For most of my adult life, I have been very health conscious as far as what I eat. For 8 years after John and I were married, we were vegan vegetarians (after learning about the meat/dairy industries, and the amazing health benefits of whole foods). After that we added in what we considered "healthfully" produced animal products, like eggs from free range chickens, grass fed beef, and fresh goat milk although the bulk of our food is vegetarian. We pretty much avoid white sugar, bleached processed flour, and caffeine.
At times, because of health concerns (like asthma/allergies ) we even have looked into the all raw diet--consisting of raw fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds. Believe it or not, people do thrive on a raw diet if done properly; however, to eat the quantity of raw organic produce you would need to get enough calories was not practical or affordable for us. We also have found that for a daily diet, with our big busy family, it is hard to maintain very strict or complicated diets (ie having to juice multiple times/day or make a lot of raw dishes). Furthermore, when our bodies started to break down from all the stress in our lives and our adrenal glands were taxed, we found that diet alone wasn't enough. We had to supplement.
When John was going through extreme adrenal fatigue, he was hardly functional physically. He would often "crash" in energy, having to suddenly go lie down and couldn't be a part of the family activity, and we made several ER trips for weird symptoms like dizziness, exhaustion, palpitations. We finally figured out it was likely adrenal fatigue, and he needed to eat often (to keep his blood sugar up), take naps, and take a lot of vitamin supplements to support his body. Gradually he did improve and he is doing so much better...thankfully that happened before Joshua went in the hospital!
So in addition to the everyday life of having 9 kids, having gone through 2 international adoptions and adding 3 special needs kids to our other 6, I had a husband whose health had deteriorated , a daughter with chronic Lyme Disease, and then a son in serious condition at the PICU. Oh, did I mention that since we moved to this house, that our well would go out sometime mid to late summer and we'd not have enough water each day for laundry and all the dishes? Add trips to the laundry mat in our spare time. And, yes, there were van problems, farm animal issues, and broken laundry and dishwashers thrown in there too. That all to say, my own adrenals were taxed from chronic stress and lack of sleep. Joshua being in the PICU 45 minutes away (and my husband staying there and communicating to me by phone the days we didn't visit) meant I didn't sleep very soundly either :) Praise God, Joshua made a miraculous recovery and is doing so well now! (see previous posts about him).
I share this because I know that many other people deal with chronic stress like we have. Maybe not the same circumstances or health issues, but I'm guessing that you have your own challenges.
While I used to be a health nut guru who thought if I just ate a healthy diet, I'd be healthy....I came to realize that there is more involved than just diet. Stress, environmental toxins, sleep, pesticides, lack of nutrition in our soils, lack of exercise.....so many things can play havoc on your health.
Right before Joshua went into the ER, I started using some supplements made with natural (mainly plant derived) products from Plexus with Annabelle, my daughter who was suffering with chronic Lyme Disease. Her Lyme story is a post in itself--I will share more later. I was desperate to help her find relief and had tried many things already.
When Joshua was in the PICU, my friend Julie encouraged me to take Plexus MYSELF to help own health so I could take care of my family's great needs. So I did, though inconsistently (due to all that was going on at the time as we in survival mode). Looking back, I believe that taking Plexus Slim as one way that God helped me physically to get through 5 months of him being in the PICU, and then the adjustment of him being home with a trach, on O2, and needing lots of supervision even at night--with no night nurse for several months.
It makes sense. In our research as we tried to figure out how to help him recovery, John and I had learned how the body is greatly affected by blood sugar levels and by the health of our guts (Google "Leaky gut"), "Plexus Slim" works to balance blood sugar levels in the body, which results in the body not working so hard and leads to reduced inflammation, greater energy and weight management. It also helps to curb the desire for sweets (which helps with candida issues). I also took a special probiotic called Probio5 that not only resupplies the gut with good probiotics, but has enzymes to help break down and a natural antifungal. I've thought for years I had Candida issues due to symptoms I experienced which got worse if I had sugar or dairy (hard to avoid at the hospital ;) I had also struggled with strange anxiety/panic attacks and heart flutters/palpitations, which I learned can come from chronic stress OR Candida overgrowth.
A few months ago I started purposefully working on taking my Slim, Probio5 and BioCleanse consistently....and I can see a big difference. I am still working on the discipline of getting myself to sleep earlier, but I overall feel a lot more consistent energy during the day. When I have to get up to take care of Joshua, I can fall back to sleep! I don't get up a couple times a night to go to the bathroom now. I can sleep through when a nurse is here at night. I don't feel hungry all the time and overeat as before (even though I was eating healthy food) and I have less desire to snack. A big thing for me is that I have enough physical reserve to actually exercise. I can walk or exercise without feeling wiped out or on the verge of palpitations. I have a long way to go to be in shape as I'd like. but I feel like I can get there. And the biggest thing for me--is that the heart flutters/palpitations, anxiety and migraines that I experienced frequently have been rare occurances.
SO THANKFUL! I shared my diet history so you could see why I am not someone who would think that there is a miracle pill or drink that will do it all. I still don't! I don't eat whatever and expect Plexus to be a quick fix.....we try our best to eat a healthy diet that includes lots of quality water, fresh fruits and veggies (organic when we can, peel the rest :),and whole foods. I was hesitant to try Plexus at first because my strong belief that diet was the best cure, but sometimes the body needs more support. There are so many physical ailments that people suffer from today--many that didn't exist years ago--I think partly because of the food supply being deficient in quality but also the stressors we face in daily life, from environmental toxins to traffic to medical bills to aging parents to childhood diseases to antibiotics and processed food. Everything takes a toll.
I think that is why, when people take Plexus and their blood sugars start to normalize and their desire for processed, sugary low nutrient foods goes down and their gut heals, people start to FEEL BETTER--from a variety of problems. You may already be on supplements that work for you. but if you are not and if you have any health concerns that just might be helped from these natural supplements, please look into it. It is so worth a try. I'd be happy to send you more information if you email me at
childrenpreciousinhissight@gmail.com. If someone else already shared about Plexus with you, I encourage you to ask them about it!
If you were one of the people who prayed us through those hard challenging times, thank you and God bless you! And if you read though my very long post, bless your heart :)
