All Nah-tur-al, Baby

My friends Hannah and Erin have had quite the influence on me lately.  I've always considered myself a somewhat natural person when it came to health.  I mean, I was all about natural childbirth, breastfeeding,  I don't like to take antibiotics/meds or even tylenol unless I absolutely have to, and I ate healthy overall.  Kind of a "let nature do it's thing" attitude.  But Hannah and Erin are a wealth of knowledge and have taught me stuff that has taken this natural thing to a whole new level.

David and I started eating healthier last year - less processed food and sugar were the main changes.  It seems when I got pregnant, we didn't do as well because I just had to cope with nausea and tiredness.   But we did enjoy the benefits of eating better - more energy and weight loss.  The things I've been trying lately have more of a focus on internal health - the stuff you can't always see or feel, but it'll make you healthier in the long-run.  Mainly, eating real food and eliminating yucky chemicals. 

Some new things I've tried lately-

• making my own cleaning products
• making my own deodorant - love it!  Better results than store-bought in my opinion.  No unpleasant odor so far.
• making my face cleanser - again, love this!
• making soap (I did it once with Hannah)
• drinking raw milk - yummy.  I think I'll do this more after baby comes.  I don't think it's risky, but I was extra careful with my eating when pregnant with Caleb, so I'm trying to do the same for this pregnancy because most "experts" advise against it. 
• making my own yogurt in the crockpot
• using raw honey
• eating organic raw cheese
• incorporating more organic produce
• less processed food (hard one!)
• along the same lines, cutting out as much high-fructose corn syrup and soybean oil as possible
• making my own chicken broth
• eating grass-fed beef
• eating pastured eggs
• using coconut oil and olive oil instead of vegetable and canola - I don't use much oil anyway in my cooking. 

We're not doing all of the above on a regular basis, we're just trying it out and incorporating it more.  There are like a million other things I'd like to go natural with from toothpaste, to detergent, to eliminating plastics.  We'll see how much of it sticks and how far we go.

David always teases me.  He thinks we're going to end up living like the Amish one day.  Ha!  Probably not.  There are some things I just can't do without right now - disposable diapers, a microwave and cereal are a few that come to mind.

Thanks Hannah and Erin for all your tips!

Here are some pictures just for fun.

pretty eggs

6lb jar of raw honey.  Yum!

soap

I used old baby food jars for my face cleanser and deodorant.  I found some cute labels online I'm going to use to eventually decorate the jars and make them look cute.