InternaPure

I am first and foremost just like you, on my life journey and boy, what a wild ride it has been! 

I have been happily married for 15 years and am a homeschool mom to two wonderful boys ages 12 and 13. 

I try to serve the Lord faithfully and live each and every day of my life to the fullest.

For many years I have had people asking about the details of my personal journey from physical and metal illness to vibrancy and what my present personal health and dietary routines are.  

I have printed many bio's about myself on this website and others before, but inevitably I get many emails filled with questions asking for details about one part of my past sickness or another that I had not provided in what was publicly written.  

In the past, I have had no problem answering email after email filled with personal questions because I understand that people have the need to try and connect with the journey of others in order to grasp on to hope, guidance and understanding for themselves.  As my journey was one of grace, given freely to me and bathed in love, I am happy to share my personal experiences and insights again here, in sometimes excruciating detail, so that those who are presently hurting might be able to mine out nuggets of inspiration, hope and direction for themselves or whatever else they may relate to for their own journeys.

It is with this in mind that I am providing here for you all a more detailed account of my healing journey from being mired down in the clay of physical and mental illness to a restoration of health and harmony.

While I am not legalistic about any wellness practice, nor do I define myself in whole by any particular diet or way of life, I do have certain health, energetic and spiritual habits and disciplines that I like to incorporate on a regular basis and will list these out for you below.

I will attempt to share here with absolute transparency the details of my journey and the things that I am doing currently to stay on my own personal pilgrimage moving onward and upward in living the most awesome life I can and walking out my calling.

It seems like my entire early youth and young adult life I dealt with severe food intolerances, allergies and digestion issues, emotional imbalances along with the onset of several auto-immune diseases.  There were many things I suffered from but some of the main things that I dealt with most every day were:

• lowered mental capabilities, fogginess, lack of ability to concentrate,
• severe emotional issues (anger, irritation, extreme mood swings, inability to control emotional outbursts)
• debilitating depression
• severe paranoia
• high anxiety
• nervousness
• motion sickness in any moving vehicle
• rheumatoid arthritis symptoms (and was diagnosed with my levels as "borderline" at my last doctors appointment)
• diagnosed with early stages of Diabetes
• diagnosed with Degenerative Tissue Disease
• diagnosed inability to digest sugars which is also known as CSID - Congenital Sucrase Isomalase Deficiency
• severe facial (including lips and eyes) and body hives - Angioedema and Urticaria
• Cystic Acne on my face and torso
• Endometriosis (resulting in 5 laproscopic surgeries before the age of 26)
• recurring Candida outbreaks
• Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
• joint pain, especially in my elbows and knees
• "stabbing" pain that felt as if it went right down to my bones mainly in my hands, legs and feet which when the pain was severe limited mobility
• swelling in hands and feet

After giving birth to my 2 sons, my physical and emotional state got much worse and eventually to the point that I could barely take care of myself, much less care for my children. 

Year after year I went to doctor after doctor trying to find the cure for my problems and apart from receiving anti-depressants, steroids, antibiotics and pain medications and sometimes even being told it was all in my head, it was clear that there was little else the allopathic community could do for me.  There was certainly no "cure" in sight.

[As I have received several questions relating to this point in my story I am inserting a short Q&A here:  My father said that I was "normal" (whatever that means! lol :) ) as a child but that it was around the age of 5 or 6 that he and my mom began noticing marked changes in me. I am sure that there were already genetic weaknesses and signs before that but nevertheless, that is the age he puts at noticing that all did not appear to be well with my body and emotions.  Throughout my childhood my parents took me for test after test, to allergists, dermatologist, GI specialists, etc.  No doctor ever diagnosed me as a child with anything substantial enough to set forth a treatment path as symptoms seemed to be fleeting or would change/morph or we would just wait and see what happened. While I think that physical and mental/emotional issues were always there as I got older and my body grew more and more toxic and less and less efficient at processing and eliminating those toxins I saw an increase in symptoms and found life more and more difficult.  So, in summary, my parents did try to get me help and my entire life until the age of 27 was spent in the hands of very capable allopathic doctors.]

As I kept getting sicker and sicker and life was becoming increasingly more difficult, my emotional meltdowns were becoming more frequent and severe and with no hope of help from the medical community I finally got desperate enough that I spent an entire week in fasting and prayer, crying out to the Lord that the life I was living was not Abundant Life. 

You see, I KNEW! I knew that what was happening to me and that what I was feeling and acting like wasn't really me. 

It was like I was always on the outside looking in at my thoughts and emotions.  I had for years been telling every single doctor that would listen as well as those who wouldn't that I didn't need treatment for my emotions or thoughts, that the issue was PHYSICAL. 

I didn't really FEEL that angry in my spirit, or depressed or paranoid or irritable and yet I was acting it out anyway.  I just couldn't help it.  

I knew in my heart, my head and my spirit that I was really so much more stable than what I was being capable of living out on a daily basis.  I just wasn't me, but I was locked in and was incapable of breaking out - like living behind a veil and being unable to lift it and see the world clearly.  

So to speak even a little deeper for a second - the emotional suffering that I ended up having over my situation was acutely increased because I could see that the emotional and mental suffering I was having on a minute by minute basis (never mind the physical pain) was not meant for me.  I knew that wasn't my God given state of being. 

What I was experiencing was inconsistent and incongruent with who I knew inside that I was.  I wasn't supposed to be like I was being - hurting myself and hurting the people around me. 

So I had emotional suffering and mental suffering from my body being extremely sick and then I had a dose of emotional suffering on top of that because the way I was living and acting was completely incongruent with who I knew that I was. 

It's one thing if you act out or have certain abrasive and hurtful personality traits and you don't really know this about yourself, or you know how you act but embrace it, accept it.

It is one thing if you look at how you treat others and react to circumstances around you as just how you are and don't feel it within your very core being that something just isn't right.  

It's one thing if you have many self destructive and self harming habits both physical and mental and don't really have the experience of being able to step outside of yourself and take a good look at the fact that how you are acting and what you are doing isn't really you.  In that case, you are just unaware.  Unconsicous.  Just existing as who you perceive yourself to be, pain and all and you are perfectly happy with that.  

But that wasn't my story.  I KNEW it.  And the fact that I knew and yet couldn't remove the veil and felt trapped in my own physical and mental infirmities caused much more suffering than if I had been blissfully unaware.

I knew that there was more for me.  I knew it and yet had no knowledge of how to get there.  Thus began my commitment and pilgrimage to find my path and grab on to the inheritance I was promised in this life, in the land of the living, that I knew was mine to grab.

At the end of that week spent in fasting and prayer prostrate before the Lord, I began my journey into natural health and holistic medicine, which eventually led me to where I am today.

[I will also note here that it was during this time it was becoming clear that my first son was having some severe emotional and social development issues along with some sensory processing issues.  Shortly after he was diagnosed and we were scheduled to begin testing to see where on the Autism scale he was.  Click HERE to read about his recovery from high functioning autism and about the issues that my second son faced and was healed of as well.]

When I first began working to heal my body naturally I felt led to start with my diet.  My diet was the typical Standard American Diet (SAD Diet), or if I am honest maybe my diet was worse than the typical SAD diet. I ate virtually no fruits and vegetables, drank absolutely no water and if I cooked at home it was completely processed and devoid of any real nutrients.

So on day one after my fast I started with addressing a years long addiction by cutting diet coke and over the next several weeks I also began looking at my high processed sugar intake, my gluten (which, honestly, before my fast I had never even heard of gluten! lol) and my dairy intake.

Almost immediately I began feeling incrementally better. Over time I achieved cutting out all gluten, dyes, dairy and pharmaceutical medications from my life and I experienced more positive changes in my physical body as well as feeling more emotionally stable and mentally present.  (My health wasn't instantly perfect, by far, but my quality of life definitely went up dramatically.)

As I began to work in even more detail with my diet trying to find foods that I could eat, foods that helped me to feel good and to get rid of the physical as well as neurological symptoms that was experiencing I decided to go on an extreme Elimination Diet. 

I would have to say that this was one of the best things that I have ever done for myself but also probably one of the hardest things I have ever accomplished.  It would be positively easy for me to do now, but back then my mind was so entrenched in my former way of eating that removing what seemed like all known and familiar foods from my diet was almost too much for me to bear.  It felt so overwhelming at times. 

Since it became painfully clear that much if not all of my emotional and mental issuses and many of my physical issues revolved around my intake of food and specifically what foods I felt like doing an elimination diet would help me to gather the information on what foods were my triggers so that I could stay away from those and hopefully experience even more gains in my mental and emotional wellbeing.  

I chose to do Sue Dengate's FAILSAFE Elimination Diet.  (While there are many elimination diet's out there, and I have to say that there are some others that I would probably choose to do now rather than to do Sue's, I felt that it was the best choice for me at the time.)

The Failsafe Elimination Diet is free of dyes, preservatives/additives, low in salicylates, amines and flavor enhancers.  But the diet proved not to be necessarily failsafe for me as I also had to eliminate all dairy, soy, corn, gluten, nuts, rice and potatoes in addition to the foods that were automatically eliminated in her published protocol.  Those additional foods that I ended up having to eliminate were staple foods in the recipes on her protocol so it proved very difficult but never the less I pushed on.

I discovered through this that there were very few foods that I could safely eat without them causing me a reaction - whether physical or emotional. 

For several years, I journaled and studied each and every mood and physical response to the foods I ate.  It was so informative as I got college course level deep into studying my own FOOD / MOOD CONNECTION.

I eliminated the following from my diet completely, without exception, and without allowing for cross contamination due to the extremity of my reactions to the foods listed:

• Gluten
• Soy
• Dairy
• Dyes
• Chemicals
• Preservatives
• Corn
• Processed Sugars
• All Nuts (especially cashews and peanuts)
• Watermelon
• Grapes
• Teas
• Rice
• Potatoes, including sweet potatoes
• Citrus fruits
• Peppers
• All foods that are in the nightshade family (ie. sweet potato, eggplant, cherries, tomatoes, etc.)
• Coconut, including coconut meats and oils
• Yeast, any foods containing yeast
• Molds, any foods containing naturally high mold contents (ie. mushrooms, grapes, teas, etc)

There was a time in the beginning that the only foods that I could eat that did not seem to throw me into some type of reaction were onions, strawberries, pecans and green beans.  Try getting creative every meal with only those foods!!  It was so crazy. :)

Looking back there are 2 things that I wish I had known then that I do know now:

First:

It is easier to look at foods that inherently free of the ingredients that you are trying to avoid instead of trying to find processed/boxed/canned alternatives to the foods that you are in the habit of eating.  I spent so much $money$ trying to find good substitutes for breads, cereals and cookes and the truth is that none of the substitutes tasted like the white wheat that I had been eating my whole life.  If I could do it again, I would from day 1 cut out all foods that are boxed, bagged and canned and begin re-training my taste buds toward fresh or fresh frozen fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.  I would focus my energies more on new foods that I could try and learn to incorporate into my diet instead of focusing on the negative of what foods I could no longer eat.  I would have gone on a low fat raw vegan diet right out of the gate (in order to facilitate healing and because all of those foods are inherently free of the chemicals, dairy and gluten and I would only have had to avoid those fresh fruits and vegs that caused a direct trigger) and I would have never looked back.

Second:

While it is true that I did develop intolerances to many foods, it took me awhile to see the connection that something was not right with my digestion and that wasn't healing with just the absence of offending foods.  I did spend much of my time focusing energy on the foods that I was consuming instead of focusing on what was broken down with the way that my body processes, assimilates and eliminates foods.  It was a learning process and I wouldn't trade the invaluable experiential knowledge I gained in getting to know my body better. Because of this experience I was able to see that another part of my problem was that I never wanted to deprive myself of anything - especially food!  It makes it so much easier being able to talk to my clients about the practicalities of living with food allergies and intolerances while working to heal the body.  I know experientially what they are going through.

So in summary, we can get lost in trying to find relief in the symptoms that we are having while forgetting to keep pressing toward healing a wounded and weary body, mind and spirit with a BALANCED approach. 

As my body began to mend and my mind began to clear from me eating a clean diet free of chemical and aggravators for my body, I began delving into other areas to help my body continue on the path to restoration.  I researched and began to incorporate the following at different times during my journey:

• Chelation Therapy
• Digestive Enzymes and Enzyme Therapy
• Betaine - HcL Hydrochloric Acid
• All manners of vitamins, supplements and herbal remedies
• Homeopathics
• Sodium Bicarbonate Therapy
• Monophasic Sleep Rhythms
• Detox Baths
• EFT ~ Emotional Freedom Techniques
• MTT ~ Meridian Tapping Techniques
• Kinesiology for food/supplement testing
• Fasting for health benefits
• Juicing
• Green Smoothies
• Raw Foods
• Superfoods
• Energy Work and Meditation
• Meridian Balancing
• Ear Candling
• Enemas and then later Colon Hydrotherapy
• NES Bioenergetics Infoceuticals
• Bach Flower Essences
• Accupuncture
• Grounding/Earthing
• Breathwork

All of these things, plus more, began to become my tool box for healing along with prayer and guidance from the Lord as to what my next step should be. 

This section will be coming soon!

People began to come to me early on in my journey for all manner of ills for both themselves and their children.  I began acting as a funnel of information for my friends and family and for the new friends that I would meet about the things that I had experienced and studied in depth on.

My journey took a little over 10 years but my life slowly took on a vibrancy that I don't believe that I had ever experienced.  I finally go to know myself, who I really am.  And as I looked around, I realized that I was called to help others and was in fact already doing so with great results!  My family and friends like to say that I was the last one to notice that I was a practitioner/healer as they all saw it unfolding long before I realized the role that I had stepped into. 

So, I began to shore up the gaps in my self-education with classes and certifications that would help me be a well rounded holistic/natural health practitioner.  In 2009 the Lord opened the door for me to step into practice here at InternaPure as the main Pracitioner and Clinical Director and I have been here in body, mind and spirit ever since.

What is my diet currently?

Well, at the writing of this web page my diet is consists mainly of fresh fruits and vegetables and some seeds.  These are mostly consumed in their natural state, uncooked and unprocessed, and in simple combinations.

With that said, I can fluctuate between a 100% raw foodist, to vegan, vegetarian or whole food diet.  I work not to be legalistic or to make myself or my family too locked down with the eating style that I am currently employing.  Instead, I have found that a rhythm of eating in a way that keeps my body harmonious, my emotions stable and helps me reach my goals and function at my top capacity is a better choice than being limited to one specific diet.  So in that way, I use my diet as a tool for my body, mind and spirit.

In our household we normally do not eat anything out of a box, bag or a can.  There are a few items that we bring in for convenience but these are in the extreme minority.  The bulk of our diet consists of fresh (organic when possible) fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. 

Our family has 2 members that choose to eat meat and 2 that do not.  So when we do incorporate meats into a meal they are clean meats that are free of dyes and preservatives and flavor enhancers and have not had the extended hanging time so that the amine levels remain as low as possible - mainly buffalo, elk and venison with chicken or turkey occasionally.  (We severely limit fish in our diet as it is hard to find a source that is clean of the heavy metals found in the ocean caught fish and the chemicals that are commonly found in farm raised fish).

I do limit grains and processed sugars and pretty much as a rule I always avoid gluten.  I try to stay away from foods that contain dyes and preservatives.  I do not eat dairy in any notable form or quantities. 

(Most of these are choices that I make for the health benefits of partaking or abstaining from a particular food - not because of allergy or intolerance issues).

BREAKFAST

Breakfast for me usually consists of a morning green juice or smoothie.  The bulk of the smoothie or juice being greens (spinach, arugula, bokchoy, kale, etc.) and fresh herbs as well as fruit and spirulina, chia seeds or whatever supplements or superfoods that I may want to incorporate at the time.

Alternatively for breakfast I may have a whole cantaloupe or two, a whole papaya or a bowl full of frozen blueberries, fresh sliced strawberries and sliced almonds or a bowl of sliced frozen bananas and walnuts.

SNACK

If all I had for breakfast was a juice I usually get a little hungry before lunch so I will have a snack which will be some dehydrated crackers, homemade fruit leathers or some type of fruit like mango, banana or fresh cherries.  I may also have some homemade granola if we have had the dehydrator cranking recently and my boys didn't gobble all of it up first. :)

LUNCH

Lunch is usually fruit, a large smoothie or juice or salad.  If I am having cooked food I may also have steamed vegetables for lunch.  A typical lunch on the move in my clinic would look like a quart of some type of green juice and between 2 and 5 bananas wrapped in romaine lettuce leaves.  Or I may take my small hand held veggie spirulizer and make thin pasta noodles out of a zucchini and pour some salsa that I blended up at home consisting of tomato, onion and cilantro for an all raw, delicious, easy meal.  This fuels me up and leaves me feeling great for the afternoon.

DINNER

Dinner is usually a lighter meal of either large salad with blended fruit dressings or some type of zucchini or squash pasta with homemade marinara sauce.  We try to keep our evening meals light as I do not like to ever go to bed while my body is still digesting food. 

Once a year I try to do a 90 to a 100 day juice feast, where I am consuming large quantities of greens, root vegetables and fruits in juice form. 

I also incorporate other fasts and cleanses throughout the year.

I wake up and begin my day around and 5 AM. 

I spend about the first 30 minutes to an hour after waking in prayer and light meditation focusing on the day ahead and any themes that the Holy Spirit may be prompting me to work on within myself as I proceed with my tasks.  Sometimes this is done before I even move out of the bed.  During this prayer time I am usually also practicing some breathwork and stretching.  I may also during this time do some Energetic Healing or Clearing work depending on what comes up emotionally or physically that I need to work on.

My first hour (or possibly 2 hours) of the day after my time spent communing with the Lord is focused on CREATING. 

I believe that we all have a calling and I dedicate my first hour of the day to working on that.  Another way to say it would be that the first active part of my day is spent working on Bearing the fruit of my mind and body towards what I am called to do. 

If I am called to sing then I sneak down in the basement and while everyone else is sleeping so I can sing without waking them. 

Right now I feel my calling in this season is to share information so that people can have the hearing of options.  The seeds planted of hope of change.  Then encouragement and unction to know that they can do it and to be able to move forward confidently.  So, for now in the mornings (while I am still in my pj's :) ) I write or record video or podcasts or graphic design for new infographics or write new blog posts, but regardless of what part of my calling the day is bringing for me to work on the first focus and fruits of my day are poured out into the work of CREATION.

Depending on my work schedule I finish creating and then it is time to work out and move my body.  This helps me stay mentally clear, helps my desire to eat healthy, release any pent up stress and tension and stimulate my lymphatics.  If I have to be at the clinic early then I would save my workout until the evening but my preference is to do it right after my morning creation session.  I enjoy all types of exercise but I love anything that is outside when the weather permits so my dog and I will go on long hikes either around our house or at the park.  I can be seen in my driveway with my ipod dancing for an hour or hoola hooping  or jump roping for an awesome cardio experience.  I am partial to kickboxing and Yoga as well so I sometimes do one of my favorite DVD's or if it is raining or cold I may workout in our basement using bodyweight exercises or some of our equipment.  But whatever my day or the weather I try to move my body in some way even if I only have 20 minutes every single day.

Lunch time I eat and also try to take some time to make sure that I am centered, balanced and present in all of  my activities.  This helps me reset if the flow of my day has been less than smooth and also helps me to be sure that I remain productive and focused on what is important.

In the evening I exercise or go for a walk, do dinner and family time.

Evening prayer and meditation and reflection on my day in gratitude.  I also may do breath work or Energetic healing work if something comes up emotionally or physically that needs to be worked on.

I try to end my day by 9:30 PM at the latest so that I am well rested and feeling great the next morning.

This list is a little bit harder for me because I am constantly changing what I do and what supplements I am taking according to what health goals I am working on.  But upon the writing of this I am currently practicing the following:

I sleep with grounding sheets on my bed.  This connects me to the earth and has the same wonderful benefits to the body as sitting with your toes in the sand all night.  I wake up feeling refreshed and vibrant.

I do not use an alarm clock to wake up.  it is harder on the cardiovascular system and I prefer to allow my body to flow in natural sleep rhythms.  I go to bed at a consistent hour and allow my body to wake up naturally when my sleep cycle is finished.  (I have looked into experimenting with polyphasic and biphaic sleeping but have not done this as of yet.  Maybe this year I can try this one out!)

I wake up and drink almost a quart of lemon water over the first couple of hours, breaking my nightly fast with hydration of my body and cells to help it complete the "house cleaning" that was going on while I slept.  I will often also put MSM or sodium bicarbonate in my morning water.

I drink green juice every day and green smoothies in place of or accompanying at least one meal.  The benefits of having your foods broken down on a cellular level so that they can be immediately assimilated without the body having to expend any energy in breaking down the foods is amazing.  Add a little spirulina and you have rocket fuel for the body, Baby!

I regularly take in chia and flax seeds as well as spirulina in my juices and smoothies (as mentioned above).

There is only one supplement that I take all of the time, always, never wavering and that is Digestive Enzymes.  I faithfully take them and definitely recommend the Allegany brand that we have here on the site.  I do not even eat a meal or drink a juice or smoothie without these wonderful blessings to the body.  (And I must say here that if I could only do one thing for my health it would be digestive enzymes).

I take my NES Bioenergetic customized Infoceuticals every day, according to my NES Bioenergetic Scans that I do once to twice a month.  (I credit the NES Infoceuticals with doing a majority of the healing of my body and clearing out most of my allergies and food intolerances).

I use EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) or Advanced Clearing Energetics most every day.  I try to be conscious of any negative thought patterns or limiting beliefs that come up throughout my day and I utilize one of these methods to deal with those.  This one committed practice has certainly transformed my mind and emotional life.

I practice dry skin brushing before my showers and try to make sure that I do some type of lymphatic stiumulus every day.

I do colon hydrotherapy at regular intervals that can vary from once a month to once a week depending on what I am working on with my body at the time.

I use the Ionic Footbath as an amazing way to balance energies and clear out cellular waste and certain times of the year I use the Far Infrared Sauna several times a week.

Each day I make it a point to practice gratitude, pray and give myself grace when I need it.  I keep a close watch on my inner voice and what my inner dialogue is saying.  I don't need anyone speaking overly critically or negatively to me, especially myself! :)

These are the things that have worked for me and may not necessarily be the things that have or will work for you.  Everybody is wonderfully unique and we should respect that and treat it as such.

Let me partner with you to bring you services, tools, products and knowledge to assist you in your journey to living a life filled vibrancy and the achievement of your wellness goals.