Raw Milk from my Jersey cows................. Making Butter and Cheese

 

Up front you need to know that I believe Raw Milk from Happy Healthy Grass Fed Jersey Cows is the most nourishing, life giving, health promoting food source on this planet. 

There is a huge difference between the processed milk you buy at the grocery store and the milk I get from my cows.  You would think, "they both come from cows, how can they be different products?"  Mainly the milk you buy at the grocery store is pasteurized and homogenized.  In my humble opinion you might as well say that grocery store milk has been killed and devitalized rendering it toxic to people who consume it.  Where as the raw milk I hand milk from my happy and healthy grass fed Jersey cows is full of universal vital life energy.  To enjoy the true health benefits of milk it has to be consumed raw with it's full component of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, fats, proteins and carbohydrates intact, the way Mother Nature intended it.  Why is this simple truth so hard to understand?

I find our government negligent in promoting a toxic product like pasteurized and homogenized milk for health to the masses.  Our government's current policies promote quantity over quality, who cares if the milk is a little dirty because it's going to be pasteurized and homogenized at the processor.  Current policies promote large scale corporate dairy farms and milk processors who can afford all the fancy equipment to milk thousands of cows a day or process millions of gallons of milk a day.  Pasteurizing and homogenizing milk kills and denatures what was once a life giving healthy product.  Ever wonder why if milk is so full of vitamin D and vitamin A naturally that the label on grocery store milk says, "Vitamin A and D fortified"?  Processing kills the vitamins so the answer is to add an inferior quality of the vitamin back into the milk.  WHY do something like that?  What processing does to ruin milk makes it toxic to consume.  Processed milk causes allergies and inflammation responses in the body leading to everything from heart disease to cancer.   I've only exposed you to the tip of the iceberg here.  Want to know about how homogenizing milk fractionates the fat molecules in milk making them harmful to your body?  How about how processing turns the complex carbohydrates in milk to simple sugars?  I could go on and on and on............  Instead I'm going to give you links at the bottom of this page to articles where all the scientific research has already been documented.

"I hold a vision in my heart of a government that one day will promote healthy values over corporate greed."  -ME

The government with all it's regulating abilities could monitor and certify raw milk as clean for consumption, have it tested at the processor and have it tested and monitored on the grocery store shelf.  This would not be any more difficult or demanding than what it does now to monitor pasteurized and  homogenized milk.  A policy like this would in fact promote small scale dairy farms and processors with health conscious practices to flourish. This is the way it worked in the 20's through the 60's when milk was regularly delivered to our doorsteps, raw, healthy and full of life giving energy.

Okay, I'll hop off my soapbox for a few minutes.  Please don't leave yet! Check out these pictures of my cows and of butter and cheese making!

Randaleen is very pregnant in this picture

Flossie is pregnant with her first calf here. 

This cheese is air drying, next it will be waxed and aged

A view in my cheese fridge that I use for aging my cheeses

  

my electric churn has turned cream into butter

molding the butter into cakes

Randaleen has just calved.  Check out that udder!

New baby bull calf, still wet

Both the Weston Price Foundation and Dr.Mercola have great articles about the health benefits of Raw Milk

As promised links to articles whit lots of scientific data to ponder.  Warning, rather scary!

Raw Milk vs Pasturized Milk  the cool thing about this article is that it's from  Armchair Science, London written in April of 1938   Armchair Science is a British Medical Journal.  The more things change the more they stay the same........

Master your Milk Alergies, the douglas report  a good article stating that people who think they are lactose intolerant probably aren't.  They're just intolerant of pasteurized and homogenized milk and could easily drink healthy raw milk.

Real Milk Cures Many Diseases article on the realmilk.com website, siting a Mayo Clinic article written in 1929.  Gosh if I had any of these diseases I would certainly go this route

Effect of Pasteurization on the Nutritional Value of Milk

Pasteurization Does Harm Real Milk

Health Benifits of Raw Milk

The War Over Raw Milk Heats Up - Dr. Mercola

The FDA says drinking this is a Crime

A 98 Day Body Transformation Contest

May 25th through August 31, 2011 found me competing in a 98 day (14 weeks) 
body transformation contest.

What was I thinking?!  I'd never done anything like this before.  I was never very successful at losing weight and I'm in my mid forties!  I didn't think you could lose weight easily after 40.  Sure I was 70 lbs overweight, but when my self esteem would get low I'd go someplace like Wal-Mart and look around at all the people who were 100 lbs or more overweight.  Not a very good strategy for improvement, but it made me feel better none the less.

To enter the contest I needed to be the owner of an E-book called Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto.  Tom is a natural body builder who has been sharing his honest approach to fitness and inspiring people to make healthy changes in their lives.  Deep down we all know what to do to loose weight.  Tom's book in a nutshell:  We need to eat less and exercise more.  Right?  Sounds simple.  Nothing news breaking here.   He wasn't promising a new diet pill, a quick fix, or a magical way to fitness.  Reading the first chapter of his book I found my "News FLASH!!", he hooked me with: How to Set Powerful, Compelling Goals That Will Propel You Forward and Charge You Up With Unstoppable Motivation.  He wrote that goal setting was the most important step! If you couldn't master the mental game it was going to be next to impossible to make serious changes.  This was my light bulb moment, it all made sense, it clicked.  I now knew why I had failed to succeed in the past.

While reading Tom's book there were other light bulb moments for me, not the same wattage as the first chapter but still great information that helped me understand the process of transforming my body from fat to fit.   The second chapter of Tom's book taught me that if you try to lose weight by restricting your calories in an extreme way without exercising that up to 40% of your weight loss will be lean body mass (muscle).  Not a good thing!  Muscles make us strong and fit and healthy.  I wanted to loose FAT not Muscle!  I wanted to know that every pound I lost was 100% fat!  I learned the secret to success was adding exercise both cardio and strength training to a healthy diet high in lean protein that was only moderately restrictive in calories.  The next chapter taught me that scale weight was not the best nor the only way to measure results.  You could lose five pounds of fat and add five pounds of lean body mass and the scale would read zip and you would lose your motivation thinking you were not achieving any results!  I learned all about how to measure my body composition, learning how many pounds of fat and how many pounds of lean body mass I was.

Okay, okay.........there was so much more I learned...... but enough about Tom's e-book Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle, if anyone is interested in reading it you can purchase it by clicking the link.  He also has a book in hard copy you can purchase on Amazon called The Body Fat Solution.  I didn't mean for this post to sound like a commercial, but this body transformation contest and e-book were the launch pad for my transformation from fat to fit.  I have many mentors guiding me in my quantum quest for health, wealth and happiness but Tom Venuto was one of the first.

For 14 weeks I dedicated myself to burning the fat and feeding the muscle in my own body.  I focused my mind on my goals.   I ate healthy.  I jumped on my mini trampoline for cardio.  I did lunges, squats and pushups for strength training. I hula hooped for my core.  I did yoga for flexibility.  I meditated for inner peace.  I wrote everything down in my journal.  Every goal, every meal, every workout.  I tracked my results from week to week and made adjustments when necessary .  At the end of 14 weeks I was totally transformed!  I WAS A WINNER!  Did I win the grand prize trip to Maui?  No, but I came in third place out of thousands of people who entered the contest.  To me that was still an awesome achievement!

Check out my before and after pictures at the bottom of this post!
In 98 days I lost 34 pounds! I went from 219 pounds to 185 pounds. My body fat percentage went form 46%  to 31%. I Gained 9.3 pounds of lean body mass and melted 43.3 lbs of FAT!  I trimmed over 8 inches of fat off my waist and 5 inches of fat off my hips!  The before pictures horrify me.  I'm embarrassed for anyone to see them.  No one would be seeing them if it wasn't for the fact that they document how much I achieved in 98 days.

The journey continues.  I'm still achieving my fitness goals! I'm going to loose another 35 lbs and see where I am then.  I've entered my first 5K race, it's October 23rd in Myrtle Beach, SC. One of my ultimate goals is to run a marathon and another is to compete in a triathlon when I turn 50. You can support my progress by signing up to follow my blog by entering your email in the box on the upper left hand side of this page.  I would love one day to have hundreds of blog followers.  Thanks for taking the time to share in my journey.

      

My Journey of Transformation Begins

May 25, 2011 - What was I thinking?

A day late in May found me trying to figure out how to enter a body transformation contest .  The grand prize was a trip for two to Maui!!   I had never done anything like this before.  This contest was going to be awesome!  This wasn't a random drawing type of contest.  This was a results oriented contest!  All I had to do to win was be the person who had the best physical transformation over a 98 day period.  Well lord knows I needed to transform my physical being and this contest came to me as a "sign from the Universe".  I had asked in my morning meditations for help and guidance in my life, especially in regards to my health.   Later that morning I saw an email with the heading, "Transform you body and Win a Trip to Maui".  Well I went to High School in Maui, I have friends in Maui AND I needed to transform my body!  The Universe is full of amazing grace, you need but open your eyes. 

Step one:  I needed to purchase an E-book called Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle (BFFM) by a guy named Tom Venuto.  Tom is a natural body builder and the guy sponsoring the contest. The book promised to be my key to success! 

Step two:  I needed to post my intention to enter the contest on the Inner Circle Members Only Website for BFFM.  To do this I needed to post pictures of my "before transformation" body in a bikini.  Three poses where required, Front, Back and Side along with a picture with a newspaper for date verification.  I didn't even own a bikini!!    

Step three:  I had to overcome my fear of posting before pictures.  I knew they were going to be horrific.  I knew that looking at a picture of myself in all my fat glory was going to be difficult and I had to be brave enough to let others scrutinize me as well.

So what WAS I thinking?

I remember thinking that I needed to be brave and trusting of the Universe and all it's magical ability to create Light and Abundance in my life.  I had been actively meditating for "Health, Wealth and Happiness", it had become my mantra.  It was now time for action, meditation alone was not going to transform my physical being, I needed to sweat some.  This body transformation contest was right inline with my desires and I did feel The Divine in the way things so easily unfolded and in the way it all made sense to me.  I had received a direct answer to a plea I had implored upon the Universe in my morning mediation.  What more did I want?.  


You need but ask............says the Universe

I took the below picture on 8/31/2011 the last day of the 98 day body transformation contest!

I wore these pants on 5/26/2011 horse back riding

 and they were tight