“Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food.”

Happy mid-January, friends. The middle of the month when many of us start spewing (or ditching) goals and intend to start fixing our trouble spots. After the year I’ve had, expectations for 2019 are pretty low….if I can leave my bed (maybe even {gasp} my house or driveway) a few times and not be doctor-bound, majorly in pain, I think we’ll be good to go.  2018 was…a lot of things. But I really look back on 2018 and all of the awfulness…with gratitude. 
I bounced around from doctor to specialist to the ER to my primary and back again. Every time I had to give my history. Again. And again and again and again. “So you were living a totally active normal life and then you woke up one day with this horrific headache?” Yes, I replied. Four kids, working out 5-6 days a week, busy (of course) but totally normal. “Anything out of the ordinary before June 12?  Any stress?  Were you getting enough sleep?  Eating well?”  Uhhh. That one gets me right in the gut….well, I guess I was pretty stressed (we were army crawling to the finish line of the most insane spring sport schedule we had juggled yet to date.) We had soccer tournaments, swim meets, dance recitals, early morning games.  Then fun events, parties, nights out. Wine till late at night. Coffee coffee coffee to get me through my mornings. Definitely not getting enough water. Not even close. Eating the rainbow?  Laughable. I was hustling, like many parents out there.  I was in survival mode. I was too rushed to eat breakfast. Coffee. Coffee. Workout. Picnic lunch with the kids and my best friend/neighbor. I’d grab a leftover nub of PB&J. A handful of popcorn here. A cheese stick there. Buzz buzz buzz….kids home from school, homework, dinner (a few bites for me running out the door), sports, buzz buzz buzz, bath, bed, flop on the couch….reward glass of wine, chat time with Pat…do it all over again in the morning. Sleep? I’m still LOL-ing. We were infamous for saying yes to every plan. Coming early, staying till the end (really, till after the end had ended).  We were always the ones going awwwww when our more responsible friends would get their coats, yawning, opting to turn in at a reasonable hour. 
Months went by and test results showed “nothing” despite a continuation of my symptoms.   But all the while, I couldn’t help but wonder….did I cause this?  By not intentionally fueling myself…did I somehow bring this upon myself?   Had I caused myself to be too rundown?  If I wasn’t taking in the proper nutrition, getting enough sleep, was I somehow to blame for “catching” this neurotropic virus that doctors believed had caused this viral meningitis that was injuring my brain?  I had been told over and over again by neurologists that my brain was behaving as if I’d had a brain injury or concussion (“are you sure you didn’t fall?”). I’m sure. But whatever the cause of this pain is….no one knew how to categorize it, which ICD-9 code to give me. I began to wonder….the pain is in my head…is this illness in my head too?  Did putting myself last make my body turn on itself?

I was, in no uncertain terms, NOT fueling myself first.  I fed the kids healthy…or tried to.  We had fruit with breakfast and lunch and a veggie with dinner.  But it was a circus.  I came up short a lot of times. Snacks and granola bars were a way of life around here.  BUT.  In my concern about my health this summer, I have now given my body a much needed gift and have made a pretty dramatic overhaul in the nutrition department.  

I began following the Medical Medium after watching on insta stories that a friend’s husband was drinking celery juice every morning. I began reading all about celery juice, first on Instagram (it physically caused too much eye pain to read actual books…but eventually, over time I began to digest his books as well).  In the introduction, he quotes Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, the writer of the Hippocratic Oath my husband took when he became a physician reminding doctors to respect the patient, honoring their lives, being led by a desire to do good for the patients’ sake and not money, and to aim to do no harm.  He wisely said, way back in Ancient Greece, hundreds of years Before Christ even hit the scene, “Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food.”  That really resonated with me deeply and it made me reflect on how I was feeding myself and my family.  From my bed, I bought a juicer on Amazon ( Breville BJE200XL Compact Juice Fountain 700-Watt Juice Extractor https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MDHH06/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_i_Fp2qCbC5EQBPZ)  and since August, I have been starting my day with 16-32oz of fresh celery juice.  I began this because it is one of the most powerful anti-inflammatory foods available to us on the planet.   It starves unproductive bacteria, mold, yeast, fungus, and viruses that are present in the body and flushes their toxins and debris out of the intestinal tract and liver.  It also improves kidney function, restores the adrenals, helps with brain fog with its mineral salts feeding electrical impulse activity in our brains.  It has electrolytes and hydrates on a cellular level. It heals the skin (eczema and psoriasis and acne). It also helps with headaches (ding ding ding….sign me up, I said).   Pat has joined me in this life change and sometimes the kids opt in and sometimes not. Each of the kids has gone through phases of being super into it…my third grader said since it was so healthy, he wanted to tell his entire class about it so that they could all be healthy too.  My preschooler likes it so well that she chugs it in competition with her kindergarten brother.

Additionally, every day, my husband, the kids and I now have a great life hack for providing a large variety of organic, raw, vine-ripened, non GMO, gluten-free, vegan  concentrated fruit and vegetable powders.  It landed on my doorstep in August from my best friend (the same friend who would picnic with me and grab a coffee and some baby bel cheese and popcorn for lunch).  Attached was a text saying “please eat these and get healthy. We miss you out here in the world.” With a desperate heart and an open mind I began consuming these capsules. The kids and Pat’s (because he is an adult-sized child ?) come in gummy form. And they are legitimately just food. If you open the capsules, the berry blend smells and tastes like strawberries. The veggie blend tastes and smells like broccoli, garlic, and spinach. There is a nutrition label (not a supplement label).  The kids love them and it’s a super easy way to get 30 fruits and veggies into them every single day instead of the standard frequent flyers in my fridge of strawberries and grapes. The kids are an easy sell on this because they are delicious.  At that time I was already taking north of 30 pills daily so it was easily woven into my morning routine and I feel like it has completely revolutionized our family.  Before this, snacks looked like goldfish, Fritos, gummy bunnies and cheese and cracker snack packs. Now?  The kids are reaching for freshly cut papaya and apples and clementines and mangoes between meals. We are talking about our plates and our palates and how healthy we are because we are eating more plants. My husband says he has more energy each day, lasting with ease through the full day at work and into the evening, and is clearer headed, less foggy, and making better food choices overall. I’m proud to say too, that since August, we skated through the back to school and holiday seasons 100% healthy with no absences, which was critical, especially with my lack of an immune system given my extended course of high dose steroids. I mean. I don’t know what health and life looks like in your house but…for us? That was amazing!  In this new year the boys have picked up some germs and have had head colds….but they popped right back. It was a few days instead of a week. My son had a fever for 8 hours, which would have normally been days. Last year this same son had both flu A and flu B and was out of school for weeks. Now it’s a blip. As for me, I’m inching my way out of the woods here with my own health issues but it always struck me because the few times I’ve been up and out of bed, friends and family have commented on how great my skin looks and this “glow” that I have.  At first I thought people were just being nice to the sick girl ?.  But so many people have now said this that now I believe it (and I see it too).  Every time I still laugh because I have never in my life been weaker or in more pain…but our skin really tells the story of what’s going on inside your body. I’ve been fueling myself with gorgeous fruits and veggies, snacking on carrots instead of pretzels…or sneaking chocolate as a pick me up in the afternoon.  I really believe that what you put into your body….Matters.  When I was in my bed, I was looking purely to survive…but in an unexpected turn of events, I’ve now been able to help many friends and family members add this beautiful nutrition to their lives and the feedback I’m receiving has been life affirming. Friends are texting me to say that their diets have had a giant facelift, moving from yogurt and granola for breakfast to 30 fruits and veggies plus loads of fresh fruits in their smoothies. Fueling themselves intentionally. For the first time they are taking care of themselves instead of always putting others first. Their children are having sinuses clear up, GI tracts are healing, asthma treatments are no longer needed, sicknesses are resolving in days instead of weeks. Family members are getting off meds they’ve been on for years.  It makes me feel so good that I can help my friends and family in such a positive way, especially in the wake of a health crisis that has been so difficult. I’m so happy to share more info on this if you’re interested.

In addition to this, we have all heard about super foods and how important they are with regard to phytonutrients, micronutrients and our bodies.  I found a company called Your Super that has a transparent supply chain and have created a series of incredible mixes of *just* these superfoods and nothing else. No sweeteners or preservatives or anything else at all added.  They’ve been written up in Forbes and Fortune magazine and many others. It was started by a young European couple who were tennis pros and met in Georgia. Michael had unfortunately been diagnosed with cancer and Kristel began mixing together these superfoods and noticed some tasted better together, or some, when put together, all served a certain purpose (i.e, for immunity, for weight loss, for energy, etc).  I have been adding these to my smoothies or just to water and I feel like what you put into your body, truly, reflects how you look on the outside.  Stepping away from my 3pm energy crash and not-so coincidental chocolate cravings, I feel like the whites of my eyes are clearer, my skin is brighter, and for the first time in a long time flooding my body with such a rainbow of colors has been joyfully received by my poor little body and it is responding.  I am now, for the first time in eons, beginning to feel like myself…the self I was meant to be, but that took a major health scare to shake myself into change. It is SUCH a gift and I am grateful for every single inch of it. 

I also received acupuncture alongside my western medicine care and learned so much about the tongue and what it reveals about the state of your inner body.  Obviously I am not a licensed acupuncturist so I share this more for fun than anything else…but the handful of family members and friends I have shared this with, it has all been exactly (eerily) true for them.  Compare your tongue to the ones below and see which one it most closely resembles.  Google the title of the deficiency in the diagram below to read more and see if it makes sense for you too!  Over the course of this illness I went from Blood Deficiency/Qi Deficiency to Normal.  Of course my amazing husband has been “Normal” all along ?. 

Look at the difference of my tongue! The first was taken in July when I was my sickest, peak pain, awfulness, living in a dark room for days on end. The second was taken just the other day. Even my skin, so pale and unwell…now it’s rosier and healthier. 

The acupuncturist’s primary recommendation was to fuel myself with real, whole foods, plants and grains, to try to restore my body and bring it back to health. I felt so many things on the acupuncture table, but I was also surprised that he was able to notice that I had a false Qi (energy or life force) coursing through my veins. Almost like someone with a caffeine addiction, he said. Caffeine is something that is false energy, and people who fill themselves with it have an energy moving through them that is artificial and not originating from their soul center.  At that time I was on a high dose of prednisone and had this medicine coursing through me that was entirely not myself. My body would shake and my eyelids would twitch. I of course could not handle caffeine on top of this jitters-inducing medication…. but as I’ve begun to heal and am now newly officially OFF of prednisone (after so many months!!) I don’t really seek the caffeine that I had used as my absolute crutch for so long.  Once in a while, I treat myself to a decaf latte but that’s about it.

I share this all with you because I genuinely feel that this is information worth knowing. The documentary Forks Over Knives is a worthwhile watch as well and may be able to help you on your journey wherever you are. I’ve not been able to see that many people since it basically requires people to come to my front door, but the friends and family I got to connect with over the holidays asked me about my health and when I shared this with them and showed them my juicer and powders and gummies and capsules, it became clear to me that so many of us are in a stagnant place. A sick place. An unhealthy place. Focusing efforts on others but not themselves. It is such a simple thing….God blessed us with these beautiful plants on this earth for a reason. They can truly heal you from the inside out.  I, of course, knew this…but putting it into practice was a lot harder for me than it should have really been. 

Does this mean I eat perfectly all the time?  Hardly. So many things are still out of whack, meds have suppressed my appetite and impacted my gut and have made my tastebuds perceive things differently. But I’m trying and, really, am succeeding most days. 
If any of this resonates with you, as it did for me, please feel free to reach out.  If nothing else, I hope it offers an opportunity for you to sit back to reflect. Again, nothing is perfect and there is no good and bad.  My hope for anyone reading is simply that you see yourself as worthy of self care. Maybe that’s driving alone. Reading a book. Going out with friends. Working out in the early morning hours. Making good food choices that make your body feel well. Whatever that looks like for you, I encourage you to explore that and reflect. You deserve it all. And then some. ?
Be well. Xo