I am extremely passionate about living my life as healthy and clean as possible because I have felt a tremendous change on many levels since cleaning up my diet, personal care products and cleaning products. I never expected to experience such a dramatic change as I have and I want the world to know that the synthetic, harmful additives and substances we are exposed to through the food, personal care products and cleaning products that line the shelves of our stores are NOT safe, DO cause many problems and keep us from experiencing life to the fullest. I know that all of this sounds a little radical and I would have thought so also before experiencing the change myself, but I feel as though I have awakened from a deep slumber and I want the world to know they too can experience better health in all aspects of their life.
You may be wondering what kind of changes I have experienced.
ENERGY
I have more energy than I ever remember having. I used to walk around in a perpetual state of exhaustion, longing to crawl back in bed for a few more hours of sleep. I also used to "crash" every afternoon, thinking the moment when I could crawl into bed could not get there soon enough. Since I have cleaned things up I have abundant energy, even if I am tired! This probably sounds confusing. Let me explain: Even if I am tired because I did not get enough sleep, I still have energy and feel good. I also no longer crash in the afternoon. I rarely even think about taking a nap and the times that I do it is more to relax than from exhaustion. I love how much I can get accomplished with this new-found energy and how good I feel while I am doing things.
MENTAL CLARITY
I used to walk around in a fog. I had terrible short-term memory and it would take me longer than it should to complete tasks because I would have trouble concentrating. I always felt "foggy." Now, I feel alert. I feel sharp. The fog has gone away.
DEPRESSION
I have struggled with depression on and off my entire life, but I thought I had it pretty well under control; however, I did not realize just how depressed I was until I cleaned things up and the depression faded. I used to feel terrible all the time! Now, I feel positive. I feel good. I feel happy. OK, I feel amazing!
SPIRITUALITY
This is an area that I never would have thought would be affected by eating healthier and eliminating harmful personal care products and cleaning products, but it certainly is! I now feel so much closer to my Heavenly Father and have developed such a great appreciation for all of his creations. I feel like a wedge between He and I that I didn't even know existed was lifted. My thoughts turn to Him much more frequently than they used to. As I learn to rely more on nature to provide me with what I need, I am more and more amazed at how awesome everything He created for us is.
EMOTIONS
I am now feeling emotions on a much deeper level than I used to and I am affected by things more than I used to be. It's like before, my emotions were dulled or even numb. Now, they are awake and I feel like I am experiencing life in a much more vivid way.
It saddens me deeply that most Americans consume or use large quantities of additives and chemicals in their food and other products that cause physical, emotional and mental damage. I believe, however, that most people use these products because they do not know how harmful they are, hence the name of my blog: Ignorance is Blissfully Fatal. I do think though, that if educated, people would choose to cut back on their use or no longer use them. I hope that I can share knowledge that will help others to take control of their health and wellbeing so that they can experience life unburdened with depression, fatigue and health problems.
Awesome, Shea! I was wondering if the rest of your family has experienced similar feelings since your family made the change. Have you seen a difference in the attitudes of your children? In what ways have they changed? How does your husband feel?
ReplyDeleteYes! We have all felt much better since making the changes we have.
ReplyDeleteAs far as my kids go, I have two children. A 3 1/2 year old boy with autism and a 2 year old boy who does not have autism. My older son made HUGE gains when we cleaned up his diet. In addition to eliminating preservatives and dyes, I also eliminated gluten and casein (proteins in wheat and dairy) from his diet (and ours for the most part to make things easier) because there is a lot of evidence that says these proteins affect autistic children negatively. Within 6 weeks of cleaning up his diet he went from maybe 2 word phrases to 5 word sentences! He began to play with his brother, use the words "yes" and "no," make eye contact, respond to his name and began noticing other children around him. (All things he did not do before the diet.) And this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as his improvements are concerned. Although I am sure the gluten and casein has helped him, I know for certain that he is very sensitive to preservatives and that they affect him negatively. For example, if he has nitrates (which are in bacon) be becomes very irritable and aggressive for a few days. It's like I have a different boy. He won't make eye contact and is just in a foul mood! It takes about 3 days to wear off. I can't believe that I used to feed him food that contained preservatives all the time!
My other son also shows reactions to preservatives. He too will become irritable and aggressive if he eats preservatives. Sometimes I make the mistake of thinking he can have a little bit since he dose not have autism, but this is a no-no! It's bad stuff and he needs a clean body just as badly as Jackson does. SO, I'm trying to make a real effort to only feed them clean foods.
I'm working on the husband! He eats whatever I give him at home and agrees with everything I present him with, but he will still have stuff at work that is not the best for him. When he does eat healthy and eliminate the junk he can definitely feel a difference. It's honestly hard to feel a difference as long as you are still allowing even a little bit of the bad stuff in; however, there was a short period when he ate completely Raw. During this time he felt a big difference. He had a lot more energy and better bowel movements (may be TMI for some of you, but this is critical to good health). He is definitely interested in doing more to improve his eating habits and he is continuing to make changes. I'm just glad that he is on board.