Thursday, October 31, 2013

What's up with 'Clean Eating"???


Clean eating? What the heck is that suppose to mean? And what's it mean if you don't eat clean? Do you eat dirty?? You've probably heard the term on the cover of a magazine, or your gym-rat friends are always saying how they 'eat clean' but what the heck are they talking about? 

Clean eating is a hot new diet buzz word, simply stated, it means that you eat whole, un-processed foods. If it comes from a box it's not clean eating. The style of eating is not new, but the marketing term 'clean eating' is. Human bodies are designed to eat natural foods, but industries have taken back road efforts to give us food that tastes good at the cheapest price and with the greatest shelf life. But in order to extend food that way, they've taken most of the food out of it and replaced it with chemicals and fillers. Historically speaking, our ancestors used salt, fermentation and drying, as well as smoking and cooking methods. For more on the history of food processing go here. And for a great article on what is all that processed food and what it can do to you, go here . Bottom line is this, the more processed a food is, the less it resembles food to your body. When your body doesn't recognize it as food, then your body tries to fight it as a foreign toxin. Your body has to work extra hard (expel extra energy) to break down and get rid of chemicals and then has less energy to use for it's normal function. If your trying to get healthy, eating real food is the way to go. 

Of course, there are many benefits of eating 'clean', or as I like to call it, eating food. Your body can digest real food, so your body can use the food you eat to breakdown for energy, and it is better able to absorb the nutrients that are in your food. (called micro-nutrients). This frees up your extra energy stores to use for, hey get this, energy! You'll feel better, you will most likely lose weight- as it's harder to overeat on real food, your immune system will be stronger- keeping you healthy during the cold and flu season, your skin, hair and nails will be stronger and less prone to breakage. You may find that any auto-immune diseases you have may lessen in intensity as you stop using your energy store to fight your food and are better able to heal. 

Great right? Right! So what's the downside? Could there be one? Well not really, but eating real food does take more effort. You'll need to plan ahead, shop smart, and as much as possible eat local and organically. You'll also need to learn to cook. 

What can you eat if you go 'clean'? 
Meats
Veggies
Fruit
nuts and seeds
whole unprocessed grains
hormone free dairy 

The best way to eat clean is to get to know where your food comes from, visit local farms and get to talking to farmers. Find out where they buy their foods, most farmers love to share information and enjoy teaching about how food gets to the table. 

For more info on clean eating check out this site for eating clean for dummies

Got a question?? Post it for me! It may be featured in an upcoming post! :) 

Cheers and Health! 


Erin
 

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Amazing Oils!


Cold and Flu season is upon us! But this year I'm fighting back! A couple days ago I woke up feeling fine, but sometime after dinner it hit me like a freight train, "I don't feel good...." I whined as I plopped down on the couch. "what's wrong?" My husband asked me, I hadn't pin pointed it yet, but my head hurt and my ears hurt and I felt sick.  "I'm going to bed....." But before my head hit my pillow for the night I remembered all those pretty little bottles of essential oils I have sitting in my bathroom. I swear the hardest part of using oils, it to REMEMBER to use them! So I drug myself to my glorious collection of mis-matched oils. And started to ponder. My head hurt, so I grabbed the lavender oil. My chest felt heavy so I grabbed some peppermint and eucalyptus oils. Armed with my tiny bottles, a bottle of sweet almond oil and a toasty (The name my children gave to our numerous lavender and rice filled heat packs) I shuffled off to bed. I mixed a couple drops of lavender equal drops oils and applied it to my temples, neck and outside of my ears, and mixed the peppermint and eucalyptus oils with equal drops oil and applied to my chest. Tossed a toasty over my eyes and fell asleep----hard. And I woke up magically healed! No, not quiet. Actually, in my experience essential oils speed up healing, often by making your sickness come to it's ugly rearing head faster, but less severely. This is how I woke up the next day, my head still hurt and my body still felt sick-ish. So I got the kids to school and started 'operation: kill a cold' and it started with a large glass of water, then a mug full of warm broth (homemade chicken bone broth- seriously SO easy! Recipe at the bottom of the page) then the big guns. Oregano oil--- lots of Oregano oil. I had purchased Oregano oil capsules a while back because I had kept hearing all about how great Oregano oil is, "the natural antibiotic" I'd read. So I picked some up at my local hippy market (health food store)  I took a capsule every couple hours and drank LOTS of fluids. I also mixed up a essential oil shot-- I used peppermint, 4 thieves, and lemon 2 drops of each mixed in a shot glass with hot water. I plugged my nose and drank up... then I realized I may have made a small error. MORE WATER! Ahhhh....that's better. (That 4 thieves stuff is STRONG! *please note unless your oils say food grade-- do not ingest them. just use them topically, which after my gag experience with drinking them I think I'll stick to topical next time regardless.* Well, within 3 hours of waking up I felt less sick. "That's a fluke," I thought, but I kid you not, I'm not sick anymore! All day long I felt normal, maybe a small lingering head ache at the most. And today I woke up feeling completely fine! Essential oils for the WIN! :)

Bone broth (chicken)
Next time you want a chicken for dinner throw a chicken in your crock pot and let it cook. Toss in whatever you want to season it with. I usually use onion, celery, maybe a carrot, I've also used fennel. Salt and pepper, and let it cook.  Pull your meat off and toss all your bones back into your crock pot with your cooking juices and veggies, add a table spoon of apple cider vinegar, or juice a bit of lemon, you just need to add some acidic juices to pull the nutrients out of the bones. Fill your pot with as much water as it can hold and cook.......cook......keep cooking. I let mine go on low for a whole OTHER day! My broth cooked for nearly 30 hours, strain and save in containers. I used mason jars and kept mine in the fridge, I drink a cup everyday to help heal my gut from my food allergies. But you can freeze and use later for soup, freeze in ice cube trays for sauces, etc. get creative! I serve mine re-heated and add just a pinch of sea salt. Don't skim the fat! You want that! And don't be surprised if your broth gels as it cools, that's all that lovely healing gelatin that is doing that! When you warm it up it'll all mix in again and make a lovely, rich broth. Great for next time your sick and need some nutrients! 


Cheers and Health! 

Erin

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Food Allergies

It's been a while, how's it going blog peeps? I want to talk to you guys about something I've been spending my last year learning all about: Food Allergies.

"You too??" you may be thinking. Seems everyone is talking about food allergies lately, gluten free, soy free, dairy free, no peanuts, eggs or yeast.... blah blah blah. By this time, your head is spinning and you can't think of a single thing you can actually eat. This is exactly where I stood about a year ago, I got home from my doctors visit and my mind was spinning. I literally couldn't think of a single meal I could make that wouldn't include something I was allergic too. My list was extensive: the gist of it was this, if it tastes creamy, rich or delicious it was off my menu. I stood in the kitchen and cried, my husband tried to console me, "But what will I eat?" I sobbed. He had no clue. "Salad?" He said, I cried harder. Fast forward a year and I've come a long way from that sad woman in the kitchen, I don't eat a ton of salad, but I do eat more vegetables. I want to write today about food allergies in hope that you may have a better understanding of what it is, and how you can offer your allergen sensitive friends good food.And if you're like me, recently diagnosed with a food allergy, I hope this post help you feel less alone and helps you see you really can still eat good food. 

What is a food allergy? "I'm lactose intolerant, that's allergic to milk right?" my husband asks. Well not quite, lactose intolerant is that your body has a hard time digesting and breaking down and metabolizing the milk product you eat. An allergy, is that your body doesn't even recognize your food as food, but as an antigen ( foreign substance) that needs attacked, so instead of your body spending energy digesting your food, it spends energy attacking your food. This produces and inflammatory response, flooding your body with histamine and causing systemic inflammation. Okay, that was a lot of words, whats is all mean? Continuing exposure to allergens over a long period of time will not only make you feel sick, it will also set you up for a LONG list of health issues including the biggies: high blood pressure, heart disease, cholesterol issues, fibromyalgia, lupus, cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's, to name a few. Chronic inflammation equals bad. Got it? Great. So what can you eat, if like me your allergic to a bunch of stuff, or maybe your thinking you may be allergic to something and you want to eliminate common allergens and do a little home testing to help diagnose potential issues. I would recommend eating a diet consisting of all sorts of fruits and veggies, lean proteins (chicken - but no eggs--, fish, grass fed beef, turkey), rice (try to limit it to one meal a day and about 1/2 cup a day) raw seeds and nuts (minus peanuts, if your cutting out allergens) So what could you eat?


Salad?? Well yes, you can eat salad but wouldn't you rather have some yummy stir fry?? Or how about a nice big beef (or better yet Bison) burger?? Topped with avocado, tomatoes, grilled onions, and served bun-less with a big side of grilled seasoned zucchini! Potatoes?? Sure! Roast them up with some olive oil and salt and pepper till crispy and delicious, eat 'em up with a great piece of steak, chicken or fish. 

For breakfast, juice your fruits and veggies or toss 'em in a magic bullet type blender and make some smoothies. 
I like a green monster:

1 kiwi
1 orange, peeled and segmented
1/2 cup spinach
1 banana
 blend it all together with some ice and serve in two tall glasses. 

The key to eating well with allergies is to stop thinking about all the things I can't have and start thinking about all the things I can eat, when I start to think positively about my food then the creativity starts to flow. 

If you know what you are allergic too (either by working with a doctor with an elimination test or by getting a allergy marker test done), then you can start to add back in more and more foods. The great thing about stores today, is that more and more are jumping on the allergen conscious band wagon. You can find gluten free mixes and products that are good quality and easier on the budget too. 

So, if you love someone with food allergies, give 'em a hug and feed them something great. And if you suffer from food allergies, begin to try to think positively about your food choices. Get creative and start experimenting in the kitchen! You may fail, once or twice, but sometime you WIN and those are the moments that make you think, "Okay, I can do this." Find some great resources, pinterest is one of my favorite resources, I often find a recipe there that I can easily swap this for that on and create something wonderful! Make friends with others in your allergen free boat, find blogs, message boards and get talking about your allergies. Lets help each other THRIVE with food allergies not just survive! 

Cheers and Health Friends!


Erin


Monday, April 2, 2012

Cold, Flu and Allergy Care

So today I set out on some DIY health recipes (From Pinterest of course!) So I stumbled upon a couple of keepers, "Vick's" inspired shower steamers and ginger/lemon syrup for colds/allergies/sore throat. I'm ON it!

"Vick's" shower steamers:
I took the original post and changed it to fit what I had at home. I used

1 cup Baking Soda
1 cup corn starch
15 drops peppermint oil
20 drops eucalyptus oil
 enough water to make a thick paste


Super easy: Add all ingredients mix well and pour into paper cupcake liners. I baked mine so they'd be done faster it took 1 hour in a 200 degree oven. Let cool for 1 hour and pop out of liners into a storage container. Tada! Done!

Ginger/Lemon Syrup:

 So Ginger is a natural pain reducer and anti-inflammatory while lemons are rich in vitamin C and antioxidants. Great combo right?? Right! So off I went to the pantry to fix up this little gem that I saw on anther great blog. I made a half recipe because I only had a little chunk of ginger left.

1 cup  water

2 large lemons, juice and grated zest
1 stalk grated ginger
1 cup sugar
 Bring the water to a boil. Add the sugar, ginger and grated lemon zest.
Cook for 15 minutes and stir constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the juice of 2 lemons then strain through a fine sieve, pressing on the guts to get all the yummy goodness! 

Keep in the fridge and add 1-2 tablespoons per 8oz water serve hot or cold! I made this for me and a half dose of the syrup with a dropper of children's echinacea and ice to a sippy cup for my Sam! He drank it happily! :) It's tasty, and hopefully will help my family feel better quickly!
Hope this spring find your family healthy and happy! But if you have the sniffles, I hope you try these and tell me what you think! :) Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

DIY Bodywash

Can you tell I'm on a little DIY Beauty kick??? :) So I found This post about homemade body wash and since I am out (Been using cheep shampoo for over a month now...) I knew it was time. My dry skin is practically BEGGING for a drink! So time to whip out another DIY recipe and I was so happy that I already had the ingredients on hand! Yippee!
The original post says you can use it as a shampoo too-- but with the oil in it, I don't think it's a good idea. Unless you for some reason like to rock the greasy look. (Circa-- Grease Lightening....perhaps??)

What you'll need:
1 bar of you fave soap (I'm using my fave all natural... see my post of laundry detergent)
1/2 cup hot water(depends on your soap, you need enough to make your soap a "pudding-y" texture)
1/4 cup olive oil

Grate your soap:

Put your soap into you handy-dandy magic bullet or blender
add enough water to make "pudding-y"

add in oil

Blend till smooth

Pour into an old shampoo bottle and take a shower! Since I don't like to have to search for recipes I write my recipe on the back of the bottle to save me some time when I need to make more.


That was so easy! Total cost to me today?? Free-- I had everything in my cupboard! :) YES! I love it when that happens! :)

So besides the joy of making your family their own products and saving yourself some MULA, what's your favorite part of DIY cleaners and beauty products?? Me?? Well, clean up is so easy! Really, you just rinse and your done!

Cheers and Health Friends! 

Brown Sugar Body Scrub

15.00$ for 8oz of this sugar scrub OR you could make your own for....... Oh, about  $0.75!!!! Yup, you read that right! So, why have I been wasting money on beauty products that I could be making at home!?  I know that you want to know how to do this so here we go!
Three ingredients:
Brown sugar
A Lemon
And a bit of olive oil
 Mix 1 about a cup of brown sugar with the juice and grated peel of one lemon, add just enough olive oil to make a nice paste consistency. I used about a tablespoon of oil. Stir and place in a container and enjoy in your next shower! :) Seriously, that's it! You probably even have the ingredients in your cupboard! So what are you waiting for! Go make some!!! :)


Monday, February 20, 2012

Beyond Baby Blues


Let's get serious today. I want to take a second to talk to you about post partum depression and depression in general, the symptoms of it and some natural ways to help you cope with depression. If you feel you are depressed, even if you don't think your feelings are justified, please talk to your doctor about how you are feeling. If you know someone who is depressed, please, help them by talking to them, validating their feelings and assisting them in getting help that they need. People who suffer from depression often cannot help themselves and it falls to us who love them to take the lead and find them the help they deserve.

Baby blues- I hate that term. As a mom who has suffered from severe post partum depression I find this term laughable! Depression looks different on everyone, but the main symptom of depression are universal- a feeling of hope lost.
The following is the list of depression symptoms as described by the mayo clinic:



  • Feelings of sadness or unhappiness




  • Irritability or frustration, even over small matters




  • Loss of interest or pleasure in normal activities




  • Reduced sex drive




  • Insomnia or excessive sleeping




  • Changes in appetite — depression often causes decreased appetite and weight loss, but in some people it causes increased cravings for food and weight gain




  • Agitation or restlessness — for example, pacing, hand-wringing or an inability to sit still




  • Irritability or angry outbursts




  • Slowed thinking, speaking or body movements




  • Indecisiveness, distractibility and decreased concentration




  • Fatigue, tiredness and loss of energy — even small tasks may seem to require a lot of effort




  • Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or blaming yourself when things aren't going right




  • Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things




  • Frequent thoughts of death, dying or suicide




  • Crying spells for no apparent reason




  • Unexplained physical problems, such as back pain or headaches



  • For me depression over-takes me, like the world is moving in high speed and I cannot focus on any one thing. I can be in a crowded room full of friends and family and feel utterly alone and secluded. Hormones play a major role in  postpartum depression, as well as sleep deprivation,  the stress of a new baby and poor diet.

    The poor diet is what I want to talk about today. You just had a baby, your exhausted all the time, you don't sleep well, your up late at night and if you're breast feeding you may be extremely hungry and may even be experiencing strong food cravings. This is the fact of life right now and I promise you-- things will eventually calm down and you will get back to yourself, but right now it may be tough to just get a shower and pee during the days home with your little one, let alone make nutritious meals for you and your family. And honestly in a perfect world, your spouse, friends or family should be taking over many of those chores. But reality is- the help never last long enough and your left with the responsibility. Don't stress, do your best to eat healthy foods, like lean proteins, whole grains (unless your gluten free like me- then brown rice is a good option) , plenty of fruits and veggies and WATER! In order to help keep the normal stress of having a new baby turn into full blown depression I highly suggest continuing with your pre-natal vitamins and adding a b-12 complex to your diet. According to the mayo clinic, "Vitamin B-12 and other B vitamins play a role in producing brain chemicals that affect mood and other brain functions" and personally I have found that taking a B-12 supplement has greatly helped to ease the symptoms of depression. (always check with your Dr before adding any supplements or over the counter drugs when breastfeeding.)

    Remember to give yourself a break, be kind to yourself and allow yourself the time needed to get healthy. Don't stress about weight loss after pregnancy, a lot of women find it hard to lose a great deal of weight while breastfeeding, largely due to the chemical response breastfeeding has on our fat stores. This is OK! YOU are OK! Right now your job is to take care of that baby, his first year of life is a vitally important time of development and bonding with you. You will have plenty of time to get your body back after baby! I hope that you will find this information on depression to be helpful and encouraging. I'd love to hear your feedback! Feel free to e-mail me at Fitmomma4@gmail.com or leave a message here on the blog.

    Cheers and Health my Friends!