Aah the Zen Chi Life - whatever that means..

This is my latest addition to the family entertainment. Everytime I visit Bruce I come home with something else to keep me busy.

It's a Zen Chi machine  Click on the link if you want the technical info on it. Basically it jiggles me from the ankles upwards and gets my circulation going with a gentle wave motion. 15 mins twice a day is all I need. It's also great for the digestion but I wouldn't recommend using it after eating. It's a pretty strong shake up on a full tummy!

Who's in charge here anyway?

Here's a little ditty I made up this morning during my meditation.
                                 

It was me being aware of what I've been doing rather than beating myself up about it.

Superficially delicious, deceptively malicious,

Tea & biscuits, Cakes and Buns

Go on, have another one, Go on, have another one.

It's a treat, you deserve it; 

Tired, stressed and needing comfort!

I'm so cleverly addicted, won't admit that I'm afflicted,

Tea & biscuits, Cakes and Buns

Every other part of me, screams out its wisdom, 

Silently.

Switched to mute, so long ago,

My dictator brain now runs the show,

What would my dumb body know?

One lump or two, it's a treat,

both breasts, you deserve it,

Tea & biscuits, Cakes and Buns

Superficially delicious,

Tea & biscuits, Cakes and Buns

The latest craze...

Sushi surprise

This is my yummy sushi salad. I'm trying to keep things interesting by wrapping up my dinner so that I can open it again later and surprise myself :)

It's a great way to eat seaweed and it is surprisingly delicious - if you're into that sort of thing!

Our New Distiller

Our distiller arrived today so now we have rainwater on tap. Everything that's not pure water has been removed and it's heating the house while we watch. How the hours fly in out house. The entertainment never ceases!! Someone pointed out the wine bottle in the photo above.

 'That was me last week yer Honour I promise.' Out with the old & in with the new!

Here's a really interesting article about distilled water. It seems to be the Nectar of the Gods!!
Here's a snippet from the article “The evidence that distilled water acts as a solvent within the body, dissolving the inorganic mineral deposits, is very important. A growing body of evidence suggests that distilled water dissolves and removes these disease – causing minerals and flushes out the hundreds of dangerous chemicals that have been taken into the body as well. Distilled water is not only free from pollutants, but it apparently helps remove them as well from the cells of the body, thus purifying the body so that it can function as it should. —Dr. Robert W. Flinchbaught, from “Pure Water is Life”

Wild Orange and Fennel bath

I'm just out of the bath of wild orange and fennel oils and salt. Part of my treatment is a weekly bath (I know it's a hard life, but somebody's got to do it, as they say) Firstly, I rub my skin with a dry skin brush. It's a vigorous workout and gets the circulation really moving. It's apparently the equivalent of a 5 mile jog - even if that's not true it works for me. That's my daily exercise taken care of as well!  After the brushing, I massage a blend of oils deep into my skin so that it will be absorbed really well in the warm bath.                                     If only all therapy was this delightful and easy!

The Benefits Of Dry Skin Brushing

• Encourages dead skin cell removal, which can improve skin texture and cell renewal.

• Increases circulation to skin, encouraging your body’s discharge of metabolic wastes. This greatly aids the lymphatic drainage of the entire body. When the body rids itself of toxins, it is able to run more efficiently in all areas.

• Helps tighten the skin as it increases the flow of blood. Improving blood circulation to the skin can lessen the appearance of cellulite.

• Stimulates the lymph canals to drain toxic mucoid matter into the colon, thereby purifying the entire system. This enables the lymph to perform its house-cleaning duties by keeping the blood and other vital tissues detoxified. After several days of dry brushing, you may notice the gelatinous mucoid material in your stools.

• Improves muscle tone and more even distribution of fat deposits.

• Rejuvenates the nervous system by stimulating nerve endings in the skin.

• Aids nutrient absorption by eliminating clogged pores. Healthy, breathing skin contributes to overall body health.

• Individuals who sit at a computer screen all day long will particularly take pleasure in the benefits of skin brushing. People who have inactive lifestyles or jobs usually experience stiff and sore necks and shoulders that reach even into their arms and down their spines and into their lower backs. Increased blood flow begins entering the areas brushed and you will experience an increase in electromagnetic energy that permits you to feel energized and invigorated.

• LADIES—Cellulite is toxic. Cellulite is toxic material that  accumulates in your body’s fat cells,  unable to be eliminated. Dry skin brushing techniques coupled with an alkaline diet program and a great exercising routine will break down the unwelcome toxic body deposits and send them scurrying out of your body through the elimination channels we discussed above.
http://www.jashbotanicals.com/articles/skin_brushing.html

Pizza Breakout!

Caught!

Hey! I was at Eloise's 40th birthday last Saturday and the novelty was Dave's pizza van with pizzas for everyone. I'm not supposed to have pizza so Ed was going to blackmail me. I caught him having pizza later too. It was delicious and worth the small deviation from our grand plan.
 (yes I'm dressed as an Elf, but in my defence, it was meant to be an early Christmas party too. I seemed to be the only person at the party who knew this!)

Hello all!

I'm so excited to do a blog about all this that I'm going through and all that I'm discovering in these short few months. I was asleep, both literally and figuratively, living in the fuzziness that is accepted as normality. Everyone is tired, just get on with it and stop complaining!

The posts that I've created so far are really an introduction. I'll post my very un-clinically sound treatment plan soon, the information that I've discovered, books I'm reading, supplements I'm taking, healing therapies I've tried and my comments, all references and anything else I can think of.

I'd love to get your feedback (please leave comments!) because some of my mad views are very off the wall and verging on the limits of sanity. I want to keep it a little offbeat and not too serious. I do have a bit of a rant, but it's to get a very serious point across.
You know the saying "Don't try this at home."  Well, I'm trying everything and anything at home & my course of action is working very well for me.
I hope some of the information (or lots of it!) can help you & others to make up your own minds about your choice of health. Whatever decision that you make about saving your own life is yours to make.
Happy Reading! Jennifer

Welcome folks! Pull up a hay bale..

Wild Woman!

I feel so invigorated and alive! I've just come out of the sea on this damp, grey day. There is blue sky scattered only around the horizon & smokey grey clouds feel heavy & low. Howth has its little cotton-wool hat on & the churned up sea has a wildness to it.

All the morning walkers are in the park and I feel like Wild Woman here appreciating real nature rather than tarmac footpaths. I'm really proud of myself for stripping off and going in even after my toe screamed " Are you mad? It's bloody freezing!" My body warmed up surprisingly quickly (numbed is probably more accurate)

Bring it on!

My whole life is different today than it was 3 months ago. I now have a new responsibility and a new awareness.  We ran out of bottled water this morning and I'd now rather go thirsty than drink the tap water. Since researching for cancer I've really studied what's in tap water & I know the true horrors of Fluoride (and living the consequences with hypothyroidism) It's another poison that we consume on a daily basis unaware of the damage. How much do I get in a day, a week, month, 40 years?? Too much!

2 months ago I was living a typical normal life thinking arrogantly that I was healthy. Yes, I had lots of rabbit food in my diet and I took supplements. I don't drink or smoke. I exercise daily and do meditation, singing, self development & would have thought I'm quite in tune with my body. 'Out of the blue' a lump appears and my world changes. I have that in italics because I know I ignored so many signs. I did so out of ignorance as to how my body functions. This is generations of ignorance! Since birth I've learned that other people know best. When I was little, I went through a phase of asking "why?"  Why does it rain? How do the clouds get the water? How does it stay in the clouds? Where does it go? Why do my fingers go blue when I'm cold? etc etc. Any of you with kids have been through all of this :)  Well, it was unfortunately only a phase because, having received the frustrated sigh " because it just does!" so many times, I learned that I was a pest and just stopped asking questions.

This, on a large scale, disempowers us. We expect that someone else knows stuff that we don't. We let other people make decisions for us and grumble when it doesn't work out as hoped. Who can know you, as you know yourself? We go to the doctor who studied the workings of the body and what drug will cure which ailment. If there's no drug to cure you they can just cut out the bad bit and hope for the best!

Healthy People aren't good for the Economy!

Our body is an incredibly amazing system and luckily our default mechanism is repair. It's taken 40 years for my body to finally say "Enough! There are things we've got to change here!" I grew up on white bread, cheddar cheese and bran flakes, which covered my breakfasts and lunch for 15 years.

Dinners were the latest UK's experiments (as Dylan Moran nicely put it!) out of a packet. Just add boiling water and ta-da! here's your 3 course meal in an instant. I don't want to knock my Mum because I also remember lots of trauma as we all spat out anything green and were bribed, cajoled & threatened to eat it now or come back again and have it for breakfast.

Well, I live relatively healthily as far as I believed. However, I never cleaned out the original crap that had built up inside; never even considered it, as I couldn't see what goes on in there.

It wasn't really my responsibility to find out or care in my busy life. (Someone else knows what to do if I become ill)

The signs were creeping in: blocked pores, thinning hair, painful periods, runny nose, papery skin, blocked sinuses, creaky knees, tight muscles, inflexibility, bad circulation - I know I sound like a hypochondriac! All of these were minor and are just attributed to getting older. I plaster on the moisturiser, anti-wrinkle cream, hair volumiser, take my knee-loosening supplements and all the rest. Look in the mirror; yep, all covered up nicely. Off I go on my merry way! Inside is churning, but I can't hear it, feel it or see it! 

There's a Western solution for every Western problem and it keeps the economy turning. Healthy people don't generate money for any of the myriad industries who tell us what we really need.

Question Everything!

It's cute though!

I wouldn't build a house without enough glue to make proper cement (all you builders out there will cringe at that description. Using glue, you wouldn't want me building a house for you anyway eh?) If I did, the house would let in wind & rain, it wouldn't look very sturdy and probably would crumble in time. If I put sugar in my petrol tank or de-icer in my oil tank, we know the consequences (yes, I did that once, Oops!) It's an amazing deterrent to see the immediate & damaging effects of our actions.

I never wholeheartedly did the right thing for a few main reasons 1. The body is so forgiving. 2. I couldn't see any immediate consequences of my actions (apart from the odd alcohol-induced ones!) 3. I've spent a lifetime listening to the experts telling me the best things to eat; from Mmm I'm lovin' it to my daily actimel for 'bifidofilus' or whatever it is and yummy sugar! The telly made me buy it and it tastes nice so I can treat myself with the benefit of thinking that it's healthy (as a bonus) Everyone's happy! Doctors then fix me up with pills to stop my head from shouting at me after last night, which was so good I can't even remember it. The little guys in my head are literally thumping the walls of my brain, trying to knock some sense into whoever is meant to be in charge! If I was a private company, I'd have gone into liquidation long ago!

All the little internal workers for many years were disillusioned and groggy. It was only the tea & biscuits that propped them up enough to shovel the food through me.. Everytime the sugar hits my body, all those little guys are forced to dance a jig until they fall over from exhaustion. I had no idea of the stress I put on every single cell. They work so hard, never complain, just make do with the latest delivery of whatever comes through the chute.

Each stage is like a little factory of processes that take the food apart, divide it up, package it for easier transport and ship it off to the area that needs it.  My liver is the main processing plant inside of me. It receives everything that has been chewed up, stomach churned & posted through the walls of my digestive tract. The liver sends parcels of nutrients through the canal systems & they are offloaded to serve organs, systems, bones, hair, skin, nails, joints and all the rest.

These last 2 months I've grown up and now I question everything. I want to know how my amazing body works. I have slowed down so that when I eat something I imagine what effect it is having inside. These days there are lots of happy little workers inside of me given their original job descriptions back. 

My Amazing Liver

So, back to my liver, which processes all those nutrients that I received from, say, my cheese sandwich and coffee.

I won't, at this point, go into the details of what's wrong with the meal, but the result of many years of this diet is that I've accumulated so many parasites, free loaders and little grimey bug bacteria that are hanging on to the insides of my digestive tract. They are having a party in my body! They have first pickings on my dinner & what ends up in my liver, having passed through layers of built-up gunk, is the waste from those creepy, thieving, uninvited and unwanted, but very healthy dinner guests!


Great, I'm feeding on their crap! Remember the holey house & spluttering car? Well, that's what I become after years of feeding on party-pooper crap and keeping myself awake on sugar and coffee. So much for my 'I'm so healthy' routine now! I haven't swung completely to the other extreme yet either (I just talk the talk so well. The theory is always easier than the sticking to the plan!)  the good living now is a temporary thing so that I can clear out the old stuff, regenerate my cells so that they're healthy, young and springy again. then I can go back to steaks 'n cakes and all the delights available just a nibble away.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Life is busy and we run from bed to shower, to fridge, to kettle, to car, to traffic lights, to school, to job, to lunch, to job, to home, to fridge, to microwave, to kettle, to couch, to remote control, to telly, to bed! Aaah. Relax. Ding! Alarm! Off we go till Friday. Get pissed. Fall into bed & so begins Saturday at some stage & would those little guys in my head just STOP thumping!! What's wrong with them??

I can't pretend that this was me 2 months ago. I have a very laid back life these days and am extremely lucky that I'm not rushing through the same daily routine spending my bonus package on M&S tasty meals. That is a far distant past that I will never do again. I cut out the middle man and now I'm broke but my life is my own. 

However, it was me once and is too many people's story also. Nobody and nothing will be there for you when you fall over! It is the stark truth of it. All the money that you desperately need for that whatever you think you need right now, cannot fix a broken body. The things that make us tick in our busy lives are usually what result in our ticker finally packing it in too early. Death from over-stimulation! What are you rushing for? Close your eyes for just 30 seconds and notice the feeling of your feet inside your shoes or listen to the noise of something very far away. It has an amazing effect of bringing you back into your body. Say "Hello" while you stop & then you can go back to rushing...

Slowing down

Look at the birds in the tree outside your window. A wise man told a story about them and all the other animals on the planet. He explained how they blend in with their environment. Humans are the only animals that do not blend in to any environment. We create our own. This is very profound. We create our own environment! How is mine, how is yours? You create your body, your children, your house, your lifestyle, friendships, relationships, your own space. Are you kind to yourself? Are you gentle with yourself? Who knows you best? Would you like to have a piece of you removed because a doctor tells you that you don't need it and there's no way to fix it? Doctors don't study nutrition and the general feeling is that,if you cut out the bad bit, you can go back to your coffee and muffins next week and you can forget that this minor ugliness ever happened.  You never have to take responsibility that you caused this directly by pushing your body beyond its capabilities until it gave up. Message after message went unheard, or unnoticed, or quietened by some Solpadeine!

When we can't cut out any more bad bits because there's not enough of the organ left to function, that's when the kind and helpful Doc says " Sorry, I can't help!" Poor little broken body is left without expert help and it's usually then when the wake up call comes. What if I change my diet and lifestyle? At death's door, your body is given some reprieve. Nourishing food, time to relax, unburden, clear out years of gloop. And you may make a miracle recovery. People are amazed at you; still alive and you begin to feel fantastic, more energised, more alive, alert, fuzziness gone. It's a miracle!

Nearly there! Just a little more to the right..

. 

It's not! It is giving the body what it has been asking for, allowing it to repair all the damage, fill up the holes and tighten the leaks. When the Titanic crew spotted the iceberg and put on the reverse thrusters, it looked like nothing was happening for a few minutes. The boat still moved forward.It takes time to reverse the damage & to see visible improvements. Your life-time is for you to use. It's not like money; you can't make more.
The good news is that as long as you're alive, there's an opportunity to change. Start small and create healthier habits. Cutting out all the things you love is the first mistake (yep, I tried that!) If you love coffee, try decaf. For sugary 

The fear of Cancer

The interesting thing about cancer treatment is firstly, the fear that everyone has about it. Cancer the disease is one thing. Cancer, the treatment is where the real fear is spread. Chemotherapy causes horrendous damage to a body that is already tired & only barely chugging along. When your immune system takes a hit, the police force is at an all time low and the crime rate rises. You're susceptible to getting sick from any passing bugs. Your liver is overloaded and in turn your blood lacks the oxygen and nutrition to maintain healthy cells. Wham! In comes a load of radioactive waste pumped into your veins, sickening all of those already struggling cells, bombarding you with poison. Your hair falls out immediately, your skin thins and can fall off, your hormones to absolutely hay-wire, your liver goes into overdrive to clear out this toxic waste. It can't cope and so begins the downward spiral. 

Imagine what would happen if you supported your immune system, nourished your body, apologised for never listening in the past, giving yourself a break? 

If food can create a new cell and a whole new body (even on burgers & chips!) surely we can give it credit that it can heal itself when it's sick? I cut my finger and Wow! new skin grows. In a few days it's perfect again. I break a bone and it heals, good as new. I expect these to heal, why? (I never questioned anything) Kiss it better! My body is complicated though and it all works as one system. What happened when the taxis went on strike in Dublin City? Chaos! Traffic had to go alternative routes. Everywhere else became congested. What happens if I remove my lymph gland? I don't even know what it's use is, but the surgeon told me that I don't need it. Now I question everything! He certainly doesn't need my lymph gland and to be really cynical, he's in a job when there's surgery to be performed. 

I don't want to knock the surgeon who does a really good job but my point is to empower myself and whoever else may never (thankfully!) have thought about this sort of huge decision before. 

I read about Lymph glands and yes, I do need it! Just like those taxis causing chaos & congestion everywhere else. I take out a lymph gland here, a gall bladder there, appendix, a uterus, a kidney etc and what happens? 

Sweet poison

As I said earlier, the body is very forgiving and I can't see the chaos so I believe the doc. I'm cured! Back to coffee & muffins! Slowly the decay sets in. Bang! It came out of the blue with no warning...

Cancer cells grow in areas where oxygen can no longer get through to feed the healthy cells. It's like running a generator when the electricity goes off and instead of losing the contents of the fridge, you switch to the alternative energy source. These cells are the emergency repair team that are called upon when you cut your finger for example. They work quickly to repair the damage because they require no oxygen to work. Guess what their food of choice is? Yep, Sugar! 15 times more sugar than normal cells. By the way, did the Doc explain this to you as you left the consultation room with your newly discovered cancer? No, of course not! Go and have a coffee & muffin in the hospital cafe to calm the nerves. That'll help! It seems that doctors think that nutrition and illness are somehow unrelated. 

Cancer is not some invasive enemy that arrived to take over your body. On the contrary, it is the body's last resort at keeping your cells alive when it is so clogged up that the oxygen delivery truck can't get through because various blockades and smog on the streets.  The cancer cells are fast growing and there's no proper off switch when they're not in a healthy environment. Clear the smog, open the roadway, cut out feeding them sugar, supply real nourishment and it's amazing your body will heal. 

In my body, there are cysts on my ovaries, a large fibroid in my uterus, nodules in my lungs and a fibroid like lump in my liver. I thought I was relatively healthy. Luckily the hospital tests gave me a virtual map of what's going on inside me and it's enough to shock me in to immediate action to repair all the damage. 

The surgeon read out the list of findings and I was horrified. He calmed me by advising that they're only part of the furniture, like a mole on the skin or something! He's the well informed doctor who plans of cutting off both my breasts, recreating them to a nice B cup, removing my lymph gland, filling me full chemo drug to swamp a 2cm tumour and any possible rogue cells. It's like the Vietnam war and there's no way I'll do that to my precious body. Who can save me in 6 years time when I return with liver cancer? I'm considered a cancer survivor by that stage. 46 years old, sick from chemotherapy, possible continued lifelong menopausal symptoms (another side effect that I was warned of) and with all sorts of contamination still inside of me long after the final peace treaty was signed. Unfortunately my body would have paid a heavy price for that war.

Sorry little dish; No more Pasta for a while :(