Real Food Nutrition, Recipes From Scratch & Natural Living
Refined sugar free, paleo, and GAPS friendly healthy homemade marshmallows. Perfect for roasting, adding to your morning coffee, or enjoying alone. Store bought marshmallows are packed full of high fructose corn syrup and free from any health benefits. When made at home, marshmallows can be…
Five ways to reduce toxins in your home now. Tips to reduce your toxic load and begin your natural living journey. I am so passionate about doing whatever I can to reduce my toxic load, and helping others do the same. While we can’t remove…
The essential oil industry is constantly growing, and it isn’t regulated. Learn why I chose doterra essential oils. Quality, safety, and transparency matter when it comes to essential oils.
First off, please know that I am sharing my opinions as a loyal customer, I am not building a business with dōTERRA.
To get it out of the way, I am very aware that this topic can get a little heated. There seems to be a bit of a war between consultants of the two largest essential oil companies, and I don’t get it. This goes for any topic; if you find yourself getting defensive and upset over someone else sharing their opinion, I urge you to dig into why that is. A differing opinion should not be felt as a threat. If your goal is to support yours and your families health through high quality essential oils, that is great! Do your research, and choose a company you align with!
In this post I am sharing my opinion based on the research I have done and experience I have had. There are so many layers as to why I chose doterra essential oils almost 6 years ago. I am not someone that goes into decisions lightly when it comes to my health. Whether it is personal care products, the food I buy, or stores I support, they need to align with my values. That is to say, transparency is a non-negotiable for me.
Let’s start off with a bit of background information. The essential oil industry is very under regulated. Any bottle of oil can be labeled 100% pure, however that rarely means it is. More often than not, there are going to be fillers and fragrance. I am guessing fragrance is something you are trying to avoid when choosing natural options for your family. According to the APRC, about 80% of commercially available essential oils are adulterated.
This is why it is so imperative to not purchase essential oils from the drug store, amazon or the like. Find a company that is transparent and willing to share testing information. Do your research so you can feel confident in your decision.
Doterra was founded in 2008. The company is not backed by any outside investors; it was funded 100% by the founders of the company, even when that meant taking out second mortgages and going without pay. As a result, they would have 100% control. The heart of this company is largely why I initially chose these oils.
Giving is at doterra’s core. The companies non-profit organization, Healing Hands, is making big impact. You have the option to donate to Healing Hands with each order. Certain products have all the proceeds go towards Healing Hands, such as the Hope Touch Roller and the Rose Hand Lotion. Healing Hands has been a long time supporter of Operation Underground Railroad, which is an organization that rescues children from sex trafficking in many countries. Tim Ballard, founder of O.U.R. is a true hero doing incredible work.
The quality can’t be beat. Doterra has created the standard Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade. Every single batch of oils, down to the litre, are third party tested in verified labs to ensure that the oils that you bring into your home are of the highest quality, and truly pure.
Testing takes place throughout the entire process, from the monitoring of soil quality to ensuring there are no adulterants in every litre of oil. If an oil does not pass testing at any stage, that batch is rejected. There is no removal process for a batch of oils that may be contaminated with pesticides or foreign matter. Each bottle you get is truly pure – nothing added and nothing removed.
I can confidently say that I have yet to see an essential oil company with the level of transparency that doterra offers. Above all, it is important to me to have access to lab test results. Doterra doesn’t expect the customer to take their word for it, they show it.
Every single bottle of oils has a Quality ID on the bottom of the bottle. You can take this to the Source To You website to view the test results. This is what transparency looks like. Many other companies either test in house and/or say they third party test. However, when you request the results, what is provided is years old, or they simply won’t provide them at all.
To me, that is a big red flag. There is a difference between saying oils are pure, and showing it. This was a huge reason why I chose doterra essential oils.
If you want to see how the essential oils you use check out, his website shares testing results from multiple essential oil companies. It is completely unbiased, and not affiliated with any essential oil company.
Doterra uses a co-impact sourcing model to create mutually beneficial supplier partnerships while creating sustainable jobs and ensuring reliable income. The oils are sourced from over 45 countries, more than half of which are considered developing countries. This model means that the oils are sourced from their indigenous environments which increases the therapeutic benefits. Knowing this was a huge part of why I chose doterra.
“At dōTERRA, we don’t build farms, we build farmers.”
The farms are not owned by doterra, instead they work closely with small farmers. There is so much work done for the villages where doterra oils are grown, harvested, and distilled. Schools, medical facilities, and infrastructure necessary for clean water have been built. While the humanitarian efforts are incredible, what does this actually mean for the oils themselves?
Where your oils are sourced matters. Any beginner gardener could tell you that not all plants thrive in every environment. Same goes for the plants grown to produce your essential oils.
As an example, Doterra lavender is sourced in Bulgaria and the Provence region of France. The altitude at which it is grown results in the plant having high ester and sesquiterpene alcohol content. The same cannot be said for lavender essential sourced from that grown in North America.
I hope this gives you a clear picture of why I chose doterra essential oils. No matter what you choose, do your research! There is a lot of greenwashing out there, and it is so important to make a true informed decision.
How To Make Natural Body Butter
What is a pro-metabolic diet? Simply put, it is a way of eating that supports metabolic health. The metabolism is a window into our overall health. To put it simply, a pro-metabolic diet is essentially eating in a way that supports the metabolism. What Is…
Learn how to make a gallon of natural homemade laundry detergent for less than $4. This laundry detergent is completely natural, non-toxic, safe and most importantly, it’s effective. This recipe will allow for 50-64 loads per batch, so the cost is less than 8 cents…
Tracking temps and pulses is a great way to check in on your metabolic health. Body temperature and heart rate are two vital signs.
Before I dive into how to track temps & pulses, of course you’re going to want to understand why you would want to! Before we get there I’d like to start out by sharing my experience with tracking my temps & pulses and how that information has helped me improve my metabolic function and overall health.
Tracking temperatures and pulses is a great way to check in to see how our metabolism is doing as a whole, but also to see whether our diet and lifestyle is hindering or supporting our metabolic health.
This past year I realized that something wasn’t working. It always feels a little vulnerable to talk about dealing with your own health issues when you’re in the health and wellness sphere. My nutrition was near perfect, I was supplementing appropriately, yet I was experiencing a slew of symptoms, some imbalances, and deficiencies. I had to sit back and really take a look at everything that I believe about health and nutrition, and see where I was falling into nutrition dogma, despite my best efforts. I focused on what we know about human physiology, started tracking my food for awhile to get a feel for where my caloric intake was at.
Turns out, I was doing the one thing I warn clients not to. I was majorly undereating, unintentionally. I also recognized that my carbohydrate was far too low, and not supportive of hormone function. There’s a whole lot of talk these days about low carb, sugar free diets, however the fact is our bodies run off of glucose. That’s not just a belief I have, it is a known fact.
Luckily, I had the balanced, blood sugar regulating meals down perfectly. It has been a focus of mine in my practice, so I knew the importance. I just had to get real with myself and realize I was not fueling my body as it needed in order to thrive.
So, I began taking my temps and pulses every day, multiple times a day, for the last 4+ months to get a better feel for where my body is at. I am no stranger to temping, and had done so in the past, but once I got familiar with my cycles I let that go.
I was shocked to see that my waking temps were in the 95’s. That is insanely low, and made it very clear to me that despite everything I know about nutrition, my metabolism was not functioning optimally. My body needed more fuel. Now, normally my recommendation if I was working with a client would be to slowly increase calories week by week, to avoid weight gain. If you’re familiar with The Four Tendencies, I am a rebel to my core. I went all in, drastically increased my carbohydrates, and upped my calories by over 1000. That might sound like backwards nutrition advice, but our bodies need fuel and my symptoms, temps, and pulses were begging me for more.
Yes, I have seen a little weight gain, but I have also seen the most stable moods I have ever had. Clear, bright skin, easy periods, great digestion, no more hair loss, and so much more. My temperatures are up in a normal range, and I have honestly never felt better.
Maybe you’re eating enough, maybe you aren’t, but either way I feel that you will learn so much about yourself if you implement taking your temps and pulses on a daily basis!
When you hear metabolism, you are likely thinking the rate in which we burn fat. While that isn’t untrue, there is so, so much more to it. Our metabolism refers to every single metabolic process in our body. Think your immune system, sex hormones, and everything beyond. Our metabolism refers to how our body takes things like glucose, vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fats and turns them into energy, or heat.
Our metabolism directly impacts our hormones. Hormones are simply chemical messengers that cells send to one another as a form of communication. If cells are stressed out, not function as they should, or haven’t been given the tools they need to function properly (ie, food!), our hormones are going to begin to get a little out of whack.
While utilizing temperatures and pulses, keep in mind that they are a great tool, but numbers aren’t the end all, be all. Later I will share some markers of good metabolic health. If you are checking off everything (or most) on that list, but your temperatures and pulses aren’t in the recommended range, there is a chance that your normal is a little different than what is said to be normal. On the flip side, if temperatures and pulses are improving, but symptoms and quality of life aren’t, they don’t mean much. Keep in mind, these are a tool, nothing to obsess over. Check in with your body.
Spoiler alert: your metabolic function is not determined by the size clothes you wear or your weight. If you are happy with the size clothing you wear, and you like the number on the scale, that’s great, but frankly it doesn’t mean much if you don’t have the markers of health.
For women, a low sex drive is normalized way too much. A strong libido signifies our body craving reproduction. If our body isn’t craving reproduction, it likely isn’t in a good place for it and doesn’t have what it needs to do so. I know fertility is a touchy subject, but it is the ultimate marker of health.
If you find that it is hard to maintain a healthy weight, your metabolism needs support. We should have metabolic flexibility. If a weekend away eating foods you wouldn’t normally eat causes you to gain 5 pounds, that is definitely a sign of metabolic dysfunction. You should be able to have flexibility with your diet and exercise routine without seeing your weight fluctuate much. Our bodies should be resilient.
What about mood? Are you constantly experiencing mood swings throughout the day and cycle, and hangry all the time? Anxious feelings all the time? These symptoms are all so common, and they point towards hormonal imbalance. You may notice a pattern here, but common and normal are not the same thing. When your metabolic function is optimal, your hormones are functioning properly, a happy mood will be your norm. That doesn’t mean you won’t have hard days or even moments, it just means that they will be that much easier to handle.
Why are temperatures a good marker of our overall health? Generating heat is a sign that our cells are utilizing the energy that they have been given. Typically, a high heat indicates a high functioning metabolism. The warmer our bodies are, the more calories burned at rest. All that being said, sometimes when our bodies are experiencing hormonal imbalance, they will use stress hormones like cortisol to make energy, which can also generate heat. I’m sure you have gone through a stressful time before where you’ve felt hot and sweaty, and this is exactly why. We want our bodies burning energy because our metabolism is functioning well, not because it is running on stress hormones. This is why using temperatures and pulses are great tools to use in conjunction with each other.
Our bodies get nutrients and oxygen to the cells by pumping blood. When our bodies are in a stressed state and running on adrenaline, they need those nutrients and oxygen a lot quicker, which is what raises our pulse. At some point as we deplete these nutrients, our body realizes it needs to start conserving energy. When our bodies are in this state of conservation and trying to work more efficiently, our pulse is going to slow right down. Our aim is to have them somewhere right in the middle, when our bodies are not stressed or conserving energy.
As you can see, measuring both temperatures and pulses give us a better picture of what is going on.
I’m sure you know how to take your temperature, but there are some things you need to know! To take your temperature you are going to need a basal body thermometer. You will take your temperature by placing the thermometer either under your tongue, or in your armpit.
You will want to take several readings of your temps and pulses throughout the day if you’d like to get a real good picture of where you’re at. At minimum, you will want to take your temps and pulses at waking. Ideally, at waking, an hour after breakfast, and mid afternoon would be a great starting place. This will give you a clear picture of whether or not your temperature is slowly rising throughout the day, which is the goal!
To take your temperature in the morning, you will want to take it before getting out of bed. As soon as you roll over, while laying down, take your temp to ensure an accurate reading. If your sleep is disturbed by waking, your temps could be effected, especially if it was disturbed less than 4-5 hours before waking.
Other ways that you can utilize taking your temperatures include taking them 40-60 minutes post workout or post meals. This will give you a good feeling for how your body is responding to a workout or certain foods. If you find post workout that your temps drop significantly, it is likely that your body cannot handle that level of stress yet.
At waking, your temperature will likely be the lowest of the day, with your temperature peaking mid afternoon, then slowly decreasing before bedtime. Ideally your waking temperature would start out around 97.8, slowly increasing to 98.6 throughout the course of the day. If your temperature starts out low or is dipping throughout the day, this shows us the metabolism is not functioning optimally and likely requires more support through nutrition and lifestyle.
You will want to take your pulses whenever you take your temperature. For me, keeping track of my temps and pulses in the calendar app on my phone has been super useful and insightful when I go back through them after some time.
To take your pulse, you can either use your fingers, or purchase and oximeter. Fingers are the cheapest and easiest way to take your pulse. Find your pulse on your wrist, then start a stop watch on your phone for 15 seconds and count the beats. Multiply that number by 4, and you have your BPM.
Like temperatures, pulses will slowly increase over the course of the day. At waking, ideally pulse would sit around 70 BPM, with it raising to close to 90 BPM by mid afternoon. I’m sure this range is higher than what you’ve heard of as healthy. Low pulse rates are typically associated with athletes, however a low pulse is a sure sign our metabolism is not functioning optimally.
Again, if you are seeing fluctuations and dips throughout the day we need to look a little closer. Was a workout too much for your body to handle, or a certain food not agreeing with you? If this is happening, your metabolism likely needs more support through nutrition and lifestyle. Eventually when the metabolism is functioning optimally, it won’t be so effected by these things.
So you have started tracking your temperatures and pulses. What do they mean? If our temperatures are low, our hormones and metabolism are not functioning optimally.
Low Temperature with Low Pulse: Poorly functioning metabolism. This is very common as most of us has been in some form of state of stress, long term.
Low Temperature with Strong Pulse: We are under active stress and our metabolism is suppressed because of it.
Normal Temperature with Low Pulse: Metabolism is not functioning optimally, and heat is likely coming from running on stress.
Normal Temperature with High Pulse: We are in an active state of stress, and our metabolism will be suppressed. Our body is likely still responding to an acute stressor.
Our goal is to have both our temperatures and our pulses in that optimal range.
If your temperatures and pulses are low, take a look at your nutrition and lifestyle. Are they supporting your body, or contributing to stress? If you are finding they decrease throughout the day or jump around, let’s ask why that is happening. How are we feeling, exercising, eating?
If your temps and pulses are dropping after a meal, we need to consider whether it is because we were running on stress hormones prior to the meal, and refueling brought those stress hormones down, or whether our body simply does not agree with what we ate. Ask yourself when your last meal was, and if it was calorically dense enough with a good balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fat. If it has been hours since your last meal, there is a good chance you were running on stress hormones. Check in with the strong metabolism markers above.
As we will discuss below, where you are at in your cycle will definitely impact your temperatures. If you find your temperatures are pretty steady, yet one morning you have a significantly high or low temp that cannot be correlated with where you are at in your cycle, there are a number of factors that could be impacting it. Alcohol consumption, disturbed sleep, using heating pads, eating something that doesn’t agree with your body, could all impact your temperatures and pulses. Take note and you may be able to find a trigger when reviewing in the future. For me, I know that consuming alcohol will impact my waking temperature the next day.
As you begin temping, you will notice that your temperatures tend to shift depending where you are at in your cycle. While on your period you can expect your temperatures to be low as our hormones are at their lowest at this point. You will likely see a drop in temperature right before ovulation. About 24 hours after ovulation, your temps will rise somewhere between 0.5-1.0 F once we start making progesterone. A rise in temperature that stays up is how we confirm that ovulation occured.
Our temperatures will vary at different points in the cycle, so tracking them can help give us a better picture of where we are at, as well as confirming ovulation.
A period is not actually a period if there is no ovulation. Without ovulation, progesterone is not produced. If you can tell based on your temperatures that there was no ovulation, yet you bleed, what you are experiencing is likely breakthrough bleeding. I will put together a separate post going into detail on this! Ovulation is the entire point of a woman’s cycle, and if you are regularly having anovulatory cycles, this needs to be addressed regardless of whether planning a pregnancy is on your radar.
Another great way to utilize Basal Body Temperature (BBT) is as a natural form of birth control. When you are taking your BBT on a daily basis, it can provide insight into your cycle. You can use this data to either prevent or plan pregnancy.
You may hear this form of natural family planning called the basal body temperature method or the fertility awareness method. First, understand that your basal body temperature is your temperature at rets. Ovulation will cause an increase of 0.5-1.0 F increase in temperature.
You are most fertile the two to three days before you see that rise in temperature. By tracking your basal body temperature daily, you can predict when you will ovulate. I highly recommend temping on a daily basis for several months before implementing natural family planning. This method can be almost fool proof, about 99% effective, if practiced properly.
You need to take your temperature about the same time every morning prior to getting out of bed. These temperatures should be charted on a daily basis to give a clear picture of any drops or spikes. For some women this could be a pen to paper, however there are also many apps available. You can even get Basal Body Thermometers that connect to the app through bluetooth to save you the step.
If using BBT as a form of birth control, I highly recommend using it in combination with other fertility awareness methods. This is because you still have several fertile days before you see a change in temperatures. Monitoring your temps over several months to make sure your cycles are regular will help. Other fertility awareness methods include becoming familiar with cervical mucus.
I also recommend recording changes in cervical mucus daily to become familiar with your cycle. Prior to ovulation, you will likely experience cervical mucus that is egg white like in consistency. This is the most fertile cervical mucus, so you can utilize that knowledge whether you are trying to prevent or plan pregnancy. Around ovulation this may change to watery cervical mucus, which is also very fertile.
Sperm can survive up to 5 days, so take this into consideration with your ovulation date. It is best to implement other forms of birth control for up to a week before predicted ovulation. Just because fertile cervical mucus is not present, does not mean you are not fertile.
How To Heal Your Metabolism by Kate Deering
Homemade gluten free garlic & herb crackers recipe using sourdough. These recipe is a great healthy way to use up extra sourdough starter! When my husband first tried these crackers he assumed they were store bought. “You made these?!” were his words after I shared…
In this post I am sharing why we drink raw milk. I will cover my thoughts on dairy in general, the risk of consuming raw milk, the health benefits, and how our experience has been. Honestly, it boggles my mind that the topic of raw…
How to make the my favorite avocado oil mayonnaise recipe. This recipe is simple and delicious, made with only a few healthy ingredients. A healthier and tastier alternative to store bought mayonnaise.
Let me start out by saying that I have yet to find a store bought avocado oil mayonnaise that tastes great. If I’m spending $15 a jar, it has to be worth it. Any time I would purchase avocado oil mayonnaise, I felt like I had to hide the flavor. No healthier mayonnaise option available can compare to Hellman’s, but the reality is the ingredients are not something I can get behind having in my home.
So, I tried to make homemade mayonnaise, many, many times. The first was about 6 years ago, with olive oil as the base. Frankly, it was worse than those expensive store bought options. I gave up for a long time. I avoided mayo use, and when I did, I would use an overpriced option that burned a hold in my wallet, and then tried to mask the flavor as best I could.
Over a year ago, I decided I would give it another shot with avocado oil. Worst case scenario, it tastes like the store bought varieties and I save myself a few dollars, I thought. I started out by trying a few recipes I found online. None were bad, but they still weren’t quite what I was looking for. After several tries, and a few tweaks, I nailed it. As in, good enough to lick off a spoon. That might sound unappetizing to a mayo hater, but if you were, I’m not too sure why you’d be reading this post.
The trick? Sugar. Look, I know that any health conscious person would probably freak hearing that I am adding sugar to a condiment. However, I have a lot to say about this. First off, sugar isn’t the devil, which we can talk more about later. Second, the tiny bit of sweetness that just a smidge of sugar contributes is what makes this recipe so perfect. The amount used is negligible, and I will take a bit of organic cane sugar over questionable, genetically modified ingredients of conventional mayonnaise any day.
Most store bought mayonnaise products on the market use very low quality oils. Canola oil and soybean oil are commonly used, which is a problem because both of them are typically genetically modified. These aren’t ingredients I choose to bring into my home. They also are oils that are very high in PUFA’s (poly unsaturated fatty acids). The problem with PUFA’s is they are very unstable, and they oxidize at very low temperatures. Oxidation leads to free radicals which can cause cellular damage.
While we can’t completely avoid PUFA’s, avoiding highly processed oils like canola, soybean, grapeseed, peanut is a smart choice.
Mayonnaise is simply an emulsion of egg, oil, and a little bit of acid in the form of vinegar or lemon juice. Typically, you make the emulsion by slowly adding oil to the egg mixture, while it is being mixed vigorously. How I make homemade mayonnaise allows for all of the ingredients to be blended together at once.
As for tools you need to make homemade mayonnaise, I have found the best tool is an immersion blender. I like to use an immersion blender so I can skip the step of slowly adding the oil to create the emulsion, and add all of the ingredients to a container at once. It makes the process quick and virtually fool proof. You can also potentially use a blender or a food processor. If you do, be sure to blend and add the oil very slowly to avoid separation. The oil needs to be added very slowly when using a blender or food processor for the mixture to emulsify properly.
Yes, there are some substitutions you can make, however egg, oil, and an acid is required.
You can substitute the avocado oil for any oil, however my recommendations from a health standpoint would be MCT oil or melted and cooled coconut oil. If using coconut oil, keep in mind it will solidify once refrigerated. This works in a pinch if you don’t have MCT oil on hand and will be using the mayonnaise in a recipe right away
You can swap the apple cider vinegar for more lemon juice, or the lemon juice for more apple cider vinegar. You can also omit the paprika, salt, and mustard if you prefer, though they do add to the flavor.
Truly the best tasting Avocado Oil Mayonnaise out there. If you've been disappointed in the past, give this a try! I promise you won't be let down.
If you don't have an immersion blender, add all ingredients except oil to a blender. Blend on low speed and slowly drizzle in oil as the mixture is blending. Go very slow to avoid separation.
Keep reading to learn more about the Berkey Water Filter. Learn why we chose it, how it’s different, and what we like about it in this Berkey Water Filter review. For a very, very long time I have wanted a berkey water filter. I did…
