Sneak a peek into Integrative Nutrition

I've mentioned before how much I love my school, and this weekend I get to let you in on a little peek as to why. 

There is a conference going on this weekend in New York that will be streamed live for us all to see! There are going to be some amazing speakers like Dr. Andrew Weil, Venus Williams and Dr. William Davis.

I love listening to different speakers and hearing their different point of views on health and wellness. I find inspiration in so many lectures that I've listened to though my schooling, and I'm sure that this weekend will do the same.

So, click HERE to get access to this weekends live conference. Even if you just catch part of it, I bet you will be glad you did.

On my mind...

I have a short movie for you all to watch today. The topic has been on my mind a lot lately and I feel like I need to do my part to share this information. It's about bottled water. Yup, bottled water. That's what has me all worked up lately. If you think I'm crazy, watch this movie and then see if you feel the same way.

Now do you see why those little 8oz water bottles make me want to scream?

Now, I completely agree with avoiding bottled water, but where I'm not 100% on board with her is with the whole drinking straight tap water thing. Do you know what they put in tap water?! It varies depending on where you live, but I avoid it. We filter our water at home, and bring it with us in reusable bottles. It really doesn't take much time, and you are really doing something great for the planet! 

So, what do you think? Are you ready to ditch the bottled water?

Using Essential Oils: Lavender

I recently have found the wonderful world of essential oils. I had used them before, but thought only to sprinkle a few drops in my bath to make it smell good. I had no idea what they really could do for you.
When Sage was born my mom brought some oils for me to try, since then I have been hooked! I want to start sharing them with everyone, because they really work!
I want to start with the oil that I thought I wouldn't like at all, and was very hesitant to try it... Lavender oil. Yeah, I didn't want to try lavender oil. I never liked the smell of anything lavender and thought that using it would leave me with nothing but a headache. Well, I was wrong... very wrong!

It turns out Lavender oil is awesome! I've used it for tons of things like:

Headaches! Yes, what I thought would give me a headache actually made it go away! I rubbed one drop of lavender with one drop of peppermint on my forehead and neck and my headache was gone in ten minutes!

Skin irritation. I have used it both for myself when my face is not so happy, and on Sage when his bum gets a bit red.

To calm and help sleep. A few drops in your bath or on your pillow or even rub some on the bottom of your feet before bed, seems to help you drift to sleep. I have even used some on Sage when he was having a rough time getting to sleep.

Some other uses that I haven't tried yet:
Calming a bee sting or bug bite
Easing motion sickness
Sooth a sunburn
To help a restless or agitated child calm down
It works to calm dogs too!

So, those are some of the great benefits of lavender oil. I'm sure there are many more, and I look forward to discovering them all.

Want to give it a try? Click here to get a bottle for yourself. Yes, it is my site, and I do benefit if you buy some, but I wouldn't be sharing this if I didn't think it was awesome!

So, which oils have you tried? Or are curious about?

Read it! The Balanced Plate

This morning I perused my bookcase looking for a book to flip through while watching Sage play with his favorite toys and things he likes to think are toys. I landed on The Balanced Plate by The Balanced Plate by Renée Loux It's been a while sine I've picked it up, and I had forgot what a great book it is. Her book is filled not only with great recipes, but lots of good information on food in general.  She gets into the benefits of whole food and why eating organic is so important. One of my favorite parts of this book is the in depth look at the kitchen and everything in it, from spices to composting and even how to clean your kitchen naturally. Then after all that you get into all of her amazing recipes!

I don't think you could go wrong with this book, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to better their eating or even just their life. Which is why I am sharing it with you today, just because I think you should know about it! I linked it up to Amazon so you can order it now if you want, or go find it at your local bookstore, if you are lucky enough to have one near you still.

Gardening the Natural Way

So, we have been spending a whole lot of time in our garden lately. Digging and planting and weeding! One of our well meaning neighbors saw us hoeing and picking weeds and asked why we weren't spraying them with round-up...

When we told him that we preferred to not spray toxins in our yard, especially around the food we are growing, he just didn't understand. "It's so much easier to spray"..."It won't kill your plants"..."You don't need to do all that work"

We told him about the run off and that we just didn't want to use poisons in our yard. Then we explained that we use vinegar to kill the weeds that are left after we've gone though and 'weeded'.

He didn't seem to understand why we were doing it the way we are, but eventually just dropped it and went on his way.

After this encounter I noticed how many people in our neighborhood were out spraying round-up all over their yards! All around their plants, along their fences, in every crack in the sidewalk!

I was amazed!

Don't the know how BAD round-up is for EVERYTHING?! Their health, their pets, the rivers and our water sources! They must not, or they wouldn't be doing it. Or would they? Do they think that is their only option?...Yes, I was getting a little worked up on my drive through town!

So, now I'm here to share with all of you that plain white vinegar KILLS weeds! 

Weeds + Vinegar + Sun = Dead Weeds! It's that simple!

Let's weigh the facts:

ROUNDUP

Toxic Chenmicals

Kills your soil

Creates 'Super' weeds and bugs

Kills or mutates benifecial bugs in your yard

Not safe to use around kids or pets {I don't care what they might say!}

VINEGAR

It's completely natural and not toxic

 Kills the weeds

Does NOT hurt your soil

Safe to use anywhere!

Oh, and it's cheap!

Seems pretty clear to me! 

So, please give it a try next time you are fighting the weeds in your yard! It works, I swear!

Banana Blueberry Muffins from By the Porchlight

Today I have one of my lovely sponsors sharing a very delicious looking recipe with all of you! I won't keep you from it any longer, I'm sure you'll want to run to the kitchen after reading this!...


Hey there! I'm Lesley from By the Porchlight! I'm about to hit my 1-year blogging anniversary and have had a great year! I write about all things creative, good reads, good causes and all of life's adventures in between. Oh, and I can't forget good eats! I love cooking and baking so I thought I'd share a new recipe with you!

So, here we have it! Banana blueberry muffins! They were delicious and guess what?! Healthy, too! I was looking to try out my new coconut oil in and came across this recipe. I love banana bread and blueberry muffins so putting the two things together could not be wrong! I made a couple of alterations to the recipe above to suit my tastes & cupboard's stock a bit better.

What you'll need:

3 large bananas, or 4 smaller ones
1 cup sugar (you could use another sweetener, though)
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup white flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup frozen blueberries
4 tbsps margarine

In one bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Then add the sugar and coconut oil. Mix well.

Next, in a second bowl, mix together 2 cups flour (1 cup each white and whole wheat), salt and baking soda.

Blend together the contents of both bowls. After the flour and banana mixtures are well mixed, fold in the blueberries.

Next, set aside the muffin batter. You'll need another bowl (yes, lots of bowls!) to make the crumbly topping.

Cream together the margarine and sugar and then add the flour. This should end up crumbly.

Pour the muffin batter into a greased tin. (I can't live without my Pampered Chef stoneware!) The batter should yield 12 large muffins. Top with the crumble.

As you can see, my topping wasn't so crumbly. I didn't really follow the directly for this, just threw some flour, sugar and margarine together haha. But it still tasted good!

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Check with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean, the muffins are done! If it comes out batter-covered, bake the muffins another 3-5 minutes and check again.

And ta-da! Now you have delicious muffins!




I hope you'll come visit me at By the Porchlight and let me know how your muffins turned out! Thanks for letting me hang out today! Happy baking!

7 & 8: Juicing and Vitamins!

Okay... I'm a slacker! I didn't post yesterday, so I'm doubling up today!
Since I'm doubling up, I picked to things that kinda go together.
First, juicing! It's so so so good for you!

Not only do you get all the nutrients, and much faster, but could you imagine actually eating everything you could drink in a juice?! I mean, I like kale, but I don't think I want to spend a few hours chewing away at a whole bunch of it! Want to know a little more about juicing? Check out this post I did about it here.

Now for the vitamins! I take vitamins just to supplement my diet. I try {sometimes i forget} to take a multi vitamin, a B vitamin supplement and Vitamin C everyday. I take C for lots of other things too! If I'm feeling a cold coming on I down the C, if I have a rash or bug bites I take C {it's a natural anti-histamine} even if I'm just feeling out of it I usually up my C. There are other vitamins I like to take too, like E {it's great for your skin and your insides} and garlic, primrose oil, niacin.... the list really could go on and on. They all do different thing, and some work best in combination with others. If you are interested you should look into it and see what's best for you. I like natural vitamins with no coloring or any 'extras'.

Source: mynaturalmarket.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Do you take vitamins regularly? Or juice?

Day 2: Hydrate

It seems fitting that hydrate is my happy and healthy life theme of the day, because it is HOT today!
I know I said that fall had come, but Summer popped his head in to say hi this week!

Everyone knows that you are suppose to drink 8 glasses of water a day.
What I don't think everyone knows is that it has to be pure, clean water with nothing added to it.
Also, the 8 glasses is an average. Here's how to figure out exactly how much YOU should be drinking.
Take your weight {in pounds} divide that in half and that is how many ounces of water you should be drinking a day.
See, I weigh 130 lbs, and half of that is 65, so I should be drinking 65 oz of water each day. Which is actually pretty close to the recommendation.

Source: godmoves.tumblr.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

On top of keeping you hydrated, water does so much more!
If you drink a glass of water first thing in the morning it gets your metabolism going and helps clean your body!
When you drink enough water your skin and hair look so much better!
Drinking water helps keep away the bloated feeling and helps you to not feel tired.
Drinking more water can actually help you lose weight too! A lot of the time if you are feeling kind of hungry you are actually thirsty! So, drink a glass of water and see if you notice the difference.

Source: fatskinnygirl.tumblr.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Another important important factor in drinking so much water is 'where is it coming from?'
I try really hard to NOT buy bottled water. We have a water filter and fill up our re-useable bottles everyday. Of course if you need water and the only option is bottled, then get the water! But, if all of everyone's water came from a bottle do you know how many that would be?! I know they are recyclable, but it's a whole lot of materials and energy that doesn't need to be used. We love our Klean Kanteens and they come in tons of sizes and colors! I've even seen sippy cups and bottles!

Source: kleankanteen.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

In honor of this post, and really this whole 31 days of a happy healthy life, I am giving up less healthy drink choices {beer, coffee...} and only partaking in healthy ones like water, fresh juice and herbal teas. I'm sure that it will be a little hard giving up coffee, but I know I will feel so good and my body will thank me!

Have you had your water today?

Day 1: Go to the beach!

This month I've decided to be a part of the nesting place 31 day challenge. Basically you pick one topic and blog about it everyday for the whole month of October. As soon as I saw this I thought 'how fun! I should do that' then came 'what the heck would I blog about for 31 days straight?!' I thought what would I {and hopefully you} get the most out of an entire month of focus on? Well, this is what I came up with...

 Pretty fun right?! Who doesn't want to be more happy and healthy?
AND if you are more of one, you can't help but be more of the other!
So, follow along this month and see my interpretation of a happy healthy life! Also, go check out all the other bloggers who are participating and see what their 31 days are all about.

For Day one of course I chose: Go to the beach!

I know, you're shocked! But seriously, how good do you feel after a day at the beach?

You soak up some sun, which pumps you full of vitamin D!
The saltwater is super good for your skin! I swear it will make you glow!
AND, my favorite part, just sitting and listening to the waves! It's so relaxing and calming.

When that is your view how could you not be happy?

I know not everyone lives close to the beach, but any body of water really is magical! So, go to a creek, or river or lake! Just make sure it's someplace that makes you feel good!

A new favorite... berry breakfast bowl!

I am usually an oats for breakfast kinda girl, but we have been trying to eat more raw food lately, so we've been switching things up! This has become my new favorite and it's so easy, I had to share!

This seriously only takes like three minutes and it's delicious! You kind of feel like you're being bad and eating dessert for breakfast, but it's all good for you!
All you need is:

*fruit- today I used strawberries, blueberries and apples. Use what you like {or have in your kitchen}
*coconut milk- I'm sure you could use another kind of milk, but THIS is delicious and good for you!
*cinnamon- tasty and great for you! It's shown to lower cholesterol and helps stabilize blood sugar!
*flax seed{freshly ground}- High in Omega-3's and is a great cleansing food!

Wash and cut your fruit.

Add your coconut milk, cinnamon and flax seed.

Stir and your done!

It's not quite as pretty when it's all mixed, but it's very yummy!

What do you think? Looks pretty tasty right!? What are your favorite healthy breakfasts?

What's on your plate?

I try not to be too pushy on here, but I watched 'The Future of Food' again last night, and I am a little fired up! If you haven't seen this I recommend you do. It's a great documentary that shows the truth of how the U.S. agriculture truly works, GMO foods and what you are really getting in the 'food' you buy.



Watching this movie really makes me a little sad that our country has allowed this to happen. BUT we can change things! Every dollar you spend tells the retailers what you want. If you buy healthful organic food you are telling them that you care about where your food comes from and it's impact on our planet.

I know for some people it is hard to go completely organic, maybe you live somewhere that it's not very popular yet. Every little bit helps! The more you buy the more they will stock!
Here are the top 5 things to buy organic to avoid GMO: wheat, soy, corn, canola, and cotton.

Also, this is a handy little chart to help you decide what produce is most important to buy organic.

The best way I have found to getting great local organic food is to find a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) near you. It's usually a small to medium sized farm that grows a variety of food throughout the seasons and you get a box full of that weeks bounty every week. Straight from the farm to your house, you cant get better than that! Here is a neat site that explains it more, and you can type in your Zip code and it will show you CSA farms around you. 

Thanks for letting me rant a little! This is something that is really important to me and I feel like I need to share it every once in a while. I hope this made sense and isn't just rambling...

Striving for health

In the past four years I have been on a journey to become healthy.  It all started back in 2008 when my husband got really sick and we started looking into what was causing his illness.  One thing led to another and we ended up finding that diet was the number one cause to ALL illness.  So we started to change how we ate.  With every new book we read, or film we watched or natural doctor he saw we would learn more and change something.  We started by removing all processed foods from our diet. Then switched to all organic foods. We soon gave up most meats, then dairy and after a while most things with gluten.

Now, this was over quite a big span of time, we didn't just change overnight.  It took time and adjusting before it became a way of life.  When we started all of this it was to save my husband, which I'm very happy to say that it did... completely!  But, the other great thing that happened with all the changes we made is how much better I felt!  I didn't realize I was so unhealthy before we started this.  Yes, I knew I could lose a few pounds, and stop eating so much garbage food.  I did have for years what my doctor at the time called 'a sensitive stomach' and they assured me it was completely normal. Basically every time I ate I had a stomachache. Sometimes it would be minor, sometimes I would have to go lay down.  I had become used to this, it was just a part of life.  Well, about two months into our diet change I realized I couldn't remember the last time I had a stomachache from eating.  I was stoked!

So, we have been eating healthy ever since, still modifying our diet when we learn about anything new.  Since 2008 I have lost over 20 pounds just from eating healthy. Most of that came off in the beginning, but a little more here and there since then. Now I have come to a new challenge, I have lost the extra weight and eat healthy, but I am NOT in shape.  I do not work out at all.  I have the muscles of a 10 year old girl!  I have been wanting to shape up for a while, but have been completely unmotivated.  Now that is changing!  We are taking a trip to the Grand Canyon in September and I just might die if I went in the shape I am now.  Not to mention the fact that I deserve to be in shape, what good is a healthy body if I do nothing with it!?!

I am sharing this today in hopes that one: I will hold myself accountable{if I tell everyone I am going to do it I have to, right?}  two: I hope to gain support from others possibly doing the same thing.  and three: to inspire someone else to shape up and be healthy!  You deserve it!

I am taking measurements to track my changes.  I figure I'll probably gain weight, or at least not lose any while working out because I should be gaining muscle! =) I also happened to find my starting measurements from 2008.  It's crazy how much of a difference 20 pounds makes! So, here they are, and I'll post them again after a while.

I think a little fitness motivation is in order now!

Source: pictureperfectbodywerkit.tumblr.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

I want to be that toned!

Source: iowagirleats.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Seems easy enough.

Source: fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Love this!

So, happy working out everyone! Let's get in shape!!!

Loads of Vegan recipes! Thanks Pinterest

I just spent the last, oh I don't know... hour, looking at drooling over some great looking vegan recipes.  Then I got to thinking... most people don't realize how amazing vegan dishes are. So, I'm going to share a few here and you can give them a try, I know I will!

Source: saveur.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: madejustright.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: wingitvegan.blogspot.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: blog.fatfreevegan.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: tarteletteblog.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: ohsheglows.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: prouditaliancook.blogspot.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Are you drooling yet?!  I think some of these weren't 100% vegan, but a few little changes and your good to go!  I am so excited to try some of these!

Oh, I almost forgot the best part... dessert!!!

Source: tasty-yummies.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Source: shinyshaunie.blogspot.com via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

I think I'm going to go start dinner now, this is making me hungry!  Check out my Pinterest for even more awesome looking and good for you dishes!

I did a variation of this one last night. Yummy!

Source: holycowvegan.net via Ameryn Marie on Pinterest

Happy eating!

You really are what you eat!

I feel like I need to just throw this out there, as a reminder to myself, and maybe to you.

If you eat like crap, you feel like crap!

uuuhggg!

I have been eating so SO good, and ate so not good today and feel gross.

So, now I'm going to bed sluggish and yucky, and tomorrow I am starting bright and early

with a nice, super green juice! Refreshed and awesome!

Vegan sushi time!

Hey everyone!  I have been super busy lately, and haven't had time to post.  I still am, BUT, I'm sneaking in a quick one!

The other night we made some vegan sushi and it was delish! {and easy too!}

So, here are a few photos from the other night.

Sorry in advance for all the drooling that is about to take place!

Lay out your nori sheets

Chop up whatever yummy veggies you like.  We did carrots, daikon radish, green onions, cucumber and avocados.

Layer your sticky rice and veggies like so...

Roll it up... like a pro!

Cut.  Put on a cute plate and garnish with yummy sauces!

Enjoy your guilt free sushi!

This seriously is super easy and soooo good!  Give it a try.  I know you will love it!