Stinky Pits?? No More...

How many times do you put on deodorant a day? How many times do you wonder how this simple act will affect your health? I often wonder what effect the chemicals in deodorant are having on me and those ducts around the breast tissue. But, like most people, I like to smell good (or at least not smell bad) and not have super-duper sweaty pit stains on my clothes. Over the years I have tried every type of natural brand deodorant from crystals to sprays to apple vinegar and nothing seems to work very long. And, sadly, I often find myself returning back to some popular, chemical-ridden name brand.

BUT all that has changed! I got this recipe from Create Plenty and it really has worked for me (I still get sweaty marks on super hot days but I smell like a dainty princess).

1/4 cup Corn Starch
1/4 cup Baking Soda
2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
8 drops of essential oils (your choice -- go crazy here. Create Plenty recommends tea tree, lemon, lavender, sandalwood and neem oils. I say experiment with what YOU like)
2-3 drops of Vitamin E (optional)
An empty container to fill with your new deodorant.

Coconut Oil is solid at room temperature so you may want to heat it to melt it a bit. Mix all ingredients together until it is a silky mass. Add more coconut oil or dry ingredients to adjust as necessary. Pack the mass into your container and wait for the coconut oil to solidify at room temperature (this can be speed up by putting your new deodorant in the fridge).

Now from my own personal experience, I used an old deodorant container in which the base that holds the deodorant had holes in so the container wouldn't twist up or down. I had to use a flat surface (back of a spoon) to scoop out and apply the deodorant. Also, in today's neat and tidy world, this deodorant is not transparent, liquid or a roll-on so you may have some deodorant marks when getting dressed -- just wipe it off with a cloth. Honestly, both of these things are not a problem when 1) I know I am not going to have to cut off a boob one day due to deodorant aided cancer and 2) I have yet to smell bad.

You ask: Where can I get those supplies?
I reply: Well, just go to your pantry for corn starch and baking soda. Try your local health food store for essential oils and coconut oil. And if you want big bulk items of coconut oil and essential oils you can always go to Majestic Mountain Sage (or your local store).

Let me know how this recipe has worked for you. I personally have loved it...


(Picture from HowToDo101.com)

House of Mirrors: Horror or Happiness?

I am very big into yoga. Not just the asanas, or poses, but all aspects of yoga. Yoga is an eight-limbed path towards enlightenment. These eight limbs are referred to as Ashtanga yoga (ashta, “eight”and anga “limb”). The stages begin with ethical and moral practices followed by the physical practice and then breathing and mental strength. Each stage is a journey to reach a higher state that allows for union with the divine…and continuous contentment, (Santosha in Sanskrit). What does it mean to be content? Are you truly joyous in what you do or are you just trying to get by? I find myself really pondering santosha right now as my life is in a state of upheaval. For the first time in my life, I know what I want to do and to get it, I find myself embracing a way of life completely foreign to me. Because it is new, I am in a state of discomfort despite the joy I am receiving. I am grappling with what is my contentment.

Contentment really is about accepting life as it is and not as how you want it to be. In yoga, contentment would be accepting where you are in a pose and not comparing yourself to your neighbor, your friend, or even to yourself and your practice the day before. Life is not about comparing yourself to your friend, your neighbor or how you think your life should look. And if you really are not content with life as it is – change it. Seriously, listen to your excuse. Listen to how many times you say “but” when focusing on your dreams, your ideal life or any change or struggle in your life. I want to start writing in a journal. It seems like an easy task, right? I could just start writing down my thoughts and voila! I am journaling. But I can come up with a thousand excuses why I don’t journal: I need a pretty book (but do I really? And why don’t I just go get one then). I don’t have time (but I have time to watch re-runs of the X Files). Someone might read it (so? Is that really that devastating? It has happened before) Bottom line is I am too lazy to change my habits and start doing what I really want. Do I accept that I am lazy or do I create change in my life and move towards santosha? What excuses are you making? What are your desires? Is anything keeping you from truly enjoying the present life you are in, or are you too busy making excuses about how you don’t have time? Do you tell yourself you are too busy with the kids, school or are broke? Will there ever be a good time? Right now is the only time you have and if you aren’t truly content, if you aren’t truly happy, it is time to sit with yourself and find out what it is you need from you. Being joyful, being happy, is a state of being, a perspective of the world. Alter yours to be filled with light and love and bestow all that wonderfulness and everyone around you. You are a magnificent being. So accept your greatness, smile and shine.

If you are left wondering, “What are the eight limbs of yoga?”…
1) Yamas: Five virtues that govern our relations with others
a. ahimsa –nonviolence
b. satya – truthfulness
c. asteya – nonstealing
d. brachmachara – moderation
e. aparigraha – nonclinging (in layman’s terms: freedom from wanting more. Try practicing this one in today’s culture…not that simple)
2) Niyamas: Five observances of the Self
a. saucha -- purity or cleanliness
b. santosha -- Contentment
c. tapas – self-discipline
d. svadyaya—self-study
e. isvara pranidhara -- Devotion to a higher power
3) Asanas: the postures for union with mind, body and spirit
4) Pranayama: breath (prana is your breath, your energy, your life force – without breath you do not live)
5) Pratyahara: inward focus. Withdrawal of the senses from the outside world
6) Dharana: Focused concentration
7) Dhyana: Meditation
8) Samadhi: Pure joy. Consciousness merges with the Divine

Vitamin K -- A Do-It-All vitamin???

Vitamin K is historically known for the ability to keep the body’s blood clotting mechanisms at a prime functioning level. Vitamin K was named in the 1930’s when a Danish scientist discovered this miraculous vitamin’s vital role in the liver. Vitamin K provides nutrients to the liver which forms proteins that aid in blood clotting and preventing abnormal bleeding. The K actually stands for Koagulations – the Danish word for clotting. Over the last 90 years, vitamin K has kept flexing its unique power muscles and continuously demonstrate how fully awesome it is.

In addition to being the blood clot vitamin of the world, Vitamin K can (I will be discussing the ones with three stars):
• healthy blood and clotting
• to improve the skin value
• promotes healing of skin discolorations ***
• protects from hip fractures in postmenopausal women *Ladies - you may be young now…*
• vascular problems of the skin
• bone health
• to improve the healing and appearance of scars and skin imperfections ***
• to treat anticoagulant-induced prothrombin deficiency
• spider veins of the face spider veins of the face ***
• to protect against osteoporosis *Ladies! Ladies! Again, this is important when you hit menopause!*

When working on products for Marin Natural Beauty, I always make a point of thoroughly researching every oil, plant, butter, and/or antioxidant ingredient I consider using. Sometimes new ingredient ideas will come to me in a dream, sometimes they are the latest buzzword in the beauty industry and sometimes it is just the path I am on. Basically, vitamin K was all of the above. For the last decade, I have been noticing spider veins on my face (not pretty and definitely not an ego boost). Very concerned about this, I began opening my ears and eyes to a solution and vitamin K seemed to be the answer that kept coming back. Applied topically, vitamin K has been shown to help reduce facial bruising after surgeries (one girlfriend says it helped a lot after her laser treatment), reduce dark under-eye circles, and to treat skin irritations. Also, vitamin K is known to reduce redness in people affected by rosecea and broken blood vessels (ahem!).

I advocate that you find ways to get a good dose of V-K in your diet daily not only because vitamin K is so important to keep your bones strong and your body optimally functioning but because I am a true believer that what you eat is more important than what you put on your skin.

Where to find Vitamin K: Among other foods, vitamin K is found in most green, leafy vegetables green vegetables (kale, mustard greens, swiss chard, etc), dry soybeans, lentils, cabbage, and brussel sprouts. For a topical cream, in October Marin Natural Beauty will debut a vitamin K rich facial cream!

And the good news – cooking, freezing or storing your vitamin K rich foods does not seem to affect the vitamin K content. Don’t think you have to eat your kale raw in order to get the benefits. Go ahead, make that yummy stir-fry with mustard greens or have some delicious warm-your-belly lentil soup on a chilly, fall morning and reap the benefits of this perfect vitamin.

Healthy Dosage: Honestly, a good, balanced diet will provide you with the vitamin K you need but if you find yourself with lots of unexplained bloody noses, heavy menstrual bleeding, gum bleeding, bleeding within the digestive tract, nose bleeding, easy bruising, blood in the urine, prolonged clotting times, hemorrhaging, bone problems and anemia you may have a vitamin K deficiency. Like any health issue, always go see a doctor and don’t try to self-diagnose the problem.

Sources:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=112
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002407.htm
http://www.online-vitamins-guide.com/skin-vitamins/vitamin-k-for-skin.htm
http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/HerbsVitaminsandMinerals/vitamin-kVitamin K

Life's "How-To" Booklet

Recently my husband and I moved from Colorado to Oregon. While we get our lives together (i.e. find employment) we are staying just outside of Portland on my grandfather’s hazelnut farm. The luck and gift of the situation are not lost on me – we are staying in an idyllic setting of 32 acres with apple, pear and even a plum tree. On a daily basis, we feed the horse (Willy) and the grazing cows (not named due to their future place on the dinner table) apples. We take morning strolls through the rows of hazelnut trees to the blackberry bushes where we proceed to get pricked by thorns, turn our fingers and mouths purple, and eat fresh, plump blackberries. Blackberry bushes do not give up their goods easily (something I should have learned better in my years as a single gal).

So, what am I getting at?

In the house, at the top of the stairs is a warped Life’s Little Instructions poster. Each time I head upstairs, I catch a glimpse of one of the instructions and each time is a pleasant reminder to enjoy this life. Reading a phrase has become a game of mine: what phrase will I get today? Can I read two phrases in a matter of seconds? This game reminds me of my past office mate (who is in the top tier of awesome office mates!), she would read her 8 Ball every time something plagued her – and sometimes I think she read the 8 Ball to set the tone of her day.
This week, also the first of a new month and soon-to-be the eve of a new season, I thought it would be most rewarding to pass on some of Life’s Little Instructions for you to mull over and do what you will with:
• Compliment 3 people everyday (and you are cheating if you are not sincere!)
• Feed a stranger’s expired parking meter
• Be kinder than necessary (again, with sincerity)
• Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation
• Be someone’s hero
• Avoid negative people (this includes yourself)
• Wave at kids in school buses (and not in a pervy way)
• Keep your promises
• Have a firm handshake
• Ask for a raise when you feel you’ve earned it
• Whistle
• Make new friends but cherish the old ones
• Leave everything better than when you found it
• Have a dog
• Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life
• Buy whatever kids are selling on card tables in their front yard
• Learn 3 clean jokes
• Learn CPR
• Commit yourself to constant improvement
• Be the first to say “Hello”
• Drink champagne for no reason at all
• **Insert your own personal instruction here**



Taken from the national bestseller, Life’s Little Instruction Book, by H. Jackson Brown, Jr., Rutledge Hill Press, Nashville, Tennessee.