Permaculture Agriculture – The Transition to a Sustainable Future

“We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” Albert Einstein.

Permaculture stands for permanent culture. It is an ecological method of design that shapes many practices, including farming.

The term permaculture was first coined by two Australians, David Holmgren and Bill Mollison. However, many of their design ideas were inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka’s sustainable farming methods. The founders of permaculture recognize that a change in farming is needed. A change in culture is needed as well – a change in the way we view the world.

American culture, and indeed Western culture, often sees human beings as somehow separate from nature, that nature is out there and we are in here. Anthropologists don’t necessarily see such a demarcation from us and nature and neither do permaculturists. Not only are human beings a part of nature, it is optimistically believed that we can do more than mitigate our harm to the environment. Through the active implementation of permaculture principles, we can actually improve the environment around us.

A Grassroots Movement

We don’t need negativity to promote change. Negative emotions interfere with creativity. Bill Mollison believes that positive change is more effective from bottom to top, than it is from top to bottom. If we wait for change to come from the politicians, we could be waiting a long time. Change yourself. Change the way you garden. Change could come from one neighborhood at a time, rather quickly. Permaculturists believe that we must be the change we seek to find in the world.

Permaculture methods are similar in some ways to organic methods of farming, but the differences lie in matters of degree, sustainability, and working within an improved upon ecosystem, instead of trying to work against it. Permaculture doesn’t allow the use of any chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides, while organic farmers can use a short list of approved chemicals. Permaculture also doesn’t allow the use of motorized machines or plastics as their use is not sustainable in the long term. Despite these prohibitions, permaculture techniques are designed to be less labor intensive than industrial farming.

Working Smart and Not Hard

Permaculture espouses thoughtful planning in place of protracted labor. To this end, Bill Mollison’s book suggests planning from the home dwelling out, with zone zero starting in at the center.

Zone zero would apply permaculture principles in an effort to reduce energy use, efficiently use water, and utilize natural resources such as sunlight. From outside the home, the most labor intensive crops are placed as close to the main dwelling as possible, and a compost pile/bin for kitchen waste and a greenhouse would be nearby. From there in concentric circles, crops and livestock are placed out from the main dwelling. The last two zones are the wild and semi-wild areas used for firewood and as a habitat for wild plants and animals. The placement and contents of zones 2 and 3 are primarily determined by the amount of labor needed to maintain the zones and their relationships to one another. The relationships between different plants, crops, and livestock are carefully considered in the planning stage of a permaculture farm. It is these relationships of one element to another and their maintenance requirements that determine the design of a permaculture farm.

How Plants Can Benefit Each Other

One such relationship is the symbiotic relationship between leguminous plants and nitrogen fixing bacteria. Leguminous plants are among the best known nitrogen fixing plants, but literally thousands of plants are known to help fix nitrogen into the soil. Many of these nitrogen fixers are not in the legume family. A useful permaculture technique is planting nitrogen fixing plants alongside food producing plants. This is done both with indigenous plants and pioneering plants that are well suited to the area. (With so many thousands of plants that fix nitrogen into the soil, it is a wonder why anyone uses nitrogen fertilizer).

Nitrogen deficiency is one of the most common limiting factors for the growth of crops. Nitrogen fixing trees are the most commonly used nitrogen fixing plants in permaculture designs. Permaculture stresses the need for bio-diversity, so when given the option, using a wide variety of nitrogen-fixing plants is ideal. A large variety of food producing plants also helps to prevent pest infestations.

Natural Pest Control

Pest control in permaculture is achieved without the use of synthetic chemicals due to their destruction of the soil and the destruction of the natural balance. For example, encouraging ladybugs to proliferate in your garden is usually a more successful method of controlling smaller pests such as aphids than spraying pesticides. After all, a ladybug can eat up to fifty aphids in a day.

When insecticides are used to control aphids, two things invariably happen. By a process of selection, the aphids with some inherent resistance against pesticides will survive and go on to breed the next generation of pesticide resistant aphids. Meanwhile, the ladybugs are killed off due to their far greater rate of exposure.

The ladybugs that do survive the initial pesticide exposure will succumb to the poison after eating a number of the surviving aphids. Their exposure increases with each aphid they eat until the amount in their tissues becomes too high for survival. All that remains are pesticide resistant aphids in greater numbers than before because the pesticide application killed off most of the aphids’ natural predators.

The goal is to use and encourage beneficial organisms – to have them do the work for you, to work in harmony with the natural order instead of working against it. You can put in ladybug habitats and spray ladybug lure to attract them. When you make conditions favorable for beneficial organisms, you can watch them make themselves right at home in your garden or on your farm. If you need a jumpstart, you can purchase many beneficial organisms online and have them delivered to your door.

Fighting Biology With Biology

In some parts of Australia, grasshoppers are such a problem that the guinea fowl is an absolute necessity. Before choosing a permaculture site, many Australian permaculturists will look for areas where the guinea fowl have chosen to live before buying land. In the outback, they also utilize small ponds dug out by the fruit trees to provide a habitat for tree frogs or rock piles to attract lizards. Both frogs and lizards help eat the remaining pests that the birds miss.

Slugs, grubs and aphids are not necessarily the most challenging pests to most home gardeners and farmers. Ants are often a more difficult challenge. Not only are they known to bite, they have also been known to cultivate aphids. That’s right, Homo sapiens are not the only farmers in the animal kingdom. Ants have been known to spread aphids to your plants so the aphids can feed on your plants and the ants can then feed on the aphids’ sugary secretions. Ants also occasionally prey on the aphids as well, making it a complex relationship, not really a symbiotic one. Ants secrete a toxin that inebriates aphids and makes the aphids easier to control.

Obviously, two pests in one can be double the trouble. Pouring boric acid over ant hills has been known to slow down ants, but it will not stop them. As soon as boric acid gets wet, it is no longer an effective control against insects. The answer is to fight biology with biology. Beneficial nematodes are one solution a permaculturist might utilize.

Heterorhabditis bacteriophora nematodes are parasitoids that prey on ants and dozens of other garden pests. They are harmless to mammals and other vertebrates. They patrol the soil to a depth of seven inches eating anything they find savory like fleas, weevils, ants, beetles, etc. Again, they can be purchased online.

With careful planning, pest control can also be a task delegated to your livestock. But pest control is only one goal of many. Chickens and ducks are known to eat pests while they fertilize the soil with their waste.

Why placement in a farm or garden matters

In Bill Mollison’s chicken model, he describes four separate elements to a farm that can be used to benefit one another or they can be placed to stand alone without any relationship. His example includes a chicken coop, a pond, a greenhouse, and a forest. By placing all four of these elements next to each other, a beneficial relationship can be realized.

The forest provides shade and forage to feed the chickens. When the temperature rises with the midday sun, the chickens leave their coop due to the high heat. They find shade and food within the forest. In the forest area, if pests were left unchecked, they could harm the trees and other plants. The chickens’ manure also helps to fertilize the forest.

When the chickens are in their chicken coop, their body heat helps to keep the greenhouse warm. The pond placed next to the greenhouse reflects additional sunlight and warmth back to the greenhouse and to the chicken coop.

Placed separately, these aspects of a farm do next to nothing to benefit one another. When placed together, a more harmonious relationship is realized.

How Our Efforts Can Improve the Environment Around Us

Permaculture seeks to reproduce what hundreds or thousands of years of natural processes can do to the soil in a fraction of the time, in a more controlled and productive design than what would be rendered by natural processes alone. Conserving water in a permaculture design is a top priority. All known forms of life need water; life on the farm is no exception. This is typically accomplished by three methods, and when used together, the results are amazing.

The first and most difficult step is to alter how water flows over the land. This is done by altering the contour of the land so that it will retain water. After a rainfall, water will typically flow off of the land and into the nearest stream or river. By altering the contours of the land, water can be retained. This helps provide sufficient water for the plants and the microorganisms in the soil.

Another common technique is to bury wood and/or charcoal beneath the plants. This practice helps to retain water in the soil, and it retains nutrients for plants that they can utilize as needed.

Finally permaculture uses mulch as a final step in retaining water. When water would otherwise evaporate due to the heat, it is trapped beneath a layer of leaves, pine needles, or other mulch such as wood chips. As the mulch breaks down, it also serves as fertilizer for the plants.

Take a good look at the next wooded area you walk by. I’m willing to bet that things are growing like crazy. The main reason for this growth is the layers of leaves and natural mulch that serve the area by retaining water.

As biological beings we will always impact the environment around us, but a permaculture principle is the notion that instead of having a detrimental impact on the environment, we humans can have a beneficial impact on our environment.

Beyond Organic

Organic agriculture is often described in terms of what it isn’t rather than what it is. There is a good reason for this. For far too many organic farmers, the only difference between their farm and a conventional farm is the list of chemicals they are not allowed to use on their crops or the restrictions place on the feeding and care of their animals. To many permaculturists, the strides made by organic farmers, though commendable, are far from adequate. Permaculture can be better described by what it is, rather than by what it isn’t.

Permaculture was invented to address the shortfalls of agriculture, to take several steps beyond all-natural, organic farming. The overall idea is to drastically change the methods of production, to promote logical, interactive, natural processes, and to create a healthy, sustainable, permanent culture of productive, truly organic farming.

Our Survival Depends On It

Despite what sci-fi movies often suggest, if we destroy the Earth there really is nowhere left to go. Our survival as a species depends on our ability to live on Earth and not exhaust our resources. A permanent culture is a culture that can survive indefinitely. Changing culture, changing the way in which we view the world, is phenomenally difficult, but our survival as a species is certainly worth the effort.

 Further Reading:



The Discovery Of the Superoxide Dismutase – An Enzyme and An Antioxidant

Like many great discoveries, the first antioxidants were discovered by accident.

Joe McCord was looking for the function of a different enzyme when he chanced upon a mysterious enzyme that seemed to be present in every form of life except anaerobic bacteria, bacteria that does not need oxygen to survive. In the beginning, neither McCord nor his mentor, Irwin Fridovich, understood the purpose of this enzyme, which they named superoxide dismutase (SOD), but they were convinced that it was important.

This discovery was the beginning of research into antioxidants and free radicals. In the late sixties, when McCord and Fridovich first published their findings, their research was received with little enthusiasm. Most of their peers did not grasp the importance of antioxidants and their role in human health and vitality. Now, decades later, we know a great deal more about how free radicals are generated and the role antioxidants play in the body to protect against their damage.

What Are Free Radicals?

Free radicals are molecules that are inherently unstable. In an effort to become more stable, free radicals will steal electrons from other molecules in close proximity. This electron theft makes the victimized molecule more unstable, and it in turn will steal electrons from other nearby molecules in order to become more stable, and so on. This chain reaction of robbing Peter to pay Paul can cause a great deal of cell damage, as well as cell death.

Free radicals are all around us; they are not easy or even possible to avoid. Many diseases and injuries create free radicals in the body. Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, asthma, cancer, influenza, sinus infections, and yeast infections all create free radicals. Injuries, even minor ones such as sprains, muscle aches, and strains, all generate free radicals. Toxins generate free radicals and toxins are everywhere – in our food, water, and the air we breathe. Even if our air was perfectly clean, simply taking in oxygen throughout the body generates free radicals.

Unavoidable Free Radicals

Oxygen molecules generate what is collectively known as oxidative stress. Oxygen is actually highly corrosive. Most of us don’t think of it that way because we need oxygen to live; without oxygen our cells would quickly die. But taking oxygen into the body generates a free radical superoxide, an unstable form of oxygen. Obviously, there’s no way to avoid this. Oxygen is just one of our unavoidable sources of free radicals. Metabolizing our food also creates free radicals. Sunlight, smoking, radiation and even eating burnt food can create free radicals in the body.

So why aren’t we all dead yet? That’s where antioxidants come in.

How Does SOD Work?

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is both an enzyme and an antioxidant that protects against the free radical, superoxide. SOD changes this free radical to hydrogen peroxide. Unfortunately, hydrogen peroxide is still a free radical. SOD then works in concert with another antioxidant, catalase, to change hydrogen peroxide from an unstable free radical to water, a stable compound.

SOD is produced in the body from three minerals: copper, zinc, and manganese. Good sources of copper and manganese can be found in whole grains and nuts. Good sources of zinc include egg yolks, milk, oatmeal, nuts, legumes, and meat.

Antioxidant Supplementation

Joe McCord, now a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, thinks we should find ways of supplementing our diet in order to increase the two antioxidants in our bodies that do most of the work: superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase. According to McCord, these two enzymes are the antioxidants that neutralize 99% of the free radicals in our bodies. By McCord’s reasoning, if we can get the body to produce more of these two antioxidant/enzymes, our bodies would be far more efficient at fighting free radicals.

McCord and his coauthor showed how a supplement containing five plant extracts simultaneously increased the body’s production of SOD and catalase and also decreased the markers associated with oxidative, stress-related aging. Their supplement contained green tea, turmeric, milk thistle, ashwagandha (also known as winter cherry), and bacopa.

So when it comes to antioxidants, more is more. Don’t megadose on one nutrient; rely on several nutrients to do their work in combination. Joe McCord Ph.D, Lester Packer Ph.D., Sanjay Gupta M.D., and Don Colbert M.D. are among the many experts who believe that antioxidants work best as a team. When these nutrients are used individually, the resulting health benefits are meager, if at all. This is one of the reasons why the public is getting mixed results back from scientists about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of vitamins in clinical trials. It is speculated by these and other experts that antioxidants are far more effective when they are in our diet (either as a result of supplementation or through our food) in proportionally combined doses.

Most of the body’s antioxidant protection comes from the combined efforts of vitamins A, C, and E, SOD, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase. These antioxidants effectively prevent the majority of the damage that would be done by free radicals.

If we run low on these nutrients, cell damage can occur as a result. When Don Colbert M.D. was experimenting with different fasts for his best-selling book, Toxic Relief, he experienced this kind of nutrient shortage firsthand. On day seven of his water only fast, he noticed small white splotches had begun forming on the outside of his skin. Due to his medical training, he immediately knew what had happened; he had exhausted his body’s catalase, and his system was no longer able to convert hydrogen peroxide to water. Of course, he broke the fast immediately.

Antioxidants work synergistically. Increasing some antioxidants will help your body increase others. Take glutathione, for instance. Glutathione can both detoxify the body and neutralize free radicals. The liver manufactures glutathione from three amino acids: cysteine, glutamic acid, and glycine.

Glutathione can also be consumed in foods such as fruits, vegetables, fish, and meats. However, the amount of glutathione produced can be increased by increasing Vitamin C and N-acetylcysteine in the diet. The previously mentioned herb, milk thistle (one of the five plant extracts in McCord’s study that was shown to increase SOD production) can encourage the liver’s output of glutathione by as much as 35%!

Vitamin C and vitamin E are well known antioxidants. Vitamin C can protect the water soluble interior of the cell, and Vitamin E can protect the cell’s fatty outer membrane. These nutrients can get pretty complicated. For instance, there are eight different kinds of vitamin E. High doses of vitamin C, or any other nutrient, wouldn’t offer this kind of protection without the combined help from other antioxidants.

Many people believe supplemented forms of antioxidants will do them some good, but they don’t often understand that when it comes to supplemented antioxidants quality really matters, and it isn’t possible to get everything you need from pills alone. Some vitamins that also act as antioxidants are of such poor quality that they are of no benefit and may be actually harmful. Many of these detrimental vitamins are derived from petroleum. For example, a common synthetic form of vitamin E is dl-alpha-tocopherol or dl-alpha-tocopheryl. This form of vitamin E is actually more harmful than going without any vitamin E supplementation at all.

Conclusion

Antioxidants (and many other nutrients) are naturally found in many foods. Antioxidants (the ones that scientists have discovered so far) are especially high in the following foods: artichokes, apples, blueberries, blackberries, black beans, red beans, kidney beans, carrots, cherries, cruciferous vegetables, citrus fruits, cantaloupes, watermelon, pecans, romaine lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, garlic, onions, leeks, pumpkin, cabbage, green tea, and milk thistle tea.

The healthiest diet is an 80% Raw Food Diet. When 80% of your diet is comprised of raw, fresh, organic produce (more vegetables than fruits) your body receives the benefit of nutrient dense foods loaded with antioxidant vitamins and enzymes. To increase nutrition, you may want to add Doc Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula to your diet. Here’s the recipe to make your own.

Sources:

The Seven Pillars of Health by Don Colbert M.D.

Chasing Life by Sanjay Gupta M.D.

 



How to Detoxify Every Day Without Going Through a “Detox”

In its natural, healthy state, the body is detoxifying at all times. Breathing, digesting healthy, clean vegetables, using our muscles, or just being alive creates toxins in the body that need to be expelled.

With today’s typical modern lifestyle, toxins are accumulating in the body at a greater rate than the body can expel them. Not only do we have much higher levels of toxicity, many of the toxins are not normally found in nature. Once the body is in that vicious cycle of toxic accumulation, disease will set in, organ failure will eventually occur, and doctors will blame it on genetics or age.

Disease has one cause: cellular malfunction. There are two causes for cellular malfunctions: lack of nutrition and too much toxicity.

It is no wonder “detox” is the buzz word amongst the natural health enthusiasts and healers. The problem is, even amongst the natural health crowd, there is a tendency to eat poorly and detox once or twice a year with a juice fast or a smoothie binge, which is typically done in a way that feeds the body way too much sugar, which for most people completely negates the detox.

Now for the good news: your body can handle a remarkably heavy toxic load if you’re getting proper nutrition, enough sleep, your gut flora is balanced, and your gut is healthy. The human body is better off with lots of toxins and lots of nutrition, than it is without nutrition. This does not mean you can eat like crap and take a supplement and then expect to be healthy. Junk food robs the body of nutrition and it unbalances the intestinal flora, leaving the gut in dismal health. If you live under power lines, talk on your cell phone all day, type on your laptop for hours on end, and eat too much Fukushima, parasite laden sushi, you can still be healthier than most anyone you know if you do the following:

How To Detoxify With Diet

Produce detoxifies the body. This is especially true when it’s organic and raw. The trick is to eat a lot of it, to eat a wide variety, and to eat more vegetables than fruit. Make yourself a huge salad with 15 different vegetables and lots of herbs and spices like garlic, turmeric, cilantro, etc. Your base can be kale, collard greens, spinach, or anything leafy that’s not iceberg lettuce. Shred carrots, beets, and radishes.  Throw in some pumpkin and sesame seeds. Don’t worry, we’ll have a link to a recipe at the end.

The thing is, all of those previously mentioned ingredients are known to increase organ functionality, build up optimum cellular function, prevent disease, and expel toxins from the body. Many of the vegetables and herbs can even dispel BPAs and other man-made toxins from the body.

We are supposed to eat a lot of produce. For many years, longer than we’ve eaten any other way, humans foraged for vegetables growing out of the ground. We would walk, all day, walked, see an edible food, eat it, walk some more. It’s estimated that before we used grain agriculture we ate up to 8 pounds of produce a day! Meat takes a lot of effort to find, prepare, and digest. Fruits and nuts were seasonal, but herbs, leafs, and such are always just popping right up out of the ground. Other omnivores can be seen doing this, even wolves. They prefer protein, but they eat vegetables all day, too, in the wild.

Raw, organic vegetables expel toxins from the body in a multitude of ways. Eat as many as you can. Make a big salad every day. Here’s a recipe.

Drink To Detoxify

Make yourself a gallon of cranberry stevia lemonade a day and drink it. If you can’t drink a gallon, don’t kill yourself trying, but most people can do that just fine. The lemon balances the PH and helps boost the liver’s ability to detoxify. The cranberry keeps the kidneys going strong. The water flushes out the body. There’re many more benefits, but those are the biggies. Don’t use a sugar to sweeten it, use stevia or no sweetener. Also, always use distilled water, or unadulterated, naturally mineralized water from a trusted spring source. Here’s the recipe.

Take a Whole Food Multivitamin/Mineral Formula That Detoxifies

Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula helps the body expel toxins. All of the ingredients play their part, but of particular note are the chlorella and the spirulina, which are not only some of the best sources of protein available, they are powerful heavy metal chelators. (They bind with heavy metals and expel them from the body). Here’s an article to Make Your Own Total Nutrition (or buy it here).

Balance Your Gut Flora

It’s hard to detoxify when your gut flora is full of Candida. Nothing works right when yeast is abundant in the whole body. Candida isthe, or one ofthe, foundations for almost all illnesses. Kill the Candida and limit refined foods and sugars (agave, brown rice syrup, coconut sugar, fruit juices, etc.) from the diet. “Healthy sugars” are sugars found in whole foods. The aforementioned sweeteners feed yeast. Balance the gut flora with salads and cut out the excess sugars. Health will follow. Out best on gut flora is How To Kill Candida And Balance Your Inner Ecosystem.

Breathe Properly

Proper breathing, believe it or not, is an awesome way to help detoxify the body without putting out any effort. What is proper breathing? It’s breathing from one’s abdomen so that the rib cage and stomach expand as you breath in. Most people breath in a way that causes the opposite to happen, making for shallow breaths. This is a nervous breathing pattern we’ve adapted due to our modern, low but constant stressful lifestyle. For more on proper breathing, see How To Breathe.

Conclusion

Most people can repair the body this way without supplements, but supplements do speed up the process. For those dealing with serious or long-term health issues, or those who do not have access to organic foods, supplements may be required. Virtually everyone in modern society has an overabundance in Candida. To speed up wellness, you can knock out Candida fast with Formula SF722, Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanse, and FloraMend.

If you are very ill and in need of a more radical approach to getting well quickly it’s time to learn about Candida, Leaky Gut, and more.

Recommended Supplements:
Further Reading:


Marathon Running: The New Counseling for Couples?

Relationships are hard work. Sometimes they suck. But sometimes (most of the time, hopefully), you wouldn’t want to be with anyone else. Everyone faces the same difficulties from time to time. Arguments can happen. They’re normal, but they shouldn’t be tolerated.

That’s why I want to talk to you about how marathon running can help your relationship. Whether it’s the strongest it’s ever been or you’re nearing a divorce, marathon running, as a couple, could be the best thing you could do for your relationship. Literally, the best thing.

Getting your spouse to run will be half the battle, and convincing them can seem as plausible as convincing them you’re a witch with eight toes and can fly on a broom. But it must be done.

Here’s a list of reasons why marathon running can help your relationship:

1. You’re in it together

Cheesy or not, it’s true. You’re not alone, and you’re not just  friends. You’re with someone you’ve dedicated your life to – someone who understands you. Someone who feels the same as you do about them.

You’re going to experience some rough patches, times when you want to rip your partner to shreds. It’s all part of the journey, the journey that you will be embarking on together. Together is the key word here. You’ll both smell worse than the breath of a dog after eating its own excrement, but at least you’ll smell like it together. That’s all that matters.

Put all that behind you, and it can be fun. You’ll each have your own goals. You’ll be more empathetic with one another. If nobody can be bothered to cook or clean, it won’t result in a fight. But it will result in  “put your feet up and watch TV for a while.” When times get tough, you’ll begin to appreciate one another more. Who needs conventional counseling when you can run a marathon?

2. Anger outlet

Being angry is never a good thing. It sucks, and it’s the root of all evil.

Imagine this. You’ve had a rough day. Your boss is annoyed that you didn’t finish your report on time. Your friends don’t have time for you right now. There’s absolutely nothing good on TV for you to watch. You just got a bill from your credit card company that seems like someone’s playing a nasty trick on you. As you can imagine, you’re having a bad day.

Now, DO NOT let your anger get the better of you. Go for a run with your partner.  Discuss your feelings. Use this as an opportunity to show a bit of that good ol’ emotion. You’ll feel resoundingly better afterwards, and you probably won’t even care what your boss has to say. You could even turn it into a game: just don’t get fired.

3. The marathon itself is worth it

The training is just the start. The 26.2 mile race is just a distant thought. But when you’ve done the training, you’ll know you’re ready for the marathon. The journey with your partner only gets better from now on.

Not only will you be running alongside your partner, but also the thousands of other runners in the race. Not to mention all the people watching – chanting your name as you run past them.

The excellent thing about this is that your partner feels the same. You’ll be running together and get to experience the same emotions. Nothing says, “true love” more than enduring torture together and getting through it. Just remember that it gets easier. Not only the running, but being a couple. Because being with one person can be hard sometimes.

And, just a warning: crying like a baby at the end is not uncommon.  I don’t care how much of a man (or woman) you are. Don’t hold back. Don’t be emotionless. If you cry, you cry. If you’re a “man,” you may feel your masculinity take a hit, but who cares? Don’t try and please other people. If they mock you, then stuff ’em.

4. Sharing travelling experiences

We know marathon running is a continuous, never-ending sport. If you’re lucky, you’ll be 90 before you consider taking a much needed break. You don’t just run one marathon and stop there. That’s not how it works. If you’re a serious runner, you’ll run as many different races as you can. This means you’ll have to travel. A lot. To other countries, states, and cities.

But it doesn’t stop there. You’ll be with your partner the whole time. Providing the plane or car doesn’t crash in the process, you’ll find yourself traveling the globe in search for the best marathons. And you’ll run them together. Sure, it can be expensive, but so can any other hobby. The experiences are ones you’ll never forget.

Just don’t spend your days away from home cooped up in your hotel room. Get out. Experience the culture. Do something you’ve never done before. Go skydiving. You only get one opportunity. Don’t waste it. Do something fun with your partner. It’ll be worth it.

Conclusion

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Marathon running is, in time, going to be something that couples participate in to grow, heal, and strengthen their relationships. Think outside the box. Make your spouse read this article, from top to bottom. It could be the start

Have your spouse read this article, from top to bottom. It could be the start of something great, even if you feel your relationship is as healthy as it will ever be.

Further Reading:



No More Gluten – How I Found Health After MS

Putting the Pieces of the Puzzle Together

Learning how to become healthy again after being diagnosed with a chronic, debilitating illness (of which the medical community says there is “no cure”) is like putting a puzzle together when you don’t have all of the pieces. I’ve actually learned a few things in the last 11 months since my MS diagnosis. I realized that I either have celiac disease (which is a disease that causes intestinal damage upon the consumption of gluten) or I, at the very least, have gluten intolerance. Either way, I avoid gluten.

The Baklava Incident

I went out to eat with some girlfriends. I did this every Friday, so I knew how to stick to my program at a restaurant. On that day, however, we got to talking about how well I was doing. I shared with them how I was able to get off of all of my medications simply by changing what I ate. I told them I was better – walking better, feeling better, and having more energy. I thought, “I’ve been good. I’ve stuck to my program so well I deserve some baklava.” It was delicious, but I couldn’t sleep that night because my stomach was turning in knots and my legs, which had been peaceful for three weeks, started to spasm again. I told myself, “Baklava doesn’t taste this good. Nothing does.”

Unwittingly Eating Couscous

I unknowingly ate gluten after eating only raw, mostly organic produce for two months. I made some couscous (which I didn’t know was wheat) and ate it for four days in a row for my evening meal. On day three, my MS symptoms started coming back. My right foot dropped and I was tripping, just like when my symptoms first started. I was also losing my balance and had a hard time walking up and down stairs. Once I realized the connection, I limited my diet to organic produce again and I used Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanse and his Blood Detox for a few days. My symptoms were gone within a week.

Gluten Intolerance

I’ve got my theories as to why there is a sudden rise in gluten intolerance lately, but they’re merely theories. What I do know is that right now, and possibly forever, I cannot eat gluten and be well. I can have certain wheat products like the Total Nutrition Formula, which has wheat grass, but wheat grass, if properly harvested, does not have gluten.

This is how gluten affected me. With other conditions, each person with gluten intolerance may experience different symptoms to different degrees. The most common gluten intolerance symptoms revolve around gastrointestinal issues such as bloating, constipation, gas, and diarrhea — these symptoms occur because the body is unable to digest and absorb gluten properly. Some individuals may also experience heartburn, acid reflux, nausea and vomiting. Gluten intolerance may also cause anemia, unexplained weight loss, fatigue, joint pain, headaches and irritability, mouth ulcers, a white coating on your tongue, an itchy skin rash, or open sores on the skin. Some individuals may experience gluten intolerance symptoms after consuming a small amount of gluten, while others may be able to eat small amounts of gluten without experiencing any major symptoms.

The most important thing I learned is that the safest way to eat is to limit myself to raw, fresh, organic produce. With anything else that I am going to eat, I need to be totally sure it does not contain gluten. I’ve learned that my digestive system will be damaged, and those MS symptoms will come back if I eat wheat or any other grain that contains gluten. And I’ve also learned that anyone with a damaged digestive system needs to stay away from gluten to heal. Check out Balance Your Ecosystem and Make Your Own Multi-Vitamin/Mineral. Check out the first source for my story about being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Recommended Supplements:

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Yes, Cold Weather Can Make You Sick – Scientists Finally Confirm What We All Knew

We’ve all been told, “Get a coat on or you’ll catch a cold!” Many of us have ignored this advice. We’ve been told by educators and those “in the know” that cold weather doesn’t make us sick, viruses do. New research shows Mom was right, and the so-called “experts” didn’t know what they were talking about.

Research has now shown that viruses spread more effectively in guinea pigs kept in cooler conditions than those kept in warmer conditions. Epithelial mice cells kept in cooler conditions were more prone to viral infection than those cells kept four degrees (Celsius) warmer. Yale researchers found that in epithelial mice cells, colder conditions helped viruses to thrive. In a human study, the participants who soaked their feet in ice water developed cold symptoms in greater numbers than the control group of participants whose feet were kept warm.

Beyond the Cold Conditions Lie the Answer

Typically, there is more than one cause for anything and “catching a cold” is no exception. It is true that without some exposure to pathogens (like a virus) cold weather alone will not make us sick. For years, researchers forced cold conditions upon research participants in a sterile environment, and sometimes they even exposed them to viruses. Afterward, they declared that cold weather has nothing to do with infection rates and cold can’t give you a cold. In reality, it is far more complicated than that.

Several studies are showing new evidence as to how cold weather effects the cold and flu season. A variety of factors are at play here, including our exposure to pathogens like viruses, temperature’s effect on a virus, the temperature’s effect on our immune system, stress and its effect on our immune system, and our tendency for greater exposure to infected people in the fall and winter.

Without a doubt, cold weather alone will not give someone the cold or the flu. No matter how cold you get, getting cold in and of itself will not cause a viral infection. If you get cold enough, it is possible, even probable, that you can get hypothermia, and that can kill you. You must be exposed to a virus or another pathogen in order to get sick. (Exposure is frequent; some experts say fairly constant.) Cold weather does play an important role in the annual flu season during which 5-20% of Americans catch a cold or flu.

Cold Weather Makes Viruses More Durable

In cold weather, viruses enjoy extra protection from the elements. The outer membrane of many viruses (including the influenza virus) is primarily made up of fatty-like substances known as lipids. At temperatures around freezing and below, this outer membrane hardens and solidifies into a robust gel. This gives viruses extra protection during cold weather. As the temperature rises above freezing, the outer membrane of a virus becomes less solid – more of a gelatinous liquid. At temperatures of 105 degrees and higher, the viruses’ outer covering is liquid with no real solid form. This diminished protection can leave the virus damaged or destroyed by the elements.

Lowered Immune Response Due To Cold Weather

When human beings become cold, one of the unfortunate side effects is constriction of the blood vessels. Our white T-cells are transported via our blood vessels, so getting cold can inhibit your immune response. Also, the stress associated with being really chilled causes the body to release the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol does facilitate some necessary functions, but too much is a bad thing. Too much cortisol also inhibits the immune system.

A Tendency To Go Kamikaze (Apoptosis)

Cells have the ability to self-destruct. It is not something commonly done, except in the most dire circumstances. If the cell’s survival is impeding the survival of the larger organism, cells have been known to off themselves as a form of altruistic sacrifice. (The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one). Cells infected with a virus are sometimes able to do this in order to slow the viruses’ spread. Warm cells are more eager to self-destruct than cold cells, which…well… sometimes get cold feet.

Every year as winter approaches, the earth receives less direct sunlight for either the northern or the southern hemisphere. (When it’s summer in the northern hemisphere, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere, and vice-versa). Obviously, this is a gradual process. During the winter, there are fewer hours of daylight in the day and less direct sunlight. Most of us also spend more time indoors. This has a tendency to depress some people. That general feeling of malaise is not caused by our preference for warm weather, alone. The more likely culprit for that blah feeling is a lack of vitamin D. Our bodies require sunlight to synthesize vitamin D. Vitamin D plays an important role in our immune defense and in maintaining our mood. In the winter months, we are likely to be running low on this crucial vitamin.

Conclusion

As previously mentioned, when it comes to catching a cold or the flu, exposure is key. Even before the weather gets cold in early fall, many people come back from vacation, students start college or school, kids are brought back to daycare, and people tend be around each other in enclosed areas more than in the summer months. This combined with other factors tends to make for good conditions for viruses and bad conditions for us.

Does this mean you or your kids should always bundle up before venturing out into cold weather? Nah. A little virus battle is good for us. Try making your immune system strong enough that viruses don’t stand a chance and take some risks. Check out Bullet Proof Your Immune System.

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Clean Your Home Cheaply and Easily Without Toxic Chemicals – DIY

So, you’ve decided to get healthy. You’re going all the way. You’ve cleaned up your diet. You’re exercising regularly. What’s left to do? Detox. But first, you need to take a good hard look at the chemicals you use on a daily basis and get rid of them. Dump the toxic shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, after-shave or perfume, soap, lotion, make-up – whatever it is you put on your body and pretend your skin doesn’t soak right up like a sponge. Come on; face it. Whatever we put on our skin is drawn right into our bloodstream.

Whatever we breathe is taken right into our system as well. As soon as you are through tossing out the toxic products you use on your body, toss the toxic solutions you use to clean your home. Here are some great replacements for the noxious, dangerous chemicals you have been using.

How to Clean Your Bathtub

For years I’ve leaned over the tub and scrubbed with any number of cleaners from conventional to green alternatives. There are a number of ways to clean a bathtub. Not one of them comes close to this method. It is by far the easiest, cheapest, simplest way to clean your tub.

After you are through washing your body, let out half of the water. Now soap up your washrag, scrubby mitt, or whatever it is you use to wash yourself. Use it to wash out the soap ring around the tub. That same soap ring you have struggled to clean with numerous sprays and powders immediately dissolves when faced with plain old (better be organic!) soap. Just rub in a circular motion and rinse. Do this every time you take a bath and your tub stays clean.

How to Clean Your Oven

The Healthy Food Team suggests this ingenious, easy method of cleaning your oven.

Apply a paste of baking soda and water to the surfaces in your oven. Let it sit for 12 hours. Use a wet towel to wipe out the oven the next day. Spray vinegar on any residue that is left. Again, wipe with a wet towel.

How To Clean Your Floors

Mop your tile, linoleum, and wooden floors with a mixture of water and vinegar. Just add ¼ cup of vinegar to 2 gallons of warm water. Or add a few drops of your favorite essential oils to warm water.

How To Freshen the Air

Boil citrus peels in a pot of water, spritz the air with water mixed with essential oils, or use a diffuser with essential oils. Better yet, open your windows and let in some fresh air.

How To Clean Your Carpets

Various sites suggest using cornmeal and/or baking soda for a dry clean of the carpet. No way I am putting cornmeal into the carpets. One of the reasons carpets are so hard to get really clean is that they trap dirt between the mesh that holds the carpet fibers together and the padding underneath the carpet. Why would you want to get edible bug attracting food caught there?

Baking soda? Now that’s the way to go. You not only can get carpets cleaner by sprinkling baking soda on the carpet and then vacuuming it up, the carpets will smell better as well.

You can use plain hot water to wash your carpets or you can add essential oils or vinegar to the water. For spot cleaning, try spraying with a vinegar solution of 1:1 vinegar to water.

Remember that the first thing to do when anything spills on the carpet is to blot, blot, blot. After dabbing, stand on that towel to soak up anything that is trapped under the fibers. Then pour a little bit of boiling hot water on the area and blot it again.

Other Cleaners

Make sure you purchase truly green cleaners for washing dishes and clothes. This is not just for the environment – it is also for you! Remember you will be ingesting any chemicals that come in contact with your dishes and your skin will soak in any chemicals that come in contact with your clothes!

As far as other cleaners, use baking soda, lemons, salt and vinegar as much as you can to replace those toxic chemical cleaners. If you do choose to purchase cleaners, read the labels well – beware of “greenwashing”. Just because it says natural, doesn’t mean it is.

Detox

Now that you’ve cleaned all of those toxic products off your shelves, it’s time to clean their residue out of your body. Many chemicals are endocrine disruptors; others erode our health in numerous ways, including gut inflammation that disturbs the proper balance of bacteria so essential to all processes of the body. For a complete detox, we recommend Doc Shillington’s Total Detox .

You may also want to check out the Cheap and Easy Detox Diet Plan.

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