Bathroom Challenge

One of the challenges at sparkpeople.com is the bathroom exercise challenge. Basically every time you go to the bathroom commit to an exercise of some sort. I thought wow what a great idea. I think I can find time to do that. So I've decided that every time I use the bathroom at home I'll do 10 girlie push ups and at bathrooms elsewhere I'll do 25 wall push ups. Then I thought why not add a jumping jack every time I opened the fridge or squats at the pantry. I wonder what the neighbors will think, seeing me jumping around the house.

Now if only I could increase my cardio...maybe running in the shower? Knowing me though I'd probably fall & break something ;).

Getting busy...

...livin' or dyin'. In other words am I putting into my temple life giving or life depleting foods. Here lately it ain't been the life givin' foods. So I've been wondering, if one were eat life giving foods & only life giving foods what would be the outcome? I don't know the answer to that because I've never tried it. Would I feel better? Would some of my health maladies disappear? You know I can't wait to find out. Will I experience a healing crisis? Only time will tell? Can I do it without falling off the wagon? I know I can.

So what do I plan to do? It's not going to be a plan established by some diet guru. I just plan to eat food as close to the way God made them as possible, basically close to a genesis 1:29 diet, meaning as unrefined & unprocessed as possible. That means for me I will be eating predominantly vegan raw foods at home, but at someone's home I will enjoy vegan cooked foods occasionally. I really want to see what an optimal diet will do for my health.

I want this to encompass more than diet though, to impact all areas of my life: my walk with the Lord, exercise, sleep, sunshine, relaxation...you know all that is me. I want this to be so much more than weight loss.

I believe to see any benefit at all I need to practice this for at least 21 days. I try to post updates often.

So what are you doing for the next 21 days?

Wonderfully made

Psalm 139:14

I praise you because I am fearfully & wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

This verse is really speaking to me recently...Right now I just don't feel healthy. I think it's partly because I've not listened to my body that the Lord made. I've been prayerfully considering changes to make.

Choose health

It's finally occurred to me in my never ending search for the perfect diet for weight loss that my emphasis has been all wrong. Who wants to constantly weigh to see if you've succeeded, all the while maybe eating healthy, maybe not. After all our cells are made of the things we eat. In fact it takes about 7 years to get all new cells. Anyway I'm planning to think about health & not weight loss so much. No more weighing unless at the doctor's office of course. Make healthy choices, move more, love myself...not so radical, maybe even a little boring. Maybe others can pick the perfect diet for them: counting points, carbs, weighing food. That's not for me. I have more important things to do, like have a life, hello! I'm sick of researching diets & weighing etc! However, I do love reading about health, so why not continue doing what I enjoy.

I've had a lot of sickness, I'm so done with that. Now's the time for health & fun. CHOOSE HEALTH!

whole body scan results, drum roll please...

After a 2 week low iodine diet, a thyrogen shot on Monday, a thyrogen shot on Tuesday, a radioactive iodine pill on Wednesday & the whole body scan on Friday...NEGATIVE, woo-hoo!!! On Friday, as well, I was supposed to have my thyroglobulin levels checked, but I totally forgot. Actually the thyrogen shots put you in a very "blond" state, no offense blond friends. My mother, who was staying with us at the time to help with the girls, kept commenting about it. I definitely felt very "hypo". I can't believe people used to live that way! However, me forgetting about the thyroglobulin test was not the greatest move on my part. Thyroglobulin is something thyroid cells "give off", so for a thyroid cancer patient the result should be zero or undetectable. According to my Endo it's something they "like" to have done, but it's not as important with my scan results of negative. They'll check it in 6 months.

Being on the other end of the phone listening to a medical professional give results of cancer or not, puts a new perspective on life, God, kids, love, family, the important stuff. Waiting to hear...you have cancer, again or your scan is negative. How words can totally change your life & the lives of those who love you...pretty heavy stuff on a Thursday afternoon.

OK, YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry about the big font at the top...wouldn't let me change it :(.

Cancer, a chronic condition?

....yes, well maybe. There's a lot of discussion about not curing cancer, but instead managing it as a chronic condition. It's really impossible to be "cured of cancer" or in other words to totally not have cancer cells. In fact most believe that everyone has cancer cells. It's just a matter of how your body responds with immune function, food, exercise, sunshine, etc. In most cases our amazing God given bodies' healthy cells will kill cancer cells. But if our immunity's lowered for some reason or our body's too acidic, cancer can get the upper hand. Cancer can't grow in an alkaline oxygenated environment & that goal, an alkaline body, is the goal for many people. Do I want to do what it takes to have a mostly alkaline body, uh not so sure. I think I just have to find my balance. I think I've swung to far in either direction. What a fascinating mind, body, spiritual journey!

Low Iodine Diet...here I come

It's low iodine diet time again...& in this country iodine is added to everything, if it's not in there already. So since a low iodine diet, for the most part, coincides with a very cleansing diet... I thought having to do the low iodine diet just may give me the extra will power to eat a really simple cleansing diet. It's time to get ready for some serious detox. I'm really pretty excited about it. Maybe it'll clear out those lymphs. My goal is to rebound for 15 minutes a day to help that along as well. More on this later.

O.K. this is the plan...very 80/10/10ish: all of the raw fruits & veggies I want to eat & limited raw nuts & seeds. I'll probably do a lot of smoothies, love those so do the kids. I may do some cooked veggies...we'll see. I won't be eating out in restaurants...they put iodized salt in everything. Maybe I'll experiment with some new fruits I've never tried. Too bad it's not summer with all the delicious local produce.

That's all for now...more on why I'm doing this in a later post.