"Ice Cream"

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Since we became Dairy Free the biggest question I get asked again and again is....
"How do we deal with not having ice cream?  Especially the kids, ice cream is a way of life!"

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I agree.  We love ice cream.  After a long day nothing is better than a bowl of ice cream.   We love the So Delicious Coconut Milk so we thought we would try their Dairy Free Ice Cream.  One bite and we all were hooked.   This is so good.
Seriously.  
If we weren't dairy free, we would still eat this.

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We love to top it with:
Organic Strawberry Jam
Organic Gluten Free Dairy Free Chocolate Chips
Organic Chocolate Sprinkles
Bananas
Strawberries
Blueberries
The list goes on and on!!!

Baby Step Series #3

What did you think about the documentary Food Matters?  For me watching it again was even better than the first time.  There were a lot of things I had forgotten and it was great to be reminded why I am doing this.  I think this documentary really gets you thinking.

51% of your food should be Raw to help out your immune system

"A pill for every ill" 

"You are what you eat"

Chocolate can be a super food!!  (love that one lol)

There were so many great points but one that really hit home for me the first time I watched it was when they talked about how we spend our money today.  How we spend a lot of money on new cars or new clothes or tvs but we don't spend a lot of money on food.  In fact most people hate buying food and spending money on it.  I used to feel that way.  When I went Organic I decided I would never again complain how much money I spent on food instead I was going to enjoy that I was buying great food to feed my family.  

Grocery money goes to such an important part of our lives.  

Don't you think you should feel good about spending money on great food?  

Don't you think you should feel happy that you are providing such wonderful sustenance to your family?  

Infuse your food with love.  

Infuse your food with happiness.  

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Ok....are you ready for for your third baby step?  The third baby step is to get the book:

Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About

by Kevin Trudeau

I will give you all week to just get the book.  You can go to the library, you can borrow it, you can buy it, see if you can find it at Goodwill or a used book store.  Just get your hands on a copy.  haha   We don't have to do any reading of it yet and we will be breaking it down into baby steps.  This book as so much information in it.  I'm excited to read it again!!!  If you live by me, I have a couple copies if you want to borrow them.  

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Infused with Love

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Organic Mary's Gone Crackers Love Cookies....Double Chocolate.  

Double chocolate cookies anyone????

How amazing do these cookies look?

They taste even better!!!!

Our grocery store just started carrying these and we knew we had to try them.  My boys loved them and wanted to eat the whole box.  They are so chocolatey and melt in your mouth.

Seriously nothing can be more yummy than that!   

Here is some information on these awesome cookies:

• Organic
• Kosher
• Non-GMO
• Gluten Free
• Dairy Free
• Vegan
• No Hydrogenated Oils
• No Trans-fats
• Infused with Love

I love the last one.  Infused with Love....shouldn't all food be infused with love?  

What a wonderful little phrase that means so much.  

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Organic, gluten free, and dairy free very yummy cookies.  

Exactly what we want!!

Baby Step Series #2

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So how did watching Food Inc go?  Are you horrified enough to change your food yet?  Hopefully by the time we are done with baby steps everyone will have changed their foods and are feeling better!!  

The most disturbing part of the documentary for me is that they can make a chicken grow faster than nature.  That really bothers me.  I was also sadden by the animals treatment.  They do not have happy lives.  I decided then and there I was not going to injest suffering. 

I would love to hear how you feel about the documentary.  What bothered you the most?

Ok....are you ready for our next baby step?

The next baby step is:

Watch the documentary Food Matters

This is a great documentary explaining how important food is for us.  How it can help with diseases, illness, etc.  I watched it on Netflix Instant.  I will watch it again this week with you!  Hope you love the documentary as much as I do!

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Bring on Phase 4!!

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Tomorrow will be my last day of Phase 3.  I'm really surprised how fast 21 days went by.  Everyday I weigh myself after I wake up.  My weight has been 126.0 to 126.8.  Wednesday I did wake up and I was 128.9.  I was 2 pounds over my phase 2 ending weight so I did the recommended steak diet for the day and Thursday morning I was 126.2.  What a wonderful little secret to make sure those 2 pounds did not stay on my body.  I can use the Steak Diet any day I am 2 pounds over my phase 2 ending weight, for the rest of my life.  Awesome!

I started working out a little more this phase.  I am able to wake up at 7:00am or earlier and work out on the treadmill.  Now for all you out there that know me...I was not a morning person.  Not only did I not like waking up early but to actually work out.  I don't think so.  I love this new change in me.  I can not wait for morning and I wake up not only with energy but I am excited to get the day started.   

Although a lot of neat stuff is happening during this phase, I did feel a little like a crazy person these last 20 days.  This phase is where my hypothalamus reset.  I could tell my brain was functioning different and old thought patterns were being changed.

Here is some of the fun craziness.....

The doctors told me once you are full, stop eating.  Your body knows what to do....listen to it.  So when  I was eating, I would get full but it tasted so good I wanted to keep eating.  My thoughts would say "I'm full stop eating."  Then I would think "but it tastes so good"  then "you are full....STOP eating."  It was very strange.

I bought two pairs of size 2 jeans last week and one of the pairs are skinny jeans, tight and I have never worn such a form fitting pair of jeans before.  I looked in the mirror and thought "wow my hips look big" then I thought "You are in a size 2 pair of jeans...a size 2!  How big could your hips really be???"  I bought the jeans. Woot!  haha

I'm so glad no one could hear my thoughts during this phase.  Surely I would have been locked up for arguing with myself.  I definitely noticed my thought patterns and so many of them were negative.  I feel I believed and thought very negative things about my body since high school.  Maybe even middle school.  How sad I have wasted so many years being mean to myself.

It really has been a fun journey on learning to love my body.  Not only did I lose weight but I learned how to think differently about what I see when I look in the  mirror.  I also learned how to eat the right way...if only this was taught in schools.  Just think how your thoughts would be different if we learned to love ourselves when we were young. 

Before I started the weight loss protocol, my holistic doctor did a ton of blood work on me and checked so many things.  I will be getting lab work done this summer to see what has changed.  I will have a post about what was wrong with me before and what was fixed or not fixed from this experience.  I can not wait to find out!!!!

The Weight loss Protocol has been way more than just a diet to lose weight.  It has been a life changing experience. I am so thankful for Kevin Trudeau for being brave enough to write the book...The Weight Loss Protocol.  (For those that don't know, he is being sued by the government for 32 million dollars for writing this book, and might face 2 years of jail time.  They also asked him to destroy all his books and disappear.)   I am also thankful for Dr. Simeons for inventing this diet.  I just wish his life was not taken at such an early time and was alive to see the amazing results people are getting.  I am also thankful for Dr. Tom Drost, Lisa Drost, and Roxanne for being there for me during this experience.  They were so friendly and encouraging.  I could not have asked for better people to guide me through this.  I am ready for phase 4 and since it will be the phase for the rest of my life... 

I am ecstatic!     

Baby Step Series #1

Take baby steps along the way 

and in the end you will have reached your goal!

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I have had a lot of people ask me how to get started to being Organic and/or gluten free.  How to eliminate more toxins from their household.  How to start to feel better.  How to start to take steps in the right direction.  They say its overwhelming to just jump in.  I completely agree its overwhelming when you try to do everything at once.  

Based on everyone's feedback, I'm going to write a baby step series on how to get started to living your life healthier.  I didn't just jump in and do everything at once.  I took baby steps.  Even to this day there are things I want to add into our lives...and I am still doing it by the baby step approach.  The baby step series will have a post once a week to give you time to think and implement the new step into your life. 

One of my favorite quotes is "If you want things in your life to change, you're going to have to change things in your life."  Are there things in your life you want to change?  Then lets change them!

Are you ready to change your life?  

Are you ready to start feeling better?  

Are you ready to start this journey today?

I am so proud of you and excited for you!  If I can do this, I know you can do it too!

Ok....First Baby Step to take:

Watch Food Inc. 

This is the first documentary I watched.  I watched it because my dad said it was crazy.  I was really scared to watch it at first and I waited about a month before I did.  I sat in shock watching it on my computer through Netflix.  (Instant)  What an eye opening experience for me.  I knew this is not how animals should be treated.  Once I was done watching it, I knew my life was going to change.  Looking back I had no clue how much my life and the lives of my family was about to change and what an awesome journey we were about to take.  

I think this is a great first baby step because it will let you know why you are going to start changing your food.  If you have already seen this documentary watch it again, I will watch it again too.  

I would love to hear how you feel about this documentary....were you in shock like me?  Did it make you mad?  Tell me everything!!  Also if you want to know more about a certain thing that I do...example what do I use for sugar.....write me.  I will put it into this series.  

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The Real Food Diet Cookbook

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http://www.draxe.com/

I have never been blown away by a cookbook before.  In fact I hardly ever buy cookbooks.  With my allergies and my families allergies using a cookbook is very hard.  I have to almost always change the recipes to fit our needs.  I have to figure out different measurements and what different food works best.  It is a lot of trial and error.  Usually there is one or two recipes I can use and paying around $20.00 for those two recipes is not worth it to me. 

Kevin Trudeau had Dr. Josh Axe on his radio show a couple weeks ago.  What an amazing show that was.  It was so informative.  Dr. Josh Axe was a complete delight to listen to.  He is very positive and enthusiastic about eating right and living healthy.   His positive energy rubs off on you, yes,  even over a radio show.  

When the show was over I went onto Amazon.com and bought his cookbook on my kindle.  I was a little nervous and hoping for a couple of good recipes for my family.  I mean seriously we are gluten free, dairy free, and organic.  That is a tall order to fill and not very many people are all 3 all the time like us.  That night with the kids asleep I started to read his cookbook.

The more I read the more I found out Dr. Josh Axe believes in gluten-free grains, no dairy, whole foods, and organic.  Um.......this is exactly my beliefs.  Every single recipe is something I can make without having to change a thing.  Every food in the recipes is something we can have.  Everything he says about scary dairy, being gluten-free, down to what cookware to use is what I believe.  Every turn of the page I got more and more excited.  I read the whole cookbook that night and could barely sleep thinking of all the neat things I'm going to get to make my family like Raw Cheesecake made with cashews, lemon juice, raw honey, raw coconut oil, and a vanilla bean.  The crust is made out of raw nuts, soaked dates, and coconut flakes.  No wheat or dairy in site.  The next day I wrote to Dr. Josh Axe on his facebook page and told him I loved the cookbook and sent him a link to my blog.  He wrote back saying I rocked.  How cool is that??    

Here is some more about the cookbook.  Section One starts off explaining real food vs fake food.  He shows you what the real food pyramid looks like.  Section 2 explains what's hot, what's not.  He is gives you his Best and Worst Foods list.  Section 3 is the abc's of cooking, equipment, and label reading.  The fats + oils 101 part of this section was simply amazing.  Section 4 is less that/ more this.  He explains in this section simple ideas for better eating.  He gives examples of what people eat today and what people could be eating instead.  Section 5 is food matching guide.  His recipes have symbols next to them to help you find exactly the kind of recipe you are looking for.  Examples of the symbols are a smiling kid....this means that recipe is a kid's favorite or a thermometer which means feeling sick try this recipe.  Very easy to use.  After that is 130 amazing recipes.

I feel if I was to wish for a cookbook that matched my ideas, beliefs and feelings it could not get any better than this cookbook.  If you want an easy way to get started to be gluten free, dairy free, raw, organic then get this cookbook.  You will love it!!  I love it so much I went to his website and ordered an actual copy for me.  Now I have an actual paper copy and a take a long copy on my kindle.  He also has cooking videos on his website which is so neat!  

Finally, I have been blown away by a cookbook!!!!     

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Karma Organic

 I was looking for a non-toxic nail polish and I found this brand.  I bought the smoke matte color nail polish and it is really cute.  My friend bought the Wild Thing color nail polish and it is super bright and so much fun for summer!!

Here are some neat facts about the nail polish:

*3 Free (No Toulene, DBP, or Formaldehyde)
*Safe for pregnant women and kids
*Safe for cancer patients and allergy sufferers
*Chip resistant
*Durable
*Available in glossy, matte, and glow in the dark shades
*Non-yellowing formula
*Cruelty free/Not tested on animals
*Available in over 90 colors
*Packages in 100% recyclable packaging
*No harsh odors

Karmaorganicspa.com

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