doing the cleanse I discovered Dandelion Root tea.  It’s supposed to be good for detoxing and I actually loved the flavor!  Been drinking it occasionally ever since.  Yum.

My First 10K

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I am now officially addicted to running!

The pump-up music before the race.  Tons of people in brightly colored clothing buzzing around and smiling.  Strollers and iPods and little 8 year olds that I know are going to school me.  Then there’s the adrenaline that kicks in and running never felt so easy.

Last Saturday Jon and I ran our first ever 10K.  The race took place on a stretch of beach.  Waves crashing, fresh sea air and dogs playing in the sand…

Can you tell that I LOVED it!?!?

In fact, I already signed up for another 10K that takes place a month from now and on Monday I started training for a half marathon in July that takes place on the same beach.  If my knees hold up then I will definitely be doing it.

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My friend Kristen, who is 20-something weeks pregnant beat us by about 8 minutes – crazy!  She’s a running machine!

Revision: How To Stop Texting While Driving

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After writing this post called How To Stop Texting While Driving, I realized that not all the claims I made were true.  I found out that polarized sunglasses do not always make it hard to see a smart phone screen.  One pair of polarized sunglasses I had did make it difficult to read the text on the screen, but I found out that wasn’t true for all polarized lenses.  It did work on texting phones, but not on smart phones.

So the tip of wearing polarized sunglasses may be effective in some cases with some phones, but it’s not a universal tip as I once thought.

I apologize for any confusion this may have caused anyone.

~Erin

 

A Behind The Scenes Look At the Beef Industry

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956cattle

In the past few months my husband has gone back to wearing Levi jeans and belts with bigger buckles.

It’s very attractive if you ask me.

But he’s not doing it to make me happy, he’s actually studying Agricultural Business at Cal Poly.

He’s now into his senior year and sprinting down the home stretch to degree-ville.  Woohoo!

It’s been really interesting hearing about all the things he’s been learning in his classes.  Sometimes he shares too much around the dinner table and I can’t finish eating my dinner, but for the most part, I’ve loved hearing about all the behind the scenes stuff.  Especially because over the past couple years we had watched a lot of those foodie/organic documentaries like Food Inc., Veducated, Forks Over Knives, TED Talks: Chew On This, Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, and FoodMatters.  Some of the stuff we’ve learned through those documentaries has been great food for thought.  Other parts we’ve seen may be a bit misleading.

I remember sitting in the living room at my mom’s house during high school.  My sister and I were sitting on the floor, staring at the TV and in tears over the disgusting things being portrayed.  You probably know what kind of pro-vegetarian video I’m talking about.

It was repulsive.

However, through my husband’s education and his recent trip to an Oklahoma feed lot, I’ve been learning a lot about how slaughterhouses are actually run (and how some of the images from those videos have been distorted).  Money drives the beef industry.  Money drives the organic food industry.  I can’t speak for any animals other than beef and lambs right now because his classes haven’t covered pork or poultry yet, but what he has learned about the industry has been pleasantly surprising.

Did you know that an incredible autistic woman named Temple Grandin designed the slaughterhouses that process over 50% of the beef in this country?  There’s a great movie from 2011 starring Claire Danes called Temple Grandin.  I highly recommend it.  Most large slaughterhouses use her methods.  She designed these slaughterhouses to make the process of killing the cattle as humane, painless and stress-free as possible.

Why?

Because she said that cattle are here for us.  We raise them to eat them so we should treat them with respect.  ”Nature may be cruel, but we don’t have to be,” Temple Grandin.

In her systems, the cattle don’t know what is happening to them so they remain calm all the way through the moment they are killed.

This is important for businesses because if cattle get spooked before they are killed, their adrenaline spikes and the meat becomes tough.  Tough meat can’t be sold for as much money as good, tender meat.  Also, if spoooked, the cattle might react and slam into the walls which leaves bruises.  All bruised meat must be cut off the cow and thrown away.  So beef companies make more money if the cattle is calm and stress-free up until the moment they are killed.  Therefore, I’m learning that the term “happy meat” might be more of a propogandus word than I previously thought.

It wasn’t always this way…throughout human history animals have been treated terribly.  Remember the book The Jungle?  This book, written in 1906, sparked public interest of humane treatment to animals in slaughterhouses.  But because of Temple Grandin, throughout the 80s and the 90s as her methods were put into practice, cattle have been treated more humanely than ever before.

Also, did you know that many of the regulations that slaughterhouses and feed lots have to adhere by are created by animal scientists who have the animal’s well-being as their top priority?

Further, the Humane Slaughter Act was passed in 1958 and has been revised many times ever since to ensure proper treatment of animals.

One of Temple Grandin’s largest contributions to the beef industry was her audit and management systems that ensure that the large plants are adhering to the regulations that go beyond even USDA regulations.  For the most part slaughterhouses are under video surveillance by auditors and have random auditor visits to check up on things.  Another thing you may not know: 100% of commercially slaughtered animals are inspected by full-time USDA inspectors, meaning that every single cow in this country is checked by a person for disease.  These USDA inspectors also check for any signs of ineffective or inhumane slaughter practices.  Remember, these USDA officials work for the government, not for the slaughterhouses, so every slaughterhouse has a third party present at all times of operation.

Up until 100 years ago, animals were routinely killed by having their necks slit while still alive.  Then the animal would bleed out.  In modern-day slaughterhouses, the animal is knocked out with a captive bolt (quick bolt to the brain) and rendered unconscious.  Then, the animal’s throat is slit and they bleed, while not feeling a thing.

Of course, this is not a peer-reviewed journal and I don’t have a lot of sources to cite for my research.  I’m simply sharing what my husband has shared with me around the dinner table.  He is learning this stuff from one of the most renowned Agricultural departments in the country and has spent time with people in various parts of the industry.

Another interesting fact: only beef that is labeled “grass-finished” has eaten a diet of only grass.  Beef labeled “organic,” “all-natural” or “grass-fed” still spends the last few months of their lives at feed lots eating corn.  ”Regular beef” that doesn’t have a special label spends about twice as much time eating corn.

And my last fun fact: every single part of the cow gets utilized in large slaughterhouses except for the lungs and the fecal matter and partially digested food still inside the cow.

Anyway, this is a lot of information to throw at someone.  I don’t have some weird agenda in sharing this, but I wanted to share because based on a lot of the documentaries I’d watched I had begun viewing the beef industry as basically evil.  Maybe you’re in that same boat too.  Basically, the beef industry needs to hurry up and start informing the public about what is really going on behind the scenes because the vegetarians are beating them to it and so people are only hearing about one side.

In the past year I’ve gotten to know a lot more ‘aggies’ than ever before.  And the main thing I’ve noticed about all these people so far is a genuine interest and care for the animals.  I can’t speak for everyone, just for the people I’ve met.

Of course, every industry has room for improvement.  I’m sure over time, the meat processing industry will embrace new technologies and methods that will even further improve conditions for animals and procedures for processing meat.

So food for thought…

cal poly meat lab

Today I got to visit Jon’s meat lab with Cameron and my mother in law.  We came in late after the cow was already dead, but we got to see the process it goes through before ending up in those nicely packaged trays covered in plastic wrap at the grocery store.  (The Cal Poly meat processing plant is modeled after the large slaughterhouses).  It was amazing.  And weird.  But amazing.

I hope to have lots more info to share as my husband continues in his education and pursues a carrier in agriculture after graduating.

Peace.

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If you want to learn more about what I’m talking about, YouTube Temple Grandin beef.  

Finally Settled On A Homemade Deodorant

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zappPhoto courtesy of Anchor Wife

Ok, this is my third and hopefully final post about deodorant.

My journey started here, with finding a store-bought deodorant in place of my antiperspirant.

Then my journey lead me here because someone at my local health food store recommended this regimen.

Now, finally, I’ve settled here.  With a homemade deodorant paste I found via Anchor Wife.  (Plus I added two drops of essential oil to create a scent that I loved).

Now I’m happy with what I’m using because it’s all-natural (to talc, no parabans, no artificial scents or colors), it smells good, it’s easy to apply in a paste form, and IT WORKS!

If you’re not into making your own, a company called Primal Pit Paste uses essentially the same ingredients – you’ll just pay a little more for them.

How To Stop Texting While Driving

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I am guilty – it is really really hard for me not to text when driving.  I usually drive with my phone just sitting on my lap and I know it’s so bad, but sometimes it’s hard to ignore it.

But earlier this week my husband shared a really eerie news story with me that caused us to both make a pact with each other to knock it off.  The news story was about a guy who died mid-text.  He was driving along, texting his friend about something, lost control of the car and died.  When they found his phone, there was a half written text on the screen.  Obviously whatever he was typing wasn’t worth losing his life over.

But I have good news!  Something that can help you and me:

My husband and I discovered that wearing polarized sunglasses can help us be responsible drivers.

We found that when we wear polarized shades, it’s almost impossible to see anything on a texting phone or a smart phone screen.  So if we go to check our phone while driving, not being able to read the screen is a great instant reminder to put the phone back down.

Polarized lenses are usually a bit more expensive, but you can get a good looking pair for about $20-$30.  They are also better for your eyes than standard UV shades and the investment could save your life and others.

Another option is just storing your phone in a purse or in the backseat while you drive, although I’ve found this option to be less practical for me personally.

Tip: Polarized lenses are always labeled as polarized.  So if they don’t say “polarized” on the tag or sticker then they are not.  

Those “Hang up & DRIVE” bumper stickers are really ugly on cars, but it’s true, and texting is a whole lot more dangerous than just talking on the phone so we should all do the right thing and stop.

REVISION:  After posting this I discovered that all my claims weren’t true so I added this statement of revision.  

DIY Lip Scrub

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My husband’s most hated store, next to Forever 21 of course, is called Lush.

When you walk in, the smell of a thousand different scents of flowers, fruits and herbs rush up your nostrils, into your brain and they cause a section of your brain to capitulate.  For me, this is a lovely, very pleasurable experience.  For my husband, it is excruciatingly painful and he instantly starts gagging and complaining about his allergies.

But anyway, this lovely store, Lush, sells all sorts of handmade soaps, beauty products, make up, etc. etc. etc.  It’s heaven and I want to buy and eat the whole store.

So picture this: we are in Maui in the hip little town of Lahaina.  The ocean breeze is blowing, someone is playing a uke on a curbside bench, people are happily strolling around eating gelato and shaved ice and BAM!   I see Lush.  So I scurry ahead, duck into the shop and start smelling everything.

After a nice complimentary hand treatment from the sales associate, I am encouraged to try their Bubblegum lip scrub.  Tasty!  Just like candy!  Then I was encouraged to buy this nifty little lip scrub.  The sales associate explained to me how using a lip scrub before applying lip balm removes the dead skin cells and allows your lips to absorb the lip balm better and blah, blah, blah.

Um, no.

After checking the ingredients, the lip scrub was essentially an oil, course sugar, flavor and coloring that made it pink.

No matter how tasty, there ain’t no way I ‘m paying $10.25 for a tablespoon of yummy sugar and oil.

So I bought two of their lip balms, which are in fact amazing, and I stuck a little note in the back of my mind to remind myself to make some DIY lip scrub when I returned home.

The benefit of lip scrub:  It makes your lips makes your lips feel soft and smooth.  Helps lipstick last longer.  Increases kiss-ability factor.

Simple enough, yeah?

So here is my amazing, blow your socks off, one of a kind recipe:

Step 1:   Find jar
Step 2:  Put coconut oil and brown sugar into jar.  Mix.
Step 3:  Use it.  AKA: Scrub lips and lick off (or rinse)

And this tasty lip scrub will probably run ya about 25 cents per jar.

You’re welcome.

I even had my husband try my concoction to which he responded that it was fine, but asked if I could make some in bacon flavor.  Bacon grease and brown sugar anyone???  Mmm, breakfast lip scrub…

What Christians Need To Know About Mental Health

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bricks

This title is not mine, but rather I’m sharing the title from Ann Voskamp’s blog.  She wrote a post called What Christians Need To Know About Mental Health.  It came on the coattails of the terrible news that Matthew Warren, youngest son to mega-church pastor Rick Warren, committed suicide on Friday night after a lifelong struggle with depression. [story here]

The news, of course, seems to be stirring many, Christians especially, to delve more into the topic of mental health.  There is quite an array of opinions about the subject, so here, I’m choosing to share mine.

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When I finally decided to get on anti-depressants my first son was six months old and my mother said, “I can’t believe you’ve made it this long without them.  I thought you should have gotten on them years ago.”

Her comment was not offensive to me.  It was true.  I probably should have gotten on them years ago.

Instead, I’d denied medication because I thought it was more noble just to pray.  I thought I needed to prove something.  Prove my faith.  I thought something might be wrong with me and my Christianity if my Jesus didn’t simply take the depression away.  It’s been this way for as long as I can remember.

So I hid.  I closed the door and the windows and I only gave one person the key to my dark place.  My husband bore the burden.  No one else was to know this dark space existed.  So on difficult days, I stayed home.  I didn’t answer my phone.  I didn’t make plans with friends.  I didn’t do much of anything.  I just texted my husband about how miserable I was and how I felt like the room might swallow me up and I’d never come back.  Sometimes I wished that were the case.

Often times the very next day I would wake up feeling cheerful and light and jump back into normal life.  I just never knew when a dark day was going to hit.

Many Christians simplify depression, even people in my own church, including my own husband.  I’m not a psychiatrist, but I understand deep down in my soul that my depression is a complicated thing.  It’s not something I ever chose to have and while there are things I can do to help myself, it is not something that I can simply will away with positive thinking or by force.

The simplified version of depression is that if we muster up enough faith and ask Jesus, he will heal us from it.  Depression is a demon so just tell it to go away.  So I did.  And because my depression dug it’s heels in and decided to stay, I felt trapped.  Guilt.  Guilt.  Guilt.  It set in.  I felt like it was okay for a new Christian to be struggling with this darkness, but not for me.  Not for over-churched, Bible-reading me.  So all this left me feeling confused.  How could someone like me, who believes in the everlasting truth in the Word of God, still struggle, intensely at times, with depression?

When my son was about six months old my depression took on a new form.  It took on more of an anxiety quality.  I don’t know why, seeing as I felt more happy and fulfilled than I ever had before in my life.  Of course things were difficult at times.  The learning curve with having a newborn is extreme.  But I was happy.  Yet happy Erin still struggled with depression that was now turning into moments of extreme anxiety and panic.

After a few incidents where I freaked out and lost it, I told my husband, “I don’t care any more.  I need to get on meds, like tomorrow.”  He said okay, and we quietly spent the next few hours putting back all the clothes and shoes that I had just ripped out of our closet in a furry of panic like a wild beast.

The medication helped almost instantly.  The first thing I noticed was that I rarely ever cried anymore.  For as long as I can remember, I’ve been someone who cried at least every other day, usually more.  I’d always been an ultra-sensitive person where things that might seem minor to someone else, felt huge and extreme and way too big for me to handle.  Actually, a lot of the time my relationship with God just seemed to be me trying to get over bad feelings.  Sometimes I felt so tired of that.  I just wanted to feel okay so that I could think about other things for once.

Even though I struggle with it, I don’t fully understand depression.  In some ways the medical explanations don’t help and neither do the spiritual.  Knowing I have a chemical imbalance doesn’t really help and knowing there’s a demon living inside of me doesn’t help either.  It’s just creepy.  Especially when you try to pray it away and nothing changes.  Is believing that a demon has moved in and decided to live in my brain supposed to enhance my relationship with God?

Don’t get me wrong.  I believe in the Word of God and I believe that Jesus can and does heal.  I also believe in demons.  I just know from my own real life experience and many of my friend’s, that standing before God with hands held high, worship music blaring, with your fist pumped, declaring that you’re healed, isn’t always gonna do it.  God has his reasons, and if you read a book like Job you’ll realize that sometimes when you’re the character in the middle of your story, there is no way in the world that you are ever going to figure out the WHY of what God is doing.  I believe in his goodness and his loving nature towards me, but I don’t think I always know what God is up to.

I also think that healings along with signs and wonders are not the point of a relationship with God.  When I first became a Christian I worshiped God and loved God because of who he is, and that was all.  In the beginning, the gift of salvation was more than enough of a reason to love him back.  So why then, as time progresses do we start to obsess over getting healed?  Why do we think that if we have a back problem or depression that we must be doing something wrong with God?  Sometimes healing doesn’t happen in an instant.  Sometimes works of redemption take time.  Sometimes they take a long time.

….

I think that people who deny medication are doing the best they can.   I think they really want God and they believe in miracles-so we shouldn’t judge them.

I think that people who take medication are doing the best they can.  I think they make the decision because they want to enjoy life and be a better version of themselves and feel happy – so we shouldn’t judge them either.

I think that’s my whole point.  There can be so much judgement when it comes to mental health, no matter how you individually choose to approach it.

I’m not an advocate for meds, in fact sometimes meds don’t help and sometimes they even make a condition worse.  Matthew Warren had been on meds and even seen some of the best mental health doctors in the country, yet he still struggled.  But sometimes they can help someone get through the meantime.  Sometimes meds can pull someone struggling with depression out of the fog and out from under the heavy load so they can get on with their life.  And sometimes they are needed for a lifetime…and that’s okay too.  If I had cancer or arthritis or whatever, I would probably take medicine as long as it was necessary as well.

So for me, the medicine has been helping.  I cry less and the things that used to make a huge splash in my day oftentimes seem now like little pebbles dropping into the lake.  For the most part now I feel like I am more in control of my feelings; like I finally have a say in some of it.  Before, my feelings ruled over me and I didn’t have a fighting chance.  Now, I’m more even keel and I don’t live on the roller coaster every day.  But once in a while I still have my days.  However, now my dark days are more like three times a month instead of three times a week or more.  And they’re not as dark as they used to be.  My darkness has lightened by a few shades.

I truly hope I won’t need to stay on this medicine the rest of my life.  I still plan to pray for healing – instantaneous healing and slow progressive healing because I’d be happy with either one.  I was healed from an eating disorder a few years ago so I know for a fact that God’s miracle healing is real.  But that didn’t come from declaring healing over my life.  It came through a slow, painful and messy process.  One where God took my hand and led me though the mess and out onto the other side.  One where God started the process of healing, not me.  You can’t force that kind of thing to happen and it doesn’t do any good to pretend that it is happening if it isn’t.  If it’s not real, the only result will be guilt.

But I can tell you one thing, I don’t feel guilty before God.  When I talk to him I don’t feel like he’s shutting me out because I’m taking medicine.  Right now I’m a better mom and person in general because I’m on antidepressants.  Right now, I’m experiencing more of God’s joy because my mind isn’t so weighed down with bricks of sadness.  Right now I don’t think about suicide because I don’t get swallowed up by the dark feelings that like to grab onto my clothes and pin me down.  Right now I’m living in God’s grace.  And if God whispers to me that he wants me to flush my pills down the toilet because I’m healed then I will do it and I’ll dance and shout his praise before men.  But right now, I’m going to praise him as I am.

If we’re honest, aren’t we all a lot more broken than we’d like to be?

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Maple Yogurt Dipping Sauce

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photo (90)

You should never buy pancake mix again.

I’m serious.

I’m 26 and I just learned how easy and cost-effective it is to make your own.  Plus it’s more healthy because it has less sugar in it and no preservatives.

…Read the rest of this post HERE, on A Mom’s Balancing Act where I do guest posts and product reviews.