Day 2 (hold on to your big girl panties for this one)

Well, yesterday I bundled up my three little kiddos and made a very special trip to our local health food store. I've read alot about our bodies pH levels lately, and knew there were strips to test mine. Thankful that there was a nice, helpful lady behind the counter where they can mix up specialty concoctions, I approached her with one simple question. "Do you have those strips you pee on to check your pH levels?" Sure enough, they had them! She said they just started carrying a new kind that only needed the saliva from your mouth to test, but they had just run out of those. That's okay, I thought. I've been peeing in cups for 3 years straight in order for my OB to check for protein. I can handle doing it once more. The little box I bought cost me $9.99 and held 30 strips. On the back of the box is the graph you hold your post-peed strip up to to compare the colors and see for yourself where your pH level lies. Also picked up 2 packs of blueberries for the kids. They beg and beg and beg for these things. It KILLS me how expensive they are this time of year though. I can buy an entire bag of animal crackers for what, about $2? And those would last me weeks. But blueberries, in January cost me $10 and I've hid them in the back of the fridge so they'd last us 2 days. :( Anyway, back to the strips. My mom said she read somewhere that the best time to test is the first thing in the morning. So there they sat, on my bathroom counter, waiting to show me just how acidic I really am. Baby #3 woke first the next morning. Jumped out of bed (well okay, just rolled) to have a quick snuggle in the rocker while she nursed. Her room was dark enough that she thought it was still night-time, so I took advantage and placed her back in her pink-paisley'd crib. Hubby had gotten in the shower, and I headed in to say good morning. Not the shower, just the bathroom. :) Saw the strips laying there, calling my name, and got a spark of energy! There was no way I could test in THAT bathroom with HIM in there, though. We may have been married for 5 years, but there are just some things that a classy woman who is trying to maintain some mystique can't do! So me and my strips headed downstairs to the powder room. Pull the strip out, pee, and hold it up immediately to the chart. Ohhhhh.....ahhhh....not so good. Yep, I'm acidic. Who would've guessed!? A diet rich in animal products, processed foods and sugar can do that to a gal. :) In case you never paid attention in school, here's a quick review. The pH scale starts at 0 and ends at 14, with 7.0 being the preferred safe number. I scored a 5.5. Seth tested as well, and he scored 5.0. Yikes. So, needless to say, we have a lot of work to do. Maybe by now you are asking yourself "Why in the world is my body's pH so stinkin' important!?" Boy oh boy do I have answers for you. :) Not all of them of course. Here are the things I am learning as I read. In 1931 a man by the name of Otto Warburg won a Nobel Prize because of this: he could prove that the #1 cause of cancer is a lack of oxygen in and around our cells. Cancer feeds off of an oxygen deficient environment. An oxygen deficient environment is caused by acidity. Is this making sense to you? Therefore, acidity is bad. Very, very bad. On the flip side, an alkaline environment fills our bodies with oxygen! The more oxygen in our cells, the best chance we have at inhibiting cancer to spread and for it to even start in the first place! At this point in my "blogging", I feel saddened. My grandmother died of breast cancer after fighting it for many, many years. I can literally say I saw her slowly die right before my very eyes. Was there ever a time while sitting in a waiting room preparing for her date with chemo, that the doctors office supplied a friendly candy jar to occupy their anxious prisoners? And did her aforementioned doctor ever have the slightest hint that the main ingredient in that piece of candy was only causing her sickness to have a small "happy hour" party. I would LOVE to have alittle one-on-one chat with every single cancer doctor in this country. I know nothing, but I am learning tons, and I wonder why doctors quickly jump to shock treatments without giving any hope of what a different lifestyle could do. Two years ago my middle child developed a thick, dry, yellow scab on his head. Terrified, I ushered him into our conventional pediatrician's office. Guess what she did? We were written out a prescription for a steroid cream to use multiple times a day, because she wasn't sure what it was. Thankfully that prescription was never filled, and we quickly found out (by process of elimination) that he was allergic to the wool hat we covered his cute little baby head with. My blood pressure is boiling just recalling this story to you, the unknown reader who is probably hoping that by now I wrap up today's blog. :) In conclusion, here are a few quick tips on how to reduce the acid and become more alkaline: go raw! Raw foods (green leafy veggies is what we're looking for) are life-giving, therefore usher in gusts of oxygen to our cellular environment. Cut back on animal products too. Acid acid acid. :) Stress is also acidic. You can go completely 100% raw, and still have an acidic pH because of the stress in your life. Yoga, massage, even just warm baths can help in that area. But, I'd have to say, there's nothing quite like taking your burdens to the Lord. :) Well, I'm quitting for now. Maybe blogging was a bad idea. A book might've been wiser. smile.