Health Kick!

I haven't blogged in several weeks! As usual, life of a student gets in the way. The good thing is, I have found time to eliminate the amount of grains I take in. I have recently learned that grains are really only apart of the what is now a food circle... because the government processes them. Well, I have found other alternatives. I still eat some grains, but it is very little intake, and all organic and natural. See, when grains and wheat are overly processed, you don't even receive the benefit of them. Plus, standard bread companies add so many chemicals to their bread that the nutritional value has disappeared completely. One of my CAL teachers is eating a Paleo life style. For those of you who don't know what 'eating paleo' means, it is an eating life style of pre-historic, ancient "eating habits". Such as the cavemen, they had meat, fruits, vegetables, roots, simple food, non processed food and no dairy, beans, grains, coffee, alcohol and sugar. I have not gone full Paleo... but I do like some of the recipes. I have eliminated my dairy intake to a cheese stick in the morning as a part of my breakfast. Cheese has protein, and protein in the mornings for me is excellent. I don't drink dairy milk anymore, I have permanently switched to almond milk. Almond milk has 50% more calcium than dairy milk. So far, I have been doing awesome. I basically started my health kick in January when I went vegan for a month. I have lazed that healthy diet for a couple weeks, around Valentines day when I had an abundant amount of candy and sweets around. I have also eliminated my sugar intake to healthful protein bars during the day. I have a protein bar around 9:00 AM, and then a fiber bar with some chocolate drizzling at 8:00 PM, right before my work out. I haven't succumbed to any 'eating style'... I have taken the ones that I like the best and I have mushed them together and adopted a new kind of eating style: HEALTHY. I eat mostly organic. I eat mostly fruits and veggies. I drink green tea and or black tea every day. I drink 4 to 5 water bottles of ice water every day. I detox with many simple things. Pinterest is great for finding simple things to detox with, such as a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar three times a day, or organic detox teas. There are tons of ways to do simple daily detoxes. Recently, I have found another simple, easy detox method, called oil pulling. Oil pulling is where you swish with olive oil or coconut oil, or any kind of healthful oil for fifteen minutes. Yes, fifteen minutes is a long time to swish oil in your mouth, but trust me, I started seeing results the second day I started. What oil pulling does for you is it smooths your nails, whitens your teeth, restores healthy gums, de-frizzes hair, softens and smooths skin, and pulls all of the toxins out of your body. It is amazing! 
When I went to New Seasons a few weeks ago, I purchased some wheat grass. I decided to research wheat grass and see what it would do for me. I was in for a big thrill! I learned that a shot of wheat grass is an equivalent to four pounds of leafy greens, and deep green veggies.

 I have been adding huge chunks of cut wheat grass to my green smoothies and that is so much easier than eating the veggies and fruits all cut up and in a bowl for snacking, although everyday after school, I do eat 10 baby carrots and a whole cucumber as a snack, in the raw, slices of cucumber and the baby carrots. I do eat fruit and veggies in non smoothie form, it is just easier to get them down in smoothie form. I have been creating my own green smoothies off the top of my head, all consisting with wheat grass. I like to add superfood packets to my green smoothies. Those super food packets are wonderful, and filled raw fruit and veggie nutrients, it's a fantastic addition to the green smoothies. Sometimes, instead of smoothies, I have coconut water. During the week, I go on and off with coconut water and smoothies, sometimes a detox tea. One day, I will have coconut water, the next would be a green smoothie, and the next would be detox tea or coconut water again. Coconut water is one molecule away from human blood... don't get grossed or freaked out. Coconut water is great to drink if you lose a lot of blood, or are having a blood transfusion. It also has a lot of electrolytes in it. Coconut water is the water of the gods. 

I love coconut products. I live by coconut oil, and coconut water. Speaking of coconut oil... I have been using it a lot more. I use it as a daily conditioner for my hair, I use it as face wash and a daily facial moisturizer, I sometimes use it to take off my makeup. I use coconut oil for baking and cooking, I use coconut oil in my smoothies sometimes. I use coconut oil to shave with and moisturize my legs after shaving. I use coconut oil on my lips as a natural chap stick, I use coconut for every purpose basically. It's a wonderful thing. 
Last Sunday, my sister and I went in this cute, little, natural market place in Downtown Gresham. I had been wanting to take a look in there for a little while, it is a fairly new addition to Downtown Gresham. Sunday was a day that my sister and I just drove around and wanted to explore new streets that we haven't been down before. It was a fun day. We decided to go to Lillians natural marketplace and look around. I love organic health food shopping more than clothes shopping... as I have already established this many times to multiple people, I am not a normal teenage girl. We went into Lillians and I found this tea that I have been looking for, for a while. I found it at Lillians! I was so excited and I had to get it. The tea is Skin Detox by Yogi. It is simply amazing, and leaves your skin glowing! Anyway, my sister and I looked around the cute store, and I wanted to know the age that they allowed to start working there, so I found a store clerk and I asked her. Sadly, the age to start working there is 18, and I was a little disappointed about that... but there is always New Seasons! The store clerk, my sister and I started talking about health food and she was so intrigued that I loved health food, and organic food. So intrigued that a young person was interested in the healthy ways. It also made me smile when she mentioned that my sister and I both had beautiful skin. (Thank you for the lovely compliment!) She told us how some children in her son's class had problems that children aren't really supposed to have at that age... all because of processed foods and I couldn't agree with her more! Processed foods, and fast food is so terrible for you. It makes me sad that people succumb to the grease and fat of fast foods. The store clerk was even more fascinated when I told her I had a blog and that I mostly blogged about my health food finds, among other things like baking, crafting, my personal life and trips I take. I love impressing people, means I am doing something inspiring! The store clerk was so nice! We looked around the store and bought some yummy snacks for our adventure. It's such a cute store! 

It really is quite easy to be healthy. Buy some fresh produce from your grocery store, incorporate more salads into your life, limit your dairy intake, limit your grain intake, unless you make your own bread and you grow wheat out back... I am so tempted to find a field, and become a farmer girl. Grow my own food. But I have other dreams, and there alternatives to wheat and grains, and regular flour... almond flour, rice flour, lots of possibilities. I look on Pinterest for a lot of ideas to help me out, and they have fruit and vegetable charts that say what the fruit or vegetable provides for you. They also have other things to live a healthier life, such as eliminating harsh cleaning chemicals, and using homemade cleaners made from things you always have in your house! Also, a part of eating healthy is not eating so many sweets, no sitting on your butt all day, (but having time to rest and recharge your body is always wonderful), not eating so much processed food or fast food, and eating fruits and veggies every day. 

Two great organic finds this week! 

A 'go raw' 100% organic Life Pumpkin bar, and a chocolate chip cookie dough 'Larabar'. 

Earlier in the post, I mentioned that I didn't really have a certain eating life style... but my eating life style was just simply HEALTHY eating... well I have figured out my eating life style. My eating life style is CLEAN EATING! Who wants to join me?