Hehehe. I’m sure you know by now my title is in jest! Because you KNOW I don’t think you should be a NEW you. You should just be YOU. The youest you you possibly can be!
(It’s like the self-love version of she sells sea shells on the sea shore.)
And lycra. UGH. I am only into lycra if it is baggy enough for me to feel REAL comfortable in, which I’m not sure is exactly the point! Apart from the leggings with the really beautiful prints on. Those I can get on board with. Baggy ones.
My attitude to health sometimes means green smoothies (which I have every morning) chased by the green mint chocolate Dairy Milk because YUM! When it comes to healthy living we aim for that beautiful balance of nutrition, mental health (meaning not becoming overwhelmed by healthy eating etc) and pleasure! It’s a wellness model, really, seeing the whole of us (not just our bodies and guts) as being sites for healthiness. (I am exploring wellness in an exciting, honest mini-series on my Patreon if you are interested in more on this.Today’s post was all about headlice and our life’s purpose!)
Having said allllll of that…. here are the 4 healthy things I do. Amongst all the coffee and caffeine intake that I feel REALLY comfortable with.
1- Make Sauerkraut. I have come to believe that things like my gut are hugely relevant to my overall physical and mental health. I even have a saying “when in doubt make sauerkraut” because in times of crisis I always find my self chopping cabbage. Ha. I have actually dreamed of being a fermented vegetable more than once in the last year of homesteading.
Sauerkraut is sooooo easy to do and a tiny portion provides well over and above your daily probiotic and vitamin c requirements. There are complicated ways of making kraut but I just:
- Chop a whole cabbage thinly into a large bowl
- Sprinkle 1.5 tablespoons of non iodised rock salt through it and massage it in
- Push it into a massive jar and push it down with my pestle – over the next few hours the brine will release and cover it.
- Lay a cabbage leaf over the top and weigh down with a glass paper weight
- Leave for 3-5 weeks and then refrigerate
2- Give up the shampoo. Ugh I AM SO BORING ON THIS!!!! I won’t go on too much about it. But I am completely convinced by both my personal experience and reading the science on acid mantles and microbiomes that eradicating store bought bottles of goop has made my skin and hair far, far, far, FAR healthier. And saved me a stack of cash. Read more: How to Wash Hair Without Shampoo, No Poo Hair photos, and this week’s post No Shampoo for 5 years – an honest FAQ.
I also want to invite you to my Facebook group Self loving Sisterhood– a group of people committed to supporting each other to live as low tox a life as we possibly can.
3- Outside everyday come what may. The other day before I went to bed I realised I had been inside all day either working or cooking. I’m not generally inflexible kind of person… I do tend to go with the flow and not hold too tightly to various dogma. But I try, try, try to connect with the nature around me every day rain or shine. Sometimes I am great and plan a bunch of outdoor activities for kids, sometimes, like the other night, it is just lying on the deck for 8 minutes staring at the milky way before I hop into bed. This daily ritual does something for me. There’s a billion reasons to play in the wild, but this commitment of mine runs deep – it is a mental and spiritual health, a way to understand my place in the scheme of things and remind myself of my relationship to the earth.
4- A solid bookshelf of natural living inspo.
This natural living tip is going to be Right Up Your Alley. (Not that alley.)
My book Freedom Face is part of this incredible Healthy Living Bundle of Ebooks and Ecourses. It covers off grid living, healthy eats (a billion gluten free recipe books!!), homesteading and natural beauty and homemade cleaning and all sorts of my fave things. It is for both holistic health freaks AND complete newbies and contains stuff written by some of my favourite authors. It is a completely ridiculous bargain – over the last few years I have bought some of these books for the same price as the ENTIRE PACKAGE. No jokes. If you were to add everything up it would come to $3708 but for the next 4 days it is $29.97. It is laughable and sounds kinda sketchy but it is one hundred per cent solid!!! This is no pyramid scheme, just a way to connect wellness authors and educators with blog readers. You get a super dealio on heaps of incredible wisdom and I get a cut whilst promoting something I whole-heart-love, and it is win win.
Watch out for some of my fave titles:
- Fermenting Veggies
- Eat Beautiful: Grain-free, Sugar-free & Loving It
- Clean, Naturally! Non-Toxic Cleaners for Your Non-Toxic Home
- How To Embrace An Off-Grid Lifestyle: Our Journey & A Step By Step Look At The Lifestyle
- Herbal Skincare 101
- Real Food FAST
- Cooking for Hormone Balance. Rebalance Your Hormones with Food
- Grow Love Garden Planner
- Go Low Tox Minus the Overwhelm: Face. Body. Kitchen. Laundry
- Intro to Kombucha, Fermented Sodas, Kefir, Kvass and More
Whhheeeeee! That is just the START of this digital library!! Sometimes committing to a holistic lifestyle can be massively overwhelming. Having instant access to these resources (over 100 books & courses) makes this overwhelm WAY less.
It is only available from now until Monday, so definitely get on it, and spread the word.
Would, as ever, love to hear your thrifty and healthy living tips. x x
PS My latest video on a day in the life of our unschooling yurt living family might be interesting too!
I’ve tried making kraut before without much success, after reading this I’m going to give it another try.. I never quite know what to eat it with though! I’ve also made kombucha and enjoyed it but I need a mother!
It is SO good with potatos, I also have it every morning with my scrambled eggs!
Thanks, Lucy, that’s a great list.
I am perfectly happy inside, as a general rule, so I do need to have an extra nudge to get outside some days. Thank you for the nudge! I think lying under the stars sounds like an excellent way to end the day!
My best frugal health tip to add to your list would be about slowly, slowly, expanding your cooking repertoire so you are confident with a wider range of things that are both healthy and frugal.
And look, I even wrote a couple of posts on this!
Here’s one on getting confident with cooking with legumes (it has a chocolate cake recipe in it…)
http://sacraparental.com/2014/01/21/new-years-guide-to-legumes-including-chocolate-cake/
And here’s a matching one on using different grains, starting with ideas for barley, oats and quinoa:
http://sacraparental.com/2014/01/03/new-years-guide-to-gorgeous-new-grains/
Keep your inspiration and resourcing coming, please! xx
I love that post! I share it with everyone x x
I am totally with you on the shampoo. I stopped using it over a year ago and my hair is so much softer. I just wash it and my body with natural handmade soap. And next week I’m learning to make that too. Never made kraut, think it might stay in my cupboard too long! From another Lucy from England but in oz.
cool to hear from you!
Do I have to wait 3-5 weeks before eating the sauerkraut?
That’s the ideal fermenting time, I believe, but some people eat after 5 days!