Women's Wellness Wednesday: Phytoestrogens

It has been awhile since I've posted about some of the things I've experienced in this journey with adenomyosis.
What a journey it has been!
But I'm so pleased to report that things have improved so much for me that I'm excited and feel burdened to share what I've learned with other women who may be experiencing the same symptoms I was!!
You can read here about this condition and what led me to discovering this is what I have.
Once I learned what it was that causing such a problem, I began researching how to treat it.
The first thing I learned about was something called xenoestrogens.
But once I got THAT thing figured out, I learned about something else in our environment that I needed to be aware of:  PHYTOESTROGENS!
Not only do those of us with estrogen dominance issues need to be aware of the estrogen mimicers in our environments (xenoestrogens), but also of those in plants we may be ingesting as well.  Hence the term, "phyto" estrogens.

Of course, the most notorious is soy.
Soy has long been known to have estrogen-like chemicals in it.
We try to be careful that our children are not getting extra hormones in animal products these days,
but are we aware that we can be replacing that when we give them an alternative like soymilk?
What about tofu or those things with soybean oil in it?

I've also been careful with the essential oils of lavendar and tea tree oil as well.
These are also known to be estrogen mimicers!!

And I hate to break it to ya.......I was mad about this myself......so does COFFEE!!
Just so you know.
For a list of specific phytoestrogens that I've been avoiding, check here.
To be fair though, it's always good to have other opinions, and I appreciate the information found here.
Either way, this is another way that I've been trying to be aware of what I'm putting in this one body that I've been given!!

"Where there is no vision..."

"Feel within deep latent urges to get things done,
to be rising above this slough of unconscious mediocrity that seems to characterize my days.
Father, if these strong currents be flesh driven,
I pray thee staunch and slay them,
but if sublimated, channeled into courses which will do Thy service,
then intensify them,
mobilize them,
give them direction, 
for I long--Thou knowest how earnestly--
that the bride of Thine own dear Son be made perfect and entire in my day.
Yea, Lord, if it cost me my bride in this life,
let me have They grace and power to bring to the Lamb the reward of His sufferings."

~~ 21 year old Jim Elliot
December 22, 1948
7 years before his slaughter on the mission field at the hand of the savages he committed to sharing the gospel with

This has been a wonderful first week of this new year!!

I was looking back at our first week of last year and was reminded that we were in the midst of a horrible stomach virus.

I'm oh, so grateful, to not be dealing with that!

You can read about it here.

We are still on Winter Break.....yep, no school.

Can I just say that I think that has been the smartest decision I've made concerning our homeschooling to date.

THREE weeks of winter break...no school.

There is usually no way that I am ready to jump back in to being strangled by the clock and all the things that have to be done everyday just to stay on track on the Monday after 2 weeks of reveling and celebration and the weekend with church and Christmas and New Year's Day!!!

We have enjoyed leisurely putting away the Christmas tree and the lights,

and getting the laundry caught up, and some cleaning done.

My husband and I have updated our yearly budget this week and have a plan!!

I climbed under both sets of bunkbeds in my girls' room and hauled out unbelievable things!!

I sat down with two of my children and we talked through some goals for projects we want to complete this spring toward earning some badges in our Master Club program at church on Wednesday nights. 

I've tried a couple new plant-based recipes from a folder of ideas I put together when looking through magazines, pulling out what I would actually use and tossing the magazine after it had been pilfered.

I've filled in our new calendar with all the appointments and special dates we need to remember.

I've pulled off all the Christmas pictures from last year {2010} that are on my frig., and put up all the fresh, new pictures from this past Christmas{2011}.

I've had time to knead through some ideas for a better system of making my weekly grocery lists, and maybe a daily to-do list to give me more focus during my days.

But most importantly,
I've been thinking about some goals for this year.
And a plan to make those goals a reality.

First, I did eventually finish memorizing the entire book of Philippians in 2011.
I loved doing that and it was fairly easy to work on during my hour long walks listening to the scriptures on my smart phone.
I'm pondering which book to work on this year.
It may take me longer than a year.
Maybe Galatians, maybe Ruth....or ESTHER!
For more on the critical need for scripture memorization in our lives....watch here.
I've also been thinking about naming this year.
To give it more clarity and focus for what I want to study and live out more authentically.
Last year, 2011, was "The Year of Grace."
I may need to do that one over some time.
But because of this marvelous freedom we have in Christ, because of His great love and mercy and forgiveness, upon our salvation, our accepting His free gift.....
it naturally causes me to want to draw nearer to Him.....to worship.....adore.
I want to know more about what true, authentic worship means.
Is all worship offered with sincerity and reverence acceptable to Him?
I want to explore how my own worship may be falling short or if it is quite anemic.
What more can I offer Him?
These are things I want to focus on studying and listening for.
So I'm naming 2012 my "Year of Worship."
For more on this idea, see here and here.

On a health note, by God's grace alone, I've been able to maintain the weight loss I reached in 2010.  
My goal at the beginning of last year was to get to the bottom of some hitches I was having with my thyroid levels.
Thankfully, I found a tremendous amount of relief from adding natural progesterone cream, completely ditching all my hygiene products that I learned are full of harmful chemicals and xenoestrogens, and my husband and I have determined to journey to a more plant-based diet.
We've gone dairy-free, and virtually left animal products behind.
It hasn't been easy with the children and we're still not perfect in our nutrition,
but we're progressing.
Moving forward in the journey to better health.
As a result, my endocrinologist lowered my dose of levothyroxine at my last visit.
I've had to be off all my allergy meds for the last month, and so far no infections and not a whole lot of itching/sneezing/congestion.
At least I can get by with minimal amounts of over-the-counter allergy meds.
We are saving to purchase a juicer, which we found to be very beneficial to us this last fall when my husband borrowed a Breville and lost 25 pounds in 15 days of strict juicing.
I even lost 7 more pounds in the 5 days I joined him!!!

Lots of things on the bucket list this year, and I'm very excited.
Excited to see what the Lord has in store for us, and to offer thanks for it all!!

Women's Wellness Wednesday: Eliminating xenoestrogens

On Wednesdays, I'm journaling about this new leg of my journey to better health.
Last week, I talked about these things called "xenoestrogens" that I had NEVER heard of,
but apparently are wreaking HAVOC on my health and well-being!!
You can read about that here:  What ARE xenoestrogens?

Now that I'm more familiar with what they are and what they do {estrogen mimicers, endocrine disrupters},
I've been trying to figure out how to avoid them.

It's pretty simple to avoid them.....just don't use the products that contain them.
The tricky part is finding a good alternative....that WORKS and doesn't break the bank!!

Here's what I've found so far:

These products are AH-mazing!!

The Dessert Essence brand is dedicated to producing all-natural products and they are just fantastic!

I've ditched all my regular shampoos, conditioners, soap, and body lotion and switched to this brand.

I LOVE the Coconut body wash and lotion.

It's as good as or better than anything at Bath and Body Works, and is safer for you if you have
and estrogen dominance issue, such as myself.

I started buying them on sale at Sprout's so I could try them,

but will probably be buying them online at Vitacost.com for a way better price.

I've also ditched my store-bought antiperspirant/deodorant.
This one was tough for me.
I'm a confessed profuse sweater.
My feet and hands sweat....and the sweat RUNS down my face and back in the summers
around here!!
I was nervous about switching to something that doesn't have the aluminum and other parabens
that are normally in antiperspirants, but I knew I didn't want to keep using these potentially
harmful ingredients.
I tried this:

But didn't like that I had to apply it several times a day and I still smelled of rotten onions!

So I tried this:

But I had virtually the same problem as I did with the previous product.

Plus, I found out that tea tree oil is also an estrogen mimicer {phytoestrogen - plant based estrogen}

and that using this too much can cause issues with estrogen dominance as well!!!

SO.....I decided to try my hand at making my own!!

I found this recipe:

Homemade deodorant

Let me tell you.....I like it!!

It was super easy to make, and I was able to fill up one 4.6 oz. empty deodorant tube

that I had on hand.

When I use it....there is no odor.

I did not use any essential oil to fragrance it, but it has a gentle coconut smell from the coconut oil.

It has a super low melting point though, and melts instantly when it touches your skin.

It broke the twist up function on the deodorant container because it gets so hard when you put it in the frig initially, so I had to scoop it out into a small

covered plastic bowl and keep it in the frig.

I've just been popping it out of the bowl when I feel I need it and storing it in the frig.

The next thing to go?

Commercial laundry detergent.

Yep.

I was NOT going to do this.

I had dug in my heels and was not going to let anybody or anything drag me into 

being this "crunchy!"

But when I found out that xenoestrogens are found in laundry detergent AND fabric softener,

and that they don't come off your clothes and get into your system....

I knew I had to try this.

And what did I have to loose?

It's so. MUCH. cheaper!!

Here's the recipe:

Homemade liquid laundry detergent

It was so cheap to make.
And so easy.
Will post pictures later.
It seems to work just fine.
It doesn't have a fancy fragrance that our American culture seems to think we need for happiness
and cleanliness......
but it gets the clothes clean!!

Just a few simple changes.
With more to come.

Women's Wellness Wednesday: What are xenoestrogens?

That was exactly my question when I ran into a website that claimed that "adenomyosis is caused by estrogen dominance."

What is THAT??
I had never......ever heard that term......ever.
Basically it means your hormones are out of whack, that you have too much estrogen and not enough progeterone to counter-act it all.


This is a relatively new idea that you don't hear about in mainstream medicine, but will from alternative health-care providers...i.e. health and wellness, homeopathic doctors, etc.

One of the things I need to do is to eliminate all the EXTRA estrogen that I'm getting.
Where does all this extra estrogen come from??
Good question!!
I couldn't believe it!!

The answer lies in that term XENOESTROGENS.

"Xeno literally means foreign. So xenoestrogens means foreign estrogens. These xenoestrogens are thought to cause adenomyosis. Adenomyosis did NOT exist 150 years ago. Some of the 100,000 registered chemicals for use in the world have hormonal effects in addition to toxic and carcinogenic effects. Also the synergistic effects are known to occur but also are largely exactly unknown. The field of xenohormones is new, and only been in existence since about 1991."

So I did some research on exactly where these "xenoestrogens" come from and was overwhelmed:

A List of Xenostrogens

I was stunned and overwhelmed at what I found!!

These estrogen like chemicals are in nearly everything I've been putting on my skin, using in my laundry, heating my food in in the microwave, and drinking out of plastic bottles.

And in my COFFEE?!?!?

{Please don't mess with my coffee.....even though it IS decaf!!}

The more I've read about it, the more I'm convinced that so many women I know have issues with "estrogen dominance" but don't even know it.
I didn't!!!
Nobody I was talking to was telling me this.
I just knew that I wasn't feeling right and couldn't put my finger on it.
And the more I read about all the issues it causes, the more pieces of the puzzle came together for me.
Here's a list of other issues that too much estrogen can cause.  Check it out and consider whether or not you might recognize some of these in yourself:

Estrogen Dominance Symptoms

{You have to scroll down through this article to reach the list}

Next, week I'll be talking about some of the steps I've taken to eliminate these "xenoestrogens" from my personal environment.