A Few Of My Favorite Things Part 1- FCLO

So if someone had told me over a year ago that I would be taking Fermented Cod Liver Oil on a regular basis, I would have told you were definitely dreaming. But in the last year I have gotten where I can not live without the stuff. I am even currently taking the liquid (something I never wanted to do) til we can order some more capsules. So what inspired me to take FCLO in the first place? Most of my primary motivation was to improve my teeth. FCLO is high in vitamin D and unlike the usual buy-in-store variety, this Vitamin D is processed more efficiently in your body because it's a real food vs. a synthetic vitamin. As I was pregnant at the time and you hear all of the horror stories about your baby taking all of your calcium, I figured it would be a good idea to give the FCLO a go. If you research FCLO on the internet and it's effects on pregnancy some interesting statistics can be found about the benefits of FCLO such as: - pregnant women who take FCLO have a lower risk of type 1 diabetes - it can reduce mortality rates of infants who have been given FCLO after birth I buy my FCLO via Amazon and I buy the green pastures kind. If you are able to buy several bottles at once I would recommend going through the Green Pastures site directly as the price drops considerably per bottle you order. I haven't run into any problems ordering through Amazon yet but one thing I am currently having problems with is the fluctuating price on Amazon. The last 2 bottles I ordered have been in the 30-39 dollar range but the going rate now is 40-45 and I have seen it as high as 50. I buy the orange flavor as I saw recommended on a blog and although the idea of fish and orange may sound weird to some people, it actually works and will probably be my flavor of choice from now on. My experience with it so far has been great. I normally get a few sinus infections each year and during the first year of Jack's life I was very susceptible to catching whatever he got. I am thrilled to report that from my experience of taking FCLO, I really haven't gotten sick since taking FCLO. Jack has had a few colds since his brother was born and so far I haven't caught those either. As I travel along my journey towards better health and overall wellness for me and my family, I know that everyone's path is different and everyone has their experience and level of comfort with trying new things. For me, taking the FCLO is definitely something that I am planning on doing for life as it has provided me with a lot of benefit. Have you tried FCLO? What has been your experience?

#MyClean2014

So this week, I am participating in my first ever Instagram challenge. I am not normally one to participate in something like this but this one is different. This one is inspired by the real food/healthy living movement that I am trying to inch closer to. It has been a really fun few days and there are still a few more days to take part.

You can also check out the original post that inspired the challenge on http://homegrownandhealthy.com/january-instagram-challenge/

You can follow me on Instagram at @alissiahaggard.

Black Teeth Anyone?

So this week, I got my first bottle of activated charcoal...why you may ask? To brush my teeth with it. Now if someone had told me several months ago that I would be trying to brush my teeth with some black stuff I would have told you that you were crazy.
A little bit of my background...the whole dental issue has never been one of my strengths. I have a long and sordid dental history beginning with spacers from 9-11, lower braces at 13, upper and lower braces at 15-17. In between and sometimes during all these events have been multiple cavities, pulled teeth, one root canal (which I am NEVER doing again) and wisdom teeth being pulled. The wisdom teeth extraction is kind of a funny story as when I was doing all of my pre-surgery consultation I was told that I never got my 12 year molars as they were too impacted.
Part of what led me down the current road that I am on is the book Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel. This book is incredibly interesting because it really challenges conventional wisdom that getting older equals gum disease and losing your teeth. I'm sure many of you would be surprised to know that this doesn't happen in every country. In the book is photo after photo of people in their 60s and over with perfect teeth. Nagel theorizes that our decline in dental health is due to our diet which is something I hadn't heard a lot about until I picked up his book.
The other fascinating part of this book is a section on how to remineralize your teeth and potentially heal cavities without dental therapy. Since then I have begun oil pulling (more on this later), brushing with my own homemade toothpaste and now brushing my teeth with charcoal.
I am excited to see the results of brushing with charcoal. I have read that the charcoal can help whiten your teeth because it likes tannins which is one of the more common stains we get on our teeth through different foods and drinks and will share more on my progress as it unfolds.

Essential Oils

So one of my most recent crunchy switches has been to start incorporating more natural remedies in my medicine cabinet than I did before. I started using an essential oil (lavender) after I read about the calming effects of it on toddlers. When I was pregnant with Carson, I was told to start weaning Jack which effectively put an end to his naps.

Searching for a good quality oil on the Internet can be kind of a headache. There are lots of differing opinions on best brands, if certified pure therapeutic grade is a real thing and SO many different opinions on how to use the oils once you get them. In my area, the main brands that you can buy in store are Aura Cacia and NOW. I initially bought an Aura Cacia lavender stick which worked okay with Jack. I ordered a lavender oil from Eden's Garden soon after that seemed to be a little more effective.

Over Christmas, I signed up with Young Living and I have been really impressed with the versatility of their oils, particularly their blends. In future posts, I plan to go into how I use them in my home. Right now I am getting the most use out of diffusing the oils which is new to me.

Back to lavender, I love this oil. It is great to use on your pillow before sleeping, one of the few oils you can use with young babies, great in your bath for relaxation and it's one of my favorite scents to add to any type of deodorant or soap you might make.

What are some of your favorite ways to use lavender? I'd love to hear more and possibly share in a future post!

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Phase 1- Grass Fed/Finished Beef

Our first step on the road to real whole food eating definitely began with making the switch from regular beef to grass fed beef. I was diagnosed with IBS at a very young age and eating beef has always been a trigger for me so I really didn't eat very much beef until this point.
One thing I learned from "Food Inc." is that most beef that you buy in the stores has a variety of things in it from antibiotics to corn (and LOTS of corn I may add, check out the amazing movie "King Corn" for more information). So I was curious to try out grass fed beef and see if I could taste a difference and how it affected me health wise.
Our first challenge at the time was to find a provider. The regular grocery stores we shopped at didn't carry anything remotely close to grassfed, which I am glad to say now is not the case, so we were out to shop at the Keller Farmer's Market. The Keller Farmer's Market is one of the best farmer's markets I have seen in the Fort Worth area. The vendors are very friendly and the people who run the market really make an effort to go for local and whole foods.
Our first venture into the grassfed beef world came through Texas Heritage Beef (http://www.texasheritagebeef.com ). Our first meal with them was a good ol' fashioned hamburger and it was delicious. And the best surprise was for once I didn't get sick. Prior to beginning our whole food adventure, I had recently lost about 30 lbs. on Weight Watchers and beef always made me gain weight and I didn't gain any weight either (score and score). After that we were sold and started buying all of our meat from them at the farmer's market. Unfortunately, the Keller Market runs from May to October so come November we had to go tracking this meat down all over the place. But we did it and it was good. We were also able to convince many of our family and friends to try out the beef and they were all fans of it.
One of the big challenges of buying meat in a non-commercial way is that there are times that what you may want to buy may just simply not be available. The funny thing for us was that when that happened we were okay with waiting. Luckily, since we began this journey you can actually buy grass-fed beef in our local Krogers and Target (score for the whole foods movement) and we have also found another vendor that we love in our area.
When I started reading more and more on my favorite whole foods blog, I found that perhaps I wasn't doing as well as I thought eating only grass fed beef. I was introduced to the idea of grass finished beef. Grass finished beef comes from cows that have been given the opportunity to mature enough to develop fatty tissue and these cows are ONLY fed grass. That's the trick there- often even on some of the brands I had been buying they will say they feed the cows grass as long as they can and then they supplement with grains.
Enter Burgundy Pasture Beef (http://www.burgundypasturebeef.com ) -me and my little family have been making the trip out to Grandview about once a month for the past 6 months to buy from them. We can order online and pick up in Fort Worth but it is fun to go out to their store and have a hot dog and hamburger cooked right on site from their meats. The nice part is that they have a standing store where we can shop year round and pick up what we need. We haven't had a time yet (knock on wood) where we couldn't get what we wanted.
For more information on grass finished meat check out this awesome article from the Dallas Morning News which also talks about some other vendors in the DFW area http://www.dallasnews.com/lifestyles/food-wine/food-wine-headlines/20130611-area-enthusiasts-say-grass-finished-beef-is-a-cut-above.ece

My Story

My food journey started in 2008. My husband and I rented a little movie called "Food Inc." and my eyes were opened. For the next few years, my husband and I spent our weekends going to Farmer's Markets and buying organic as much as possible.

That part of our journey has been an interesting one, getting to know our community and really what's out there in our local market. We have met many good friends and connected to our community in a way I never imagined.

I fell further down the rabbit hole late last year. I was pregnant with my second son and experiencing morning sickness (which I never did with my first). One of my co-workers at my internship site introduced me to the amazing Mommypotamus blog where I learned about magnesium and further down the rabbit hole I went.

Since then I have found myself making my own deodorant and soaps, experimenting with essential oils and reading about supplements I never dreamed I would take. I actually have a beauty routine involving dry brushing and oil pulling (more on those later) and I have felt healthier than I have in a long time.

This blog is about my experiences trying to manage to live a real food life as a stay at home mom, things I never expected I'd do (take fermented cod liver oil), places I go in search of real food and all the in betweens. Stick around, it's going to be an interesting ride!

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