GREEN your Laundry, BABY! GREEN It for me, REAL GOOD

When I am coaching people through greening their homes, we usually start with the Laundry room. Why? Because its the easiest place to start. And because these products can be the worst offenders for indoor pollution. And because we wear out clothes all day and night, and if they have toxins on them, they can be the cause of many of our physical issues.

Your skin and respiratory system can absorb the chemical residue leftover from conventional detergents. Not to mention, fabric softeners leave a waxy (flammable!) buildup on your clothing that you breathe in and wear all day long. YUCK!!!

Some of the nasty nasty junk in our laundry rooms;

1-4 dioxane- NOT REQUIRED to be listed in the ingredient lists, but it is a carcinogen.
NPE- nonylphenol ethoxylate- can cause hormone and reproductive problems more info
Phosphates- causes environmental problems, such as cell overgrowth.
Sodium Hypochlorite (BLEACH)- highly poisonous toxin, damages body tissues info here
Phenols- easily absorbed by the skin and is toxic to fetuses and embryos
SLS- Sodium Lauryl/Laureth Sulfate- very irritating to skin and respiratory system ECO Toxic, Use is suggested at 1% or less in products, and many have 10-30%!!! You will also see this in shampoo, lotion, makeup… They are finding it in brains, lungs, heart, and livers and it creates hormone imbalance. ( Are we starting to see why so many people have hormonal issues now?)
Phthalates, fragrance/perfume, food coloring, etc. – These things all are carcinogenic and can cause reproductive problems, lower testosterone, ugh, so many things.

These toxins also enter our water systems and are causing environmental disruption. They can kill off the good plants and eco-systems and allow things like algae to take hold and kill off rivers and ponds, frogs, fish, insects… They are also causing reproductive issues in our non-mammal friends, too. YIKES!!!

So the choice is yours, do you want to clean up your laundry?

GOOD! I KNEW YOU WOULD!!!

How to start?

Find eco friendly detergents;

Molly’s suds, biokleen, Honest company, Common Good, Ecos, Laundress, soap nuts… Or make your own! Baking soda, castille soap, Epsom salts, washing soda… all these things can be used to wash clothing.

Find ways to soften without using those toxic softeners, such as dryer balls, or a damp rag with vinegar and essential oils on it. Find dryer scent here dryer oil scent I have found that since i stopped using softener, I haven’t needed it! My clothes are soft and i honestly don’t have very much static cling. My washer and dryer also don’t need to be “cleaned” anymore either, after doing away with all the additives from the softeners.

For bleach, there is always Molly’s Suds Oxygen Whitener, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, or Oxy Clean or other bleach alternatives that use oxygen instead.

Remember that you are doing yourself and your family a great favor by using these natural products! They may not work the same as what you are used to! BUT you will get used to them and begin to love them, just give them a chance! It is worth it for the health of you and your family, your pets, and the environment!

April 23, 2019

Do kids REALLY hate veggies?

HOW DO I GET MY KIDS TO EAT THEIR DANG VEGGIES?

This is a question I get a LOT. Like A LOT.

Why do we have such a problem with veggies?

First of all, we aren’t giving kids veggies when they are first eating. Most parents give their kids rice, then fruit, then meat, then sugar, and somewhere along the line the kids miss out on their chance to experience vegetables. And then when we try to give them veggies later, they say they taste funny.

I also have issue with the way doctors tell parents that nutrition doesn’t matter (wrong!) and that “they will eat veggies later” ( wrong!) and to let kids eat what they ( also WRONG!). This particular soap box is one of my bigger pet peeves. Let’s just say the whole system is kind of broken. So who do we turn to for nutrition advice? The answer is definitely not our pediatricians. They don’t take very much nutrition in med school and most don’t even see a connection between diet and health. This is very disturbing.

To find nutrition advice these days I would find a holistic nutritionist or even a book about feeding our babies whole foods ( meaning fruits AND veggies) from the very beginning. Nutrition is just as important for a baby as for an adult, and even more so. Nutrition makes or breaks a persons health. And for babies, letting them taste and feel vegetables early is one of the most important things you can do for your child.

There are so many books on amazon when I do a quick search, it should be easy to find something good to use.

BUT let’s say that you didn’t know this and your child is now a toddler or older and they won’t eat veggies.

What to do now?

Well, my first question is to you- do YOU eat your veggies? Because we both know that kids will do what you do, not what you say. So you have to start incorporating veggies into your diet. This is imperative. You can’t be trying to get kids to eat theirs when you make faces or don’t eat yours. That’s the law of kiddom #312. BE A GOOD EXAMPLE.

Your palette will change. You CAN start to like them and so will your kids. BE PATIENT.

Set up rules. The two bite rule. And keep trying. Sometimes you have to serve a veggie 10 times before they will eat it. BUT they almost always will end up eating it. Even when you’re exhausted and you don’t want to argue, keep the rules! BE CONSISTENT!

Talk about nutrition and WHY they should eat their veggies. My kids can read nutrition labels! Tell them one way that each veggie can help them. Carrots are good for eyes, Broccoli is good for their brains… Talk about health. MAKE IT IMPORTANT and UNDERSTANDABLE.

STOP, for the love of GOD, STOP calling them PICKY!

Kids hear this and hold on to this label. Don’t call them picky, don’t tell your friends that they don’t eat veggies, DON’T tell them that they have “never liked” their veggies… Try to use positivity instead. “You are absolutely gonna love veggies!” “Veggies are fantastic and they taste amazing!” Don’t force it, I mean use your own language, but talk about it like its GOING to happen. And it will. Talk about veggies like they are magical! DON’T LABEL KIDS!

Did you know that studies show that if you teach good nutrition at home, then the kids will teach their friends and they will influence many other people? If they taught it in school, kids would teach their parents. Kids influence their parents as well, so teaching them nutrition is so important! KIDS ARE ADAPTIVE and LOVE TO LEARN!

So what if you are doing all this and its still not happening…

Hide them– there are many sneaky ways to get veggies into kids. For example, I put lentils and mushrooms and spinach chopped up really fine into our spaghetti. You can make zucchini bread instead of banana bread. You can get awesome veggie powders lemon flavored veggies for and you can put them into muffins, brownies, or just regular veggie powder veggie burgers or even meat burgers… So many fabulous ways to sneak it in. (Coupon for 50$ off those veggie powders is Prem10)
Bribery- If they want a snack, they need to eat their veggies. That is the rule in my house. If they want the ipad, they have to eat their veggies. Or make veggies the reward. I have an amazing chocolate dessert hummus recipe that would be a great snack! I know, I know, bribery isn’t necessarily the best thing, but I believe that vegetables are that important. And once they start eating them, it won’t be such a hardship.
Smoothies- Smoothies can be an amazing way to get veggies into kids. Most kids will eat the heck out of these. Just make sure its not all fruit. Cucumbers and carrots and spinach all have light tastes that can be disguised with fruit. Or you can try the lemon flavored veggies – they taste like lemon tea and make things very yummy!
ZINC- If they are still really genuinely not liking their food, they could have other issues. Low zinc could be one, or a candida or gluten issue (only wanting carbs), etc. I would recommend a nice holistic functional doctor at that point.

I hope this helps! And as always, feel free to comment below or message me for more help in this area!

Photo by Stokpic on Pexels.com

April 8, 2019

“Worry worry worry baby Worry is all I can do…”

Thank you, BB King for those amazing lyrics.

Hey, are you struggling with anxiety? That stinky, mean, old, crusty, jerkface, Anxiety? I have definitely wrestled with it. I used to be on meds for it. I couldn’t handle crowds, or family events, or work… I would pop a short term anxiety med and then go ahead and climb right into the fire. Or I sometimes would drink to decrease social anxiety. Ok, not just sometimes- A LOT.

Well, these things are not the best choices! Alcohol causes major vitamin deficiencies, which in turn, cause more ANXIETY and DEPRESSION, not to mention other large chronic problems! So we can’t use that as a crutch! And the anxiety meds are also linked to dementia, cancer, obesity, liver problems, and, you guessed it, ANXIETY! What?!? The pharmaceuticals for anxiety can GIVE YOU Anxiety? Yep!! So we want to try to stay away from those too.

So what the heck can we use?

Well, here is my top ten list for the best natural support for ANXIETY! Ready? Here we go!

1. CBD- Have you tried this? It can be LIFE CHANGING! If you don’t know anything about it and would like more info, I have a page RIGHT HERE on my blog with a video all about it, and the cbds that I recommend, so check that out from the tab at the top! My FAV CBD!!

2. GABA and L-Theanine- Gaba is a neurotransmitter that calms down your brain and L-Theanine is an amino acid that also is very calming, so these two together will relax you and your brain and hopefully help you sleep as well! Here is what I use; put my code, prem10, in for 50$ off of a 75$ purchase! YEAH! ANXIETY SPRAY AWAY!

3. Essential Oils- Have you tried these? OMG They can be used for so many things! And there are so many great Essential Oils for anxiety. The ones I like to use for calming are Myrrh, Cypress, Vetiver, Lemonbalm, Lavender, Roman Chamomile, and Patchouli. But as always, PLEASE be careful with Essential Oils!! They are VERY strong and aren’t always safe straight from the bottle! Always dilute them with a carrier oil and go low and slow! How I would use these is take one drop of the essential oil and put into a of Tablespoon of coconut oil or jojoba oil or some other innocuous oil and then rub on my temples, the back of my neck, my lower back, on my forehead, or my wrists. Just please be careful! This one is pre-blended for you and you can roll it right on! wow! Roll on sleep help!!

Another way to get the benefits of Essential Oils is to buy a Hydrosol instead. These have the powers of the oils but are safe for children and adults, as they are the much less concentrated and are blended into water. These you can use as perfumes, toner, freshening sprays for clothing or skin… so many great uses, without the safety concerns of essential oils! This explains more about them and this is one of my favorite companies to buy from. hydrosols

4. Valerian- this is a very calming herb and can be used in tonic or tea form.

5. Gingko Biloba- This increases blood flow to the brain and may help with calming.

6. AShwaganda- This is an adaptogenic herb, meaning it adapts to what your body needs at the time. It is very calming and soothing.

7. Passionflower- This is another great calming herb, and you can find it in this blend. It is also good for calming in children! Here is what I recommend for adults, don’t forget the 50$ off code for this, prem10. calming pack adults calm for kids

8. Licorice tea- This can be good for many things, including calming and digestive issues. Love that double whammy, right?

9. Kava Kava- This is a truly calming herb and is also included in the calming adult pack!

10. Ginseng- This one is interesting, because while it does help with calm, it also gives energy, so try this one in the morning!

I hope you can get relief with one or more of these! Let me know if anything has helped you! And get some REST!!

Photo by Stokpic on Pexels.com

February 8, 2019

Believe in ME?!? What does that Even Mean?!?

One of the central themes i have been dealing with lately is self-esteem. Do you have problems with this? It is really strange, because I can’t put my finger on exactly why I have issues with this. Was it childhood? yes. Was it my parents? Yes. Was it a multi-pronged problem that sunk me lower and lower until I didn’t know my head from a hole? Yes. But it almost seems like i came into the world feeling like this. Like I didn’t belong. Like I was an outsider. Like i was too weird. Like I wasn’t good enough.

I have been in therapy. Ugh! It was so long and didn’t ever really get me anywhere. I mean it did get me to learn to speak up and I did learn a lot of valuable insights, blah blah blah. But did it get me to feel better about me? No. So where do you go when you don’t know what else to do? I’ve tried journaling it out. I’ve tried blogging it out. I’ve tried talking it out. I’ve tried screaming it out. I’ve tried meditation and affirmations and videos and books and alllll the things. Nothing has made a dent. Which makes me believe that its really stuck in there and maybe it came with the body. Does that make sense?

I believe I can change it, but why do I hold on to this belief that I’m not good enough? My doctor once said that we hold onto things for a reason, so you just need to find the reason and then let it go. So what would my reason be for believing that I don’t deserve?

Exhausted

It kind of keeps me in victim mode, doesn’t it? Does it get me self-pity? Does it get me attention? Does it get me an excuse for failing? Hmmm that one sounds pretty close.

I don’t know, but I will definitely be thinking over this to seek an answer.

What about you? Are you feeling the “not good enough” pain? What do you do about that? Let me know!

January 30, 2019

Do you have bees in your EARS? Tinnitus SUCKS! Here’s some things you can try!

DUUUUUUDE… Tinnitus sucks, right? Sometimes it seems like its going away and then it will come back with A VENGEANCE and beat on you hard! The problem is, nobody knows exactly what causes it, especially because it can have different causes in different people. It is really just a symptom of something else happening in the body.

So here’s a list of things that can help, but DON’T try them all at once! If you do get better, you will never know which one worked and you’ll be stuck taking 12 things for EVAH because you won’t know. AND your body doesn’t like when you take this many herbals all at once for a long period of time, it will probably be too much for it, so TAKE IT EASY!! Most of these are oral ingestion. Some are put into your ears, so BE GENTLE! NEVER EVER FORCE stuff into your ears. Put a single drop near the entrance to your ear canal and then lay down on your side and let the drop slide deeper into your canal. If you tolerate that and it doesn’t hurt, then you can try another. Don’t put too much and fill up your canal. You will leak oil all day and it will be super awkward!

1. Ginkgo biloba- can take three months OR MORE if the cause is damage to the inner ear.

2. Black Cohosh- if your tinnitus is caused by a serotonin deficiency, this can help if you combine it with Ginkgo.

3. Fenugreek Seeds- Drink this tea 3xs or more per day

4. Plantain- if you don’t know, you eat this.

5. Goldenseal- If your tinnitus is caused by excess mucous, this can help. This is a SHORT TERM HERB!

6. Sesame Oil- This is an Ayurvedic treatment, massage ears and neck and put a few drops into your ear. BE CAREFUL AND GO SLOWLY!!! DO NOT JAM STUFF INTO YOUR EARS! Drop it in near the front and lay down on your side so it rolls in slowly.

7. Onion- Have you heard of using onions for infections? Squeeze some onion juice and put a couple of drops into your ear. Again, BE CAREFUL!!!

8. Passionflower- This regulates circulation and neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters send nerve impulses into different parts of your body, which could be involved in creating the tinnitus. It is very calming and can also help with stress and sleep. Take this orally.

9. Horsetail- Silica – I have a really great source of this here and if you buy 3 , you WILL get 50$ off as a gift from me. https://bit.ly/2Tlx4D9

10. Rosemary- If your tinnitus is related to high blood pressure, rosemary can increase circulation and strengthen blood vessels.

11. Sunflower seeds- If your tinnitus is related to an infection, such as EBV or STREP, the Zinc in these seeds will help. I would go to your doctor and see if they can test your ears and body for these and other infections. These can be chronic viruses t that effect multiple systems in your body and if your doc won’t test for them, try to find a practitioner that will. I can help with that!

12. Chiropractic or acupuncture- If your tinnitus is related to a misalignment, then a chiropractor can help. It could also be your VAGUS NERVE, so find a chiropractor who really knows what she is doing!

Good Luck! Tinnitus can be a tricky foe, so I hope you can find something that will work for you!

January 28, 2019

Organic Food isn’t hippies Dancing around a campfire, it’s just safer food. Organic food, 5 reasons WHYYYYYY

NUMBER 1

It lowers your toxic burden. Did you know we all are cups and we can only hold so many toxins? AND Many of us with certain genetic snps can actually handle very little. Non-organic food contributes to this cup and once your cup is full, it begins to overflow and that’s where problems arise.

NUMBER 2

Organic foods have higher levels of phytochemicals, nutrients, and anti-oxidants. These are why we eat fruits and veggies in the first place! So food that has more of these would be AWESOME!!

NUMBER 3

Glyphosate (Round-up’s main ingredient) is a chelator, meaning it strips your body of certain vitamins and minerals. AND its and anti-biotic so it kills your bad bacteria AND your good bacteria. We need our bacteria!!

NUMBER 4

Conventional produce has much higher levels of cadmium, which is a toxic heavy metal and a known carcinogen.

NUMBER 5

Pesticides are linked to cancer, ADHD, developmental delays, leaky gut… the list goes on and on. I recommend the book, The Toxin that Came to Dinner, by David Sandoval. Or look up the Institute for Responsible Technology, responsibletechnology.org. It has soooo much info on this stuff. I saw Jeffrey Smith speak and the studies are just amazing on pesticides.

If you struggle with buying organic, I can help you! I do have a video on ways to afford organic on youtube here or I have a 40 day program that is organic superfood nutrition for 9$ a day!! There are ways to make it more affordable, message me for details!

January 25, 2019

5 Benefits of Gratitude and Why it ain’t hokey

frenchy love

Every other guru is spouting off about gratitude lately. Am I right?!? So of course I had to figure out what the heck everyone was so hyped up about. Don’t get me wrong, i’m thankful. I have a house and dogs and a husband… and I am ever so grateful for what I have now compared to what I USED to have, which was NOTHING!!! So I am TOTALLY grateful. But I never thought about writing it down or focusing on it or spending every waking moment meditating on it. That just wasn’t me.

But finally I literally just wanted to know what the big deal was and why people say your “life will be changed drastically in 30 days if you write down your gratitude list every day.” Will it? Really?

So here’s what I found. It really does truly and amazingly and scientifically benefit you. Who knew?

So here’s the list of 5 benefits and why the hippies were right and its not hokey.

Improved social comfort. It actually makes people like us more. It increases the success of our relationships, increases support, and even decreases stress and sadness.
It makes us more optimistic. And this leads to greater happiness. (Optimistic people are actually naturally happier, mentally stronger, and live longer! Wow! Who knew!)
Reduces the focus on material objects. I guess if we are happy with what we have, we don’t need as much crap. Yeah!
It makes us more giving. It even helps with our work environment, making us less impatient and improves our personal SKILLZ.
It increases our psychological health. It creates better self-esteem, reduces jealousy and enhances the happy emotions and makes us stand up better to criticism and suicidal ideas. It also can cancel out anxious feelings and sadness. Wow!
It creates higher energy levels, improves our self-love and even gives a greater likelihood that we may exercise and eat better. WHAT?!?
It improves our emotional and academic intelligence. So it helps us recognize and deal with our emotions better and makes us smarter. Ummm… YES PLEASE!!!

So there you have it. 7 reasons to start your daily gratitude practice and take better care of yourself. Do you love this?!? Tell me… are you going to think more about what you are grateful for? I know I am!!!

July 2, 2015

Why oh Why do I make myself CrY?

So I’ve been feeling like I should share my journey here. My journey into veganism. And I’ll admit first off that I’m not perfectly vegan. I try so hard! But I’m also gluten free because of severe intolerance and sometimes I’ll buy a gluten free pizza crust and it’ll have egg in it. Or I’ll get the gluten free toast at breakfast and it probably has eggs in it or comes covered in butter. I do my best at the time. And I am going to be even better from now on. My kid and I made a pact that we will from now on no longer buy anything without checking the label, and we are also going to be making our own bread, buns, pizza crusts, etc. Recently my friend recommended an amazing Gluten free vegan bread company, Happy Campers, from Portland, so I will be reviewing that on YouTube as soon as we receive it. Hopefully today. 🙂

On to my story.

It started for me in high school. I went to a Depeche Mode concert and I was handed a PETA flyer and I was seriously dumbfounded. I had no idea about the cruelty! And all those products that test on animals…! What?!? So I immediately went vegetarian and that lasted for 3 years. But I still ate cheese, which along with peanut butter, was pretty much all I ate. Not healthy or good for animals, but I didn’t know that at the time. I don’t know how I missed the cheese/dairy connection, but I did. I did end up going back to meat after awhile because I allowed myself to be shamed into it. I hated it and rarely ate it.

I was extremely unhealthy for a long time. I was all about trying to destroy myself. I smoked, I drank heavily, I would drink at least a six pack of coke a day, I’d eat only pretzels for lunch. I don’t know how I made it this far. At one point, i woke up. I looked at myself and realized I’d been trying to destroy myself and that I should choose joy and life. I realized that I had to make a change. I started with smoking and cut that out of my life. Then the soda. I added in more veggies and less processed foods and less meat. Then in my thirties, I got pregnant. This time I was determined to be healthy and help this baby be healthy. That’s when I started researching health and nutrition and natural healing. I came across this book, “Eating Animals,” by Jonathan safran Foer,

and it changed my life. No more meat. And I started reading about the health of plant-based diets and I was hooked.

I can now look at someone and tell if they are dairy intolerant. I can see people and tell if they are clogged up with meat. I was about to enter a Naturopathic Doctorate program and I got to see inside a person who had died of COPD. I saw their veins blocked, their intestines stretched and blocked and their toxic liver and lungs. Amazing!

It’s really surprising when you learn how important diet is to health. As in THE MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do for yourself. Wow!

I didn’t enter that program, as I got pregnant again and then moved across the country. But I am determined to find a way to become a healer and an advocate for the vegan way of life. Both for healing physically as well as mentally. We are what we eat. Literally. And I find the corporate ownership of animals to be disgusting. These companies want to find a cheap way to make the most money that they can and they use animals like slaves to do so. We need to stop this. There aro many reasons that veganism is good for us and the planet and the other organisms that exist here with us. So many reasons!

So that’s my story. Why not share yours? We could write a compilation book of shared stories. We need to get the word out.

June 18, 2015

Vegan cooking is super fun! No joke. seriously. Not joking. It is!!

Good god I love a meringue. I used to buy those dang tubs of meringue cookies from trader joe’s and I literally couldn’t stop until I’d polished off the whole dang thing. And then I’d puke. But still want more.

I don’t eat eggs anymore. So.

But I no longer have to cry internally when I see those damn tubs of meringues!! I can make vegan meringues!! What what?!!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/06/10/aquafaba_baking_with_chickpea_liquid_for_vegan_meringues.html

I am soooo tryin this. If the baby will get off my leg and stop cryin, I will definitely be making these. I don’t usually use canned beans, but I will for these.

Yes I’m still trying to not eat sugar. I gotta have it every once in awhile, though. Don’t judge.

June 13, 2015

Every Little Thing She does is Magic

mwah. Kisses to you. I’ve been away so long and totally missed this blog, but never touched it. I don’t know why. I think my negative word vomit from those last posts really turned me off from writing anymore. Which is stupid, since I could’ve just erased them. They were my dang words after all. I annoy myself sometimes.

So what’s been happening with me? I had a baby over a year ago and she is super clingy, super attached to mom baby. I can’t leave the room. But I’ll get into that later. Tryin to stay positive here.
We also moved halfway across the country. I had never been to colorado before, but now I find myself here and loving it. It’s a little more hippie than I would like, I think, but that also means I find crunchy types that understand that side of me. And that’s awesome. It was so frickin hard being in the Midwest and trying to maintain that chem-free lifestyle. I was like that crazy stinky homeless hippie that people try to ignore on the street. People just assumed that I was batshit crazy and ignored me. (You saw the old blog posts!) I had a constant anger issue with my kid’s school because they just kept feeding her junk even though I asked them countless times to knock it off. It caused me many sweaty, angry, sleepless nights. BUT here I am in kinda crunchy colorado and I’m ok. People get it here. They love local. They love gluten free. They love, well no, they don’t love vegans, but they offer them sustenance and leave them alone. And the mountains are amazing. Every single day. Wow!! And there are chiropractors and acupuncturists and TCM practitioners crawling out of the woodwork. I love that. And everyone here has tattoos. It’s actually kinda crazy because I’m not expecting it. Love it.

But mostly I’m just getting by. Not sleeping because the lil wingnut won’t sleep at night. Not doing much because the lil wingnut won’t let me. I think I’ve showered alone 3 times since she’s been born. Yikes. Any other moms out there?? I just try to keep in mind that it’ll get better. It’s my mantra. It’ll get better and I need to appreciate this baby time while it’s here, because I WILL miss it. Someday. She is super cute! But sooo hard. Zzzzzzz I’m falling asleep on myself. Good night, sleep tight. Hope you all get more than two hours at a stretch, unlike me.