If Your House Smells “Good” That Could Be Bad…The problem with Air Fresheners

Having panic attacks, headaches, itchy skin? Could be your “fresh” air.

Remember, being fit means taking care of your whole self — spirit, soul and body.

By body, I mean not only exercise, but what you put or allow into it. We are a sum total of what we eat, wear, smell, and breathe.

I’ll lead you to some articles about the first three in future posts, but today we will focus on the air we breathe.

Read  what Dr. Axe has to say about it in His article, “Dangers of Synthetic Scents Include Cancer, Asthma, Kidney Damage, and More”.

And this from the UK about the dangers of “home perfuming” and how it can cause Asthma and cancer — “Why Air Fresheners and Scented Candles Can Wreck Your Health”

Will the Real Food Pyramid Please Stand Up….

Notice the bulk of a good diet is vegetables and healthy fats like avocado, coconut oil, and the little or none tippy top of the pyramid is breads and pasta. Interesting. The food pyramid I grew up with looked more like this:

source

This is the “Standard American Diet” or SAD, a perfect word for it.

Notice the bowl of cereal looks like Fruit Loops, even? Ei yi yi!

No wonder so many Americans are sad and so many doctor’s are glad.

My experience? Following the pyramid at top gave me my life back. 

Following the bottom one kept me a fat, achy, and miserable.

What about you? Which pyramid do you follow? How’s your health?

Food Heals: From Hashimoto’s to Healthy.

Carrie Vitt, author of The Grain Free Family Table and Meal Plans, and blogger at Deliciously Organic

Welcome to the first installment of a new series, called, “Food Heals“. 

SAD is killing us. What is SAD? The Standard American Diet, i.e. food from a box, a bag, or a tube. It’s how we eat. It’s the American way…to a miserable life where you struggle to get out of the booth at your favorite diner, where you limp down the sidewalk, where you swallow a colorful cocktail of pills to start your day. Click HERE to read how Carrie Vitt (above) stopped eating SAD and got gladder every day…

Weight Loss Story I

Here’s the first of many upcoming interviews with folks I know who’ve made huge changes in their health and fitness and lost some weight along the way (sometimes, an IN. CRED. I. BLE. amount!)

First up? Meet Shelby LeBoeuf (pronounced: Le Buff, as in, “He’s pretty buff, ain’t he?”).  Shelby’s a Personal Trainer at Anytime Fitness—

Was he always so trim?

Noooooo.

Click the pic to watch his story on Youtube!

What’s your story?

Have you decided to become healthy and fit? Did you lose weight along the way?

Share below.

Here’s to Health and fitness! *sound of clinking water glasses!*

We ARE What We Eat.

“The phrase, “You are what you eat.” takes on new meaning after reading the Economist  article below, “The human microbiome: Me, Myself, Us, “Looking at human beings as ecosystems that contain many collaborating and competing species could change the practice of medicine” August 18, 2012.

Who we are is not us alone, but the trillions of bacteria covering our skin and filling our guts, both good and bad. The food we eat, feeds our bacteria. We literally eat for trillions!  And its an ongoing internal struggle for control, good -vs-bad.

What determines who will win?  Well, food…

Good bacteria needs good food to survive.  They thrive on fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, grass-fed meat.  If they thrive in us, as they should, we have clear thinking, energy, restful sleep.

Bad bacteria prefer bad food, i.e. anything from a box, a bag, or a tube.  If they rule our system, we feel foggy- brained, irritable, anxious, and most likely have bad teeth,  poor sleep,  auto-immune issues, weight concerns, etc.

Which bacteria rules our systems? We decide, one mouthful at a time…

Click the pic below to read more:

The human microbiome: Me, Myself, Us, “Looking at human beings as ecosystems that contain many collaborating and competing species could change the practice of medicine” August 18, 2012

Acorn Squash with Apples

Found a yummy recipe. Since I’m on the GAPS diet I frequently google for recipe ideas or whether this or that ingredient is ok to eat or not. Today I was googling pomegranates. So, how did I land on a post about apples and squash with nary a pomegranate? Don’t know,  but don’t it look tasty? If you try it, let me know what you think….

Click on the pic below to hop over to The Well Fed Homestead for the particulars:

The Autoimmune Summit

Listening to “The Autoimmune Summit” online this week. Which is?….you may ask. The Autoimmune Summit is week long series of online interviews with experts in the field of autoimmunity, doctors, authors, doctor/authors, etc, conducted by Dr. Amy Meyers, an expert herself and the author of The Autoimmune Solution.

Today’s quote:

“We are not eating food anymore. We’re eating food-like products, or edible products; processed stuff. Things that come out of machines in factories, and things that go into boxes, cans, tubes, bags…these products, in order to have a shelf life, and not be eaten by bacteria and mold, they have to have chemicals that kill these bacteria and mold…these are preservatives and conservatives. We add to our foods coloring chemicals, and smelling chemicals and texturizing chemicals, and tasting chemicals. So, in the end, we get this soup of chemicals, many of which are toxic on their own or in combination with others.” ~~ Alejandro Junger, MD, author of Clean.

The summit is informative, to say the least. Each days interviews with experts are free to listen to, but for sale after that. The whole week being $67.

Wanna hear for yourself and maybe get some info that could change your life? I knew you did!

Click the pic below to sign up:

 Dr. Amy Meyers, a Functional Medicine Physician, author of The Autoimmune Solution. interviews experts in the field of Autoimmunity.  Awesome!

Weight Loss Help

I just discovered this little gem on Youtube.  Wildly Alive: Stop Dieting. Re-frame Your Mind and Reshape Your Body.  Click on the pic above to check it out.

Nichole Kellerman, founder of Wildly Alive, says: “Lets live in a world where us women feel nourishment + excitement from LIFE (not just food) + use living WILDLY as a tool for weight loss…”  Sounds promising.

** Disclaimer: I’ve only watched one of her videos and really don’t know anything about her. I’m just posting this as a head’s-up-check-it-out-for-yourself kind of thing. Hope it helps someone.

Chicken Feet Stock

What?!   You read it right. Stock made with the feet of a chicken. Chicken Feet stock.

Sounds gross, I know, but if you can get over the horror flick contents of your stock pan, it’s oh, so good for you!

How?  Stock make with chicken feet is collagen and mineral rich, helps heal and seal the gut lining, which leads to better absorption nutrients and overall better health.

Do you have a leaky gut?  Most likely you do if you enjoy the standard Western diet of fast food, microwave meals and lots and lots of sugar. Basically, all of us can use a little help in the gut heal and seal department.

Many of the maladies we take meds for, like joint paint, stomach pain, depression, anxiety, ADD, ADHD, fibromyalgia, start in the gut.

Check out more information in this article at “The Healthy Home Economist”: “Heal Your Autoimmune Disease Now”

AND read how to make your own batch of stock here at “Nourished Kitchen”: Chicken Feet Stock

Get to cooking! Remember, fitness starts in the kitchen!

Weight Loss tips for Busy People

Busy?!

click pic for source

Too busy to work on weight loss?

Click the pic below for some helpful tips: