These are a few of my favorite things!

Clearly it has been a while since my last post. With school back in full swing, I have had a hard time sitting myself down to write. I am trying to be better about this. My sister, Andrea, requested that I get back to blogging after I hosted an online Oils 101 class, so here I am.

I thought I'd start back up with sharing some of my favorite non-kit oils, products and recipes as an extension to the event. If you want a peek at the event, let me know. I will be keeping it open until September 30th. It has a TON of information about each oil in the Premium Starter Kit, including how I use each oil. If you decide you are ready to get a kit after viewing the event, send me a message and I will get your started. You will receive a free 15mL bottle of Orange oil if you order by the end of the month.

Reasons why I am offering Orange oil: 

• Orange oil is one of my absolute favorite oils outside of the kit. Not only does it taste great added to some water (I love it in sparkling water), it smells amazing combined with many of the kit oils!
• Adding a couple of drops in the diffuser with Thieves smells like Fall!!

Other ways I have personally used Orange oil:

• Adding a drop to my toothpaste helps whiten the teeth without damaging the enamel.
• I put orange oil and lavender in my homemade body wash. It smells amazing and leaves my skin SO soft.
• I diffuse or apply to my heart when I am feeling down.

I am currently diffusing Orange with Lemongrass because my college student neighbors like to smoke so that it stinks up my living room. Lovely. Thankfully, "there's an oil for that"! ;)

Another one of my favorite non-kit oils is Peace and Calming. Just the name makes me happy...

Peace and Calming is another oil that I literally WILL NOT allow myself to run out of. This oil, for me, is like having Mr. Sandman sprinkle sleep dust every night. I have always had a difficult time shutting my brain off at night and falling asleep. I diffuse P&C just before bed so that when I physically get into bed, I can ease into a more restful sleep. Here’s the thing, I thought it was a placebo effect at first. Then, I ran out of it and the original was out of stock. I tried other combos. Some of them were good, but not what I needed. Then, they came out with Peace and Calming 2 and it is just as wonderful as the original (who says the sequel is no good!?) SO now I make sure this oil is in my Essential Rewards order each month, and sleep like a husband. ;)

Side Note: Another reason I love YL: because of the heavy rainfall there was a "smaller-than-expected harvest of botanicals used in the formulas of favorite products such as Valor and Peace & Calming" and rather than outsource from crops not held to the Seed-to-Seal standard, they chose to wait it out. I love knowing that I am always getting the highest quality oil. 

Anyways, back to my favorites...

Cool Azul

Or as Adam likes to call it, “Blue Azul”. This is a great product for anyone who is active or tends to find that they get sore, achy muscles. I bought this when I was getting terrible shin splints while running. I would rub this on my legs after a terrible run and felt relief almost immediately. I love Cool Azul because the cooling sensation actually increases for quite a while, and it smells SO good (I feel like I say that all the time about my oils!). This is one of the only Young Living products that Mr. Skeptical actually grabs and uses on his own. He might even use it more than I do after a long week of work. This is one of the newest products, and something we will continue to stock up on.

This is just a smidge of the oils and products that I love and use constantly. I could write pages and pages, but I will just leave you with this, because who doesn't love a good fall scented body scrub!

Drops of happiness

Lately, I've been sharing my deep love of Young Living's Essential Oils, and a few people have asked me what the heck they are, and why the heck I love them so much. So, I thought I would share my story and some of the ways I've started using them in my daily life.

I've struggled with anxiety for quite some time and in college I was put on Zoloft. It helped. A lot. After being on it for almost 10 years, I wanted to ween myself off of it, mostly to see if I could manage it on my own. I didn't love some of the side effects either.

Initially going off was fine but as the months added up, my social anxiety (which only used to be mild) became unbearable. I cried before parties or social events where I knew I wouldn't know many people and felt incredibly overwhelmed in groups. I don't know where this came from but it felt ridiculous. I was getting ready to fill my prescription when I started seeing a friend post about her oils. She and I had similar experiences with our anxiety, so I messaged her. What she told me gave me hope that there might be a more natural way to help me manage my anxiety.

So, I jumped in, both feet first and am so thankful that I did. I have found SEVERAL oils that help me manage my anxiety. I can't say that I am "anxiety free", but when I do feel anxious, I have tools to help alleviate my symptoms. It is such a good feeling to be done with my anxiety meds. That being said, if at any time in my life I feel that I cannot manage my anxiety simply with exercise and my oils, I will trust modern medicine to help me out again. I am still new-ish with my oils, so I am still learning what works best for me.

For my anxiety I love to use Stress Away. It has a light, soft scent and with just a little bit behind my ears and on my wrists, I feel calmer. I also use Vetiver, Peace and Calming and Valor in my diffuser each night to help me relax and sleep more peacefully; sleep has always been an issue for me and on nights I don't sleep my anxiety grows, so great sleep is goooood.

This is definitely not an easy post to write and put out into the world because I've tried forever to hide my anxiety. BUT, I know that others also struggle with anxiety and feel alone in dealing with it. So, I am sharing my experience and success with my oils.

Occasionally I will share some of my favorite ways to use the oils, because they are so incredibly versatile. And fun! And they smell soooooo good! :) Today though, since this is such a long post, I will just leave it at a couple of pictures. :)

-D

I love adding a drop or two of Stress Away to some sparkling water! 

                                               

Mermaid Style

This week kicks off the Tone It Up Bikini Series! K&K came out with a FABULOUS new plan filled with meals and workouts for every day over the next 8 weeks. When I downloaded it, I almost couldn't contain my excitement...I may or may not have contemplated skipping sleep Thursday night to read through it. I decided sleep was a good thing but did spend some time with the plan Friday to organize myself.  I organized each week (along with recipes) in separate files for easy access.

On Sunday, after a lovely hike with some of my TIU Sonoma/Marin gals, I took the nutrition plan shopping. It was so nice not to have to think too much about what I needed. I normally spend about an hour and a half planning my weekly meals and then writing a grocery list. It gets old, and sometimes I don't meal plan....that's when I eat cake in the staff room or the husband and I end up ordering something for dinner.

So, I meal prep. This weekend, I prepped snacks, salad dressings, chopped fruits and veggies, and made muffins for breakfasts. I made those muffins again but used blueberries....they were even better than the original batch with raspberries.

Top: blueberry muffins and chia pudding
Bottom: Cut strawberries and cucumber, carrots with hummus, ACV "shots", hardboiled eggs

In addition to following the meal guide, I am also following the daily workouts AND working towards a personal goal. I made a tracker so I can keep up with the "100 Miles by Summer" running challenge. I hope to be able to run a 5K without stopping by the end of this challenge. I will (hopefully) be working up to a 10k by the end of August so I can run the Miles for Migraine 10k.

I am now three days into this series and can tell the serious meal prep I did is going to help me succeed. This is a lot of front end work, but BOY does it take the guess work out of the week. It is such a relief each morning to be able to just grab what I need from our drawer and go. Not wondering what I will eat means less chance to eat the bagels that are inevitably in the teacher's lounge.  Not a bad start...hopefully I can keep up the momentum!

D

Back in Action!

It's been awhile, so I decided to purge my old blog and start fresh. Stay current. Here's whats up... (Just a warning, This is a long one. BUT there is a recipe at the end...)

In September I was at my heaviest weight (176...eek!!) and was totally and completely over dieting to lose a few pounds, only to gain them and their friends back. I had pretty much given up on ever fitting into my size 10s again, let alone the 8s that sat in my drawers with a (figurative) layer of dust. 

Then, I reconnected with a friend from high school and started noticing her posts were filled with motivation and strength...and she looked FABULOUS. Her posts on Instagram were constantly directed @karenakatrina and #toneitup so I did some clicking around. The hashtags brought me to more happy, motivated girls, who all posted kind words to one another. I HAD to find out more. And I am so glad I did. 

I joined the Tone It Up! community and was immediately flooded with support from other girls. I started a TIU Sonoma/Marin Facebook page and have met so many TIU girls just like me. Long story short, I've gone from a size 14 back into my 10's and am seeing my abs again for the first time since my early years in college! What's even better though, is that I am not on a diet....I just changed a few things in the way I eat (I still get to enjoy my pizza and chocolate on occasion) and am exercising more. I have happily maintained my 18 pound drop for over 4 months, even through the holidays and vacations! 

I came back to this blog as a way to track my journey and post some of my favorite healthy, delicious recipes. I will post my "Before" and "current" pictures too eventually, but let's ease into that! How about some healthy (and delicious) muffins first?

I had some raspberries in my fridge that I thought would probably start getting fuzzy if I didn't do anything with them fast, so I decided some healthy breakfast muffins would work. Here is the original recipe, which I altered a bit to make them more "TIU approved". And below are some pictures along with MY ingredients and steps! 

Ingredients:

I ended up switching out the coconut sugar for honey.

1. 1/2 Cup Yogurt (I used Fage 0% Greek)
2. 3 TBSP Coconut Oil (melted)
3. 1 TBSP lemon juice
4. 2 Egg Whites
5. 1 1/2 Cups Oat Flour (I used my food processor and some Quaker Oats)
6. 3/4 cup Honey
7. 2 tsp. baking powder
8. 1/4 tsp. salt
9. 1 tsp. grated lemon zest
10. 1 Cup fresh Raspberries

    Steps:

   

1. 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease or line a muffin tin. (I used my silicon liners)
2. 2. Mix together the yogurt, oil, lemon juice, egg whites and honey.
3. 3. In your food processor, chop (blend? pulverize?) 1 1/2 cups of oats until it looks like flour.
4. 4. In a separate bowl mix together the oats, baking powder, salt and lemon zest.
5. 4. Combine both mixtures {but don't over mix!}.
6. 5. Gently fold in raspberries.
7. 6. Spoon into muffin tins and sprinkle sugar on top for decoration {this is optional}
8. 7.Bake for 17-20 minutes (mine took 20), until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on rack.  I couldn't resist and ate one of them before they were cool.

  THESE are good. I will be the first to say I've had some healthy muffin FAILS. This is not one of them. The honey rounds out the tartness of the raspberries and lemon nicely. I will be making these again...and again.

   Enjoy! :) 

    Diana

****edit: I just made these again to prep for the bikini series and these are even tastier with blueberries!