Monday Thrive!

I know I haven't blogged in ages! I had a lot of stuff going over the past few months. I just needed to take a break.

1) I thought I would share a couple of recent purchases from Amazon. Who hates bra shopping? It kills me to spend $40-100 on a bra that will last for about 6 months. Ugh! Not only do they not last that long, but the process of trying to find one to fit is the biggest pain ever! I usually buy my bras from Lane Bryant. They fit me the best, quality is great and you can find a sale most of the time.

Well I decided to take a chance with Amazon and order this bra for $16.99. The nice thing with Amazon Prime is you can return things if they don't work. Well this bra is AMAZING!!!! I noticed the price keeps changing. Watch it and you can get it for under $20. Once the first one fit great I ordered a second one!

2) I don't think it's a secret how much I love coconut oil! I use that stuff all the time. I use it to take my eye make up off every night. I have been using it over my eczema before I put the other cream on it. It really has helped heal my skin nicely! I use it to cook the majority of the time. 

Amazon had a full gallon on for $17.99. Normally I buy it at Costco where it is $17.99 for half that amount. I was sooooo excited when my sister told me about this deal. I quickly ordered a gallon! I think this should last us for a few months. 

3) I have spent the past 3 months going through every closet, cupboard, dresser, shelf in this house getting rid of stuff. I decided in 2018 we were going to live simpler. Why do we have so much stuff sitting in cupboards just taking up space? Stuff we never ever use. I have taken sooooo much stuff to the thrift store lately. I think I have taken about 10 car loads. That is just awful! I have sold some things. Just the thought of trying to deal with a garage sale was exhausting. I haven't missed one thing that I have donated. I mean can you really miss things that have sat in the back of a closet for years? It is also so nice to open a cupboard or closet and see space.

4) I have been following Emily Ley on Facebook and Instagram. She has such great tips to simply life. Normally I do all our laundry on the weekend. I sort piles and do 3-5 loads on Saturday. I hate this and have for awhile. I mean the last thing I want to do on the weekend is laundry. I don't know why it's more irritating to me on the weekend then during the week. Well Emily suggested doing 1 load of laundry a day. Just grab whatever clothes are dirty, don't sort, use color safe detergent, put the washer on a short load and do 1 load a day. I started doing this around the first of the year. I don't have enough laundry with 3 people to do a load a day. I try to do it when the basket is looking a little full. It's so nice not to have this take up my weekend. Art doesn't ever run out of work shirts. G doesn't run out of pants. That boy goes through a lot of pants during the week.

Emily also says complete the entire load of laundry. You can just wash & dry it and leave it in a basket for week. You do everything all at one time. When it's done washing move it to the drier and as soon as it's dry fold and put it away! I have always been good about folding it right out of the drier. I do not like to iron or steam stuff. If I take it right from the drier it is very unlikely I have to iron or steam things.

5) I have a large closet that is FULL of clothes. When I worked I always wanted TONS of options. After I lost weight I bought a lot of clothes. It was soooo nice to be able to just go into any store and buy clothes. This was a new exciting thing for me. Now I stay home and I wear jeans almost every day. I have been going through my closet and getting rid of stuff. Stuff I know I don't even like, doesn't fit right and stuff I am just over. I have gotten rid of a TON of stuff.

I turned all my hangers around with all my shirts. When I wear one of them I put the hanger back in the correct way. It has helped me wear stuff I don't always wear. It is also helping me to see things I probably won't ever wear again. I want to give it a good 6 months before I decide on things. With the different seasons I can't get rid of short sleeve shirts in the winter.

When I have less clothes it is easier to get dressed. There is less stuff distracting me as to what to wear. I also sort all my clothes by colors. All my tshirts are in one section, all my button up or dressier tops in another section and my cardigans in one section. I keep everything sorted.

I am not including my dresses or skirts in the backward hanger challenge. I only wear them when it's warm. I have so few that I don't feel I need to get rid of any right now. I have gotten rid of a TON of dresses and skirts lately. Stuff that I wore to business meetings at work. Thing I don't see myself wearing. Even if I went back to work I would need to update somethings.

Weekly Menu - Paleo Friendly

I mainly use coconut oil or ghee for cooking. I buy both of them at Costco in bulk. The container of coconut oil lasts me a couple months and runs about $20. I use this to cook, take my make up off, lotion, bullet proof coffee and whatever else I might need to use an oil. It does take some getting use too. Art isn't a big fan when the coconut oil flavor is prominent. I have noticed if I use salt it helps to mask the flavor a lot. I honestly don't even notice it anymore. When other people use other types of oils to cook with I don't really like them now. I can taste the difference, but the coconut flavor doesn't other me. I love chicken fried in ghee! That is just the best taste to me.

Main Dishes:

Hamburgers - I love hamburgers on the grill. I bought some butter lettuce to wrap burgers in this week.

Shepherds pie - I will try to share the recipe I use for this. I buy some frozen veggies, make my own gravy, make some mash potatoes and throw it all in my cast iron skillet in the oven.

Cracklin Chicken - if you haven't tried Nom Nom Paleo's cracklin chicken you need too!!!!!!!!!!! It's the BEST!!!! Use some ghee to fry this chicken. Ok I am craving this now!

Buffalo Chicken Soup - this is a new recipe I want to try.

Chicken Curry - I haven't made curry in ages. I usually just throw in whatever veggies we have and put it over cauliflower rice.

Sausage - This is an easy meal. Throw some sausage on the grill!

Happy Menu Planning!

Put your Health 1st in 2017!

My life was changed in May 2016 when I was encouraged to start eating Paleo by my doctor. I was having so many health issues. I honestly thought within a couple years I would need a cane or wheel chair. I felt horrible! I could barely go for a walk without needing to rest for a couple days. I was barely able to get the normal daily tasks done. Chasing a toddler was extremely exhausting. 

The thought of never eating bread or dairy again was very overwhelming. I am German and Italian....seriously no pasta or bread? Do you know how I was raised? I was raised on flour based foods. Then I remembered when I did the HCG diet. I lost 80 pounds not eating foods with flour. I felt really great when I was doing certain stages of that diet which didn't have gluten or dairy. If I was able to do it before, so I could do it again. 

I had my entire grocery list made out on a Thursday when I was encouraged to change my diet. I told my doctor ok well I guess I will go home and make a whole new grocery list. And I did! I totally changed what I fed myself and my family. I am not going to make different meals for George or Art. If it wasn't healthy for me to be eating all these things then my toddler maybe shouldn't be eating those things either. 

During this time I came across Dr. Wahls. Another life changing event. I started following the Wahls Protocol. As I would read her book I just couldn't imagine how my body would even start to heal with just foods. I was willing to take the chance. If it worked for her then it might help me. She was a lot worse off then I was, but I felt my health was headed to a bad place like Dr. Wahls experienced. 

Fast forward to the present. Eating the Paleo diet has not changed my cancer at all. I have actually had additional growth on some of the cancer spots. My MS has changed drastically. If you have read previous posts and new posts that will be coming out you will see my fitness level has greatly improved. Right now I can see my life not needing a cane or wheel chair. 

Over Christmas I ate some non-Paleo food items. Oh boy! Usually I am SUPER careful about what I eat. I decided to allow myself to eat somethings I liked in the past. Lesson learned it isn't worth it. My body was achy, stomach hurt, bloating, and just feeling like garbage. I can't do dairy period! 

If you have any health issues I HIGHLY recommend you try eating the Paleo diet! It really has been life changing for me. I will say the first 4-6 weeks were super hard. It got boring trying to figure out what I could eat and getting sick of the same things. I felt I wouldn't be able to ever eat out at a restaurant. Over the past few months I have been able to change recipes to make them Paleo friendly. When a recipe calls for milk I use coconut milk. When it calls for butter I use ghee. Flour - I use tapioca starch or almond flour. You slowly start to learn what substitutes for things. You also learn to look ahead at menus and pick items you can eat when you eat out. You can ask them to hold certain ingredients and let them know your food allergies. 

Some people are able to add cheese and rice back into their diets without experiencing any problems. I think it all depends on your health and body. I can't add those things back in. I tried and it didn't work for me. I don't think you can expect to see a huge difference in how you feel within a couple days. When I look back to how I felt in April of 2016 to how I feel in December 2016 it is night and day. 

Getting to a healthy place isn't a sprint. You have to take it like a marathon. Slow and steady. 

1. Start to get some sleep! Your body needs sleep badly! So many people don't sleep properly. You need 7-9 hours of sleep each night. If you aren't able to sleep at night try to get a little nap. A 20 minute nap for me really helped heal my body. I use to nap 4-6 days a week for about 20-30 minutes. Now I rarely nap. I still love my Sunday afternoon nap while listening to a football game. Something so calming about those naps. 

2. Change the foods you eat! If you are eating processed food and feel terrible...shocker it's probably because it is processed. How can you expect your body to process these foods? If it has a package of dry ingredients did that come from a field? That is going to sit in your body for who knows how long trying to figure out how to process it. I could go on and on about this. 

3. Exercise! Even if it's for 20 minutes a few times a week. Find something you like. Take your kids for a walk to feed the ducks that crappy bread you shouldn't be eating. lol YouTube has a lot of free workouts. I love Chris Freytag workouts. You can find a lot of them on YouTube. 

4. Start reading the labels of the products you use. Look up ingredients on products to figure out exactly what is in the product. If your lotion has some strange things listed on it google those words. You will probably find out you are putting harmful chemicals on your body. 

You can't jump into this all head first. I did things slowly. I did the food, sleep, exercise and then products. I still struggle with sleep. It is midnight and here I am writing a blog post. Tomorrow I will probably need a nap. MS is a killer for messing with your sleep. Sometimes sleep aids work and something they don't. 

Kale Chips

I had a bunch of kale in my fridge a couple weeks ago. I washed the leaves, laid them on a cookie sheet, drizzled coconut oil over the leave and sprinkled parmesan cheese over the top. Baked at 400 for about 10 minutes. I had planned to have it along side of our dinner. Well half the pan was ate even before dinner was finished. They were AMAZING!!! 

I had to make them again just so I could get a picture. Art even loved them! Please do not used the powdered container of that so called parm cheese.  That is NOT parm cheese. It is a can of chemicals. Buy some REAL parm cheese in the cheese section of your grocery store. You will thank me later you used the real stuff on these kale chips! 

Coconut Oil

I LOVE LOVE LOVE coconut oil! I use it for so many things cooking, hair, and skin. It is my go to stuff!

A couple weeks ago I did a coconut oil mask on my hair. I watched a youtube video on it and decided to try it now months later. I heated up some coconut oil in a microwave safe container. I then took a pastry brush and started brushing it on my hair. I brushed it on the ends of my hair first and then brushed it all over my roots once I was completely finished with the ends. My roots get greasy fast, so I thought my ends could use a good soak in oil. I left it in my hair for about 30-45 minutes. I then washed it out with shampoo and then conditioned it like normal. My hair has been very dry lately possibly due to all my thyroid issues. My hair has been super soft since I did the hair mask. I will probably do it once a month. 

I use coconut oil each morning on my hair. I melt a pea size piece of coconut oil in between my fingers each morning and then run it through the ends of my hair. This really helps with keeping all the frizz gone. If I use coconut oil before styling I do not have to worry with frizz. 

I use coconut oil after I have washed my hair and before I blow it dry. Same process as before I start styling it. I take a pea size piece of coconut oil, melt it between my fingers, and run it through the ends of my hair. This helps protect my hair from heat damage. I also add additional coconut oil to the ends of my hair after I have blown my hair dry to help reduce any frizziness. 

I also use coconut oil on my skin and as an eye make up remover. I woke up after surgery to find a blister on my arm. I started putting coconut oil on my arm and a couple months alter the scar is almost done. 
I also use coconut oil to remove my eye make sometimes. If you have pesky eye make that will not come off rub a little coconut oil over your eyes and it will come right off. I also will put coconut oil on my face to help avoid wrinkles! I try to really moisturize at night to keep my skin young looking :)
I have put coconut oil on my scar where I had my thyroid removed. I use a lot of different things on my neck, so I am not sure if it is helping heal the scar or if the magic bee stuff I am use is working wonders. 

Coconut oil is my very favorite natural product for anything and everything. I have been threatening Sammy I am going to start putting it on his hair/skin if he doesn't stop itching himself.