As the years have passed and we try to get healthier…
and learn more about real health instead of what some establishment tells us is healthy…
I have found a few things that really help our family.
Today I decided that sharing these simple tips with you will hopefully help you see as well that getting and staying healthy is NOT as hard as it seems to be!
ONE and TWO—-FOOD!!!
One of the most overlooked ways of getting healthy and eliminating chronic conditions is the food that we eat, and paying attention to nutrition. Not trying to call anyone out here, but watching the painful struggle that my mother has gone through recently and wrestling with doctors over medications has proven my point over and over….we have a health care crisis on our hands in this country, and the folks driving the bus just don’t get it sometimes. For example, it does not matter how many medications you take if you are still eating things like Froot Loops for breakfast, and grabbing fast food for lunch, ignoring your body’s needs for real nutrition, and fueling it with junk.
(Not that any of us does that, right?)
Anyhow, in our family, when we combine many different practices, such as essential oils, along with common sense approaches to nutrition, I have found the entire family to be healthier and more vibrant. Let me share a couple basics we simply never go without in our home.
We always, ALWAYS have some sort of cultured probiotic beverage or food in our home at all times. Now that could be something as simple as homemade yogurt or sauerkraut …or something as time consuming as making Kombucha (we will be chatting about this awesomeness later this week). Either way, daily I am adding something, or a couple somethings, to my family’s diet because I have learned how this helps their health from the inside out. Yes you can take powdered probiotics. You can. But I have learned that the homemade stuff is just as powerful, and far more appealing than popping anything else that feels or sounds like another OTC medication.
Second is the same rule I have had for as many years as I have had “crunchy tendencies” which is how many veggies/fruits can I get into my kids/family in one day or meal. Seriously, when you start looking at the American diet, you realize how few of these we actually buy in raw form, and simply rely on processed foods that might possibly provide part of the nutrition. My kids have always had one to two snacks a day that is a straight fruit or veggie, and I am learning over the years how weird we truly are by offering this. Are snack pack puddings easier to transport and throw in a lunch bag? Perhaps. But nutrition hands down is going to win at my house, and that means a baggie of baby carrots or celery with PB and raisins. Meals are going to have steamed veggies or hidden veggies. My kids will eat things (in a good way) that most of their counterparts have repeatedly refused or have never heard of. Does it help keep us healthy? Yeah. It does. And it is a simple sweet way to keep my kids on the right track to healthy eating for the rest of their life.
Third is that we get out and get moving as a family. Believe me, by the end of the day, I would love nothing more than simply plopping down on the couch, ignoring how tired I am, and just putting a movie in so I can crochet something (link). But as I have grown older I have learned that, just like the veggies, and the cultured products, some things stick better if kids learn through experience, not just you telling them what they should do………..preferably while holding a donut as temptation. 😀
So we do. We get out and walk as a family. We ride bikes as a family. We do exercise in the mornings as a family. We hopefully soon will be able to play basketball in our awesome new driveway as a family. And the time spent with my kids having fun is creating memories for them that hopefully one day they will pass down to their children. 😀
Finally, we are always educating ourselves on natural alternatives to support health. We are. We choose to look outside of the box to help our family stay healthy and strong, vs just taking the same road as so many others. And it has worked. When we have something that is a struggle physically for our kids, rather than medicating them until absolutely necessary, we choose a different route, whether through Essential Oils, or through other natural alternatives like herbs. We learn together how to combat it, through personal experience and listening to the wisdom of others who have been using things longer than we have. We get feedback from a community of other moms who are taking the same route and learn through their trials and errors. It has been an incredibly rewarding experience, being a parent who takes a different path, even if it means sometimes dealing with conflict or decided opinions of others who want to tell me what to do. 😀
I hope that you also have some tips and tricks you can share with others about what works for your family. I am going to include some links at the bottom of this page that might help moms who stumble on this and are looking to get started in these things.
Blessings to you and yours.
~Heather <3
You can learn about simple ways to culture your own homemade products here.
You can learn more about how to use herbs here, and purchase fabulous quality ones here (yes they are an affiliate, but you all KNOW I am not going to share anything that I dont use on my own family, so take it for what it is).
THIS is a great article on creative ways to get moving with your kids, and get off the couch. 😀
And HERE is a fun article with lots of great ideas on getting as many veggies into your kids as you can.
