Rosacea

Just a Red Face – or Something More?

November 9, 2011 By Adrienne 75 Comments

Approximately 45 million people worldwide don’t know that they have rosacea, that it is treatable, and that it is a symptom of other deeper issues.

Last night a new acquaintance said to me, “You have a beautiful complexion! (and no, the above photo is not of me)” I almost couldn’t believe it, and then I told her what a testimony that was to my health improving. I mentioned to her my previous struggles with acne and rosacea and thought, “I need to share with others what I’ve been through with my skin and my health.”

Your skin can be a reflection of what is going on inside of you. If you have acne, rosacea, eczema, or other things going on, something isn’t quite right inside.

There are different thoughts in the alternative medical community about the causes of skin problems, but I’m going to share part of my skin story so that hopefully you can benefit from what I’ve learned.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Digestive Issues, Health Concerns, Rosacea

Top 5 Reasons to Eat Healthy (one of them may surprise you!)

September 21, 2011 By Adrienne 17 Comments

Do you struggle sometimes with eating the wrong things ? Or just eating too much?

I struggle with this all.the.time. Think just because I have a whole foods blog that it is always easy for me to make the right choices?

Think again.

Anyone else out there like this? I’ve never understood those women who say, “I just don’t remember to eat sometimes. I’m too busy taking care of my kids!”

I basically want to eat healthy, but I need all of the help and motivation that I can get.

Join me today over at The Better Mom where I will hopefully give you some motivation to either make some healthier eating choices, or keep on making the good choices that you have already put in place.

You’ll learn a bit about me and you’ll see why I was so convicted when I started writing this post…

See you there !

Shared at A Southern Fairytale, Delightfully Dowling, For Love of Cupcakes, Ruth’s Real Food, 11th Heaven’s Homemaking Haven, Home Savvy A to Z, The DIY HSHP, Marvelously Messy, The Prairie Homestead, Keeping it Simple, Growing Home, Dr. Laura’s Adventures, Learning the Frugal Life, Far Above Rubies, Simply Sugar and Gluten Free, Hope Studios, The 21st Century Housewife, Real Food Forager, Tip Junkie, Day 2 Day Joys, Look Who Found the Marbles, Food Renegade, Life as Mom, and The Healthy Home Economist.

Filed Under: Adrenal Fatigue, Autism, Candida, Digestive Issues, Emotional & Spiritual, Health Concerns, Heavy Metal Toxicity, Infertility, Rosacea, Toxic Overload

Top 5 Steps to a Healthier Diet

August 10, 2011 By Adrienne 28 Comments

Are you…

dealing with puzzling health conditions like eczema, autism spectrum disorder or fibromyalgia?

wondering about pesticides and chemicals in the environment and their effects on your health?

just wanting to take some steps toward being more healthy?

Trying to decipher all of the healthy information can be completely exhausting. There is so much out there and it seems like it changes all the time.

Well, I’ve been (still am sometimes) overwhelmed by it all too.

In order to help you (and myself when I get overwhelmed), I’ve put together a quick go-to list called the Top 5 Steps to a Healthier Diet.

FDA Poised to Ban Supplements in the US

July 6, 2011 By Adrienne 46 Comments

Well, the FDA is at it again.

Recently, I wrote a post describing how the FDA has been pressuring natural product companies to stop making health claims about their products.

They are seizing products, making demands on natural health care providers and supplement companies, and shutting down websites.

Well, the situation appears to be getting even more dire.

Homemade Rose Water Spray Recipe

March 15, 2011 By Adrienne 20 Comments

Awhile ago I mentioned rose water spray in my post about Jojoba and Rose Water Facial Cleanser.

Well, today I am going to show you how to make the rose water spray yourself.

Rose water sprays are used for skin hydration on either your face or your whole body. You can use them anytime for a refreshing, skin nourishing spray, or you can use them as I do in my evening facial care routine.

Some of them can be quite expensive, especially when you are looking at organic sprays. I have seen an organic version for as much as $35 for 4 fluid ounces. Now that will break your family’s budget very quickly.

Truth be told, I once bought that expensive version out of desperation to rid myself of rosacea that was making me embarrassed to go out in public. That spray, together with a simple skin cleansing routine, eliminated most of my skin issues, but I then had to find a less expensive way to keep my skin healthy.

Now you can benefit from this cost saving method too:

Homemade Rose Water Spray

Ingredients:

1/2 cup filtered water (I recommend reverse osmosis)
6 drops Rose Essential Oil (I recommend organic Rose Otto, but the less expensive rose oils will work as well.)

Method:

1. Add water to your misting container.

2. Add essential oil to Spray Bottle.

3. Shake well before using (I have not found this to be necessary).

A few points to remember:

Mister spray should not be in a metal bottle, as metals can alter the essential oil’s property. If you are going to use plastic, use a high quality plastic so the oils don’t absorb some of the plastic into what you are putting onto your body.
Use pure essential oils only. Many essential oils on the market are diluted with jojoba or other oils. See my post on Which Essential Oils Are Best to find out where to get high essential oils that you can trust.

You may also use other essential oils depending upon your preference, but rose is especially soothing to the skin.

So now, in case you need further convincing, is my financial justification behind spending the time to make your own spray. Believe it or not, I actually did some research to find out the average number of drops in a bottle of pure essential oils (Can you believe that figuring this kind of stuff out is actually fun for me?!)

I found out that there are approximately 56 drops of oil in one 1/8 ounce bottle.

So that means that (here comes the real-life application of math….) if you use organic rose oil that costs approximately $80/bottle, your 4 ounces of rose water spray will cost you only $8.53. And if you use conventional rose oil (approx. $43.50), your cost will be only $4.66. And one bottle will last a really long time. What a savings!

Have you made anything with essential oils that you particularly like?

(Photo credit)

Filed Under: Do It Yourself, Health Concerns, Recipes, Rosacea

Whole New Mom

December 16, 2010 By Adrienne 2 Comments

I worked pretty hard at keeping everything moving in the direction that I wanted it to go until the wheels started falling off our family bus 10 years ago.

The first wheel to fall off was when our firstborn would not sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time. I tried everything….timed feedings, tying his crib to our bed, putting him to sleep in a bouncy seat with the vibrator on. Nothing worked. After a long search for an answer, it turned out that he had life threatening food allergies and the rash that covered his body was severe itchy eczema. I eliminated the offending foods from my diet and his rash went away. And I slept.

The second wheel fell off the bus about 4 years ago when that same son began to have numerous tantrums per day. Unending tantrums over seemingly meaningless issues. The stress than ensued upon our family was almost unimaginable. We started on a path to find out how to help him and ended up with the diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndome.

I then started on a mission to heal my son and to heal him fast. Again, I thought that I was in control.

I was, in a way, until the third wheel fell. I bottomed out with chronic, severe, fatigue. I was unable to stand to sing hymns at church, unable to read to my child while he sat on my lap. I simply closed my eyes and waited for the fatigue to pass.

Finding a way to put this wheel back on the bus became imperative. I had to find an answer or merely give in to a failing body and the crushing fatigue.

I had thought for years that the boom in autism diagnoses was simply the result of overdiagnosis. I thought that people with food allergies had it “all in their head” or that they simply wanted to be thin. I thought that chronic fatigue could probably be cured if one would just eat well and exercise and have “down time” pursuing God. I was wrong. It is all a lot more complex than that. Life has a way of humbling the living.

A lot of what you will find on this blog is the product of years of searching and analyzing and trying to find ways to help out family on the path towards wholeness and health. I haven’t found all of them and I am sure that I will be learning a lot along with all of you.

Some days the journey get really hard. Most days. I wonder, “Why us? Why me?” And then I realize, “Why not me?”

I am not sure why this has all happened, but I do know that it has forced me to learn how to reliquish control. To slow down. To let go. And to realize that in living we all fall into pits and need another one to help us out. I hope that I can be one to help others out of their pits.

While thinking about what to name my blog, I thought about what would encompass my life at this point. Our family has been on such a wild ride through many issues over the past years that we have been taken down paths that I never thought I would travel on. Almost every time I turn around I feel that I am encountering a new thing that needs to be addressed; a new part of the onion that needs to be peeled off in order to work on a new thing.

Whole New Mom is about me. It is also about you. It is for sure not what I am. It is what I am on the path (hopefully) to becoming. Though I am sure that it will never really happen in this world.

Whole means that I am trying to address all parts of me and my family in a holistic manner. I am trying to grow and learn more about becoming more healthy physically, emotionally and spiritually and I am trying to do this by addressing all aspects of being at the same time.

New is the recognition that there are everyday new things that I am learning, or am being forced to relearn. It is also the hope that some of my efforts will help in making some of our brokenness new and some of our illness healed.

Mom is what I am. That I can say with certainty. I am a mother to two beautiful boys and wife to a wonderful long-suffering husband. He typically uses that term when introducing me to others (I am the “long-suffering wife”), but it is certainly true in his case. He didn’t sign up for all of this mess, but then none of us did, right?

Won’t you join me on this journey? The path is much more enjoyable and bearable when two or more traverse together.

Come join us in the messiness of working on becoming whole and becoming new. We’ll walk together hand in hand….