Category: Emotional Healing

Emotional Healing, Getting Started, Herbal Healing

The Cost Of Change

Dara Dietz

There is a price to pay for change of any kind.  Doing something new or different means you must pay a price in time, effort, and the loss of the comfortable habit you have decided needs to be stopped, changed, or amended.

A lifetime ago, a wise friend tried to open my eyes to a poor choice I was making.  Standing outside the hospital room of my sick friend he quietly explained,  “You must let go of the past before I can give you something better.“  Letting go of what is no longer working is the only way to truly embrace something better.  Creating a space in your life for a better choice, a change, requires removing what is in that space.  Making the time for something new, or ending a relationship that no longer works.  Making space in your life is Honestly Choosing To Embrace Change.

August 2017 was a month of change in my life.  Deciding to begin a serious weight loss program, something I’d done many times before. The emotional healing needed had been done, I was ready to let it all go, and I had a good game plan.  Understanding enough to know I would need a daily reward or boost from my scales I decided to do an intense weight loss program.  Following the advice provided in, “The Obesity Code,” by Dr Jason Fung, I began  a modified water fasting program.  To his lemon water and vitamin supplement suggestions, I opted to add the Weight Loss formula, or the Anti-Depressant Formula to my daily routine  (FYI: All alcohol extracts are ‘0’ carbs when combined with hot water)

Over the next 12 months 200 lbs melted from my body.  I continued on a strong program for another year and dropped an additional 40 lbs.  My endocrine system took a real hit from the rapid weight loss.   There has been an emotional and physical cost to pay. 

Physically the need for additional nutrition to rebuild and strengthen while being careful to reset my bodies set weight so it will not feel the need to pack the weight back on.  My daily food program is a combination of High protein and high fiber in conjunction with intermittent fasting, 

Emotionally it has been a struggle to develop a new mental image of myself.  Changing my self-perception required all obese pictures be removed and new ones put in their place. An illustration of the need to update my self-image played out one afternoon.  My husband and I went out to a restaurant and as we were being conducted to our table were required to pass through a small opening between tables.  I became flustered knowing I’d never be able to comfortably fit.  I was looking around for another way to our table when my sweet husband noticing my distress said, “You’ll fit.”  It all happened very quickly and there was actually plenty of room to maneuver. 

Once the weight was off I had to accept and embrace the woman the Lord created me to be.  Developing the emotional strength to move through my life without the physical buffer created by the excess weight I’d been hiding behind for the past 30 years.  In the first couple of years I had to deal with the occasional panic attack. The lost, alone feeling defeated me one afternoon as I was shopping. I fled the store leaving my basket of groceries somewhere inside.   Praise the Lord for the Nerve Food Formula, my nerves needed additional nutrition once provided I could cope. Has the price of change been worth the cost?  You bet; I love my life even though I am still paying in installments for all the changes.  My physical system in still a bit weak.  Emotionally there are days I still feel a bit lost and alone.  The learning curve required to be me has been deep but doable.  The Lord and my husband have been with me every step of this new journey, smoothing the way, providing the love and strength I lacked for the journey.

Emotional Healing, Mental

Power & Energy for a Happy Life

Dara Dietz

Personal energy is  vital for the enjoyment of life.  Our daily routines become a grueling round of duties when our “get up and go, has got up and went”.  The lack of energy is also a contributing factor in excess weight, and depression.  The common thought is, “no energy, ok, eat something for a quick burst of power.  The “something” is often high in carbs, fat, sugar, salt… adding to the toxicity already bogging down the body and the emotional depression breaking trust with ourselves brings on.  All our great promises to make better choices, eat better, exercise more, go out the window when there is no energy to get through the day. 

Ok, energy, where, what, how are the questions.  We can all use a bit more at times.  What foods, and activities are available to clear the brain fog, juice the body and send a person off with a spring in their step.  Not that all personalities want to spring through the day, but the ability and joy that come from knowing whatever task the day holds, it all good and doable.  

Step One: Clear the toxicity, ensure the bowels are open and working well.  Holding all that toxic waste in your bowels for your blood to pick up and carry throughout the body is a sure, quick way to knock out your energy and bring on Brain fog.

Step Two: Use real energy foods that feed the Thyroid, and Adrenals.  A great start to any day is a morning smoothie made with Fresh Juices & the Superfood.  The nutrients are in the blood feeding the cells in around 15 minutes.  For a real shot of energy when the day keeps going but your forward momentum is done, try  4 tablespoon of Superfood in a glass of  juice or water. 

The Master Herb for the Thyroid is Kelp.  Using a mix of three great kelps makes what I like to call “Super-kelp”.  Using 5 to 10 kelp capsules 2 or 3 times a day feeds the thyroid gland providing natural, real energy that is not a drain or taxing on the adrenals.

The Brain formula using the Master Brain Herb, Ginkgo, which increases blood flow to the brain, which in turn clears the brain fog.  (how great is that).  Adding the brain formula to a single cup of real coffee, which has been proven to increase the metabolism, clear brain fog is a great way to start the day for those who are able safely use coffee.  For more information on Caffeine, Green Tea, and Coffee check out Dr. Tim Jennings Q&A on Caffeine. https://odysee.com/@ComeAndReason:4/HD_2023_Q1_QnA_02:1

Step Three: Move your body.  When your energy is low get out and move.  Work up a sweat this releases endorphin.  Endorphins help relieve pain, reduce stress and improve your sense of well-being.  Although research is ongoing, scientists have found that higher endorphin levels can reduce pain and increase pleasure. High endorphin levels may also help: reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. improve moods.

It is important that each person know themselves.  Allow for your limitations and personality, don’t set yourself up to lose.  Begin to make simple choices that you can and will be able to do.  Start easy, set a timer, put sticky notes up to remind yourself.  Change is not easy but by repetition you will make a habit, changing  the way you think and live for the better.

Emotional Healing

Morning Visitor

Dara Dietz
Morning Visitor

This Beautiful Lunar Moth came to visit this morning. So of course, I darted back inside, grabbed my cell phone and took a movie of him. He just sat there and let me take his picture. He is the second Lunar Moth I have seen. His great grandfather came to visit nearly 10 years ago, his picture if framed and hanging in my office.

Before moving to North Carolina I never dreamed there could be so many varieties of bugs, months and the like, and that they could grow so big! When we first moved in I evicted, in any way possible, these huge spiders that were as big as my hand and ugly as sin. I believe they are called Wolf Spiders, they are the biggest, ugliest and most aggressive creatures on eight legs I’ve ever come across.

It has been the butter flies and Moths that have dazzled me. I hope you enjoy this video.

Emotional Healing, Weight Loss

Maintaining My Weight Loss after 3 years

Dara Dietz
Dara Dietz

Three years have passed since I shed the 240 lbs.  None of the weight has returned.  Maintaining the weight loss has been a lot harder for me than loosing the weight.  Learning how to feed myself properly, how it works to keep the weight off.  Today I will share with you how I eat to maintain the weight loss.

First and most important I do not eat any processed sugar, NONE.  White sugar will spike your insulin causing your body to stuff every bite of food into stored fat.  High levels of insulin force the body to store whatever is eaten as fat.  Cheap carbs, white flour, sugar ect will spike the insulin.  These foods need to be completely out of your food program.  I do not eat anything processed. I have also stepped away from all bread products.  Even whole grains don’t do well with me.  This is a personal choice, not one everyone will need to make. My seed crackers are my bread.

Honey, or Maple Syrup, are not a problem, I can sweeten with these items without the insulin spike.  Today I make a quart and one half of Strawberry jam using honey.  I had to use frozen strawberries since there were no fresh ones to be had.  To the large bag of frozen strawberries, completely thawed, I only needed to added 1 ½  cups of honey.  

My days of struggling have slowly eased to a workable routine.  I eat only one meal a day. Sometime around 1pm I put the first bits of food in my mouth for the day.  First thing each morning I drink my hot lemonade, several cups of tea, (my tonics in hot water) Weight loss Formula, Female formula, Calcium formula, Echinacea, along with a teaspoon of Vit C powder in 4 oz of water and 10 kelp Capsules.  These drinks are consumed throughout the morning. 

My food program is vegetarian.  I do eat eggs as they agree very well with me.  Superfood is an excellent source of high quality protein.

In the evening I allow myself a bit of fruit.  Sliced apple, Watermelon pieces, or grapes.

Even eating this way my weight has ticked up.  Something will cause me to pop up a few pounds. I have found an easy way to remove these pounds quickly.  I usually Fruit Fast at least one day each week.  The detox from a grape fast is huge and will remove any bit of extra weight I may have put on.  Drink all you want of your teas & water but eat only grapes.  It is a great way to clear the liver and bowels, also clears the cobwebs from the brain. 

My summer favorite is a watermelon (Watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew,) fast.  Eat only melons  all day long.  Watermelon is a powerful diuretic which works well to clear any extra pounds that have slipped back on. 

The scales are checked every morning after workout and shower. Since my weight will flux up even with all these new habits I know that at least one day each week I will need to do some fruit fast.  When I really want to drop a few pounds very quicky I can do a one or two day water fast.  On my water fast I drink only Herbal Teas, along with my teaspoon of psyllium husk fiber in cold water, to keep my bowels comfortable.

This food program is a small price to pay for the knowledge that I have the ability to choose to never put the weight back on.  The power to enjoy and live well is in my hands, I have the knowledge and can choose to keep the weight off.   This is not a program I will one day end, that truth finally hit home for me, along with the truth that I’m ok with this as the rest of my life. 

Emotional Healing

Emotional Health Class

Dara Dietz
Dara Dietz

This week our Class will deal with how to best support and maintain our emotional health.  We will look at how a toxic body can also create a toxic condition of the mind and heart. Depending on the cause there are many herbal-supports to aid in rebuilding our Emotional Health. 

Three Things I’ve learned:

  • We are our Choices
  • Trials are gifts & teachers
  • Only life worth Living is the “Other Focused” life

Physical Issues that can degrade our emotional life

  • A Toxic Liver can cause irritability
  • Unbalanced Hormones can make me an emotional wreck
  • Poor Kidney Function can depress the spirit
  • Sever Emotional Stress will wipe out your Immune System

There are herbs that quickly affect even the worst depression

To be emotional healthy you must clear your past.  Embrace all the experiences that have made you into the person you are today.   Learn to Live Wide Open

Come and join our class as we discover how best to support the Emotional and Spiritual health of our bodies. Our Zoom Class is Tuesday at 6:30 PM Est.

Class Handouts:

depressionDownload

Reading List:

Sticking With It

Three things I’ve Learned

Healing Answers for the Mind

Living Wide Open

 by Dara Dietz

All of life must be grown into.  Emotional and Mental muscles must be developed and strengthened through use.  We call them habits but what is a habit really.  It is the development through use of an emotional or mental ability.

We choose to accept the gift of care from another.  In return we have learned how it feels to be cared for.  The choice is now available to choose to bestow the care you enjoyed on someone else.  The process sounds so simple, something we do every day.  Yet how many have grown up in homes where no one had a concern for them or offered them a caring thought.  A Child now an adult has yet to experience their first caring act.

I want to live unafraid with my heart wide open. I want to see the beauty in everyone with eyes wide open and filled with understanding.  I hold out my hands to the world filled with all the good they can hold.  If I fail to do all the good I can by closing myself off to those around me my ability to do good will atrophy and die. Unable to love, feel or live I rust.  Just as arms and legs must move to maintain strength so my heart and mind must receive love and give love or they too will degenerate, losing the ability to love.

We cheat ourselves from so much good through fear of being short changed or used.  So what!  Bring it on!  Living life means you will experience the bad right along with the good.  The Father know exactly what experiences are needed by each of us.

Fearing someone will misuse or abuse the love I hold in an open hand to the world is not living well.  Choosing to do my best for each person regardless how they accept or reject my good intentions, this is living well.  I will pass this way but once.  My intention is to do good, to bless, to bring healing to the broken.  The outcome I choose to leave with my Father.

Emotional Healing, My Opinion

Finding Balance

Dara Dietz
Dara Dietz

Finding my balance has been my goal this year.  Discovering what works and what will not.  Since beginning the latest part of this healing journey that is my life, the personal revelations just keep coming.  To quickly recap the past few years.  In August 2017 I began the perfect weight loss program for me.  By January 2019, my weight had dropped 220 pounds.  At that point I began a new journey.  I have been trying out all different types of food programs, looking for what is right for me.   The balance has been found; I am finally comfortable with my food program.

I am ready to share what is working.  There are so many diet books out there but one I recently came across, “How not to Diet” has validated so many of the parts that are working for me.  In his book, Dr. Michael Greger MD, pulls all the research together to prove what is truth.  With the science to back up my choices life have gotten much easier.

So here is what works for me.

I get on the scales twice a day, first thing in the morning and last thing at night.  Knowing I will be weighing before bed encourages me not to eat in the evening. 

My day begins with a trip to the walking trail or a walk on my treadmill before I eat or drink anything.  After my morning workout I consume three drinks over the next hour.  4 tablespoons of Superfood in water, psyllium husk fiber in a glass of water, Hot Lemon Aid drink (1 tsp. Cayenne,  ½ oz Apple Cider Vinegar, Lemon juice to taste in water)

My one meal for the day is sometime between 2pm & 4 pm

The weight watcher points program is perfect gage to keep my portions and amount of food right. 

A Vegan/Vegetarian  food program provides all I need.  I tried adding animal products last year and it just did not work.  After reading “How not to Diet” I understand why the Keto food program failed to take my weight down.  I was able to maintain my weight on the Keto program but did not lose.  He has a whole chapter on the Keto diet and explains exactly what it does and why it will not work.

After work in the late afternoon, when weather permits, Michael and I enjoy a walk on the local walking trail. 

Food Program: No Sugar,  No white flour.  Using Honey, or Maple Syrup is fine.  All other fruits, Veggies, grains, nuts, etc. are fine. 

Finding what will work and what did not has taken two years.  The emotional growth and faith in myself that I will continue to be able to make the good choices has not come easily.  Along with feeling more balanced than I think I ever have I can see the weight dropping again.  One day soon the final pound will fall off and I will have unwrapped the woman God created me to be.  

Emotional Healing, My Opinion, Weight Loss

My journey to Date

Dara Dietz

The ability, staying power to continue on my current healing journey has been one long learning curve.  I’ve learned to allow myself to relax.  I’ve learned to trust myself to continue to choose well.  I don’t have to be perfect only consistently moving forward.  Growing into the ability to be consistently joyful knowing I deserve and am worthy of all the goodness.  The need to sabotage my life is over.  I can and will do this thing.  I’m learning to embrace each day with all it brings.  Slipping out of site behind all those layers of emotional padding is no longer where I want to be.  I’m ready to take my place in the sun.  

I’ve been on my current journey since the last week of August 2017, a little more than eighteen months. During the first six months I strictly water fasted three to five days each week, on the days I did consume food I kept my carbs intake to less than 15 carbs a day. The weight loss during the first six months was an amazing 140 pounds.  As the weight dropped I was better able to move around but did not add any daily exercise program.  Doing a strong exercise program while water fasting was beyond me at the time.

In February 2018, six months into my journey, the stress of water fasting was beginning to take an emotional toll.  Food is such a big part of our lives, an enjoyable part.  I missed eating.  My water fasting was cut to 2 or 3 days a week which, of course, slowed my weight loss considerably.  Eight months later my weight loss was at 200 pounds. 

In February 2019 I began a daily exercise program.  Using my treadmill to build endurance and muscle. I’ve been maintaining at 225 lbs. off since the first of the year.   As of today I have decided to do a stronger program again, a push to reach my goal.  Not sure where that will be yet but I feel this rest period is done.  I want to be at or close to my goal by the time we take our cruise in October.  I can do this!! So onward and downward. 

Emotional Healing, My Opinion

Physical Effects of Strong Negative Emotional Stress

Dara Dietz
Dara Dietz Author

For whatever it is worth I decided to put in writing what I have said to several of our members. Take time to be Joyful & Happy, your health depends on it.

Maintaining a healthy, infection free body means each of us must find an appropriate way to deal with all the emotional upset humanity is facing each day.  Over the past few months I have had to counsel several of our female members through their first painful bladder infections.  The cases of hives or other skin outbreaks is also on the rise.  The reason for an increase in these issues is not a surprise.  The whole body is impacted, becomes acid, when the strong negative emotions  of anger, hate, or fear are allowed to flow through us.  Strong negative reactions when allowed to rule the heart and mind equate to drinking poison. 

“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”

Proverbs 17:22

The impact of all this societal upset can have a powerful and hurtful effect on our physical health.  An emotional gut punch, or a strong burst of anger will effectively wipe out your immune system.  To state this as plainly as possible, you will have no ability to fight off any invaders that choose to enter your body.  Whatever is floating around will find a welcoming home in your body. 

The immune system is not the only one effected by strong negative emotional upset.  For women, the hormone levels are depleted, is some cases completely wiped out.  Hormonal imbalance will bring on hot flashes, irregular cycles, mood swings, ect.  Abnormal weight gain can also be brought on when the body’s  hormone levels are compromised.

Our reaction to the events surrounding our lives is a choice we can and should control.  Choosing to surrender to anger or fear is the same as choosing to drink a glass of slow acting poison.  The Father has promised to never leave or forsake His children.  Rest in the truth that is His love for you.  The world may fall apart but the child of the Father need never be afraid or angry.  His never failing love is your protection, He has your back, front, and both sides.  You are surrounded, safe, secure, all is well.

Emotional Healing, Mental, My Opinion

Three Things I have learned

Dara Dietz

09.19.19 235 lbs

We are our choices

We are our choices.  What makes us who we are is the choices we have made since we entered this world.  The effect of our choices on our personalities and temperaments make up our character.  Repeated choices become habits and habits become a character. Each time we choose to do something new and better we make it easier to make that choice again.  Building new pathways in our minds enabling the new habit to come more easily each time we choose and do our new thing.

This is also how to rid ourselves of bad or useless habits.  Every time the inclination surfaces to choose to do our useless or bad habits we deliberately choose to do something else.  Consistently choosing to do a better thing until it is the natural inclination, what you do without thinking.  You have created a new habit, become a different person.

As a friend told me years ago “You fake it till you make it.” “Put on the woman you want to be no matter our fake it feels until she is who you truly are.”

Three time in my life I have “put on the woman”, persona I wanted to become.  Each time I felt like a fraud in the beginning.  Acting in a way that felt foreign and uncomfortable.  After a time I realized this was who I truly was all along.  I was being unwrapped and revealed, becoming the woman God always intended I would be.

Trials are gifts & teachers

Life’s trials and tribulations provide us a chance to grow.  No matter how much I would like to think otherwise I accept that everything touching my life is drawn to me by who I am, my attitudes and choices are a magnet for both the positive and negative events that affect my life.

I have learned to Embrace the hard times, so I can grow beyond these lessons.  It is my goal to draw every bit of learning and growth from life’s trials.

It is human nature to want to blame others for the hard times, and take complete credit for the good.  Truth is, the credit for both is mine.  My choices, attitudes and actions effect circumstances around me creating all the events that make up my life.

I choose to look at my life through the eyes of a victor not a victim.  The trials and tribulations that nipped at my heels throughout my growing years and young adult life needed to be owned and embraced.  They bring with them the lessons I missed or had no opportunity to learn.  It is all good, the Father allows only what I need to into my life so I can become the woman he always intended me to be.

Only life worth living is the other focused life. 

The Christ centered life or Other focused life is often spoken of but until recently I had no idea what it really was.  How it looked in action.  At the heart level what is other focused living.  Dose this mean you do not take care of yourself, allow everyone to take advantage of you.  No, allowing others to treat you badly is failing to respect them or yourself.  Living an other focused life is truly caring for those in your spear of influence.  Understanding that unless you are in the best health, emotionally, mentally and physically you will not be able to do your best for those who rely on your care.  Becoming a burden to those around you through neglect or laziness is selfishness in action.  Forcing those who care for you to accept responsibility for your life.  Other focused living is accepting responsibility for yourself, living in a way that allows others to be blessed by your influence.  Passing through the world you leave it a bit better than it was before you entered.

There is much satisfaction and joy in knowing you have been a blessing to someone else.  Holding all you have in an open hand to the Father so he is able to use you to be a blessing in the lives of others.

Emotional Healing, My Opinion

Why? Why do the hard work?

Dara Dietz
Dara Dietz After Losing Weight

After achieving a major goal in my life people are constantly asking, “What did I do?” or “How did I do it?”  My first reaction is to give a detailed description of what I’ve been doing.  I have come to realize most are wanting to know the answer to the question “Why did I do it”  What was the driving force that kept me moving forward through the long months, sticking to my goal until I am now able to view the results of the new me in my mirror.

As of the 1st of January, I’ve lost a total of 221 lbs.  The changes to my life are huge.  Daily chores are a joy.  I’ve always been a bit of a neat-freak but was unable to physically do what my mind would want.  My body gave out long before my daily chores were completed. I feel like I’m 22 years again, getting up early and moving through the house and office all day doing all the little things I had to let go for so many years.  Life is a joy again.

Why did I stick to my goal, why am I still working to complete the last of this journey?  The simplest answer is: Because it is making me happy.  I love seeing the pride in my husbands eyes and hearing it in his voice when he speaks of my progress.  We have shared the dreams I have, things we both are hoping to do now that I’m no longer handicapped by my weight.  The driving reason I started this journey was because it was finally time.  The past no longer has any hold over my life.  I’m no longer the little girl forced to submit to the cruel, selfish, adults who should have been my protectors.  People, who I now understand, were emotionally broken.  It has taken many long years to get it all in prospective and let it all go.  None of it was my fault, I was a child.  The actions of my middle years were a consequence of the early abuse.  Acting out of the pain I had yet to understand.

The more years I live the more I understand about myself and the adults who decided to take advantage of an innocent child for their own selfish pleasure.  Life is all about choices, no matter what was done to me I can still choose my reaction.  That choice, the choice to react is always mine.  When I decided to forgive, others and myself, I earned the freedom to move on.  The ability to choose to do good for myself.  The inner strength to daily decide to do whatever is necessary to let the emotional padding covering my body go.  The strength to stand up and live my life is now within me.

The dark winter season of my life is now over.  The Spring is blooming with such beauty, all the dreams and longings of the girl I was are now before me.