Hi there, friends! It’s been a while. I disappeared there for a little bit (again!), and I wanted to explain why.
My main goal here is to help women with eczema overcome this struggle. It’s painful, embarrassing, annoying, disappointing and truly downright frustrating when you don’t know what the problem is.
So here’s what happened — first, I got pregnant (hello, morning sickness) so I disappeared for a bit. THEN my eczema came back. UGHHH this wasn’t supposed to happen, guys! I had just been posting about knowing your limits and saying it’s okay to eat *some* of your trigger foods in moderation once your eczema is under control. This is because for some of us, avoiding all our trigger foods all the time is really restricting and truly no way to live.
I was being SO hard on myself about the fact that I’m supposed to be the one you come to in order to get your eczema under control because I had been there and I got MY eczema under control. And then what happened?
PREGGO CRAVINGS. FRUIT is one of my eczema triggers. Well guess what? I haven’t been able to get enough fruit throughout this pregnancy. Plus I’m eating what seems like all the time and yummy high protein options don’t come with a large enough list when I'm avoiding my food triggers. So what have I been doing? Snacking on cheese.
So what you (or rather, I) have here is a perfect storm — zero restriction with my eczema trigger of fruit PLUS a daily intake of (albeit, organic) cheese which is inflammatory by nature. Because it’s yummy. And filling. And is supposed to actually be GOOD for you, but in my case my body’s just really sensitive to these things. And when you’re pregnant it’s a LOT harder to eat foods that aren’t super delicious just because you know they’re good for you.
Add those two things on to the fact that your immune system takes a hit during pregnancy (Hello, gut health. Remember, 70% of your immune system is in your gut!) and you have a triple threat.
So my eczema is back.
But here’s the thing..
I know WHY it’s back. I know exactly what happened and what I’m doing to cause this. So I actually do have complete control. And I’m even proving to you that what I’ve said up until now is 100% true, because when I don’t go by what I’ve taught you — MY eczema comes back too!
As I said above, eczema is painful, embarrassing, annoying, and when this baby comes out, I don’t want him or her to have a momma with dry, scaley, cracking, bleeding hands! So I’ve upped my probiotic intake, I’m taking more digestive enzymes, and I’m really, really trying to cut back on my cheese and fruit intake! And I really have seen a difference!!
So my message to you is when you get to the point of getting your eczema under control and then it comes back, DON’T do what I did and be super hard on yourself. Evaluate the situation and make changes where you’re able. You did it before. You can do it again. And I’m here to help. Because I get you.
If you loved this blog post, there's more where that came from in my free Facebook group here. You'll want to get in there soon because that's where I'll be launching a 5 Day Eczema Relief Training in a couple weeks!
Can't wait that long? You can also grab my new guide on 5 Steps to Taming an Eczema Flare Up here to get a jumpstart!
*Updating on July 1, 2023 to mention I'm divorced now, because I feel like that’s relevant 🙃*
Thinking back on my wedding day, I'm reminded of my motivation to eat cleaner & avoid eczema triggers. I knew there would be a LOT of pictures of my hands, nice and up-close. The last thing I wanted was for red, scaley skin to be in every picture from my wedding day.
I do not advocate for unsustainable, majorly restrictive diets. That’s not what our bodies were made for, but sometimes it’s necessary for a short period of time for your body to recalibrate.
Leading up to the wedding, I was restricting most fruits including fruit derivatives - palm oil (in most gluten free breads, crackers, baked goods, peanut butters, etc.), vitamin A palmitate (in most store-bought dairy alternative milks), grape-based vinegar & anything with avocado, olives or coconut. Anything with garlic or onions was out too.
I didn’t come up with this list on my own. I was tested for food sensitivities by a naturopathic doctor. That didn’t make this list any easier to follow.
And you bet your bottom dollar I indulged like crazy on the honeymoon - eating the foods I had been depriving myself of for so long.
That list of food sensitivities is not a fluke. When I eat too much of certain foods on that list, I’m destined for a flare up. But I’m learning my boundaries.
A year later, I'm able to eat some of the foods on my trigger list without having a flare up.
The trick is to know what your body can handle, and not to overdo it. And if your body starts to rebel whether in the form of an eczema flare up or an unsettled stomach, you know you need to pull back.
The moral of the story is I was desperate for clear skin on my wedding day, and for me that meant restricting for a bit. But not forever.
Variety is the spice of life. Your body craves variety. Feeding it the same 3 foods all the time is not only boring, but it’s not good for your body systems - including your immune system.
Your immune system depends on a healthy gut, and a healthy gut is made up of a diverse microbiome. A diverse microbiome is nurtured by a variety in diet.
So just remember - if you need to go on a special diet for a special reason for a short amount of time, that’s totally okay. But don’t forget to keep some variety in your diet, and your life for that matter!
If this was helpful for you, join my Facebook group where you can find more wellness tips – free of charge. <3
Pregnancy cravings led me straight to the Starbucks line where I spent $5 on a single Matcha Latte or Peppermint Mocha. If we know anything about Starbucks, we know it’s not budget friendly and usually not very healthy. God only knows how much sugar goes in those drinks.
I knew this wouldn’t be a sustainable choice for my bank account, but the questionable ingredients also weren’t good for baby (or me!) so I started trying to figure out how to make my own warm, frothy drinks from home.
I ended up getting this Milk Frother & Hot Chocolate Maker, and it’s been a game changer!
I’ll preface this by saying you do have to get used to the flavor and texture a little bit, and some milks froth better than others. This definitely isn’t an exact comparison to the Starbucks drinks. In fact, when I made my first matcha latte I remember thinking it wasn’t as frothy or sweet as Starbucks, but it was good enough to keep me from going back for a while!
Because I was well aware the Starbucks drinks were filled with sugar, I started making my matcha lattes with vanilla soy milk. Vanilla because I know that’s the kind they use at Starbucks (which contributes to the sugar load) and soy because that’s the milk I like best from Starbucks.
I knew eventually I’d be able to work back down to unsweetened milk, but for now I just needed to switch to the homemade stuff even if it had more sugar than I liked to admit! Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
I’m at the point now where I use unsweetened almond milk, and I don’t miss the professionally made drinks at all!
Matcha Latte
(Pour directly into Frother milk jug)
- 1 cup milk (I’ve been using Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk)
- 1 tsp matcha powder (make sure the only ingredient is matcha powder - a lot of them have added cane sugar)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (my favorite is from Trader Joe's)
- 1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup (bonus points if it’s local, EXTRA bonus points if you can work to minimizing or even eliminating the sweetener!)
Hit the button on the Frother ONCE and wait for it to turn itself off.
I totally eyeball all of this other than the amount of matcha powder because I don’t want to overdo the caffeine — and I definitely fill the milk jug past the max fill line.
Next I needed to find an alternative for a Peppermint Mocha. I had zero clue that the only difference between a Peppermint Hot Chocolate and a Peppermint Mocha is the espresso they put in the mocha, but now I know. Good thing too, because I definitely wasn’t ordering it for the caffeine. In fact, even pre-pregnancy I barely ever had caffeine. So I went to Pinterest to find a healthy hot chocolate that actually tastes good.
Healthy Hot Chocolate
(Pour directly into Frother milk jug)
- 1 cup milk (I’ve been using Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk)
- 1 tbsp raw cacao powder (NOT cocoa powder)
- 1-3 dashes of cinnamon
- 1 pinch of sea salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup (bonus points if it’s local, EXTRA bonus points if you can work to minimizing or even eliminating the sweetener!)
Hit the button on the Frother TWICE and wait for it to turn itself off. Enjoy!
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.
We live in a world of go, go, go. A global pandemic forced us all to take a pause for a little while, but a lot of us are back to being busy. A lot.
First of all, if you haven’t seen this said anywhere else yet: being busy is not a badge of honor. Being SO busy that you don’t have time to cook for yourself is not a badge of honor.
Being SO busy that you don’t have time to get 7-9 hours of sleep at night is not a badge of honor.
Being SO busy that you don’t have time to exercise or take the dog for a walk is NOT a badge of honor.
In fact, it’s a really great way to make yourself sick.
What do I mean by that? A state of constant stress wreaks havoc on your immune system.
Have you ever been fighting off a cold, but you have so much going on that you didn’t take the time to slow down and give your body the rest it needed to fight whatever bug off, so you ended up getting sick? Your immune system was under too much stress to do its job.
I recently learned that when a doctor performs an organ transplant, the patient is given a stress hormone that our bodies produce when under massive stress IN ORDER TO SHUT DOWN THE IMMUNE SYSTEM so the body doesn’t reject the new organ.
If that doesn’t paint a picture of the insane destruction stress has over our bodies, I don’t know what will!
Another saying you’ve probably heard is “you are what you eat.” Well, in health coaching I learned this saying should actually go “you are what you absorb.” If your body isn’t digesting properly, it won’t absorb properly.
In order to ensure optimal digestion, your body needs to be in a state of calm.
Your body is EITHER in “Fight or Flight” OR “Rest & Digest.” Can you guess which one you want to be in when you’re eating?
Fight or Flight is great if you’re being chased by a bear, but we don’t want or need that adrenaline rush when we’re eating.
In order to digest our food properly, our bodies need to be in Rest & Digest. This means making mealtimes sacred. This means turning off screens. This means NOT eating dinner in front of the TV or while scrolling instagram.
REST & digest. Give your body the chance it needs to calm down so it can function the way it was designed to.
First of all, if you haven’t seen this said anywhere else yet: being busy is not a badge of honor. Being SO busy that you don’t have time to cook for yourself is not a badge of honor.
Being SO busy that you don’t have time to get 7-9 hours of sleep at night is not a badge of honor.
Being SO busy that you don’t have time to exercise or take the dog for a walk is NOT a badge of honor.
In fact, it’s a really great way to make yourself sick.
What do I mean by that? A state of constant stress wreaks havoc on your immune system.
Have you ever been fighting off a cold, but you have so much going on that you didn’t take the time to slow down and give your body the rest it needed to fight whatever bug off, so you ended up getting sick? Your immune system was under too much stress to do its job.
I recently learned that when a doctor performs an organ transplant, the patient is given a stress hormone that our bodies produce when under massive stress IN ORDER TO SHUT DOWN THE IMMUNE SYSTEM so the body doesn’t reject the new organ.
If that doesn’t paint a picture of the insane destruction stress has over our bodies, I don’t know what will!
Another saying you’ve probably heard is “you are what you eat.” Well, in health coaching I learned this saying should actually go “you are what you absorb.” If your body isn’t digesting properly, it won’t absorb properly.
In order to ensure optimal digestion, your body needs to be in a state of calm.
Your body is EITHER in “Fight or Flight” OR “Rest & Digest.” Can you guess which one you want to be in when you’re eating?
Fight or Flight is great if you’re being chased by a bear, but we don’t want or need that adrenaline rush when we’re eating.
In order to digest our food properly, our bodies need to be in Rest & Digest. This means making mealtimes sacred. This means turning off screens. This means NOT eating dinner in front of the TV or while scrolling instagram.
REST & digest. Give your body the chance it needs to calm down so it can function the way it was designed to.
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.
