Most eco- friendly potty training method

Done with Doula training.

So I'm done with my doula training and I learned a ton! So excited! Now I'm on the road to certify. Doula today midwife tomorrow. On my way!!!


Here are some interesting videos I found. Some may agree or disagree with them. They definitely get you thinking tho. WARNING: May contain nudity, blood, laboring, laboring noises, beautiful babies and may make you cry.

Made raw bread and raw sandwhiches

Finally went to the health food store, bought a bunch of ingredients and made some raw bread. It turned out really good. I took some over to my mom to try out and see what she thought. Even my carnivorous husband liked it. I'm pretty pleased myself. Take a look for yourself.

DAY 3

So I'm feeling more empowered today. I woke up at 7 this morning and ran 5 min, walked 20 min. I probably went roughly 3/4 mile. OK well that's not the part I'm feeling empowered about but we'll get to that later. So with the running experience, I got winded about 30 seconds into running and I didn't have much endurance AT ALL!! The good news, I actually got off my butt and out the door this time. Yay me!!! I experienced leg cramps and hip pain the rest of the day. I'm hoping that the endurance comes with time, practice and patience and the hip pain ceases through better diet.

OK on with the empowerment. Ive been putting off the herb course because of the craziness with jobs, moving and planning a wedding. I went from having 3 months to having 3 weeks!!! OK people don't panic yet. So I figured there wasn't enough time to finish so I was going to just give up. I then realised that I'm not going to get anywhere in life constantly doubting myself, procrastinating and making up excuses. I decided it wouldn't hurt anything to at least try to make the deadline. I finished half a packet today and read half the book!! I think I may make it!!

Thanks to any of you who added my blog. I really didn't think anyone would care to read any of the boring stuff I have to say. It really gave me some encouragement and helped me keep pursuing my hopes and someday dreams. Thank you so much!!

SO HERE'S THE WAY IN (ughhhh)

Thighs: 25 1/2 inches

waist: 34 inches

Hips: 40 1/2 inches

Buttocks: 42 1/2 bodacious inches

I am a 5 "10 female weighing in at 150 lbs

MY GOAL

To be happy with my inner and outer being and feel accomplished AND HEALTHY

The measurements are really just a way to track the progress. It's always helpful to be seeing physical progress ,wither it's fitness or inner health, to keep you on the right track and going strong.

Food diary for Mon

Breakfast: 2 apples, strawberries

Lunch: salad with veganaise dressing

Dinner: 2 vegetarian burritos (dinner and late night is when I get the cravings and mess up every time. I need to figure out a way to satisfy those cravings)

Snack: cherries, pecans

Well wish me luck on tomorrow.

Much health and many blessings to you all!!!

Ok sorry everyone. Procrastinating is a huge habit of mine that I really am working on. I was really hoping I would be able to video blog by now but the 2 week new laptop I bought specifically with a web cam built in is perfectly fine BUT the web cam. The stinken thing wont recognize that it's there. Ughhh I seem to have an electrical curse over my head. But thinking positively, I'm practicing gratitude and patience and Best Buy has been really helpful through the whole ordeal.
Ive been meaning to post all my measurements but keep forgetting to buy a measuring tape. ,either that or I just don't want to see what they are,. So Katrina's home work for this week is to buy a measuring tape, get fat % and take pics. My deadline will be to have it all done and posted by tomorrow.
Some exciting news is that happy oasis is coming to Utah and their will be a raw spirit pot luck on Tuesday that Chris and I will be going to. I'm going to make sure to get pics and post the them along with recipes I find. I will also be making some raw pizza this week along with doing video clips on how to make it.
Many blessings to you all until next time!

Day 2

I'm going to give a brief summary on how I started raw.
I grew up in a somewhat health conscious home. We never had white flours or sugars. Everything was made with honey and whole wheat flour. We always had a garden , I dreaded weeding, and everything was home made. Eventually my mother came across the idea of raw food and decided to go raw. I believe that was about 6 years ago. Shortly after she went raw, I decided to try it. I was about 13 or 14 then and amazingly I went 100% raw over night for about 4 months. It was amazingly easy. I didn't even think about food. Cravings were non exist ant. I just don't think I was that unhealthy then and going raw was just the next step. Long story short, I gave up doing raw when I went on a week long church youth trip and there was nothing raw to eat there. Boy do I wish I had stuck to it then. It's not nearly as easy now as it was then.
I tried it again last March. I went from 80% to 90% raw until I went to Patagonia AZ in October to do an apprenticeship at the tree of life. I was 100% vegan, organic raw from October to December. The experiences I had there were unbelievable. I had such a great time and it truly changed my life. I FELT GREAT.
Well now to catch you up to where I am now, I went through allot of emotional crap on the last week of the apprenticeship. I had allot of emotional, physical, religious and relationship crap that took over my life. I stuck to the raw diet for about a month after the apprenticeship but the emotional stuff caught up to me and I gave in. It also doesn't help that I feel like Ive been living out of a box since December. Anyways I crashed and my need for emotional comfort through junk food gave in.
I weighed 135 lbs. in December and I am now back up to 150 lbs. My acne is back with a vengeance and the mood swings are driving my boyfriend crazy. I feel completely out of control.
I can tell you the only way to feel truly in control, stable and absolutely blissful, is to be on a raw diet. So this is my plan to get back on track and reclaim that inner happiness I so desperately want and need. 10 weeks 100% raw and 80% organic

These are a list of the symptoms I am currently experiencing.
1. mood swings
2. uncontrollable temper
3. really bad acne
4. water retention
5. over weight
6. cellulite on thighs (big sign of toxins in the body)
7. winded after walking only 2 flight of stairs
8. irregular periods
9. chronic menstrual cramping
10. sick every other month
11. lack of energy
12. depression
13. anxiety
14. insomnia
ect, ect, ect, ect

I am hoping that the list of all these issues I am having are down to at least 1/4 of what I have here at the end of 10 weeks. I will keep you all updated as my journey continues.
For anyone starting the raw food life change, your not alone. The movement is getting larger everyday and more and more people are experiencing the same things you are. It's not easy. One of the hardest things Ive had to do in my life. But it is so worth it!!!

10 WEEK CHALLENGE

Okay finally got the computer up and running.
This is the challenge. 10 weeks 100% raw, 80% organic. Along with that I will be training to run a 5K race. I want to eventually be able to run a full marathon but for now, I think the 5K will be enough for me. I am not in good physical condition at all at this time. I'll be doing a week by week update with measurements, fat percentage and symptoms good or bad.
This is the step by step plan I will be following.

Week 1:
Diet: 80% raw, 80% organic, 3/4 gallon water
Exercise:
Mon-run 2 min, walk 1 min. Repeat 10 times.
Tue- walk easy 30 min
Wed- run 2 min, walk 1 min. Repeat 10 times.
Thur- walk easy 30 min
Fri- run 2 min, walk 1 min. Repeat 10 times. Sat- walk easy 30 min
Sat- walk easy 30 min.
Sun-Rest
**Always walk 2-3 min before and after workout to warm up and cool down. **
DON'T PUSH YOURSELF

I will have all my measurements recorded and pictures for before and after along with a food journal. I want to see how successful I will be doing a 100% raw food diet along with training for a marathon. I want to see how well my health improves and see if you really do need to have a high protein ,meat, based diet to participate in high endurance sports or training. I believe that the base of your protein intake should come from a plant based diet,greens, . Victoria Boutenko wrote a very good book where she talked about the benefits of eating allot of greens. It's called Green for Life if your interested. I highly recommend it.
I found the training guide for the 5K on www.runnersworld.com. It's an excellent site to look at if you are an experienced runner or just a beginner and want to hit the pavement and see what you can do.
I will also be posting some video blogs along with my updates. Wish me luck!!!

Week 1

So a quick update. I have taken a small step forward which is good, but i know i can do better. I have started making a green smoothie everyday made mostly of mixed greens and frozen fruit. I'm trying to get myself to take E-3 live everyday. That will be my next big accomplishment.
Ive been trying to eat mostly salads but it's not easy when your working 12 hour shifts 4 days a week. So to solve this problem, I am making a pact to myself to make a salad the night before along with a big thing of green smoothie.
I have decided that i really dislike typing so i will hopefully be getting a laptop soon with a web cam so you can follow along that way.
Well I am off to practice my salad making skills but hopefully I will have more to write later!!
Much peace and blessings to you all!!!

Doctors take a stand against home births

Came across this article from USA TODAY. Thought it was interesting. I in no way agree with it. It's scary reading these articles and wondering if severe stands will be made and the push to out law home birth will actually happen and the job of Midwifery will be a job of an outlaw, delivering babies in secret away from the watchful eyes of the government and law makers. As scary as this all seemed to me at first, I then saw that amazingly there was a long list of mothers who replied to the article with nothing but great experiences of home births and the want to support midwifes who need it right now. The greatest tool the medical field uses today seems to be fear. Theirs nothing more powerful than totally freaking the holly you know what out of someone to make them do what you want. It's the power of intimidation.
Anywho off my soap box. Read the article and you can decide for yourself. Keep fighting for your freedom of choice!!


At its annual meeting a couple of years ago, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists distributed bumper stickers that featured a drawing of a stork dangling a sack of baby from its beak with the slogan: "Home Deliveries are for Pizza."
Last week, the American Medical Association's House of Delegates passed a resolution introduced by the ob/gyn group that says "the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate post-partum period" is a hospital, a birthing center in a hospital complex or a properly accredited freestanding birthing center.
"The AMA supports a woman's right to make an informed decision regarding her delivery and to choose her health care provider, and stresses that the safest setting for delivering a baby is in the hospital or a birthing center within a hospital complex," AMA board member Steven Stack said in a statement. "Serious complications can arise with little or no warning even among women with low-risk pregnancies. The health and safety of the mother and baby are our top priority."
Home births represent a pretty small minority of total U.S. births. According to a 2005 study in the journal BMJ, about only 5,400 women in the U.S. and Canada planned to deliver at home in 2000 with the help of a certified professional midwife, or CPM. (I doubt anyone has reliable information about the number of women who deliver at home with a so-called "lay midwife" who has not received any formal training or gone through a certification process). I suspect the number of home births has gone up since 2000, at least slightly, because increasing numbers of hospitals and doctors are prohibiting women who've had a C-section to attempt a VBAC, or vaginal birth after C-section, spurring some women to attempt them at home.
The BMJ study found that among pregnant women whose risk for complications was low, those who delivered at home had lower rates of medical interventions, such as epidurals or forceps, than those who delivered at the hospital, and the two groups had similar death rates.
According to the American College of Nurse-Midwives, certified nurse-midwives attended (midwives prefer that word to "delivered") more than 300,000 U.S. births in 2002, only a tiny fraction of which were at home. This article on the website of the American College of Nurse Midwives outlines some of the other major differences between nurse-midwives, and CPMs (a third designation, certified midwife, or CM, applies to someone who receives training similar to a nurse-midwife's but has another health-care designation, such as physician's assistant or physical therapist, instead of nurse). The National Birth Policy Coalition, an advocacy group, has launched the "Big Push for Midwives Campaign" urging more states to license and regulate CPMs.
Not surprisingly, the new AMA policy has generated a lot of discussion in the blogosphere, in part by people concerned that the doctors' group is out to get states to ban home deliveries (of course, the AMA itself can only lobby for such a ban, not implement it). Check out this post by Rachel Walden, a Nashville medical librarian who writes the Women's Health News blog, and this one from "Health Law Prof" blogger S. Elizabeth Malloy of the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

The "new" beginning

Well it’s been about 2 months since I came back from the tree of life and this is the somewhat drear update. I came back 25 healthy pounds lighter, clearer skin, happier, energized, spiritually awake and feeling great. It took me a measly 2 weeks to get back into unhealthy patterns. Now 2 months later, I’ve gained back 15 of the 25 pounds, my acne is worse than it was before and I’m falling back asleep. Yay me!! Ugggggg.
The positive news is that I saved myself for 10 days and went out to California for a class that Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova gave . She’s the maker of the film Birth as we know it. It’s an amazing film I recommend for anyone and everyone. It will truly alter your thoughts and expectations of birth and will change your life. I could go on and on about it but I will write more about the film later. The course Elena gave was an amazing experience and once again my true self bloomed. I felt inspired and on fire, wanting to do a hundred things at once. Sadly I came back to St. George only to fall asleep again (I really need to rid myself of this spiritual narcolepsy I seem to love).
Enough with the sadness depression and excuses!! I refuse to be a sleeping beauty any more. I want to enravish the beauty inside me and hide it no longer! It’s time to discard the scared weakness with no back bone and become empowered!! So here it goes. I’m going to list my aspirations and update at least once a week my progress. The New Year’s resolution thing starts now, even though it’s technically march.
1. I will start my path to become a mid wife this year. No more excuses of I have no money, I’m not good enough, and I don’t have any experience with birth on a personal level. I’m done with all that. The best time to start is now. While I’m young and have a clean slate. Nothing to hold me back.
2. I will be 90% raw and mostly vegan and organic. What was the point of 3 months training to become a raw chef and instructor if I don’t ever use it? Again no more excuses of I’m not good enough. It’s complete crap I feed myself.
3. I’m going to start running again and making yoga and meditation a part of my life. What’s the point of eating healthy if you’re not feeding your spirit and utilizing your energy? There’s nothing like a good work out to distress and feel good.
4. I want to become one with nature. Start camping, hiking, sleeping out under the stars and just start loving mother earth again. You’re nothing without a mother right? She gives you your body after all. Why not have a good relationship with her too.
5. Start healing my emotional crap and start throwing the baggage away. We all hold onto an amazing amount of emotional hurt and grief. It’s amazing that we all survive and function to the point that we do. It has done wonders for me so far and I just started. Why stop now?

So the next part is how do I complete all this? Where do I start?
1. Look into becoming an apprentice for a current midwife, do my home work, look into schools, prices, deadlines and look into where I want to go with it.
2. Buy a dehydrator. What is a raw foodist without their blender and dehydrator?, Stop eating out, find another out for my stress rather than taking it out on food, start practicing what I learned, share with others.
3. Well start running. Get off my lazy but, put on some running shoes and run!!
4. I love camping, sleeping, I walk every day so this shouldn’t be too hard, right?........
5. Start getting connected to other healers and throw myself whole heartedly into it.
I’m giving myself to the universe. I’m completely giving myself to her caring gentle hands. She’s our mother and wants only the best for her children. You can never go wrong in her arms. Just trust and let go. Lastly pray. Just keep praying and allowing love from father and mother, allowing myself to feel love from them.
Please just don’t give up on me. I’m not ready to give up. I won’t give up!!

Pictures from Cali

Elena and I

The whole family

Cool car at the farmers market in Chico Cali