TAKING THE OVERWHELMING OUT OF GLUTEN FREE

We have always eaten a pretty good diet, growing, canning, and freezing our food. Cooking from scratch, strictly limiting our sugar intake, ect.. However, last August when I decided we would go gluten free for a couple of specific health reasons, I was OVERWHELMED! Where did I start, how does one simply throw all wheat berries, flour, and gluten out of their kitchen? And what in the world do you use in their place? MY biggest hurdle was going to be pasta. I LOVE a big plate of pasta. I think somewhere in my blood there are Italian roots, pasta and crusty bread at every meal! It is my comfort food, it is inexpensive, which makes it ideal for a large group of people, and any type of sauce is general super easy to make. What was I going to do?

I stumbled across a blog one day and sent a text to my sister along with the blog and told her we should do a seven day clean eating challenge. Doing things like exercising, eating right, and time management are easier if you have a partner to hold you accountable. She agreed, and we started the challenge. I believe it is called a challenge for a very good reason. If your body is accustomed to something, in my case gluten, then going off of it is challenging for your mood, your digestive system, and your culinary skills. It takes two to three weeks for the gluten cravings to end and your body to adjust and settle down to the new normal. During this time period you might consider hurting your spouse. You might be short tempered with your children. And you might contemplate selling your children’s cats, your husband’s dog, and all other livestock that occupy your farm. Instead of feeling like you are on top of the world you might feel that the world is running over you and you have a mountain to climb just getting out of bed each morning.

But, once you persevere through those first two weeks you won’t regret it for a single minute. After the initial adjustment period, I had more energy, I never had that bloated sluggish “won’t be able to move again” after a meal kind of feeling. I had far less aches and pains in my joints. I was sleeping better at night and waking up able to bounce out of bed, as much as a night owl bounces in the morning, instead of getting up slowly and stiffly. And, I had better clarity of mind.

So where do you start on this journey? I have two favorite blog sites that I cooked from for about two months before I started branching out and being able to take an ordinary recipe and turn it into a clean gluten free recipe. My favorite site, and the one I recommend to a lot of people, is the http://www.cleaneatingcorner.com. This one has two 7 day challenges and a 14 day challenge. She gives you a grocery list and the recipes for three meals each day and 3 snacks each day for every day of the challenge. It is all laid out and packaged with a bow. Well, no bow, but she does make it SUPER simple and anyone can do it!

Once you have gotten your feet wet, and feel a little more adapt in your kitchen with these new ingredients in your cupboards you can peruse her site and find all kinds of recipes for any meal your heart desires.

The other blog that I love is http://www.ohsheglows.com. I used a lot of her baking recipes for the holidays. While I do not want my family to be overrun with sweets, I also didn’t want to be a total Grinch. Just because you are clean eating doesn’t mean you can’t still eat things that resemble desert and sweets. Her pumpkin pie squares are amazing and Mia asked to have them with fruit salad for her birthday. The “graham cracker” that is also used for the pumpkin pie crust, is a favorite in our house as a snack with some homemade almond butter slathered on top and a glass of fresh milk.

Those are two of my favorite blogs to get ideas for meals, snacks, and grocery shopping lists. I always like hearing what sites other people love. So leave a comment letting us know where you like to find good recipes.

HOMEMADE SALAD DRESSINGS

Most people that know me know I love to eat. Last week I did a five day cleanse. I drank a “shake” made from Young Livings Balance Complete meal replacement made with raw milk three times a day, and I missed FOOD. I will admit, I was hungry. I also never realized HOW much food I eat on a daily basis until last week. My poor children also suffered because if I couldn’t snack throughout the day, they couldn’t either. As I age I have found that in order to eat the huge amounts of food that I do, it has to be “clean” eating. I have also found that this has improved the way I feel immensely. My joints no longer ache, my muscles aren’t constantly tight and sore, and I tend to have a better disposition.

I have always been a more snobby food person, not allowing my kids to eat a bunch of sweets or processed foods, juice, or the like, but lately, as I see people I love being diagnosed with diseases I hate, I am more and more convinced that food plays a huge role in our health. When we came back home from our trip out west we made more changes to our diet and eliminated gluten from our home, I am more stringent about buying all organic meat and diary products, and our leafy green veggie intake has increased dramatically. I found a blog (http://www.cleaneatingcorner.com) that has amazing recipes that are “clean” and a great starting base. She has two 7 day challenges and one 14 day challenge. She gives you the grocery list and food for each meal during the challenge period. I would encourage anyone who is trying to clean up their eating to visit her site and start from there. I did the two 7 day challenges and from that point I have branched out using favorite recipes, but adapting them to fit my “new” cupboards.

One thing that I have started making during this process is our salad dressing. Good quality salad dressing is $$ and I figured I could make something just as tasty. I use essential oils to add big and have a concocted a great Tangerine and Black Pepper Vinaigrette.

I use a 9 oz glass jar and add to that:
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon of garlic
5 drops of Tangerine Essential oil (I only use Young Living)
2 drops of Black Pepper Essential oil (I only use Young Living)
2-3 tablespoons of a good local honey
4-6 tablespoons of an aged balsamic vinegar
Fill the rest of the way with Olive Oil

Put the lid on tightly and shake until all of the ingredients are incorporated.

I like to put mine over a bed of greens with lots of veggies, seeds, dried fruit, and grilled chicken with feta cheese sprinkled on top. It makes a wonderful lunch or dinner. It is pleasing to the eye, filling for the tummy, clean all the way, and tastes amazing!!

WHIPPED BODY BUTTER

If “whipped body butter” doesn’t sound tempting enough, I wish you could only smell this stuff!! Whenever I make the chocolate mint whipped body butter my children always ask if they lick the bowl or spatula. Yes, it does smell that good. And it feels divine. I alter my recipe a little in the summertime because of the heat, since these are all pure homemade products they don’t handle the heat as well as synthetic store bought product.

I will just start off with a confession, I LOVE lotions. I would take a bath in nothing but lotion if I could, Every. Single. Day!! When my sister’s and I use to go to the beach together with our millions of little children, they would always make fun of how much lotion I used. But, I have the softest skin you will ever feel on a 30-something-year-old. Just saying, and no, you can’t come rub my arm. One of the hardest things when we decided to go toxic free was getting rid of my lotions. Thankfully Young Living has some pretty amazing lotions and I have concocted some good body butters to boot.

One of my favorite butters is cocoa butter. When purchasing cocoa butter it is VERY important to buy a high quality butter. You want to smell chocolate when you open the package, and it should come in a brick, similar to a block of parmesan cheese. Please, spend a little extra money for quality, you won’t be disappointed. A lot of body butter recipes call for shea butter, but I have yet to find one that I enjoy smelling, so I do not use it in my body butters. I do use it in my shaving cream though. The shea butter has a higher melting temperature, and in order to compensate for the lack of shea butter, and the summer heat, I add beeswax pellets.

I also use coconut oil and Jojoba oil in this recipe. I do not have oily skin or breakout issues so I use equal parts of the coconut oil and the jojoba oil. Too much coconut oil tends to really dry my skin out. Jojoba oil incidentally, is the closest oil to your body’s naturally produced oil. It is definitely a favorite of mine.

To make a good whipped body butter you start off with a motely headband wearing crew of kids to help measure and oversee the entire process then add

1 cup of cocoa butter shavings
¼ cup coconut oil
¼ cup jojoba oil
1-2 tablespoons beeswax pellets
1-2 capsules vitamin E oil
10-15 drops Young Living Peppermint Essential Oil

Add the first 4 ingredients into a double boiler or pot and melt to incorporate all of the ingredients. The beeswax pellets will be the last to completely melt, so have patience. Once everything is melted give it a stir, take off the heat, and place into the refrigerator on a hot pad so you don’t break your shelf.

At this point I usually go play a few rounds of hide-n-go-seek with my kids, do some laundry, or read a book. Once the mixture starts to harden and turn white around the edges remove from the refrigerator and add the vitamin E oil and essential oil. Then use your handy dandy hand held mixer and whip it until it forms a cake frosting type of consistency. Try not to lick the beaters or spatula!! After nice peaks form, place the mixture into a glass jar with a lid, and store in a cool place. I keep mine in the bathroom so that I can apply whenever I need a little “lotion” in my life. I love soft skin and I love my body butters!

NEW GOALS IN THE NEW YEAR

Happy New Year!!

Everyone is either making New Year’s resolutions or they have already made them. A lot of them include, as Ryan Seacrest told us last night, good health, a meaningful relationships, and babies. While most of my family was healthy last year, my darling husband decided to spend almost a week in the hospital and puzzle a lot of doctors. We still don’t have a true diagnosis or clear answers, and each doctor we have seen has their own theory, but with essential oils I feel like we have a grip on this health issue. I do see room for improvement though and that is exactly what we are going to work towards this year.

I want to continue to keep my family as healthy as possible through wholesome food, staying active (or exercise if that’s what you want to call it), and essential oils. I am so excited about our Young Living essential oil journey that I want everyone to know about it and I want everyone try them. So for the month of January I am offering anyone who purchases, through me, the Premium Starter Kit or Thieves Starter Kit, a 450+page Essential Oil Guide book, a diffuser bracelet (so you can wear your oils wherever you go and be accessorized all at the same time) and a bottle of Orange essential oil!!

If you aren’t ready to take the oily plunge, but would like to take a step in being healthier, than eliminating toxic cleaners from your home is a great starting place. Young Living has an entire line of Thieves cleaning supplies that ROCK! Getting rid of toxic cleaning chemicals is a fairly easy but important step in maintaining better health. And, your body will thank you.

For everyone who is ready to see how amazing Young Living essential oils are, the Premium Starter Kit comes with a diffuser and 11 everyday Essential Oils. It gives you a starting place and helps you to become familiar with essential oils and all of their benefits. Just a few of the oils that are included in the kit are Thieves, Stress Away (everyone could use a little of that), Lemon, Malaluca (commonly known as Tea Tree), Purification (AWESOME for cleaning, helping to freshen musty or stale air, and putting into a load of laundry), and Peppermint (All of the benefits of Peppermint alone could fill a post). These are just some of the oils that you will receive when purchasing the Premium Starter Kit. You can either follow this link to sign up or you can message or call me and I can walk you through the process.
https://www.youngliving.com/signup/?site=US&sponsorid=2048358&enrollerid=2048358

As always, happy oiling!

ACTIVATED CHARCOAL

I first read about activated charcoal about 2 years ago and I started using it shortly after. The main reason I bought it was for its teeth whitening ability. The one thing I really miss about commercial toothpaste is the whitening component. I am vain, I want white teeth. But I also want cavity free teeth so I continue to use my homemade toothpaste. I simply use activated charcoal twice a week on my teeth to help keep them white. I do the oil pulling 5 times a week which also helps to whiten and brighten teeth, but twice a week I will brush with the activated charcoal after doing my oil pull. I look hilarious and my kids always come running to watch mommy turn her teeth black, but it works.

Activated charcoal is also fantastic for tummy issues related to food poisoning or in my case any time I eat at a restaurant. There is something about eating out that completely kills my gut. It has always been this way, no matter what type of restaurant I go to and what I eat. This is one of the reasons I typically do not eat out. The other week I was out Christmas shopping with a friend who just couldn’t hang and declared she would die of starvation if I wouldn’t stop and eat lunch. So we decided to try Chipotle. My “crunchy” friends always rave about what a good restaurant it is and if you are going to eat “fast food” Chipotle is supposedly the place to go. Well, I ate lunch there and it was good going down, but about 3 hours later, it weren’t good any more. My stomach was in knots and making so much noise a passerby could hear the rumble and tumble that was going on inside my gut.

Thankfully I had activated charcoal to combat this mess. Its uses date way back to 1500 BC. It had and still has a wide range of uses. Activated charcoal is carbon-based charcoal that has been impregnated with oxygen. It is used to absorb poisonous substances from the body. It is often used for drug overdose or food poisoning.

Thankfully any time I know I am going to be eating out I can take a couple of capsules of activated charcoal with me and take them shortly after eating. It helps to eliminate bloating, an achy tummy from “bad” food, and uncomfortable visits to the bathroom. So from whiter teeth to happier stomachs here’s to some good ole activated charcoal.

Don’t forget about the giveaway. I will be drawing a name tomorrow morning. You can read the post here https://wingingthislife.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/stressed-much-and-a-giveaway/ and enter for a chance to win a bottle of Young Living essential oil!

ESSENTIAL OILS

There is no doubt that essential oils have helped my family in a multitude of ways, from boosting our immune systems, to detoxing, to ridding our bodies of abnormal growths, to helping with breathing and lung issues, helping some of actual get a good nights sleep, going all natural in our cleaning supplies, to bolstering moods, and the list goes on and on. I love “oily” living and could talk about it all day any day. It is just so interesting and intriguing to me. I love learning from others and I love helping others learn.

With that being said all essential oils are not created equally. When I started using oils I used a variety of brands from health food stores and different companies on the Internet. The first time that I used Young Living oils though I was sold. I mean I was so excited about them that I became a distributor of the oils.

What makes Young Living oils so awesome you might ask? Well let me tell you. At Young Living the founder, Gary Young, is committed to only using the finest oils and Young Living oils are 100% pure-that means no fillers. Some oils that you might buy at a health food store could contain only 3% essential oils with the rest being some type of filler. If you test Young Living oils against other brands you can feel the difference.

Young Living owns their farms and their own distilleries. Their oils go through rigorous testing and if they do not “live up” to a certain standard they are not bottled but used instead as a spray on future crops. Young Living has what they call their “Seed to Seal” promise.
1. The seeds they choose produce the highest therapeutic value.
2. Since they own their farms the soil preparation, balance of sun and water, responsible weed and pest control, and wild-craft harvesting ensures that stringent standards are met.
3. They distill their oils at low temperatures and low steam distillation. Which ensures beneficial plant compounds in every batch of essential oil remain uncompromised during the extraction process. And did I mention they own their own distilleries?
4. Each batch of distilled oil passes through stringent testing-both internally and third party-to ensure its purity and potency.
5. And finally seal. They inspect each bottle of oil at their own clean-room facility.

Young Living oils can be ingested. Other brands of oil will say something like “not for human consumption” which is slightly worrisome. With Young Living I don’t have to worry about ingesting the oils and I use them in my cooking, in my water, in my coconut oil when I do oil pulling, in capsule form for allergies, and in my smoothies.

This month I am spreading the word and getting others to become “oily” also. I will be writing a series of posts on essential oils because educating people on oils, their uses, and range of potential is an important part of Young Living. It is about empowering people and giving them other options. So, during the month of November anyone who purchases a premium starter kit from me will also receive an “essential oils reference book” and their choice of a diffuser necklace or a diffuser bracelet. You can either contact me here, on Facebook, or you can follow this link https://www.youngliving.com/signup/?site=US&sponsorid=2048358&enrollerid=2048358 to purchase your kit. Happy oiling!!

10 REASONS I LOVE…

I thought I would share ten reasons why I LOVE my Lemon essential oil

1. I use to suffer from chronic UTI’s. Ok, maybe that was TMI, but it’s the truth. Lemon detoxes, so I thought maybe it would help eliminate the UTI’s. Every morning for two weeks I drank a 20 oz glass of water with 2-3 drops of Lemon oil. I would then use the same glass throughout the day because there was oil left on the sides and I do not want to waste that stuff. I haven’t had a UTI since, and bonus, during those two weeks I lost weight. Weight loss, detox-sign me up!

2. Feeling bloated? Drink some Lemon oil. Again, it detoxes so whenever I get that bloated feeling I just drink a glass of water with a few drops of lemon oil.

3. Diffuse it. Every morning when I get up I select an oil to diffuse based on how I am feeling or how my children are acting. As long as no one needs any “Joy” or “Peace and Calming” in their life that day, I diffuse Lemon. It perks everyone up, sharpens our brains, and gets us ready for a productive morning of school.

4. Cleaning supplies. I have numerous bottles of cleaning “flavors” but Lemon is one of my favorites.

5. You can cook with it. I am a huge believe in simply meals with BIG flavor. Lemon never disappoints and it only takes a few drops for whatever I am cooking. One of our favorite sauces is a creamy lemon and basil sauce with chicken over black rice. Devine!!

6. Laundry. Do you ever get those towels that just stank? I mean stank so bad you think you should throw them away, stank! I add 3 drops of lemon oil to my load of laundry and they come out smelling fresh, no stank in my towels.

7. When I mop I always add a couple of drops of Lemon to my water. Makes the house smell so yummy!!

8. Cellulite? Rub this on all of your, ahem, problem areas, and it helps improve circulation and eliminate waste from the cells.

9. Sore throats and earaches. You can gargle lemon oil diluted in water as often as needed. Or for ear infections place some oil on the backside of your ear and around the rim of your ear. It helps to soothe the ache.

10. And lastly, if you just need a quick pick-me-up, unscrew the top of a bottle of Lemon oil and inhale deeply. The world will take on a whole new look!

Essential Lemon oil is definitely one of my daily “go-to oils,” and a favorite with everyone at my house. If you are interested in learning more about all the goodness that Lemon oil can bring to your life please feel free to contact me.

RIDDING YOUR KITCHEN OF PLASTIC

When I was in college I had a professor tells us that, “you are what you eat.” I had no idea what he was talking about until I got married and then it slowly sank in. “You are what you eat!” Let’s just marinate on that statement for a moment, or two.

It’s no secret that I am super picky about what I let my family eat. It is also no secret that we feel like crude, act like brats, and have our entire mood thrown off when we eat food that isn’t good for us. It is so interesting to me how much food can affect my emotional state of being and my overall health. Whenever Rob sees me eating anything with added sugars he always cringes because I get horrible headaches and act like a PMSing MONSTER the entire next day. Food is a big dead people!

But, what about plastic? About two years ago I started thinking about plastic and how gross my plastic food storage containers had become. I have always noticed a different taste in food that has been stored in plastic or served on a plastic plate but I thought it was all in my head, that I was just being a snob. Turns out those plastic food containers are leaching chemicals into my food when I store food in them. So a little over a year ago I started converting my kitchen over to all glass. I didn’t have copious amounts of plastic, because I am kinda snobby, but ALL of my food storage containers were plastic and I had a handful of plastic cups that the kids used when they were playing outside. I also used plastic for my measuring cups/spoons.

I decided that I would start small but commit BIG. I bought one Pyrex glass food storage set (that only had 8 storage containers with lids), went home and threw ALL of my plastic containers away. Now I was committed. And so from there it has grown and I have added to my glass collection as I find containers on sale or ones that I just can’t live without. I found an awesome kitchen tools set of all glass measuring cups and spoons at Belk which has completed my no plastic kitchen.

Initially it can be expensive but these glass containers last FOREVER, so you do save money that way. However, if you didn’t want to go extreme and all in, you could replace things drawer-by-drawer and cabinet-by-cabinet. That way it becomes completely doable.

So why is plastic bad for you? In my research I found that there are many controversial studies, but it is similar to aluminum in your deodorant, if I can eliminate one area of toxin, even a tiny amount, why wouldn’t I? BPA is a known environmental estrogen. It has been linked to obesity, asthma, cancer, heart disease, infertility, and a host of other health issues. I don’t want estrogen leaching into my life and my children’s life.
“A poison kills you,” says biology professor Frederick
vom Saal (who works at Missouri-Columbia and studies
BPA) “A chemical like BPA reprograms your cells and
ends up causing a disease in your grandchild that
kills him.”

I have a couple of links here if anyone is interested in reading them. One is a very long read but worth your time. http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/03/tritan-certichem-eastman-bpa-free-plastic-safe
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/02/134196209/study-most-plastics-leach-hormone-like-chemicals

There is so much in our world that is bad for you and I realize that everyone has to pick and choose the battles they want to fight, but when it comes to something as easy as switching over your plastics to glass, I say go for it. Give your kitchen a mini facelift and get more glass in your life.

I AM JUMPING ON THIS TRAIN!!

I am not a fan of fads. From fashion, to food, to health, to living, to exercise, technology, to raising the perfect child. And in this day and age of blogs and google there is always a bandwagon to jump upon. I just don’t have the time or energy to keep up with it all. There is however one train I have climbed on board and am taking it for a ride, and that train is essential oils. I have been using essential oils for my cleaning supplies and such for a while, but I had no idea how versatile and useful oils can be in everyday living and health.

It shouldn’t be any surprise when I tell you all I am not a huge fan of modern medicine and the overabundance of antibiotics that are prescribed whenever you go to the doctor. I am not comfortable with long term medicine use either. If or when I go to the doctor I am desperate, having tried all of my home remedies and tricks, and am admitting defeat. I want the doctor to prescribe something that will allow my body to heal and be whole again. I want a plan of attack with a clear goal set out. I don’t want to be medicated long term. My homeopath calls it the umbrella effect and it is so incredibly interesting to listen to her and hear about her research and what scientist have found about the way long term diseases work. To be completely honest, it scares me. A LOT!!

My oldest sister started her essential oil wellness journey back in the spring and has done a TON of research. She is a pediatric nurse so she also knows the medical side inside and out. Whenever I have issues or questions she is the first person I turn to because I know that she has researched everything she tells me, and I know that she has been active in the medical field for YEARS. Essential oils have completely changed her family’s life and helped them to be healthier, build strong immune systems, and improve their overall wellbeing and disposition.

Essential oils have been used for years and years but their mass popularity is relatively new. I have been using them on my family for about 2 months now but within the past couple of weeks I took the plunge and bought a ton of different oils to get us through the winter and to help with various ailments that have plagued our family. Things like Carter’s wart. I know that warts come from a virus and when a “booster” homeopathic dose of his remedy did not phase the growth of the wart I figured something else needed to be done. So I have been putting a combination of oils on his feet every night and the wart is disappearing. Along with the disappearing wart is the fungus that was taking over his poor little toes. It is really cool to see the healing that is taking place. Another example is that my sister informed me that everyone has eyelash mites. Let me say that again just so it will sink in. Everyone has these tiny bugs in their EYELASHES. Mites. Mites living right above your eyeballs. Gives me the jitters when I think about it. Anyway, if you are a makeup wearing person, which I happen to be, you can take a brand new mascara, add 1-2 drops of lavender oil and it will kill the mites. The first two days I used my new mascara with the lavender oil my eyelid itched so bad!! Of course I called my sister to tell her what was happening and she suggested that the mites were just digging in trying to avoid certain death. GROSS!! A little respect please, these are MY eyelashes and eyelids we are talking about. After two days the itching stopped and my eyelashes are longer, fully, and hopefully completely mite free!!

If you have any questions about essential oils or other ways that we have used our oils, please feel free to ask. I would also love to hear what your favorite oils are and how you use them. I am glad that I jumped aboard this train. I love keeping an empty medicine cabinet and having healthy children, and essential oils are helping me do both of those things.

MY DAUGHTER

Mia likes to pretend she is shy, but under all that she is SOOOOO opinionated. I have NO idea where she gets it from.

The other day we went for pizza and putt putt with the youth group. The manager of the pizza joint made Funnel Fries for us, “on the house,” because we are cool like that. Mia wants to like sweet food. Like she really really wants to like it, so she tries it every. time. it is offered. And every. time. she is disappointed. The manager came out after a bit and asked us how we liked the Funnel Fries? To which my daughter piped up, “They are disgusting!!” Palm plant on forehead!!

The other day we were in the car and Mia was talking about numbers. She is really into numbers, ages, and OLD age. She asked me when my birthday was and then proceeded to tell me that on my next birthday I would “be old and probably get really fat, and then I would look like a boy.” I have no idea why she associates being overweight with looking like a boy. Anyhow, according to her I have all kinds of fun things to look forward to as I age.