Physical Problems = Psychological Roots?

"It is estimated that 90 percent of all physical problems have psychological roots.  That may sound like a gross exaggeration.  In fact, it's probably a conservative estimate.  A growing body of evidence indicates that virtually every ill that can befall the body - from acne to arthritis, headaches to heart disease, cold sores to cancer - is influenced, for better or worse, by our emotions. (Quoted from The Complete Guide to Your Emotions And Your Health p.563 by Emrika Padus and the editors of Prevention Magazine.)

What do you think?

Shortly after my journey towards a more plant based way of eating I read and interesting article written by my cousin Trent Jessee called "The Effect of Thought on Health & Body".  He quoted a great deal of the book "As A Man Thinketh".  This is a book to which I'm sure many of us are familiar with.  He quotes:

Disease and health, like circumstances, are rooted in thought. Sickly thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body. Thoughts of fear have been known to kill a man as speedily as a bullet, and they are continually killing thousands of people just as surely though less rapidly. The people who live in fear of disease are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body, and lays it open to the entrance of disease; while impure thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will soon shatter the nervous system.

Strong, pure, and happy thoughts build up the body in vigor and grace. The body is a delicate and plastic instrument, which responds readily to the thoughts by which it is impressed, and habits of thought will produce their own effects, good or bad, upon it.

Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food.

If you would perfect your body, guard your mind. If you would renew your body, beautify your mind. Thoughts of malice, envy, disappointment, despondency, rob the body of its health and grace. A sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts. Wrinkles that mar are drawn by folly, passion &  pride.

After reading this article, it sparked something inside of me.  Actually, it rang so true to me that I knew what the key to my success on my journey to better health would be.  It would be tapping into my heart. The heart?  Why not the mind? Don't we control our thoughts first, and then that will control our heart or what we feel? Karol Truman, in her book Feelings Buried Alive Never Die states:

Control begins, first of all, with our feelings -- what we feel, and what we feel controls our thoughts --  what we think, and that leads to how we perform -- to our actions.  BUT ALL CONTROL BEGINS WITH TAKING CONTROL OF THE FEELINGS WE HOLD IN OUR HEART, because these feelings determine the thoughts we hold in our conscious mind.

I'm not going to lie.  This stuff is hard hitting.  I knew I needed to make some BIG changes deep inside my heart.  For years, I'd held onto hurt feelings, blame and anger.  I think we all do, to some degree, whether we realize it or not.  We each know our own hearts.  If we feel so confused that we don't know our hearts, or need help with our hearts, we can look to the scriptures for insights.  If you don't believe in God, or have a different belief system, it would be safe to say a healthy way of living is believing in a Source.  As we draw closer to our source, we receive answers and insights into our hearts.  I, however, believe in a Heavenly Father and in His Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost which reveals, to my heart, mind, and spirit, TRUTH.

Here are a few thoughts from the scriptures as to the power God has to help change our hearts or to reveal to us the things we must change in our hearts in order to find peace, happiness and joy.

"...The Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually."  Alma 5:2

"Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men" Isaiah 29:13

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

These are a just a few examples of the teachings of Christ, in which I studied and used to help cleanse my heart. As I drew near to God the Father and His Son, I felt the comforting power of them through the Holy Ghost.  I came to see me as God see's me.  It has been one of the most healing and rewarding experiences of my life.

I firmly believe that we each have our light.  We are each unique with no one else like us!  We have something to offer and as each of us let our lights shine, we create an incredible symphony.  There is no good in comparing ourselves to others.  There is no good in being jealous at the successes of others.  Our hearts heal when we recognize the beautiful talents, capabilities and light in others.  The more we compliment and rejoice in this, the lighter and happier we will feel.  I know this!  I work on this all the time! I haven't arrived :)

Another answer in my journey was to dismiss any negative thoughts about myself or others.  The second a thought of inadequacy or judgement entered my mind, I had to train it, exercise it and control it to dismiss that thought and replace it with a positive one.  My test was to do this in myself and then to take that out and exercise it when interacting with others.  A very special friend shared part of this quote with me and I cherish the words. 

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”  Marianne Williamson

Obviously when we glorify others and acknowledge the divine in them, and as we work on BEING the best we can be in thought and deed, we are letting God's light shine and in so doing, this will draw others to HIM.  As we draw closer to Him, He heals us. How wonderful that not only can we help ourselves heal, but we can bless the lives of so many, by simply letting our light shine and acknowledging the divine in others! This reminds me of this scripture:

“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

“Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:14–16.)

As my health has dramatically improved over the last couple of years, I would be so incredibly ungrateful if I didn't acknowledge that God answered every single prayer I uttered.  As I worked for years to control my weight, it wasn't until I worked on the deep, inner most parts of my soul, releasing anger, comparing, all that was unfair about my world, negativity and an unhealthy desire for worldly perfectionism that my health improved.  It has improved continually and I'm excited for what is in store as I continue down my path.  I absolutely believe that most of our physical problems are a result of emotions (energy in motion) that we carry and are unwilling to resolve or maybe we are afraid to.  I will leave you with this beautiful quote.  How true it is.

"The point of greatest resistance is often the place of greatest learning." Melody Beattie

Our Garden & How to Cook Beets

We put in several new 4x8 foot gardens in our backyard this year and I was anxious to see how they would do.  We planted swiss chard, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, black kale, green/red peppers, bush beans, and some herbs (parsley, basil and oregano).  Outside of our boxes, in flower beds we planted tomatoes, zucchini, squash, cabbage, eggplant, and leeks.  Here are some pictures of the garden in July.  We have just finished harvesting most of our garden.  The only thing left are a box that is half full of beets!  Below I have posted how to cook beets.  We love fresh beets with lemon on them.  They are super delish on salads!  I love them hot, after just cooking them.  Our peppers and broccoli didn't do so well this year :(  Everything else was beautiful!  I already miss my garden :(  Can't wait until next Spring to begin again!!

Above: This is my Mom's garden box.  Her box does so well every year.  It is in a different part of the yard than our other boxes.

 Lettuce

 Bush Beans

 Dan harvesting beans

 Swiss Chard.  They are small in this picture, they were huge when harvested!  We actually harvested them a little at a time...

 Carrots and Cilantro that went to seed :(

 Cabbage!!  They were huge!

 Black kale.  We found these were delicious harvested young.  As we let them grow, they got a billion little white bugs that were a pain to wash off!

Above: Swiss chard, aren't the colors beautiful?!!! I love it that they look like veins and all those nutrients flow through our veins.  Love it!

 Italian Parsley

 Beans

 Dill (loved this in dressings and fresh on our salads!)

 Our garden, my daughter Rachel running through the tomato plants :)

 Room to grow!!!

How To Cook Beets

Thoroughly scrub the outside of beets, removing tops.  Place beets in a large pot.  Add enough water to cover the bottom about an inch or two.  Place lid on top and turn to medium heat.  When the water in the bottom is boiling turn to medium low heat and let steam until the beats are soft.  I use a butter knife to test, if the knife enters the beet and feels soft, they are done!  Remove from heat and empty hot water, fill pot with cold water and let sit for a few minutes.  As you see below the skins are loose and easy to remove.  Cut off tops and slice or dice.  

*We like lemons juice over our beets, or plain.  

Planted and Blooming

My brother Matt and I at the Saddle of Timpanogos Peak

 August was an incredible month!  I'm sorry for my lack of posting but we had some great things planned as a family.  I'm anxious to start posting some great recipes again...

This month we had the opportunity to go with our two oldest girls to Moab.  Our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints holds an annual Girls Camp where all the girls, 12-18 in our ward (a specific area in our neighborhood) go for a 4 day camping trip.  This year we visited Moab, UT.  It is one of my new favorite places!  The red rock and amazing cliffs, are beyond beautiful!  We were able to visit Corona Arch as well as Delicate Arch (the arch featured on Utah's license plates).  We also were able to take a 6 hour river run down the Colorado River.  It was so much fun for Dan and I to spend some time with our girls.

Before this trip we contemplated how we would make it work eating a plant based diet.  We decided to pre make some granola bars (posting soon) and some granola for quick breakfasts.  We also brought along our own cooler with washed lettuce and apples/oranges.  We packed almonds and raisins as well as canned beans.  We brought bread and Adams Peanut Butter and honey for sandwiches.  Each day we would eat whatever fruits or veggies our ward provided.  We ate sandwiches for lunch and would excuse ourselves to eat a quick salad for dinner and then join our group.  I will say that Dan and I focus on eating a plant based diet, but sometimes it isn't always available to us!  We are not Vegan.  We love foods that are plant based, but we can't maintain the title of Vegan (eating NO meat or dairy at all).  Sometimes eating a little meat or dairy is unavoidable.  We found this to be true as some of our lettuce went bad the last day and ate what meals were provided the last day we were at camp.  Many people ask questions and I'm sure think we are completely weird and/or snobby about food, but that is NOT our intention.  We truly are finding an incredible treasure in eating this way and choose to maintain it.  We do not in any way judge or put down the way other choose to eat, because I truly believe there are many ways to maintain good health.  This is just the way we've chosen to eat and have found great happiness in doing so.

 Dan, Me, Hailey at Delicate Arch (above)

 Me at Corona Arch.

 Our Young Women's Group at Delicate Arch

 Hailey and I right before our river run.

Just recently we visited my Sister-In-Laws family cabin.   Every year my parents and 3 brothers and their families go on a camping trip.  This year we were excited and grateful to be able to go to the cabin where there is running water, flushable toilets and comfy beds!  It was so much fun!  I was able to go hiking up the back side of Timpanogos Mountain with my 3 brothers and my nephew.  It is a hike I truly LOVE!  It is about 14 miles round trip and extremely tough!  My 3 brothers are all in amazing shape, 2 of them eat plant based like me, making for fun conversation and lots of yummy dishes while at the cabin!  I always struggle to keep up with them and their endless energy.  I am so grateful that they include me in their hiking, as I hate hiking by myself.  It was a beautiful hike!!!  I have posted a few pictures of that hike.  As mentioned most of my family has switched over to eating plant based.  We had so much fun juicing and enjoying food while we were together!  My Mom made an amazing Vanilla Bean Frosting (found in the Forks Over Knives Cookbook) that we put on my Banana Bread.  We ate fresh salsa on crackers with cucumbers.  We had Carob Truffles, Tahini Casserole (made by my brother Matt), Veggie Lasagna, Taco's, Potato Curry and Naan.  We ate granola, and Oatmeal, fruit and spinach shakes for breakfast, huge salads with leftovers for lunches.  We had fresh peaches and yes, we even ate some junk food :)  It was so much fun spending time with my family!!!

I write this long post with the focus on one thing.  I have NEVER felt better!  I have NO struggles with eating food.  I don't feel guilty when I eat too much.  I don't feel guilty eating a little junk.  I feel relaxed and happy listening to my body.  I know when to stop eating because of how I feel.  I feel energized and so very happy!  I have never felt this way before.  I am so grateful to have found something that works for me.

About one week ago, my husband begged and pleaded for me to weigh myself.  I haven't weighed myself since February.  My focus has not been my weight but my health.  I want to listen to what my body tells me and my weight doesn't matter.  If you look at my very first post, you will notice that I make no reference to how much weight I've lost because I had no idea...until last week.  I gave in to peer pressure and got on the scale.  The number shocked me!  Was is really that easy to get there?  For years I have dieted and worked out hard to reach THE number on that scale only to have it vanish as I gave into cravings and battled my food addictions.  It is so HARD to lose weight until I decided to go plant based.  People often comment to me that I have amazing willpower.  This has NOTHING to do with willpower, for me.  Giving up meat and dairy (besides maybe cheese, ha ha!) was not hard to do.  I remember my cravings, I have the memory of them but I don't feel them like I did before I changed to a plant based way of life.  I am so excited about the number on that scale.  I don't think I'll weigh again, because I truly enjoyed not being shackled to that number.  For me, focusing on healing my body and mind is more vital than then number on that scale.  I feel amazing and hope that I can inspire others to research for themselves how to heal, lose weight, and have more energy by eating plants!  Thanks for reading!!

Now...back to posting!

 Sunrise on the Timp.

The view from the top of Timpanogos

It Began When...

For years, Dan, my husband, has bugged me about eating a plant based diet. This meant NOT eating meat and dairy. We tried it a few times but several things worried me each time. Some of the questions I had about eating plant based were; Am I getting enough protein? Will I lose weight and keep it off? Where is the variety?! It wasn't until we had been eating low carb on and off for several years that we became extremely frustrated with the constant weight loss and weight gain. The weight was never something we could keep off. We missed bread, beans and fruit. We were overwhelmed with counting everything...calories, fat, carbs, etc. Dan was also frustrated as he hit his highest weight ever! We noticed over the last year as our girls started to turn 11 and 13 that they were gaining weight because of our eating habits. We were frustrated. What were we doing wrong? What do we eat? We tried just eating a balanced diet. Still we would find ourselves giving into cravings. Dan fought the desire to even exercise. He was so tired. I had been exercising regularly for many years but could never keep the weight off. We would constantly ask ourselves, what should we do? We had to make changes.

Dan asked me to watch a documentary called "Forks Over Knives". I did...and...it changed my life. It didn't end there, in fact, it still hasn't ended. We believe in research. We believe in study. We believe in knowledge. We had been searching all along. Nothing fit, until now. This was just a few months ago and we decided to sit down with our 5 children and watch it together. We decided to cut out all meat and dairy (animal based foods) immediately. The first week was very difficult, mostly for the kids. We began searching for recipes that would work for our family. We created our own recipe book and started making notes about what worked and what didn't. As the weeks went by we watched a few more documentaries "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead", "The Beautiful Truth", "The Gerson Miracle", "Food Matters", "Food Inc." (We had seen this one about a year ago). We immediately ordered the book "The China Study". We were amazed that we had no knowledge of what we were doing to our bodies. We were amazed that from the time we were young we were told that in order to survive we had to have so many servings of dairy and meat every day. We were amazed that as children we were told of the importance of fluoride in our water and toothpaste (I had one doctor while living in Portland tell me that I had to give my children fluoride tablets if it wasn't in my water). All of it was unnecessary and in fact very dangerous. It is all funded and supported by BIG dairy and meat companies. There is a lot of money behind the food pyramid our government has issued. We then learned about The Gerson Therapy. How fascinating that you could heal yourself by what you ate. We ordered the book. We loved this book! We studied all we could about juicing and eating plant based foods. We studied all we could about eating raw. This wasn't something that sat well with us but as we studied we began to realize the importance of slow cooking, or cooking at low temperatures to ensure that we weren't losing the nutrients we needed in the foods we were eating. We read a few more interesting books, "The Ph Miracle", "Pleasure Trap", "The Engine 2 Diet". The one book that seemed to encompass many, if not all of the same ideas found in these books was "Eat to Live" by Doctor Joel Fuhrman. We were again, very fascinated with what people were doing to heal themselves, lose weight, and feel better. All of this study has been since we began this journey around Valentines Day of this year (2012). While studying we were continuing to eat a plant based diet. We began to notice changes. Dan wasn't suffering from allergies! This was huge! We have been married for 15 years and he can't even mow the lawn without being flat in bed for the weekend. He has suffered from them for as long as I've known him. He hasn't had so much as one sneeze. He put together our entire backyard garden this spring, working in the yard all day, skateboarding with the kids, with no allergies. I had been suffering from a very bad case of anxiety for about 4 months and within 2 weeks, I had no anxiety! I noticed my skin looked clear. I noticed my dandruff had disappeared within a couple of months. My nails and teeth were whiter. I was losing weight, albeit slowly, it was coming off. Dan has lost an average of about 10 lbs a month. Our eyes were clear, we had a lot less tarter and plaque. Our 13 year old daughter has lost 20 lbs. These are just a few changes we've seen. We were sold within the first month. In the beginning we hesitated telling many of our family and friends about what we were doing, but as time goes by, we realize that we have to tell others about what we are doing. It has changed our lives. We don't need to be at our ideal weight or have been practicing vegans for years to have a voice about what we feel has made our lives so much better!

On this blog we intend to share mostly fun recipes that we love. Dan cooks for us once a week and has found some amazing recipes and will share what he can. I will share anything and everything from yummy recipes to interesting info. WE are so grateful for what we've learned and our hope is that you will feel the desire to Plant Yourself, like we have. It doesn't have to be 100% plant based, in fact much of our reading encourages small changes, even if it is just one meal a week. Find out what plants can do for you and your health, GO PLANT YOURSELF!!