Author: DrKim

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Detox Meal Plan: Week One

As you know, we’re planning to begin a 21 day detox program this Sunday, August 15. And here’s how you can join us.

I have gone back and forth between planning cooked dinners and sticking to raw.  I know that we will have more healing and repair take place in our bodies the less we tax it. There is a spectrum for how to eat and how it affects health (especially when healing). It goes as follows (best to worst)

  1. Fasting (with water, of course. And only for specified time.)
  2. Juicing
  3. Raw/live
  4. Mostly raw, some cooked, all whole (not processed), no animal products
  5. Mostly raw, some cooked, all whole, some (clean) animal products
  6. Mixed cooked & raw, mostly whole, some animal products.
  7. Mostly or all cooked, Processed (comes in a bag or box, with chemicals), lots of non organic meat & dairy.

I admit (sadly) that our family normally would fall under number 6. We almost always have (live) fruit & nut smoothies for breakfast, cooked dinners (usually whole & vegan, but not always), and lunches vary the most. That’s where we’ll make the biggest change during the 21 days: green juice, and other raw stuff.

As far as dinner, I made a meal plan for the week which includes live and cooked foods for dinner; anyone who is exhibiting symptoms will have more of or completely the live. And, for example, if I am serving soup and salad, it will be a BIG salad, and a cup of soup. Not the other way around.  I focused on good food combining for each meal.

Sunday: Salad and Middle Eastern Chickpea Soup (minus the parmesan cheese)

Monday: Salad and Fresh Bread (from freshly ground whole wheat flour) (here’s why fresh ground is impt.)

Tuesday: Salad and Cuban Black Beans and Rice

Wednesday: Quinoa Salad with Lime and Fresh Mint from GlutenFreeGoddess

Thursday: Leftovers? Don’t know. Maybe veggie sticks with raw nut butter.

Friday: Salad and fish, steamed veg, homemade Challah (fresh ground flour), and raw almond halvah balls.

Saturday: Raw Granola with Almond Milk. Dinner: see Thursday.

Sunday: Salad and Lentil and Potato Stew with Spiced Oil

So this is our tentative meal plan to go along with the detoxifying supplements that we will be taking. As I search for more raw things to make, I’ll add them in. I’m looking forward to using my dehydrator for making snacks, and I’ll post any new recipes I try. If you have any raw or good whole recipes to share, please do!

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Our Detox Plan

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

We’re doing a family-wide 21 day detox beginning Monday, August 15th.

Here’s Our Plan:

The 3 older children (ages 7,6, &4) and I will use the Basic Kit Daily “Detox Coctail” available from WellWithU. They are supplements that boost our available and active antioxidants and supports the liver (which is our body’s natural detoxifying organ).  It is safe,  natural,  and easy. My husband will be using different supplements for a more intense detox, lasting 21 days.  The two younger children (ages 2 1/2 and 12 months) will share the almost completely raw diet, but not take the supplements.

All of us will eat an extremely clean diet  for the same 21 days (three weeks), consisting of mostly live foods. Our meals will look something like this (I’ll post a more specific meal plan soon):

Breakfast: Fruit & nut smoothies with some greens thrown in

Lunch: Fresh vegetable juice, mostly green. Raw nuts, etc for the kids for added fat and protein, added calories

Dinner: Salad plus some kind of cooked whole grain/beans/soup. My husband will continue with raw, mostly juicing.

Snacks: any kind of fresh fruit, nuts, seeds.Possibly dried fruit, but limited due to high sugar content. I’ll be experimenting with my dehydrator, making “chips” and granola bars, etc.

Drinks: WATER. Lots of it.

Absolutely NO processed sugar, caffeine, meat, dairy, alcohol, or white, bleached grain.

Why are we doing this again? Well, read Our Poisoned Planet is Poisoning US for the why and A Different Kind of Body Clutter for the challenge. YOU can join us on any level!

Upcoming: Meet our family and know our health struggles. Read how I hope our health is impacted by this detox.

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A Different Kind Of Body Clutter

I recently shared that we live on a poisoned planet, and the environment plus our living habits (especially our diets) are slowly poisoning US. Adding a yuck factor to our bodies that leave us feeling sluggish,  and generally unwell, and are actually beginning disease processes that we may not find out about for years.

So, what can we do about this?

In Flylady terms, we need to declutter. We already know about clutter in our houses. It just grows and grows as we bring it in, and ends up preventing us from enjoying our homes.  I’ve also heard the Flylady refer to two different types of body clutter: excess weight and clutter between your ears, or “stinkin’ thinkin‘ ”

I suggest that there is another type of Body Clutter: Toxins. They’re not just theoretical; they’re very real. And to make your body work right so that you can feel well and enjoy your life better, you need to get them out. You need to declutter. You need to DETOX.

Sounds like a huge big deal that’s only for health nuts, right? Well, it might sound that way, but it’s not. It’s actually very easy to do, and you can do it too, just by taking some babysteps.

How do you know if you need to detox?

Do you:

  • *get headaches (they may be common, but they’re not normal!)
  • *feel tired even when you’ve gotten what should be enough sleep
  • *get “indigestion” (constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, heartburn, etc.)
  • *have allergies
  • *get sick more than a couple of times a year
  • *have a general feeling of blah for no apparent reason
  • *live on the same poisoned planet that I do 🙂

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then read on. Steps to declutter your toxins are coming up.

My entire family and I are going to do a detox program beginning next week (August 15) for 21 days.  It will involve taking certain supplements (that are completely natural and safe for us all-even the little guys) and modifying our diets to assist our bodies to do what they already know how to do: take out the garbage. I’ll share more details  of our plans in an upcoming post.

But what about YOU? Do you feel that maybe, just maybe, you could use a little bit of “body de-cluttering?” Even without taking supplements, you could make great changes.

Detoxing is not an “all or nothing” kind of thing. Any little step you take will help you.

Commit to ONE of these for three weeks beginning on August 15, 2010:

  1. Say NO to soda and/or coffee, and drink ONLY WATER.  Leanne Ely of Saving Dinner posted a great “No Soda for Me” essay on her Facebook page. If you still don’t believe that soda’s bad for you, read my post on What Happens To Your Body Within An Hour of Drinking a Coke. Note: “drinking water”  means drinking 1/2 your body weight in ounces of WATER each day (not juice, crystal light, or anything else.
  2. Say NO to artificial sweeteners, MSG, and/or high fructose corn syrup. You can read my post on Aspartame’s New Name and why corn syrup is NOT a sweet surprise.
  3. Say NO to processed grains. This means only WHOLE wheat bread, pasta, whole grain rice.  For more info on why whole wheat is important, see Is Wonderbread Making You Sterile?
  4. Say NO to meat of any kind more than 3 times total in one week. Or cut it down to once. Or not at all. In other words, how ever much meat you are eating now, eat much LESS of it. Wondering what you’ll serve for dinner? Check out some of my non-meat recipes including beans.
  5. Say NO to dairy. Or cut it down dramatically. Whatever would be a big change for you; none is best if you want to be able to see how you feel without it. Why? Read my post on milk and how to get your calcium from other places. And don’t forget: you can make your own almond milk anytime!
  6. Say NO to processed sugar. This includes white and brown sugar and also honey if it’s pasteurized. What does that leave you with? Raw honey, sucanat, or stevia. Dried dates and raisins can be used to sweeten, but try getting along without indulging that sweet tooth. And yes…this means no chocolate! Unless you can get chocolate without sugar. If so, then go for it! 🙂
  7. Say NO to animal products. In other words, go vegan. Avoid all meats, milk/cheese and eggs. Eat only things that might have been growing in the Garden of Eden, hopefully in a form close to their original.
  8. Say NO to cooked foods. Go for LIVE foods that still have their enzymes in them. If you do this, your body will absolutely jump for joy, and the level of healing and detoxing it can accomplish will soar.  I’ve mentioned going more raw in these posts: When Your Child Is Unwell: Attitudes Toward Illness and Sick And Tired of Feeling Sick And Tired. If going completely raw is not something you’d consider, try it for two or at least one meal each day.

Do any ONE of these for 21 days (3 weeks), and you will notice changes!

Choose the one that works for YOU.

I can’t wait to see how great our family feels after our detox. Join us.

Make a commitment to ONE of the above choices for 3 weeks. Which one is right for you? Leave a comment. Accountability is very powerful, and I’d love for us to share this journey together.



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Unwanted Guests

Ever had an unwanted guest?

A few years ago we experienced the thrills of head lice. Boy, that was a hassle. Thankfully, it didn’t scar my 3 little boys too much to get a buzz cut, and I had a good friend who was willing to comb out my hair for me. Many times. But, what a hassle! Now we use rosemary oil regularly to help keep them away. It seems to work.

Last year at this time we were a little negligent lax about treating our dogs for ticks. We thought that as long as we checked them regularly and removed the ticks, that was good enough. Well, we discovered that ticks just LOOOVE to replicate in the house, and boy, are they good at it. A tick infestation is NOT a fun thing to deal with.  This spring, we did not take any chances, and have treated them with the chemicals. And, it seems to be working.

This year, we have a new unwanted guest. It’s a nasty one called Enterobius Vermicularis. Also known as Pinworm. Oh, if you don’t know about pinworm, let me enlighten you. Warning: it’s disgusting.

First, someone, presumably your young child (I’ve had 3 in and out of preschool, kindergarten, and first grade in the past 2 years) touches something that has a microscopic worm egg on it, probably at school, and puts his hand in his mouth. The egg is swallowed, and then hatches in your child’s intestine where it enjoys a nice warm place to sleep and food consumed by the child. When it’s ready, the female worm (which is very tiny, only about 8 mm long) lays eggs. Oh, this is the good part: it comes out your child’s rear end while he is sleeping and lays eggs around there. Tiny, microscopic eggs. The eggs are attached by sticky stuff that itches, so your child scratches, getting the eggs under his fingernails. And guess where the eggs go then? You got it: back in the mouth. Unless, of course, your child goes and touches ANYTHING ELSE IN THE HOUSE, like toys, etc, and then those eggs don’t go back in his mouth, oh no. They wait until someone else in the house touches that thing and gets to have the eggs for himself, sharing the love.

I know, you’re thinking THIS IS DISGUSTING! And you’re absolutely right. Want some more good news? Pinworms are EXTREMELY COMMON, and there’s a good chance that your children have them too. People often don’t experience symptoms, and they’re very hard to test for. You basically need to see one, which is tough to do.

Standard treatment is to take some nasty chemical pesticide, and treat everyone in the whole family at the same time with said nasty chemical.  We’ve tried the pesticide, but didn’t want to give something so toxic to those we weren’t sure had it. So, we probably have had this infection for ???? long without knowing it.

The good news, is now we know it. I’ve confirmed pinworms on 4 of the 5 children. I must assume that the 5th child and both my husband and I have it as well so that we can be serious about treatment. But what kind of treatment can we do without poisoning everyone? I’m not about to give that stuff to my 12 month old!

Well, we were able to get some all natural anti-parasite supplements that are safe for everyone. We are also taking apple cider vinegar, garlic, and cloves as much as I have time and creativity to prepare. And, we’re gearing up for a family detox starting next week that will leave our intestines so squeaky clean that those guys won’t even want to be there.

And as far as getting rid of the eggs….that’s the tricky part. I’m doing a LOT of laundry (sheets & towels, as often as possible), a LOT of vacuuming, and a LOT of toy washing. Yep, washing Every.Little.Toy. Sound like fun? Ha.

At least our play room will be in order by the time we’re done!

And about unwanted guests: watch this!

You can even watch the whole movie on YouTube. Here’s the link. I think I might need to watch it tonight!

Have you ever experienced a parasite? At least fleas? I know I’m not alone. Share your disgusting story here!

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Our Poisoned Planet is Poisoning US!

We live on a poisoned planet. The air we breathe is full of automobile and manufacturing emissions. The water we drink and bathe in is chlorinated and fluoridated, and the toxins from the plastics all around us are harming us. And that’s just the beginning.

Depressing, yes. But the reality is that even if we eat perfectly healthful diets  (which I don’t), our bodies get toxic. Toxic, as in, poisoned…to a degree. That’s because lots of the stuff that goes into us (like from plastics, for example) our bodies can’t get rid of. They just were not created to deal with these unnatural things. So, our bodies store them, locked away. But they’re not truly locked away, no. They cause our bodies to develop dis-ease.  To not function right. To not feel well.

Do you feel well? Do you have as much energy as you should?

I have an electric teapot. It boils water very quickly. Comes in handy. I also have very hard mineral containing tap water. (It’s less when I use my filtered water, but it’s still there. And I’m making a point here so don’t get on me for advising folks to drink tap water! ) After several days of use, the teapot gets a hard white film on the bottom of it. I can swish some of it away, but if I don’t do anything about it, it will continue to grow. Until one day I heat up water for some herbal tea, pour it in my cup, and see gross flakes of white stuff floating around. Yuck.

So, I need to clean that stuff off. Break it up, dissolve it. I pour some white vinegar on it and let it sit for an hour and presto! It’s gone. Just like that. Of course, it will build up again, but I know how to clean it.

The same idea goes for many things. Decluttering your house, cleaning your kitchen, detoxifying your body.  If you want to have a house you enjoy, a kitchen without bugs, and a body that feels good and works well, you must clean them up and maintain them.

My body needs to be decluttered. In other words, it’s time for a detox. Our whole family, in fact, could use one, and it’s time. I mentioned this in my post: Sick And Tired of Feeling Sick And Tired, written quite a while ago. Now we’re getting serious. In fact, we will begin our family detox program next Monday, August 15. Would you like to join us?

If you would like to know more about why and how to detox, WellWithU has a wonderful 5 part webinar series on Environmental Detox available on their website.

So, I’m making a plan for our family to detox. I’ll include details in an upcoming post of what exactly we will do.

And if you’re interested in joining in, in decluttering your body of toxins, we’d love to have you join us. I’ll give you some ideas of things you can do, some babysteps you can take toward a healthier you.

Think about it….

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Quinoa: A True Superfood

Have you ever eaten quinoa? It’s a small grain-like food, similar in size to couscous or millet. I first tried it a few years ago and was intrigued. I found out how highly nutritious it is, but when I tried to make it at home, I just couldn’t get past the bitter/strong taste of it, so I gave up.

I’ve recently been interested in trying again. So I learned a little bit more about it, and now I’m determined. Here’s why.

Quinoa is not actually a grain (from the grass family), but a seed.  It contains all essential amino acids, making it a complete protein all on its own. (Unlike rice, for example, which must be combined with beans to make a complete protein). And, it’s gluten-free, which is helpful for those who have a gluten intolerance or for infants (above the age of one year) who are first being introduced to grains.

I’m all for nutrient-dense food. I’m learning that by serving such stuff, I can both save money (not wasting it on things that may fill the belly but not provide much nutrition), and increase health in my family.  So, I decided to give quinoa another try.

I found out that the bitterness I objected to was due to saponins, and that the way to get rid of it is to soak the quinoa first and then rinse it. I also used chicken broth instead of plain water for cooking it, and it was pretty good.

I made this recipe for Sweet Potato Quinoa the other day. It turned out ok; I didn’t add the cayenne pepper though.

I’ll be trying more recipes for this superfood in the weeks to come, and of course, I’ll post any recipes I really like. If you have any good quinoa recipes to share, let me know!

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When Your Child Is Unwell: Attitudes Toward Illness

As some of you may have read on FamilyNatural’s Facebook Page, my 6 year old son was recently hospitalized with pneumonia.  And, thankfully, he is doing much better.  There are just so many aspects of the situation that I’d like to share; I’ll just start with first things first.

A little background: In case you don’t know me personally and can’t tell from reading this blog, I don’t have any warm fuzzy feelings toward the practices of “modern” medicine.  I believe that our bodies are made to be healthy, and created to be able to heal themselves as long as they have no interference. In other words, if we get rid of the garbage in our bodies and treat them right, they know what to do and usually need no help. Furthermore, I believe that most medical intervention (in the form of drugs) are not only unnecessary, but extremely harmful to the body, and actually create many and more severe problems than the symptom they were taken to mask.

So, what happens when someone in our family is unwell? (Notice I didn’t say “gets sick”….I do not believe that sickness is something that one “catches” or “gets”, but rather that the body develops) First, I’ll tell you what doesn’t happen. What doesn’t happen is any worry or fear. My (and my husband’s) attitude is: your body knows what it needs to do and it is doing it for a reason, even if I don’t know what that need is or understand the reason. My body was created with an inner wisdom, an innate intelligence far greater than my own. I respect it immensely.

The body needs to use its energy to do whatever healing or repairing needed. I don’t want to take that needed energy away from that work and force the body to use it for other unnecessary things.  Did you know that one third of the body’s energy is used just for digestion? ONE THIRD!!! The best way to accelerate healing is through fasting. By fasting, I mean eating no food, but drinking plenty of water and resting. So, if possible, we fast.

Not into fasting? Or can’t imagine having a child do such a thing? That’s OK. You can still help the body to use its energy more efficiently by eating only RAW foods while healing. Fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. Water. Nothing else (food wise–I do give/have supplements such as echincea, vitamin C, etc.) until symptoms are gone. Raw foods include the enzymes necessary for digestion and therefore require much less work from your body. That’s a good thing when you want to conserve energy so that it can be used for more important things. I wrote a post on including more raw foods in our diets for healing; you can read it here.

What about fever reducers? Cough suppressants? Pain killers? Decongestants? Antibiotics?  It’s best to avoid them completely.  Not only are the chemicals toxic to the body even under normal conditions, but during healing time they would be even more disruptive, giving the body extra work to deal with.  Those symptoms serve a purpose, and the drugs usually hinder, not help the body to heal

I am thankful for my education in chiropractic; through my four years of school I gained a great deal of knowledge that has been extremely helpful toward raising my family through more natural means. Fortunately, we all have access now (mostly through the internet) to information that gives us the power to take responsibility for the health of our families.  Your medical doctor most certainly has knowledge that you don’t. But that doesn’t mean that he/she is wiser.

A resource I highly recommend for every family is the book How To Raise A Healthy Child In Spite Of Your Doctor, by Robert Mendelsohn, MD.  It’s written by a pediatrician, so he knows common medical practice and also has had plenty of experience. It comes in handy when you’d like a reminder of what to look for to decide if your child actually needs a doctor visit, or if you can handle it at home. Even with my health education, I have referred to this book many times over the years, and it truly does empower the parent to make educated decisions for the child’s health.  My second child experienced febrile convulsions twice, and thanks to the book, I was able to keep myself together (though they were indeed scary) with the knowledge that my child was not in any actual danger.

I’ll share more about my son’s hospital experience in some of the posts to come. I’m thankful that he got helped. And I’m also thankful that I have the knowledge and ability to help his body recover from the help that he got (yes, his body needs to be cleaned up from all the chemicals that were put into him), now that he’s home.

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Concerned About Whooping Cough?

Within the past few days, I have heard mention on three different occasions of the most recent (current)Whooping Cough outbreak. All of them pointed fingers at those “parents who refuse to vaccinate their children” and those “adults who refuse to be vaccinated” Although my heart goes out to those whose children have died, pointing fingers is not the answer.

Barbara Loe Fisher, founder of the National Vaccine Information Center gives a video commentary on this most recent outbreak of Whooping Cough.

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“No Shots, No School!” – Not True! (On Vaccine Exemptions)

We still have one more month of summer vacation here, and though there’s still lots of time for summer fun, it’s time to start thinking about preparing for the school year. For many that means making sure your child’s vaccine records are up to date.

Vaccinations are a hot topic; no doubt about that. And while we choose not to vaccinate our children,  I will not try to convince you to take the same route as we have. I only urge you, implore you, to educate yourself, as a parent, on the subject.  If you choose to vaccinate your children, fine. But PLEASE do so AFTER finding out the possible side effects or downside of doing so. And PLEASE do it by choice. DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE BULLIED INTO VACCINATING YOUR CHILD!

I posted this last September. It’s that time of year again, and a timely topic for a re-post.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Have you ever been told that your children will not be allowed to attend school without being up to date on their vaccinations? If not, where have you been? That scare tactic has been used for so many years, it’s amazing that it’s survived for one simple fact: IT’S NOT TRUE.

Megan at SortaCrunchy posted this  a couple of days ago last year, and the information is exactly what I’d like to share with you, so please click here to read her post: https://bit.ly/2lSNl

And Stephanie at Adventures In Babywearing wrote this post on the topic of vaccine exemptions. You can read about her experiences with vaccines and how they affected her family.

Then come on back here to leave your comments; this can be an interesting discussion as long as we are respectful to each other.

America’s Vaccine Safety Watchdog

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Mosquitoes Bite!

I grew up in Miami. I know mosquitoes.  Mosquito repellent was a way of life for me, just like sunscreen was.  No, not all day every day, but yes, most of the day most days during the summertime when going to day-camp or doing some kind of outdoor activity.  I remember holding my breath while being sprayed with Off! (aerosol-can, of course!) and thinking how very bad it smelled. But, being glad that it worked.

Do you know what the main ingredient in that and most other repellents are? It’s called DEET. (And, by the way, Off! smells good now. They did figure out how to put some good-smelling chemicals in there.)

(NaturalNews) “New research shows that the insect-repelling chemical deet actually functions in the same way as deadly nerve gases and dangerous pesticides, by attacking the nervous systems of both insects and mammals.” Read the rest of that article here where DEET is exposed as a neurotoxin.

“WARNING!!! Do NOT use DEET for a Chigger repellant!  Studies at Duke University show DEET to cause brain cell death and behavioral changes with prolonged and continuous exposure. If the stuff toxic to bugs, do you think it could be toxic to humans and pets as well?  Human skin will absorb any kind of toxic and non toxic substance applied to it.  IN SECONDS!”  DEET is responsible for producing the following side effects to users even years later after being exposed. Severe memory loss, seizures, headaches, muscle and joint pain, shortness of breath, tremors, fatigue, weakness and even death. “Source

Just to be fair, if you’d like to read SC Johnson Statement On Recent Unfounded Concerns Over DEET, there it is. I’m still more comfortable finding an alternative.

So, no Deet. Then….What’s a person to do? You don’t want to end up like this poor guy:

There are some more natural insect repellents out there. You can buy them, or you can even make your own. Things with citronella, eucalyptus, tea tree oil, and lavender all seem to work.  Don’t be afraid to experiment; if one doesn’t work for you, try another!

Here’s a video showing one way to make homemade mosquito repellent:

These are ways to avoid being bitten. But what do you do after the fact? There’s a great product on the market called After Bite. Do you know what’s in it? Ammonia. That’s it! If you have ammonia, you can dab some on with a cotton ball. Vinegar works too. Here are over 40 mosquito bite itch relief tips.

And what if it’s something a little more ferocious than a mosquito…..like a wasp or bee? My toddler got stung by one just the other day. I mixed a paste of baking soda and water, and it seemed to work alright. I know that meat tenderizer is excellent for that; I don’t know where to find it here but will try. Apparently it has something from papaya in it. So if you have papaya, you can just use that.

What insect repellent or sting remedies do you have to share? I’d love to hear them!