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DIY

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Use This To Stop Period Cramps

As I write this, I’m sitting on my couch with a blanket over me and it’s after 2pm and I still haven’t gotten dressed. Or brushed my hair. Or put on makeup. BECAUSE I’M AN ADULT. Just kidding. It’s because I have some horrible effing period cramps. Throughout my teens, I had terrible periods. Extremely heavy cramping, heavy bleeding, back pain – the works. I now know that it was because my hormones were so unbalanced, mostly due to stress and a terrible diet. Since adapting to a healthier lifestyle years ago, my periods, while still pretty heavy, have been mild in comparison. The cramping improved, and even the cramping I’ve felt today isn’t as bad as what it used to be. But it’s still pretty bad, which happens once in a while for me. It could be due to a number of things so I don’t stress about it because…

Natural Hair Dyes AKA How To Dye Your Hair Without Toxic Chemicals

Natural hair dyes. We need ’em! Did you know that typical hair dyes are completely toxic? Probably. But did you know they’ve also been linked to cancer? According to the National Cancer Institute, Over 5,000 different chemicals are used in hair dye products, some of which are reported to be carcinogenic (cancer-causing) in animals (2, 3). Because so many people use hair dyes, scientists have tried to determine whether exposure to the chemicals in hair coloring products is associated with an increased risk of cancer in people…Over the years, some epidemiologic (population) studies have found an increased risk of bladder cancer in hairdressers and barbers (2, 5). A 2008 report of the Working Group of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that some of the chemicals these workers are exposed to occupationally are “probably carcinogenic to humans” (6). On the plus side, it’s completely possible to dye…

Guest Post: 8 Must Have Foods In Your Daily Diet

I’m a planner, when I jump into things I like to have a structured plan on how it’s gonna go down. Several years back when I started making dietary shifts, many people would say, “just eat real food.”  That sounded like a good idea in theory but isn’t all food REAL food, am I eating make believe food then? As I continued to learn and research, I began to understand what exactly real food is.  It’s food that comes from the Earth, is whole, natural and unprocessed. Real food consisting of humanely raised grass-fed meat, vegetables and fruit that are local and seasonal, unrefined oils and fats; the food that has been in our world for millions of years. To take all the guess work out of it, and provide a step-by-step action plan (as you know I love!), here are the Top 8 MUST-HAVE foods in your daily diet. By incorporating each of…

Guest Post: What This Health Coach Eats and Why

Carly Shankman is a Wellness Activist & certified Holistic Health Coach on a mission to create a happier, healthier world through whole food nutrition & personal transformation. She believes that mental, spiritual and physical health are not exclusive of one another. Connect with Carly on her website,Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. It’s time I tell my story, my journey – I hope it helps you on yours. This is simply my personal experience with food. I was never a huge meat eater.  I can recall having meat on the dinner table and asking my mom to cut it up into perfect little pieces so there were no veins, skin, bones or anything that would remind me that I was eating an animal.  I wanted to disassociate between the food I was putting in my mouth and the fact that it had once been a living, breathing animal. At 18, when I left…

What To Eat For a Healthy Pregnancy and An Easier Birth

I’m getting married in a month. A month! And while I’m not planning on getting knocked up immediately, I am planning on preparing my body for a healthy pregnancy. You see, what you eat, drink, consume and apply to the body makes a huge difference in not only the health of the fetus, but a healthy pregnancy and birth in general. Dr. Weston A Price traveled the world studying traditional cultures – cultures that still ate their ancestral diets, cultures that foraged and hunted their own food, cultures that were living on much as their ancestors had been for thousands of years. When Dr. Price asked a woman why they put such emphasis on eating the way they did, she told him “To make healthy babies.” This has always resonated with me. I think most people have forgotten this ancestral wisdom – that pregnancy isn’t something to take lightly, it’s…

The Best Essential Oils For Acne

If you’re new to AN, you can read about my skin issues here. Basically, I started getting acne in fourth grade and it didn’t stop until my early twenties when I finally figured out that acne is an internal issue, and how to properly take care of my skin externally. When I say I had skin issues, I don’t mean a few breakouts here and there. I have deep, painful, cystic acne. Like most people who suffer from troubled skin, I had some pretty intense internal issues that I needed to take care of. I was dealing with gut issues, inflammation, high blood sugar and a lack of beneficial gut flora. All of this combined with the fact that I was trying everything under the sun (and I mean everything from creams to pills to spot treatments) just exacerbated my skin issues. I didn’t know that this was an internal issue, I…

DIY Diffuser Necklace

Since I’ve recently began falling in love with the world of essential oils, I came across some diffuser necklaces (that were not cheap, might I add). Diffuser necklaces are made of clay, you drop whichever essential oil you’d like on them and you can smell the oil throughout the day. This has been amazing for me. I’ve been using my favorite, lavender oil, and it keeps me calm and relaxed throughout the day; I’ve also noticed it keeps me pretty chill during stressful situations. Anyway, after discovering that diffuser necklaces are just made of clay and not some sort of fancy gold that allows them to diffuse scent all day long, I figured I could make a diffuser necklace myself and save a ton of money. And that’s exactly what I did. First, I ordered some kid’s clay for under five bucks, you can get it HERE. You don’t need…

How Diet Causes ADD And What To Do About It

Diet and the brain are very closely linked. What you eat or do not eat will directly affect the brain. I’m not saying that 100% of ADD or ADHD cases are caused by diet, but I am saying that majority of them are. In Dr. Sears’ book on what he calls Nutrition Deficit Disorder (NDD), he describes a fictional kid named Johnny to help people better grasp this idea. Johnny eats a dinner of junk food, think pizza, pasta, mac, and cheese or chicken tenders, typical “kid” food. He gets poor sleep because he had an unhealthy dinner that spiked his blood sugar and gave him very little nutrients. Johnny wakes up tired and groggy and has an unhealthy breakfast, something like cereal. His blood sugar spikes again, and once more he isn’t getting the nutrients his young brain and body need. Min-moring, poor Johnny’s blood sugar drops and he…

The Best Essential Oils For Anxiety

I’ve always loved the smell of essential oils but until recently had no idea just how powerful they can be.  The University of Maryland Medical Center does a good job of explaining this, The “smell” receptors in your nose communicate with parts of your brain (the amygdala and hippocampus) that serve as storehouses for emotions and memories. When you breathe in essential oil molecules, some researchers believe they stimulate these parts of your brain and influence physical, emotional, and mental health. How amazing is that? I’ve personally dealt with being anxious since I was a child. I had a bit of a tumultuous childhood and am no stranger to these issues. I’ve dealt with it for over twenty years, but have successfully overcome my anxious tendencies. It was difficult and involved a lot of experimentation, but I’m not healthier and happier than I’ve ever been. Like a lot of anxious people, I…

Homemade Acne Scar Cream

I’ve written about my skin woes before, you can read a bit more about that here. Basically, in fourth grade, I woke up one day with a face covered in blemishes. I thought it would go away and clear up on its own, but it stuck around until my early twenties. And when I say blemishes, I mean more than a few zits. I’m talking about deep, painful pimples that. I mean pus, pain and blood blisters under my skin.  I had a thick layer of oil that could almost drip off of my face, and yet still somehow had dry skin that would flake off in chunks. It was awful and I was painfully embarrassed. After clearing my skin through diet, I was left with a face full of scars. I meet so many people who say they had problem skin as a teen, and yet their skin is as smooth and…