Category Archives: health

Currently

This isn’t even actually recent… I really need to upload photos.

Reading

I’m on a reading roll! Granted, two books I’m reading are a little embarrassing to admit to as one especially is like Hunger Games meets the Bachelor only less interesting… and I don’t even like The Bachelor. It’s a YA novel (The Selection) that was supposedly good, but now that I read more reviews people love it or hate it. At any rate, it’s mindless and kind of entertaining in a really dumb way.

As for good books – I’m also reading The Martian and it’s a good one so far. I can see why they’re making it into a movie. While you would think it might be boring because it’s a guy stuck on Mars by himself, it’s actually really interesting. It’s scientific, it’s funny, and while I may not have a clue what he’s talking about at times, it’s written in a way that makes it not too technical and really enjoyable.

Watching

I finished Season 3 of Orange is the New Black recently and it was a good one – some new backstories, new characters and a lot of feels. Season 4 can’t come soon enough! It’s funny because some of the characters I wasn’t a fan of in the beginning have completely grown on me and after the finale? Season 4 should be interesting! I’m also binge-watching Season 4 of Scandal. Sometimes I really just want to smack some sense into Olivia, though.

As for movies… we actually haven’t watched many lately. We’ve been busy doing other things and Josh has been playing games lately in the evening, so I honestly can’t even remember the last movie we watched. That’s really odd for us too. Ha ha.

Overall Health and Wellness

I’m really liking the Fitbit One I got and think it’s helping me stay slightly more motivated than I was, so it’s been a worthwhile purchase overall as I try and remind myself to stay more active, which can be difficult at a desk job. As for my hives… they are essentially GONE! The acupuncture treatments and Chinese Herbal blend I’ve been taking have done amazing things. I don’t take antihistamines anymore (except for the occasional seasonal allergies) and I don’t even need the herbs on a daily basis either. I’ve seen a couple hives now and then, but it’s been an amazing turnaround. It’s almost crazy to think I was taking several 24hr Allegra pills a day to keep the itchy hives at bay for… how many months? I am blown away completely by the results.

Drinking/Eating

Trying to cut back on gluten and dairy and sugar. Sometimes I do okay and other days I completely fail. I’m not intolerant, but my acupuncturist says I need to cutback. He’s a big paleo advocate, though, so I’m not sure how much of his advice is based on his own personal opinion vs. actual health reasons. I’m willing to compromise, though and give it a try. I can’t deny that I do feel better physically when I’m good and eat fewer of these things. Sigh. 😉

Thinking About

All of the things on our to-do list. We have a fairly big list of things we need to do around the house, some of which are necessary (like properly sealing up a few things after a big ole ant infestation) and some things that are more aesthetic changes to the house itself. We still need to finish landscaping and ultimately we’d like to put carpet downstairs and hardwood upstairs in the kitchen/dining area and the entryway. I’m also still trying to reorganize things after switching our living room/play room/family room around. Also, your basic DIY crafts and pinteresty things are really not where I excel, but we’ll see how a few little projects turn out that I’ve taken on.

Ziggy Fluff

I almost said there’s nothing worse than being sick on a weekend, but that’s not true. We could have gotten sick while on vacation, which would be much worse. Now we just have to hope everyone makes a full recovery before we leave so we can completely enjoy our time away. And as much as the cats love us, I have a feeling they’re looking to some quiet time as well, and lots of undivided attention since their best buddy Dave is coming to stay with them.

Surprisingly, though, Ziggy really is mellowing and is very slowly becoming more bold. She actually went outside on the deck and rolled around in front of the door; then the other night she walked all the way to the other side! This may not seem like much, but we’ve lived here two years and she’s been too afraid to hang out on the deck because it’s not secluded enough for her liking. Okay, it also doesn’t help that we’re surrounded by dog lovers either. 😉

More importantly, though, while she still prefers the kids to keep their distance, there have been a few moments where she has stayed in the same room as them and even sniffed them and allowed them to briefly touch her before scampering off. Both kids are pretty cautious with her, probably because they don’t know if they should be scared of her too. In the meantime, the fact that all of us can sleep on the same bed is pretty impressive… crowded, but at least there are 2 happy cats and 2 happy kids, and 2 very tired parents. Ha!

Sunshine, Stress and Wellness

I have to remind myself that Enzo has only been 3 for a little over a month. Typically it feels like time is flying by, so it’s somewhat surprising to me that it’s really not going that quickly at all. I definitely need to slow down and be more present. I’ve also found myself shifting my priorities and goals and trying not to fit so much into so little time so I don’t feel as overwhelmed. I’ve been getting a lot of reading done, which has been awesome and don’t feel bad about putting off little projects I wanted to get done.

The aromatherapy studying is still happening, just at a slower pace. We had so much going on over the past few months and now I finally feel like I can just breathe and take my time with blends. I’ve come up with a few really good ones, and a few that need work, but more importantly I don’t feel as rushed and when I feel rushed, my blends aren’t as good. I think that’s the case with everything, though. You need to be able to give things the proper amount of time they deserve, but you also have to enjoy what you’re doing or the outcome won’t be as good as it could be.

There was a point a few months ago (maybe more, maybe less) where I felt so overwhelmed that if the kids weren’t in bed by 8:00 and kept getting up and wouldn’t stay down I would feel almost angry and put out because they were encroaching on my time and I needed my time to do things. Now, I feel differently. Sure, right before our trip I have things I need to do so the past couple of nights with fussy children not wanting to go to sleep has been frustrating, but at one point I finally just realized that it is what it is. No, I may not finish a few things, but that’s life. Were they really that imperative? No. So, instead I went upstairs, picked up Phoebe (for the umpteenth time because she wouldn’t let us put her down in her crib without crying big crocodile tears) and I carried her to our bed and held her and eventually fell asleep with her on my chest. Last night Josh and I took turns with the kiddos and eventually they slept – just not on time. Oh well.

I’m even at a point where I really felt like we needed to get the kids to stay in their rooms all night and it was hard and stressful, and now that we’ve kind of just caved and let the kids crawl in bed with us in the middle of the night Enzo has started getting better about staying in his room after we put him down and he’s stopped asking to sleep on the floor. We don’t always get a good night’s sleep, but I think I’ve actually been sleeping better now that we’ve just decided to let Enzo crawl into bed and if Phoebe starts crying in her crib to just bring her in. They won’t always bed share, just like Enzo will one day be fully potty trained and they’ll both give up their nuks. Working full time means we don’t see them as often as we’d like to, so I think at times they just need/want that extra time to cuddle and feel safe.

A very long post to really just say that I’m trying not to sweat the small stuff. It’s a work in progress, but I know that we’re all so much happier when we can manage our stress and just take life one day at a time and make the best of everything. I didn’t realize just how anal I could be about little things until this past weekend when we were gardening and then decided to fill the water table. Normally I would have been more careful about the kids not getting their clothes really dirty and would have tried to contain the messes more, but it doesn’t bother me as much anymore. I kind of like that I’m able to just shrug my shoulders at possibly ruined clothes and not care if they get completely soaked while not in their swimwear. Who cares! I want to be just as carefree as my munchkins.

Anyhoo…

I had my first acupuncture appointment on Monday and I’m feeling hopeful. I have an herb blend I’m taking now and didn’t have any negative reaction so the needles, so with a little work I’m hoping the whole hives issue can be resolved. As expected, I need to make some dietary changes, and so I’m doing that slowly. I haven’t dropped everything cold turkey, but I’m trying to cut back a lot on things like dairy and gluten and processed items and eat more proteins and greens. Actually, as he gave examples it sounded a lot like a paleo diet, so perhaps I should look into doing a Whole 30. I don’t know if I have the willpower, though… I haven’t given up my chocolate and last night I confess I may have stress eaten one too many rolls… whoops. Tomorrow is another day and I can try again. I already switched to gluten free oatmeal and coconut milk yogurt, so there’s that! As our friend Daniel Tiger would say, “Try, try, try, try, try it again!” 😉

Another rainy weekend ahead

Okay, Minnesota, what’s up with the rain every weekend? We had intended on doing work outside, but it looks like that probably won’t be happening this weekend after all. Instead, I’ll be running lots of errands tomorrow morning and maybe we’ll still try and get out and do something with the kiddos. Granted, there’s a lot to do around the house, but getting out is always nice and so are distractions.

My chronic urticara (hives) have been really bad the past few days despite taking antihistamines three times a day. It’s like having PUPPS all over again, which any pregnant woman will tell you is misery. Funnily enough, the hives are worse on my belly (just like with PUPPS); the antihistamines are working everywhere else, but not on my stomach. Because of the constant discomfort, and the fact that I already feel constantly stoned thanks to the meds, I’ve decided to go a different route. I’m going to try Traditional Chinese Medicine and see an acupuncturist on Monday in the hopes that something will work and give me either relief or a cure.

He did, however mention potentially changing my diet and I googled some elimination diets that are sometimes used when trying to treat hives… I will give it a go, but I’m not going to lie – giving up some of my favorite foods will be torture. Not sure which is worse… constant itching or not getting to eat chocolate. :p

Let’s talk oils…

There really is so much to say about essential oils and so much information out there, along with a large number of suppliers. It can be easy to become overwhelmed, which is why I started doing my own research and joined several groups that helped navigate the waters. One of the most confusing things for me was getting around the information that the MLMs were handing out. Have they actually even trained in aromatherapy? If so, they wouldn’t encourage their customers and sellers to use their expensive oils neat (undiluted) and to ingest them on a daily basis. If used properly, oils can last the average person quite a while. I won’t go into safety now, but oils are not meant to be casually ingested and they are just as effective when diffused or diluted in carrier oil when used on the skin. Plus, there is a risk of sensitization if oils are regularly used undiluted. Anyway, I digress…

It was all of this information floating around that really made me decide to become a certified aromatherapist. I feel like the information will be useful not only for our family, but hopefully for friends as well. Obviously it would be great if I could make a living creating products for other people, but I’m going to just wait and see what happens with that. In the meantime, the knowledge is good to have and I hope I can help educate other people in the use of essential oils.

While I’m not a fan of MLMs and probably will never purchase oils from them just because I don’t like their business practices, there are many places to shop for oils that are reasonably priced and offer high quality products. One thing to keep in mind is that there are MANY sellers of oils, but really only so many distillers, so it’s highly likely that many stores are selling oils from the same places. There is not just one company selling 100% therapeutic grade oil because all essential oils are technically therapeutic. Granted, there are some companies that sell oils with additives and synthetic ingredients, and that is something you want to watch out for. The more open a company is about sharing where the oil is from, different testing reports, safety information, the more comfortable I feel with that company.

One of my favorite essential oil companies right now is Plant Therapy. They not only have amazing customer service, but they have an informative blog, a helpful Facebook group, and a great Kid Safe line that we love. I don’t remember how I stumbled across them, but I’m so happy I did. Some other favorites include Aromatics International, Stillpoint Aromatics, and Mountain Rose Herbs to name a few. I’m still testing out other brands and companies as I go along since I also plan on making lotions, bath salts, massage oils, lip balms, and whatever else comes to mind as I get more into it and will need lots of supplies.

I’m so looking forward to sharing my knowledge with my friends and family, though, and more importantly the oils themselves. Part of my certification includes case studies and a paper, so I’ll be needing guinea pigs in the near future who will be willing to let me mix up some special blends for them and officially be my first clients on this very fun journey. I’m going to hopefully have a separate blog page soon strictly for oils as I hope for this to become a way of life, and think it will be useful to have the information in one place.

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures