Returning To Healthy

I was an over weight teenager back in the 70’s. I remember living on junk foods and sodas. Eating at McDonald’s was an every school day event. We were allowed to leave school grounds at lunch time and McDonald’s was just 4 blocks away. I carried bags of candy in my purse and usually ate it all.

These bad habits followed into adulthood. I quickly became obese which led me to dieting. I followed Atkins and lost weight. I quit following Atkins and I gained it all back. I tried Weight Watchers, lost weight and gained it all back once I quit following their plan. Then I started having children. During my pregnancies one would think I would have gained even more weight. But I didn’t. I gained an appropriate amount of weight for the pregnancy but actually lost some weight after the baby was born. I have since come to realize I was feeding my body for my child and not putting toxic junk into myself for my child’s sake. A light bulb SHOULD have gone on!

After having my children I fell back into old habits and continued to become heavier and heavier. Still dieting, losing some and gaining it back repeatedly. Never achieving my goal. All of this began to change last year when I began my journey to return to healthy. This is my story and if you are reading this, it is my hope you will join me in returning to healthy.

April of 2007 was when I first began to realize a change was desperately needed in my life. When shopping one day I stepped out of my truck onto something rather disgusting and slippery. I caught myself with my left leg from falling. At that time I thought it a minor injury and went on with my shopping. I gave it a few weeks of rest along with icing it. In some ways it seemed to be getting better. Then one day in early June while letting the dogs out I turned on this knee and felt a popping sensation along with searing pain. I was back to limping around and it was really starting to impact the quality of my life. I finally decided it was time to go see a doctor. The logical thing to do, right?

I visited my regular clinic (by regular I mean the one I only go to when I absolutely have to). I’m not very confident in doctors. I haven’t been for a long time. Mostly because in my experience they do not treat the cause of the problem, only the symptoms. And, often that is with drugs or antibiotics. The Nurse practitioner I saw had some x-rays done, and then decided to schedule an MRI. When the results of the MRI came in I was told by both her and the orthopedic specialist (OS) she sent me to that I had torn my meniscus. The OS told me I had the early start of Arthritis and I had the choice of either repairing the meniscus surgically or give it some time and it may heal on it’s own. He also told me there was nothing I could do about the Arthritis and that in 10 -15 years I could expect to go through a total knee replacement surgery. I chose to go through with the surgery to repair the torn meniscus for several reasons. I was very tired of this interfering with my everyday life, I needed to be on both feet to manage my flock of sheep and to train my dogs. I also had a trip planned to the UK and my daughter’s wedding in October. I needed to be well.

A couple of weeks after the surgery I was told that I indeed did not have a torn meniscus but that my Arthritis was now considered severe. The OS did attempt to “fix” things for me by drilling holes into my femur to release bone marrow so that some scar tissue would develop to help cushion the exposed bone. For this I needed to be on crutches for 6 weeks.

I now have even less confidence in medical doctors. So, I continued to research other options/alternative therapies.

The most beneficial dietary supplement I found was Mangosteen Juice. For a very long time even before the knee trouble I had before my surgery I had swollen knee joints. I kind of knew there was a problem with them but as long as it didn’t cause me pain it was easier to ignore it. I’m talking swollen to the point there was a bulge on the back of my knees. Now of course I know that this meant there was inflammation in the knees and that inflammation is the cause of disease. The inflammation caused my Arthritis. Once I started drinking this juice, within a few weeks the inflammation was gone. Without the inflammation in my joints my body now has the capability of healing itself. I’m now able to walk an hour each day and with each day that goes by my joints are getting stronger and stronger. I can even kneel on the ground using both knees now. I’m very hopeful that I will be able to start training my dogs again and return to caring for my sheep full time.

The only mangosteen juice I drink is XanGo Juice because they are the only company that uses the whole fruit in the juice. The most nutritious part of the fruit is the rind of the fruit. To learn more about this healthy juice, Click Here.