I have been pursuing a healthy diet, exercise, yoga and clean living for as long as I can remember... I was fortunate to have grown up in a small town in Northern California, where everything I ate was either home grown, organic, seasonal or at the very least, local. We grew our own eggs and beef, grew fruits and harvested vegetables from our own gardens. We had small markets to purchase from, and sometimes bought fish from fisherman's boats in the nearby coastal harbors. I moved out of the house to pursue my studies at first a community college and then at the University, and have always strived to follow health, wellness, and any local cooperatives or natural food sources. In my 20s, I raced bikes, and put my competitive nature ahead of my true health. My time was spent commuting on my bike to work (3-4 times each week), stashing clothes and food at my office, and going to the gym before the day began. I grew so skinny, my clothes were falling off, and yet I still tried to maintain a vegan lifestyle. I ate all the time, but was not getting what my body needed. My 8,000 miles per year was causing me to digest my own proteins from my muscle! I had a big wake up call (a pre-cursor to significant troubles) and began looking into eating right for my blood type. I am still amazed how much my body seemed to need high levels of protein. It was true, after I incorporated lean meat back in to my routine and focused on recovering, I felt SO much better. I stepped away from the long miles and leaned into having balance in diet and activity. Years later, when I traveled overseas and lived in Nepal for three months, I found pharmacies there where there was no doctors prescription needed for help, and found hospitals there where treatment was pennies on the dollar compared to our U.S. way of recovering our health. I bristle now, at the high cost of insurance and the subsidized pharmaceutical products that attempt to keep us hostage to a life of chemicals. My chosen career after graduate school was in the environmental sciences. After working as a public servant, and seeing dis-ease and un-wellness all around and within me, I found that I prefer a balance between personal wellness and environmental health. I had become sick from pressure, stress, internal expectations, and my responses to these things. I needed to find the freedom that this path is. My path in this world of wellness, is to help educate others about a life filled with natural alternatives to the chemicals. I Love to teach, I always have, and I get to empower others to step into their own sense of what is right and true and available. And FREEDOM is within. And I have truly found, if we do not feel well and whole ourselves, we cannot help others, protect our watersheds, nor truly be effective in our community or work lives. This stressful lifestyle and my anxious responses to it, depleted my adrenals completely; I was in the chiropractors office five times the week of a fast half marathon four years ago. My endocrine system was running on empty. I looked ok, but my ligaments and tendons no longer could hold my joints in place. It took me over three years to recover from this. I have completely eliminated gluten from my diet and am dairy free. I take really good supplements. I eat lots of healthy fats, cooked vegetables and moderate amounts of pasture-raised meats and wild fish. I make self-care a priority, daily. My home is free of toxic "cleaning" products, make-up and self-care products. Did you know that the list of harmful ingredients that are banned for use in the US has not been updated since 1938 (plus hundreds of new ones have been introduced since then). Companies that make cleaning products are not required to list all their ingredients on their labels. Many of these are endocrine disruptors and very harmful! Now that I have a kiddo, I think about how these chemicals affect those closest to the floor – kids and pets. On my journey to recovery I discovered doTERRA's Essential Oils and they have become my Natural Medicine Cabinet. I use these Essential Oils, a.k.a. "plant medicine" for immune support, energy when needed, sleep, emotional and also physical support. I no longer have synthetic medicine in my home, and I get to help others find Freedom in a natural life.
These days, I am a more present mama for my son, and find more balance with the freedom I have between my work in protecting our waters, writing kiddo books, empowering women and men to take their health back into their hands. This blog will be about all of these things, and I hope you join me on my journey! Where to start? It can be simple. We get to decide what food to bring into our homes and bodies, what "cleaning" products to use and what to put onto our skin and hair every day. We all affect each other with our choices. We can make a difference every day by what we choose to buy. We NEED to be advocates for our health and our community. Join me!
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