Why I LOVE essential oils

I absolutely love essential oils! These are my current favorites from www.planttherapy.com. I use them to energize, relax, calm, keep bugs away, clear up stuffy noses, relieve headaches, keep sick-bugs away, and much more. I love diffusing essential oils, putting a few drops in the shower, and even using them to make some of my favorite home-made products. As with everything else in the world, you must use essential oils with caution since adults and children can have negative reactions and none of the claims below are FDA approved. Make sure you use carrier oils to dilute essential oils before applying to your skin.

Why I love lavender: I love lavender because of its calming effects. I also love it because I can apply it directly to my children's skin to help heal skin from things such as bug bites, minor burns, and eczema. Lavender is also a great scent to add into laundry soap or the shower. It is also known to help relieve tension headaches.

Sniffle Stopper: This essential oil is a blend of fir needle, rosalina, spruce, cypress, spearmint, and cedarwood virginian. I simply love the smell of this product! It reminds me of walking through a forest. I use this blend of essential oils when we are congested. It does a great job of helping us breathe easier. I also mix Sniffle Stopper with coconut oil to make my very own vapor-rub to apply to my children's chest and just blow their nose when the diffuser is just not enough to fight their congestion.


Moving on to Citronella and Lemongrass: I am talking about these two oils together because I use both to make my homemade Bug Spray since they are both great at repelling bugs. Both oils have an uplifting, citrusy-scent. I love adding either one of these essential oils to my shower in the morning to wake me up! Citronella essential oil can also be used for fever-reduction, anxiety, muscle-spasm, and infected wounds. Lemongrass essential oil is great for pain relief in muscles and joints, depression, insomnia, deodorant, and fighting greasy skin.

Immune Boom: This essential oil is a blend of lemon, palmarosa, dill, petitgrain, copaiba, and frankincense carteri. My kids say this blend of oils reminds them of dill pickles. I love Immune Boom because it helps build my children's immune system which is important to me, especially during cold and flu season. I diffuse this blend of oils through out the cold and flu season so that we get sick less often. When my youngest had a stomach bug about a month ago, I followed everyone around the house with Immune Boom encouraging them to smell it. No one else got the stomach bug so I am definitely a fan of this oil!


Last but not least, Peppermint: Peppermint is another one of my favorite essential oils. This is a great oil to diffuse to help clear up congestion. I also like putting a few drops in my shower to help wake me up in the morning. Peppermint essential oil is great at reducing fevers, pain relief, headaches, stomach aches, and other abdominal issues.

A little at a time

I have recently had conversations with a lot of people about healthy eating. People have been asking me questions about how I shop and how my husband feels about all of these changes. They want to know my secret because they are interested in eating better. Do you want to know my secret? Start with a little at a time. That's it! It really is as simple as that.

When I began to eat healthier almost two years ago, that is what I did. I started educating myself on the different ingredients that where in the products I was purchasing. I began to find healthier versions of the things that I was buying and gradually shifted a few products every week. I also try to stay away from anything in a box, bag, or can as much as possible. I closely monitor everything that comes in my house. I also try to purchase almost all fruits, vegetables, beans, and eggs. We typically stay away from everything else. We eat fish, chicken, pork, and beef but do not eat these things very frequently.

Do you want to know another secret? When you eat products that are actually made from FOOD it tastes so much better and is so much more satisfying! Plus, it is good for your body. Who would have thought that eating food is better than eating all of those fake products being sold as food? In fact, most packaged products taste bad to me now! There are times when I cave and eat things that I shouldn't but I am in a much better place nutritionally than I was two years ago.

Another question I get asked a lot is, what do I eat when I am not at my house? I avoid fast food restaurants! I look for restaurants that I know use higher quality ingredients. I eat what ever is being served when I go to a friends house for dinner, however, I typically stay away from meat and lean towards plain fruit and vegetables as much as possible. I ask questions, I read labels, I make it a conscience effort to monitor what I ingest. The more educated I become, the more I believe that you are what you eat and your body reacts accordingly.

 I am continuing to educate myself on the products I purchase and making healthier purchases when I find better alternatives. It can seem overwhelming at times but then I remember that I only need to focus on a little at a time.

Something better in your laundry

The problem with me learning all about the chemicals added to our food products and cleaning products is that the list of products I deem acceptable to purchase gets smaller and smaller. That being said, I needed to find a new product to replace my laundry detergent. 

That led me to trying two products from Abe's Market (I LOVE this online store!). 

The first product I tried was Eco Nuts Organic Laundry Soap. This product is dried berry shells (with the pits removed since the pits will stain clothes if left in) that you place in a wash bag and toss in the washing machine. They are reusable, scent-free, and last for approximately 10 loads of laundry. Another great thing about this product is that it comes in plastic-free packaging.  

I loved the idea of this product, however, after the fifth use I did not find them to be very effective (clothes my youngest son had an accident in still smelled like urine after being washed). I do not think I would purchase this product again since it did not last as long as the box claimed it would. I need a product that works well for me and Eco Nuts did not. 

It was time to try the second product from Abe's Market (did I mention how much I LOVE this store?!?). The next product was Molly's Suds Laundry Powder. This product contains: sodium carbonate sourced from the Green River Basin in Wyoming, sodium bicarbonate, magnesium sulfate (heptahydrate), unrefined sea salt, and organic peppermint (menthe piperita) oil. You place 1 tablespoon (1/2 tablespoon if using a high efficiency machine) of the laundry powder in the tub of the washing machine. 

I loved using this product! It has a great scent and does a great job of cleaning my clothes. I would highly recommend that you purchase this product. I found out that the makers of this product named it after their still-born daughter. Their story is heartbreaking and inspires me to learn more about the ingredients that are in products I use. There are too many negative side-effects associated with the chemicals included in the products we use daily.  

 

Avoid These Ingredients

Why are we still eating these ingredients?

There are many food products on the shelves in your local grocery store that are banned in other countries because they contain toxic ingredients. One of the first things I started doing when I began my journey of living a life less toxic was reading labels. As my journey continues, I try to avoid the packaged foods altogether in order to keep from the toxic temptations. When you begin to read labels, you will be amazed by the amount of ingredients packaged products contain. You will also begin to increase your list of ingredients to avoid. At least, that has been my experience this far. Here is a link to a basic list of ingredients to try to begin to avoid:  http://www.shape.com/blogs/shape-your-life/13-banned-foods-still-allowed-us   

Lemongrass Essential Oil

Lemongrass Essential Oil

This is another one of those "new" products I love to use and it is so versatile. I use this to make our own bug spray as seen here http://simplygoodforyou.blogspot.com/2014/07/bug-spray.html

Lemongrass essential oil is also good at preventing wounds from becoming septic, fighting acne and greasy skin, calming the mind (great for people who suffer from anxiety), reducing fevers, and can also be used for soothing muscular nerves and pain. 

When trying out essential oils, use caution since they can cause reactions in some people. There are so many great ways to use lemongrass essential oil. I encourage you to search the internet to find lots of different recipes to fit your specific needs! I enjoy to find new ways to use products I love. 

Bug Spray

Mosquito Season...

I don't know about you but I LOVE to go outside during the summer and enjoy the beautiful Michigan weather. My family and I frequently go on camping trips in order to fully enjoy everything a Michigan summer has to offer. What I could do without are all of the swarms of mosquitoes and the itchy bites they inevitably produce. 

Since I am trying to live a life less toxic, the bug spray we used to purchase is out of the question... My husband also wanted to try making our own bug spray since store-bought bug spray tends to be sticky on your skin.

Here is the recipe we used to make our own bug spray:

• 40 drops of Citronella essential oil
• 40 drops of Lemongrass essential oil
• 4 oz of rubbing alcohol
• 4 oz of water

We put all of the ingredients in an 8 oz spray bottle, shake before use, and spray liberally.

We used this spray on our last camping trip. I must say, it felt like nothing was on our skin and it seemed to work moderately well. We each had a couple of mosquito bites on areas that we neglected (hands, feet, back of neck) but I was pretty impressed.

We took a walk at dusk along a strip of land between a wooded area and Lake Erie. This is prime time and the perfect location for lots of mosquitoes. The mosquitoes were buzzing in our ears and we came out with minimal damage. I will definitely be using this again (especially in our less bug-infested backyard) since the ingredients are good and it was so simple to make. I will also be on the look out for a more effective recipe!  

Vinegar!

Vinegar!

I absolutely love using vinegar to do tasks that I used to buy other products to accomplish. I think my favorite part about using vinegar for so many things is that it isn't toxic! There are so many chemicals and nasty ingredients in the products vinegar has replaced in my house. I use it daily and love finding new uses for it. 

I love putting vinegar in the bleach compartment in my washing machine. My clothes smell better and seem to look nice for a longer amount of time.

I also love mixing equal parts of vinegar and water in a spray bottle in order to clean all around the house. I use this spray on windows, tables, toilets, sinks, and many other household objects. It is great at cleaning all of these items and my children can help out with out being exposed to toxic chemicals. 

You can also use it to: rinse your hair after you shampoo, remove stains and odors, keep bugs away, relieve mosquito bites and sunburns 

When you do a search on all of the ways you can use vinegar the results seem to be endless. I can't wait to keep trying vinegar in different ways!