Growing up, my mom always had us eating "healthy". We never had "sugar cereal" in the house (Kix was as sweet as it got) and we could only have soda on the weekends or on a holiday. Our dinner plate always had a meat, starch, and vegetable. Very traditional, balanced, wholesome meals. And we ALWAYS had milk with dinner. It wasn't even an option to have anything else. We very rarely ate fast food, and if we did, it was Taco Bell. My mom always said Taco Bell was the healthiest of all the fast food choices :)
I absolutely love that I grew up that way. I'm glad my mom instilled those values in us to eat properly and really think about what we were putting in our bodies. Now, that's not to say that there were never any Oreo's or Doritos in the house because there were, but she tried hard to teach us balance.
I believe that my upbringing is the reason I care so much about health and nutrition today. But also because body image is another thing I've struggled with since 7th grade. That was when I realized I was physically bigger than my older sister. She was (and still is) tiny. Small frame, skinny arms, just petite. That is fine and she is beautiful and healthy, but as a 12-13 year old girl, being bigger than my 5-years-older sister was not okay. I never had serious problems like anorexia or bulimia, but I did try every diet in the book. Liquid diets, no carb diets, blood type diets, gluten free diets, fat free diets, etc.
After 15+ years of yo-yo dieting, gaining and losing chunks of weight, and dealing with the weight gain/loss of having two babies, I've finally figured it out. I've figured out that what my body needs is whole, minimally processed foods. Food that come from the earth. Foods that haven't been massacred and manipulated in a lab. In the past 18 months or so I've learned a lot about this from 100 Days of Real Food and the Food Babe. They have pretty much turned around the way my family eats. For the most part, we eat whole, organic, non-gmo foods. We eat limited amounts of meat & dairy, but when we do, we try our best to make sure it's been responsibly raised and produced. It's not always easy, and it's not always cheap, but we believe in putting our money towards our family's health above anything else.
After I figured out the food thing, I decided that figuring out how to clean up our health/beauty/cleaning products was next. Because God is good, that just so happened to be the same exact time that He brought Laura Kate McKee into my life. I met her at MOPs in the fall of 2014 and we became Facebook friends. I started seeing her posts on essential oils and all the great things they can do. I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting into at first, but I took a leap of faith and bought a Premium Starter Kit (actually - my mom bought it for me for my birthday - thanks mom!). Wow. Changed my life. Now I can make my own face moisturizer with Frankincense & Lavender instead of slathering on the mysterious ingredients in store-bought products. I can clean my house with Thieves (Cinnamon, Clove, Lemon, Rosemary, Eucalyptus) instead of chemicals. And best of all I can support my own and my family's health with a variety of essential oils rather than over the counter items. RC can support our respiratory systems, Thieves & Lemon can support our immune systems, Peppermint & DiGize can support our digestive systems, Panaway can support our muscular system, and so much more.
Rather than blab on for days about how awesome essential oils are, I want to encourage you to look into them for yourself and your family. If you have even the slightest interest in health & wellness, essential oils are for you. And why Young Living? Young Living has the highest standards for quality among any essential oils on the market. They own and operate their own farms across the world and care deeply for the product they are creating. They hand select all the seeds, cultivate the plants in a clean, non-toxic way, they harvest the plants at the correct ripeness, distill them on property using only glass and stainless steel vessels, test the oils both in house and through a third party company, and then finally seal them up. But don't believe me - see for yourself! www.seedtoseal.com
I look forward to chatting with anyone who wants to make essential oils a part of their family's lifestyle! Or if you know you're ready - just click the link at the top of the page or here to jump in!
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