Healthy Me

Apple Cider Vinegar Is Amazing!

2009-04-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

I've heard time and time again that Apple Cider Vinegar is good for so many things. But I haven't fully embraced it until this past week. I have been dealing with dry skin on my face and a little ezcema on my arms. So over the last week I would apply ACV about 30 minutes before showering. I would use a cotton ball and apply it to my face and neck and the spots on my arm with ezcema. I also poured it all over my scalp and hair because I had read a lot on the benefits of healing dry skin on your head as well as stripping your hair of residue from shampoo. Anyway, after using it all week I'm a firm believer now! This may sound strange, but using ACV for your hair works just as well as conditioner! I don't know exactly why, but it makes combing/brushing through a cinch. And it seems after my hair is completely dry you don't really smell the vinegar anymore. Love it! And my face isn't dry anymore. It has restored the areas that were dry and peeling.

Another way to benefit from ACV is mixing a couple tablespoons in some juice and drinking it daily. From what I understand it helps combat candida as well as help your body heal from other ailments.

Big Fat Failure

2009-04-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

So my friend Meredith recently wrote this post and it just rings so true for many of us these days. Feeling a lack of energy and tired all the time. Getting the dreaded "leaky gut" diagnosis. It blows!!

I have done a super job staying off sugar the last few months until this last week when all hell broke loose! I had some sugary treats at a couple parties. Then the following days are a blur of intoxication by sugar. It's amazing how when it comes to candida/leaky gut/food sensitivities that one slip up can have a HUGE affect on my body. So even though I have not been eating as much sugar this last week as I was in the past, I still am feeling tired and easily overwhelmed which just makes me feel like a failure. So I go off sugar...again.

Then I have a friend who is HARD CORE into natural health. She could have written the book "Nourishing Traditions" she is so hard core. But she told me that even her and her family will eat junky at least once a week because if they don't they get sick and extremely ill when they are confronted with something toxic. (for example: scented candles, a couple fries, harsh cleaners someone uses in their kitchen...all these can make them severely ill). This actually happened to me and Alivia a couple months ago. We went to a birthday party for one of her friends. The lunch they served was gummy bears, cupcakes, peanut butter and jam sandwiches and cool-aid! So of course I don't want to embarrass Alivia and make her feel totally left out and weird. So I just let her eat what all the other kids were eating. On top of that this family had a thing for artificial strawberry scented candles. Both Alivia and I got really ill that evening! I was ill from the nasty candles and she was ill from eating crap!

So how do you do both in a toxic world?? How do you eat 100% healthy but live on an extremely toxic planet? How do you eat junk once a week and completely rid your body of candida?? Anyone have any answers for me because I can't figure out the balance...and maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to have some sugar. :)

Let's Make Kombucha!

2009-04-01T15:32:00.001-07:00

I started making my own kombucha a while ago and my life has changed for the better. :) I went from forking out $3-4 a bottle to about 10-12 cents a bottle for this healthy elixir! I have also received about 4 different emails from friends asking me how I make it. So here are the basics for making Kombucha:

Kombucha
-6 tea bags (organic black or green tea is best. Never use herbal when making kombucha as it can become rancid)
-1 cup sugar (a lot of people like more but I like 1 cup)
-1 scoby (kombucha mushroom-you can order these or produce your own from purchasing a pure bottle of kombucha and letting the "mushroom" grow for a week or two)
-around 1 gallon of purified water (preferably not from a plastic bottle)
-1 gallon glass jar
-1 large stainless steel pot

In the stainless steel pot, bring the water to a full boil and slowly add sugar, stirring until dissolved for a few minutes. Turn off heat and add the tea bags, letting them steep for 10-20 minutes depending on how strong you like it. I've heard of a lot of people steeping for 10 minutes but this last batch I let steep for closer to 20 and I think I like it better. Remove teabags and let the brew cool completely.

Add the scoby and brew to a large gallon glass jar. Cover with cheesecloth and a rubberband to allow "breathing". Place the jar in a dark room temp. cupboard and let the magic begin. :) Check the kombucha at 10 days, 15 days and then 20 days. You know it's ready when you have a good scoby growing on the top and it is effervescent(kombucha is a bit bubbly and fizzy). When it's cooler in the house it may take a bit longer to ferment than if the house is warmer.I find that adding a bit of grape juice is my current favorite way to drink Kombucha!

Here is my current batch just a couple days from perfection!

Notice the older scoby floating in the jar and the new scoby forming on top. Also notice the bubbling at the top. Almost done!
There are different variations in making Kombucha, this is just how I've been making it. Anyone want to share their kombucha making tips?
*Be sure to sterilize all pots and jars. Kombucha should be made in very sanitary conditions to avoid contamination*

I Am Totally Cracking Up!!

2009-03-29T15:04:00.000-07:00

Has anyone heard of the Go Girl?? I can't help but post about it because I'm laughing so much. The really funny part is that I'm tempted to purchase this thing. I HATE public restrooms. Hate them.

I Have Issues

2009-03-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

I've substituted one addiction for another. Although I've been off sugar I started drinking coffee again and now crave about 3 cups a day. I had been off coffee (except for a random decaf here and there) for almost 4 years due to pregnancy/breastfeeding. Because I almost never drank it, I really never craved it. Well, the last few months I've slowly started drinking it again. And now I"m a coffee monster. I can't get enough...which means I need to stop. Geesh, if it's not one thing it's another! Why can't I get addicted to something like carrots. I imagine that would make me feel much better than I do right now!

My New Friend

2009-03-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

I've been on the hunt for a good garlic supplement for some time now. I use to try and crush up fresh garlic and eat it with applesauce, ect. But it got to the point where I would gag the whole time I'm trying to choke the applesauce down. Now I don't want anything to do with applesauce.

I think I finally found the right garlic supplement for me! It's called Kyolic Aged Garlic Extract.
It's liquid and you can mix it with juice or take it straight and although you do taste some garlic in it, it's not super strong. And the taste in your mouth goes away after a while. It doesn't make my stomach hurt either. The last time my daughter was sick I overdosed her on this stuff :) and she was healthy the next day. THE NEXT DAY. Awesome.

Detox Day 2

2009-01-02T15:33:00.001-08:00

I am feeling seriously cranky and like I might flip out right now. Getting off sugar is FUN! And I even accidently had half a brownie last night. I was at a New Year's party and Jesse asked me if I just ate half a brownie. I didn't even realize it! That's how bad my sugar intake had gotten. :)
I can't wait to get over the "hump" where sugar won't even sound good to me...ugh.

Detox time!

2008-12-27T15:47:00.000-08:00

I don't really do the new year's resolution thing. Never really have. But for some reason when January 1st rolls around each year, it feels like a good starting point for something new. I guess it's just how my brain works. So this January first I will start my detoxing of the "white stuff". No, not cocaine...just sugar. :)

I go through seasons where I eat very little sugar or a lot of sugar. Ever since moving back to the states I've been eating WAY too much sugar. My candida loves it but the rest of me totally doesn't. And since an estimated 80-90% of Americans have candida then I'm sure your candida loves it too. :)

Anyway, I will be completely going off the "white stuff" which means no packaged/processed foods either. No chips, no pastuerized juices, no stevia...seeing as it's white and all. :)

Fruits in moderation, raw honey, kombucha, coconut oil...things like that will be my sweet friends. The last time I went 100% off sugar I was scary to my family for a few weeks until I got over the difficult hump. My poor family. :)

Anyone else doing anything health related this January 1st??

Mexican Food, Taqueria Style!

2008-10-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

This one's for you Amy!

I don't really care if this food is super good for me or not. I just know that it's really good! A lot of fresh vegetables are used which means it is at least somewhat good for you. :)This little meal is a family favorite.

Carne Asada Tacos
-3 pounds steak tenderloin
-1/3 cup of white vinegar
-1/2 cup soy sauce
-4 cloves of garlic, minced
-2 limes, juiced
-1/2 cup olive oil
-1 tsp. salt
-1 tsp. pepper
-1 tsp. garlic powder
-1 tsp. chili powder
-1 tsp. oregano
-1 tsp. cumin
-1 tsp. paprika

Mix these ingredients together in a shallow bowl. Marinate the steak for 1-8 hours. When ready to cook it, cut the steak into small bits. Cook in an iron skillet until lightly brown. Serve in small authentic corn tortillas with the following:

-mashed avocado or your homemade guacamole (avocado, cilantro, salt and lemon juice is good)
-homemade salsa (recipe below)
-cilantro

Homemade Salsa
-3 fresh tomatoes
-1 whole yellow or white onion, cut into a few large chunks
-3-4 cloves of garlic
-2-3 serrano peppers, seeded
-1 bunch of cilantro (or less if you aren't a huge cilantro fan)
-2 tsp. of salt (to taste)
-2 tsp. lime juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place tomatoes, onion, garlic, and peppers on a pan. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt. Roast for about 30 minutes or until softened. Put the roasted vegetables as well as the rest of the ingredients in a food processor and blend to desired texture. Taste and add any extra salt or seasonings.
*If you prefer using the Fire Roasted canned tomatoes instead of fresh you can subsitute 1 can for 2 of the tomatoes and just use 1 fresh tomato instead. Voila! Perfect salsa.

The last recipe is great for tortilla chip dip or to use on basic ground beef or chicken tacos. It's soooooo good.

Cilantro Dip (can you tell we like cilantro?)
-1 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
-1 TB. sour cream
-1 can tomatillo salsa (preferably the green kind)
-1 tsp. pepper
-1 tsp. celery salt
-1/2 tsp. cumin
-2 tsp. garlic powder
-1 bunch of cilantro
-1 TB. lime fresh lime juice

Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend well. Put in the refrigerator to allow thickening. Serve with tortilla chips. To die for!

Treating The Common Cold

2008-10-08T15:24:00.000-07:00

As the cold season is creeping up on us I thought I would write out the typical routine we use for treating a cold. If you have any other great ideas please add them!

1. Echinacea-Jesse and I take a strong tincture and the girls take a mild sweet echinacea blend a few times a day while sick.

2. Olive oil and garlic-If the girls ears seem to be infected I warm up olive oil and garlic just a little. Let it cool and put a few drops of the oil in each of their ears. Seal with a bit of cotton and let it sit in there for a while. Take the cotton out and most of the oil has already been soaked up by it. The oil and garlic combo is good for fighting infection and drawing it out of the ear. Garlic is also great to ingest while sick. Chop some up finely and add to applesauce.

3. Peroxide-Jesse and I will put about 3 drops of this in each of our ears allowing it to sit in each one for a while. If there is bubbling and cracking we let it sit in the ear until it stops, as it is killing the infection off. If it doesn't bubble much at all we just dump it out of the ear. If there is bubbling we will do this about 3 times a day until it stops.

4. Gargling-Whisky. Not kidding. Jesse will drink it to help his throat but it makes me want to throw up. So I just gargle. If you get a strong enough Echinacea you can use this to gargle too.

5. Probiotics-We take daily anyway but these should help the immune system.

6. Essential oils-We mostly use eucalyptus, lavender and tea tree oil when sick. We will rub a couple drops into the bottom of our feet. This helps the oil go directly into the blood stream and up through the body. For younger children, use eucalyptus radiata. This is what it was called in Switzerland so it may be called something a bit different here in the states. Just want to point out that little people need a specific type of eucalyptus as some are too strong for them. Also, dilute it with coconut or olive oil before rubbing into their body. It's very potent stuff. Lavender is also great. I prefer the smell so I will sometimes rub a couple drops directly onto my neck if I have a sore throat. Of course adding about 5 drops of oil to a warm bath is great too.

7. Raw Honey-First of all never eat pastuerized honey if you can help it! It's pure sugar. But raw honey has great healing properities to it and is highly recommended (in small doses) as a treatment for infection. Feels great on it's own when you have a sore throat or add to a nice tea.

8. Broth- A good homemade broth actually is helpful in healing your body when sick. Go here for real healing broth recipes.

We do other stuff randomly but these are the most consistent things we do. Here's to hoping we will have a healthy winter. So far so good...

Added Supplements For Alivia

2008-09-11T21:09:00.001-07:00

So my dear sweet Alivia has had digestion issues since birth. She had severe colic, severe reflux and diarrhea ALL the time. Never a normal poo. I've done SO much research and have tried everything to help her digestion. To aid her digestion every day she gets coconut oil, freshly ground flax (added to smoothie or oatmeal), a probiotic, chlorophyll, and recently I added digestive enzymes. If the digestive enzymes don't do the trick I need to take her to a naturopath. I had her do a strength test and of course the results were different then the blood test (which is of course not dependable) and food sensitvity test. What more can a girl do? :(

Coconut Oil

2008-09-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

Let me list the ways I love to use thee:

1. Body moisturizer. I'm sure there are more creative, less oily ways to use this but we use it straight baby. After bath time I put it all over the girls. I use it on my skin and once a week I soak my hair in it for about an hour and then wash it out. Love it!

2. Supplement. Can you even call it that? Probably not. But I try to make sure the girls and I all have at least 1-2 tablespoons of this a day. I usually add it to a morning smoothie or melt it over cooked peas. Yum.

3. Cooking. It's not great to heat up things like olive oil past a certain temperature. Coconut oil is a healthier oil when it comes to cooking. We like to use it when we cook stir fry and it tastes lovely.

Wow. I thought I had a longer list then that. I think it's late and I can't think of anything else right now. If I think of other uses for it I will add it. Please add your own too!
ps. Only use 100% organic, extra virgin, cold pressed, centrifuge extracted coconut oil. :) What a mouth full.

I Love To Lather My Hair Up With Dioxane And Sodium Laureth Sulfate!

2008-08-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

So I think we all know that the products we use on our body to stay clean and look good have an ingredients list full of words most can't even pronounce. That is mostly because they are crazy chemicals and neurotoxins eating away at our brains! Fun! So I have a really good online site that I use when on the hunt for a product that is virtually toxin free. It lists most commonly used shampoos/conditioners, makeup, deoderants, ect. and will rate them on their toxicity. It's a very thorough and useful site. Go ahead! Look up your most loved products and see how toxic they are. Some of them are sort of surprising.

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

2008-08-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

I have a million recipes that I would love to share on here and am always on the hunt for good ones. Here is a family favorite. I'm not sure why it's called a pesto because it's not technically pesto, but whatever. This is great for an appetizer or I make some hummus too and then eat the two with vegetables, lebanese flatbread and crispy italian breadsticks as a meal. My 20 month old eats it by the spoonfuls which is hilarious because it has a strong taste. Anyways, it's SO wonderful.

-1 cup (250 ml) sun-dried tomatos in olive oil (make sure you get a tasty one because there are some that aren't that great and can make the whole thing taste bad. Or if you prefer, buy sun-dried tomatos that aren't packed in oil and then add olive oil to the desired texture when blending.)
-3 cloves fresh garlic
-a little fresh lemon juice
-1/2 cup fresh basil
-1/4 cup fresh parsley
-half or a whole fresh tomato (this depends on what type of texture you want)

*Combine everything in a food processor and blend until you reach the desired texture. We usually blend until it is all finely chopped and has a little bit of a chunky texture. Easy peasy!

It's a little different everytime we make it...but always good. Also, try and buy organic ingredients, if you can afford it, when making food. This is a super healthy snack if there are no pesitcides in it! I try and make a larger batch of this and eat it as a snack instead of something like chips and salsa. Seriously, it's a keeper!

Children and Adult Health books

2008-08-05T13:46:00.000-07:00

After I gave birth to my oldest daughter, a Swiss friend of mine told me about these great health books that she had so I checked them out. I bought them right away! They are wonderful! the children's health book is called "Smart Medicine For A Healthier Child" and the adult health book is called "Smart Medicine For Healthier Living".
One reason these books are so great is because of how they have a full spectrum of responses to common health problems. Let's take the common cold for example. If you look in the common cold section of the book it will give you a run down of what a cold looks like, feels like and any symptoms you might experience. Then after that it will have about 6 different sections on different ways to treat your cold. The sections include:

-Conventional Treatments (using medicine to treat a cold)
-Dietary Guidelines
-Nutritional Supplements
-Herbal Treatments
-Homeopathy
-Accupressure

So for someone like me that doesn't like to use medicine to treat our colds and likes to use herbal, homeopathic and essential oil treatments instead this tells you exactly which are appropriate to use for each section and what quantities to use depending on the age (hence the two different books, one for children and one for adults). I definitely believe there is a place for medicine but I also definitely believe that we abuse it and use it WAY too often. So these books are such a great balance between the medical world and the natural healing world. Love them and totally recommend them!

Daily Supplements For Children

2008-07-30T15:34:00.000-07:00

So I've done a lot of research on supplements and boy can it get confusing and frustrating. It's hard to know sometimes which ones are legit and which ones are unnecessary or even bad for our kids. Here is what the girls get daily:

-a quality probiotic suitable for their ages. I like Baby's Jarro-Dophilus which is good for kids 4 and under.
-a good quality Krill oil. I like the one you can order from Mercola. For small children who can't swallow capsules you can break it open and squeeze it onto their food.
-Sweet Echinacea. I don't give this to them daily but just as an immunity booster once a week or so. Then if they are sick they get it more often.
-A tablespoon of cold pressed organic coconut oil. I usually try and mix it into something, like a smoothie for instance. We actually use this oil for MANY things but I might get into that in another post.

So that is it! I really should be checking if they are low on zinc and giving that to them as well if they need it. But I haven't gotten that far yet.

I would love to hear what others give their children!

Homemade Kefir

2008-07-28T15:09:00.001-07:00

So let's get this blog started off right with a post on homemade kefir! I wonder who else out there makes this wonderful stuff. A good friend of mine taught me how to make it. If you want more info. on kefir go here.

What you will need to make this delicious replacement for your yogurt:

-kefir starter (these can be found in some natural grocery stores/markets or ordered online here
Don't be scared of the price. You can re-use the grains many many times before you would need new ones.
-milk (preferably organic and raw if you can find it otherwise as unprocessed as you can get it. Non-homogenized, ect.)
-mason jars

This is what the kefir grains will look like after mixing the starter with a bit of milk and letting them sit at room temperature for about 1-2 days. Don't be scared of them!

Kefir is extremely easy to make and is very beneficial to your digestive system. In the morning a lot of times I make either a green smoothie (a fruit smoothie with added spinach, kale, ect.) or a kefir smoothie (a fruit smoothie with added kefir and cold pressed organic coconut oil). Voila! A wonderful healthy energizing breakfast!