Toxins

Sleep Week – day 6

Liz James · July 8, 2017 ·

Good morning friends! I hope you all got your rejuvenating, anti-aging 7+ hours of sleep last night! There is so much to cover, and so little time left in the week.

Blood sugar fluctuations… we all have them…. some people have a much larger span between high’s and low’s but more than 86 million Americans are fast approaching a ‘diagnoseable condition’ because of these fluctuations. Only 1 in 4 are actually aware of this ‘oncoming train’ that will ultimately affect their life in big ways.

As I head off to farm chores this morning, I leave you with these thoughts. I see people with newly diagnosed conditions daily at the pharmacy. Often, they are blindsided by the diagnosis of a PREVENTABLE condition, and so the first trip to the pharmacy for their new prescription I see their ‘deer in the headlights’ look. This tells me that likely (in these instances) the person had not ‘listened to his/her body’ for an extended period of time, and a symptom finally forced him/her to the doctor.

We’ve got to learn to be the CEO’s of our health. Your restless sleep (and other signs) may be trying to tell you something, and it’s up to you, the commanding officer of YOU, to decipher the clues.

There is nothing more important than this.. The richest people have nothing if they do not have the health to enjoy life. I hear patients complain about the price of medication and healthcare at work. On top of that, they are now having to deal with a new ‘condition’. That condition may also cost them time and quality of life.

We can choose to address our health PROACTIVELY (diet, SLEEP, exercise, avoiding toxins, man-made chemicals in the form of skincare, cleaning products….even hygiene goods, and chronic stress whenever possible, etc) and ‘pay for our healthcare’ by doing things to be well…. OR we can be REACTIVE and pay for our health later in the way of doctor visits, medications and healthcare related expenses, quality of life, and perhaps shortening of life. Life is full of choices, and this is a big one.

I hate to leave you with such a heavy topic this morning, but if it resets at least one person’s thinking, then I think it’s worth it!

Make it a great one! Tomorrow is our last day, and then it’s back to business as usual! This is such a huge topic… I’ve realized I can’t cram it all into 7 posts. I think I’ll ultimately have a longer online class later in the year for this topic if there is enough interest.

Take care and make it a great day!
Liz

Sleep Week – day 2

Liz James · July 2, 2017 ·

Good morning friends!! I hope you got a good night of sleep last night! Fireworks were fierce out here in the country til nearly midnight (we’ve got at least 2 more nights of them.. July 4th is around the corner)… and our animals were stressed. Needless to say, OUR sleep was affected!

Sleep deprivation causes increased hunger and increased stress hormone levels… never a good thing, but especially if you are trying to manage your weight or lose a few extra pounds. Sleep deprivation can make that goal dang near impossible!

Sleep deprivation speeds up the aging process. Telomeres are the caps at the end of chromosomes that protect your cells and genes. When telomeres get short from aging, (or a lifestyle that promotes aging), our cells cannot replenish. Fortunately, there are things you can do to keep these caps long and happy. Getting adequate sleep is one of them! People who get roughly 7 or more hours of sleep a night tend to have longer telomeres, especially among the elderly!
Recent studies show poor sleeping habits cause brain damage and even accelerate onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Sleep is necessary for maintaining metabolic homeostasis in your brain. Without sufficient sleep, neuron degeneration sets in and catching up on sleep during weekends will not prevent this damage.
Sleep deprivation causes disruption of certain synaptic connections that can impair your brain’s ability for learning, memory formation, and other cognitive functions.

Frequently, poor sleep is simply the result of poor habits (which we’ll talk about later in the week), but just as commonly, it is the result of a physiological dysfunction and/or side effects of the medications that are used to treat a physiological dysfunction.

Y’all have a great day! See you tomorrow…
Liz

War, Volunteers, Gnomes, & Mama (Whew!)

Liz James · June 21, 2017 ·

I’ve been so busy this last month that I’ve barely had time to come up for air. I feel like I’ve left so many discussions hanging. And now, I’m so far behind, that in order to be sequential, I’d have to write about six posts just to get you caught up on current affairs on the farm. Sheesh. May and June are just flying by! That said, this post is going to be a mish mash of current affairs…. cliff notes country style!

Garden Warfare You may recall my frustration with cucumber beetles. I’m happy to report that my non toxic mixture of beetle repellent worked remarkably well. It at least allowed us to get past the tender seedling age unscathed. As you can see, my garden is a hot mess of success. We were out of town for about 8 days (that will definitely be a different post!), and Lord have mercy on these weed pulling hands. We’ve got a lotta pickin’ and pullin’ to do! I’m harvesting peppers, beans, tomatoes, onions, garlic, CUCUMBERS and zucchini with many varieties of squash nearing pick-ability. My melons are looking good but no where near picking yet. They got such a late start. Our blackberries started coming in last week, so we’ve got at least a month of intensive picking before that season ends.

Volunteers: There came a time during the dark days of beetle domination that I feared my garden would fail this year. I was literally feeling victorious when ANYTHING survived beetle mastication. I guess that’s why I let every little volunteer tomato plant grow where it was naturally sown last fall. I literally did not plant a single one of these plants. In fact, I thinned them tremendously prior to our eight days of absence… but you could never tell it. Anyone need any tomatoes? We are about to be tomato heaven around here.

Teen Mom: Henri has still not given us any clue as to exactly where she’s stashed her babies. She comes down daily and asks for food, and I can tell she’s tired, as all mothers of multiples must be. She’s even taken to hiding her nuts closer to home…. tucking them here and there on the porch. One afternoon, she came down and asked for nuts. I gave her a few…. she ran over to a spot of sun on the porch rail and lay down for about five minutes with the nut in her mouth, almost like she was too tired to eat. She seemed to relish the sunshine, silence, and stillness.

I had a talk with her and told her that this is what happens when you get frisky with male squirrels. Hopefully, (doubtfully) she will take my advice to heart. I am still looking for a vet who is willing to spay a semi wild squirrel….

I’m already speaking of June in the past tense… even tho it’s the 21st, it seems like July is already here knocking on our door. The garden tugs at our time persistently like an impatient child and the summer heat has settled in today, the longest day of the year. I love the long daylight hours, I’m a farmgirl who easily could throw her clock out the window and simply live according to when the sun rises and sets, if only the rest of the world could too! More later ya’ll…. I’m headed out to pull weeds.

Know Your Source

Liz James · March 19, 2017 ·

Earlier this week I made a comment in a gardening post, and I wanted to expand on that a little more. The comment made was in regards to the purity of our gardening bounty and how important it is to know both your source and how your food (ie: the plants or animals) is cared for from seed (or birth) to the farm table.

As you might have guessed by now, I am an advocate of following this principle in all aspects of life.

Knowing your source……whether that be your:

Information source (Ah! News…. are you a mainstream news follower, or do you seek deeper truth than that which is spoonfed?)
The people in your life who either affirm you (hopefully) or emotionally cripple you (toxic relationships)
Food (we literally ARE what we eat)
Makeup and personal care products (bad news! Have you looked at your ingredient label?.. and are you making choices based on that ingredient label?)
Household chemicals/cleaning products ( I can’t even find current stats on this, but in previous years, household chemicals have been accounted for over 10% of toxic exposures reported to US Poison Control centers… and that’s just Emergency Room visits… we aren’t even counting the health cost of personal toxin load buildup over time)

All of these have great impact on YOU… emotionally, physically, mentally, and on your long term health and wellness plan….. what you allow yourself to be exposed to…. is it sustainable to good emotional and physical health?

Can you expose yourself regularly to toxic relationships (any relationship qualifies here) without health detriment?

Can you use toxic chemicals daily… both on your person (soaps, shampoo, makeup, skin care etc) AND in your home and expect to remain healthy as your body loads slowly with these chemicals?
Can you continue to eat prepackaged food with unpronounceable chemicals as part of the ingredient list and expect your body and immune system not to rebel?

The answer is NO to all of these. 100% NO. (hundreds of studies will back this)

And yet….. And yet….. And yet… we tell ourselves little white lies, because the truth would mean that we acknowledge the need for change.

“That illness will happen to our neighbor, but not us.”
“That person who tries to tear me down daily doesn’t affect my self esteem, self worth, or even my physical or emotional health.”
“I’ve eaten this way for years, and it hasn’t bothered me yet, so I’m sure I’m not affected the way other people might be.”
“If I don’t read the label, I won’t have to KNOW…. and if I don’t KNOW, then it won’t be bad.”
“A little exposure to those chemicals every day isn’t bad, right? I mean, I don’t work in a chemical factory or anything.”

Daily exposure to toxins of any kind IS having long term effects on all of us…. Why do I personally know 3 people under the age of 40 who are currently battling colon cancer? Why are nearly 1 in 5 Americans on mental health drugs compared to 30 years ago (when it was 1 in 184)?

Having an insider’s view of the prescription end of our healthcare system for over 25years has made me extraordinarily aware of this, as has my interest in the health ramifications (both physical and emotional) of toxic relationships versus healthy ones. It is this insider’s view that really began convicting me of making personal SUSTAINABLE changes in MY life and in my family’s life many years ago. Don’t forget, there was a time when I was a statistic just like you yourself might be now…. I’ve written about it on my blog in an earlier couple of posts.

It was the pharmacist in me that followed an initial curiosity with my own personal research before committing to the oil and supplement company you’ve seen me reference. In my humble opinion, buying from companies that cannot give a step by step accounting of the ‘life’ of each and every bottle oil from seed to bottling…… well, that would be equivalent to buying a prescription drug from someone off of the internet (THAT is illegal… but you get my drift)……. You never know what you’ll get. The other thing I like about Young Living is that they have a batch/distilling # on each bottle, so that not only does the company commit to purity, it qualifies that by giving each bottle a number that can be tracked BACKWARDS. This is not a common practice in the essential oil industry.

I leave you now with these thoughts:

You cannot unlearn something that you now know
Now that you know….are you going to do something about removing toxins in your life and the life of your family?
Lauren Crews Dow, another YL oil aficionado commented on her public FB page:

“There are, as of yet, no standards for therapeutic-grade essential oils set by any government agency in North America. Hence, labeling fraud is rampant. Therefore, to be sure you are getting TRUE therapeutic-grade essential oils, you need to know your grower, your distiller, your packager, and your distributor because anywhere along this chain of delivery, oils can be compromised.

There is nothing dishonest about producing food or perfume grade oils. The problem comes when such oils are bottled, labeled, and presented as if they were therapeutic when they are NOT!

A common practice in the Essential Oil community, is to take a decent grade of Essential Oil, dilute it by 90%-95% with an odorless, colorless solvent (usually an inexpensive petrochemical) so that what was a pound of good oil then becomes 10 or 20 pounds of diluted oil to be sold as if it were the original substance, thus multiplying the profit. Understand, that such diluted oils often carry labels stating they are “Genuine” or “100% Pure”, which is allowed by the U.S. FDA. However, when you see a bottle of Frankincense for $10-$20 for a full ounce, you can be sure it has been diluted because you can’t gather the resins from the Arabian and Somalian deserts, transport them to France or England to be distilled, and then import them to North America (or any other country) for that price and maintain quality and purity.

Mysteriously, for every pound of Frankincense distilled in the world, more than a dozen pounds are eventually sold (pretty scary). Pure, unadulterated Frankincense, should cost around $140 per ounce. In Biblical times, a pound of Frankincense oil was more precious than a pound of gold. In fact, in ancient times, it was called “liquid gold”. Today, a pound of gold is worth around $4,800 (referenced in 2010), while on the retail market a pound of pure Frankincense is worth about $2,400.

If you have smelled TRUE Frankincense, then you will know the difference immediately when given a sample of the diluted versions that are very common on the market.

Other signs on labels are when only the common name “Frankincense” is used, and the Latin name, “Boswellia carteri” is missing, that is another clear warning that it is not genuine and certainly not therapeutic.

(Info from The Chemistry of Essential Oils by David Stewart Ph.D., D.N.M.)

Moral of this, you GET what you pay for in essential oils. Period. I know essential oils are “popular” now, but be an informed consumer! Don’t be fooled!”

If you’d like some help getting started detoxing your life, I’d love to help you find your True North. Starting with kicking chemicals out of your home one by one (baby step style) is a great place to start! (Have you heard of The Thieves Product Line?)

In Health and Sustainable Preparedness,
Liz

Organic Seeds!

Liz James · March 5, 2017 ·

In early winter I start itching to get my paws on the latest edition of The Whole Seed Catalog. It’s crack for the organic gardener. Truly. I’m not sure how many times I thumb thru the catalog highlighting, circling, and dogear-ing pages before I make my final selections. I feel like Imelda Marcos in a shoe store. Rareseeds.com is my ‘go to’ source for seeds simply because I trust them and I respect their ethical stance on heirloom seed preservation. Their seeds aren’t just heirloom, they are also organic.

We are organic gardeners, and that includes our seed choices. I am frequently asked why seed choice is so important. Oh ho ho. Seed choice is VERY important any time you are asking something of a plant ( it’s one of the things that really sealed the deal for me on my essential oil company of choice ).

Organic heirloom seeds are better for a multitude of reasons:

Exceptional Taste and Flavor (far superior to hybridized fruits and veggies whose genetics have sacrificed both in favor of ship-ability & gas-ripening/green picking )
Seeds from organically grown plants are more likely to do well in an organic garden because the parent plant has proven that it can meet the challenges of an organic environment (We certainly experienced this too when we opted to convert our beehives to 100% organic management!).
Organic seeds have never been exposed to toxic pesticides, and they are chemical free! (this is a bigger deal than you might think)
Organic seeds are NEVER the product of genetic engineering.
Heirloom seeds are nearly ALWAYS more nutritious than their counterparts. You can read more about that here.
Heirloom seeds can be open pollinated (kind of a big deal if you are a seed saver!). Hybridized usually cannot.
Heirloom plants tend to mature at different rates. This means that you can usually assume a longer harvest period for your crops.

My seeds arrived last week and I’m itching to plant. It’s still a little early for most things. I prefer to plant directly into the soil, but will prestart a few that take longer to germinate in my greenhouse.

Cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, lettuce, kale, onions, zucchini, butternut squash, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, beans, beans, and more beans…. and so much more! I’m even making an attempt at growing loofah sponges this year!

Come on spring! We’re ready!