Quick Tummy Trouble Relief

I can’t remember where I first read this little trick, but all I know is that it works and is almost too easy. Easy enough that I stored it away in my memory and used it out of desperation once, only to discover it really does work.

Next time you start having digestive issues, try adding 2 drops of peppermint essential oil to a tall glass of water. I like to sip the water over time, but my fiance, who hates the taste of peppermint, just chugs it as fast as he can to get it over with (and if he’s willing to do that it must work well because he thinks all my natural remedies are so “weird”).

Peppermint works by calming your digestive muscles, allowing things to pass and calm down, thus relieving your discomfort. It definitely seems works since anyone I have ever had try it has said they felt much better within 10-15 minutes. I keep a small bottle of oil in my purse so I always have it handy.

*If you are pregnant, or have a diagnosed condition that would cause you to have digestive issues, please use caution when trying this remedy. I have seen some articles that said peppermint can help those who suffer from conditions such as IBS, but I would encourage you to do your own research before trying this natural remedy. Please also use caution when giving this to children. I would not recommend it for any child under the age of two and would suggest diluting the peppermint oil even more for any child under 13.

Try it any let me know what you think.

What other natural digestive remedies have you tried?

*Hey! Please remember I not a doctor or expert. I’m just passing on knowledge to you. Please don’t think that just because something works for me, it will automatically work for you too. Use your own judgement and do your own research before trying anything.

Homemade Recipes Reference Box

I love homemade and I much rather make something myself. Especially if it also means a safer product and saving money. Thanks to Pinterest and my general research (but mostly Pinterest) I’ve gathered a ton of recipes for all things natural and homemade.

But as I started to make some of these things I discovered a problem. I was jotting the recipes down when I went to go use them, but then I was ending up with a pile of scribbled recipes on post-it notes, the back of reused envelopes, and scrap paper. I also released I was finding it hard to track down a specific recipe I wanted quickly among the 100 plus pins on my board. Or I had returned the book it was found in to the library.

I needed a way to organize and save all these recipes.

Enter the homemade recipes reference box.

Otherwise known as, a hacked regular old recipe box that holds recipes for do-it-yourselfing to the extreme.

I simply bought a pretty recipe box off of Amazon.com and reinvented it. Here’s how I did it.

I started by creating a template in Apple’s Pages software (if you want it, just ask, but it will only work in Pages, sorry if you’re stuck with Microsoft Word). I actually started making the cards before I bought the box, but knew I wanted to create cards that would fit in a 4×6 box. Unfortunately, the standard 8.5×11 paper size doesn’t cater to this well, so I settled on 4×5.5 inch cards so that I could get four cards out of each page.

Then I started typing. And typing.

And typing.

I probably had close to 100 recipes typed before I actually printed them out. They are just printed on regular old white card stock.

This is what I then used to develop my categories. After I had cut them all down with my paper cutter, I sorted them in to piles with like recipes. I then tried to figure out general categories. Some were easy, like hair care or household, but others were more difficult. I also realized I needed subcategories. I used 4×6 index file card guides for this.

The categories I ended up with are:

• Personal Care (with oral and facial care subcategories)
• Skin Care
• Hair Care (with clean, condition, treat, and style subcategories)
• Make-Up
• Household (with kitchen, bathroom and laundry subcategories)
• Healthcare (with first aid, girly stuff, outdoors, and sickness subcategories)
• Baby and Child
• Pet Care

You can obviously make your own categories, or make adjustments to my list to suit your needs.

As I’ve continued to add recipes, I’ve sometimes added a subcategory, and these will probably continue to evolve and change as I continue to use it.

Right now my box has about 150 recipes in it, and I can foresee need to add another box eventually. But for now, it works great!

I have recipes that cover most of the basics and have found myself reaching for the box when looking for a solution to something (which is the whole idea, right). I’ve even been on the phone with someone a couple times and found myself telling them “hold on, I have a recipe for that!” Of course that’s usually followed by, “um, I don’t have any of those ingredients.” I need to get my friends a little more crunchy.

I’ve also found it a very helpful way to find areas where I’m lacking recipes and even add to my ingredients stockpile. I can make most the basics, but there’s a lot of specialty ingredients I don’t have. I’ve started to keep a running list, based on the recipes in my box, which is helpful when I go to place an order for something, but need to add a few items in order to make shipping worth it.

Now I know what you’re thinking. It’s “I really hope she’s going to share a download of all those recipes,” it’s it? I really wish I could honestly, but because they are not my own, I don’t feel that it would be right to do so. You can however find most all the recipes (except for the few I copied from books borrowed from the library) on my Pinterest boards. That will save you the time of hunting for them yourself. (If you need a Pinterest invite, just ask!) I was actually surprised at how little time it took me to type up a page of cards. It depended some on what the recipes were, but it wasn’t nearly as daunting as I thought it might be.

As I add my own recipes, I’ll try to type up pages of printable recipes so that my recipes are at least ready to go. Some other bloggers do this too, and usually in the 4×6 format, so keep and eye out for that too.

Please don’t think I sat down and did this all at once either. I’ve actually been working on it for months. Sometimes I’ll sit down and type up a page or two. Other times I’ll type 6-7 pages. I’ve just slowly been going at it.

It’s an ongoing project that will continue probably indefinitely.

And that’s half the idea.

Chemical Detox

Although I’ve never done a detox, I know plenty of people who have.  I also know a lot of people who sort of “detox” by no longer eating processed foods and eating as organic as possible instead. And the other week I got the bug to detox.

But not my body.

See I fully believe eating better will certainly make you feel better. And yes, there are some definite health benefits (and environmental benefits too if you’re trying to eat organic and locally). But the more and more I’ve researched after doing my “What’s in your face wash?” post, I’m not sure it will make as big of a difference if you are still using products full of chemicals.

I’ve recently found myself, now armed with my new knowledge and understanding, wanting lecture people who talk up how they eat all organic foods, recycle and compost, drive their Prius, and then go spritz hair spray all over themselves. Why? Because, they pretty much just counteracted all that goodness they put into their bodies with that hair spray, and probably the shampoo and conditioner they washed their hair with earlier too.

I’ll have more on ingredients later, but just trust me here (it’s a lot to write up, I’m working on it). At the end I’m going to go ahead and give you some easy steps to take to detox your own products. I couldn’t just torture you with my ramblings.

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My family started a chemical detox of our house a couple of years ago, and I’ve done a detox of my personal care products in the last 6 months. But there was one area I still had to detox.

My dresser drawers.

I’ll be honest, one reason it was such a major mess was because I don’t really touch anything in those drawers. Which was a good reason why it needed to be cleaned out. But I was also ready to get rid of the last remaining hazards to my health.

I also found lots of interesting things.

Like my retainer that I’m still suppose to wearing a couple nights a week.

Oops.

I panicked this fall because I thought I was out of albuterol for my nebulizer. Nope, just buried deep in my drawer. Although look at that expiration date, probably was time for some new stuff anyways.

Who remembers these?!

Mine still contained all my things that were in there for my last ballet recital as a senior. I still haven’t been able to bring myself to clean it out.

These actually work great in hair.

Another flash back for you! Bon Bons mini nail polish bottles! I used to love these because I could buy quite a few with only one week’s worth of allowance.

After I was done, I had a bin of products, every single one containing at least one, more often lots, of harmful chemicals.

My issue then became what to do with all of it. I considered it toxic waste, but my state did not (a few states do, so check on that). I did have some good recyclables though.

These bottles are a nice small size and have a fine mist, so I saved them to be cleaned out.

I’ve been wanting to make my own deodorant, so I’m glad I’m weird and saved almost used up deodorants.

I saved a few other items, but most just went into the recycling after I emptied them.

I emptied into a plastic bag, but I’d highly recommend emptying into a jar of some sort. It got quite messy and well, just trust me here.

Interesting thing to note was that as I started pouring out all these products, I could smell the chemicals like never before. Some of the stuff were items that I used to use on an almost daily basis. Funny how we get used to smells. I know I wouldn’t have used them had I thought they smelled like chemicals, and because I had become used to the smell I didn’t notice.

I also developed a major headache while dumping out the contents.

But don’t worry, I cured it by smelling some rosemary and peppermint essential oils.

Ahhhh… yay for all natural!

Another interesting thing I noticed was how many bottles gave the illusion that they were natural and safe, yet were anything but that when you read the ingredients list. Which is why I’m working on putting together some more information about how to read ingredient list because well, labels cannot be trusted.

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Now it’s your turn to detox. You don’t have to do it all at once, although you are certainly welcome to. But for most of us, it can be overwhelming (and time consuming) to do it that way. Here are some steps you can take to detox your daily routine.

1. Research

Crunchy Betty, Keeper of the Home, and Pinterest are three of my favorite places to look for new ideas. I have a couple boards on Pinterest with ideas for all-natural, do-it-yourself personal and home care products. (If you need an invite to Pinterest, please feel free to send me a message!) You’ll get an idea of the types of things you can make (anything and everything), what you want to try, and what you think would be easiest for you to try first. (Yes, start with easy first! Something as simple as swapping your face wash.)

2. Gather

Gather all the products you use every day. With the ideas you researched choose one or two things to make and replace each week. Keep in mind some items may require specialty ingredients. Plan ahead and make purchases accordingly. Try to choose recipes that incorporate some of the same ingredients versus ones that would require purchasing a new set of ingredients. This will help keep it from becoming too expensive. Good places for ingredients and supplies are Amazon.com, Mountain Rose Herbs, TKBTrading, and Specialty Bottle.

3. Make

Making your own stuff is quite fun, fulfilling, and actually not all that time consuming, especially once you get the hang of things. If you stager what you make, things shouldn’t run out at the same time, which will make it easier for you to manage keeping up with making you own things. And if something doesn’t work for you, look for something else. There are many different ways to do/make one thing.

4. Keep Going

After you’ve replaced the items you use daily, move on to things you use less frequently and branch out from personal care products to things like cleaning products and health care.

But you say what if I don’t want to make my own stuff?

I suggest making your own stuff for two reasons. One, because it’s cheaper in the long run, much cheaper. Two, because I still spot supposedly safe alternatives that contain questionable ingredients. The easiest way, I feel, to know you are using safe products is to make them yourself. You know everything in them is safe.

If you still want to purchase your products, I suggest visiting a local natural foods store. We have Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Mom’s Organic Market, and The Natural Market in our area, all which are chain stores, so check to see if you have one of them, or another store locally. They all carry products that will probably be much safer than what you were previously using.

It’s really not that hard. Start small and roll with it. That’s how I got going. Before you know it you’ll be well on your way to a much healthier you!