Post Whole 30! With lots of photos!

So I completed my first Whole 30! And even though I did eat compliant the entire time, I know there are a few things I need to work on to do it over again. I had a hard time not snacking between meals, so I think increasing my water intake may help with that. I also need to not eat nuts, or nut butters, too often since eating too many omega 6's can cause inflammation. Plus, turning to them as a snack is just feeding a sweets craving, something I was trying to kick in the first place! One of the main reasons I wanted to do the Whole 30 was to find out what is causing me to be bloated. So even though I had cut out all those gut disrupting foods for 30 days, I still have bloating. I think if I try increasing my water and not snacking, it may help. Otherwise I may need to eliminate another food to figure it out. So I am still working on that.

Some of the changes I have noticed are more energy throughout the day. No more sinus drainage or morning sinus headaches!!!! And I really noticed the cravings start to go away by the 3rd week. That was awesome! It just proved to me that I CAN eat food without added sugar and enjoy it! And even though I have always loved cheese, I am surprised by how much I did not miss it!

Today was day 31, so the only thing I introduced was sugar. I even had some dark chocolate today. And while it tasted good, I know that I need to remain disciplined with my sugar intake, or I could easily slip right back into the habit of eating it constantly.

Below are some photos of some of my meals from the last 30 days. Many of them I posted on my Instagram page. Please come follow me there!

How about you? Have you completed a Whole 30? Or are you thinking of doing one? Let me say this, if I can do this, so can you!! I am not by nature a very disciplined person, so I really did not know if I would get through this. And even though there were ups and down days the first few weeks, I pushed through!! And now I will never look at food the same way again. I want to prepare very healthy meals for myself and I try to balance protein, fats, and veggies with each meal as best I can. It truly does change the way you eat and the way you think about food. I hope you decide to try this life-changing adventure sometime!

Day 1 on the Whole 30 challenge

So besides the extra prep time, eating this way is really not "hard". We have already been a pretty healthy eating family, but I know I need to make some better changes. So this program is very helpful for me as it is all laid out for me with the do's and don'ts and meal plans and recipes. I was already gluten free, so that part is already cut out. I have no problem not eating legumes as I already know how bloated those make me. I do like peanuts and peanut butter, so this is the first time I am cutting that out. Corn is not hard either as popcorn has bothered my gut for a long time anyway. Dairy I know I will miss at some point as I do like cheese, but I can handle it. I may miss having a glass of wine a couple weeks in, but that's okay. :) I will see how long it takes for me to crave some dark chocolate, or just sugar in general, my biggest weakness.

Below are my meals for day one. Lots of fresh veggies today. Some days will have more cooked than fresh, but at least I am definitely getting more helpings of veggies this way.

Breakfast was two fried eggs, sweet potato hash browns, and avocado.

Lunch was tuna with avocado mayo, romaine lettuce, sliced hardboiled egg, and tomatoes and cucumbers.

Dinner was grass fed burger with avocado mayo, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, bell pepper, cucumber, and radishes.

How about you? Are you doing the Whole 30 challenge? I would love to hear what day you are on and how you are doing!

Join me on my Whole 30 challenge!!

Brushing the dust off my blog as I begin a journey with the Whole 30 challenge this month! If you have not heard of Whole 30 before you can begin by visiting their website HERE. I have spent the last couple weeks in preparation for this journey. The main things I cannot eat while on this journey are: grains, legumes (including peanuts), soy, sugar (not even natural ones like stevia), dairy, sulfites (meaning no alcohol), MSG, carrageenan. HERE are the program rules. 

I know this may sound "strict" but its only for 30 days as a way to reset the brain and heal the body. After day 30 I will slowly reintroduce some of these foods back in and see how my body responds. Basically a form of an elimination diet. I am actually looking forward to it very much! I have been wanting to do some kind of elimination diet, but I was not sure how to start. So having a whole program set up that tells me what not to eat and what to eat makes it much easier. The book It Starts With Food is on its way to me now so that I can read it and get the full grasp on this program. I did not buy their cookbook though as you can find many bloggers who have already laid out meal plans and recipes for you on their sites for free. The Nourishing Home has been one of my favorites so far.

So as part of my preparation the last couple of weeks, I have been reading labels on many products at the stores when I get groceries in order to find which foods are compliant with the program. I've also been collecting and printing out recipes and meal plans and filing them into their own notebook. I have been cooking meals that are compliant as well, at least for me personally. My family will still eat other things that I will not be eating. Pictured above are a couple of the meals I did. I made sweet potato hash browns one morning, those were amazing!

I am planning to post about my journey here and there along the way. To share recipes and tips, to see how I am feeling and how my body is responding. I know for me the biggest craving I need to overcome will be sugar. Especially dark chocolate. (Oh dark chocolate, I will miss you!) So I plan to use my wonderful essential oils along the way to help keep me on track mentally and physically too.

Would you like to join me on this journey? I would love to hear from you!

Answers to commonly asked questions about Young Living essential oils

In the time that I have been a distributor, I find that there are several common questions/concerns that many people will have. So I decided to address them here in a blog post in case this may help you if you are one of those people. Or perhaps you are a distributor looking to answer these same questions for your friends and family. I hope you find it helpful!


Q: If they are so wonderful, where have they been? Is this just another health fad? Why or why not?

A: Essential oils (EO's) are not new at all, they are referenced in the bible hundreds of times. The reason you are seeing them become popular right now is because people are  ready to take control of their own health. While EO's may seem new, Young Living is the oldest in the industry with over 20 years experience. They are the pioneers of the EO industry and are the largest and fastest growing company. The reason? People want to know and trust where their oils come from. Our skin is the largest organ in our body, it absorbs everything we put on it. So we should take great care in choosing the products we apply to our skin (beyond just oils, even our skincare products!) Young Living is the only EO company in the industry that owns their own farms, distilleries, and labs. All the rest of them are brokers, meaning they buy oils from farmers and rebottle and label them. They have no control over how those plants are grown, when they are distilled to insure the constituents are at their prime, and they do not control the testing of the oil to be sure it is therapeutic grade. People don't think twice about drinking artificially colored neon energy drinks, but they question something as natural as an oil, made from a plant that God created. The oils are natural and our bodies know what to do with them. 




Q: I am a Christian, so any "new age" type references in their wording choices bother me.

A: Please remember that Young Living is not a Christian company, and do not claim to be. Wording on their site or product guide may sound vague, but that is due to Young Living being limited in what they can say about their products. Per FDA guidelines. Essential oils are not a drug, so no healing claims can be made. And we distributors are not doctors, so we cannot diagnose, prescribe, cure or treat anyone.

People do not question what Walmart or Target stand for, and yet continue to shop there. These oils are made from God's creation, as Christians we need to take that back from the new age market and claim it for Christ by giving Him the glory! Here is a great blog post by my upline Stacy McDonald that you may find helpful to read as well.

Q: I don't like MLM's, I have done direct sales before and do not like the pressure of having to "sell" or make sales quotas, etc.

A: As for the MLM side of it, I think many people have a misconception about what an MLM truly is. It is NOT a pyramid scheme. There is not one person at the top of the chain making all the money off everyone else. That is what corporations are. Target, Walmart, Starbucks, etc. And no, not all MLM's are equal either. But Young Living's structure is very generous to the distributors. As a matter of fact, people within the team I am on have hit a higher rank, and have outranked the person they signed up under!! You cannot do that in a pyramid or a corporation!! Most companies have about 24% of their profit set aside for advertising/marketing. Young Living does not pay for marketing, so they give that 24% to the distributors as a product discount as we are their marketing!

Young Living also recognizes that not everyone who signs up as a wholesale member wants to build a business with it. So they make it easy for you. You simply purchase a starter kit and then you are a wholesale member (just like you pay a fee to shop at Costco or Sam's Club) and you receive 24% off the products. No additional fees, no sales quotas, nothing. All you do to maintain that discount is spend $50 a year. Easy!
This little video about Young Living is great to watch. This was filmed at their lavender farm in Mona, Utah. I was there this summer. I got to see, touch, smell, and taste it! This is not a marketing ploy, this video shows the real farm and real people and what they really do there. If you are still researching which EO company to go with, try contacting any of the others and ask if you can visit their farms. You cannot since they do not own any, however, you can visit Young Living's farms all across the globe!!

Smelling the clary sage at the Mona, Utah farm.

The greenhouse where the lavender is grown.

Smelling the lavender and getting ready to plant it!

My friend Clarinda and I planting our lavender in the field!

When your husband becomes an oiler!

Its a fact that most Young Living distributor's are women. I would love to know the percentage, but I am sure it is extremely high! And I have heard the same story from most of them; when they first started out using the oils, their husbands were skeptical. And so was mine!!

I signed up about 2 1/2 years ago, but did not really start using the oils regularly until last Summer. So its been just over a year since our family really became oily. I was using them on myself and the kids and my husband would sometimes just make a comment about those "snake oils".  But, he finally decided to start using them too and he noticed how wonderful he felt! He travels for work and that means a lot of time spent in busy public places like airports, airplanes, restaurants, etc. So maintaining his health and wellness is key when traveling!

Here is my handsome husband doing his job leading a drum clinic with Styx drummer Todd Sucherman.

Below is Styx drummer Todd Sucherman, who my husband has had the pleasure of traveling with many times over the years doing drum clinics together on the East coast.

Now he uses the oils daily just like the rest of us. So we are all an oily family!  And this is what the top of his dresser looks like today :)  I always make sure to give him some small bottles of his favorite oils when he travels each month. He doesn't leave home with them!

Essential oils and back to homeschool

Today was our first day of homeschool for this year. My son's second year of school and my daughter's first year. Since it has been months since we sat down to any kind of "formal" learning environment, I prepared beforehand!  I applied vetiver, cedarwood, and lavender to their kids before we started. (I applied some on myself too! Mama needs calming and concentration help as well!) And I  also diffused cedarwood and lavender. That smelled wonderful!

All in all it was a pretty good first day, despite a few attitude issues that we need to work on. :) We will help address those issues with scripture, prayer, and probably a few other oils too.

How about you? What oils did you use for your kids first day back to school?

The diffuser with cedarwood and lavender helped create a calm atmosphere in our home!

Hard at work! :)

Some of our school work. We use Heart of Dakota for our curriculum. It is very scripture based and every day is easily planned out for you. I also like to add in other workbooks that you can buy at the dollar section in Target, or Walmart, the Dollar Tree, etc. My kids do well with workbooks right now.

Gary and Mary Young

While I was at the Young Living convention, I had the opportunity to listen to Gary Young speak several times. And even though I had read his story and background before, its not the same as hearing him talk about it. There are many details that he talks about that you won't read in print. And to hear him speak, and see his heart and passion, is very different than reading!

Let me first preface this by saying that I am not a "man follower".  I am very careful to not put any man (or woman) up on a pedestal. As a Christian, Christ is first and foremost in everything in my life. So I am always very careful to not elevate any human to a platform only reserved for Christ.

To see and listen to the man who founded this company over 20 years ago was a huge highlight for me as a distributor. Young Living is the oldest essential oil company in the industry. Gary Young is a pioneer in bringing truly pure, therapeutic grade oils to us for use in health and wellness. His own story of using the oils for his paralysis is amazing. And the many other ways they used the oils in their own family. He has a heart and passion for helping others, and that is the mission and drive behind what Young Living does and why they do it. They own 9 farms on 5 continents and have 14 partners in wildcrafting worldwide. And they are continuing to buy farm land and partner up with other farmers whose standards match that of Young Living. They do all this in order to maintain their high standard of integrity to be able to bring us oils that are grown in organic soil and using organic methods without compromise. And that is a truly important thing when you consider that our skin is the largest organ of our body. Everything we put on our skin is absorbed into our bloodstream. So we need to make sure that whatever we are using is truly organic and pure, or we can compromise our health.

I had an opportunity to say "hello" to Gary and Mary and have a photo taken with them. They are sweet folks and even though they were very busy and probably tired that week, they still took the time to have photos taken with the distributors.

If you would like to read a bit of Gary Young's story, you can find it HERE.

And there is more here at the D. Gary Young Foundation site.