I know using a certified herbalist may not be something everyone will try ... it is easy, but not easier than popping a pill. However, is that pill really your best option? The side effects alone cause me to pause. Now don't get me wrong, I'll take medication when warranted, but I'm going to open my own toolbox first.

Using herbal tinctures, herbal teas, and essential oils is a wonderful and safe place to start. Asking yourself some important questions is also necessary.

• Why are you feeling sick?
  
• Have you been eating right lately?
  
• Are you staying hydrated?
  
• Have you taken a walk or stretched?

All these questions are important and can provide answers. So, besides my certified herbalist, what else is in my toolbox?

• YOGA
  
  • Focuses on your body's natural tendency toward health and self-healing. Plus yoga builds strength, awareness, and harmony in both the mind and body.
    
• Tai Chi
  • Regular practice can increase flexibility and strength, and improve cardiovascular fitness. The emphasis on correct posture means that tai chi can instill a greater awareness of the body and how it moves through space. Tai chi is also a form of meditation.
    
• Meditation (or quiet time or prayer time)
  
  • If stress has you anxious, tense and worried, consider trying meditation. Spending even a few minutes in meditation can help restore your calm and inner peace.
    
    • Anyone can practice meditation. It's simple and inexpensive. And it doesn't require any special equipment. And, you can practice meditation wherever you are — whether you're out for a walk, riding in a car, but not driving, though some gentle breathing may help, waiting at the doctor's office, or even in the middle of a difficult business meeting.
• Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years. These days, meditation is commonly used for relaxation and stress reduction. Meditation is considered a type of mind-body complementary medicine and can produce a deep state of relaxation and a tranquil mind. During meditation, you focus your attention and eliminate the stream of jumbled thoughts that may be crowding your mind and causing stress. This process may result in enhanced physical and emotional well-being.
• Meditation can give you a sense of calm, peace and balance that can benefit both your emotional well-being and your overall health. You can also use it to relax and cope with stress by refocusing your attention on something calming. Meditation can help you learn to stay centered and keep inner peace. An added benefit ... And, these benefits don't end when your meditation session ends. Meditation can help carry you more calmly through your day. And meditation may help you manage symptoms of certain medical conditions.
• When you meditate, you may clear away the information overload that builds up every day and contributes to your stress.
• The emotional and physical benefits of meditation can include:
  
  • Gaining a new perspective on stressful situations
    
  • Building skills to manage your stress
    
  • Increasing self-awareness
    
  • Focusing on the present
    
  • Reducing negative emotions
    
  • Increasing imagination and creativity
    
  • Increasing patience and tolerance
    
  • Lowering resting heart rate
    
  • Lowering resting blood pressure
    
  • Improving sleep quality
• Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain. Activate and relieve your stress response.

I suppose you're wondering what is a certified herbalist and how can one help me? That's an easy one ... my certified herbalist is Stephanie who owns The Herbal Toad. Not sure what to do or where to start? Visit her website ... she's local and she's amazing!

Some of my favorite products (descriptions taken from The Herbal Toad's website):

• Sugar Tamer tincture
  • ​synergistic blend of our favorite herbs to assist in normalizing blood sugar levels. It stimulates the production of insulin to control the sugar levels in the blood as well as nourishing the body to work more efficiently on it's own. Sugar Tamer can help with insulin resistance, and therefore can help stimulate weight loss for those who struggle with their weight.
• Sugar Tamer tea 
  • a delicious herbal blend created to help reduce sugary cravings and balance blood sugar levels. Enjoy a cup just prior to when patterns of sugar cravings generally emerge.
• Attack tincture
  • a powerful herbal-biotic that goes to work to boost your bodies own fighting power while relieving a multitude of cold and flu symptoms. Attack won’t just help you feel better, it will help you get better. When you are overtired, undernourished or stressed, often it is a virus that attacks, which the standard medical profession has little to combat. Antibiotics should never be used when you have a virus as they do nothing to combat a viral infection. They only work on bacterial infections and they adversely effect your digestive health by killing all of your good intestinal flora, and can also make you resistant to the antibiotic when you really need it. Fortunately, nature has plenty of useful anti-virals and immune stimulants to keep you healthy all year, as well as safe anti-bacterial herbs that do not kill your much needed intestinal flora.)
• Aller-G
  • one of natures most effective combinations for those who suffer from seasonal allergies and hay fever. Aller-G helps to bring welcome relief while building resistance. This formula reduces excessive mucus, sinus congestion, watery eyes, sneezing, itchy or soar throat, and runny nose.  It also reduces inflammation and the body's inflammatory response. Remember, while tinctures most often deliver fast relief; it may take time for an herbal remedies to manifest its full effects.  Consider pairing Aller-G Tincture with Anti-Inflame Tincture, for a powerful allergy fighting duo.
• Anti-Inflame
  • Inflammation is the body’s natural response to a harmful stimuli; it is a necessary first step to healing an injury, however; too much inflammation can increase pain, cause skin and digestive issues, rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis, periodontitis, hay fever, and is the culprit of many underlying health problems.   The Herbal Toad's Anti-Inflame Tincture is meticulously blended to call upon the anti-inflammatory properties in herbs. It is easily absorbed by the body, and is therefore can be more effective than taking turmeric capsules alone, and will not cause stomach upset.
• Digestive Bitters
  • a blend of six bitter herbs to optimize digestive function. Each herb is chosen for their well-balanced, aromatic, non-laxative action. The Herbal Toad's Digestive Bitters can be taken as needed with a number of concerns or taken at every meal to support digestive health. Relieve gas, bloating & occasional heartburn, acid reflux, and GERD, helps with appetite regulation, supports healthy liver function, encourages digestive juice production 
• Elderberry
  • May help with immune support, tonsillitis, sinusitis, cholesterol balance, sinus, inflammation, acne, allergies, constipation, bronchitis, warts, aches, sciatica pain, neuro support, and fatigue. Our Elderberry Tincture has a 1:1 herb strength ratio, so 1ml is equivalent to 1000mg of raw herb, which is three times the strength of the average herbal extract. Our elderberry is safe for all ages and contains several healthful immune boosting properties, including antioxidants, tannins, vitamins A, B, and C, and flavonoids, just to name a few. Our cold extraction process, as opposed to a heat extraction process, helps maintain the full spectrum of the plant's constituents in the final product. When used as an extraction method, organic grain alcohol increases absorption without affecting blood sugar levels, and maximizing shelf life.
• Kava tincture
  • Kava comes from the Pacific Islands where people have used it for centuries. While Kava is a potent anxiety reliever, we have it listed in our Pain & Inflammation collection because it is our favorite muscle relaxer. It is an excellent choice when experiencing pain and/or cramping, and is a great aid in relieving hemorrhoid pain. Because Kava has such a powerful way of stopping us from overthinking it is a perfect choice for those who cannot shut off their mind and get to sleep.
• All Better Spray - best thing in my first aid kit
  • All Better Essential Oil Blend is child safe and the spray is premixed and ready to use whenever boo-boos happen. The essential oils in All Better are blended to be effective for use with minor cuts, burns, and abrasions. Spray on and feel immediate relief while the oils do their work of cleaning and healing. All Better Blend is also good for use with acne and other blemishes.
• Too many essential oils to list! Visit The Herbal Toad's website!

Something else to consider is toxins. What is in your environment that could be effecting your health? I have a couple, well actually more than a couple, that come to mind ... 

Check the next blog post ... Is your home making you sick?

We are all here for a purpose. Maybe you know what that purpose is and maybe you'll discover your purpose later. It will come.

Today, I met a woman who is doing the best she can with the information she has. She touched my heart and we found ourselves chatting about everything. Then, we settled in on the struggles of losing weight, working, raising kids, trying to make ends meet. It's not easy. Then you discover you need medication for high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure and do the best you can ... again with the information you have or are given by someone who may not even know how to best help you. It's a vicious circle and it's exhausting.

My struggle is she is being told things that will keep her on medication when if she were able to make some simple and some not-so-simple changes she would likely be able to get off meds. I assured her I was NOT a doctor or even in the medical field. I encouraged her to think about what she wanted and to speak to her physician about it. People often forget doctors work for them! Not the other way around. When your doctor isn't listening, move on. 

The bottom line of our conversation became obvious. She is eating way too much processed food tainted with high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and many ingredients she couldn't even pronounce. The first step, I told her, is to understand what you are actually eating.

She mentioned she liked salmon. Farm-raised or wild-caught? She didn't know. Is there a difference? Yes. Read about it HERE. (HINT: wild-caught is better, but you already knew that, right?)

Let's talk about margarine vs butter? In my opinion, I prefer real food and margarine has what I can only refer to as ickies ... you know weird oils, stabilizers ... here is the list of ingredients from their website: Ingredients. Vegetable Oil Blend (Soybean Oil, Palm Oil and Palm Kernel Oil), Water, Salt, Whey (Milk), Distilled Monoglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Potassium Sorbate and Calcium Disodium EDTA (Used to Protect Quality), Citric Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Vitamin A Palmitate, Beta Carotene (Color).

Want to know what's in my butter? Pasteurized cream and salt. See the difference? Made with milk from grass-fed cows, not treated with rBST or other growth hormones.

So, what you do? Where do you start? 

Good question and the answer is easier than you think. Start small ...

• replace diet soda (actually, all soda) with water. Yep, good old water.
  • If you drink a six-pack of soda daily replace two, then three, etc.
  • Does drinking one soda a day really matter? YES, it does.
    • ​https://health.clevelandclinic.org/soda-do-you-drink-it-every-day/
• switch to herbal tea (check out The Herbal Toad)
  • ​are their teas more expensive? You bet there are because they use real, honest-to-goodness ingredients, but it's worth it.
• Start reading ingredients on packaging. Yes, it will take longer to shop, but it's worth it. My personal policy is to shop around the outside of the aisles before I shop aisle by aisle. Hit the produce department, meats, dairy before you browse the processed food aisles.
  • Make a list!! Follow the list to avoid unnecessary spending. Use store apps like Publix to know where the BOGOs are, the specials, and the deals. Don't fall prey to the deals. If you wouldn't normally buy it, it's not really a deal, is it?
  • Download the Bobby-Approved app. Scan the UPC could and he'll tell you if what you're looking at is in your own best interest ... plus, if it's not, he'll offer suggestions. It the app perfect, it is not. Bobby tags "natural flavors" as a bad thing ... and they are. But, sometimes it is what it is. Oh, what's does natural flavors really mean? Read about it HERE.

I know there's a lot to think about and a lot to read and learn about. Take it one step at a time ... relax ... you didn't get to where you are today overnight and it will take some time to re-navigate your healthy future.

Have a question? Click the comment section below and ask away ... I'll do my best to answer you.