Bacon, loved by our tastebuds but hated by nutritionists, has long been under the chopping block for it’s purported lack of concern for our health. Recently, public uneasiness towards bacon has intensified in the wake of a WHO report which claimed that processed meats, including bacon, can cause colorectal cancer. This post examines the science behind these claims and seeks to provide you, the taste-conscious yet health-savvy reader, with the bottom line in whether you should eat bacon, or avoid it like the plague.
The WHO lowdown on processed meats
Last month, 22 scientists from ten countries met at the the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to quantify the potential carcinogenicity from consumption of red meat (more on meat vs. health here) and processed meat. Based on the research findings, they determined that processed meats, such as bacon, hot dogs and sausages, can cause cancer – specifically, colorectal cancer.
Diving down into the numbers, the IARC research found that eating approximately 1.8 ounces of processed meat daily (roughly equivalent to slightly less than 2 slices of bacon) will increase the risk of colorectal cancer by around 18%. Colorectal cancer is the third most common form of cancer, excluding skin cancers. The lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is approximately 5%, therefore, by that reasoning, eating processed meats would increase your lifetime risk of this cancer to 5.9% – not a huge jump, but nothing to be scoffed at, either.
Is bacon really all that bad?
Bacon is generally hated on by nutritionists worldwide for a number of reasons, including it’s high content of “artery clogging” saturated fat, high sodium levels and nitrates/nitrites required for curing. Ancestral nutrition (i.e. paleo) proponents, on the other hand, can’t get enough of the stuff, even going so far as to consider it as “meat candy”. So, is bacon really as bad as most people would have you think?
In short, the answer is a big fat (pun intended) NO. Extensive scientific literature reviews have found no links between nitrates or nitrites and cancer, with recent research even going so far as to suggest that these compounds may in fact be beneficial, particularly for heart health. This is due to the fact that our bodies produce far more nitrates and nitrites than can be found in food, and they may play an important role in immune and cardiovascular function.
With regards to saturated fat, if you haven’t had the chance to read some of our other posts regarding this subject, you may still be under the opinion that it should be avoided at all cost. Well, we’re happy to tell you that this is not the case, with bucketloads of peer reviewed scientific research firmly proving that not only does it NOT cause heart disease, it actually plays an important role in fueling our bodies and helping to absorb nutrients from the food we eat.
Finally, our old arch-nemesis sodium. Popular consensus would still have us believe that salt is a harmful substance and should be dramatically reduced from our diets. The truth of the matter is, however, that sodium is a vital nutrient for humans. It is a major component of extracellular fluid and is essential for maintaining normal cellular metabolism. Check out this article for more information on the importance of salt.
How often should I eat bacon?
As with everything, moderation is key. We don’t want you to read this article and assume that you can embark upon a “bacon binge” and eat to your heart’s content (or malcontent, as it were). The main point of this article is that bacon is not the villain it has been made out to be, but as always we want to stress the need to find good quality sources for this particular food. This means pastured, organic, humanely-sourcedbacon. It also means that you should check the ingredients before you buy – your bacon of choice shouldn’t contain anything other than pork, water, salt and nitrates/nitrites. Some bacon is cured with sugar, which is ok in small amounts but should be avoided if possible. Finally, cook your bacon slowly in its own fat – you don’t need to add any other oils, as the high saturated fat content in bacon is sufficient for cooking purposes, provided you don’t fry the crap out of it.
With these guidelines in mind, it shouldn’t do any harm to eat 3 pieces of bacon a couple of times a week. Many people on paleo diets eat bacon every single day for breakfast, however we generally recommend cycling intake of certain foods to avoid developing allergies. As such, try to take at least a day or two off between your bouts of delicious bacon eating. Enjoy!
Do you stress out about getting to the gym, obsessively scheduling your days to grab that precious hour or hour and a half so you can go work out?
Do you feel the burn of guilt when you haven’t made it often enough, thinking things like “I’m never going to be fit, I’ll always stay fat and a loser because I just can’t get to the gym”.
Is your gym membership burning a hole in your pocket? Like wow, I pay 60 bucks a month for this thing, and I haven’t been for 3 weeks.
So now we’ve got money guilt AND fat guilt.
And when you finally do haul your lazy butt to the gym, do you exhaust yourself for 45 minutes or more, running yourself ragged on the machines, and getting so freakin sore the next day, that you COULDN’T go back to the gym for a week, even if you wanted to or could find the time?
Well, I want to share an idea with you. Maybe this whole gym, exercise, workout thing is a BIG. FAT. HOAX. Maybe it’s just a sad excuse for health & fitness that’s an unfortunate byproduct of our modern post-industrial lifestyle.
Unfortunately, the popular wisdom of the past 40 years – that we would all be better off doing 45 minutes to an hour a day of intense aerobic activity – has created a generation of overtrained, underfit, [flabby], immune-compromised exerholics. (extraordinarily well put, Mark Sisson!)
It turns out exhaustive occasional exercise won’t help you lose weight or get healthier. And by “exhaustive occasional”, I mean anything that happens in a burst, including even if it’s for 45 minutes every evening after sitting at a desk for 8 hours, or a couple of times a week sprinkled into a mostly sedentary lifestyle. Even a single daily burst isn’t enough to make up for the 95% of the time that we spend with our butts parked in a piece of furniture or a car.
The fact is, our hunter-gatherer ancestors didn’t ramp up their heart rates significantly for over an hour every day, and I don’t think we should either. They walked at a very low level of exertion, burning almost entirely stored fats. Once you get into the zones where less fat is burned [ie typical sustained “cardio” exercise] and where there’s a big dependency on glucose to fuel muscles, your body goes into a less efficient mode of fuel oxidation. […] I don’t recommend pushing this limit or even approaching it. Why bother? This kind of training (and diet) raises cortisol levels, increases oxidative damage, systemic inflammation, depresses the immune system and decreases fat metabolism. (source)
Here’s another tidbit from holistic health expert Chris Kresser, about how the typical way most of us “exercise” these days is actually leading us to poorer health and burnout.
While short, intense workouts can be great for inducing fat loss, increasing aerobic capacity, and reducing risk for cardiovascular disease, excessively intense exercise can cause a variety of health problems, especially for those dealing with other concurrent stressors. […] Another major effect that extreme exercise has on our bodies is an immediate increase in cortisol, the hormone that is released when the body is under stress. […] Chronically high levels of cortisol can increase your risk for a variety of health issues, such as sleep disturbances, digestive issues, depression, weight gain, and memory impairment. Excess cortisol also encourages fat gain, particularly around the abdomen. (source)
Chris goes on to explain that this can be the reason exercise leaves us feeling rundown, we have trouble gaining muscle mass and losing fat, and feel constant exhaustion. These can all be signs of excessive exercise of any type.
I want to share a mind-shift with you. Let’s stop beating ourselves up about getting to the gym. It’s not helping us anyway (as explained above).
I’m proposing a more loving, holistic approach to exercise, that’s less about guilt and prolonged self-torture sessions on the treadmill, and more about smart functional movement for a strong resilient body. (specifics to be discussed in a future post, for now check out great resources at this page or this page)
Why exercise is about way more than weight loss
Let’s explore some of the incredible things movement does for the body, so we can get into that holistic self-love space. Be in awe of how your body is a self-regulating organism that WANTS to be balanced and youthful and healthy. Cultivate awareness of how your body feels and what it needs, so you can move more regularly because you WANT TO, and in ways that support whole health, rather than pushing yourself toward burnout.
Lymph movement
We all know the heart pumps blood around the body, and this is called our circulatory system. Turns out there is a second part to our circulatory system, which is called lymph.
Your lymphatic circulatory system works directly with your cardiovascular circulatory system to keep blood and lymphatic fluid levels in balance and flush toxins out of the body. It also carries immune cells throughout the body to help defend against infections. (source)
I find this SO interesting: The lymph fluid doesn’t actually have an organ like the heart to pump it around. It relies on us moving our bodies to create a flow. That’s why you feel sort of “blech” when you sit around for too long – your lymph is stagnating!
SOLUTION: Get up and move around as often as you can, at least once every half hour. Jump, dance, do squats, wave your arms!
Anti aging
Exercise keeps us youthful not only through the direct effect of being toned, strong and balanced. We also actually age slower on a cellular level thanks to regular movement.
In particular, exercise appears to keep the telomeres from unraveling and becoming damaged. Telomeres are areas on DNA at the end of chromosomes. If these areas become damaged and unravel, DNA does not continue to replicate in the proper fashion and the end result is aging. (source)
Moderate healthy levels of impact during exercise also increases bone density. We actually need to walk to stay healthy. The vibrations from our feet hitting the ground travel up our bones and spur the release of minerals to build healthy bone density.
Explosive movements that use our big muscle groups spur the release of anti-aging and fat-burning hormones like testosterone and human growth hormone. When you do squat jumps, it sends a message that you should stay lean and strong, not fat and shlumpy.
SOLUTION: Try these anti-aging exercises, as recommended by the Huffington Post.
Digestion and detox
Exercise is a great way to improve the major detoxification pathways through the skin and the digestive system. Sweat isn’t nasty and dirty, it’s beautiful and healthy! If you stink when you sweat, it just means you’re not sweating often enough – and when you do, there’s too much nasty junk coming out.
SOLUTION: Get a light sweat going, and heart rate boosted, once a day if you can! Even jogging up a couple flights of stairs will probably do it. Or try doing 30 jumping jacks! Phew! You can even do these in the bathroom at the office, or in an empty meeting room ;)
Exercise also promotes a faster travel time through the gut, meaning you’ll have healthier poops. Movement helps resolve bloating and gas, and moves things along to prevent constipation.
SOLUTION: Try this simple detox yoga flow to help your tummy feel super.
Pelvic floor and organ health
Your organs are suspended in a bouncy, stretchy network of tissue within your abdomen. If you sit still all day, your cortisol rises, your body gets cranky and kicks off an autoimmune response. This network of tissue actually begins to slowly calcify and harden.
SOLUTION: Move as often as you can to relieve tension, and keep your tissues soft and flexible! Practise deep squatting and as much walking as you can.
Stress, anxiety & mood
Have you ever watched a nature show, where the antelope gets chased by the lion, and after it gets away, it sort of “quakes” for a while? This is an instinctual, automatic way that animals actually physically discharge the stress hormones released during a ‘fight or flight’ situation.
We can use the same chemical pattern by purposely moving our body, or even by imitating the antelope and actually SHAKING ourselves. (source)
SOLUTION: Try it right now – just stand there and SHAKE your body for 20-30 seconds. It feels good right? This chemically shuts down your stress response! It’s a great way to relieve anxiety fast.
Exercise also releases endorphins – we all know that right? It feels GREAT. The body feels alive and well, the blood is flowing, the thoughts are clearer. Research shows that it’s as simple as moving those large muscles, like the glutes and quads. Just going for a quick walk helps tension resolve rapidly. (source)
SOLUTION: Again, even just something super quick like popping 10 quick squats or jumping jacks is enough to get that blood and lymph moving, and lift a storm cloud that might be hovering over your head. It’s so quick, there’s no excuse!
Memory and mind connection
Although this seems like a bit of a no-brainer (PUNNY!), exercise also helps protect a healthy memory and ability to learn. Studies show that getting your heart pumping “appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning.” (source)
SOLUTION: The study involved just 120 minutes of brisk walking per week. That’s only 17 minutes a day! Get walking!
Has this inspired you to move because you love your body?
I find that when I learn the amazing things my body can do, I appreciate it more, and want to take better care of it! Please share some of your favourite awesome effects of movement and exercise below. Or maybe you have a story about how you quit chronic cardio and started a more self-loving approach to movement. Share in the comments!
When was the last time you got a good night’s sleep? Do you drag your arse out of bed every single day cursing your alarm and dreading the day ahead?
I’m here to tell you that there are 3 little- known factors that are keeping you from a restful sleep.
I’m not going to waste your valuable time telling you how important sleep is. Well OK just these 2 mind blowing facts.
Losing sleep destroys your health
1. According to this 2009 study people who expose themselves to light at night don’t produce enough melatonin for proper restful sleep. A lack of melatonin production causes us to be
not only immune suppressed, but … also at an increased risk of developing a number of different types of cancer. […] Sleep disturbances can lead to immune suppression and a shift to the predominance in cancer-stimulatory cytokines.
2. This 2010 study had one group sleeping 8.5 hours a night and the other sleeping 5.5 hours a night, while eating a healthy diet in an effort to lose weight. The results showed that:
Sleep curtailment decreased the proportion of weight lost as fat by 55% and increased the loss of fat-free body mass by 60%
Meaning that it’s 55% harder to lose fat, and 60% harder to keep your healthy lean muscle. Those are pretty shit odds!
So, in a nutshell, losing sleep makes you fat and cancerous. Ready for better sleep??
Let’s get straight to the action plan.
3 little-known factors which hugely impact how you sleep
Magnesium
According to Marek Doyle, a nutritional medicine practitioner who writes for the Huffington Post, magnesium is rarely mentioned in conventional recommendations, but it effectively cures 90% of his insomnia patients within 24 hours.
Magnesium plays a vital role in over 325 basic reactions in human biochemistry, but in regards to sleep specifically:
Magnesium is vital for the function of GABA receptors, which exist across all areas of the brain and nervous system. GABA is a calming neurotransmitter that the brain requires to switch off; without it, we remain tense, our thoughts race and we lie in bed staring at the ceiling. (source)
How do you know if you’re short of magnesium? (it’s estimated that at least 80% of us are). If you have trouble falling asleep, wake easily, or wake at odd times. Also any of the following:
If you get cramps regularly, find that fluids pass through you easily, have cold hands and feet, experience tightness in the neck and shoulders or notice twitches in small muscles (the eyelid, for example)
There’s no harm in trying it, and certainly a lot to gain. So what’s the best way to replenish your magnesium? Oral supplements are often poorly absorbed, so I recommend a magnesium bath, lotion or spray. The lotion being the easiest, fastest and least fussy.
Be aware that magnesium may sting your skin slightly at first while you are recovering from deficiency. I would recommend using it 30-60 min before bed so it has time to absorb.
Calming Essential Oils for Better Sleep (Knock yourself out naturally)
This month I am so excited to try this blend from Megan Card.
She calls it the “better than ambien” blend since she suffered from insomnia for years, having tried numerous medicinal sleep aids. She never had such effective results (without the scary side effects and addiction risk of sleep aids) until she tried this essential oil blend.
It contains the most naturally relaxing sedative oils which will help calm your thoughts and prepare your body for sleep.
Get the best oils HERE – this is where I buy mine from.
Apply several drops of the blend to the bottom of each foot before bed. The soles have the largest pores to allow oils to safely and rapidly enter the bloodstream.
Blue-blocking Lenses
So you may have heard that the blue light from TVs and devices tricks your brain into thinking it’s daytime and keeps you awake. This is absolutely true.
However the problem is that most recommendations are along the lines of don’t use your phone past 9pm or don’t watch TV two hours before bedtime, etc. I’ll be the first to admit that most of the time in our modern lifestyle this is just never going to happen. It’s just not realistic. Although I do think it’s vital to practice ‘technology cleansing’ and not be glued to our phones every moment, especially not in the bedroom, I acknowledge that turning off all tech a few hours before bedtime is a bit of an idealistic notion.
Luckily I’ve discovered a way around this.
Grab yourself some of these babies and you will be effectively blocking the blue light that inhibits your natural melatonin production. I’ve heard a number of wellness experts discuss this simple and effective technique including Dave Asprey (The Bulletproof Executive), Katie the Wellness Mama and Chris Kresser.
I’ve read that it takes 3-4 hours of no-blue-light exposure for melatonin production to kick in, so try to wear your sweet orange or yellow specs from the time the sun goes down.
Grab some for your whole family or your flatmates and be awesome silly orange-lens-wearers together. Will and I rock these every night and we find it really helps. I can literally feel my brain kicking into “rest mode” when I wear them, and switch back into “alert mode” if I take them off.
If you’re worried about them ruining your sex life, that is a valid concern (ha). Although sorry to be a smartass but I’ll just point out that not sleeping well and being tired and grumpy, and/or getting cancer, will also do that. Solution: Use beeswax candles, low-blue lightbulbs, or salt lamps as it gets closer to bedtime or on evenings when you don’t want to wear your glasses! These all emit warm-spectrum light that won’t shut down your melatonin production.
light your home with salt lamps at night (they clean the air and reduce EMFs too)
get bright natural light as soon as you can upon waking in the morning to signal your brain that it’s awake time. This helps regulate your circadian clock.
What about melatonin supplements?
You might be wondering about melatonin supplements. It’s natural right, so it must be safe?
Well, according to The Sleep Solution by Emily Benfit, exogenous melatonin may make you feel sleepy, but it’s merely inducing limpness in your body where blood is restricted to the brain and heart and your general cognitive function is impaired.
Emily outlines the possible side effects of melatonin consumption:
Vasoconstriction of the brain, organs, and heart.
Shrinks and involutes the thymus gland
Shrinks sex organs
Increases heart rate and perpetuates the stress cycle
When you have chronic pain and digestive discomfort and headaches and anxiety and you’re tired and your hectic week just keeps rollin’ on, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the healthy changes you’re trying to make.
You might be spending hours a day researching what to avoid and what to buy and what to eat, and then realise you’ve gotten away from what you’re trying to do in the first place, which is chill out, and love yourself, and let your body heal.
I’ve been there, and I still go there at times. I call it a ‘brain full of butterflies’. You’re trying to catch one, but then another pretty one catches your eye so you go for it, but then you start going after a better one, and they’re all just flying around driving you crazy.
How to get past overwhelm when you’re working on healthy lifestyle changes
Here’s a quick 5-minute pen and paper exercise to get all those butterflies out of your brain, nail them down, and get your shit together so you can take a deep breath and have some peace.
Get out a pen and a piece of paper or a receipt or a napkin and do this RIGHT NOW. Don’t click to another tab and start googling another shiny solution. Do the work. Do it now. This will help you. Take a deep breath.
STEP 1:
Scribble down all the health and wellness goals you want to achieve. I’ve decided to get raw, real and vulnerable here, and share mine.
solve anxiety
doTerra 30 day reset / cleanse
get rid of Candida
lose 10 lbs of fat
clear and improve skin
solve constipation
avoid wheat & sugar, break addiction
sleep better
move more
yoga daily
meditate daily
less caffeine, or none
make & eat fermented foods
heal my gut
get enough magnesium
It would be nice to have all of those things wouldn’t it! But think about all the steps I need to take, OMG. So overwhelming. If I chase all of those butterflies how many will I catch – NONE!
But what’s awesome about the body is that everything is connected and interdependent. So you will find that many of your health goals will be inter-connected, and some big ones might end up being tipping points for a bunch of other ones.
I mapped them out like this all over a sheet of paper. This whole exercise took me maybe 5 minutes. If you still haven’t gotten your pen and paper out, DO IT NOW!
STEP 2:
Start drawing arrows between ones that might cause or naturally lead to another.
For example, I want to improve my skin, and I know if I consume more fermented foods and get more sleep those things will cause me to have better skin. So I draw arrows from those 2 things pointing to better skin.
I know that if I avoid wheat & sugar, that will help heal my gut. I know that if I get rid of Candida, that will solve my anxiety and constipation. I know if I can sleep better that will help me lose fat. etc etc.
Keep doing that until you can’t think of any more.
STEP 3:
Look at all the things and notice which ones don’t have any arrows pointing into them, ie which ones are just plain ACTIONS that you must take.
Mine were:
Get enough magnesium
Make and consume fermented foods
Move more
Do an essential oils cleanse
These are the things you actually need to straight-up do, which will lead to all your other goals eventually rolling out as by-products. I’ll call them Actions.
Go over the other items on your page and just checkmark each, so you know that one of your big Actions is going to help you achieve each of your smaller goals. Check out my work below:
STEP 4:
List out the specific little steps that will lead you to be able to do the Actions you determined in step 3, ie Buy magnesium oil, get a spray bottle, buy the cleanse supplements, buy a cabbage, etc.
List how much time daily or weekly it’s going to take. For example, eating fermented foods is only going to take me let’s say an hour bi-weekly to set up a new batch of sauerkraut and kombucha, and then only a couple of minutes daily to consume a little bit of each.
Once I’ve bought and prepared the items I need for 3 of my 4 Actions (Magnesium, Cleanse and Fermented foods) each of these things will only take a couple of minutes daily (apply magnesium body spray, take my cleanse supplements and have some sauerkraut & kefir with my lunch).
The only thing that actually takes time or scheduling is to move more.
So now I’ve determined really there’s only ONE thing that’s kind of a pain in the butt that I need to figure out. NOT 25 things. 1 butterfly, not 25.
Yes, I still have to find 15-20 minutes a day to crank out some high-intensity intervals or power yoga with a youtube video on my mat in the living room in my undies. But now I know that all my goals are accounted for, and I can just take that 20 minutes and relish it and not stress about whether I’m taking care of everything I should be.
Why this is so powerful
Once you’ve figured out your Actions, don’t question them or think about anything else or let the butterflies start flying again.
Do these 4 things (or whatever number you’ve determined but 3-4 max!!) and do them CONSISTENTLY for at least 2 weeks. You can do them mindlessly and just shut off. You’ve done the mental work and the leg work by buying and preparing your stuff. Now stop over-thinking it and just go, on auto-pilot for 2 weeks.
Doesn’t that feel great? Isn’t it awesome being told what to do sometimes, especially when it’s by your own smart self :)
Flipping back and forth to different solutions and doing partial moves and attacks won’t actually result in any big succesful change. It’s like telling an army to advance, wait no retreat, actually let’s bring in the cavalry, actually wait a second where’s that catapult….you’re never going to win that battle!
You have to make the well-considered decision and then go for it whole-heartedly.
After 2 weeks maybe you want to re-evaluate, and that’s ok. If it’s going great, AWESOME, and maybe your 4 things have become automatic and now you can incorporate a few more actions, if you need to.
Maybe your list of a few things is still too overwhelming and you’re floundering. In that case the trick is to pick ONE thing that takes the least effort but has the most impact.
For example in my case I could reason that consuming fermented foods will end up helping me absorb, digest and eliminate my food better, so I won’t need to do a cleanse or take supplements.
Make that ONE thing happen each day and give yourself a HUGE pat on the back for sticking with it!! It’s a VERY important step in the right direction. Not only the actual action itself, but the fact that you’ve subconsciously affirmed that you care about yourself and love yourself.
How can I help you with this?
Do you have a list of goals but aren’t sure which are the big tipping-point Actions? Are you trying to whittle it down to which is going to take the least effort but have the biggest impact? Let me know below, I’d love to help!
I want to make this blog a little different in that it’s not just about the serious health stuff. I want to share some fun things too! Maybe even a little fashion, music, and other fun lifestyle stuff.
These things are actually very important for primal lifestyle design, because they play a big role in personal development and the ‘lighter side’ of a primal lifestyle – meaning the social, play-related side.
I also find I’m always curious about the real NITTY-GRITTY of someone’s day to day lifestyle. Like what they ate for breakfast, or what sort of relaxation tools they use. I mean the actual specific things or strategies, not just general philosophy.
So I hope you find the “Things I Love” series fun, useful and insightful! Hopefully we can find even more things to relate to each other with, beyond just our nutrition obsession :) Plus I’d like to strike up a discussion in the comments where we can share our favourite go-to’s, latest discoveries and best tips.
LISTENING: Asgeir Trausti
Sooo the other night, I listened to Asgeir’s album 3 times in a row in English, then twice in a row in Icelandic, and then once more in English. Obsessed much?? The more I listen, the more I love… Check out his album here or grab a copy here. Plus I totally dig his tats ;) Let me know in the comments what you’re listening to lately!
READING: The 5 Love Languages
Personal development and relationship development is a big part of primal lifestyle design. I had heard that this book is great for understanding one’s partner’s needs and ensuring they feel loved in the particular way that they most relate with and value. I think continuing to consciously cultivate one’s relationship is vital, so Will and I are reading this book this month! Check out a copy here.
EATING: Grass-fed beef bone broth
I’m healing my teeth and keeping my joints and gut healthy this month (and every month) with bone broth! Check out my tips here on how to always some ready to go in the fridge. Find out where to grab properly-raised meat in your area with farmmatch.com or eatwild.com. I know there’s also US Wellness Meats in the states, but haven’t found a good online supplier in Canada. Let me know if you know of one! Also, you’ll be needing a crock pot! (aka slow cooker). Do yourself a favour and get this pretty one, which won’t be such an unsightly beast in your kitchen ;)
USING: Immunity & Metabolic blends
These doTerra oils are serving 2 important purposes for me this month. Slim & Sassy is helping me cleanse toxins and lose some paunch collected over the holidays. OnGuard is helping us keep our immune systems working optimally. Neither of us have gotten sick yet this season! Despite being around LOTS of sick people, like over Christmas when my little sister was literally coughing germs all over my face. I was just like bring it on! I feel iron-clad! Here’s how to get your paws on these essential oils.
DRINKING: DIY Rooibos Latte
I love crafting deluxe teas and coffees at home. I’m often making fatty coffees on weekend mornings, but I’m always looking for caffeine-free options to enjoy later in the day or as dessert. Rooibos has lots of antioxidants and minerals and I love the flavour. I made Will a latte with a little cinnamon this evening and he said it tasted like ‘baked apples’ – yum! Just heat up some milk on the stove until slightly steaming, then shake it in a jar and pour on top of the tea in a mug. Grab some good rooibos tea here.
WEARING: Big Infinity Scarves
I am basically permanently wearing a big chunky scarf like this in the winter. Like I basically have no neck. It’s so cozy and I love all the textures and colours. Usually I layer a big scarf with a long top or sweater, leggings and boots. Plus a long necklace with some natural stone or amber, and some fun earrings. That’s my winter uniform!
Let me know in the comments what your ‘winter uniform’ go-to outfit is! :)
MOVING: Biking in the snow & Yoga with Adriene
I’ve just made the decision recently to not let the cold weather keep me off the roads with my bike. Public transport in Toronto is frustrating to say the least, so biking is free, faster and keeps me moving! I’m still in the process of figuring out my perfect winter biking gear combo…Let me know if you have any pro tips!
Yoga with Adriene is often my go-to for indoor movement or restful exercise. I love her genuine personality and how she instructs. Oftentimes the way she describes a pose makes me adjust my body slightly and then I go “ohhhh, that’s how that’s supposed to feel!” I love Yoga with Adriene!
RELAXING: Beeswax candles
I absolutely LOVE beeswax candles. They smell SOO nice (like honey!) and they have so many benefits. Turns out regular paraffin candles are pretty darn toxic (!!) since they’re made from the sludge in the bottom of oil barrels and are subjected to various chemical processes, resulting in a carcinogen-emitting abomination. I wish I would’ve known that a long time ago! I totally used to crank through those cheap tealights from Ikea. Anyway! Beeswax is awesome, it purifies the air and helps against allergies. Grab some here and get burning! Using candles at night is great for a calming atmosphere to get away from blue-light pollution and enhance sleep.
Share what you’re loving below
Well that’s a wrap folks? What are you loving this month? Any great discoveries or lessons learned? I’d love to hear from you ;) or share on the Thrive Primal Facebook page!
Bacon, loved by our tastebuds but hated by nutritionists, has long been under the chopping block for it’s purported lack of concern for our health. Recently, public uneasiness towards bacon has intensified in the wake of a WHO report which claimed that processed meats, including bacon, can cause colorectal cancer. This post examines the science behind these claims and seeks to provide you, the taste-conscious yet health-savvy reader, with the bottom line in whether you should eat bacon, or avoid it like the plague.
