The purpose of this blog is to provide education for those seeking to support their body in a natural way through the use of wholesome food, herbs, essential oils and positive thinking. The content is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure anything. What you choose to do with the information is your responsibility.

Friday, March 5, 2010

You Smell Good


People are always telling me I smell good and my house smells good. I don't use perfume or even deodorant anymore and all the candles I used to burn? Never again. Essential oils have replaced many of the products I used to use to "smell good". The biggest reason I made this change is my liver. The liver has to process everything we eat, drink, smell or put on our skin. Even when we do our very best to put only pure things into and on our bodies, just the environment in which we live takes a toll on our livers. Burning candles is also very damaging to the thyroid.
Essential oils have been a delightful alternative.
Essential oils are the volatile liquids distilled from plants, this can be from any part of the plant, leaves, flowers, bark, roots, stems, seeds, fruit, resin etc. I like to think of essential oils as the life blood of the plant. In these oils is a powerhouse of energy. The vibration of a pure essential oil is very high, rose oil has the highest vibration. The vibration in the oil helps the body regain balance so it can heal itself, just what our bodies were intended to do!
Essential oils are the regenerating, oxygenating, and immune defense properties of plants. Essential oils are so small in molecular size that they can quickly penetrate the skin. Essential oils are lipid (or fat soluble) and are capable of penetrating cell walls, even if they have hardened because of an oxygen deficiency. In fact, essential oils can affect every cell of the body within 20 minutes and then be metabolized like other nutrients.Essential oils are anitbacterial, anticancer, anitfungal, anti-infectious, antimicrobial, antitumor, antiparsitic, antiviral, and antiseptic. Essential oils have been shown to destroy all tested bacteria and viruses while simultaneously restoring balance to the body. Essential oils may detoxify the cells and blood in the body. Because oils are fat soluble they get in the cells and kill viruses.
Because I use essential oils daily internally and externally on myself and my family I want to be sure I am using the purest possible oils I can get. I choose to use doTERRA essential oils.
doTERRA essential oils are CPTG, which stands for Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade.
There are 4 different grades of oils, the first is what is used in the perfume industry, these are almost always synthetic, you can produce any smell in a lab. The second are GRAS or Generally Recognized As Safe, the FDA says these are "probably" OK to put in our bodies (I don't know do I trust them?). The third are Pure. The essential oil industry is not very well regulated, a company can say their oils are 100% pure but really this means that only 5% of what is in the bottle has to be the oil they say it is and even that can be synthetically made! The rest can be fillers, pesticides, weeds, whatever. The last grade is CPTG, doTERRA is the only company in the world that tests every single vile that comes out of their plant to make sure that not only does it only contain the pure natural oil that is says it does but that the oil contains the correct constituents so that if will do what it is meant to do, help the body to heal. All you have to do is smell these oils to understand the difference between doTERRA and all the rest.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The Journey Begins

When I came down with strep throat, for the first time in my life, a year after my first baby was born, I had no idea that this would begin a journey that would lead me to the point I am right now.
I grew up eating the typical diet for the 70's we had Wonder bread, tuna casserole, meat loaf, cold cereal, Hostess Twinkies and lots and lots of milk. I remember drinking a full glass of milk with each meal. When I got married we lived on cold cereal a lot and I continued to eat a diet full of processed foods, lots of junk food, white flour, anything sweet, lots of meat. I had no idea that what I put in my mouth had such an effect on how my body felt. I had a lot of colds and sinus infections and just figured this was normal. During my first bout with strep I was given Penicillin and found out I was allergic to it. I had my next baby 3 years later and again developed strep this time about 6 months after having her, again I was given antibiotics. After my third baby I once again developed strep about a month after he was born and this time I would be on the antibiotics for 10 days and off for about a week and then the strep would return. It was a vicious cycle that continued for 4 months. During this time they put me on stronger and stronger antibiotics and I was on them for the entire 4 months. After that time I finally tested negative for strep but was still told that it would be best to have my tonsils removed. I didn't know why at the time but I just knew this wasn't the right option for me. Well, 4 years later in December of 1997 I was 2 months away from having my 4th baby. I didn't want to go through all of that again so I kept looking for another way. We had some Christmas money so we decided we wanted to start our food storage. We looked up stores that sold wheat and grinders and set off to Kitchen Kneads to find out what it was all about. I took the classes they offered that taught about grains and beans and asked lots of questions. I started replacing some of the white flour in foods I made with fresh ground whole wheat and guess what? After my baby was born I didn't get strep! Wow, this was great, I knew I was on the right road but had no idea where it was taking me or how long the journey would be. Since then I have studied whole foods, herbs, essential oils and energy therapy, I have been super strict about my diet at times and at other times been very lax. Different times in my life had made it easier to live the things I have found to be true and other times I have been in survival mode, I never knew how much there was to learn. I don't claim to know everything, sometimes I am overwhelmed by what I don't know. No matter where you are in your journey, as you strive to live your life the way God intends He will bless you for every small step you take. I will continue to share the things I have learned along my journey, and because of my energy type, I will probably jump from one thing to another, oils to herbs to food etc. take what you need now and do your best with it. God bless you on your journey!