What you put on your skin is equally as important as what you put into your body. This homemade body lotion, or body butter, is incredibly easy to make and will deeply nourish your skin. Your skin is the largest organ in your body and absorbs much of what you put onto it. It’s so easy to make your own skincare products using simple, unprocessed ingredients. Shea butter is the foundation of body butter and what makes this lotion so nourishing for the skin. Shea butter is a rich source of fatty acids that hydrate, protect, and soften the skin, as well as soothe inflamed or cracked skin. Stearic acid and palmitic acid are the two main fatty acids in shea butter responsible for these benefits. Shea butter is excellent for dry, cracked hands and feet, and for helping to heal skin conditions such as eczema and rosacea.

Cold and flu season is upon us! How can you support your immune system so it can function at its best? Your immune cells, like all other cells, require good nutrition and lifestyle habits to function properly. A nourishing whole foods diet, strong digestive system, good sleep practices, good hydration, blood sugar control, and the addition of supportive nutritional supplements all work together to promote a strong and functional immune system. Large amounts of nutrients are needed to run your immune cells so they can do their jobs. During cold and flu season, there is an increased need for these nutrients.

One of the most powerful things you can do on a daily basis for your long-term health and well-being is to cook most of your meals at home with whole food-based ingredients. The second step in taking control of your health and using food as medicine, is to remove the foods or food groups that are irritating your immune system.

The process of dietary change is often a winding road—full of forward movement mixed with setbacks into old habits. This contrast is part of the transformation. Over time, you begin to crave feeling good more than you crave the foods that once made you feel unwell. Rewiring takes time. Give yourself the compassion and the time to slowly change your diet. This is a journey, not a race. True, lasting change doesn’t happen overnight. There is a physical, emotional, and neurological process happening as you shift what you eat and how you nourish yourself. Food is powerful medicine. Everything you eat shifts the biochemistry of your body.

Today I am writing a post to share an incredible recipe with you (one of the most flavorful salad recipes I believe I have created thus far), and open up about some transformations in my life. Some of you have been part of this newsletter since I started it in 2004 and have watched as I have shared photos as our family grew and children went from babies to teenagers! In fact, my oldest daughter is now 21!

Elevated cortisol levels can greatly affect the ability fall asleep and stay asleep. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands. It's a messenger that tells the body how to function. Cortisol is naturally highest beginning early in the morning, from around 6am to 8am. Then it slowly decreases throughout the day, getting to its lowest point around midnight. Acute stress, chronic stress, and trauma can all affect cortisol levels and cause this stress hormone to be higher late in the day when it shouldn't be.

Flaxseeds are a powerhouse of nutrients and fiber that help feed your beneficial gut microbes, reduce inflammation, regulate your digestive system, improve cardiovascular health, and help normalize blood sugar levels. This healthy muffin recipe uses 1 ½ cups of flaxseed meal, in addition to a small amount of oat flour and a cup of wild blueberries to pack in the nutrients! The soluble fiber found in plant-based foods is essential for increasing gut health and longevity. Serve muffins for breakfast with a cup of tea and hard boiled eggs, or pack a muffin in your child's lunchbox. 

We all need very easy recipes to stay on track with dietary changes. I have found that the number one thing necessary to maintaining any healing diet is to be able to easily throw together nutrient-dense meals in minutes. Having easy recipes that contain a balance of vegetables, protein, and fat will help you maintain your diet and heal. It's easy to grab what's convenient when you are hungry, and that's why I recommend stocking your fridge with a snack to help curb those cravings, as well as a few soups or stews that you can reheat for lunch, and keep recipes like this one on hand that can be prepped and cooked in less than 30 minutes.