The Next Level

We have composted for years and switched to mostly organic food, went mostly vegan for our health.  I cannot tell you how many times I've watched Forks Over Knives!

I had been using Melaleuca products in my home until I discovered GoodGuide.com  GoodGuide.comrates companies and products on three criteria:  Health, Environmental and Social impact.  Melaleuca did not rate very well and neither did the few Mary Kay products they had analyzed.  I was becoming aware of the fact that what we put ON our bodies is just as important as what we put IN them.  I left both companies.

The search began for new household cleaners and new skin care and cosmetics.  There was a lot of trial and error and expense but I finally settled on MyChelle skin care products (expensive!) for my face, Aubrey Organics and and found several brands of laundry products that seemed to meet my needs:  Method, Seventh Generation, Grab Green, BioKleen.  I also discovered the wonders of hydrogen peroxide diluted with water (1:1) and I continued using white vinegar for my floors and my acrylic tub and shower walls.

I continued to prowl Vitacost.com for organic products and discounts.  I thought the transition was complete until we ran smack into the credit card reality and began looking at budgets.

A week before Christmas, 2013, I came down with a nasty case of bronchitis.  I coughed like crazy but my energy was good and I managed to get done what I needed to do for my Christmas Eve gathering.  Every day I got better.  New Year's came and went and I'm still coughing up junk but I feel pretty good.  The biggest issue is that I am hypersensitive to smells. I am sensitive to fragramces anyway but the bronchitis/upper respiratory issues exaggerated the issue.

For some reason I was awake at 1:00a.m. on January 2 when my newly-showered husband came into the bedroom to go to bed.  He uses baby powder to eliminate chafing issues and the smell of the baby powder made my nose itch and I began coughing and having  trouble breathing.  I immediately abandoned ship and headed out to the couch in the family room.

Being wide awake by this time, I began searching for natural replacements for Baby Powder.  It's made with talc and fragrance and who-knows-what else and it had to GO.

Wandering around the interweb I came across an amazing website:  WellnessMama.com

She has all kinds of DIY items you can make to replace the more harmful, more expensive store-bought products...including a natural replacement for baby powder:  arrowroot powder mixed with a few drops of essential oils (I didnt' have the chammomile petals to grind up and add but by 2:00a.m. I had made a small batch of powder with arrowroot and a few drops of lavender and orange essential oils.  Hub really liked it!

And so began my DIY journey!  I've ordered approximately $150 of components and I will have materials to make remineralizing toothpaste, body lotion, body bars, shower gel, shave cream, shave bars, salt spray for hair, makeup, hairspray, lip balm, daily shower spray, foaming hand soap, facial cleanser.

I've begun printing out recipes and creating my own 'cookbook'.  It's in a green binder, of course!

Follow me as I delve into this new world of DIY natural products! 

In Search of Green....Gardening Part 1, Background

It's that time again! Time to plant the garden! With high hopes we would go to our local nursery, walk around for an hour picking out just the right tomato, pepper, squash, plants as well as whatever seeds and perennials caught our fancy. We would come home and spend the long Memorial Day weekend frantically tilling and digfing and planting and watering. We would step back with a sigh of satisfaction and look at our lovely garden and dream of the beautiful, fresh veggies we would harvest and enjoy. Our vegetable garden consists of a raised bed in the back corner of the house that was created when the previous owners added on a family room at the back of their rectangular ranch house. My husband created it using three rows of those man-made, interlocking landscape stones. In it we always plant 4 tomato plants on the left which give us enough tomatoes to eat and share and the larger, right side is filled with strawberry plants, lily-of-the-valley, asparagus, mint and basil...if the basil is a perennial and came back. It's a hodgepodge that is slowly being taken over by grass and some viney thing with white trumpet flowers. I've never done much with this plot as far as weeding goes as I was always busy trying to keep up with my perennial beds and I didn't really do much in the gardens in June and July as it was too darn hot! Two years ago our son had the idea of building two raised beds out in the middle of the yard so he and my husband built those with 1x8x10 pieces of wood and we filled that with topsoil. Our son learned a valuable lesson here: He was very anxious to get the beds finished so he insisted that the topsoil be delivered even though it was very rainy that week. For those of you who don't know, it is a bad idea to work in the garden when the soil is wet as it creates major clumps that can be as hard as rocks to break up. So the soil has been crusty and clumpy for the past two years. And, did I mention, full of weed seeds! We have been composting for many years now and have two compost bins that are full, especially since we have been eating mostly vegan since last September. We never use pesticides or non-organic fertilizers or weed preventers and have been pretty unsuccessful in our crop yields. We had some beautiful acorn squash last year but I kind of lost my enthusiasm when I cooked one and tried to feed my daughter a cooked worm in hers....I don't think I cooked another squash that summer. Our strawberry crop looked amazing until something took all of the green strawberries...I'm guessing a chipmunk or small, red squirrel. It was very discouraging but, as the Spring comes each year, our hope sprouts anew and we step into the fray once more.

I'm Back!

Hello, it's me! I know it's been awhile, but somehow time just flew by and here it is, 2-1/2 years since my last post...wow! I hope this finds you happy and healthy! I have so much to share that it will take me awhile but at least I will have something to say and I promise, I will post at least four times a week. I hope you find this interesting and inspiring! What have I been up to? Well in May 2011 I finished my yoga teacher training so I've been teaching yoga once a week at my favorite yoga studio as well as managing their website! Last September my husband and I made a life-changing decision: We went mostly Vegan. What does 'mostly Vegan' mean anyway? After reading Joel Fuhrman's book Eat to Live, I realized that he was right, those chronic diseases we live with every day--heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes--need to be treated as if they were emergency situations rather than just coexisting with them. We become complacent with these illnesses and accept them as part of our lives. We went on his most extreme, 6-week program and miracles happened: Hub lost over 30 pounds and I lost 15. I cut my Metformin dose in half. My long range A1C blood sugar dropped to 5.8. We were feeling great! After the 6-week program, we began eating more animal products, mostly dairy, and that sweet addiction, white sugar, began to creep back into my diet. The pounds crept back on and my blood sugar levels and cholesterol went up. I couldn't get myself motivated to exercise. I was in a bit of a funk for most of the winter! So here we are in the last half of May... #vegan #JoelFuhrman #yoga