Health & Free Living

I'm not one for making New Year's resolutions. I understand why people make them -- the beginning of a new year makes for a convenient time to start something new or make a change (just like a student plans at the beginning of the new school year to make it the best school year ever). All that to say, 2014 was a lot about me and my transformation -- completely unplanned, but amazing. Now, I want 2015 to be about other people. God has blessed me in amazing ways this past year and taught me so much and I want to reach other people this coming year and help to transform their lives. (Ive got some cool ideas in my head that I hope I can pull off.) I want to help people learn how to make healthier choices. I want to help people learn more about essential oils and their amazing benefits. I want to help people learn how to eat correctly and supplement...and create a healthy lifestyle from the inside out. I want to help people get the "crud" out of their systems

Okay, here are the recipes for some of the items I have made recently. 1. Homemade Deodorant  (my favorite) The original recipe calls for Castor Oil and Beeswax, but we heard that the beeswax can stain clothes so I made it without it and it works fine. 2 1/2 Tbsp Coconut Oil (I recommend Wildtree coconut oil) 1/8 cup Arrowroot powder (or cornstarch) 1/8 cup Baking Soda Essential oils -- I did 8 drops of Lavender and 8 drops of Melaleuca Alternifolia (tea tree oil) Put the coconut oil into a saucepan and melt over low heat. Remove from heat and add the Arrowroot powder and Baking soda. Stir until it is dissolved. Add the essential oils and stir to combine. Using a funnel, pour the mixture into a clean deodorant container. Put container in the fridge to help it firm up. This recipe makes one stick of deodorant. I usually double/triple it and make more than one stick at a time. When using the deodorant, you only need to apply a thin layer under your arms. If you roll it up to

I've mentioned before how I started making my own deodorant and love it. Well, chemical-free hair products can be expensive, so I decided to start looking for a cheaper way to have safer products for my hair by making my own shampoo, conditioner, and hair gel. Yep. All three. (This time last year, I would have been rolling my eyes if someone said they were making their own hair products, yet here I am now -- oh the difference a year makes!). First up: Homemade Hair Gel My husband is actually the one who put the idea in my head to try making my own hair gel. I've talked so much about getting rid of harmful chemicals that he asked me if he thought the gel he was using was bad for him. Next thing I knew, I was looking for homemade hair gel recipes, saw how easy they were to make, and decided to go for it! The results of this gel  are great! The gel is thin, so I put it in a glass bottle with and spray top (got it at Whole Foods). Sprayed it all over my wet hair, scru

When I was in Junior High, High School, and College, whenever I would think about the future, it always stopped at age 24 -- I imagined that by 24 I would be done with college, have a job, and married. I clearly remember sitting on my bed at my parents' house and crying on my 25th birthday -- I had finished grad school six months earlier, moved home to save money, just quit the job I got after grad school, and was dating no one. In fact, I had few friends in my life. I wasn't crying because I wasn't where I thought I should be, but because I had no idea what would come next. I had NEVER imagined life past age 24. I remember praying that God would just lead me and show me where to go because I had NO CLUE. Now here I am at age 36 and I could never have imagined how amazing my life would be. As much as I imagined falling in love and meeting the right guy, I never knew how wonderful it would be to be married to an amazing man of God who sincerely loves me and cherishes m

Last week I completed a 5-day nutritive cleanse and detox through USANA called Reset and it was AWESOME! I felt great and had so much energy. I still have so much energy. If you have ever done a cleanse or are doing one and you feel tired...you might want to try something different. Here's how it works: I had a Nutrimeal shake (Dutch Chocolate is my favorite -- Dairy-free and gluten-free) for breakfast with a set of supplements called a HealthPak (includes a Mega Antioxidant and Chelated Mineral, Active Calcium, and an AntiOxidant booster for additional protection) and a Hepisal (to detox the liver). These supplements help to provide the nutrition and protection needed while resetting the system. 2-3 hours later I had a low-glycemic snack (usually an apple with 7 almonds or celery with natural almond butter). The typical USANA Reset kit comes with bars that you can eat for snacks, but I'm picky about bars, so decided to do my own snacks. Lunch was another Nutrimeal sh

As promised, here is a list of my top 10 favorite essential oils and how it use them: 1. Peppermint I use peppermint for so many things. Peppermint wakes you up and keeps you more alert. I put it in my morning Nutrimeal shake, put it on my wrists and behind my neck before/during long workouts, and inhale it to relieve any nasal congestion. I also put it on my stomach for any abdominal discomfort. 2. Lavender This is the utility knife of oils -- it does SO much. I'll give you a quick testimony: a couple months ago, my 3-year-old daughter had a large board fall and hit her on the head. She obviously was crying and as I held her, I noticed that her head was bleeding. I quickly put Lavender on the wound to slow/stop the bleeding. The cut was only about a 1/2 inch long, but was split apart. I kept applying lavender and then applied an invisible liquid bandage. After an hour I did the lavender and bandage again. Since it was getting close to her bedtime, I took her to immed

Top ten lists seem to be pretty popular these days, so here is a list of my top 10 favorite things right now: 1. Young Living Essential Oils -- these have totally changed how I approach illness, injury, etc. I will do a top ten list of my favorite oils (and why) in my next post. 2. USANA Nutrimeal -- I am currently on day two of a 5-day cleanse and detox with USANA called Reset (great name since you are resetting your system to make better food choices, etc.). I researched a lot of different cleanses and this one came out on top. Why? First of all, their products are the best out there -- tons of legit research (and my kids actually like their vitamins). Secondly, I LOVE their Nutrimeal and have been drinking it for breakfast for months. I am picky with drinks, etc. and can't stand any form of artificial sweetener. USANA uses fructose as a sweetener, which is the natural sugar found in fruit, so it is tasty and low-glycemic. I drink the Dutch Chocolate Nutrimeal (with a