In our home, we do not observe Halloween and I realize that the holiday has passed, but this video is still relevant and you really should see it. It's important that you read labels carefully before you make a food purchase. As for me, I plan to avoid any foods that come from China-- period!
Well, Spring is inching ever closer and with that comes planting season. I have already ordered my vegetable seeds and thanks to my generous neighbor, I have two flats of heirloom tomato plants sitting on my dining room table that have started. I will soon be ordering some fruit plants too. Thanks to Amy, I have learned about this family home industry, and am planning to get a few fruit plants from them. After that, I am seriously going to take a look at purchasing some herb seeds. Not only will this be an asset to my meal preparations, but what I'm mostly interested in, is using them to create healing medicines for my family. My husband and I have been talking about how important we feel it is to be as self-sufficient as possible. Particularly as we see the world becoming more and more unstable all the time.
In our family, we try avoid pharmaceutical drugs as far as possible, as we believe that God gave us every herb bearing seed, not only for our food, but for our healing as well. My thoughts are: Why use synthetic drugs that can cause life-threatening side effects when God has provided plants that are perfectly healthful and natural? ... drugs are extremely costly and they don't work for the cure, but rather to mask symptoms instead.
So that said, this year we are on a quest to learn all that we can about herbs and their medicinal properties. I found a small Herb course on-line, offered by Cheri at Sweet Hollow Farm. Part of Cheri's testimony is that they were a homeschooling, Christian family, dwelling in the City. One day the Lord spoke to her heart and showed her that they were too reliant on others for everything in their life. She saw that she needed to rely more on God for their sustenance and so, they left the city behind for country life and have been there for nine years now. Through her journey, she has learned much and is now offering to pass on that knowledge to others. I plan on taking advantage of it. :)
I would love to hear from any of you who have made this a way of life. I would really like to learn how to make tinctures, salves, balms and any other type of natural healing methods, using herbs.
I found a website some time back that sells herbs in bulk. Many of you may know it. It's called: Bulk Herb Store It's owned and operated by Shoshanna Pearl, the daughter of Michael & Debi Pearl. While at the Bulk Herb Store, I saw several books that can be purchased to help us on our quest for Herbal knowledge. I was particularly interested in the book: "The How-to Herb Book". I didn't really want to pay what the Bulk Herb Store was asking, so hunted around the web for a lower price. I found one. It's at: More Than Alive. I often will purchase books used, from Amazon, but even there, the price was higher.
Please let me know if you have this book. I'm interested to know how you like it and if it's been useful in your home.
Last week I went in to my chiropractor's office for my weekly adjustment. I mentioned to him that I started walking on my treadmill again. It was here that I thought he would say something like, "Good for you!" or "That's great!", but instead he gave me a line something like this: "Running and walking won't do much, if anything, to help you lose weight. What you need to start doing is lifting weights." With that, he left the room and left me feeling discouraged and a bit angry! After all, it took quite a bit of getting myself psyched up enough to start walking again-- he really knocked the wind out of my sails and I haven't been back on the treadmill since.
However, I am even more discouraged about this weight that I've gained and I know that I've got to do SOMETHING. So, with his "words of wisdom" still ringing in my ears, I've decided to do a bit of research to find out what I can do to make a change. Going to a gym is entirely out of our budget, so my goal was to find something I could successfully do here at home.
I am learning that it's best to combine Cardio exercise with strength training to get the best results. Strength training, in particular, is important to keep my bones from thinning and becoming weak as I get older. Also, it will help with balance control and reduce or eliminate falls in older years. In the past, I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to the balance aspect, but as I'm in the caregiving practice now, I see balance issues with older people all the time.
I'm also reading that strength training is crucial to weight control, because individuals who have more muscle mass have a higher metabolic rate. Here's a quote from WebMD."Muscle is active tissue that consumes calories while stored fat uses very little energy. Strength training can provide up to a 15% increase in metabolic rate, which is enormously helpful for weight loss and long-term weight control."
During my research, I think I've found a product that can help me obtain much of the ideal strength training I need, while helping me to target my core muscles at the same time. It's called the BOSU Balance Trainer. If you'd like to know more the BOSU, this website briefly talks about it.
I won't be able to get one right away. It will take a bit of time before I can save that much. We are are on very tight budget and what little I've been able to set aside is going into buying seeds for this summer's vegetable garden. This by no means is a bad thing. After all, part of getting fit, is eating properly. You can't have one without the other, right?
In the meantime, I will continue to read and yes, I will get back on the treadmill. I probably won't get back to it until this Sunday. For me, starting at the beginning of the week rather than the middle or the end of the week makes much more sense.
I've been skimming a book on health put out by Uchee Pines Lifestyle Center. There is a particularly interesting section that caught my eye on improving the memory. I find that I'm awfully forgetful these days and have a difficult time with memorization. Also, now that I'm working as a caregiver again, I find myself working with an increased amount of people with dementia and Alzheimer's. I have been doing an interesting study on Alzheimer's. Maybe I can share a bit about that with you sometime in the future. Anyway, I thought I'd list here what steps Uchee Pines shares for things you can do to improve your memory.
a. Observe strict regularity in ALL things
b. Never lie down after a meal. This promotes early senility.
c. Do not crowd too many things into a small amount of time. On the other hand, do not allow time to pass without profitably using it.
d. Country living with strict simplicity is most favorable to learning, as well as to easy recall.
e. Keep all things orderly in your surroundings. Do not keep in your home more things than you are to keep in perfect order. Do not have something on every desk top, table or bookcase. have much ope space on walls, floors, yards, etc.; avoid clutter.
f. Eat nothing between meals or within several hours of going to bed. Intestinal fermentation produces toxins that injure and dull the mind. Use little fluids or liquid foods at meals. Use few dishes or varieties of foods at one meal. Especially avoid harmful combinations such as milk-sugar-egg mixtures, or fruit-vegetable mixtures. Never overeat. Excess nutrients such as potassium cause mental confusion. Excess sodium suppresses norepinephrine production resulting in lack of alertness. With the electroencephalogram (brain wave), we can get an indication of states of alertness. Brain waves are slower after large meals, taller and faster during prayer and in fasting states. Excessive fats of all kinds contribute to mental fogginess.
g. Keep a program of study of new things constantly going. The stretching of the mind to understand the Bible and to memorize portions of it represents the best single mental exercise.
Avoid excesses in all pleasurable pursuits. Over stimulation of sensory nerves sets up a condition causing forgetfulness.
i. Avoid smoking. Smokers have been shown to have poorer memories.
j. Train the mind to dwell on heavenly themes. It is a law of the mind that it assumes the level of those things which occupy it.
We are preparing to leave, but before I go I wanted to share this informative safety tip with you all.
Before I went back to work part-time, my husband would always fill the van up with gas for me. Now, I do it because I'm out more than I used to be. Just last week when stopping for gas, it occurred to me that I should probably lock my doors because I decided I to leave my purse in the passenger seat while fueling up. Also, since learning that it's not safe to have your cell phone on you while pumping gas, I no longer keep that in my coat pocket now, but rather leave it unattended in the van, near my purse. After watching this video clip, it just confirms that I was doing the right thing. To be even safer, I'll be placing my purse out of sight rather than leaving it in the passenger seat, in the future.
2) The research on fluoride and the brain has been fueled by recent human studies from China finding elevated levels of fluoride exposure to be associated with reduced cognitive ability (e.g. reduced I.Q.) in children.
3) The impact of fluoride on children's IQ has been documented even after controlling for children's lead exposure, iodine exposure, parental education and income status, and other known factors that might impact the results (Xiang 2003 a,b).
4) A recent UNICEF-sponsored study reported that in areas of China with endemic iodine deficiency, fluoride exposure during childhood significantly exacerbated the neurological deficits produded by iodine deficiency.
5) The findings of neurological effects in fluoride-exposed humans is consistent with, and strengthened by, recent findings from over 30 animal studies published since 1992. As with the studies on humans, the studies on animals have reported an impairment in learning and memory prorcesses among the fluoride-treated groups.
6) The animal studies have also documented considerable evidence of direct toxic effects of fluoride on brain tissue, even at levels as low as 1 ppm fluoride in water (Varner 1998). These effects include:
-- reduction in nicotinic acetylcholine receptors;
-- reduction in lipid content;
-- impaired anti-oxidant defense systems;
-- damage to the hippocampus;
-- damage to the purkinje cells;
-- increased uptake of aluminum;
-- formation of beta-amyloid plaques (the classic brain abnormality in Alzheimer's disease);
-- exacerbation of lesions induced by iodine deficiency; and
-- accumulation of fluoride in the pineal gland.
KEEP READING...
This is a lecture by Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception. Here, he summarizes the contents of his book, which explains how genetically modified foods cause health problems and their potential for creating a vast array of unforeseen and surprising illnesses. He also sheds light on how the corruption within the U.S. government, the FDA, and the GMO industry has allowed, and perpetuated, the cover-up.
The video is somewhat lengthy, but if you are concerned about this issue, you won't want to miss it.
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