Acupuncture Helped Me!

 I have lived with ovarian cysts for many years of my life. I went to my regular yearly checkups complaining of pain during (ah-em) sex and horrible periods. (I mean horrible!!!) My pain was dismissed and they gave me everything in the book to help with the painful intercourse , and suggested birth control to control the periods. So not knowing better, I tried nearly everything the doctors suggested and the only results were continued pain, weight gain, irritability and a sense of numbness to the world (birth control side effects for sure!)

After two years of this nonsense, they thought they felt a cyst on my ovary during one of my routine exams, so I was shuttled off to the ultrasound. There, they found a softball size cyst (obviously the reason for the painful intercourse). They couldn’t believe I wasn’t in more pain. They recommended Vicodin for the pain and surgery to avoid contortion of my ovary. Of course I went with the surgery. During surgery they removed the cyst and found a copious amount of endometriosis and scraped that out as well. They said the bad periods were likely caused by the endometriosis. So after the surgery and the recovery time, I found intercourse less painful and more manageable periods.

Almost two years later, I was in Texas for a convention, and I had the worst- I mean- I think I might need to go to the hospital or maybe I am having a miscarriage kind of period. It hadn’t been that bad since high school. Upon returning home, I found out that the cyst had reared its ugly head once again. Only this time there were a few more with it. I had one BIG one on one ovary and two smaller ones on the other ovary. I am told once again that surgery and Vicodin are my only choices. Was this really going to be my life every two years?? I had no idea the cyst would return after surgery the first time. I did not want to accept this as the new norm for me. I had started looking at more holistic approaches, but was skeptical. Would it really help? Would it really work? Uh----hello, surgery didn’t! So why would I do that again and what did I have to lose?!  At least if I tried something new it might not work, but what if it does!!! So, I asked my doc about a holistic approach, and to my surprise she recommended an acupuncturist in town that specializes in women’s health and fertility. WOW! Are you kidding me? I was so surprised that she didn’t laugh at me and then she actually gave a referral. Thank you!! She did suggest given the size of the cyst that I have regular ultrasounds done at her office while I was doing the acupuncture. That way she could monitor them, and if surgery was still needed we could do that. I was all in. 

A week later, I had my first appointment with the acupuncturist. Keep in mind, I was still new to this idea (and a skeptic) but I went in with an open mind. She asked me many questions about myself, my food habits, she looked at my tongue, took my pulse etc. She suggested that since the cysts were so big already, that we take an aggressive approach and meet every week until they were gone. She was sure to remind me that, given the stage of the cyst I may still need surgery and then I would need to see her after for prevention and maintenance. She also said the main difference between Western Medicine and Chinese medicine is that Western medicine wants a quick fix; a band aid per se. Chinese medicine is about prevention and maintenance. It isn’t a quick fix and patience is necessary. With all of that said, I started seeing her once a week in September. 

After going for about a month, I returned to my regular doctor. Ultrasound showed the cysts had not changed. Remembering what the acupuncturist said about patience, I continued to see her despite not seeing immediate results. The appointments with the acupuncturist lasted about an hour each session and they consisted of her checking in on me, and putting about 12-15 needles from head to toe, including my belly. She also hooked the needles in my belly up to a machine that simulated movement of the needles ( in China women would twist the needles between their fingers to help stimulate the process even more) obviously that is very time consuming, so the machine did the work. It felt like a warm vibration throughout my body. Very cool actually!

In the first few weeks of starting Acupuncture.

 I also took a special herb that she gave me. I went back to my regular doctor a month later (end of Nov. ) and still cysts were there and in fact, I now had more little ones. I felt deflated and thought for sure acupuncture was silly and not going to work for me. My doctor recommended that we book a surgery date for the beginning of Jan.  We would do one more ultrasound in December, and if still no change then we would have the surgery date set. Feeling the worst scenario was coming true, I continued to go to acupuncture through December. I went in for my final ultrasound and low and behold… the little ones were all gone and the big one had shrunk considerably. I no longer needed surgery! I was so excited. 

I continued to go acupuncture every other week to continue the prevention and I stopped taking the herb. I decided that I wanted to go to my regular doctor every 6 weeks for an ultrasound and follow up to see if there was any re occurrence. During that time the cysts stayed manageable if not gone completely. I did notice that they tended to come back cyclically (during my periods) but never in the size or volume that they had before. Come June, I decided that acupuncture was for me! I stopped the regular ultrasounds and was happy knowing if I felt good everything was good!

 I have now been going to her once a month for about 3 years.  In that time, my cysts have become a non-issue, sex has felt better than ever, my periods are like clockwork (well, before I got pregnant :) ) with hardly any pain before or during, and she has since then helped me with some fertility issues. More on that later! I highly encourage you if you struggle with woman's health and fertility to research acupuncture as an option. I sure am glad I did. Please feel free to comment below with your story, or any questions you may have for me.
Check out more posts on my website 

Simple Starter Smoothie

Ever wanted to start drinking smoothies? Ever feel overwhelmed with ingredients, recipes, bad blenders, and where to even start? I did too! Honestly, for me I started making smoothies regularly when two things happened. First, I got a Vitamix blender for Christmas from my sister! I never knew how easy making a smoothie was until I got this blender. A-MA-ZING! Before I had a terrible blender that could hardly chop up spinach let alone hunks of frozen fruit or almost whole veggies. I literally would get all my ingredients in the blender turn it on and it would shake and spin right off the counter if I wasn't careful. It looked like it was doing a whole lot, but no blending of ingredients was actually taking place.  Frustrated, I put the idea of making smoothies on the shelf. Then came along the Vitamix! My world was turned upside down. I could blend ANYTHING!  I started looking at recipes and was quickly overwhelmed with the amount of ingredients that went into them. Having them all on hand and finding a recipe that I wanted to chance all my ingredients on was proving to be harder than I thought. Then, thanks to my girls once again at Revita5, I learned simple and tasty recipes that I could master. Once I learned them and loved them, I could build off of them, add, and tweak my recipes with limited failure. It was so much fun and so tasty. I love starting my morning off with a serving of fruits and vegetables. For the past two years this has been my morning routine, and after about a year or so, I finally got my husband to drink them every morning as well. This is a WIN WIN! I always have these simple ingredients on hand and no longer have to measure anything out! I thought you might appreciate a simple starter smoothie, even if you have been making smoothies for awhile, everyone could add this simple recipe to their arsenal. Make sure to check out my website for more recipes and ideas.

Simple Starter Smoothie

What you need

*serves 2 or 1 big one

2 cups of  unsweetened almond milk (try my homemade almond milk)

 ( If you buy your almond milk, I recommend Califia brand) 

A big handful of spinach

1 cup of frozen fruit ( can use fresh as well)

1 banana

Step One: Add 2 cups of almond milk ( can use regular milk, coconut milk, hemp milk etc. We just love it with my homemade almond milk) to the blender, follow with a handful of spinach, about 1 cup of frozen fruit (I used blueberries), plop in one banana. (I added 1 teaspoon of Chia seeds on this particular morning.)

 Step Two:  Blend. I start off on a slower speed and work my way up to high. Make sure it is well blended. If smoothie doesn't seem to mix well, add a little more liquid until it starts to blend together.

Step Three: Pour into a glass and enjoy. This recipe usually makes enough to fill two, 16oz. mason jars.

Feel free to play with this recipe. Don't be scared, ANY fruit will do. You can change spinach out for kale, try different milks. I have even used avocado or oatmeal flour (ground up oats) in place of bananas when in a pinch. This is only the start of a beautiful journey to feeling more vivacious in the morning!

Simpler Times

Simpler Times

Have you noticed that kids' toys have changed over the years? They used to be simple and fostered creativity and imagination. These days you can only find high action, light up toys that over stimulate even me! Kids are no longer encouraged to use their imagination, the toy does it for them.  My husband and I often crave a slower more simpler time and as we wait for the arrival of our first child, our conversations often turn to the toys and activities we want our child playing with regularly. So instead of just pining for this lost past time we decided to recreate it. My husband is pretty handy if I do say so myself, so he got to work and created this adorable, simple wooden toy truck, first in it's fleet. We look forward to adding more wooden toys to the collection. I would love to hear your feed back on the toys today and what you do as a family to help stimulate creativity and imagination for your children.

 Click here to learn more or buy

Snowy day Hot Chocolate!

I don't know about you, but when the snow finally starts falling all I want is a tasty cup of creamy warm hot chocolate! Today is one of those days. First snow day of the school year, my dog and I cuddling together by the fire (yea, just kidding, no fire, but a girl can dream!), and I can't get hot chocolate off my brain! Those hot chocolate packets are what I used to reach for (and still do in a true snow day emergency) but lately I have been wanting something tasty and also not terrible for me. Sometimes that is a hard combo to find. But with inspiration from the girls at Revita5, I now have an (almost) perfect recipe for just that!! It is not as sweet as the traditional stuff in a packet, but it is so creamy and delicious it is my go to Snow day Hot chocolate!!! I use my homemade almond milk in this recipe, but you can use store bought, or regular milk. Whatever you have on hand, because hello! it is a snow day, which means you are staying in your pajamas at home all day! I still tweak this every time I make it, looking for the perfect recipe, but this is pretty close!

What you need
*serves one
1 cup of my homemade almond milk
1 tablespoon of vanilla
2 tablespoons of 100% cacao powder (you can add more depending on how chocolatey you want it.)
1-2 tablespoons of honey (depends on your desired sweetness level)
* original recipe called for maca powder, I have not tried this yet. But you can play around with it!

Add all ingredients to a blender and blend. Taste test and see if you need to add more cacao powder or honey for desired sweetness or chocolate goodness!

 heat over the stove, but don't let it boil.

Pour into your favorite snow day mug and enjoy!

*this tastes a little different than your traditional hot chocolate, but so worth it and WAY better for you. Plus you get the added benefits from the almond milk and the cacao powder.

Almond Milk

I know many of you may have switched ( or are considering a switch) to almond milk from good old dairy milk. Maybe you are lactose intolerant or just prefer the added benefits of almond milk. The past couple of years I have started to pay more attention to what is IN my food. It's just food right? Wrong. So much of the food we eat and drink is chemical laden and quite possibly not at all what you think it is. Many of the almond milk brands on the market today barely contain actual almonds. What is in it then you ask? Chemicals, fillers, oh and yes! SOME almonds. After learning to pay attention to the details of what is in my food and drink, with the inspiration from my sister, I started to make my own almond milk. I love knowing exactly what is in my milk; almonds and water,  just as it should be! This is so easy it will knock your socks off!  Plus, If you can buy your almonds in bulk it is equal to or less than the price of almond milk in the store. You can not beat that!

What do you need:
2 cups of almonds
6 cups of water
Sturdy blender ( I highly recommend Vitamix brand)
Nut bag Try this one
Bowl

Step one: Cover two cups of almonds with water in a bowl and soak covered with a towel overnight on the counter. (two cups of dry almonds makes about 3 cups of soaked almonds)

Step two: In the morning drain and rinse almonds.

Step three: Add almonds to blender and add 2 cups of water per 1 cup of almonds (6 cups of water in this case)

Step four: Blend, slowly turning up the speed, until you get a creamy milk color and all almonds seem blended.

Step five: Then in a bowl, strain your milk through a nut bag, squeezing gently. Squeeze until it feels like all of the milk has been drained out and you are left with almond pulp in the bag, ( I compost this) but you can just throw away as well.

Step six: Put in a Mason jar or pitcher and refrigerate for up to three days. Milk will separate in the fridge so just give it a little stir before you use it.

Step seven: Enjoy fresh, pure, creamy almond milk.

This will make you about 5 cups of delicious fresh almond milk. You can add this to your smoothies, make vanilla almond milk, use it in your cereal ( I love this homemade granola recipe), make hot chocolate, enjoy it in your homemade pumpkin spice latte, or leave it up to your imagination. The possibilities are endless.