What stretches do you do in the morning? I always so stiff in the morning ugh. Also, I already elimate dairy and limit gluten. Alcohol is like once a month for me. What benefits do you see taking eggs, meat and caffeine?? I've never heard of flower essences?
I lay on my back, draw my knees up with my feet still flat on the bed, put a pillow on both sides of me, at knee position, keep my back flat on the mattress and stretch both legs together side to side, holding it as long as I comfortably can on each side for at least 3-5 reps each.
I lay flat on my back, draw one knee up, cross the other leg over it (as if you're seated), and push down as far as I comfortably can and hold it for at least 3-5 deep diaphragmatic breaths, then repeat on the other side three times each.
Still flat on my back, I do the lotus pose and hold it for at least 3-5 deep diaphragmatic breaths.
I stretch my arms up over my head and hold them for 3-5 breaths for at least 3 reps.
I scoot my butt around to the head of the bed and do the legs up the wall yoga pose on occasion, but not everyday.
I chose to eliminate the caffeine after learning how badly it was harshing my adrenal glands' groove and after learning of the other nasties that are put into many of the beverages I used to love like soda (especially diet sodas and ginger ale), gatorade, energy drinks, flavored teas and waters, etc. I thought I was steadily hydrating myself by choosing so many different drinks throughout the day, but I was depleting my body of a lot of stuff in the process. I got rid of artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, food-like substances etc. as much as humanly possible. Coffee was the hardest to let go, but I found roasted dandelion root tea and it comes a close second in flavor. Kombucha helped me get off the sodas and beer after I discovered it at a music festival, on tap. It's a fermented tea. I don't drink it any longer, either.
I chose to let the meat, dairy, and eggs go the day after my gall bladder attack two years ago because of already having switched about two-ish years prior to that where I was
only eating locally raised, grass fed, free range, "humanely" slaughtered meat, dairy, and eggs, and of course eating a lot less of it all due to those options costing much more than the typical store bought options....however, I continued to weigh in around 300 lbs, still had more pain than I could handle many days (although giving up gluten did help a great deal with some of the pains), still had insomnia like a mofo, was still anxiety-ridden, brain felt like it was stuck in a dense fog (giving up gluten helped a little with that, too - gluten was my gateway gut/mood connection discovery), dealing with awful bowel and digestive issues, especially with any stress taking place, and had been diagnosed with so many different things, while none of what I was being given as a remedy was helping.
I also read a book about mucus forming foods (Mucusless Diet Healing System - Revised and Annotated version) and many other things discussing the debris left behind in our bodies when eating certain foods and how important it is to healthily eliminate what we ingest, learned more about food combining and timing, learned more about rational fasting, went back and re-learned how my various systems (digestive, respiratory, endocrine, etc.) work and what fuels it all the best based on my specific needs, and was fortunate enough to have a local plant-based healer/master herbalist/iridoligist help guide me through the drastic transition stages, along with a few other practitioners, all of whom were willing to barter, luckily.
I also stepped out of my perceived comfort zone and looked behind many curtains to see the whole story about how each thing I ate and drank arrived at my table, along with many other things I used in my day to day living. I was swimming in a sea of tox-sick-city, big time, to say the least, but it was all stuff that seemed so normal based on how I'd been raised, so I was really confused and not very comfortable with my changes, but I stuck with them, miraculously.
I visited several dairy farms in addition to a few others raising animals for meat. I live in a big ag area, so I'm surrounded by chances to look deeper, sometimes whether I want to or not. I currently live within ear shot of hearing dairy cows crying out for their babies/moms after they're separated. I noticed that I didn't recall ever observing any other species that continues to consume dairy into it's teen/adult years. I learned we absorb not only the "products", but also the energies of the things we eat, and after seeing/hearing what they go through, especially in the larger big industry scene, I was no longer okay exchanging any of my energies, be it monetary or otherwise, to encourage any more of that shit. Environmental impacts played a part, too.
I learned most folks can function quite healthily on a well-planned plant-based whole food vegan lifestyle with proper supplementation, so I dove right in and haven't looked back. Changed my life in many positive ways, also opened my eyes to many things I wasn't ready to see. Hardest damn thing I've ever done, but the payoff equals the effort. I also learned that just because something is vegan does not mean it's healthy. Not even close. Yet another hard-learned lesson, along with the multiple challenges of learning how to navigate my surroundings among all the things I no longer consume. Yikes.
Bach's brand flower remedies is the first place I ever heard of flower essences, then my master herbalist friend mentioned them, then I looked them up myself based on the flowers we have growing on our land. I refused to pay what they were asking for the retail stuff, so I learned how to make them. I posted a thread about my limited experience with them a while back:
Are Flower Essences Really An Effective Healing Tool?
Hope that helps explain a bit better. Apologies for being so long-winded. Peace.
