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

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:

Got the Idea from here

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!

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!!! :)



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! 

Lavender All Purpose Cleaner

My everything cleaner came about when researching health and cleaning properties of essential oils. Turns out Lavender is useful for a lot more then just relaxing! Lavender oil has an antiseptic properties as well as anti-fungal. Crazy! Who knew! If you want to learn more about lavender there are a TON of sites talking about all it's uses from cleaning to health and beauty. Anyways, as I started to search for recipes for lavender, I came across a bunch of recipes mixing lavender oil with vinegar, bleaches, and harsher cleaning aids. I just wanted something easy and safe for using around the places we eat like my babies high chair tray and our kitchen table and counters. I finally found a recipe on Pinterest that was almost to good to be true! The Blog I found recommended a basic all purpose anti-bacterial spray with just water and lavender oil.

Lavender Anti-Bacterial Spray

1 spray bottle

1 cup water

10 drops pure essential lavender oil

Combine, spray and enjoy!

I must say, I didn't expect much from this cleaner, but I already had the supplies so I thought I had nothing to lose! I LOVE this cleaner! It cleans up sticky messes from the kids as good, if not better then, my old cleaner and I love that it's so safe! I don't have to worry about chemicals where my babies eat, it smells great and I use it to clean almost every surface in my kitchen. It even gets the greasy splatter from around the burners of the stove! I cannot tell you how impressed I am with this stuff, I can honestly say I'll never go back to a commercial all purpose cleaner!

I picked up my bottle of Lavender oil from a local health food store. It cost me 8.75 and this bottle has lasted me well over 6 months and is less than 1/4 gone. I use this stuff for so much!

*** As always, this is my opinion on this cleaner. Always follow instructions, do your homework and make informed choices regarding the health and safety of your family!***

Fit Momma's Frugal Finds

Part of building healthy family's, in my opinion, is by teaching kids that money doesn't grow on trees and to cut family costs where you can. I started my journey in frugal living by necessity when I became pregnant with my 4th child. One more mouth to feed, person to clothe and laundry to do! I've dabbled in DIY cleaners ( Lavender All Purpose Cleaner) but laundry detergent has been to intimidating for me to make at home. Most DIY laundry detergent are in liquid form and usually include cooking in a big pot and storing in giant containers. I just couldn't bring myself to go through all that without even knowing if I'd even LIKE the end product! Until I came upon this great blog: one good thing by jillee. Where she made the liquid version and then talked about a POWDERED detergent! "Huh, powdered...." I thought, "I could do that." So off I went to Fred Meyer to buy some ingredients, and one short stop at a store and 10 Min's of prep and my homemade detergent was ready for it's first load of laundry!

Powdered Laundry Soap:2 cups finely grated soap (Ivory, Fels Naptha, Zote, homemade, or a combination)
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda

Mix and store in a coffee can or what have you. Use 1-2 T per load.

Since I like all thing natural I choose  1 bar of Tom's natural soap in sage and 1 bar of Tom's natural Lavender milled soap. I learned that the finer the grate the better, I ended up grating the bar of soap (1 bar of soap makes just over 2 cups, I threw in the extras and just used heaping cups of the Borax and Washing Soda.) and then going through the soap with my fingers crushing it even finer. This mixture is VERY concentrated so you really only need the 2 tablespoons/ load of wash!

 I spent less then $6.00 for all the ingredients and purchased the glass container for $5.99

This is how much a double batch made, I am super happy with this! It smells great, my clothes came out clean and fresh! Enjoy Fit Mommas, and Happy Laundering!

****SAFTY NOTE****
***Borax can be extreemly dangerous if not used correctly! Please follow all safety precautions listed on your box of borax. Please keep this product away from children and rinse hands after handling. Also keep in mind this product is DIY and FRUGAL and is not nessessarity "green" in nature. Use as directed and at your own risk.***