New Year, New YOU!

     Well, that's a deceiving title. I don't know if there will be a NEW YOU in 2015, but I do know there will be a NEW ME!
     I love fresh starts, do-overs, blank pages. I am a writer, after all, and there's nothing more inspiring than a new page to start a new story. I've been thinking a lot about my New Year's post, mostly because last year I was in Sierra Leone and coming off of one of the worst years in my life. I didn't write a New Year's post. I was in a not-so-good place. 2013 was a crappy year — one I KNEW I didn't want to repeat. 
     Yet, I was afraid to write down a thing. Because, you see, 2013 started on a very positive note. And it just got worse and worse until it ended in what seemed like an abyss of darkness. I could hardly bear the thought of writing out goals and starting out a positive note when so much "could" go wrong. 
     So I started out wrong. I cried at my annual doctor appointment in January, and I moped around in self pity for a few months. I became my own worst enemy. I didn't mean to; it just kind of happened gradually.
     Then I decided that if I wanted God to answer my prayers, I better use the brain He gave me to make better choices. 
     He made it clear before I began that it all hinged on one thing. Get over the pity party. God reminded me that He loved me in the miserable, pathetic place where I was living, and before I did anything, I better love the girl in the mirror. Because He did. And so did my husband. It was time for my most important choice of all. LOVE MYSELF JUST AS I AM, NO STRINGS ATTACHED, KNOWING SHE MIGHT NEVER CHANGE A BIT. 
     Just like that, I did. A few months into what appeared to be the crappy start to another crappy year, I set my goal. My one goal. 
     In April/May, I decided I was going to take the best care of myself that I humanly could and make the best choices I was financially and practically able to make to be the healthiest me. After all, I am charged with taking care of the body God gave me, the one He calls His temple. I was so used to taking care of everyone else first that it was a big adjustment, but I didn't want to miss another holiday. I had spent Halloween in bed in 2013 because it happened to be one of the 3-6 days a month that I was so sick I couldn't function.
     2014 was a mixed year. There were challenges, still, like there had been the year before. But I learned so much, mostly that while the bad years suck, they are the ones where I grow the most. The bad times are when I find myself learning more about myself and realizing just how faithful God is, as crazy as that sounds. He speaks more and more when I am hurting, sad and desperate. And that part is actually good, and my growth is also worth celebrating. 
     It also helps me remember that the accomplishments and memories during these times are that much better. 
     In 2014, I had insomnia, but I wrote a book. I had pain, but I found Isagenix. I was hurt by people I loved, but God proved He's all I'll ever need. I spent many days in bed sick, but the chains of illness were broke forever. I felt shadows of depression and then learned the way to true JOY through my Savior.
     I COULD focus on all the crappy things that happened. Or I can chose to see all the wonderful things God did in the midst of the muck and mire. That's just how good He is, that He does care very much about our hurting and suffering. Amazing character growth can come through it, and He certainly cares about that. But mostly He just wants us to cling to Him.
     Some people say we shouldn't relive the past, but I learned a lot last year, so I'd like to take those lessons forward!
     Things I did in 2014 that I want to repeat in 2015: 
     1. Fuel my body with health foods. Isagenix was by FAR the best thing in my year. I kept trying and trying and failing with better and organic foods. Nothing even came close. I'm so grateful for the healthy products I'm putting in my and my family members' bodies — and in my baby's body.
     2. More spas. I'm so thankful for my friend Jan and the spa she did for me. This has been a fabulous tool to show the LOVE of Jesus to girls and moms in a world that sees Jesus as punitive and monstrous.
     3. Write a book. I have the idea and concept for another one, and I'm praying God will show me how to publish the first one! Maybe it's just to my blog, or maybe just to the women and girls who go through the spa. I'd love for Him to show me the way.
     
     "New" goals for the new year:
     4. Spend more quality time with family. Homeschooling and working from home means we're constantly in each others' hair, but it doesn't mean we spend "quality" time together. I want to be more intentional with my family! This will be more important than ever with baby No. 3 on the way this summer.
     5. Build my Isagenix business. By the grace of God, our products are paid for, so that's HUGE and I'm grateful for it. But we do need a car because Dan can't fit four in his truck. I have specific financial goals, and I'm praying that Isagenix is the answer because not only does it help us, but the nutrition is freeing so many of my loved ones from food addictions and enabling them to eat healthier than ever before! My specific goals are to buy an inexpensive used car by May and have an income of $500 a month over and above for myself. By the end of the year, my goal is $5,000 a month. Sound crazy? I'm totally motivated to help my friends Rick and Paula Miller — missionaries who lost a lot of funding and need to get back home to Sierra Leone as soon as possible. I'm trusting God to make the impossible possible! Having more money to give is another one of the best things about Isagenix!! 
     6. Sell our house and downsize our mortgage. This goes along with No. 5. If we can shave $500 off our mortgage, it will allow us to afford baby no. 3 AND have more to give!

     Things I did in 2014 I hope to never do again: 
     7. Obsess over homeschool. I'm attending the conference and finding a more managable online school for the next school year. All this planning, grading and curriculum design is NOT my thing!
     8. Keep my house meticulous. That means our house needs to sell and soon. I don't like living in a museum state, chasing dust bunnies and getting OCD about crumbs on the floor. I'd like to move on to things that matter!
    9. Overcommit. I am learning boundaries and more about this two-letter word NO. It might require loads of therapy, but I hear using this word can be done! 
    10. Spend a week in a beach house with extended family. Thanks for the memories! A repeat is not necessary. I actually just threw this in because it's funny. It really wasn't that bad. There was a beach after all. Did I mention the beach was LOADED with the stinkiest seaweed, interspersed with six-foot mounds of seaweed? It was like a metaphor for how we felt sharing that space. I'm kidding. We loved every minute of it. There are seaweed sculptures — and photos — to prove it.  

   

Why I gave up coffee

I started a new journey to better health about six months ago after another emotional meeting with my physician, but I hesitated to write about it as I began because I wasn't exactly sure about what I was doing and whether it was "right."

What I've learned in this short time frame is significant, but mostly I realized it was time to start looking at issues so objectively. The reality is if I want to keep drinking coffee, I can find dozens of articles with claims supporting the benefits of coffee. I needed to find and do what was best for me, and I needed to get off the fence about some issues that could be beneficial to my health and extend myself grace on others.

As such, many women I know are struggling for answers to complicated and painful health issues. I hope by writing about what has worked for me, it might be of use to someone! But mostly, I think we need to recognize that not everyone's body is the same. Our struggles certainly aren't the same, but our need for better health, better nutrition and inspiration is the tie that binds us! I hope to provide good, accurate information to fulfill all three of those needs. 

The very first step I took long before I made any other decisions was prompted by some studies my husband was reading about coffee -- one of my favorite beverages. Actually, it was all I drank outside of water.

But then Dan discovered coffee was specifically linked to endometriosis, the most debilitating of my conditions that had me at the end of my rope and desperate for anything that would help me avoid surgery.

I'm not one to take someone's word for it (I blame the reporter in me...pray for my husband!), so I did some digging of my own. Here's what I found:

According to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, women who have two or more cups of caffeinated coffee (or four cans of cola) per day were found to be twice as likely to develop endometriosis as other women.

Not only that, by caffeine was linked to worsening fibromyalgia symptoms by interrupting healthy sleep patterns (I had recently been suffering from insomnia) which is a big factor in minimizing the painful symptoms of fibromyalia, according to a Norwegian study published in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.

Why stop there? Web MD says if used excessively, caffeine can be too stimulating and cause anxiety, sleep problems, muscle twitching, or abdominal pain. I have suffered from anxiety and problems caused from it since I was a child. I was recently caught in sleeplessness that was doing a number on my mind, not to mention my body. And I've suffered from abdominal pain since giving birth to my second child.

It seemed rather conclusive. Coffee was not my friend, even though I am rather fond of it! 

Initially I switched to very diluted green tea, which I noticed right off the bat leaves a much thicker, harder to remove residue in my coffee pot. It made me a bit concerned about what it was doing to my insides, and I've never fully researched the benefits of green tea. I've only heard people say that green tea is "good for you." I have no idea if that's true. Eventually I got off the green tea, but I'll write about that later. 

The one health problem I worried about most in giving up coffee was my migraines, which were leaving me in bed at least one and up to three days a month. With a migraine, I cannot read, talk or even watch television. Not exactly how I want to spend my time. 

I had always assumed that coffee was "good" for my headaches. 

According to Web MD, that is true. Caffeine is a common ingredient in many prescription and over-the-counter headache medications. Caffeine additives make pain relievers 40 percent  more effective in treating headaches. Caffeine also helps the body absorb headache drugs more quickly, bringing faster relief. By adding caffeine and, in turn, taking less medication, you can reduce the risk for potential side effects and possible drug addiction.

But what I learned recently was that even though I no longer drink caffeine, it still works quite effectively if I have a headache. In fact, it may work better. 

I had a migraine just a few weeks ago, after giving up all caffeine and making lots of other changes. Ibuprofen wasn't working, and I didn't have my migraine medicine with me. I was on my way to a date night with my husband to see a Cardinals game, and I really, really did not want a migraine to interfere. 

We stopped at a gas station and I bought a 12-ounce can of Coke. I drank it fast with a second dose of ibuprofen. Since I never drink caffeine, I think it definitely made the caffeine more effective. Headache was gone within minutes! 

I did have a three-day headache when I stopped drinking green tea, and it was a pretty rough three days, but I combined it with a 30-day cleanse. By day four of the cleanse, I felt so much better. 

More on the cleanse coming up in another blog post....