Health Challenge

I have decided to take part in a 90 day health challenge. When my fifth baby was born I didn't loose the extra 25 pounds I gained. I have made token efforts to exercise, but with my SI joint permanently damaged (that's what I have thought for the last 8 years) there wasn't much I could do. Now that I am healing and my body is so much stronger I have decided to set some goals. The ones I have set are:

• Be able to do 3 pullups (I can't even do one right now).
• loose 10 pounds
• Run a 5K
• Swim a consecutive mile

My boys are training me. The other day after I came in from digging weeds out of my garden for three hours Reuben asked, "Have you done your workout?". Ugh. So I attempted the push ups and weight exercises on my list.

Today, we spent two hours at the pool, stopping at the climbing wall first. I LOVE that my SI joint is healed enough to do this. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but to me, IT IS A BIG DEAL! Thanks to what Reuben calls our #CaptainAmericaSerum, I can do so many things I couldn't before.

#CaptainAmericaSerum

Marvel is a household name for us. My boys are pretty sure all the characters are real. Reuben's best friend has him in his phone as Steve Rogers. They make Marvel costumes and films in their spare time. When Garrett comes home, they plan to do a marathon with all the marvel movies. When we started taking our supplements, Reuben renamed it "Captain America Serum", and it stuck. They would never start at water polo game without it, and when I look at them, I think it is well named! I don't want to look like them, but I am looking forward to a little more definition!

End From the Beginning : Part 2

At the end of the swim season a few months ago, I wrote about a friend to all three of my boys. We were all heart broken that he didn't make it to state his senior year, after coming so close the two years before. It was so hard for him, and all of us. Jennifer Dotson, told me of her heart break in high school at not making the madrigal choir, and then how much more it meant that she made it into the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. She reminded me that we don't know the end from the beginning. Well, I have the coolest thing to report to put closure to this post!

David took Chem 1010 as a concurrent enrollment course at SUU this year year. Reuben reported last week that on the final exam, he got a perfect score. It was only the 5th perfect score in SUU history! The fifth perfect score of every chem student, not just concurrently enrolled students. It was such a big deal that SUU bought him a car! That is incredible! As a high school senior, competing will college students, to get a perfect score! Only the fifth in the schools history!

I love this because it is a very quick example to all of us, especially my children, that when God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window. God has a compensation plan! Life can be hard, but the sun rises, and a new days come, better days.

This time it's Sophie!

We have been taking our supplements now for nearly two months. Everyone is feeling healthier, but last week, something miraculous happened! My youngest, Sophie, has been struggling with some health challenges for a few years. More than three years ago she started having intense stomach aches. Like screaming bloody murder for hours. Early on, I took her in and each time the doctor did some tests, and called them stomach migraines, which means, "we don't know". I know enough about health, and having gone through IBS in the late 1990s I knew that gut health and probiotics  are critical. I started making sour Kraut and trying to get my authentically stubborn red head to eat healthy. My boys go on long fasts from sugar and center their lives around healthy eating and sports, but my girls....

Then two and a half years ago I noticed an alarming lump on her neck. She was snuggled up next to me in church and I found this large grape sized lymph node. It was so large you could see it from a few feet away. So I took her in, and they ran more tests. She had tons of blood work done which revealed dangerously low white blood cells. This led to more tests, including one for leukemia. They were all negative. So the functional medical doctor put her on lots of supplements to boost her immune system. The lymph node remained the same alarming size. She remained on the supplements for two years, with no change. I think her health was a little more stable, and we had a few less stomach migraines. We tried to incorporate lots of sour Kraut and fermented foods and immune boosting herbs.

Sophie started taking our new supplements a few weeks after I did and had been taking them for almost 6 weeks when one day I placed my hand on her neck and couldn't find the lymph node. Startled I searched more thoroughly. I found it, but it was very small. I was amazed! With grateful interest I watched it every day for the next few weeks as it disappeared completely. I can no longer find it at all! She hasn't had a stomach migraine in well over a month. She seems stronger and healthier. Once again, I did not expect this, but I am so grateful! Of all the improvements we have watched in awe, this one I am most grateful for. And I'm saving money too!

There is help out there! Sometimes it takes years of searching to find it, but I it is worth the search!