Quick end of the day report. When it came to live foods, I didn't hit one. Wow. Obviously, that will be my focus tomorrow.

I live in a house where the well water is full of sulfur pockets. The landlord figured out that the water softener is not working, and this powerful nasty stench is oozing out of all my drains. It's overpowering. Tonight, I sleep with the windows open again- I have got the kids at Dad's house for the night, and I am grateful nothing is scheduled for work tomorrow.

I could easily get lost in work and isolate myself from adults tomorrow. I think I will also make it a priority to get to a gentle yoga class. I will hear from the apartment complex tomorrow (the final approval.) I don't think it will be a problem. I am actually looking forward to moving. This time, I think I will stay put for awhile.

Eeek, tired brain. Better blog next time.

It's Monday and I feel great. I finally got that food checklist up on the fridge. I keep the genotype food lists in the kitchen within easy reach. It really does make it much easier to track and choose food wisely.

Two whole grain waffles with peanut butter
Two glasses of water
1 small cup of coffee
blueberries, vanilla yogurt, brewer's yeast, blackstrap molasses
1 more small cup of coffee with soy milk

I taught Pilates this morning. Felt great. It is always so nice to hear the ladies say "Thank you." I am also beginning to see some of them improve. The flow of the class, the concentration on breathing, stretching and strengthening wakes everyone up and frees the mind of clutter.

I had a decision weighing on the back of my mind. After class, I instantly knew the answer. It is interesting, how well we can assimilate data AFTER exercise.

Got lots to do this morning. Hopefully, I will be able to report the rest of the day's food choices before going to bed. You don't have to be a gourmet cook to eat in a healthy way. Take care everyone.

Stand in the rain.....
Stand your ground.....

A song on the radio has hit home. Once again, I have so many choices this morning. On impulse, I hired an inspector to look at the mold in my basement. He found over seven different types just through a visual inspection, let alone taking the time to really crawl around and scrape different samples off of the walls. This particular path is clear. It is time to move, once again.

It was very disheartening at first. I love my little place in the country. But this little place is not safe when it is closed up due to cold weather. Breathing mold spores in can cause serious damage long term. How ironic. I care so much about prevention. I preach about how our choices and what we put into our bodies create our long term consequences. Ooops. I forget to look at what we breathe into ourselves.

The world is throwing more interesting choices at me once again. I just got a call from the owner of a local health food store. He wants me to work at his place, Vitamins N More. Earlier, I was searching so diligently. I wanted to work at a place which centered around what matters to me most. Now I have realized something. I have those three things in my life. They just aren't conveniently located in the same place. Heartland and the local Y represent God, AFAA represents the exercise, and now the health food store provides organic nutrition?

I wasn't going to call back at first. How do I balance family time into all of this? Heck, when do I get a day off? But maybe, I will figure it out after I start. Maybe the world is reaching out. I recently received encouragement from a female role model. Maybe, just maybe, things are falling into place.

Back to the mold problem for just a moment. I slept with my window open last night. I felt fine. Snow has arrived, and I closed up the house once again. Now, as I type this, I am feeling dizzy. The landlord's septic system failed last month. He had it pumped and is waiting for spring to arrive so he can fix it. Meanwhile, the mold inspector thought he smelled sewer gas when he first walked into my house. Crap. My home base is toxic.

I am going to have to tangle with the landlord. Oh well. More later....

It was great to visit family. It is also great to be back in my little place again. My mother really makes an effort to adjust for us. Rainbow colored fruit, veggies, and Shelton's Turkey dogs were ready and available for us to eat. We also went out to a local Chinese Palace which has a great fresh stir fry buffet. Just pick and choose your veggies, meat, etc, and they will cook it up fresh for you. We chose to skip the 'fry' part because I suspected their oils were all avoids. But we ate everything we could in site: raw. The rice noodles were previously cooked and cold. My little guy didn't seem to mind.

There are a ton of chemicals in every buffet, unfortunately- but you can at least get a great mix of color and avoid most of that fake butter stuff. (Yuck,- it looks gloppy and disgusting anyway!)

I ate a lot of sushi, kiwi, strawberries, pineapple, etc. Broccoli too, I think. My nine year old ate pizza, of course. Luckily, he likes Kiwi so I loaded him up on that. When on vacation, one just has to relax a little. Someday, I still hope to live in an area with an organic buffet! I think trader joe's might have one. I have visited Trader Joe's in Wisconsin once.

One step at a time.
Balance.

My subconscious must be processing something. There is no reason why I should be awake. The normal coffee consumption was decreased, and I am actually lacking sleep from being up the night before. Extreme exercise, of course, could be contributing to this. Last Saturday, I participated in a 12 mile trail race with a last minute weather shift. Everybody who ran that particular race felt 'off.' Salt streaked faces were everywhere!

A good friend of mine, asked everyone to wear orange bandannas as a way to support her father. He is dying of lung cancer. It is his time, and every day he still breathes is a blessing and a gift. She is dealing with her grief by staying busy and by giving. The "coyotes (our trail running group) was happy to support her. Over 50 of us wore those orange bandannas as a way to say "We care."

As a read Dr. D's blogs, I am reminded again of how much research and time he has put into the philosophy "Let food be your medicine." Thanks to my children being out of school this week (Spring Break), I chose to take the week off from work. This will allow me the time to repost those wonderful food lists back up on my fridge. One day a week really should be spent planning meals and organizing recipes. As time is limited, I think a good old fashoined recipe box organized to reflect days of the week will be placed back on my kitchen counter. It feels good to be grounded again.

I can't remember what I have last written. But to sum it up simply and sweetly: What is my net worth after all of the bills are paid? Will I be able to earn enough to support the boys and I ? What are the tax consequences of this divorce? When can I get myself back into counseling so I can speed the healing process? Will I be able to stick to my principles now that the chaos has settled down?

It is easy to lean on the church when you are miserable. Now, that I feel a little better, I want to continue to 'run' to church, to community in order to learn. Interestingly enough, for the first time in months, I did not make it to church last weekend. It was an accident-- playing, studying, working, etc. I am now wondering what message did I miss and does it apply?

Luckily, Heartland sells the weeks message on a simple audio CD. The first priority after breakfast today is to run to that store and pick up last weeks message. We can listen to it in the car while we drive to my folks house for a family visit. Before breakfast, the priority is to get those pages back up on that fridge!

I also will return to my weekly checklist. It's pretty easy. Weekly servings are typed up in all food categories. After I eat something, I simply check it off. Rainbow colors are added to the list. Back on track.

The current job: I have been promoted! Hooray! I am now officially a "Presenter" for AFAA. I will teach brand new instructors how to safely lead an exercise class. If I could teach people how to eat correctly (cook, garden, etc.), then that would really be a great combination. The ND goal is still a dream, but it will have to wait. I must feed my boys on more than wishes and dreams.

My Autistic child is really struggling with the change in routine and our unpredictable schedule. The solution is so simple (he is high functioning, by the way.) I am going to make a checklist and hand it to him. When all of the chores have been checked off, then we are going to leave town and travel to see grandparents. The list being checked will help him predict our expected departure time.

Wow, what a goofy day. I woke up at 2 a.m. groggy and unable to sleep. I putzed around, got a little more studying done, then off to the Y to teach a class and train a client. By 7:30 a.m. I had driven to my second destination to teach Pilates Ballet. No one showed up and I was actually grateful. Came back home and studied a bit more. Then I realized that my system was way off.

Waking up at 2 a.m. is called overtraining. Too much exercise yesterday without enough down time to recover. I ate well (tomatoes, eggs onion garlic, curry, ezekiel bread, watermelon, grapes, etc.) Then I felt light headed and extremely tired. (Did I mention sore?) I took a nap, and to my horror, discovered that 45 minutes later, I had grown a dark black curly hair on the tip of my chin.

Seriously, it grew within 45 minutes. I promptly cut if off, and reminded myself to check on hormone levels and side effects of....... Wow. Still felt woozy. Kids were coming home. I drank a little coffee (not much) and then took care of them for several hours.

Six year old is still dealing with chronic constipation. Another accident, but very small. I really must make time to research all possible causes. He is gluten free and lactose free, but something is obviously still wrong. He will sit down with encouragement, but he just doesn't seem to recognize the need until it is almost too late. Will I use the traditional method of cleaning him out? Or will I use a more natural approach? Decaf coffee, apricots, etc.

I had to take a second power nap. Crash. Now I feel better. But there was no getting around it. I am craving grape juice and will continue to fill up on that for the rest of tonight. I also experienced side cramps. Those haven't happened in quite awhile.

Ok, get through this test. Big race this weekend, which I am running just for fun. Spring Break next weekend, time to play with kids and visit family. There is actually money in the budget to get back to the ND, and I still have insurance for the moment. The lab is expecting me for bloodwork because I wanted to see if a traditional blood draw would reveal some of the same things that Dr. Julia discovered. (Low calcium, anemic, etc.) We will see.

My day looks something like this:

Up at 5:00 a.m.
Breakfast for kids and I:

organic cheerios
grapes
watermelon
organic chicken sausage
grape juice
vanilla soymilk
coffee
probiotic
vegetarian iron

Make lunch for celiac child
millet bread
chicken sausage
juice box

Drive kids to two different schools:

Spoke to nurse. She thinks Sean may have encophresis (forgive misspelling) on top of everything else. I looked it up--- symptoms make sense. I will have to follow up on that through research....

Drove to the Y: got a little paperwork done (big test Sunday) - substitute "cardio madness". Great people- good workout. Talked to a friend about fighting her high cholesterol through genotype diet. She is an O, and yes she is trying to make small adjustments at a time.

Drove home: I need to finish chores I have at home which are only half done. Afternoon will consist of focusing on my childs homework- then Dad picks them up by 5:30 and I zoom back to the Y to teach Pilates. Teaching for two hours a day is not normal for me. Just one of those slightly overpacked days. I will come home, finish anything I didn't get done before.....

Need to eat brocolli sprouts, some kind of grain (Ezekiel whole grain I think) , need yellow, orange, brown and blue. Get to sleep early, because I teach again at 6 a.m. tomorrow.

I think the next few blogs will literally just be my menu for the day. Take care everyone. !

Leftover rice, onions, garlic, sea salt, tumeric and mustard, parsley
leftover scrambled eggs
Strawberry/blueberry soup with blackstrap molasses

broccoli sprouts, mozeralla cheese, organic baby carrots, whole grain rye crackers...

leftover millet bread, torn into crouton like pieces, thyme, tumeric, and curry--- fried up in olive oil til crisp

Coffee
vanilla soymilk

My diet is a mix of the old standard A blood type diet and that of a teacher.

Which rainbow colors did I hit?

Roy G Biv...

Red: strawberries
Orange: carrots
Yellow: cheese
Green: sprouts
Blue: blueberries
Indigo:
Violet:

Misc colors: brown and white. I will take the kids to the store tonight. Small stores work best for us. Each will have a short tablet of paper which lists breakfast, lunch, dinner and ROY G BIV.

When I am alone, then some day I will visit the store and stock up on essential pantry items (without them!). But letting them choose both teaches and encourages compliance. The trick is finding those small grocery stores, even if the price is a little bit more. Sensory information from grocery stores can easily overwhelm anyone

Breathe. Open my eyes. Smell the fresh air of spring. Feel my heartbeat relax in my chest.

It's over.

I can feel my body shift from the fight or flight syndrome into the relaxed and balance state all teachers crave. How appropriate that spring is around the corner............

I am finally divorced.

Finances are stable,the parenting schedule is in place, and there is a new job on the horizon. It was an awful road and I more than glad it is over.

I have missed this website terribly. I will always firmly believe in preventative versus reactive. Interestingly enough, I will lose medical insurance in May. I am left wondering.... is this a sign? Is it finally time for me to dive more fully into healing my body from within and preferably before a problem arises?

I don't know. The new job is centered around teaching health and fitness principles to brand new instructors. It will be wonderful. I will be able to teach others how to safely instruct the general population on basic exercise principles. That is definately prevention in my book. I also get to travel and a see a little bit more of the world. Who knows, maybe I will eventually make it to Dr. D's clinic on behalf of work!

There is a small sign posted on my fridge: It's a simple scale with God/Family/Work on the top and Sleep/Nutrition/Exercise on the bottom. One could argue that nutrition is more important than sleep, but I seriously suspect it is about equal in my case.

I didn't ignore Dr. D's principles during this struggle. But I certainly wasn't able to focus on it. I pledge to come back and blog nightly.

Let's talk about my disappointment with my supplements for a moment. The current ND I visit is a big Dr. D fan, but she has chosen a company named "Standard Process Inc." I was prescribed Vasculin, Parotid, and Super EFF. Ingredients include:

bovine heart extract, nutritional yeast, veal bone extract, rice bran, bovine liver fat extract, etc, etc....

There are many more ingredients. I just didn't want to list them all. The good news: my skin improved. I notice immediately.

The bad news: I broke out in hives. My body does not like something. And as I took these supplements as directed, the hives got worse. I am upset because I paid for these supplements, and I don't know if I can get my money back. (Probably not.)

Now, I can't help but think: Bovine. That's cow, isn't it? I am pretty certain that is not in my beneficial or neutral catgory. Gosh darn it. Stress has really played a number on my system.

I dealt with an additional problem (it's a little personal- no details this time) and I went to the traditional doctor twice. After two rounds of different types of medications, I finally went back to the health food store and tried something else. I will find out if it works within the next seven days. If it works, I will talk about it then. Geeze Louise.

I did draw up a new budget, and I think I will dedicate 100 dollars a month to my Naturopathic Doctor. I will be much more hesitant to buy supplements, however. She is an O, by the way, and is probably not as familiar with what A's might require. Or.... now here is a wild thought, --- maybe I will just save that money-- and put it toward Dr. D's conference. It gets so frustrating. I know the diet well, but I do not know how to assess my system well enough. I also exercise much more than the average person. My requirements are different.

There is an inexpensive ND degree through a reputable online college. The total cost is only 3,000 dollars. But, I am not at liberty to spend that on myself right now. The next step is to buy a small house or condo for my boys and I. Right now, I am renting a little house in the country and I absolutely love it. But it is expensive and not realistic to stay here. I so wish I could.