Glass Water Bottle Koozie

So before I started on the Gerson Therapy, I was drinking tons of water all day long to filter out my body. I carried around a large Voss glass water bottle, because I found that to be the best option out there. The large Voss bottles are large enough to hold a pretty decent amount of water, and glass was a must. There are many brands of water bottles at stores like Target for $12-$18, but at $3 a bottle for the Voss, it was definitely worth it to buy a bottle with the water already in it! It was also nice to be able to flavor the water with lemon and essential oils for a tasty treat.

I started carrying my water in a holder that I made– a little for protection, but mostly because it made it easier to hold. Where ever I went, it always received positives comments. I just can’t believe how many people are still using plastic water bottles, when it’s so easy to bring your own, and were surprised to see that I had a large glass bottle.

I have put the bottle holders up on Etsy for anyone interested in having one.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/204371121/handmade-glass-water-bottle-koozie

We may have money, but we are losing our time

I read a great article the other day that has been going around Facebook. It discusses a lot of things I’ve been thinking about lately.

The article argues that our society has been designed to sustain the economy, making us the pawns in the system.

After our 8-10 hours spent at work daily, it doesn’t leave much time for free time. Mostly, Americans eat a quick dinner and then go to sleep to do it all over again, and then only have two days– if that– every week to spend doing anything other than work. This leaves Americans in need of quick, expensive, entertainment. We have lost the ability to entertain ourselves with more time-consuming activities like walking through a park, exercising, or reading a book. We may have money, but we lost our time.

“For the economy to be “healthy,” America has to remain unhealthy.”

Sadly, I am becoming one of these people, and I’m still young. I feel like I’m wasting my life working an office job I dislike. I need to get out of this rat race of  accumulation of material things. The other day, we had a company meeting about stock options, and they said we couldn’t cash out until we are 70 1/2 years old… It’s hard for me to think of working a miserable desk job for another 45 years. What a waste of life! I don’t want to look back on the years only to see myself working the whole time.

It seems like the only way to do this is to work for myself– work for myself, support myself, don’t work for other people.

At least I will feel like I’m living for me.

(Here’s the article)

Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed

Trader Joe’s is coming to (my) Town

In honor of one of my favorite stores opening a new store near my house today, I wanted to write about Trader Joe’s. I’m sure most of you have heard of this California-born grocery store that offers great deals on its own private label products. Personally, I call Trader Joe’s the “fun store.” When I was living by myself in college, I turned from enjoying clothes shopping to enjoying food shopping. (I know I’m not the only one here!) Trader Joe’s had all the fun snacks and an AMAZING cheese wall full of choices. Because of this, cheese and wine night became a staple at my apartment. I read once that people consider Trader Joe’s a store for poor college students with rich taste buds, and the variety of cheeses and wines to choose from really grew mine.

I have tried many of their private label items, and they were all great. Recently, I have significantly cut back on sugar, and any soy or corn products, however, before I did this, here are some items that I especially recommend, and some that I still recommend:

• Cookie butter – amazing on apples. I had been holding back on this, but after I sampled it in-store, I couldn’t resist.
• kalamata olive bread and hummus – okay, I just love olives
• Harvest blend herbal tea – I noticed after drinking it that this tea contains “other natural flavors” (sketchy much?) which I try to avoid, however, this is the best tasting tea I’ve ever had. EVER.
• Green juice (not sure what it’s called) and Apple Cider – both contain too much sugar and are pasteurized, but taste great, and would be a good alternative to other sugar drinks.
• 100% Cranberry Juice – good price on it, unfortunately it’s pasteurized
• wine and cheese, of course
• Other items: I like buying organic fruit at Trader Joe’s (I am thinking of apples and kiwi) because it’s a lot cheaper than other stores, and the quality has been good.
• I also like buying Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap there, because Trader Joe’s has the best price I have found so far.

As you can see, my list is getting long, and that’s because I liked everything I tried! Well, I didn’t care for the pumpkin butter, but my family loved it, so it must just be me.

One thing I especially like about Trader Joe’s is that none of their private label items contain high fructose corn syrup, nor GMOs. This makes my shopping trip a bit easier, because I’m one to examine the ingredients list on the back. I still will examine it, but not as skeptically.

Trader Joe’s commitment to good health and great prices makes me a loyal shopper, and I am soooo glad to have one near by.

Kombucha

I recently started drinking kombucha (fermented black or green tea), but it got pretty expensive, so I started making my own.

I found that it is SO easy to make kombucha. I started about two months ago with a one gallon glass container, but quickly expanded to two gallon containers, because I found that I could easily drink two gallons by the time the second batch was ready (two weeks later.) I found that I prefer a tangier flavor, so I have been experimenting with how my climate effects the flavor and how long to brew in relation to my taste preferences. I live in Florida and like a two week week first ferment, and then bottle in airtight containers for a second ferment. I drink from the second ferment bottles, so they ferment until I’m ready to drink. (I filter the kombucha into different cups when I’m ready to drink.) I also found that I enjoy the taste of the natural kombucha, so I rarely add juices to it. I have tried cranberry juice, and it was good, but unnecessary.

For my kombucha, I use organic yerbe matte green tea, organic cane sugar, and distilled water. For my first batch, I tried turbinado sugar, but I found that the SCOBY (the “mushroom” culture as I call it for my mom to avoid the “ewwing”) seems happier in the cane sugar. I have only tried green tea thus far, because I believe it is healthier, though I may try black tea since that seems to be what most people use.

The first photo shows how many SCOBYs I have grown! It’s so easy to make that if you want to make your own kombucha, you might want to find ways to get rid of some SCOBYs so that you don’t end up like me with a ton in the large bottles. I felt bad to throw them away and couldn’t find anyone who wanted one. The photo is before I added a new batch of tea to the large bottles. As you can see, the many SCOBYs are sitting in the starter tea. I use 2-4 cups of tea from the last batch.

The second photo is of a second ferment in an airtight glass bottle. I was so happy that when I opened the top, it popped, and fizzed like champagne! I noticed that when I fill the kombucha up to the top of the bottle for the second ferment, it carbonates more.

If you would like to make your own kombucha, there are MANY blogs online with instructions. I received my SCOBY from my nutritionist aunt, but I’ve read several ways to make your own, though I haven’t tried any.

For troubleshooting tips, I liked this website: http://users.bestweb.net/~om/kombucha_balance

Though there are many tips online, I have learned a few from my nutritionist aunt:

• Do not boil the tea. This will roast or burn the leaves.
• To get the most out of the tea, steep the tea for a long time to get all the oils out of the leaves. I leave it overnight in the refrigerator.
• Do not use metal around the SCOBY, or else it may kill it. Instead, use plastic, glass, or wood. (spoons, straws, etc.)
• I’m not sure if this makes a difference, but I read on the tea package to moisten the tea leaves in room temperature water first before you add it to the hot water. I add the loose leaves to 1 cup of room temperature water before pouring that into the heated water.
• Lastly, if you’re making a large batch of kombucha (in my case, 1-2 gallons), only heat a little water to make the tea to save some time. I heat 4 cups of water, let it steep/cool overnight, sift it, and then add the remainder of the water needed right before I pour it into my SCOBY container.

I have been enjoying fermenting so much, I think I am going to add other fermented foods to my diet to increase my probiotic intake. I’m thinking veges next, possibly carrots, beets, and cabbage.

Happy fermenting!

“All disease be…

“All disease begins in the gut.”

— Hippocrates

This woke me up. I have been reading many articles online that discuss how so many common modern day, so called “normal” diseases (including heart disease and diabetes) actually are gut-related problems that have created other side effects. But these aren’t “normal” — these are a result of our toxic society that eats processed foods, chemicals, and fertilizers — many of which we wouldn’t dream of eating if they were just sitting out. I mean, it’s poison. But when they’re listed on the back of an attractive cookies box, the list seems to not matter any more. These are the diseases that we dread of getting when we get older.

The good thing is that there’s a solution. We can fix our own problems that the modern world has created.