immune support

#truthbomb

that's right. your body is made to thrive! to live a holistic lifestyle, means embracing that your wellness, or vitality comes from the *inside* out. your body has its own healing mechanism and will always strive for perfection.

we just have to get out of the way!

in the wise words of cady from the movie mean girls, "you need to suck out all the poison." eliminate all refined/processed/packaged foods, or what my family calls "fake food," from your diet. refined flour, sugar and dairy (not to mention all the man made chemicals used to process them) are so damaging they actually rob you of your given right to vitality! trade them in for nutrient dense whole foods and the trek to wellness is already half way completed!

since health comes from within, we can't add to it from an outside source. but what we can do is consume foods and quality supplements that nourish our immune system to work at full capacity. after you suck out the poison, now is the time to call in the back up squads to assist your inner healing mechanism! assisting our immune systems should be a main focus of everyday…if she falls, you'll go crumbling right after her. traditional/tribal/indigenous cultures understood this truth and took great care to eat nutrient dense foods, and use herbal remedies and tonics daily to keep them in their natural state of vibrancy. for more on that whole #truthbomb right there, check out "nutrition and physical degeneration" by: dr. weston a. price…and prepare to have your mind blown! 

here's a few basic ways i choose to nourish our immune systems everyday:

elderberry syrup, fermented garlic, vitamin c

vitamin c

i take one capsule every morning and my children take a chewable one. at the first sign of sickness and until wellness is resumed, ill take a vitamin c with each meal.

elderberry syrup

elderberries have been used in traditional medicines for hundreds of years in cultures all over the world.  each of us take 1 tsp every morning. and you guessed it, at the first sign of sickness and until its gone we'll take a tsp with each meal. realfoodrn.com has a great recipe for elderberry gummies (using nutrient dense grassfed gelatin) that the kids love to snack on…ok i do too!

fire cider

oh this stuff is amazing! it's a base of raw apple cider vinegar with antiviral, antimicrobial, and antifungal herbs, spices and roots. left to "marinade" for a month and then strained, this fiery tonic will burn sickness right out of you! i take 1 tbs with raw honey every morning. it's heat is something fierce so the kids only get it when they ask for it. the recipe i use is over at mommypotamus.com. 

fancy label not required, but i sure do love it!

fermented foods

the *best* way to keep our immune system flourishing, is to keep our inner eco system balanced, by eating probiotic rich foods. i always have a stash of homemade fermented goodies around, but if you buy them in the store make sure the label says "raw" and "traditionally fermented." we eat a condiment sized amount with each meal.  

and while were "sucking the poison out", can i remove some of the poison of fear you may feel about sickness in general? our culture has taught us to be scared of the first signs of sickness, and has given us no empowerment of how our bodies function...so our default reaction to sickness is to run to a doctor or drug store for modern medicine. medicine is wonderful in trauma situations, but ultimately these chemical reactions will not make you stronger to fight off infections in the future. they will weaken your immune system as they "bandaid" your current ailment. so when a headache or stomachache or even a rash ails you, this is your immune system communicating to you that it has arrested the foreign substance in your body, and is doing it's job to filter it out for you. good job immune system! now all you have to do is "get out of the way" and provide that extra back up support!