Something's Gotta Change!

So here we are, feeling all confident and cocky.  We eat well.  I cook from scratch nearly everyday, using only organic, whole foods, make our own treats and guard the proverbial junk food gate!  Now we do indulge in "junk" foods regularly.  We eat out about once a week, grab the occasional Chick-fil-a meal on our busy days on the road and if we are invited to a party or to someone's home, we eat what we are offered.  You know, all in moderation and keeping in line with the basic 80/20 rule.  So, we should be relatively healthy, right?  

On the surface it would seem so.  No one in my family suffers from any chronic or major illnesses or has any debilitating or irreversible damage to their body.  Even when I look around and compare my children to their peers and us adults to ours, measured through the rosy glasses of "it's all relative," it seems we are doing really well.  What I am quickly learning is that lack of illness does not always equal health. 

Over the past couple of years, and ramping up quite precipitously in the last six months or so, all of my family members have been complaining of some minor issue or another.  The breaking point were cavities that one of my children is fighting.  There is one cavity in the same tooth in each quadrant of this child's mouth.  This is not a "spreading" cavity, it must be systemic.  I do a little research and learn that your teeth are connected to the systems in your body.  These teeth represent the waste disposal areas of the body.  I also find this book, Cure Tooth Decay, and give it a good read.  We decided to put these suggestions into practice and we get great results, cavities clear up, teeth re-mineralize and child is feeling better.  Then they return.  A few bouts of this back and forth and I am overwhelmed and exhausted.  That's when I decide, Something's Gotta Change!  But What? How? How Long? 

In order to answer these questions, I've got to take an inventory of exactly what is wrong, what are our problem areas, what do we want to change about our health.  Then I have to make a list of results we are hoping for.   Lastly, what are we willing to do, give up, and/or change to see this results?  So I started writing down our "problem areas" (and the list grows as I continue thinking about it):

• Acne (face, neck, back)
• Anxiety
• Athletes foot
• Bags under eyes
• Body aches
• Broken bones
• Cavities
• Constipation
• Depression
• Eczema
• Fungus
• Headaches 
• Hemorrhoids
• Herniated  disks
• Hypothyroid
• Intestinal parasites
• Itchy, scaly scalp
• Moodiness 
• Muscle spasms
• Respiratory congestion, seasonal
• Restless, incomplete sleep/Tiredness
• Sore joints
• Stiff neck
• Uterine fibroids
• Warts
• Weight gain

Well, I mean, when you sit back and look at it like that, it doesn't look so pretty.  I kinda feel like how Chris Rock describes a person watching a pharmaceutical commercial.

(WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT!!!  Not suitable for work or around children, but damn funny)

If there is any one thing that is going to help my family overcome these health obstacles, I want that!  But we all know there is no magic pill.  We are going to have to work and probably work hard.  Which leads me to what we are willing to do to achieve this.  For me, that answer is easy.  Anything that will not overtly or covertly harm, threaten or deteriorate our health.  That takes conventional medicine right out of the running.  It also removes most "diet" plans.  Building upon what I already know and a few things I have recently learned, I know we are going to have to do a major lifestyle overhaul.
In my next post, I will talk about what we have decided to do about all this.  Stay tuned!