I'm very dense. Artie had another seizure Monday night, in New York. Katie witnessed this one, scared her so bad, and really everything around here has to change as it's too much. We experienced more life in those five days than we had ever experienced in any amount of time during this life trip to date. Artie is fine and will be getting something better than I've got for him so far, he really needs a neurological workup that his insurance doesn't allow. I've been told his current meds combination could cause seizures, and then that that wasn't true at Bellvue Hospital in NY last night. There isn't a doctor in this city that can do what Art needs as this seizure thing keeps manifesting. I've been lax in allowing him this limited access to proper neurological studies. As horrible as this event was for all, we made it through it all as well as we could, and almost have no choice but to change. It just wouldn't be logical not to let this 5 day cruise in the jungle, and then while in the hospital with the loving crew safety line of Donna, Keith, and Lynda by phone, and through to Tom I understand, change our lives. Oh, the workshop was great too. :) No seriously, this entire experience changed us, it was that intense in all ways, and even with this medical emergency, and a bunch of other intense stuff, it was worth it all. We did it.
Artie ingested so much HFCS, and then after when Katie ran to get him something which all I said was to be "not sugar" he ended up eating the chips she figured wasn't sweet so okay, and a soda she got because she loves him and knows he likes soda. I read her facebook saying he was okay as he had just eaten all these chips and soda, and realized how far we have to go here. I had actually considered the chips as okay too at the time as it was what she brought back. We also ran into some info on a doctor from New York called Null who I will research, now that I just remembered this data.
Love
Bette

Edit to add Edge, to the phone tree support Monday night for Katie and us, he and Katie talked during the actual event/seizure. He, to Katie, and Donna and Keith to me offered to come to the hospital which Katie said wouldn't be needed to Edge as they were in phone communication (thank you edge you sweet being), and I said wouldn't be needed to Donna as well. In hind sight, what I've always called "heinie (as in butt) sight", I can see how letting someone come to help us get that taxi out of Bellvue Hospital at 11 pm and all the rest would have been nice. It now makes as much sense, saying "oh no, that isn't necessary" as me letting Katie saying no to a cart for our luggage at the airport making things much harder than they could have been, and was not the most logical move. Better living through learning through experience of course, but jeez we can make things hard for ourselves. If we ever do go back to NYC it will be easier, and Katie took the city by storm and came into her own there. She's a natural perhaps.

_________________
All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.

Hi Lynda,

Good luck kicking the coffee!!

My husband and I got completely veggie and caffeine, sugar, alcohol and dairy free - save for eggs and some milk - for eight months or so. We had already stopped smoking long before that. Then we moved counties and our inability to cope with the general trials and tribulations without resorting to substance abuse got the better of us and we managed to keep the sugar out - slipped a few times - but not the caffeine and I went back onto red meat. This however was pre MBT and we did have a few months after the 5 month mark where we felt incredibly calm. The clean diet, as I call it, effects every single aspect of life. You process in a different way your responses to situations are totally different, its a new world of clear thinking and the meditation is vastly improved.

We don't have processed food at all once we started looking at labels some time back it was just frightening. In the UK all tinned veg included sugar and salt - you can buy it without now - so I got back into peeling veg everyday and cooking it. Once you start doing that and getting into the habit its easier than we think.

All the coffee and sugar fueled decisions made each day that effect the world, aaaargh, it makes me shudder. James and I see coffee houses as legal drug shops - the same for bakeries! And don't talk about that evil sugar, when you get off it, for months and then eat a tub of ice cream you feel well and truly kiboshed.

I found coffee the hardest to quit and now that we are in a more stable environment we are trying again. Also, if anything goes awry its difficult to get out of the habit of reaching for comfort sugar but I think, because of MBT, that this time round we may crack the nut! Certainly the root veg in some form everyday is very satisfying food to eat.

The other evening we watched a documentary about Tonga. Newzealand had a meat waste product that no one would buy, Mutton Flaps - which is the fattiest part of the sheep with more fat per gram than hard cheese - so they exported it to Tonga and this food is now part of their national diet as is the famous Ice Cream Sandwhich for breakfast along with a hollowed out loaf of bread that they then fill with soda pop. They drink the pop out of this bread container then spoon out the sugar soaked bread - all this before a tasty mutton flap lunch!! The poor old Tongans are blissfully unaware of the effects of such a fat, sugar and additive diet. The health of the general population is appalling.

We are very lucky that we have information to tell us the truth about such matters and it seems a shame not to act on it.

All the very very best of luck once again. If you are getting sugar out of you life and you don't mind the taste I can highly recommend raisins as a quick sugary snack to help you on your way!

regards

Daghda

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Love is the answer!

Hello there Betty,

My James is autistic spectrum with mild epilepsy which manifests in the form of 'shudders' he has up to five a day and up to ten on a bad day.

Changing his diet makes all the difference in the world. Any kind of soda and sweet stuff is out of the question and he had a real hard time with that and still does. Occasionally he goes out and buys a handfull of sweeties and as soon as I see him I can tell straight away that he's had sugar. Also he gets a really bad attitude if he has too much and by too much I mean a chocolate bar and a can of coke. It changes his personality completely - as does additives of any kind.

But, since becoming a TOEist he's tried much harder to keep off it all and as I have just said to Lynda we are trying again with the real Tom diet.

I really know what you mean by saying that '
Katie got him a soda because she loves him and knows he likes it'. In the past I have bought James chocolate and soda because he likes it, as a reward or just because I want to be nice to him. That is a bit harsh to cope with, especially when James would get grumpy because he knows he shouldn't have it. I don't sell hemi-sync but it has helped James a great deal, we have it piping through the work area and after some 'autie/h/s' research the I was sent by one of the faculty members at TMI, we now have it in the bedroom all night and he has it on the headphones for an hour a day.

I do hope Arthur is ok and if you think that the H/S may help at all feel free to pm me.

I am almost peevish that we could not get to NY but I am hoping that it was filmed and we'll be able to watch that. Were there some good questions asked?

love to you Betty

Daghda

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Love is the answer!

Hi Daghda,

Thank you. I am hearing everything you are saying, and listening. Your James is lucky, although the more I understand things the more I know that luck favors a more organized consciousness at the IOUC level, personally I know this. It may even be correct in the big picture scheme of things too.

Since I have probably 90% control over what Artie has access to sustenance wise as he can't just go buy something on his own although can access anything brought into this house, I have even more responsibility to help him make wise choices.

I had joked to Tom, at Art's can of Coke sitting on the table, that it was a bad week to try to kick sugar. I don't think he smiled at that, although Tom is not attached to what I (or others) do, I didn't feel any judgment from him.

Lynda's a rock star to give up caffeine, and she can do it too I'd say. Good luck Lynda knowing luck favors a more organized consciousness, you can do it.

Arthur has made his needs known, now I need to get with it. He enjoys healthy food really, and hemi-sync may be for him as well. I am researching a "Gary Null" who has a site that has interesting information from other people as well as him concerning nutrition and health. This is a person a random non-cab ride in NY turned us onto who said Gary Null "fixes" autism, and while our children are not broken, I can still see what he has to say.

I'm glad the Consciousness System is so patient.
Love
Bette

_________________
All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.

Thank you Daghda. So far coffee has been easier to quit than sugar. I slipped today but I am not worried about it. I am headed in the right direction and I know it. It is going to take some time, but I think being aware of the issue and working towards correcting it is one step ahead of most people I know. Thank you Daghda, raisins and many other sweet fruits will help me accomplish this goal. But, is the natural sugar in fruit ok? I heard Tom say in the NY workshop, "have a banana. Don't eat five bananas." So I assume I should not go overboard on the fruit?

Lynda you are doing great as you are. My gosh this is a process, and you have a great start. Be good to Lynda, sweetness.
Love
Bette

_________________
All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.

Oh, ok. If you say so. :)

Hello Lynda,

there's a post of Tom's somewhere saying that he has a handful of walnuts and raisins and a banana as a meal sometimes and I tried that its great and quite filling but as you say because of the natural sugar you can't go overboard on the fruit at all.

I was never a great fruit eater so its not so bad, the only fruit we do have is bananas and I have about half a pint of apple and elderflower juice a day but I am going to get a juicer and make veggie juice at home. Like Tom says after a while your taste buds re adjust and food that seems bland initially does become much tastier after time. The mashed carrots, swedes and parsnips - which took the place of potato for us - are delicious but for me it took a while to get used to veg without salt.

regards
Daghda

_________________
Love is the answer!

What's the deal with potatoes?

Aside from my having heard that potato farmers plant a small side crop for their families to eat to avoid all the chemicals, I don't know.
Love
Bette

_________________
All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.

Someone at work told me a potato is its own seed, I thought that might be something even I could grow. I can definitely leave them sitting around long enough to make their eyes sprout, I've proven through past experience I am perfectly capable of that.

But, can I get them in the ground?

And then do I want them when they come up?

Daghda, why'd you substitute the parsnips for potatoes?

They need nice deep loose soil, and sure you can.
Love
Bette

_________________
All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.

Way to go Lynda! Coffee is maybe the hardest of all things to get away from, at least for me... it is just this side of oxygen.~ ("...No big deal unless you're not getting any!", as the line goes)

Potatoes are easy to grow, you can do it in a large pot on a patio if you like, the tops are pleasing enough greenery to be ornamental. Grocery potatoes are often sprayed with an anti-fungal agent from a group called "tri-phenyl tins". Studies have shown that just a teensy weensy amount of the stuff, a few parts per million as I recall, reduced the agency of T-cells in solution by nearly 90% for a nearly a week. Going from memory from something I read (I think I came across the first reference to it on Whitley Streiber's site, unknowncountry.com, a couple three years ago. You can google it up for the freshest data.

Parsnips, if left in the ground all winter and harvested about now, (in the north), tend to be very sweet naturally. You can cook them about like carrots, but the usual method is to peel and boil, then cool and slice and fry in butter. But just having them boiled and skinned there is a lot of flavor there as well. No idea on what Tom may think of them. I personally have the notion that any natural un-kazoinked food that is not poisonous and feels right to me is okay.

-Montana

I have a theory on food in general. This is my opinion and please keep in mind that one can only do the best they can with the information available at any given time. Don't feel bad if some crocked corporation slips one in on you. :) It will happen.

Some time ago I became quiet and sat and observed around me. I thought about disease in general and about cancer and mental degenerative diseases specifically after watching my grand mother waste away and die right before my eyes. Intuitively, it didn't seem logical to me that the universe would have a created a human body that gets sick so easily and frequently. I have these feelings occasionally where I just instinctively know that something is out of harmony with "how it should be". People should be quiet more often and I feel that they too would notice (excluding people who do in fact notice). Turn off the TV every once in a while and just sit out in nature and let the universe speak to you. :)

My theory is simple. The human body evolved eating a certain way and if we use reason we can get close to what our caveman ancestors ate. This I think is the diet that the human body evolved on and thrives on. Sugar is not part of this diet in the HFCS variety or the natural variety for the most part.

I joke around when I see someone doing something that I perceive as being stupid and I say that they are high on High Fructose Corn Syrup :).

The diet I dreamed up just so happened to have already been defined by humans as the "Paleo Diet". I have been on this diet for some time now and feel great and I don't get sick. Remember to buy organic foods or at least foods that you can know the source of. Do your best and don't sweat it if you can't know the source. This is a best attempt, not a perfect diet, because it's unlikely that a perfect diet exists.

Here's the list of encouraged foods and of foods that should be avoided as defined by the paleo theory of eating. There are plenty of books on this subject if you are interested in going deeper.

http://altmed.creighton.edu/Paleodiet/Foodlist.html

Hope this helps.

Best Regards

David

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After all this is over, all that will really have mattered is how we treated each other.

http://www.malleablelight.net

Hey David,
I am considering making my presence known here, http://www.amazon.com/tag/health/forum/ ... A3AKL3NMGT, in a Amazon discussion on childhood obesity, our cognitive functioning, HFCS, and following the money to government subsidizing of it.
Love
Bette

_________________
All That Is
what is?
Consciousness.