Participate in Life

In the interest of managing my time better and making sure I'm more fully engaged with the people around me, I deleted the Facebook app from my iPhone.

Since I handle the social media at work, I can't completely avoid social media entirely. I see updates and tags and messages, etc. on Facebook but now I don't have easy access to them from my phone at all hours of the day.  I still have Instagram on my phone, but I am slowing down on it and trying to be a bit more judicious with the time I choose to spend on there. 

Maybe you've already seen this video...but, my sister posted this video to her Facebook page I saw today while at work. It speaks volumes about our society and our newest addictions. I also like it because it rhymes.  

Do you think our "looking down" at our devices keeps us from interacting? What steps are you taking to connect more in real life with the world around you?

3 Tips to Boost Your Immune System

If you missed my webinar last night on the tips for boosting your immune system, here it is again.

This video is about 30 minutes long, so if you don't have time to watch it, here are is the outline of the top 3 tips:

Tip #1 Eat right and take good-quality supplements. What you consume creates an environment for health (or illness).

The food choices that make the biggest difference for me are eating lots of raw veggies and fruits, avoiding refined foods, avoiding sugar and drinking lots of water.

As promised in my last blog, here's my daily beet smoothie recipe:

• ½-1 chopped, raw beet (Don’t like beets? Substitute one cup of carrots)
• 1 Tbsp raw ginger
• 1 whole apple (I like Pink Lady the best for this smoothie)
• 1-2 frozen banana
• 1 cup  or more of beet greens/kale/spinach
• coconut milk or orange juice (creamier with coconut milk, sweeter with orange juice)
• 1.5 cups ice

Blend like crazy until smooth.

Tip #2 Move your body, but don’t exhaust yourself!

Exercise is great and feels so wonderful. Since getting sick I have found the two best exercises to support my immune system have been yoga and walking...but, the main key I’ve found is to get my pulse up and breathe a lot, but don’t push myself to exhaustion.

In a New York Times blog, several studies with mice and flu bugs showed that mice who exercised to exhaustion were so depleted in their T-1 immune helper cells that they were more likely to get sick than the mice who either rested or exercised mildly.

Tip #3 Rest and manage stress.

In today’s world, we tend to do things too hard. Taking time outs, breathing and generally listening to your body and giving it what it needs when you feel overwhelmed or overloaded. I've learned about that through experience.

To purchase doTerra oils, you can purchase them here — that site is also a great source for more information and a good health blog about essential oils.

If you have any questions about healthy living, feel free to post here.

Immune Boosters - Whether You Have MS or Not

I'm pretty open about my recent diagnosis of MS. Most people with whom I've talked express their sorrow for me and those who know me wonder why this happened in the first place. My own mother and I discussed this at great length when the diagnosis was made. I felt like my body had betrayed me. For years I had given it healthy foods, plenty of sleep, reduced stress and kept it fit by exercising six days a week.

However, when I now see how quickly I'm getting a handle on things in comparison to some with MS who take years (I'm not kidding) to get their disease under control, I realize my body is more of an ally than a foe in this. I have created an environment for health and therefore, my body is responding by giving me a quicker recovery. I'm not going to say that I'll never have another exacerbation or lesion or problem from MS, but I will say that I'm better able to cope with and heal from the problems that arise because I've fostered a healthy environment for my cells.

When I think about all the people who get MS and suddenly have to make drastic life changes, I'm grateful. I already eat clean and take excellent care of my body. I take it one day at a time and am constantly praising God for blessing me with such a good life, lots of positive support people and loads of great information and tools to help me continually improve my health.

I've now had my second infusion of Tysabri (disease modifying therapy drug) and I'm feeling pretty good. One thing this drug is supposed to do is slow down the destruction of my myelin in my brain. Lesions are given time to heal and no new lesions develop…is what they tell me. Wanna know why? My immune system is suppressed.

Goodie.

Part of making myself as healthy as possible now, so I can combat the MS includes adding more nourishing foods to my already super clean way of life. I haven't had any processed flour or sugar in nearly five years. Now I'm eating almost entirely paleo (no/low grains and absolutely no wheat).   So, here are some of the things I'm doing to help my immune system fight off bugs.

• drink 12 to 16 ounces of water first thing in the morning
• daily detox with lemon and peppermint essential oils from doTerra in my water bottle
• beet detox smoothie every day (Dr. Wahls, who is known for her natural healing methods in reversing her own MS gave me this idea). The recipe I like best are shared in this 30-minute webinar . I've been tweaking the recipe for a while and I'm excited to share it! If you want the recipe, I share it in this post and video.
• take fish oil, vitamin D and a B-complex mix along with vitamin C and several other vitamins I'll detail in another blog
• go for a walk every day
• do yoga 5x a week (or more)
• practice daily, conscious positive thought
• breathe
• go to bed when I'm tired—no matter what!

So, what kinds of immune boosters have you found to work? For more tips and an in-depth talk on how to boost your immune system, check out this post and video. 

How to Make Popcorn on the Stove

While I was making popcorn on the stove top for my kiddos, one of my friends told me I should post that action...apparently this skill I am so used to doing isn't one that many people know how to do.

Popcorn is both healthy and tasty...so, make some today to snack on or enjoy in front of a movie.

What you'll need:

Coconut oil
White popcorn kernels
Stainless steel deep soup pan with clear glass lid
Salt

Steps:

1. Put your pan on a burner at medium high heat. 
2. Scoop out enough coconut oil to coat the bottom of your pan.
3. Drop one kernel into the pot once all coconut oil is melted (there should be about a 1/4" of cocunut oil in the base of the pot). Put on the lid.
4.  Wait for that one little kernel to pop.
5. Once the kernel has popped, pour enough popcorn in to coat the bottom of your pan in a single layer. I use 1/2 cup.
6. Shake the pot back and forth to coat all the kernels.
7. Wait for it all to start popping. 
8. Once the popping slows down or stops, pour the contents into a big bowl.
9. Salt to taste.
10. Enjoy!

Here's a quick video to show how it's done: