The first thing to know about living a sustainably healthy lifestyle is just that - it needs to be sustainable.
Holidays are filled with savory foods and sweet treats we don’t eat on any normal day. Enjoying a bit of all your holiday favorites a few days out of the year is NOT a big deal in the grand scheme of things!
Being healthy definitely has to do with the foods you eat, but the health of your soul is equally - if not more - important. Gathering with friends and family around the holidays can be SO nurturing to your soul. If you put the pressure on yourself that you “can’t eat this” or “shouldn’t eat that” - are you going to enjoy yourself as much? Of course not!
With that in mind, there are definitely quick, easy swaps you can make in recipes to make them a bit more healthful.
When it comes to dairy, I always prefer organic. Butter, milk, sour cream. It’s cleaner and higher quality.
When it comes to meat, I always prefer free range and organic. If you’re feeding 10+ people for example and you’re preparing a much larger than normal amount of meat - obviously cost matters. If the organic, free range option is just not financially realistic for the holiday, that’s okay. Don’t go broke over this!
When it comes to sugar/sweetener I always prefer natural options like pure maple syrup or honey. Coconut sugar is also a more healthful option than “normal” sugar.
When it comes to salt, I always prefer sea salt over regular table salt or iodized salt.
When it comes to corn products, choose non-GMO! GMOs wreak havoc on your gut.
Lastly, when you’re getting any kind of ingredient for a recipe or a boxed good, flip it over and check the ingredients. So often, there are unnecessary unhealthy ingredients added to something you’d least expect.
In the end, just enjoy your holiday! You can follow the suggestions above to feel better about the dishes you prepare yourself, but don’t beat yourself up over indulging in holiday foods on a special occasion! But maybe keep some digestive enzymes on hand just in case. :)
If this was helpful for you, join my Facebook group where you can find more wellness tips – free of charge. <3
You can also grab my free guide on 3 Easy Steps to Lose Weight and Feel Amazing here.
In Step 1 of My Gut Healing Journey and Step 2 of My Gut Healing Journey we talked about food. Food is so important, but the health of your gut is not just about what you eat.
It’s about what goes on your body. One of the first things almost anyone will tell you when it comes to eczema is to stop using products with fragrance on the eczema.
Fragrance is an irritant, but it’s also extremely bad for your gut health. Most fragrance (and we’re talking “fragrance” listed as an ingredient) contains phthalates which are endocrine disrupting chemicals. Your endocrine system produces hormones, and the majority of your hormones are housed in your gut!
That being said, it’s not only important to stop using fragrance on your eczema, but it’s also important to stop using it anywhere on your body! You can read more about that here.
Young Living is one brand in particular I trust 100%. I know there will never be synthetic or “natural” fragrance in their products. Anything that smells nice in their products is from clean essential oils made only with plant juice. It’s a wonderful thing.
Other brands may offer unscented or fragrance-free options. Apps like EWG Healthy Living and Think Dirty have helped me a lot in the store.
Makeups are also filled with ingredients that wreak havoc on your gut. To put things into perspective, Europe bans over 1300 chemicals from cosmetic products. The US only bans 11. Clean brands, while harder to find, do exist. Once again Young Living is my favorite for this one (they actually have a list of over 2000 chemicals they will never use in their cosmetics), but BeautyCounter is another brand I know that goes the extra mile to keep icky ingredients out.
Nail polish is another one I never thought I’d have to second guess. The big name brands are filled with harmful chemicals like Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, and Camphor. Look for 5-Free (even better is 6, 7, or 8-free!) nail polishes like Olive & June, Ella + Mila & Static.
The health of your gut is also directly related to your levels of stress. Your gut can only repair itself when it’s in rest and digest mode. If you’re in fight or flight all the time, that’s not good for your gut!
Taking time to relax, destress, breathe & just take time for you is so important. The main reason I started using essential oils (which I’m obsessed with now by the way) was to help me relax. You can read more about that here.
Getting enough sleep is important too! This is optimal rest and digest time! Taking your probiotic and then getting in bed to get 7-9 hours of sleep will do you SO much good.
If this was helpful for you, join my Facebook group where you can find more wellness tips – free of charge. <3
You can also grab my free guide on 3 Easy Steps to Lose Weight and Feel Amazing here.
First of all, if you missed last week’s post, hop on over to Step 1 of My Gut Healing Journey to get yourself all caught up.
Now that we’re all on the same page, I’ll continue.
I learned about the importance of organic. I was shocked to find coffee beans are actually one of the most heavily sprayed crops, so I always look for organic coffee. This can be slim pickin’s at a lot of grocery stores, but Trader Joe’s especially, I know for a fact has delicious organic coffee!
Now let’s talk about coffee for a second. I know this is a huge fan favorite, BUT (especially if you’re on a journey to heal your gut or you just have a history of digestive issues) this is not the best thing to have first thing in the morning. This isn’t the first thing you want in your stomach, especially if you took a probiotic the night before (which I hope you did! Especially if you know your gut health needs extra support).
The thing about having coffee first thing in the morning is it can wipe out all the good bacteria that formed in your gut from your probiotic the night before. So it’s almost like the probiotic was a complete waste of your time and money.
Lemon water is the best thing to start your morning with! And next is your breakfast.
I learned about the Dirty Dozen list from my health coach. This is a list of fruits and veggies that have the highest pesticide count; therefore, these are the ones you’ll want to buy organic if your grocery budget is tighter. If you’re able, 100% organic would be ideal!
Pesticides wreak absolute havoc on your gut.
If you’ve clicked the link to the Dirty Dozen list above, you know that dark, leafy green are on that list. Which brings me to our morning shake.
Last week we talked about how important it is to eat plenty of veggies. Your morning shake is the perfect way to get veggies in first thing.
Here’s the recipe I use:
6 oz water
4 oz almond milk
1 c ice
1 large handful of ORGANIC dark, leafy greens
⅓ c fruit (berries are great, but I usually use pineapple)
1 scoop protein powder (I use Truvani but Nature’s Sunshine is also super yummy)
3 tbsp hemp seeds
You can play with it to your liking, but make sure you get your protein in there and don’t leave out the greens!
Now that we’re all on the same page, I’ll continue.
I learned about the importance of organic. I was shocked to find coffee beans are actually one of the most heavily sprayed crops, so I always look for organic coffee. This can be slim pickin’s at a lot of grocery stores, but Trader Joe’s especially, I know for a fact has delicious organic coffee!
Now let’s talk about coffee for a second. I know this is a huge fan favorite, BUT (especially if you’re on a journey to heal your gut or you just have a history of digestive issues) this is not the best thing to have first thing in the morning. This isn’t the first thing you want in your stomach, especially if you took a probiotic the night before (which I hope you did! Especially if you know your gut health needs extra support).
The thing about having coffee first thing in the morning is it can wipe out all the good bacteria that formed in your gut from your probiotic the night before. So it’s almost like the probiotic was a complete waste of your time and money.
Lemon water is the best thing to start your morning with! And next is your breakfast.
I learned about the Dirty Dozen list from my health coach. This is a list of fruits and veggies that have the highest pesticide count; therefore, these are the ones you’ll want to buy organic if your grocery budget is tighter. If you’re able, 100% organic would be ideal!
Pesticides wreak absolute havoc on your gut.
If you’ve clicked the link to the Dirty Dozen list above, you know that dark, leafy green are on that list. Which brings me to our morning shake.
Last week we talked about how important it is to eat plenty of veggies. Your morning shake is the perfect way to get veggies in first thing.
Here’s the recipe I use:
6 oz water
4 oz almond milk
1 c ice
1 large handful of ORGANIC dark, leafy greens
⅓ c fruit (berries are great, but I usually use pineapple)
1 scoop protein powder (I use Truvani but Nature’s Sunshine is also super yummy)
3 tbsp hemp seeds
You can play with it to your liking, but make sure you get your protein in there and don’t leave out the greens!
That's all for now, but be on the lookout for part 3 next week!
If this was helpful for you, join my Facebook group where you can find more wellness tips – free of charge. <3
You can also grab my free guide on 3 Easy Steps to Lose Weight and Feel Amazing here.
Once I found out my eczema was gut health related, what did I do?
The VERY first thing I did? I honestly don’t remember. I think I just let it sink in. I may have started taking a probiotic again, but I wasn’t sure what the right steps were. I was in limbo for a little while.
A series of divine interventions led to me finding a free workshop my soon-to-be Health Coach was offering on gut health. I remember the flyer saying “eczema” and “gut health” and that’s all I really needed to be on board!
I went to her free workshop and then enrolled in her program. It was several weeks long during which time she educated us on different topics each week.
She talked about food. Grains. High glycemic versus low glycemic. Some things have stuck with me since going through her program like white rice and white potatoes versus brown rice and sweet potatoes. The first couple are high glycemic. The latter couple are low glycemic.
When you’re on a journey to heal your gut, low glycemic is easier on your digestive system. I still choose brown rice over white (in fact, I don’t even buy white rice and I cringe when it’s my only option eating out) and I order sweet potato fries over normal fries when I have the option.
Brown rice, quinoa & sweet potatoes are my easy go-tos when I’m trying to formulate a healthy meal.
Some easy (or no so easy?) things to cut out (or cut waaaaay back) are the super-inflammatory culprits. Gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol. Processed foods can also be very inflammatory. A lot of them are also filled with addictive chemicals so you keep overeating and buying more. Ideally you want your food to COME FROM a plant, not be MADE IN a plant. See the difference?
Another not-so-fun guideline was to avoid eating out at all costs. The bottom line is you don't know what goes on in the kitchen. The sourcing of the meat, the vegetables, how much salt or sugar is added, etc.
Speaking of sourcing of meat: organic, grass fed beef. organic, free range chicken. wild caught (rather than farm raised) seafood. As far as vegetables, organic is preferred. In season and local is even better.
Let me emphasize right now that a restrictive diet is NOT something I recommend long term. (Although cutting out processed foods and sticking with organic meats is always a good idea.) On a journey to heal your gut? Sure! But only eating 5-7 different foods all the time is NOT good for your health.
Variety is the spice of life, and variety in your diet is actually essential!
This was a “detox” for us in the program. A “reset” for our bodies. We would not follow these “rules” long term, but for these several weeks we did the best we could. We just ate a nice, clean diet filled with high quality whole foods. Although - like I said - a lot of these practices stayed with me and would be good for you as well!
Vegetables were a huge part of that. Fruit too (organic green apples and berries have the least sugar), but vegetables more-so. Making sure your plate is at least half veggies is really important.
CHEWING is also really important! One week Jackie challenged us to chew our food 30 times before swallowing. Try it! It’s difficult!
This just begins to scrape the surface of my journey, so hang on tight for part 2 next week.
The VERY first thing I did? I honestly don’t remember. I think I just let it sink in. I may have started taking a probiotic again, but I wasn’t sure what the right steps were. I was in limbo for a little while.
A series of divine interventions led to me finding a free workshop my soon-to-be Health Coach was offering on gut health. I remember the flyer saying “eczema” and “gut health” and that’s all I really needed to be on board!
I went to her free workshop and then enrolled in her program. It was several weeks long during which time she educated us on different topics each week.
She talked about food. Grains. High glycemic versus low glycemic. Some things have stuck with me since going through her program like white rice and white potatoes versus brown rice and sweet potatoes. The first couple are high glycemic. The latter couple are low glycemic.
When you’re on a journey to heal your gut, low glycemic is easier on your digestive system. I still choose brown rice over white (in fact, I don’t even buy white rice and I cringe when it’s my only option eating out) and I order sweet potato fries over normal fries when I have the option.
Brown rice, quinoa & sweet potatoes are my easy go-tos when I’m trying to formulate a healthy meal.
Some easy (or no so easy?) things to cut out (or cut waaaaay back) are the super-inflammatory culprits. Gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol. Processed foods can also be very inflammatory. A lot of them are also filled with addictive chemicals so you keep overeating and buying more. Ideally you want your food to COME FROM a plant, not be MADE IN a plant. See the difference?
Another not-so-fun guideline was to avoid eating out at all costs. The bottom line is you don't know what goes on in the kitchen. The sourcing of the meat, the vegetables, how much salt or sugar is added, etc.
Speaking of sourcing of meat: organic, grass fed beef. organic, free range chicken. wild caught (rather than farm raised) seafood. As far as vegetables, organic is preferred. In season and local is even better.
Let me emphasize right now that a restrictive diet is NOT something I recommend long term. (Although cutting out processed foods and sticking with organic meats is always a good idea.) On a journey to heal your gut? Sure! But only eating 5-7 different foods all the time is NOT good for your health.
Variety is the spice of life, and variety in your diet is actually essential!
This was a “detox” for us in the program. A “reset” for our bodies. We would not follow these “rules” long term, but for these several weeks we did the best we could. We just ate a nice, clean diet filled with high quality whole foods. Although - like I said - a lot of these practices stayed with me and would be good for you as well!
Vegetables were a huge part of that. Fruit too (organic green apples and berries have the least sugar), but vegetables more-so. Making sure your plate is at least half veggies is really important.
CHEWING is also really important! One week Jackie challenged us to chew our food 30 times before swallowing. Try it! It’s difficult!
This just begins to scrape the surface of my journey, so hang on tight for part 2 next week.
If this was helpful for you, join my Facebook group where you can find more wellness tips – free of charge. <3
You can also grab my free guide on 3 Easy Steps to Lose Weight and Feel Amazing here.
There are different kinds of eczema. It doesn’t look the same for everyone. But it’s embarrassing and painful. That much is the same across the board.
For me, eczema looked like I was wearing gloves. Every single person thought it was SO odd that there was such a defined line right at my wrist. My hands would get beet red when I had a really bad flare up, and that was more often than not. This was so bad that I was asked it if was sunburn several times. Nope, it’s eczema. But it sure does burn.
If I was really lucky, the back of my hands, my knuckles, and even my fingers would crack almost like winter skin. But it was year round.
It was downright awful. And I had no idea what was causing it. The worst part? Neither did the dermatologists. They ran some tests and determined it was environmental. I was instructed to stay away from products with Fragrance, and I was prescribed a topical steroid ointment and cream.
The ointment and cream really did help a lot, but the eczema kept coming back. And those topicals were not cheap. So it came time for another prescription refill, and in an act of frustration and desperation, I decided to figure out for myself what was causing my eczema. Naturally I turned to Google: “Causes of eczema.” (And for the record, I do believe if one finds herself dependent on a prescription to cover up a symptom, she at least owes it to herself to try to find the root of the problem.)
Something came up that caught my eye. It’s called Leaky Gut. What they don’t tell you in western medical practices is that eczema is totally and completely related to the health of your gut. This blew my mind. This was a complete game changer. But this was just the beginning of the road.
This started my journey of healing my gut. For me, this looked like working with a Health Coach in her Gut Health workshop. I cut way down on processed foods, started changing out products in my home for plant-based options without chemicals, and took healing supplements like probiotics, hemp oil & detoxers.
I learned about the bacteria in your gut. How you have good bacteria and bad bacteria, and this is normal. But when the bad bacteria outweigh the good bacteria, that’s when you have issues like eczema, acne, infertility, anxiety, depression, fatigue. You know that saying about a “gut feeling”? There’s truth to that because your gut is truly your second brain. Some would argue it’s your first. When there's something in your body that feels "off," healing your gut will likely solve a lot of your problems.
I was mind. blown. when I found out everything gut health impacts. (I was also a bit upset - "WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THIS BEFORE?") And like any health journey, it wasn’t quite linear for me. I still had work to do. There were still some missing pieces I had to pull together. But we’ll save that for next week.
For me, eczema looked like I was wearing gloves. Every single person thought it was SO odd that there was such a defined line right at my wrist. My hands would get beet red when I had a really bad flare up, and that was more often than not. This was so bad that I was asked it if was sunburn several times. Nope, it’s eczema. But it sure does burn.
If I was really lucky, the back of my hands, my knuckles, and even my fingers would crack almost like winter skin. But it was year round.
It was downright awful. And I had no idea what was causing it. The worst part? Neither did the dermatologists. They ran some tests and determined it was environmental. I was instructed to stay away from products with Fragrance, and I was prescribed a topical steroid ointment and cream.
The ointment and cream really did help a lot, but the eczema kept coming back. And those topicals were not cheap. So it came time for another prescription refill, and in an act of frustration and desperation, I decided to figure out for myself what was causing my eczema. Naturally I turned to Google: “Causes of eczema.” (And for the record, I do believe if one finds herself dependent on a prescription to cover up a symptom, she at least owes it to herself to try to find the root of the problem.)
Something came up that caught my eye. It’s called Leaky Gut. What they don’t tell you in western medical practices is that eczema is totally and completely related to the health of your gut. This blew my mind. This was a complete game changer. But this was just the beginning of the road.
This started my journey of healing my gut. For me, this looked like working with a Health Coach in her Gut Health workshop. I cut way down on processed foods, started changing out products in my home for plant-based options without chemicals, and took healing supplements like probiotics, hemp oil & detoxers.
I learned about the bacteria in your gut. How you have good bacteria and bad bacteria, and this is normal. But when the bad bacteria outweigh the good bacteria, that’s when you have issues like eczema, acne, infertility, anxiety, depression, fatigue. You know that saying about a “gut feeling”? There’s truth to that because your gut is truly your second brain. Some would argue it’s your first. When there's something in your body that feels "off," healing your gut will likely solve a lot of your problems.
I was mind. blown. when I found out everything gut health impacts. (I was also a bit upset - "WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THIS BEFORE?") And like any health journey, it wasn’t quite linear for me. I still had work to do. There were still some missing pieces I had to pull together. But we’ll save that for next week.
If this was helpful for you, join my Facebook group where you can find more wellness tips – free of charge. <3
You can also grab my free guide on 3 Easy Steps to Lose Weight and Feel Amazing here.
