Adventures in NRT and diet change

So as many of you know I've been dealing with chronic pain, inflammation, fatigue, and fogginess over the last few years.  I'm starting a new approach in healing my body and hopefully this will fix the problems that I'm facing once and for all.

NRT=Nutrition Response Testing.  It is an alternative medicine approach to finding the root causes of your ailments and using whole food supplements to help your body heal itself.  My assessment with Dr. P showed things that I had suspected but that all previous testing had shown to be "within normal range".   I have low thyroid function, severely compromised adrenal function, a high level of residual mercury, and an intolerance to sugars. All of which combine to create the above symptoms.

So with that I've been given a few supplements to help my thyroid and adrenals begin to function normally again, a detox supplement to rid my body of the mercury, and been told to strictly limit my sugars. To start with I'm cutting out all processed sugar even more than I already have. i.e. no cane sugar at all, no corn syrup  HFCS or otherwise, no sugar processed from anything not whole.  I can still have honey, maple syrup, and whole fruit but not fruit juice. FOR NOW.  After a few weeks of doing this if I don't show improvement I will have to cut back/cut out those as well.

Today is what I'm considering DAY ONE even though I started the supplements last Thursday.  My food intake so far has been egg salad, a sourdough English muffin, some Greek yogurt with fresh strawberries, and my coffee with honey and cream.  Pretty darn good if I do say so myself, especially considering the fact that there are 3 HUGE bags of Easter candy sitting on my dining room table.

I haven't quite decided what I'm making for dinner tonight. Probably pork chops. Cinnimon Apple chops for everyone else, plain salt and pepper for me.

Anyone out there do "low sugar/no sugar" diets? WITHOUT using artificial sweeteners which I will not eat?  I'd love some tips and tricks!

I am a birth art addict!

I don't normally go in for blog giveaways, but one of the blogs I follow just put up one of the coolest pieces as a give away that I've ever seen!!  It speaks to me in so many ways, and feeds my addiction to birth art of all kinds.

Nicole over at Bellies and Babies is giving away a scuplutre similar to this one:

From Deb at Mudd Puppy Pottery!

I would soooo love to have this or many of her other awesome pieces!!  So in order to get another entry in the giveaway here I am blogging about this beautiful piece of art! 

Crossing my fingers! Oh and since you made it this far, follow the links above and enjoy both of these lady's works for yourself.

38 years now what?

So last year I wrote a pretty good post on my birthday thinking about where I've come from and where I plan on going.  Looking back at this last year I have managed to meet some of the goals I've set for myself and I feel pretty good about it!

The most important of them for me was finishing my Labor Doula training and beginning to attend births.  I have had such amazing experiences so far on this journey.  It has been a true honor to be a part of the miracle of birth in all it's forms.  I've been witness to a baby born drug free while mom used hypnosis, twins born virtually unassisted at home, and a baby born via a cesarean! I've expanded my knowledge and my network tenfold it seems in the last year.  Each and every family that invited me into their lives has been a blessing to me. I can only hope that I've been able to give back to them as much as they have given to me.

While I LOVE being a doula I am feeling more and more called to midwifery as a profession.  The last few months I've been reading like crazy trying to "know" as much as I can about birth in order to be better informed and prepared to support my doula clients.  All of this reading keeps reinforcing the feeling in my heart that I am meant to do more than I am to help women have the births they want.  So to that end I'm working slowly on obtaining the text books I need, getting in on as many teaching moments as are offered locally, and looking for ways to expand my knowledge in preparation for taking classes to become a midwife sometime in the near future.  That timing is still up in the air a bit though.

With Marc actually having finished his Bachelors Degree this past fall he is actively looking for work back East. (East of the Rockies and South of the Mason/Dixon line if you please)  Where we land will have a lot to do with how I go ahead with my schooling, and if I go to nursing school or midwifery school. The midwifery laws very so much from state to state that it really does make a HUGE difference.  This factor has also ruled out a few places that we could have looked for work, but due to the fact that home births are illegal I won't live in those locations. (I.E. Illinois, Kentucky, and North Carolina to name a few)

So the next step for me is to work hard on getting my writing/blogging etc in order. I've applied to be a content writer to a couple of websites, and I hope to get some writing gigs to help finance my doula practice!  And to that end I also need to finish my website and continue networking in order to bring in clients consistently for my practice. So IF you know of anyone expecting a baby in August or beyond have them surf on over to my availability calender and doula profile on Doula Match and contact me for an interview!

In August I hope to go to instructor training for Dancing For Birth up in Seattle in order to expand my offerings and bring in a bit more revenue.  I truly think I'd enjoy teaching this type of childbirth prep class, and it is very very hard to work as a doula full time financially.  So many people have no idea what I do still, AND don't realize the value of hiring me.  So until those things change I won't be able to make a living at just doing births.  I've got some other ideas of how to add value to my practice without adding a lot more time consuming work. We shall see if they pan out or not.

This year has other exciting ventures ahead as well. A trip home with the whole family, training for a 5k, Marc training to do the Portland Triathlon, lot's of camps and hopeful enjoying the Oregon countryside as much as possible.