My Mother's Beauty Cabinet

Growing up, probably like every teenager, I began to think my mom was crazy.. well in my defense, she was a little and I'm pretty sure she'd agree. My mom was a hippie when hippies were cool and she has carried that nature with her ever since. But on top of being down to earth and quite eccentric my mom had a growing love for health and healthy living. This lead to countless questions, as I grew up, about what was in my lunchbox and why was I back in school a day after having strep throat feeling much better and WHAT NOT ON ANTIBIOTICS!?!?! (thank you mom for not explaining to me that now the world thought I was a walking virus!!) But that is a subject for another blog. Today I am here to discuss aging and beauty.

As I near my 30's my happy go lucky outlook on aging is harder to keep. I used to say whole hardheartedly that I didn't dread aging. That gray hair was beautiful and wrinkly skin told a story of laughter and smiles and yes some hardships. But as I look around I see less and less people aging gracefully and I look in the mirror and am sad to think one day, no matter what I do, this face will look drastically different. There is no stopping aging or death for that matter. Modern medicine and technology tries everything they can to stall this process but there is no cure. So we are better off embracing it and vow to do our best to take care of our bodies the best we can while we have them. On that note, there is nothing wrong with doing what we can, to help our bodies, especially our faces, age more gracefully.

I look at my mom today and finally see what all the many people in our past have seen. Damn woman you look amazing for your age and SEVEN kids!!!!! I'm mean just look at this face!

My Mom in 2007 at age 49

Isn't she beautiful??!! I think it is also important to note that at 19 my mom was in a horrible car accident where glass cut and was embedded all over her face. If you ask she can point out a few of the scars but for how horrible it was there is basically no sign of it now. 

Sadly a year after this picture was taken I saw both my parents age years in just a few months after the tragic death of my brother. While my mother's skin is still flawless there is a heaviness there that I've never seen before. She still looks beautiful and younger than her years by the way!!! (but that's the beauty of the face/eyes they are a road map to all the places you have been, good and bad).

So how has my mom maintained such brilliant, almost wrinkle free skin???? While she may have a few more tips then I have here, here are the things that I have seen my mother always slathering her body with. 

Number 1: Oil!!! specifically wheat germ or olive oil are what my mom uses. I personally don't like smelling either on my skin but the key point is oil. The main reason we wrinkle is because with age our bodies stop producing natural oils, specifically Vitamin E. Have you ever noticed that ethnicities with generally more oily skin don't wrinkle as much!!??! (oh you African American woman how I envy you in so many ways- born to dance, sing and never have wrinkles!!) So since I'd rather not smell like something you're about to cook I am sticking with Coconut oil and Vitamin E

Number 2: Face Soap???!! While I've seen my mom wash her face, I have no clue with what. That's because it is not part of her routine and she definitely does't use any store bought chemically laden crap (sorry this is a new frustration of mine) A quick rinse with some water or some grape seed wash and you're good to go. 

Number 3: This stuff!! Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay. Never heard of it??!! Well welcome my friend to one of the most rewarding yet irritating beauty secrets. This stuff is AWESOME and yet I don't use it as often as I'd like, cause it does take some time to dry and to wash off and my son insists on asking me every 2 minutes "what's on your face mommy" But every time I use it, I think I really need to do this more often. My mom has used this since I can remember. Green face and all walking around the house. She used to put it on us kids (directions recommend using it for the whole family) and we used to lay under a fan trying to make each other laugh so that the clay would crack and stretch as it dried (ouch!) I think this goes hand in hand with the not washing your face daily. Your body needs to keep it's natural oils, yes, but sometimes you just need a clean slate and all that gunk pulled out of there. 

          

                                                                                                     (Me with clay mask on)

Number 4: Dry Skin brushing. Among these many benefits Dry Skin Brushing helps the inevitable toxins to circulate like they are supposed to and hopefully not end up as often in your face

                       

Number 5: Eating Healthy and Drinking lots of water (my moms favorites are to add lemon juice or raw Apple Cider Vinegar to her water) . Isn't this the cure for everything!!?? These days it's so hard to know if you are eating healthy, even if you are trying to shop wise. I find myself making more and more of everything from scratch just cause I'm so tired of reading labels and being unsure if I remember if that ingredient was ok or not. In general if you try to eat mostly raw unprocessed foods, organic and GMO free if you can, you are pretty well covered. Our bodies are actually pretty amazing things and are designed to get rid of foreign bodies and toxins, it's just this overload of toxins and cells our bodies can't recognize that end up hurting us. Today there are hundreds of Natural diets out there and they are great stepping stones and guidelines for people. But part of taking care of our bodies is making sure that we have enjoyment in our lives. We don't have to over indulge but if sticking too, lets say, a Paleo or Vegan diet stresses you out, don't do it!! Don't eat a pint of ice cream a day either, just cause it makes you happy, but my philosophy on everything in life is BALANCE IS EVERYTHING. Take for instance water, one of the best things for your body right? Well yea but if I decided to drink 5 Gallons of water in one sitting it would be like poison to my body. You can't go around being scared to breath because the air is polluted (did you know the air inside your home is often more polluted than the air outside!?) This world is not perfect and there is no way to escape all evils but the more we try to keep the evils on the lower end the better off we will be.

Number 6: Multi Vitamins. My mom will tell you how to eat healthy all day long and then she will tell you the importance of vitamins. Sadly no matter how great the food or how healthy the body our bodies just are more often not able to get all the nutrients they need solely through our food anymore. So invest in your future and find a quality every day vitamin and take it.

Number 7: and this is general, use as many natural cosmetic products as possible. You will rarely see my mom with makeup and she'd probably tell you to invest in something made with natural ingredients. You will never see my mom put on aluminum laden deodorant!! I've got an awesome homemade recipe for that!! ( I will share on another post of all my homemade recipes that I have been working on). And generally anything else she puts on her body smells like earth or maybe lavender or sage. 

Number 8: Exercise.. yea yea yea .. we all here it but that's because it's true! We all know the benefits to exercise but do you take into account that it is great for your skin? Pushing all those toxins out helps it to not store up in places like your face. It tones your muscles and skin, gives you a natural glow and produces endorphins  that keep you uplifted and those worry wrinkles at bay! And probably more!! So get up and get moving! 

The important thing to take from all of this is that there is no one way. I am still working on intruding all natural soaps and products into my life. It's neither easy nor cheap but my mom is proof that the more natural way does result in gracefully aging. So will you join me as I slather my body with oil and sit at the computer typing away while the clay slowly dries and tightens around my lips??!! I hope so! and then we can all enjoy as we stare into the mirror at age 50 and think "damn I look hot!"

a Motherhood

As a little girl I never was the type to day dream about my future husband or even my wedding day. I didn’t even start thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up until late in middle school and when I did all I knew for sure is that I wanted to work with children. However, I did day dream about my future children and what kind of mom I would be. I thought about how I would make every little moment of their lives special with crazy lunches and snacks when they came home and experiences of fun and traveling. To be honest in all my day dreams there was never a husband, well there was but I never imagined him. I don’t know really how common or rather uncommon this is for other woman but I do feel out of touch watching Bridal shows, which I love, when the woman say this is what they imagined since they were a little girl. Brides aside, my point here is that it was in my bones to be a mother and now that the chaos of a newborn and the whirlwind the first two years creates on your body, mind and marriage is calming down I am finally able to find my true joy and contentness in being a mother. Don’t get me wrong I felt joy the second I held my son for the first time and every time I looked at his sweet face since that day. But parenthood is HARD ( I feel like I should bump up the font size to 100 for that word). It is! And there is no way of day dreaming the Happiness or Frustration that raising a child brings to your life. You just have to do it! In any case I find myself here with an amazingly smart yet stubborn Toddler rolling on the floor laughing hysterically and awing at the wonder in front of me and the next minute suppressing my inner Hulk and trying not to punch a hole in the wall because I am just too overloaded. But looking back I love every minute of it and would rather be here staying at home with my son then any of my 50 other life’s ambitions. However, at the end of the day, even if I’ve sat on the sofa chatting with another Mom for half of it, I am more exhausted then when I used to work and go to school full time. Sometimes I feel guilty that I am not doing more as my husband slaves away in the Hot sun or Freezing cold for 10-12 hours a day just so he can provide for us and while I’d love to use my degree I worked so hard for and am paying out the woohoo for I can’t drag myself away from this instinctual drive inside of me. This is me! This is where all my talents come together for one purpose, to be a MOM. Not just any Mom but one my children will one day be proud of and hopefully want to be like. The best Mom that God and me can be. Maybe I should say that again, the best Mom that God and me can be! God revealed this truth to me recently and I can’t tell you how much burden it released from my shoulders. I could never be the mom of my dreams without God giving me the energy, the wisdom, the love and the patience that I need, because all my own stuff runs out within an hour of my son waking up. But with God by my side I can have a restart any time I need it, and trust me I do a lot of restarts and find myself apologizing to my son  a LOT. But that is part of being imperfect, being human and what matters most is that your whole heart and soul  are in the game and that you are doing everything you can to raise good hearted wholesome individuals who have the tools to provide for themselves a healthy and happy life. Beyond that life is out of our control and we have to realize and come to terms with the fact that all of this effort and intention may be for not but if it isn’t then we’ve truly lived. In the end, or rather a new beginning, I find myself with a new consciousness about my life as a Mother, and a wife for that matter, and excited to see where this journey will lead me, my husband and most importantly my children.

Motherhood- where you totally lose yourself and then find yourself all over again.

Gluten and Dairy Free

So a few weeks ago I did a 3 week detox. In short I had a nasty candida infection and other issues that occurred from my hormones going back to normal from stopping nursing. Details aside I spent almost 3 months in almost constant discomfort and in a last ditch effort I decided to do a detox. This was super super hard for me for a couple of reasons 1. Tho I pride myself in a super strong will power I didn't know how long I would have to do the detox and thus saw no destination of relief 2. I really really love food... no like limitations on my food kind of makes me depressed, you should know that I was raised vegetarian and already live a very healthy lifestyle with many limitations I live with every day, so maybe it's the fact that I couldn't eat things that I knew weren't necessarily bad for me that really got to me and 3. making 2 different meals for 3 weeks with a toddler can really get challenging. But I did it.. and I made through it.. and I felt amazing- despite the hunger pains... and I am better! And best of all... Now I can eat anything I want again- within reason.

A few friends have asked me for some gluten dairy free recipes I might have, and tho you may not be going on a Candida diet (which includes only eating vegetables, some meats, yogurt and gluten free grains) even significantly cutting out these two ingredients will make a noticeable change in your health. Disclosure.. I am an advocate for living a healthy lifestyle but, as I have said before I am not a Natzie about anything, I believe while the majority of your life should be spent eating lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains and nuts that we all need to experience life and a slice of cheesecake or a scoop of ice cream is not going to kill you. I think what we all need to learn is to not be a glutton about our food, take smaller bites, smaller portions, and eat less frequently the foods that aren't necessarily the best for our body. A little background on dairy and gluten, for those who don't know, the main issue with both are that they create mucous in our bodies.. while some people have gluten or lactose intolerance every human body has a negative reaction to too much of anything and today gluten and dairy seem to be in everything! Too much mucous is dangerous because it can hold onto toxins in our bodies, not letting them get flushed out in due time. Mucous likes to linger and stick like glue not only in our sinuses, chest and throat but also in our intestines causing blockages or even breaking down the healthy mucous walls. (I am trying to explain this in lay terms and am no doctor so it is always best to do your own research) If you are looking for ways to cut back on your gluten and or dairy intake then I am here to help.. but if you are looking to cut them both out totally from your diet you may need to do more research beyond here.

So to the point... In general a lot of my recipes are made up and forgotten on the spot LOL I do a lot of digging on the internet and substitute with what I have or take the best out of multiple recipes and smash them together. Sometimes the results should be forgotten and other times they go into the books. In the end you are going to have to experiment and be willing to eat what you made even if you don't love it. Without knowing your dietary needs here are some tips that got/get me through my gluten/dairy free days  that are "beyond raw and stir fry deals."

1. I USE BUTTER... while technically it is dairy, the process of making butter leaves behind most everything that makes it dairy. In addition butter makes everything better... and really when you look at the alternatives, even smart balance- which is supposed to be safe but still worries me.. you are choosing the best option.

2. Yogurt.. while yogurt is dairy, the fermentation process basically kills the lactose an other harmful elements in milk and leaves you with some pretty awesome active cultures. On top of it you can use yogurt in place of sour cream or cheese and it is even a great thickener for sauces/smoothies/???

3. Make from scratch.. I think this is a great tip for any lifestyle.. making from scratch is cheaper, you know everything that is in it, and it's fresh! Making from scratch is key for a gluten/dairy free diet because so many products have both in their ingredients... just start reading labels, you will be surprised!

4. Learn to use brown rice flour ( I say brown because white rice is also a mucous former) I am still learning how to effectively use this. While companies have done their best to make it mimic regular flour their is really none other like wheat flour. I have found that it is much lighter and doesn't hold together the same.. there is a reason why some of the best paper mache paste is just flour and water- think of what it is doing in your body!! - but back to the subject.. So in efforts to get the same consistency I have been using 2/3 rice flour and 1/3 regular flour in some of my recipes. I am actually starting to like the airiness it gives to baked goods.

5. I love almond milk! While again.. it is hard to find a good substitute for the fat in regular milk, when cooking, almond milk keeps a great thickness and doesn't change the flavor too much. When it comes to drinking it or using it in things like cereal, I have no issues, then again I was raised on soy milk.

6. As far as cheese goes, I really can't give much advice. I love love love cheese and really have not found a good substitute for it. So I just try to cut back on the amount or frequency of use when I need to. But I would give up every other dairy product just to have a little bite of cheese a day.

7. Rice/Corn pasta.. I have tried quite a few brands and am very impressed with every single one of them.. they can get a little pricey but you won't be disappointed.

8. Grab some rice puffs or other gluten free snacks.. I even love a rice cake with peanut butter and honey on top. I found in my detox that I really missed being able to snack here or there. I couldn't even have fruit! which would often be my go to snack. But what about those pretzels or gold fish I would nibble throughout the day. You don't realize how much you nibble until you can't :) I found that investing the $4!!! for a tiny bag of treats was totally worth it. Because it was all mine it would last me over a week and it was a great reprieve for feeling depressed cause "I couldn't eat anything!!!"

9. Ice cream.. I am not a big ice cream eater, so I am mostly writing this because I know a lot of people are. Don't get me wrong I love ice cream but for years now I have only been able to eat a small small amount without sitting in agony for the next 8 hours. It's something to do with the dairy and sugar I think. So I have found other joys.. like cookies!! But when I need my occasional fix I have found a few good choices. Tofutti Almond Bark, unfortunately it is loaded with sugar but there is no dairy!! I don't personally care for their other flavors but you may! So Delicious has also come out with a variety of coconut milk based ice cream and yogurt.. they are a little sweet for my taste buds but have a great flavor and texture. and then there is Rice Dream who makes a great ice cream sandwich! Again your going to have to pay $4 for a little container but if you learn to nibble like me it could last you a good 3 weeks!

10. Bread.. oh yes bread!! I sure do love me some bread, I did mention that I love food right!? anyways it is really hard to find a substitute for some good old bread but I have recently tried one brand that hit the mark pretty good. udi's.. I've heard some of the other brands are pretty good too. (with the number of gluten allergies arising there has been a surge of good products that have made the market)

Basically look around you will be amazed at what you find.. Chex cereal has a whole gluten free line, and Red Mill has a great line of baking goods that I can find at my local Publix. There is also this awesome gluten free pancake mix  Gluten Free Pantry's Brown Rice Pancake Mix they also have a whole line of baked goods in a box that I have not tried. And if you can make it to Whole Foods you will find even more variety of both gluten and dairy free products that you can use to make your regular meals.

Another place I get a lot of great inspiration is another blog. ohsheglows.com. The recipes are vegan but substitute where you like. She has some amazing recipes for every meal and even desserts!! If you get overwhelmed by the amount of recipes she has try doing a search with something you have in your cupboard.

There is so much information and creativity out there all you really have to do is spend a little time searching for it...

Here is an example of some things I ate/eat when sticking to gluten/dairy free:

Breakfast:
-Smoothie- banana, strawberries, cranberries (any fruit really) a splash of juice ( I like orange juice) a splash of almond milk, a few spoonfuls of plain yogurt, and I often through in a few pieces of broccoli or spinach.. (but I'd rather eat them cooked by themselves then in my smoothie)
-Pancakes- gluten free pancake mix or my own mix with rice flour, I throw in some shredded apple or carrots or zucchini a little cinnamon and top it with butter and honey/maple syrup
-omelette.. I like a scrambled omelette but to each his own. You can throw in a bunch of vegetables and eat with a slice of gluten free toast

Snack:
- homemade cookie- with rice flour, some oats (I know they aren't gluten free but just a little goes a long way to make the texture that much better) add some cranberries and zucchini and the regular cookie ingredients
- rice cake with peanut butter
-nuts
-fruit
-vegetables dipped in hummus or ranch dressing made with mayo, plain yogurt and spices
-store bought gluten free snacks
-yogurt with nuts and fruit

Lunch:
- I almost always eat leftovers from the night before but...
- veggie sandwich with gluten free bread
-salad with potato salad on top

Dinner:
-gluten free pasta, brown rice, potatoes
- roast/saute vegetables.. I solely use an iron skillet to cook. I throw in varying combinations of onion, garlic, and whatever other vegetable I have in the fridge with a little butter and olive oil and some simple spices.
-experiment with other vegetables.. there is a lot of vegetables out there and you need to experiment with them and you will be amazed at how much variety they will add to your meals.
- squash: if you haven't discovered the wonders of squash it is time to start experimenting. Delicious, nutritious and can be eaten roasted or smashed or added to dishes as a sauce or thickener . oh so much to do with this wonderful org..
-beans beans beans.. mix them in with  your veggies or serve them on the side hot or cold
-sauces: I make almost all of my own sauces. A little butter and flour (your choice) and make a roue and then add some flavor either with vegetables or spices. I almost always through mine into the blender at the end to get the flavor well distributed. (if your interested in a more exact recipe just let me know!)

Dessert:
- we don't really eat dessert and if we do we would probably go for the good stuff. I do however often grab one of my homemade muffin cookies and a glass of almond milk before I go to bed.

I hope this little insight on my experiences helps you to find new ways to add variety to your diet! Happy Cooking!