Yogurt, Cheese, Bacteria and Food for Thought

I feel all over the place these days.  I'm not sure anyone really follows this anymore but I need to get some thoughts out.  Between traveling, working my business, raising three active young children and creating a fourth in my belly, I really haven't had the energy to keep up on my blog very well and am finally getting around to catching up.  Perhaps it's because my Hubby is away for a week that I'm just sitting here late at night trying to catch up.  I'll probably regret it in the morning when I'm tired and trying to get the morning routines going on little sleep.  It doesn't matter how late my kids get to bed.  It seems they're always up and ready to go at 7am.  Little buggers.  Don't they understand that a pregnant mommy needs some rest?  These are the days that I look back on times when my poor mother would try to get me to sleep.  I understand now, Mom.  I'm sorry I always put up such a fight.

So what else is new?  Well, a quick update on my rash.  These past few months have been awful.  But I'm finally seeing a light at the end of a tunnel.  There were days when it would subside but always the flare-ups at night it seemed.  I'm not sure why.  I looked into what's called the Pregnancy rash and I'm convinced it was a combination of a few things that this thing took so long to resolve itself.  One, nutritional deficiencies and imbalances are known to wreak havoc on hormones.  And two, since we all know pregnancy hormones are easily thrown into a spin, I'm certain it was a combination of those things that caused it in the first place.

So here it comes:  What really helped the most?  As I've been reading a couple of my new favorite books and trying very hard to assess my problem, I came to the conclusion that my body needed some fermented food products and friendly bacteria in order to battle the possible sugar and yeast imbalances.  So yogurt has been my life saver.  Eating it as well as slathering some on my arms.  Crazy.  I've fought so hard to stay away from yogurt and casein in general that I was definitely missing something.  The idea that not all dairy is created equal.  I'm so blessed to be living around the Amish right now because they are known for having some of the cleanest cows and dairy products around.  And they have provided me with tons of homemade yogurts from grass-fed cows and raw cheeses.  Which I must say beats anything on the market I have ever tasted.  Don't get me wrong.  I still believe a plant based diet is important, but I have learned so much this summer about health.  Because of my being compelled to humility, I have learned that there is indeed a balance to find between all things.  I'll probably struggle to find this for the rest of my years on this earth, but I will endure.  My kids all happily enjoy an occasional yogurt now and some eggs that come from cage-free chickens.  I continue to supplement my diet with fresh juices and veggies from the garden.  These, I have come to see are a great source of energy for me and I am lost without them.  And though I was never a true vegan, I had come to respect the lifestyle so much that I didn't realize there was so much more to whole food preparation that I was unaware of that far surpasses the benefits of any fad vegan, vegetarian, or raw food diets.

But yes, my arms don't itch at night anymore.  Thank goodness.  That pins and needles sensation that erupts in the urge to scratch until I'm bleeding was not fun.  Not one bit.  I never want to experience that again.  I hope I never have to.  But if ever I do, I at least am open to different possible solutions now in a way that I wasn't before.  I dreaded going to any doctor around here for fear they would just give me steroid ointments and tell me to take Benadryl.  And I'm glad I didn't give in.  But I must admit that going to holistic healers was not giving me answers either.  At least they made me think and did guide me to finding an answer.  They basically told me to try things I had already made a huge part of my lifestyle.  Like juice and water cleansing.  Which I do regularly.  So, how was this to help me resolve a problem that began in the midst of doing these things?  I think my answers came from a lot of scripture study and prayer.  And as always, reading more books.  The two I have recently come to love, though I don't agree with everything, are Healing Our Children and Cure Tooth Decay, both by Ramiel Nagel.  He writes based on a lot of the work done by Dr. Weston Price.  The titles may seem irrelevant but there was a lot in these that I needed to hear and I want to document that for future reference.  Like I've mentioned before, if ever my children come across such adversities in life, I want them to know that I experienced things first-hand and I want them to know how I found solutions.  Always I turned back to D&C 89 and have come to find new gems every time I read through it.  And that is what I turn to when the philosophies of man begin to cloud my thoughts.  There are a lot of great and intimidating books out there claiming to have THE answers but nothing is ever whole without the wisdom found in scripture and from our prophets and leaders.  I take everything in with a grain of salt now more than ever before.

An interesting lesson, I've learned, I know.  Anyways, I'll leave it at that for now.  I realize this post seems all over the place.  But I needed to get some things out like I said.  I may or may not expand on some of these things later.  But I needed to journal my experience so as to have it later in life.  I would love to have more time to be thorough but for now, this will have to do.  Now, if only I could figure out how to balance my sleep schedule.   Well, maybe that will be a lesson I will have to learn the hard way too and you will see me document it in the future at some point I'm sure.