Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

You Are What You Drink {31 Days of Real Food Reality ~ Day 18}

by 9 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

31 Days 300

Women’s bodies are made up of 50% water. (The other 50% is obviously sugar, spice and everything nice). We can so very easily become dehydrated. If you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. Drink up! It’s one of the easiest improvements we can make when it comes to healthy eating (er, drinking). It’s also one of the most crucial.

If you’re feeling sluggish or depressed, it’s likely that you need to drink more water. If you get frequent headaches, you probably need more water. If you’re having a difficult time losing weight, try drinking more water. If you want healthier skin, drink water.

Obviously, taking a drink of water is not going to immediately swing you from depressed to joyful. It’s not going to zap your headache right away. Five pounds won’t miraculously fall off your hips after guzzling a glass of water. It’s just that our bodies crave water. We need it to thrive. Making sure our cells are well hydrated makes a huge difference in our over-all health, both physically and mentally.

Nothing else counts. Not soda, not juice, not tea, not milk, not coffee. Not that you can’t drink any of those. (Well, really, I can’t recommend that you drink soda, and juice is pretty full of sugar, but anyway…)  If I drink a cup of coffee in the morning, I make sure I drink a couple of glasses of water throughout the morning too. My body is now used to getting enough water, so typically, I can tell when my body needs it. I generally take a few sips every 15 minutes or so. No need to guzzle. Please don’t water log yourself. Just sip on water throughout the day as your body dictates.

Oh, and if your kids get crabby? Before you get frustrated or lose your patience, ask them to take a drink of water. It will probably give them a better attitude. This, I know. I usually stop and take a drink too, for obvious parenting sanity reasons.

Don’t like the taste of water? I’ve got to admit that some city water tastes really disgusting. If that’s the case, fork it out for filtered water. It’s that important. Better yet, make a one time Berkey water filter purchase, and have pure, delicious water all the time, forever.

Do this. It’s as easy as switching to real butter. I love simple changes we can make to improve our health!

How do you do when it comes to drinking water? Love it? Drink plenty? Need to improve?

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Five Simple Ways to Live a Natural Lifestyle

by 16 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

watersm

What does it look like to live a “Natural Lifestyle”?

There are all kinds of different definitions for the word “natural”. Many foods are labeled “natural” in an attempt to appeal to the conscientious consumer. Corn growers pay for advertisements that say that High Fructose Corn Syrup is “natural”. Well, sure it is…in a loose sense of the word I suppose, but that doesn’t make it good for us. Shucks…arsenic is natural.

My own definition of living a “Natural Lifestyle” I suppose would be “getting back to the basics”. Whether we’re talking about food, family choices, in general taking care of ourselves…doesn’t it just sound refreshing to “get back to the basics”?

Here are five simple ways I’d like to suggest to live a more Natural Lifestyle:

1. Eat Real Food

Yes, you’re so surprised I listed this one aren’t you? Real food is best. Food in it’s natural form. Food that isn’t processed. Food that tastes so stinkin’ good you don’t know what to do with yourself!!! It’s amazing what food without chemicals tastes like!

Need a little help getting started? Here are some links to past series I’ve written about how I feed my family and about why I feel real food is best:

2. Drink Water

I already wrote about how you should drink more water and told you about some healthy alternatives to soda and other not-so-good-for-you beverages. But really…one of the simplest (and cheapest!) ways for you to adopt a more natural lifestyle is to stop filling your body with icky beverages and just drink water.

3.  Exercise

Yeah, and this advice is coming from me…the girl who doesn’t really like to exercise. Guess what though?! My husband and I have made it a point to exercise together three days a week for the past few weeks and I’m actually starting to like it! I’ve heard people say that once you start exercising regularly, you begin to crave it. I never believed them. Until now.

It’s really not as hard as you think, but exercising is just like anything else you need to be doing…YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO IT. I know, profound. The main idea is this:  Do what you can to not be sedentary.

A side benefit of exercising:  You’ll crave more water and more real foods. Yeah, somehow having a candy bar and soda after exercising feels a little silly. Water and fruit sounds much better.

4. Stay Home More

This may seem like a weird item for our Natural Lifestyle list…but it doesn’t get much simpler or more natural than this. Stay home more. You’ll save money, your vehicles will last longer…and joy of joys…you may not be so worn out all the time! I find that when I’m running from here to there and back again…I am completely exhausted AND behind on all the work I need to do at home. We don’t need THAT much outside “stuff”. When you’re home more…you’ll find you’ll be more rested and more relaxed…naturally.

5. Waste Less

The more natural your lifestyle, the less waste you’ll have. If you make your food from scratch, you’ll have a lot less packaging trash. If you serve smaller portions and make it a point to eat leftovers, you’ll throw away less food. If you don’t buy stuff you don’t need, you’ll waste a LOT less money. If you use cloth napkins and let your kids draw on used scratch paper, you’ll save a lot of trees. None of these things are hard. You just have to be a bit more intentional.

And then of course there are all kinds of other things I’d recommend as you work your way to a more Natural Lifestyle, like planting a garden, buying locally grown produce and other foods, getting good sleep and eating lots of chocolate.

Just kidding. Chocolate may be natural, but eating lots of it would be “The Simplest way to Gain Five Pounds”. That‘s another post for another day.

————————————————–

Be sure to take the time to read these “Five Simple Ways” posts too! A big thanks to Toni at Happy Housewife for organizing this series!

Carrie from Springs Bargains: Simple Ways to Make Money From Your Blog
Jen from Balancing Beauty and Bedlam: 5 Simple Ways to Dress Fabulously for Less
Myra from The Casabella Project: 5 Simple Ways to Decorate on a Dime
Melissa from A Familiar Path: 5 Simple Ways to Take Better Photos
Jenny from Southern Savers: 5 Simple Ways to Start Using Coupons
Lynn from Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures: 5 Simple Ways to Save Time in the Kitchen
Toni from The Happy Housewife: 5 Simple Ways to Save Money in 2011
Laura from I’m an Organizing Junkie 5 Simple Ways to Organize Your Home
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Healthy Beverages

by 31 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

simplesteps

I’ve encouraged you to knock out the soda/pop/coke…whatever you call it. I’ve encouraged you to drink more water. But is there anything you can drink besides water that isn’t bad for you?!

First, I need to remind you that if I can kick my Pepsi habit…anyone can. I used to drink a ton of the stuff. While it’s super hard to give it up…I can testify that it is 100% worth it. 

Now I mostly just drink water or raw milk (more about raw milk eventually in this series!). But occasionally I do have a few other drinks that I consider to be treats:

  • Iced Green Tea   I don’t drink tea very often, but I love it as a treat if we ever eat out…or occasionally I’ll make it at home. I drink it straight…I am not a sweet tea kind of girl. I do like the occasional lemon wedge. (See, I just sometimes like to go ALL out, huh?)  If you do like your tea sweetened, you might try liquid stevia or honey as natural alternatives to sugar. Also, I’d think putting a little bit of 100% juice into the tea might be fun.

 green_tea

  • Homemade Lemonade or Limeade  Ooh, this stuff is refreshing and SO delicious (uh, if I do say so myself). It can get a little pricey though since it’s sweetened with real maple syrup. We have this very infrequently…definitely not often enough according to my children.

 lemonadesm.JPG

  • Mineral Water with 100% Juice   Okay, THIS is what gives me my “soda fix”. You know what I miss most about my Pepsi? The burn.  I just love the fizzy burn of soda. Loved. Past tense. I loved the burn of soda.  I miss the burn. Sometimes now I splurge on mineral water and put in just a shot of 100% juice (grape is my favorite). I usually mix about one part grape juice to 4 parts mineral water. Ooh, the burn is so good. If you’re used to drinking soda, this mixture will likely not taste at all sweet enough for you. However, if you haven’t had soda for a while, you may find that this is just the treat you’ve been looking for. I even find now that the less juice the better. Of course…I’m really just going for the burn. ;)

mineral_water

 

  • Kombucha    I’ve just recently fallen in LOVE with kombucha! It kinda took a few weeks to make myself like it…but now I love it! It’s a little bit fizzy and really refreshing on a hot day. And it is a super healthy, probiotic drink! Right now, a friend of mine and I have a lovely arrangement worked out:  I buy the supplies…she makes the kombucha and shares it with me. We both win! Eventually (although I make no promises that it will be any time soon), I’ll try to go take pictures of her making it and share the process with you. It isn’t hard…I’ve done it before.

Now, I am excited to share a wonderful comment that my friend Serenity left on a post several months ago. I thought it was so awesome to read about how her husband gave up coffee…and to hear about how much BETTER HE FEELS!!! Here’s what Serentity had to say…

My husband is an RN and had a coffee addiction for YEARS. He finally quit this winter when he got the flu and I can not believe how it has changed him. First, he is no longer tired. He was drinking coffee to stay awake (he works nights) but he has found that without caffeine he is actually much more alert and less tired. Second, right after quitting coffee he felt so good that he started exercising. Now he runs 3 times a week for 4-5 miles and lifts weights twice a week. He looks AWESOME! For the first time in our marriage he jumps out of bed each morning ready to conquer the day. For the past ten years I had been bringing him a cup of coffee every morning to wake him up and I would have to coax him out of bed. I am loving my energetic, motivated husband :)

What are some of your favorite, healthier drinks?

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Drink More Water!!

by 57 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

simplesteps

Ah yes…we hear this one all the time. They say, “Each person needs at least eight – 8 ounce glasses of water each day.” I’m not sure who “they” is, but no matter. Drinking lots of water is essential for good health!

Some of you may not really enjoy drinking water, so you may not like my next statement:  I don’t agree with “they”. I don’t really think that eight – 8 ounce glasses of water is enough.  That’s ONLY two quarts. I drink that amount before 10 am. If I was only drinking two quarts of water each day, I think my body would be dehydrated. But what do I know? I just know what my body craves…I don’t know anything scientific. And by the way, I’m not really drinking the water because I feel thirsty. I just feel the need for water. I just feel better when I drink a lot of water.

If you don’t really like drinking water, can I just offer you a challenge to suck it up (literally) and drink it anyway? Water is so, so good for you. Your cells need hydration to function properly. There are toxins in your body that need to be flushed out. Your body craves water.

watersm

If you are feeling low on energy…it may be because you aren’t drinking enough water. Simple as that.

In my opinion, drinking lots of water is one of the simplest steps toward healthy eating. And the stinkin’ cheapest. If you’ve made the decision to eat a healthier diet and you’re working to add more fruits and vegetables in each day…try now to drink more water. Force yourself to do it if you have to at first. Before long, you won’t even have to try. Your body will beg for it and you’ll just do it.

Water is basically all I drink (with a few exceptions that I’ll talk about another time soon). I keep a full glass by the sink all day long and I chug the entire thing whenever the mood strikes me. I love it. And yes, I potty a lot. (whoa, too much information.)

Here are some tips for drinking more water:

  • I like drinking my water at room temperature (or just a little cooler than that…like cold tap water). If the water has been in the fridge, I tend to get brain freeze when it’s going down, which makes me not want to drink it.
  • Make sure it tastes good…or rather that it tastes like nothing. When we were out of town recently, I tried to chug down the water in the home I was staying. It tasted SO much like chemicals that I felt I needed to chew it before I swallowed it. I could NOT drink it. If your water isn’t good, get a good filter system. Do whatever you need to do to find a good source of clean water. (Not having done a ton of research on the matter because our water at home is pretty good…we just use a Brita water filter.)
  • If you put ice into your water, be sure the cubes are made from good tasting water. If you make your ice cubes with yucky tasting tap water, it will taint the flavor of your drinking water as it melts. Ick.
  • Squeeze a lemon or a lime into your drinking water. Slices of lemon or lime will make it look pretty and appealing, it will give your drinking water a little zing!
  • Drink water out of a glass. This is just a personally preference of mine, because I simply am not a big fan of plastic. Drinking from a plastic cup makes my water taste like plastic. Find a nice tall glass and fill ‘er up. (Yes, because a tall, pretty glass is a “her”.)

Coming up soon (eventually, someday, and whenever I actually get around to it):  Other beverage choices, what not to drink, how to replace pop and other liquidy type items of interest.

After reading through this water filled post, I just bet all of you need to go potty now.

Just curious, do you like drinking water, or find it hard to drink enough each day?

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!