Oil Pulling

My journey to health began a LONG time ago when I used to do fitness competitions (pre-kids) that only lasted a couple of years but it wasn't until recently that I got back on the health bus and I'm so glad I did. My intro back into becoming a "crunchy" mom started about a year ago when I started oil pulling. I heard about it, did a little research and without hesitation I started... BEFORE the new year began. Yep... can you believe I didn't put a date on it??? I started when I was ready and I think that had a lot to do with the changes staying. That and seeing all of the benefits of course!
It's a simple process that can seem overwhelming at first, but once it becomes a habit, it's hard to go back to store bought mouthwash. I like the fact that I don't have crazy dragon breath in the morning... you know the breath so bad you can smell it yourself. EEK! Yeah...that one! I like the fact that I can get about a year's supply for less than 2 BIG bottles of store bought mouthwash that only lasts about 1.5 months between my husband and myself. I like that it's all natural.
After oil pulling for about 6 months, the summer came and with it so did sleeping in. See... oil pulling during school season is easy for me because I rinse while I get ready. The timing is perfect. During summer, my kids are old enough they let me sleep in a little and I don't always have somewhere to go so I don't always have something to get "ready" for. With that being said, I hadn't noticed the benefit of oil pulling until I stopped. I guess absence made my mouth grow founder. It wasn't too much longer after I had stopped oil pulling that my constant ulcers had come back. I had completely forgotten how bad I used to get mouth ulcers. Within a couple of days of starting back, the ulcers were gone again and haven't returned.
Another nice benefit was that right before I had originally started oil pulling I had gone to the dentist and she discovered I had a small cavity. When I went back 6 months later after 6 months of oil pulling, my cavity had NOT gotten bigger. That's a BIG deal. I don't know that I've ever had a cavity stabilize like that and my dentist was actually surprised by the fact that it had.
Since being back on the oil pulling train my allergies and sinuses have calmed down, my dragon breath has gone away, my mouth feels fresher longer, I no longer get morning breath that sometimes happened hours after I brushed my teeth (before I oil pulled), and I think my teeth are actually whitening.
There are TONS of benefits to oil pulling and you can find TONS of great resources. I purchase my organic oil from Amazon. Do NOT get coconut oil from Wal-Mart. I made that mistake. It is not refined and does NO good.

Bone Broth Round 1

 

Well... my first can of bone broth is complete. I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to look or not. I drank my first cup yesterday while it was warm. It was perfect warming agent for me because I was cold! My daughter even had her first small cup and she liked it. Well... I'm not sure if she actually liked it or not. She said she'd drink anything to be able to eat sugar again. Slight addiction maybe????

This is all we got from one small chicken carcass. It's not a lot, but it's a start.

Bone Broth - Getting Started

Well... it's official. Our first batch of bone broth is in the crockpot simmering for another 21 hours. We ate the chicken last night and I put the bones and carcass in today after church because I forgot to do it before church. After letting the bones sit in water and 2 tbs of apple cider vinegar for an hour, I added carrots and celery. I would have added onions, but was out and didn't know it. :-/ There I go again being unprepared.... Well.. I'm heading to grocery store to buy onions. I figured 20 hours is better than none right????

We finished eating the leftover chicken meat last night and our 20 lb turkey my husband got from work should be thawed out enough tomorrow for me to cook it for the meat and more bones to make more broth. I want to make sure we have plenty so we never go without since it's suggested to drink bone broth with EVERY meal. Check out this site for more information about GAPS diet.

Plenty of Water

I've been an exclusive water drinking since I was in college. I stopped drinking sodas (except for Sprite) when I was 16, but eventually the carbonation started tasting bad and I gave Sprite up too. So, I've been caffeine free (in regards to drink) for almost 20 years. Although I LIVED on sweet sweet tea and sodas when I was younger I can't imagine my lifestyle any other way than with refreshing water. My body actually craves it. I don't have to have lemons or any flavoring. Water is good enough. Since last week I've been more diligent about how much I drink and have worked hard to increase my water intake. The hardest part for me was finding a cup that was big enough to hold enough for me for when I was out and about all day. I work from home, but I'm not home often so there are days when I'm gone from 7:45 AM until 9 PM... It's those days I have to be very diligent about preparing and making sure I have enough with me.
After breaking almost every tumbler that I have, I finally remembered this beauty that was GIVEN to me when I had my children. I got one at the birth of each child, but I must have left my last one at the hospital because I only have 2 now... but 2 is good since I can only drink out of one at time. It's great to have a back up when I wash one.

I'm up to 3 of these cups a day... That's 90 oz of water. Eight 8 oz glasses are recommended. I drink a full cup before I take my kids to school in the morning and before I leave I fill it back up to drink throughout the day. Then fill up again when I get home and have a 3rd before going to bed.

How is your water intake? If you're getting ready to change your lifestyle through diet and heal from the inside out, I would suggest first starting with replacing at least one drink a day with water and gradually work your way to replace it all. Not only is it better for you, but it will save you a LOT of $$$. Click here for other benefits to drinking water.

Being Prepared

I knew Thursday was going to be a busy day and I wouldn't be home to cook dinner so after kids got ready for school I started dinner in the crockpot. I found a great GAPS recipe from pinterest that seemed pretty easy so I thought I would try it. It's Stage 3 GAPS, but since we don't have Bone Broth yet, I figured it wouldn't hurt to eat something that was GAPS approved.

When starting a new food lifestyle it's important to be prepared. As I put everything in the crockpot I realized I didn't have cilantro or broth so I had to run to store before taking kids to school because that was the only time I had to get it. I put everything in crockpot and it was done by 12:30 and family was able to eat a delicious dinner that EVERYONE loved without me being there.

Here's the recipe we used.

When I got home that night my husband said the kids LOVED it and actually raved about it... Adding this to our regular menu. It was SO easy and would have been easier had I had everything I needed when I started cooking. ;-)



It's a process

Day 2 & 3

 

In trying to heal from the inside, we found a healthy breakfast my youngest likes.... my husband's smoothies. It's not completely compliant with what I want him to have, it's a LOT better than the pancakes and syrup full of corn syrup he was getting.

This smoothie contains protein powder (which does contain milk) peanut butter, honey (needs to be replaced with local honey) and a banana. The only way he eats fruit is in smoothies. My youngest is was a milk drinking, chocolate eating kid. The change hasn't been as bad as I expected though because he can SEE and FEEL the changes. Now that he's no longer drinking milk, his nose isn't constantly running. When he does eat a lot of food with milk in it during the day, he coughs throughout the night. Changes... they don't have to be sudden. It's a process. Start slowly.

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner

I found a great recipe on pinterest that called for chicken, pizza sauce (we didn't have ingredients to make homemade) and cheese. I cooked the chicken in coconut oil, which in itself is healthy and healing, chopped it up, put in a 9 x 13 pan, covered it in pizza sauce (will use homemade next time) and then covered only 1/2 (the 1/2 my husband and oldest ate) with  and served with green beans.

Everyone enjoyed it and my youngest like it. It was a hit.

Healing from the Inside

WOW! It's been a while! OVER 3 years... that's a life time in the eyes of my child. Since then, there have been LOTS of challenges and BIG victories, some that I hope to share on here and some that will be saved for 1-1 conversations on an as needed basis. Nonetheless, I'm back for at least now. ;-)
My kids are now 9, 6 and 4 and will be 10, 7, and 5 in just a few short months. I'm back to journal our journey into eating clean and the lifestyle changes we are getting ready to embark on.
About 1.5 months ago, I went to a local Dr who specialized in homeopathic and he was amazing. He actually deactivated my allergies to pollen and trees. It was fabulous being able to breath again. I also discovered that I had a yeast build up in my system... often referred to as candida and my 4 year old although has no allergies is sensitive to milk. During very recent days I also found out that eczema can actually be caused by what is termed as "leaky gut" and can best be healed from the inside out... So starts our journey of healing from the inside out.
As we approach this new lifestyle, I am going to take it day by day so I won't get anymore overwhelmed than I already am over all of the changes that will happen.

Today is day 1:
I found a friend that makes her own Kambucha tea so when she gets back from Disney, we will start on that. For today, I made our own dairy free, gluten free ranch dressing. My youngest is SO excited because now he can eat ranch with ANYTHING!!! More like eat anything with ranch. That boy LOVES him some ranch dressing.

click here for the recipe.