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Happy Monday friends 💝

I hope you all had a great weekend, and a fantastic start to the week!

I will touch on the reason for my absence later in this post, but I want to introduce this recipe to my blog by saying it is absolutely hands down one of my favourite recipes. Although I do not eat it often due to the higher fat content (if you substitute coconut milk for another type of low fat plant milk it probably wouldn’t be too bad), I really enjoy it when I do get to eat it!

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I think it’s absolutely critical to our overall health that we put absolutely the most positive thinking into the preparation of our food, and also while we are consuming the food. I ensure every time I am making a recipe that I am conscious of this because it is something most of us don’t think really matters. What do you think?

With that being said, I also think it is critically important to also be mindful of our emotions when we are fasting. When we get sick, and lose our apetite, I think it is our best interest to not consume food if our body isn’t asking for it. Whether it be for one day, or one week, it is important to remain positive and ensure we aren’t doubting our body, we are listening to it’s ever desire, and allowing it to heal, by taking this time away from eating, if necessary.

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So, what happened to me?

For me, two Friday’s ago I decided to finally dye my hair. But since I have dark brown hair naturally, I had to bleach it. I wanted blue hair! Crazy right? I’ve had all kinds of hair colours before, and I have dyed my hair blue in the past, multiple times. It’s my favourite colour & I was reminiscing on how gorgeous it was, so I decided to do it again.

I started off bleaching it, and figured i’d only have to bleach it twice and I’d be ready to go. Well, after bleach #2 it was still slightly brown & not quite the orange-brassy colour I was hoping it would be. After bleach #4 I was finally satisfied, and now it was time to tone my hair, because orange + blue was not going to equal the colour I was going for. I toned it at 12am, and was hoping for my hair to be all the way done by the next morning because I was headed to a concert and didn’t want to have to go out in public with orange/yellow/blonde hair!

So after I toned my hair, I washed it all out & went to bed. I woke up early the next morning and dyed my hair blue real fast before leaving and it turned out alright. I decided to use Manic Panic’s dark blue hair dye, and knowing I used it before and ended up with an ear infection, I was conscious not to get any in my ear and to make sure my ear was clean (by using q-tips........... 😪) during the process of dying it. I started getting a sore ear right after I showered, didn’t think too much of it.

I went to Warped Tour that day, the 4th of August, and listened to real loud music, and danced around, sang my heart out & inhaled incredible amounts of cigarette smoke (among other types of smoke around me). After I was done at the concert, I called my husband to pick me up, and from that moment on I felt an ear infection really picking up.

As the day went on, my ear got more and more sore until it completely swelled shut. I lost hearing in that ear, and my entire left side of my face was sore and just aching. It was unbarable to say the least.

I slept all afternoon, and then slept all night for 13 hours just to avoid the pain. I cried, I screamed, I cried some more and I finally passed out from the pain and just couldn’t keep my eyes open at all that evening or night, nor did I really want to.

The next morning I asked my mother in law for pain medication. Now, if you know me, you know how much I DO NOT like pharmaceutical medication, I try my hardest not take it at all, but I feel like it has its place when needed. I used my judgement and decided it would be best for me to take some form of pain reliever so I could function at least in the slightest bit that day. We had a lot of stuff to get done that day, plus drive 3 hours, and I needed to be present, I couldn’t just hide away and not physically move my body like I would have prefered. I guess I’m just justifying my action at this point. Anyways I took big-pharma drugs to help the pain, and within 30 minutes I was in an active conversation & the pain was relieved. But it came back, and it came back with a vangence. So I took another pain medication that night to hold me over until the drive was over.

I turned to CBD oil for pain relief instead at this point, and it worked. Thankfully! However, over the course of the next 4 days, the pain got worse & worse. My jaw locked from the swelling in the joint, I could barely talk due to lack of ability to move My jaw, my ear felt like it was going to burst from the amount of swelling going on, I couldn’t hear, the left side of my face & neck went NUMB, my neck was stiff as could be, and I was just overall feeling at a loss. I seriously could NOT bare it any longer. I was using CBD oil, I was using rubbing alcohol & vinegar drops everyday in my ear, I was rubbing oregano oil (& coconut oil mix) on my skin, I was praying, crying, nothing I did was helping and it only kept getting worse. The pain lasted for 6 days with each day worse than the last. I slept for most of last week. I had no apetite, I fasted almost 6 days straight, I did drink some fruit & veggie juice but not much. I expressed to my husband that I should go to the ER or something, this was starting to get serious.

My husband told me to try urine drops in my ear. If the rubbing alcohol mix wasn’t working, it’s worth a shot before heading to the ER. He practices urine therapy and has studied it for quite a few years now, and believes in the healing powers it can provide. I have tried it multiple times (topically) for my injuries and it has always helped. I had sciatica so bad it nearly paralyzed my left leg, after a couple months of rubbing it into my leg skin twice a week, I showed no signs of ever having an issue, could walk normally again, no numbness, etc. It was insane! In January of 2017 I suffered sun poisoning & 2nd degree sunburns on my legs mainly, arms & chest got really sun burnt as well, I had a migraine like no other, I was having convulsion, hugh fever & extreme chills (literally felt like I was freezing but my skin was burning to the touch), felt sick to my stomach, and very dizzy if I stood up I would faint. My husband was terrified, he applied urine to my legs & within minutes my symptoms calmed down and I passed out because I finally had a moment of relief! Additionally within 3-5 days all my symptoms were gone, I had absolutely no blistering, no scaring, nothing. The burns just faded away.

So this wasn’t new to me. On day 5 of pain, I agreed to do it and immediately went to the washroom to make it happen. I left the drops in for about 5ish minutes & turned my head to drain. I also did a neti pot flush with the urine in hopes to access my eustachian tubes. I wasn’t sure which was the issue - those tubes, or my ear canal.

The pain remained, into day 6. I felt hopeless, but I decided to try the urine one more time, except the ear canal was so swollen that the urine drops wouldn’t come out once I got it in there, I could hear the liquid in there. I decided to forget it and just let it stay in there. Within hours My symptoms started to fade away, and by day 7 the pain had reduced by at least half. The swelling in my jaw went away almost completely, my face had a bit more feeling in it, you get the idea! I was recovering! My ear canal started to open up and I could hear a bit better! By day 8 (yesterday), the only sign that I had any issue was a bit of swelling in my lymph node under my jaw. That is it! My hearing is back to normal, no more pain, no more swelling, I have full feeling back on my face & neck, and I have my apetite back fully!

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What did I learn from this?

The entire time this was going on, all I could think about was how much I regret ever doing anything to my hair; naturally. One will always regret causing themselves unnecessary suffering. I’m not sure what the universes’ lesson for me was with this. I know one thing for sure, I’ll never be using manic panic again. I may also never dye my hair again, and if I do I’ll be sure to use a more natural hair dye like henna. I also have learned so much about ear health, and I’ll never use another q-tip in there again! Although I absolutely love my blue mermaid hair, I’m not sure if I’ll maintain a crazy hair colour. I’m definitely going to be mindful & conscious of any decision I make like this again. I loved my natural brown hair so much, but I also really love other unnatural colours, so we’ll see what I end up doing! Haha.

How am I going to sit here and relate this experience to my food blog? Well! I guess I can’t really, I just wanted to share this experience with you all, as an update of sorts. But this also ties in with what I mentioned earlier about fasting. Sometimes, our bodies just need a break, and I see all the time people asking for advice on what to eat or drink while they are sick or if they don’t have an apetite. And I just say listen to your body, if it doesn’t have an apetite, there’s a reason for that - it needs to heal from something. Take this time to fast, and allow your body to reset itself. ❤️

Thank you if you made it this far in the post, you rock! I hope you got something out of this post! :) now lets get to the recipe shall we?!

Coconut Chickpea Curry w/Broccoli

Ingredients:

1/2 onion, roughly diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tsp paprika
black pepper to taste
1 cup chopped note-sized pieces of broccoli (fresh or frozen)
1 can rinsed & drained chickpeas
1 cup fresh diced tomatoes
1 can of full fat coconut milk
1 tbsp red curry paste (less if you want less spicy, this recipe is medium spicy-ness)
splash of water to sauté

Instructions:

add diced onion & minced garlic to a an and sauté with water until onions are translucent & fragrant
add spices (except for curry paste) & another splash of water to prevent sticking if the pan gets too dry
once spices are well combined with onion & garlic, add chickpeas, coconut milk, tomatoes, broccoli, & curry paste and mix until well combined
allow to sauté for about 10 minutes, or until the curry thickens up to your desired consistency, and it is ready to serve
serve on the side of brown rice or quinoa to make it a hearty & delicious meal
ENJOY! 🍛

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ALL CONTENT IS MINE & ORIGINAL. Taken with Nikon D5600 w/18-55mm lens and edited by me. For more info about me check out my intro post.

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