My Crest bright white smile

My ritual of getting a white smile consists of two to three products over the counter. You can use two of the three it just depends on  how proactive you want to be and the results you are seeking.  First off I stick to a soft brush and Crest products. 

Products:

Crest 3D White Advanced Vivid Toothpaste
Crest 3D White Multi-Care Whitening Rinse
Crest 3D White-strips

All three products used together will give you the best results

At first I put my toothpaste on my toothbrush (my next blog post will be details on my toothbrush - yes my toothbrush needs a blog post of its own) and brush my teeth with NO water.  This is the trick, and I repeat NO water.  Its like polishing your teeth kind of like what they do when you get a cleaning at your dentist office.  Takes a while to get use to if you brush with water.  I rinse my mouth after I dry brush my teeth and then I use the Whitening Rinse which does magic! I love this product.  If I had to choose one of the three it would definitely be the mouthwash- it even kills bad breath!  I use the white-strips from time to time if I need extra oomph. 

Love this product!

My homemade antibiotic

I no longer take prescribed antibiotics unless its a deadly must! I mix my own homemade remedies and here are my ingredients:

Garlic - a must! ( I put 3 cloves)
1 Lemon
Oregano oil
Black walnut hull - can be purchased as powder or oil
Ginger - blended to almost watery like form (2 tbsp.)
Honey
Peppermint
Olive leaf extract
Echinacea- I purchase this as tea bag

Happy healthy system!
M

Best way to get rid of a cold or flu is to prevent it!

It's that time of year again where everyone around you is sick and even your next door neighbor is offering you a flu shot. I never got a flu shot and I plan to keep it that way for the rest of my life.  However, I have learned that I need to maintain a healthy immune system all year round to avoid getting any kind of virus.  The most common cause of a flu or cold is viruses and getting antibiotics when you have a virus is not going to help you kill it nor will it make you get better any faster.  Antibiotics should only be used to treat a bacterial infection it does not cure a virus unfortunately.  The first 48 hours is crucial to control and reduce the length of your cold and symptoms therefore you can try home remedies as soon as you feel any symptoms. Trick is to boost your immune system and make it stronger. Here are a few home remedies:

One of my favorite remedies is vitamin C as we all know- but you want to make sure you get the correct amount.  Daily dose of vitamin c should be 4,000 mg a day but when your body is in stress it can double or triple that amount needed. 

Drink lots of fluids and Echinacea tea or green tea helps decongestion and can shorten length of cold.

Eat potassium rich foods and garlic :)

Vitamin B and D - D3 to be more specific helps immunity

Probiotics - for the long run will help you prevent a cold as well

Rest - sleep


Only reason I would visit a doctor is to make sure my vitamin dosages are in tact which will help your immune system.  And no, being exposed to cold temperature will not get you "sick" as every mother might think or say :)

xo
M

Benefits of Sea Salt

Believe it or not sea salt is very good for your health and majority of people are lacking this mineral.  It helps the immune system and digestive system therefore it can also aid in weight loss and prevent a cold.  Sea salt contains essential minerals that regular iodized salt does not have because it is not processed or harmful since its naturally obtained from the sea.  I like to have a lot of the things I eat to be salted for flavor but I'm glad I have a healthy substitute now which my body needs. I myself lack this mineral and aside from taking this mineral as a pill I try to get it through food.  One of my favorite snacks to munch on is roasted seaweed which contains light sea salt but still does the job when I have a hectic day.  I love seaweed in general but I love to grab this as a snack throughout my day.  It's very low in calories and does not contain gluten or msg-- totally vegan!

Save the tata's

The month of October is the national breast cancer awareness month. But why stop there to increase awareness? I've provided a link below to a website that will educate you on how to help reduce your risk of breast cancer. Take a proactive approach and increase your breast health with holistic eastern and western remedies and techniques. The site provides the best self education you need to know about your tata's! 

Spread the site! 

Www.breasthealthproject.com Www.breasthealthproject.com

The "healthy Hair" tie

These are my favorite hair ties by far!  Very gentle on your hair and does not crease or pull your hair.  These do the job without any strain or tightness to your head or hair and it wont damage or break your hair either.  Because they are made of elastic its so comfortable that it doesn't even feel like your hair is in a ponytail.  These ribbons even look pretty on your wrist and it isn't so tight where it's suffocating your wrist.  These can easily be made at home by purchasing an elastic ribbon and tying it in a knot. Also if you have really thick hair the ribbons stretch and WILL hold your hair tied. You can purchase this goodness at Sephora.

Sweet Summer Salad

Since I have to avoid lemon and lime and don't want heavy salad dressing I've started to become more creative with my food.  :)  Here is my substitution to salad dressing... I combined arugula, feta cheese, and watermelon! Yes, watermelon!  Those are not tomatoes.  I leave it in the fridge over night so the watermelon can absorb and become watery, like dressing.  I'm very picky about my food I hate mixing sweet/sugar with anything I eat but this is not so bad. Besides its very quick and easy!


My hair care regime

The quest for envious hair lies between being healthy inside and out, a combination of both internal vitamins and hair care regime to nurture your locks.  And yes, you know I am going to make this organic and take it back to some heritage roots.  Here we go with a breakdown for thicker longer hair.  I will first start off with products – shampoo, conditioner, and treatments.  What you should avoid are harsh sulfates, ammonium, and paraben in your hair care products.  My favorite is called hair gear all of their products are great!  You can find them at most beauty supplies or Amazon.  If you have breakage use a protein treatment at least once a week to reduce your hair breaking off.  Chemicals that are not good for your hair cause dryness and breakage it slowly strips your hair making it thinner.  If your hair is breaking at the same rate it grows you obviously will see no results of your hair growing.  Breakage can also comes from your hair being dry so if you add a treatment to your routine after shampoo to moisturize/condition your hair it can avoid dryness.  Dryness equals breakage equals not seeing growth and strong hair.  So this is just the hair itself that needs to be taken care of therefore aside from being in a good nutritional state there are a few vitamins I take to help with my hair growth and fullness.  Biotin being the first, I take 1 pill in the morning which is 5,000 mcg.  I’ve seen the most results with MSM (2,000 mcg per day) which lengthens the growth phase of your hair. I also take a B complex and silica.  These not only help your hair but also reduce wrinkles clear your skin and good for nail growth as well!

Now for an organic approach for hair treatments:

These have helped me a lot when I bleached my hair in a very short period of time to get the lightest blonde from black hair.  My hair was fried! It was very brittle, thin, and short.  You can also use this as a protein treatment for your hair. 

Blend (in a blender) shampoo, egg yolks, castor oil, and onions (I promise it does not make your hair smell).  Castor oil can be very sticky and greasy on the hair so you want to make sure you have enough shampoo to aid in the oily-ness.  You can even blend this with your protein treatment just make sure your shampoo or protein treatment contains more product than the castor oil.  Throw that in with 2 egg yolks, and half chopped onions.  Once blended, apply to your hair, wrap it with a plastic bag and let it dry until your hair is stiff. Then rinse it out in the shower and moisturize after! I did this once a week or every time I washed my hair when I was blonde.  I’m being lazy now with dark hair J but this would give my hair volume and thickness- kind of functions as a protein treatment with natural products though. 

Garlic treatment

Don’t stop quite yet! Crush a couple garlic cloves in your conditioner and apply to your hair wrap it with a plastic bag and leave on for 1 hour.  This is another treatment to help with hair loss. 

Try these all together for one month you will definitely see a difference in your hair!

Oh! Don’t forget satin pillow case is the best way to go!

New Celine shades

My new favorite sunglasses! I promised my blog would be about health and fitness but I had to throw some fashion into it!  Especially the struggle I went through to find these sunglasses I just had to share!  I've searched everywhere for them until I finally found them at Bergdorf Goodman while I was visiting my sister in New York.  After checking the huge department stores and Celine, Bergdorf had these shades while everywhere else was telling me they are sold out and don't carry them anymore.  I love huge shades that protect my eyes and try to stay away from dark lenses in the summer.  These gold/brown shades were perfect for my trip to Miami.  

These are Celine style number CL 41808/S

Hydration subsitution

I'm sure I'm not the only one that has to force water down my throat to hydrate myself.  I know there are water lovers out there I'm just not one of them.  For me to drink a bottle of water a day is an absolute miracle and even at times I forget to drink water.  So, I wont get into how important water is for you but I will tell you that I found a substitute that makes it all better for me to actually even like water and detox the system at the same time.  Its refreshing, good for your skin, and tastes good as well! I make a detox water for myself every night so that its fresh in the morning to drink.  It consists of:
1 full cucumber (sliced)
15 mint leaves (picked these fresh from my backyard)
1 full lime (sliced and partly squeezed in the water)
1 bottle full of mineral water

I also switch up the ingredients every now so I don't get bored with the flavor.  This is part of my daily cleanse to flush out toxins and hydrate myself.  How these ingredients work to detox:

Cucumber: contains citrulline helps the kidney and liver filter and gets rid of ammonia. 
Lime: stimulates bile and the digestive system.  Bile helps break down fats into fatty acids
Mint leaves: helps with the flow of bile and with your digestion

voila!
M

Detox 101

We are constantly being exposed to unnatural chemicals daily whether we realize it or not.  Pollution and toxins in the air is enough stress on our body not to mention other chemicals we breathe or take in without being aware of it.  Even the food or water we consume can be harsh on our system.  I've learned this the hard way I went on months feeling like my body is toxic and aged.  Even though I would eat clean and healthy I still felt like there was something in my system that needed to be purified.  Although I am not much of a drinker nor do I smoke your body still deserves to be flushed and cleaned out from all these toxins we inhale everyday.  When we don’t take the step to take care of our internal organs the dirty blood continues to circulate in your body and can cause all sorts of health issues.  Ever since I have been proactive and have been detoxing my liver twice already I feel a big difference.  Improvements show in my skin, I am less tired and sluggish, and I just feel fresh!  There are a lot of detox products out there and people tend to take a couple days to cleanse their body but that’s not sufficient.  A gentle daily detox works perfect because it regulates the blood flow and it's safe to do it for a month.  If you are planning on detoxing make sure you flush those toxins in the waste and not just release it in your gut because that can be reabsorb into your system again which can make you feel worse.  Although cleansing your liver is still vital here are a few steps you can take to minimize your toxic load:

Avoid processed foods such as salt, sugar, dairy, wheat, meat

use organic or natural products even topical not just what you consume

try to use natural cleaning products at home

avoid caffeine, cigarettes and alcohol (I know its hard!)

minimize your stress level (practice yoga or meditation)

drink a lot of water (mineral water)
xo
M

Me

In the past year my health has taken a toll on me.  I couldn't understand what was going on with me and neither did almost all of the doctors I went to!  I had so many different symptoms where I was rushed to ER.  After about 5 visits to the urgent care and 8 different doctor consultations I still did not have answers yet just medications shoved down my throat.  I finally found a doctor from Harvard Medical School that practices Western science and Eastern traditions with a holistic and homeopathic approach.  He runs the most unique types of tests and therapies to reach the root of the problem and he formulated supplements specifically for my needs (no meds). In the midst of my long journey to figure out my health issue I came across a lot of different holistic health benefits and understand my body so much more! I realized the smallest symptoms make such a huge impact on your health so it should never be ignored because there is always a reason for it.  I'm on the road to reach optimal health and I encourage everyone to live a healthy happy life style.  The purpose of my blog is to share my journey to achieve true health where the human body is in a state of balance. 

xo
M