This easy recipe for No Bake Cereal Bites is simple enough that the kids can help you make it! Keep them on hand for a quick snack or dessert or serve them as a kid-friendly option at your next party.
Hi Friends!
I hope you’ve enjoyed meeting all of my guest-posters so far and perhaps found a few new blogs to follow. Things are still a bit crazy around here. I’m still feeling sick, but hanging in there. We moved a couple truckloads of stuff to the new house last weekend and this past week was filled with various appointments to get internet set up, locks changed, carpets cleaned, etc. We’re hoping to finish up the last few repairs at our current house next week and then it’ll be ready to hit the market and *hopefully* sell quickly!
Anyways, today I’m popping in to share a quick recipe of my own for this month’s Recipe Redux. The theme was:
No Bake Cereal Bites
Here’s how you make them: For more small plate ideas, be sure to check out the link-up below! Original article and pictures take www.theleangreenbean.com site
100 years ago, all food was organic. It grew in clean, mineral-rich soil and clean, mineral-rich water – no chemicals, herbicides or pesticides.
Today, real food has been replaced by corporate-produced fast, cheap, addictive, processed food-like stuff.
Purium goes back to the original purity standards. No artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, binders, fillers, hormones, pesticides, irradiated or genetically-modified ingredients. Just real food. Super food. For super results.
Purium offers a solution that benefits our bodies, as well as the Earth.
Original article and pictures take cdn.shopify.com site
Here are a few of the features of this new kid-friendly app:
Family-focused content For years, families have come to YouTube, watching countless hours of videos on all kinds of topics. Now, parents can rest a little easier knowing that videos in the YouTube Kids app are narrowed down to content appropriate for kids.
You can browse channels and playlists in four categories: Shows, Music, Learning and Explore. Or search for videos of particular interest to your family, like how to build a model volcano, math tutorials, the amazing (and endless) world of trains—and everything in between
Parental controls We realize every family is different, so we’ve built options into the app that help you control the experience for your kids:
Timer: Let the app be the bad guy with a built-in timer that lets you limit kids’ screen time. The app alerts your child when the session is over, so you don’t have to. (You’re welcome. �� )
Sound settings: Sometimes you need a little peace and quiet! You have an option to turn off background music and sound effects, so your kids can keep watching while you catch a breather.
Search settings: If you’d rather limit your children to just the pre-selected videos available on the home screen, you can turn off search.
Product feedback: Our goal is to improve YouTube Kids all the time, so we’ve included a space for you to give us your feedback.
This app is available now for Android devices on Google Play, and iOS devices on the Apple App Store.
Thanks, Ashley!
Original article and pictures take moneysavingmom.com site
Naturally Soothing your Eczema Without Giving up all the Food you Love
This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.
Nine-year-old boys are a little oblivious to life sometimes.
They could probably have a frog stuck in their ear and not notice for a few weeks.
If they hadn’t had a shower in a month, I doubt they’d remind the parents they’d been forgotten.
And if a 4×4-inch spot on their leg is supremely itchy, bleeding and crusty, they might not say a word for weeks.
Weeks, I’m telling you.
I know this because I have a 9-year-old boy…who didn’t tell his parents about just such a rash…or sore…or who knows what? By the time we found it – perhaps because he was digging and scratching at it like crazy – we didn’t know if it was road rash from a fall gone infected, poison ivy, some unknown skin condition or what!
Me: “Did you fall, or get an injury of some sort? Did you scrape it while climbing a tree maybe or fall off your bike?”
9-year-old boy: “Ummm…I dunno.”
Me: “You don’t know if you fell down or not? You can’t remember if this is bleeding because of a tree?”
When after a few days or a week of observing and applying some salve when we thought of it, the thing was clearly getting bigger, we figured it couldn’t be a scrape or abrasion.
We hit it harder and daily after that, using a few salves infused with things like comfrey, plantain, some healing essential oils and nourishing base oils, our hard lotion bars, and Redmond clay, and we kept it from spreading for a month…but we couldn’t make any improvements beyond that. The clay seemed to help the most especially if I applied a layer, waited 15-20 minutes and then washed it off, and we’d also usually follow with salve as well (so maybe it was just because we used two things).
In the face of the unknown, we treated the “rash” as if it might be contagious, washed our hands religiously, and didn’t let other kids touch it or reuse any washcloths. But it was still pretty nasty looking, bleeding enough that blood was on his sheets and pajamas, and while it wasn’t spreading, it certainly wasn’t showing any signs of receding either.
He had given up sweets for Lent and our family went 100% gluten-free during that time as well, and I wondered if going back to junk food after that made him flare up somehow. The timing was likely about right, although of course we didn’t know exactly when the beast had shown up, so who knows…
We had well-child checkups in mid-June, about 6-8 weeks after we discovered the problem.
“Any other questions?” doc asked.
“Well…what do you think this is?” I asked, pointing.
I didn’t expect the answer to be something I recognized, to be honest.
I’m pretty well-versed in eczema, since this same boy had had it mildly but often as a little one, and my husband has some chronic spots on his hands, ears, inner eyes and feet (I always wonder how much this may be related to his Crohn’s Disease).
My eyes popped out of my head and my jaw dropped when she quickly diagnosed the “unknown rash” as eczema.
“Eczema??!! Really??!!”
I couldn’t believe it, not only that (a) I hadn’t recognized it and really hadn’t even considered it, but most of all that (b) it was soooo severe. Its severity is likely why I didn’t recognize it, and I was also shocked that (c) it had returned on this kid after a number of years without any issue. (At least, that I knew of. When a child starts taking his own showers instead of bathing like a small child, the mother doesn’t get as many opportunities to see all of his skin.)
Now at least we knew what it was and could start treating it like eczema, which really was about the same as what we had been doing (salve, clay) except that we knew we should also moisturize it and keep it from drying out. With something like poison ivy, it’s better to let it dry out, so now we could start using our hard lotions bars more regularly. We tried to do lotion in the morning (when we’d remember) and a salve at bedtime.
Serendipity in my Email
Right about this time I rediscovered an email buried in my awful inbox from Ashley and Katie of the Crunchy Mamas. I had asked them if they had any new products to highlight, and their reply, which had been far too long ignored because I wasn’t sure how to answer, was this:
Naturally Soothing your Eczema Without Giving up all the Food you Love. Help to find the triggers, things to eliminate from your diet, and ways to get to the root cause!
We are so stinking proud of Inflamed! Does someone in your family suffer from severe acne, eczema, psoriasis, or rosacea? If so, we would love for you to give Inflamed a try. Our lotion stick is also new and so amazing. I think people are scared to try lotion in a stick form and minus synthetic fragrance oils, so it would be nice to shed some love on our lotion stick as well.
What timing! I replied right away this time.
They gladly and generously sent a bottle of Inflamed, their oil blend that gives great relief to all those skin conditions, and they sent a double portion of their lotion stick.
“Inflamed took us a long time to research and test and we are beyond thrilled about how it works but just to be on the safe side you may want to check into all of the oils for yourself. I’m sure you will. You seem like a gal that does her research and I can definitely appreciate that
I sincerely hope that Inflamed helps your son. I have a girlfriend and her son has the worst eczema I’ve ever seen. It hurt my heart so bad to see him itch to the point of bleeding and to see my friend feel so helpless and lost. We started making Inflamed for them and fortunately, combined with a change in diet, it has been helping them so much.
I’m so impressed with the mandarin, sweet orange, and ylang ylang essential oils [In the lotion]! They do a great job of softening skin and relieving dryness.
I told the boy that we were going to get a new salve to test that’s specifically for eczema, and he wanted to know what’s in it. That’s my boy!
We started our regimen of applying (at least) the lotion stick in the morning and the oil at night. The lotion stick is really nice because the boy can easily apply it himself – it’s a bit softer than our hard lotion bars, has beneficial essential oils in it for particular healing, and being in stick form is helpful for little ones to apply.
The “before” pictures were taken literally the night before we started using Inflamed, June 24th.
Naturally Soothing your Eczema Without Giving up all the Food you Love. Help to find the triggers, things to eliminate from your diet, and ways to get to the root cause!
The Story Continues
Somewhere in mid-summer the eczema jumped to the other leg, much to our dismay although thankfully not so severe or large, and we tackled it with vigor using the same products. That went away completely in a few weeks, which was such a relief.
After a while the boy started calling the girls behind Inflamed by name, and when he would see another Crunchy Mamas product in our house he would say, “Oh, that’s made by Katie and Ashley, right?” Clearly the oil was making some sort of impact!
The eczema seemed to really be improving when we left for and during our 2-week vacation to visit family around Michigan, and we remained really consistent in applying our twice-a-day lotion stick and Inflamed, even though we were out of all our other eating, sleeping and chore routines. During this time, the boy would have had plenty more gluten than usual and more sweets, but for the most part we still ate pretty well (my mom is a real foodie too, lucky us!!).
Once we got home, I took the “after” pictures almost exactly 6 weeks after we had started using both of Crunchy Mamas’ products. I thought the rash area had been getting better, and I was finally able to compare and confirm that, yes, definitely, it was much improved!
Naturally Soothing your Eczema Without Giving up all the Food you Love. Help to find the triggers, things to eliminate from your diet, and ways to get to the root cause!
I had been pretty sure we weren’t getting anymore blood on the sheets or PJs, which meant he wasn’t digging at it during sleep, and he said that while the Inflamed didn’t really help calm the itching, the lotion stick definitely did. (Similarly, the hard lotion and salves seemed to help in that arena, while the body’s initial reaction to clay is increased anti-histamine response = more intense itching. Typically that also means the itching decreases a few minutes after the clay is removed, but kids have a hard time embracing something that makes you feel worse first.)
The Setback
I was so excited to have proof that something we were doing was working! However – a week after returning home from our northern Michigan vacation, we had a set back.
By Wednesday or Thursday of that week, the eczema was getting markedly worse in the original area AND had hopped back to having three spots on the other leg, AND the few small spots around his mouth (that had previously disappeared and were no longer being treated) appeared again. No fun!
I know eczema often has environmental or food causal or exacerbating factors, like this great guest post explains, so I set to brainstorming what might be going on:
Had he had more gluten, dairy, preservatives or “food” chemicals? That week we had eaten acceptable but sort of compromise dinners because of Vacation Bible School and its timing, and each night he had a typically atrocious, food-coloring-laden snack at VBS as well. But…it just didn’t seem like it could be that markedly different from the compromises and “fun food” we ate while away from home. Verdict: Possible but unlikely. NOTE: We have a fabulous guest post here from a mom who totally cured her baby’s eczema with dietary changes, and it’s WELL worth checking out.
Were the sheets or clothing washed in different laundry soap? My mom and I actually both use Naturoli Extreme 18x (although I’m constantly trying new laundry options as review samples here and there, but I would have still expected there to have been more obvious ups and downs at home if that was the case). Verdict: Unlikely at best.
How consistent had we been in applying the lotion and oil? We did miss an application of the oil that week and at least one of the lotion, but I thought we remained pretty consistent overall. Verdict: Possible but unlikely.
Was there something about our house or our environment in West Michigan that was aggravating the eczema? Many in the family also got some allergy-type sneezes our first week back, and I realized that I hadn’t blown my nose once while I was at my parents’ and then suddenly had little sneezes and a mildly itchy and runny nose off and on. What was going on??? Did we need to move back to Northern Michigan? Verdict: Intriguing…and frightening.
Was it possible we simply compromised more than we thought that week of Vacation Bible School and less on our actual vacation, and that all of these reasons, combined with a few missed treatments, caused the flare-up? We rededicated ourselves to consistency and tried to add at least one additional application per day of something on the spots and sat back to see what would happen.
The spots on his face cleared up quickly, and we again knocked out the few spots on his other leg. I feel like it wasn’t long before the original location was back to the status of the “after” photos above. But it was certainly a strange setback and not-so-fun surprise!
We’re in Florida as I write this post, and between the climate change, the sheets definitely not washed in anything verging on natural and all the chlorine in the pools, it’s certainly possible that something could have aggravated his eczema and made it worse. It looks pretty good this week though, definitely more along the lines of the “after” photos above. I’m very curious to see what happens upon our return home today…
Grandma Tests Inflamed Too
Naturally Soothing your Eczema Without Giving up all the Food you Love. Help to find the triggers, things to eliminate from your diet, and ways to get to the root cause!
My mom had been battling a really annoying, dry, itchy skin problem since late winter, and when she had her yearly physical, the doc also diagnosed “eczema,” much to her surprise. She had never experienced anything in the eczema family before.
He ran through a massive list of possible causes, and none of them made any sense to her since her diet, lifestyle, etc. hadn’t truly changed (except for the better, moving toward more natural and fewer chemicals) over the years.
Until he hit “stress.”
They looked at each other, thought of my dad’s battle with cancer and all the stress that obviously had added to my mom’s life, and nodded. “I guess that must be it…”
Naturally Soothing your Eczema Without Giving up all the Food you Love. Help to find the triggers, things to eliminate from your diet, and ways to get to the root cause!
While we were at their house visiting – which I can’t imagine reduced her stress as we don’t exactly bring a whirlwind of calm when we come for 10 days! – she tried the Inflamed oil on one arm/hand and a sort-of-natural hydrocortisone based cream on the other.
After slightly more than a week, she was very pleasantly surprised to say that the itching overall had died down almost completely on both arms, and for the first time all summer, the dryness and redness had receded quite nicely as well. (She had previously just been keeping those symptoms slightly at bay with hard lotion.) All the photos are “before” shots by the way.
Once we left, my mom stopped using either healing option.
And it all came back.
So the hypotheses include:
Inflamed is as effective as hydrocortisone cream.
My kids reduce her stress or are somehow eczema relief activators.
I wish my mom had continued with the cream on one arm as she had to stop the Inflamed on the other to see what the difference was, but we don’t have that data at this time. Maybe I should send her a bottle for a side-by-side test with nothing on the other arm.
I’m so grateful to Ashley and Katie, household names at the Kimballs and Crunchy Mamas founders, for sponsoring this post to share natural eczema options with you – and especially for creating the one that finally worked for us!
Naturally Soothing your Eczema Without Giving up all the Food you Love. Help to find the triggers, things to eliminate from your diet, and ways to get to the root cause!
Update: When it was all the way gone
I’m adding an update to this post in winter 2015, because the eczema story took a strange turn, a stranger turn, and then reached its eventual end.
The eczema on my son definitely was better in Florida and then surged worse again when we got home…Read the denouement HERE!
Also be sure to read this post about our KS site editor’s daughter’s ongoing battle with eczema along with one more solution not mentioned here.
I also think a good read is The Eczema Cure – if you don’t know where to start with dietary changes, definitely grab this one!
Other Eczema Relief Options
The KS community always comes through with amazing ideas whenever I ask for help on Facebook, and this question was no exception:
Let’s talk eczema. My son had it mildly as a youngster, and suddenly it’s back with a vengeance, worse than I’ve *ever* seen, at age 9. I know two middle aged ladies who never had eczema in their lives and suddenly have it spreading and itching and driving them up the wall. What gives?
If you know your trigger or what might cause a flare up, let’s share so others can troubleshoot. This is driving me nuts lately!
Here are some of the ideas shared:
vitamins or supplements:
Test to find out if you’re deficient in:
other possible causes:
seasonal allergies
unbalanced hormones
chemical cleaners, air fresheners – switch to green cleaners
stress, fear
change in weather, location in the world/climate
nickel from canned food linings, fillings, or jewelry
testing for food sensitivities (not allergies) can help: ALCAT and Alletess tests
a helpful reminder: eczema is an autoimmune disorder that manifests itself through the skin, not a skin disorder…
creams and such
Aveno Eczema Therapy
steroid cream (but…)
hard lotion bars
weekly soak in dead sea salts
plantain
switching to Arbonne products (although my caveat is that when I read their ingredients, they don’t pass muster with me)
Cetaphil’s soap and lotion for eczema
fragrance-free lotions only
BabyGanics Eczema cream
UNDA 270 ointment
rubbing half water-half apple cider vinegar over the area and letting it sit, then rinsing. Then coconut oil mixed with lavender essential oil.
avoiding harsh soaps or even touching acidic foods: raw meat, avocado, tomatoes, etc. (use gloves)
Eczema could get an award, I think, for being the most popular ailment of our time. Boooooooo!
Too bad it’s not a fad like skinny jeans, right?
We’ve just got to keep working on finding the cause (or causes!) and using good stuff on the outside in the meantime to find relief.
What’s your story? Have you battled eczema or had it pop up later in life like my mom?
Naturally Soothing your Eczema Without Giving up all the Food you Love. Help to find the triggers, things to eliminate from your diet, and ways to get to the root cause!
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post by Crunchy Mamas, but all opinions are my own and the story is accurate as written. There are affiliate links in this post to amazon from which I will earn some commission if you make a purchase. See my full disclosure statement here.
Original article and pictures take www.kitchenstewardship.com site
This is one mom’s amazing story of reversing asthma symptoms in her son using natural remedies. She lists the specific steps they took to reduce his asthma symptoms and keep him free from asthma attacks for two years!
As a Mom focused on natural living and herbal remedies, most of time, I didn’t have any trouble keeping up with normal childhood illnesses.
Things like colds, coughs, fevers or even cuts and scrapes were easily handled by our natural medicine cabinet.
Until our son faced significant struggle with asthma attacks and breathing issues.
I cannot imagine living in a country where emergency medical care isn’t so quickly available — without a way to find help. Each and every time we visited the hospital (and there were many!), I gave thanks. Many physicians and allergists played a critical role in getting our little guy’s health back on track.
Surely, there had to be another option or choice? I dove deep into a world of research and came up with a plan to naturally reverse these asthma symptoms.
It wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve done, but it worked! I’ll shared the steps we took.
Naturally Reversing Asthma Symptoms
For super detailed information, you can read the entire series of posts on my blog. Today, I’ll simply share some highlights.
Our path is best described in three steps: CLEANSE, STRENGTHEN, and then NOURISH.
CLEANSE the Body
A basic definition of asthma includes inflammation of the respiratory system resulting in extra mucus production and spasms within the muscles of the system. And yes, it’s scary to watch!
Food and environmental allergies both impact asthma symptoms, so it seemed wise to us to remove any possible triggers in these areas. An elimination diet became important to our journey; I kept a journal of what we did when and tracked the effect on his breathing patterns or the severity of the attack. Find tips on an elimination diet here.
Then after reading about the effects of hydrogenated oils on asthma, we quickly (and I do mean overnight!) switched to using coconut and olive oils alone. This step was a significant factor, and within 2-3 weeks, our son’s breathing calmed without the use of daily medication.
CLEANSE the Home
I describe many steps for removing environmental triggers in my post, but instead of overwhelming myself, I focused on his bedroom. So much time is spent in there sleeping and playing, so this seemed logical.
We chose allergy testing to pinpoint various triggers, and this step proved helpful to fight the irritation of dust mites. After I had a handle on his room, I slowly worked through the rest of the house.
The entire family enjoyed the benefits of clearing out environmental toxins or triggers — it’s good for everyone, not just asthmatics!
STRENGTHEN the Body
After working so hard taking out the not so good stuff, I read more and more on the importance of replacing good in its place!
Our next step was to strengthen our son’s ability to fight off sickness, especially colds. It’s not that I didn’t want him to ever get sick, but instead to heal as quickly as possible.
Since 75% of our immune-fighting ability is in the intestinal tract, my efforts focused on building up this area. And we continued to see huge improvements!
NOURISH the Body
By this point (it was over a few months), I was convinced of the path we had chosen.
Our son’s health improved to the point his allergist removed the need for ongoing medication, and he stayed free of asthma attacks for nearly TWO years!
We continue to nourish his body, providing helps particular to those with breathing issues. I was introduced to essential oils and found them to also be beneficial in relieving a cold-induced attack this winter. We avoided the hospital, and he recovered naturally at home!
All details, posts and information — including the supplements or aids we used — are found in this series.
Have you found anything else to be helpful in dealing with asthmatic children?
Daniele is a homeschooling Mama of five kiddos and a voracious reader of books. Passionate about her faith, home and family, she blogs about the intentional life over at Domestic Serenity and writes for other online and print publications. Daniele thinks life is more enjoyable with a cup of herbal tea in hand!
Original article and pictures take thehumbledhomemaker.com site
Do you suffer from acne as an adult? The good news is that there are ways you can begin naturally reversing adult acne!
Guest post by Erin Josefchak
Are you frustrated by frequent breakouts in your adult life? You are NOT alone!
According to the Journal of American Academy of Dermatology, 54 percent of women older than age 25 have some facial acne.
I was among that 54 percent for much of my adult life. Two years ago, at 33 years old, I finally found the answer to my problem that had eluded me for much of my teenage and adult life – inflammation!
Great skin comes from the inside out and the outside in
Scientists have long believed that the P. acnes bacteria triggered acne. However, recent research now suggests that acne is an inflammatory disease (source).
Scientists are now suggesting that the key to clear skin is to prevent local inflammation in the skin and lower general inflammation in the body.
The cure to blemish-free skin is two-fold. Reduce and eliminate (as much as possible) inflammation from the outside in and inflammation from the inside out.
Outside in
Don’t believe everything you read! The beauty industry has made a fortune on “oil-free” products by leading us to believe that oil is bad for our skin. This is a total myth! Sadly, most of us have been fooled, including me!
The truth is that our skin needs oil, rich in essential fatty acids, to stay moisturized. A lipid barrier prevents dehydration by helping the skin retain moisture. Most “oil-free” products are mostly water (along with lots of mold-preventing preservatives!) that contain petroleum-derived oils, harsh drying agents, silicones, and wax that give us the illusion of moisturized skin. But, in fact, these products are doing just the opposite – they are actually making your skin vulnerable to bacteria, dryness, acne, AND causing inflammation! It becomes a vicious cycle.
Don’t even get me started on all the chemicals, preservatives, toxins, dyes, and fragrances that have contaminated our beauty and personal products. These ingredients can cause further irritations and inflammation.
The key to beautiful blemish-free skin is to go back to nature: vegetable oils!
But … not all oils are created equal. Some oils are heavier (think castor) and some are lighter (think grapeseed). Their composition of fatty acids (oleic acid, linoleic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, lauric acid and so on) determines the type of oil. Oils with a high proportion of oleic acid are heavier – olive, macadamia, avocado, etc. On the other hand, oils with a high proportion of linoleic acid make a lighter oil – hemp oil, grapeseed oil, rosehip oil, etc.
Some oils have very unique oil composition profiles that make them essential in our natural beauty care routine. Broccoli seed oil is high in vitamin A and has a unique composition of fatty acids including approximately 50 percent eruric acid. This fatty acid is a natural silicone which makes it the perfect makeup primer! Broccoli seed oil also contains another essential fatty acid, arachidonic acid, which combats inflammation.
Tamanu is another amazing oil. Not only is it rich in essential fatty acids, but tamanu oil also contains unique anti-inflammatory phytochemicals which improve skin cell integrity, improve moisture retention, improve cell renewal, promote elasticity, and reduce inflammation.
Believe it or not, some oils even have UVA and UVB absorbing properties, like red raspberry seed oil (Oomah et al, 2000). Not only high in linoleic acid, this oil also contains powerful antioxidants that have free radical scavenging capabilities making it an excellent anti-aging oil.
Of course there are many other amazing oils (like pomegranate, argan, borage, etc.) to discover. The ones I’ve specifically listed have been, from my experience, generally good for those with adult acne due to inflammation and offer the most benefits without having to buy too many oils.
See my serum recipe below if you decide to make the switch to oils. You will be happy you did!
Facial Serum Recipe
Anti-aging, anti-blemish, anti-inflammatory, makeup primer
Ingredients
3 parts grapeseed oil OR, if you want added sun protection, red raspberry seed oil
3 parts tamanu oil
3 parts AHA natural fruit acid
1 part lavender essential oil
1 part seabuckthorn oil
Method
Make a bottled serum and measure out drops each morning and night.
Note from Erin O.: You can find many of the ingredients for this DIY on Vitacost.com. If you use my referral link, you get $5 off your first order of $30 or more!
image credit
Inside out
As the saying goes – “One man’s food is another man’s poison.” It may come to surprise you that 30 percent of us will experience one or more food sensitivities in our lifetime. In my case, I’m allergic to melons, of all things, and highly intolerant to lactose!
Inflammation is our body’s natural response to attack from bacteria, toxins, chemicals, histamines, and/or any food that your body doesn’t like. Your immune system is constantly in overdrive trying to rid itself of what it thinks is “poison” when we constantly eat (or expose our bodies) to things it doesn’t like.
In the case of a food sensitivity, the toxic food particle(s) can cause digestive symptoms but also can travel via the bloodstream to other parts of the body and can cause a number of systemic (whole body) diseases and conditions.
The most common conditions associated with inflammation are: eczema, dermatitis, acne, asthma, and joint pain. And any continuous systemic inflammation may cause more serious conditions and disease such as cancer, heart disease, arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, etc.
The best way to determine what your food sensitivities are, if any, is to follow an elimination diet. In a nutshell, you remove certain food and/or food categories from your diet for a period of two to three weeks. You then reintroduce each food back and monitor any symptoms. The common culprits are: dairy, gluten, sugar, eggs, nuts, corn, soy, citrus, fish/shellfish, and artificial additives. I followed the JJ Virgin diet, but there are many elimination diet guides available today.
You may even consider following an anti-inflammation diet(*) once you discover your food sensitivities.
I have never followed an anti-inflammation diet but I have tried to incorporate as many anti-inflammatory foods, and those that prevent inflammation, as I can into our family’s diet such as: chlorella, red rooibos and honeybush tea (2-4 times daily), fatty fish like salmon, dark leafy greens, berries (especially blueberries), whole grains, nuts, quinoa, chia, dark chocolate, hemp, sprouts like alfalfa, and lots and lots of fruits and vegetables.
My skin immediately started to clear up when I completely cut out dairy from my diet after my elimination diet results, started to follow a whole foods diet (eliminating as much as possible processed foods, refined sugar/artificial sweeteners, artificial additives/preservatives/dyes/flavoring), started green smoothies for breakfast, and started using oils in my beauty routine.
See my green smoothie recipe below if you want to kick-start your healthier lifestyle (and clear up your face too!). It is full of anti-inflammatory foods (and super foods!), essential vitamin and nutrients (including micronutrients), and foods that help your body detox and lose weight, to boot!
Breakfast Green Smoothie Recipe
Makes ¾ of a blender, or 2 servings.
If you want to switch up the recipe once in a while, I like this guide or this guide
Ingredients
1 cup water
½ cup coconut water
1 large handful spinach leaves, raw (~2 cups)
1 small handful parsley, raw (~1/2-1 cup)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 apple, peeled and cored
1 banana
1 tablespoon olive oil
Add-Ins
1/2 tbsp chlorella powder,
½-1 tablespoon hemp protein powder,
4-6 tablespoons chia mixture (1 tablespooon chia seeds in 1 cup of water. Keep in fridge. Stir or shake before use.)
Any other superfood powders you would like to add like beet, flax, acai, maca, etc.
Method
Add all ingredients to blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy immediately! If you are not sharing with someone else, keep the second serving for the next day.
Note from Erin O.: You can find many great superfood powders on Vitacost.com!
Although called a diet, the anti-inflammation diet (and elimination diet) are actually a lifestyle change and not a true “diet” in the sense that we think of a diet.
What steps have you taken to reverse your adult acne?
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, dentist, dermatologist, allergist, nurse, or licensed healthcare practitioner. Information obtained from this website is for educational purposes only and has not been evaluated by any health agency (FDA or Health Canada). Products and information are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Consult your physician before making any health decisions for you and your family. Thank you!
Erin Josefchak is a wife to Marc, mommy to Tyler and Sierra, saved by Jesus Christ, amateur writer, and aspiring herbalist living in rural Quebec, Canada. She is committed to leading a faith-filled, frugal, and chemical-free life. Erin’s passion is discovering the healing powers of God’s amazing creations – plants! She wants to bring glory to God and bless others with her knowledge of plants to increase their faith, improve their quality of life, and help them heal naturally with plants and prayer. She loves reading the Word, doing research, coffee, writing, baking, and making memories with her family.
Original article and pictures take thehumbledhomemaker.com site
You can heal pink eye naturally! You don’t have to spend lots of money on expensive doctor’s visits to get a prescription for antibiotic drops.
A couple of weeks ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with my eyes glued together. No, not literally, but it definitely felt like it! The episode took me back to my childhood–when I was about 4 or 5 years old. It was the only other time I had experienced pink eye.
I had heard that pink eye could only be cured with prescription antibiotic drops, but I decided to try natural ways to heal pink eye anyway. (I’m hard headed that way, and I didn’t want to fork out a co-pay to go to the doctor!)
I began to ask around for suggestions on ways to naturally heal pink eye in my local crunchy mama group, and I got a wide variety of answers of what had worked for people in the past.
Before the week was over, both my 4 and 2-year-old daughters also had developed pink eye, but, thankfully, my husband never caught it. (And although my 6-year-old didn’t get it from us, we believe she may have had a mild case a few weeks back that led me to pick it up in the first place. It was so mild that we couldn’t even tell it was pink eye.)
Now, keep in mind that I am not a medical professional. I am just a mom who loves to try her hand at natural remedies before breaking out the meds. Please consult your trusted healthcare provider before trying any of these at home. Pink eye can be serious. Try these natural remedies under the guidance of a professional.
Although pink eye can clear on its own, if your baby has pink eye or if your pink eye is severe or prolonged, please see a medical professional.
Without further ado, check out these natural ways to heal pink eye!
1. Raw Honey Drops
My friend Megan suggested these. I simply dissolved one teaspoon of local, raw honey (it must be raw!) in a small bowl of warm (not hot!) water. I then used a dropper to drop several drops in our eyes about three times per day.
I noticed a difference within hours of using this natural way to heal pink eye!
Raw honey is both antibacterial and antiviral, so whether or not the pink eye is bacterial or viral (it can be both, and it’s nearly impossible to know which type you have), this treatment has you covered.
Colloidal silver is a natural antibiotic. It should not be overused. I have used it in the past mainly to cure ear infections by placing the drops in my daughters’ ears. I have also taken it a few times internally myself, when I felt an illness coming on.
Colloidal silver is one of those items I always keep in my natural medicine cabinet. I usually get mine at Vitacost.com (click here for a $5 off coupon!), but you can also find it on Amazon.com. These two offer it for much cheaper than at my local health store.
Now, there is some speculation over whether or not it’s actually safe to put colloidal silver in your eyes. I didn’t know this until after we had cured our pink eye–by putting it in our eyes. It was then that I read on my bottle: “Do not put in eyes.”
If you have doubts about colloidal silver, just use raw honey. You can’t go wrong there.
We used the colloidal silver in the same way as the raw honey drops–a couple of drops a few times per day. We actually rotated the honey drops and colloidal silver drops. My daughters screamed so much and held their eyes closed no matter what drops we used, so it’s hard to know how much actually made it into their eyes.
But I do think the combination of raw honey and colloidal silver was highly effective.
Raw honey and colloidal silver were the way we personally naturally healed pink eye, but the following are some other ways that I read about but didn’t need to try:
3. Breast Milk
I’ve heard of the benefits of breast milk for pink eye for years, and I’d never had the opportunity to try. My youngest (almost 27 months!) is still nursing some, but I definitely did not have enough milk to try this. I did squeeze a little on my finger and rubbed it on my daughter’s eyes one day, but it was a lot of work when I could just use the raw honey and colloidal silver drops.
But if you are nursing or have plenty of breast milk pumped, I would totally try this method! You can simply squirt a few drops in the eyes several times per day.
Supposedly placing the tea bags on your eyes do wonders for soothing them! Our eyes were not overly gooey or uncomfortable, but I would definitely have tried this method for naturally healing pink eye if they had been.
5. Lavender Essential Oil
A friend who sells essential oils suggested rubbing lavender around (but definitely not IN!) the eyes. I do have lavender on hand, but the other methods were working so well that I didn’t try this one either.
Supposedly you can do the same thing with lemon juice.
In addition to these methods, we made sure to clean our eyes out frequently with warm, moistened wash cloths, making sure to always use new cloths. We also washed our hands frequently, especially after touching the eyes.
I wore my glasses instead of my contact lenses until the pink eye cleared up, and I switched to a new pair of contact lenses when I was sure it was gone. I also refrained from using eye makeup and began using a new tube of mascara once it was gone.
I’m happy to say we healed pink eye naturally–without doctor’s co-pays or prescription drops!
Have you ever had pink eye? How did you get over it? What are your suggestions for natural ways to heal pink eye?
Disclaimer: I am not a health professional. I am just a mom who loves to use natural remedies. Please consult your trusted healthcare provider before making any decisions regarding your health. I cannot be held liable or responsible for your health decisions. These remedies are shared for entertainment and educational purposes only and are not meant to diagnose or cure any disease. None of these statements have been evaluated by the FDA and are not meant to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.
Original article and pictures take thehumbledhomemaker.com site
We all hate warts. We don’t even like to talk about them.
But could there be a more unifying topic? We hate them and want them to die. For our sake, we wish not a slow and painful death but a quick and easy one. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case.
Growing up, I thought warts were for children who played with frogs. Turns out that’s some sort of weird myth we all believe. Warts actually come from certain strands of HPV, human papillomavirus. I know HPV sounds scary but relax a bit. We come into contact with it all the time. And most forms are completely harmless.
The fact that most warts are harmless doesn’t diminish the irritation or embarrassment they cause. Although some warts go away on their own after a few months, some linger for years.
And that’s what happened to me. I got a common wart. Yes. Me. A grown woman. I don’t know how I got it. I don’t know where I picked up the virus. But I did. On the pad of my middle finger. Right hand.
I hated it.
It embarrassed me. It grossed me out. I mean – I eat with that hand! (Please tell me you understand. I’m feeling a little vulnerable right now.) I tried everything.
First, I waited. Dr. Google told me that most of them go away on their own. So, the minimalist that I am, I waited. A while. No dice.
***Before I go further, let me tell you that this was before my come-to-the-natural-side light bulb moment. I was all about those chemicals and didn’t think much about it.***
Next, I bought about every over-the-counter treatment I could find. I tried each of them several times. Fail. Feeling even more desperate, I went to see my primary care doctor. After multiple painful treatments of liquid nitrogen I still had a wart. And sometimes I even thought it looked a little bigger.
You might be thinking – what’s the big deal? But if you’ve dealt with warts before, you know how frustrating they can be.
This is the part that still makes me shudder. After realizing the nitrogen wasn’t working, my doctor prescribed Tagamet. Why would he give me something meant for stomach ulcer treatment? Apparently this is somewhat common. But the studies I’ve read have shown conflicting results. Mostly it didn’t help.
And me? I ended up in the emergency room because of a “rare” side effect – urine retention. Kidney issues. Imagine kidney stones (I’ve had them) but a little worse. Yeah, to get rid of a wart. Lovely.
Except, you guessed it, I still had the wart. I tell you my long, dramatic story to express how absolutely fed up I was. Honestly, it was this experience that started my journey to natural living. Because the chemicals were legitimately hurting me. And they didn’t work.
I have good news for you. The story ends well. I found a home remedy that healed like a charm. It’s simple, quick and natural. And you can try this at home.
That’s it. No harsh chemicals. And better yet, it works.
How long will it take? Depending on the wart’s location and your motivation to get rid of it, the process can be complete within a week or two. Your pain tolerance will play a role.
Wait. It hurts? I won’t lie to you. There is a little bit of pain involved. But it is nothing – NOTHING – compared to traditional treatments.
Are you in?
Okay. Here’s what you need to do.
First, cut your cotton balls into fourths or smaller. The goal is to completely cover the wart and the skin around it. You also want to cut the cotton ball small enough so it’s not completely obvious and annoying.
Soak your sized-down cotton ball in apple cider vinegar. You’ll want it wet enough to stay damp for a while but not so wet it drips.
Place the cotton ball over the wart and secure it with a bandage. The tighter the better.
Eventually, it will start to burn. This is good. Feel the burn. Embrace the burn. Leave it on as long as you can. Rapid results rely on this.
When you need a break, remove the cotton ball and bandage. Apply coconut oil to the wart and surrounding area and cover it with a new bandage.
As soon as the burning sensation leaves and you feel comfortable, start the process over again. I ended up alternating between coconut oil and vinegar 2-3 times a day. Toward the end, when the wart is down to its root, it will be more sensitive. At that point you may want to switch more often.
If the wart is on the face or another more inconvenient area, obviously use your best judgment as to when and how often to do this.
After about ten days, there was a tiny bit of the wart still hanging on. I took some tweezers and pulled it off. I highly recommend keeping a close eye on the area for the next month or so. If you see any signs of return, immediately begin the remedy again.
It’s been almost three years since I did this myself and I’m still wart free! I have no scarring at all.
I couldn’t have guessed this would be the thing that sparked my interest in natural medicine. But I’m so glad it did. Our cabinets, right now, hold powerful, medicinal tools.
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. – Hippocrates (attributed)
Andrea Vandiver is a work-at-home mom and freelance writer in Oklahoma. She spends her days imitating animals and blowing bubbles. Her favorite things are those that taste, smell, feel, sound and look wonderful. The stuff that romance is made of.
DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A DOCTOR OR MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, AND THIS POST SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN AS MEDICAL ADVICE. PLEASE DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. MATERIAL ON THIS BLOG IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. IT IS GENERAL INFORMATION THAT MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU AS AN INDIVIDUAL, AND IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR YOUR OWN DOCTOR’S MEDICAL CARE OR ADVICE.
Original article and pictures take redandhoney.com site
