April's Favorite Things!!

Monday, January 11, 2010

A year without Faith




So what do you do when you feel like crying? Do you fight it, distract yourself and keep moving through your day or do you just let the tears come? Today marks one year since my aunt Faith left in a VERY painful way. She took her last breaths in the early morning hours surrounded by her husband and children who fought so hard to keep her alive. It was a very hard fight she fought and she was so brave through all of the pain. It was very hard to watch someone you love go through so much. She was very selfless and would call me to see how I was doing. It was only through others and seeing her myself was I able to find out how bad she was. When I would speak to her on the phone she wouldn't elaborate on how she would be vomiting all day long and unable to keep food down. She didn't tell me how thin and weak she had become. She was confident she was going to beat it, and she had everyone around her thinking positive too. To me she was the same strong woman who had always called me to joke around and talk to. She was known for her good conversations on the phone and they could go on for hours before you even realized. When I lived in UT there were a few one hour drives from Salt Lake back to my home near Ogden that flew by on the phone with her. So why do I feel like crying today? It's been a year. I've thought of her many times, but I guess today I am reliving the moments when I found out the horrible news.

So what did she die of? Liver cancer. I hope others can learn from this like I have. She was only 57!! It is because of her mostly and my own health issues sidely that put me on this health crusade. I remember the night I found out through e-mail she had been diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer. I stayed up all night and researched it. I was about 6 months pregnant. I was so upset that everything I read said even if she did chemotherapy her chances of survival were almost non-existent. I didn't know then that I would come to not believing in chemo. I ended up staying up until four in the morning trying to find alternatives. I went to bed still crying and my baby was moving scarily. I had such a hard time trying to calm myself for his safety. I have never felt any of my babies move that way and I never want to again.

My research kept bringing me back to the same thing. A healthy raw, vegan diet. People had survived eating this way. I don't recall, however if any of them were stage 4. Also important was vitamin D and exercise. So there you have it. It is because of my aunt that I believe in raw food. I checked out book after book from the library. Carol Alt's was the first one I read. I spent countless hours online. I found that it wasn't healthy to eat the way most people do.

I had always thought our heart did the most important job in our body. I realized that our liver and other glands like our pancreas were just as important and very often overlooked. Our liver is extremely important. It is your body's purifier. We need it so bad in this day in age when we breath toxic air, drink toxic water and eat processed foods that barely resemble their original forms. I mean what the heck is Velveta? It's not even cheese, they call it cheese food. YUCK! The more processed a food is, the harder your liver is going to have to work to figure out what to do with it. Processed foods wreak havoc on your whole system. Same goes for all of these synthetic prescriptions we are told to take. So much of our longevity depends on how much attention we give to our liver and digestion system. Some people take better care of their cars and houses than they do their bodies.

So what should you do to change your own oil, hehe!?

~Start your day with lemon water. This helps get the wonderful alkaline bile flowing. I use one quart with one fresh lemon squeezed into it. PLEASE throw out your ReaLemon. It is synthetic and should not be consumed EVER!

~Start drinking green smoothies. This will help get things cleaned up. My son shows you how here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xG2xsLAVqM

~Do a cleanse. Here's one:
http://www.vitacost.com/Renew-Life-CleanseSMART-trade-Advanced-Cleanse-Kit-Plus-Free-FiberSmart-trade

~then this one:
http://www.vitacost.com/Renew-Life-CleanseSMART-Liver-Detox


~Get a colonic, OR several. I LOVE how good I feel after. Yes I know there are conflicting opinions about these, but nothing cleans out all the muck from gluten and dairy like a colonic. Just get yourself some probiotics to take after. I've researched this one a lot and I think people are so much better off doing a colonic. Not many people have healthy intestinal flora that they would be washing out anyways and this will remove all the stuff the unhealthy bacteria is feeding on.


Give your liver a break. Stop eating so many processed foods, meats and chemicals. Replace breakfast with a smoothie and dinner with a salad. Make lunch your only meal where you eat the cooked foods. Then your liver can concentrate on doing it's work at night rather than dealing with that big steak you had for dinner.


Your body can detox through your mouth, your skin and your bowels. So keep these things clear of toxins. Go back to my other post on deodorant and learn how to let the toxins out of your pores. Rinse the crud out of your mouth in the morning instead of swallowing it and you can even use a tongue scraper. Stop putting synthetic chemicals on your skin in the form of lotions. Your body absorbs it. If you wouldn't eat it don't put it on your skin. Use coconut or olive oil instead.


One last note. If you look in the mirror and see dark circles under your eyes that is a sign that your liver and kidneys are struggling. It is a form of bruising and a big red flag to help them out. Your liver can regenerate in 7 years, so get to work now and seven years from now you could be a whole new person!!

So this is dedicated to my aunt Faith. I believe she saved me from the same problems. We shared so many similar symptoms that I now know are not just a normal part of being a human. Asthma and allergies and eczema are not normal and I don't have to live with them. I am passing the inhaler torch to someone else! Bring on the campfires!

7 comments:

  1. Beautiful post in honor of your aunt! You are such a wealth of information and always inspire me. Can you recommend a place in V town to get a good colonic?

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  2. Hmmm, I ALWAYS have dark circles...lately they've been getting worse. I think we eat quite healthy though. Could one reason be, that I am a very bad drinker? I maybe drink 2 small cups of water a day..if at all. I do tea 1-2 cups a day. I don't know why, but I've just always always had a hard time drinking enough

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  3. @Ramos
    Yes, you might not getting enough water to help filter it all out or it could be something you are overlooking. Since you eat pretty healthy then you probably aren't using Crest and Suave, so maybe it's your daily vitamin or the water you're drinking or showering in, or maybe it's just a build up from the air and things over time. Especially if you haven't always eaten that way.

    Sythetic vitamins can be just as bad in my opinion and I view them as a toxin. If it has calcium in it and it's not derived from a plant then it is from a rock basically. I've read that our bodies don't know what to do with minerals from rocks and they bog up our system. Plant derived vitamins and minerals are a completely different story and are beneficial though. The TDS (total dissolved solids) in water are also real hard on the liver and kidneys.

    Oh and one more thing...if we go to bed full our kidneys aren't able to do their job which is another thing that can cause it.

    Let me know if maybe I've helped you think of something. :)

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  4. @Michelle
    All three of mine have been at A New Me. 312-1101 I have been real happy but it's all I know, haha! It is on Sahara and Fort Apache. Gravity Fed are supposed to be the way to go, but I couldn't find one in town.

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  5. @Ramos
    I meant to say High TDS can be real hard on the liver. Water is a fun subject. I want to get a TDS meter and learn more about it all.

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  6. Thanks April! Pat turns 35 this month and I think I am going to get him a colonic for his b-day....hehehehe! Its the gift that keeps on giving. Wonder if he will go through with it? I got him a massage for fathers day and when he found out it was going to be a male masseuse (spelling) he backed out. LOL!

    Angela, maybe the dark circles are because you have an infant and a toddler, LOL!!! April, could that be a real diagnosis? LOL!!!

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  7. I'm very sorry for your loss April. At least some good came out of it. The world needs more health crusaders.

    The liver actually only takes about 6 weeks to renew itself and 98% of our body is renewed in 2 years. Of course for it to renew itself in a good way you need to do as you said and feed it good raw, organic food.

    You can also add some ALA (alpha lipoic acid) to that morning lemon juice for added benefit. For severe cases, high amounts like 300-600mg twice daily are recommended by some docs and health care practitioners. Brian Clements says ALA, NCD and Co-Enzyme Q10 are the most important supplements anyone can take. NCD brought my own very elevated liver enzymes back to normal. I've met a few people who got rid of dark circles under the eyes with this too. Apparently this can be caused by mercury. And of course not sleeping!

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