Wellness Integration Part 1
Definitely not my first harvest, but gardening has been a supporting element in my health journey
Hi Gardening and Wellness Friends 👋🏼
Over the last 8 months I’ve focused on learning new healing modalities to incorporate into my life and to ultimately support you in yours.
I became passionate about health back in 2011. At the time I was caring for my dad who had kidney disease, and I was providing at home hemodialysis to him. I realized at that point there was more to health than what mainstream doctors were leading us to. Knowing what I know now, I would have supported him differently.
My journey started slow. I mean soooo slow. I am a product of the standard American diet, born in the 1980’s and raised in the 1990’s I was raised on hamburger helper, ramen noodles, tuna fish sandwiches, those gallons of brightly colored store brand sugary sweet juices, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Grandy’s, Red Lobster…..all of the super processed things that could be eaten, I consumed. So, when I made my health a priority, I started small and slow. I attempted my first garden the year before and harvested a few carrots and cucumbers, so this year I attempted it with a little more success. I changed my deodorant from traditional anti-perspirant to a crystal mineral deodorant. Then I switched my cleaning supplies to homemade. Then my personal care products and my laundry detergent I went with less chemicals. I stopped drinking sodas. Then I chose to purchase only organic fruits and vegetables. By that time, I was 3 years into making my health a priority. Each change took me months to make a habit. I was addicted to nicotine and caffeine. They went hand and hand. I realized I was making all of these great changes, but I was sabotaging my efforts. I finally overcame the challenge of coffee and cigarettes. That was in 2014.
The next several years I continued to perfect my health journey. I learned about the difference in grass fed and cafo meats and sought out farms that provided grass fed and finished meats. I felt I was doing all the right things, but I was having issues with my sinuses, my weight, inflammation, my GI tract and I wasn’t conceiving with my husband. I knew I didn’t want to go the conventional medical route, so I sought out a functional medicine doctor.
That was in 2016. For the next year this functional medicine doctor who was an hours drive one way had me purchase $300 worth of supplements each month. He had me remove wheat from my diet but had me replace it with any of the many gluten free products on the shelves and he had me do several fasts with his own shake supplement. The tipping point for me was reading that the main ingredient in one of those shakes was soy. When I asked him why he believed a diet filled with soy would help me, he said “Oh, it’s only for a short period of time”. I never returned to him.
I’ll continue in the next blog…...
🌿To our health and the health of our gardens🌿
Tina