Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Everything Happens For A Reason!

          In high school if someone had told me, "When you are 21 you will be eating healthy, using homemade natural products for just about everything, and you will have purged your house of all store bought medication."  I would have told you that you were out of your dang mind!  But that's now my reality.

          It is astounding the changes that I have made in my life.  I used to be the go to girl for medication.  Excedrin was my best friend because I constantly get migraines.  I never thought I would throw a bottle of Excedrin away.  But that is exactly what I did last night.  I have only been into the essential oil world for a few weeks now and I am head over heels in love with it!  Why use man-made drugs when God has provided all the medicine you need in the Earth?  I'm just astounded and in awe of everything essential oils can do. 

          I was recently officially diagnosed with PCOS.  Many people told me how sorry they were, but I can not express how overjoyed I am to just be able to know what is going wrong and knowing I can be proactive by using essential oils and being healthy enough to still be able to get pregnant.  My heart breaks for women that have unexplained infertility.  The burden of not knowing what is wrong is terrifying and those are the women I really look up to.  Because they are fighting such an incredible battle and they don't even know what they are fighting against.  Such brave, strong women.

          Before I even considered the fact that I could have PCOS, I started the paleo diet just to lose weight.  I eventually fell in love with it and decided to make a permanent lifestyle change.  There is no way this wasn't God working in my life.  I am not one to stick to a diet.  Especially considering how tough paleo is known to be.  But I find it very easy.  Thank goodness I do, because the paleo diet is almost identical to the diet for PCOS.  If I hadn't already been on paleo I feel this would have been an extremely hard change for me.  It would have meant giving up things I love for an illness.  But that's not how I felt.  Because I am on paleo it was almost just like any other day for me.  I did not have to change a thing.  How awesome is our God that He was able to change the outcome of my emotional response just by putting the will to do paleo in my life? SO AWESOME! =]

        As I sit here thinking about who I am and who I used to be I don't regret a thing.  I don't regret the horribly unhealthy food and medicine I put in my body daily.  I don't regret the bad habits.  I don't regret the mistakes or the hard times.  Without them I wouldn't be me and I wouldn't have come so far.  I am proud of everything I am now and I am thankful for the trials in my life to help me get to this point. 

Sunday, February 2, 2014

How to Become More Awesome!

A lot of people have been messaging me asking me my process for doing some of the new stuff I've been trying out.  Well, I figured a blog might be a good idea. haha.  Let me make one thing clear first though... I am still a total NOOB at this!  I'm still trying new things and different ways of doing stuff.  But, this is how I am doing things right now and it is going great so far!

Oil Pulling
I have been oil pulling for a couple weeks now I guess.  I absolutely love it!  It has strengthened my gums and whitened my teeth!  Every morning before I do anything else I brush my teeth with water and I floss.   Then I take about 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and swish it in my mouth for twenty minutes while I wash my face and shower.  Be sure not to swallow this because it becomes toxic as it pulls the harmful bacteria from your mouth!  When I'm done I spit it out in a paper cup and rinse my mouth with water.  You do not want to pour the oil down a drain!  It will harden and can clog your drains up. If you can't handle the texture or taste of the coconut oil you can use another oil like sunflower or sesame oil.  Just make sure you get a good organic one.  You can also start off with a smaller amount of oil and swish for a shorter time period and slowly build up your tolerance for it. 

Some known benefits of oil pulling:

          -Strengthens gums, jaws, and teeth
          -Whitens teeth
          -prevents cavities
          -Increases energy
          -prevents bad breath
          -clears sinuses

There are MANY more benefits but those are my top faves.  Oil pulling does not mean you have to stop using toothpaste by any means!  That is just the way I have decided to approach it.  

                                                      Day 1                           Day 15(ish)

No 'Poo Method
I am totally excited about never using shampoo again!  My hair feels great and I believe it is growing a lot faster now as well!  I chose to keep it simple when approaching this method.  I have a container of baking soda in my shower and I scoop out about 2-3 tablespoons into a cup before I get in the shower.  You may need more or less depending on your hair length and thickness.  Mine is pretty thick but it's also just shoulder length.  I make sure when putting the baking soda on my hair to focus mostly on the roots.  I rinse with water then I fill a cup with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and water.  I dip the end of my hair in the cup for about 30 seconds then pour it all over my hair.  Then rinse and I'm done!  Trust me when I say after doing this your hair will feel pretty rough while it's wet, but as soon as it starts to dry it will soften up and feel magnificent!  There is a period of transition while your hair adjusts to not using shampoo anymore which can be annoying because it can get pretty oily.  Tough it out during this period!  It is so worth it! =D

Benefits of going no 'poo
          -No harmful chemicals!
          -Your scalp will not over produce oils anymore since shampoo won't be stripping it of its
           natural oils.  Meaning you won't have to wash your hair as much.
          -Softer hair with less or no frizz
          -Stronger hair
                                                           Almost 2 weeks into no 'poo

Coconut oil deep conditioning hair mask
I have only done this once since going no 'poo.  It was a littler harder, but it worked out just fine.  You can do this a few different ways.  I put the coconut oil all over my hair as much as I could without soaking it.  I then tied it up in a bun and kept it in for about 3 or 4 hours.  You can leave it on for a much shorter period or you can leave it on all night.  That's completely up to you.  I read all over the place to wash the coconut oil out with regular shampoo.  But I have none so I just went for it with the baking soda.  I washed my hair 3 times with 2 tablespoons of baking soda that night.  My hair was still slightly oily when I woke up, so I washed it 2 more times that morning and it took that oily feeling away and left my hair perfectly soft.  This is something I think is really important to do if you have dry hair especially while doing the no 'poo method.  Or if you just want super silky hair! 

If you want to find any of the other natural homemade recipes I've been doing I found them and re-pinned them on pinterest!  Like i said earlier, I am still a noob! I've only been dabbling in this stuff for a couple of years and I'm just now getting serious about it.  But i have done quite a bit of research and I'm totally satisfied with everything I've done! 

I encourage you to make changes like these in your life!  It is so worth it not only because of getting rid of all the harmful chemicals, but because you are in complete control of the products you are using and what is being put in your system!