I look forward to drinking my morning smoothies every day. I guess it’s just that sweet, delicious creaminess that keeps me addicted! Sometimes I’ll blend them a bit thicker so it’s almost like an ice cream consistency or a little thinner like a milkshake. This smoothie in particular tasted like straight up dessert…but for breakfast!!
Continue reading “Tackling depression in TSW & the Dark Times in Life”
I love the feeling of “new beginnings” and “a clean slate”. I actually like to look at my birthdate as my New Year. 🙂
Although we don’t need a specific date on the calendar to tell us that we can start fresh, it’s nice to have a date where everyone celebrates together at the wonderful new beginnings of the future. When you really think about it, we can choose any second of any day to start anew. It’s just a conscious decision to change it up and work on ourselves.
2014 had its ups and downs for me, but I’ve made a conscious decision to let those things that I wasn’t able to accomplish or the rough times that I had went through health wise (and are continuing to go through) not get me down. I’ve decided to keep on looking forward and let go of all the opportunities I may have missed out on, the people who may have disappointed me, and all the negative energy and bad vibes that may have came my way.
2015 will be a year of complete healing! I can feel it that this is truly the end of this healing process and I won’t be going through this at all this time next year! I like to “call things into existence” and I’m definitely calling this one in. I want to be in the best health of my life, fully living my life and enjoying new experiences and opportunities this year.
I usually like to say that right now I’m 90% of the way there in my healing with just my feet left to restore. The rest of my body from my ankles up is so much better from where it was years ago. My natural oils are coming back, the thickness is smoothing out, the discolouration is evening out, I’m rarely itchy on the rest of my body, my face is insanely smooth and clear… even the wrinkles under my eyes are fading away! I’ve seen the transformation of my skin, and I know that my body is recovering and healing! I have nothing but gratitude for this rough journey, because it has taught me so much about myself, that our bodies are amazing at healing themselves, and has made me more spiritual with a closeness to God.
I mention that I like to say 90% of my body… but if I’m going to speak things into existence then I should say, “I’m completely healed! 100%!”. I’ve learned that we must “CALL THE THINGS THAT AREN’T AS IF THEY ARE”. So I’m claiming complete healing, and by this time next year, when I post my overview of 2015 on the first of Jan 2016, I’ll have nothing but awesome things to say about the past year!
I’m wishing everyone a blessed New Year of strength, healing and love! ❤
-Jen
Cracked open this awesome read not too long ago, and these pages pertaining to skin health really stuck out at me. It further affirms that detoxification and changing your lifestyle to a healthier more nutrient dense one is the only way to go to heal up the gut, internal organs and in turn, the skin. I’m still in the middle of it, and will follow up with more key points that stood out to me. This book is such an oldie (published in 1965!) but such a goodie! Definitely a must read!
Henry Bieler, MD, in his book “Food is Your Best Medicine” said that he always explained to his patients that their pain and illness is the result of their dietary mistakes and intake of drugs. He said that when the normal chemistry of digestion is upset because of unhealthy living habits, toxins are stagnated in the blood which can impair the filters and eliminative organs, chief of which are the kidneys, liver, bowels, and skin. He explained that skin problems like eczema is a “terrific attempt” by the body to get rid of toxins since the normal channels of elimination such as the liver are no longer functioning normally. If the bile poisons in the blood come out through the skin, we get the various irritations of the skin and itching is one of these irritations. The itching is necessary so the poisons can come out of the skin. “Thus, the skin is substituting for the liver, or a vicarious elimination is occurring through the skin” (Bieler, pg. 43).
He describes eczema as a hyper secretion of the thyroid gland. “This gland, located at the base of the neck, controls all functions of the body’s three layers of skin: the outer skin…, the inner skin… and the middle skin. The normal function of the outer skin is to exhale gases, sweat out water and certain toxic salty substances and oil itself and its hair with special oil glands. The vicarious elimination, which results from forcefully exuding gases, acid sweat, and toxic oils and greases through the outer skin has supplied names to enough diseases to fill a large dermatology text book. Chronic eczema, ichthyosis and psoriasis are common examples. Skin diseases, which are really signs of toxic irritation, respond well to a treatment, dietary and local, directed to the neutralization and elimination of the offending poisons. This brings the hyperthyroidism under control.” (Bieler, pg. 46).
I love me some beets! They have this wonderful earthy, naturally sweet flavour. I use them chopped up raw in my daily salads and sometimes make a little tasty slaw out of them with carrots and onions with a marinade of apple cider vinegar, tahini or avocado and fresh herbs. I also love to have them sometimes roasted with carrots, potatoes, onions and garlic with dry herbs and baked on parchment to keep it oil free. It was only until recently that I started using them in my smoothies. They are super fibrous, so when adding them raw to green drinks, I just put a small amount. When they are lightly steamed or boiled, they become even sweeter and the consistency is quite smooth. I love this recipe because it’s so delicious and naturally sweet, you feel like you’re drinking a milkshake for breakfast, but it’s actually healthy for you!
Healing is not only a physical process, but an emotional and mental one. If there’s anything that I’ve learned with battling cancer and now pushing through TSW, is the importance of keeping a good, hopeful attitude and having positive thoughts of affirmation. In dealing with different situations, the way we think and the words we speak into existence can either have a negative or positive effect on our bodies in so many ways…
Continue reading “Words of Affirmation & Scriptures for Healing”
I had this ridiculously annoying itchiness going on all around my mouth for most of October. I noticed the irritation early on as you can see in the first photo (Oct 8th). It was just red and inflamed, and slowly started to calm down and become super dry. I was applying coconut oil on it multiple times a day (as well as shea butter) just to ease up the dryness, but it’s like that area just kept drinking it up as quickly as I would apply it. I thought that I would try a remedy I had done in the past… mixing organic ground turmeric powder with organic virgin coconut oil. It makes this bright orangey yellow paste and it can be used on dry, scaly skin. I also used it in the corners of my mouth because I was experiencing cracking as well. I used this mixture before a few years ago on oozy spots on my foot, but it was too intense for these areas, I’ve learned to keep those open, oozy areas dry so they can heal and scab over… pretty much like “moisture withdrawal” which I’ve found to help with letting the body heal on its own. This mixture is so amazing at healing, the dryness and flaking was gone within a week! Turmeric and coconut oil are such potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antibacterial foods, that they can heal up any skin issue very quickly! Along with using this paste I would take a break and use just coconut oil. The mixture did tingle a little bit once I applied it, but subsided rather quickly. I think it was because the turmeric has such powerful healing properties, and because there were fine cuts underneath the flakes. I’m experiencing such smoothness around my mouth now, I know I will use this remedy in the future! Along with doing this mixture, I was regularly oil pulling with the organic virgin coconut oil, which I find really helps to keep the skin on my face pretty clear and flake free. **Cool facts: Turmeric is widely used in Ayurvedic medicine and you can find turmeric face mask remedies to heal acne, eczema, rosacea and to help aid in skin rejuvenation!
I had posted this blog entry into the itsan.org forums and a few people had tried it out and found awesome results!! This just shows how powerful healing with food can be!
Here are their accounts….
Hi Jen, I just wanted to let you know that I’ve been using turmeric topically on my feet after reading your blog post and wanted to give a big thank you! The coconut oil wasn’t moisturising enough so I’m melting it into cocoa butter instead and I’m not healed of course but my feet are finally seeing improvement after 8 months! I’m now seeing turmeric used as body scrub, face masks and all sorts and I’m looking forward to trying it out elsewhere. I’ve been clear mostly for 5 months now.
Once again Jen, thanks so much!
-Hayley
Hey Jen – Your tip is great! The backs of my knees were like scary swiss cheese – when you tear open not-yet-healed skin so you have sores within sores, so to speak. I went one up on your mix and added manuka honey (good for wounds, also highly antibacterial action) to the turmeric & coconut oil paste. Slathered it on last thing at night, covered with a non-sticky gauze for wounds, wrapped it all with elastic crepe bandage and then used micropore tape to make sure the bandage didn’t shift while sleeping.
2 nights of this mix and the sores are now healed up and flaking. Skin is pink underneath but not open wounds and not even very raw, which is great for only 2 nights worth of the healing mix….I’d say this is as fast as I’d have gotten with Elomet, which is pretty amazing! (Of course, I probably should have tried the tight wrapping much earlier to avoid scratching at night, so that’s some of it too.)
-Andrea
Thanks Jen, this is working for me too.
The skin between my fingers was broken and crusty and I had been putting cotton wool balls or cloth between my fingers to keep them apart.
I mixed turmeric with sesame oil, just because it’s an oil I had at hand. I reckon any oil would work. Smeared this on the webbing between my fingers once a day and in two days the skin is no longer broken.
I haven’t needed the cotton wool balls or cloths in the past couple of days. Yeah!
-Miriam
Continue reading “Recipes! – Pumpkin Pie Superfood Smoothie!”
This TSW process can tend to break one down on so many levels, making it hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel sometimes, and hard to not fall into the depths of depression. I’ve found that reading inspirational books have gotten me through the rough times and have changed my whole perspective on this situation and life in general. I just started reading this book called When Your World Falls Apart – Seeing Past the Pain of the Present by a pastor named Dr. David Jeremiah (what an intense title eh? lol) and he talks all about his trials and tribulations of going through cancer and the lessons that it taught him, as well as stories from others going through rough times. He likes to call these trials “disruptive moments”.
This passage, quoted from a British journalist named Malcolm Muggeridge stuck out to me: “As an old man, looking back on one’s life, it’s one of the things that strikes you most forcibly – that the only thing that’s taught one anything is suffering. Not success, not happiness, not anything like that. The only thing that really teaches one what life’s about – the joy of understanding, the joy of coming in contact with what life really signifies – is suffering, affliction.”
The lessons that I have learned going through this TSW experience as well as having Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer a few years back are:
*Feel free to comment on what lessons were learned in your times of suffering ❤
-Jen
I had just realized that around this time last year I was finally coming into a break from my summer long flare. I had been housebound for most of the duration of my flare, and actually moved from North Carolina to New York at the end of August. From then up until October I had been housebound. It was so frustrating because I was finally back in my favourite city, and all I wanted to do was be out and about and live my life. Once I started to see that the hell was ending for a little while I was motivated to feel normal and live my life again. At the time I was working on this blog, but didn’t have enough information yet to really make it live. My cousin actually encouraged me to document my experience of “leaving my apartment for the first time” (lol) and to post it on my blog. It’s hard to describe the experience in words, but I try to in this little journal entry that I’d like to share with you all…
Continue reading “A little journal entry from last year around this same time…”
Eczema Holistic Healing 