Homemade Body Butter Recipe

Homemade Body Butter Recipe

This is a very luxurious body butter that makes your skin feel soft and silky. It is pretty simple to make and also makes amazing gifts. The key is using 75% solid oil ingredients to 25% liquid oil ingredients. Once you get comfortable making this, you can experiment with other oils and “butters” to find the perfect ones for you.

Ingredients

1 cup shea butter (solid)

½ cup coconut oil (solid)

½ cup almond oil (liquid)

Essential oils of your choice

Directions

  1. Melt shea butter and coconut oil in the top of a double boiler, remove from heat and let cool for 30 minutes.
  2. Stir in almond oil and all the essential oils you want
  3. Wait until oils start to partially solidify (you can use your freezer or fridge to get it cooled faster, once the mixture starts to harden you know you are good to go), then whip with a hand mixer until a butter-like consistency is achieved. The actual mixing should only take a few minutes. It looks like frosting to me!
  4. Place in a clean jar and enjoy! A little goes a long way.

The hardest part is waiting for it to partially solidify to the right consistency before whipping. If you start whipping too soon, it won’t fluff up, so just put it back into the freezer or fridge for another 5 minutes and then try again.

My favorite scents for this vary between plain jasmine essential oils, to a lavender and lemongrass blend. I also enjoy the citrus blends of lemon and orange.

TIP #11: Our Skin Is Our Largest Organ

Our skin is the largest organ in our body and absorbs what we put on it. If you are using lotions and body butters with chemicals in them (fragrances, preservatives, color additives, etc.) be aware that your skin is absorbing the chemicals, too.

Vampire's Dentures

So I had a little fun tonight making dessert for my mom. Since I feed her and my dad 2-3x per week, my mom always wants dessert. This one was a lot of fun! It has absolutely no health benefits to it whatsoever, and I didn't have a lot of time so I used cookies from the bakery and icing from the baking aisle, already made up. They were eaten so fast that I would have felt cheated if I had spent hours slaving away, making frosting from scratch and cookies from scratch.

This is what it was supposed to look like:

Dracula-dentures-text

You can find the recipe here.

This is what mine looked like:

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I am not very good at the creative stuff, but my mom totally LOVED them. She giggled when she saw them and was so looking forward to her dessert. Since she is in moderate stage of dementia, she is really changing her personality, and it is getting harder and harder to get her attention. I am glad these were able to.

Total success in my book, even if they are a little gapped tooth and crooked :)

Heavy metals in our body from regular food we eat!

Just this morning I woke up to two articles about food we eat and heavy metals in those foods.

The first one talked about tuna and mercury. We are all aware of commercial tuna having tons of mercury in it, so reduce the amount we eat (I eat a tuna salad sandwich maybe once every month or two). And in this article it cites a study that says tuna harms brain development in children.

So, let's stop eating tuna so often, and not give it to our children, especially when they are young and their brains are still developing.

But... here is another article that talks about how there is ARSENIC in rice! The FDA calls it "worrisome". And we know that if the FDA says something like that, we really SHOULD be worried! The paragraph that struck me the most was that when Consumer Reports tested all the major brands of rice sold in the U.S.,

 {Many contained what the magazine calls "worrisome levels of arsenic"— some products had up to five times higher levels than the arsenic found in oatmeal and one and a half times more than EPA's legal standard for drinking water.}

So, let's get this straight. Oatmeal has arsenic in it. Tap water has arsenic in it. But the EPA says that the amount allowed in tap water is safe... however, if you drink tap water, eat your oatmeal for breakfast, and then have stir fry with some rice for lunch, (oh, and tuna for dinner, ha!) you are getting a toxic dose of heavy metals, and here you are, thinking you are eating a completely healthy, balanced diet! All of these doses of arsenic compound inside your body to expose you to unsafe levels.

Which is why it is SO important to detox your body. I know that is a refrain that I say over and over, like a mantra, but it is the truth. Heavy metal poisoning is not fun. It can kill you in a long, devastating and painful way.

My detox foot pads have been proven to pull out these horrible heavy metals. So I recommend you try them out on your kids and yourself. Be proactive with your health, not reactive.

And as always, I offer FREE priority mail shipping to the U.S. and military bases throughout the world. I am a one-person shop, I blog, tweet, post on my Facebook Page, even have a Pinterest page that I created to organize healthy living advice on. I ship out all my orders personally, and communicate with my customers personally as well. My product DOES work, and I offer a money back guarantee as well. Personal service like this is hard to come by these days. I also am truly grateful for all my customers who give me a chance.

May you be blessed with great health!

6 months now since my move

It has been a little over 6 months since we uprooted ourselves from a northern suburb of Minneapolis, MN and moved to a small town near the border of Idaho, in Utah. We made this move to be closer to family, after my mom's diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (at age 62!)

My company has allowed me to work remote, so besides the drastic change in scenery and culture, there has been a drastic change in my work habits. I don't have to commute 25 miles to get to work anymore. I get up, do my morning chores, get ready for work, and sit down in my home office. I still am able to do all my responsibilities and in some ways I am more effective than I was in person. Less distraction, more focus.

But it is still a big change. Every morning before I left for work I would log onto www.startribune.com to read the headlines. When I first moved out here, I still did that. I needed to keep in touch with that life I just left. I followed the news stories as if I were still there. Now, 6 months later, I log onto the Star Tribune maybe a couple times a month.

I also listened to K102 on the radio exclusively. In fact, I didn't even know any other stations out there in Minnesota. So, I listened via computer here on IHeartRadio.com so I could still hear the familiar DJs and the morning show. Within a month or so that dwindled, until I no longer listen to them anymore.

I realize how life changes, gradually. I don't consider myself a complete Utahn yet. I still spent the majority of my life, including my birth and all my childhood, in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I really still consider myself a Californian. 27 years is still a long time. I was only in Minnesota for 10 years.

But it scares me just a little bit how the past is slipping away from me. I am making new daily habits, new friends, and am doing new things.

And, I am thankful for Facebook so that I can keep in contact with my friends from MN. Even though we may not talk every day, I can read their status updates and they can read mine, and we know what is going on in each others lives.

But, the best (and hardest) part is I get to see my family more. Hard because I see my mom mentally declining, when she was sharp as a tack my whole life. After spending an afternoon with her I am so emotionally drained and depressed. It is so hard to see this unfolding, not knowing how quickly or how slowly it is going to progress, not knowing what we will do a month from now, a year from now... etc.

I do enjoy being able to see my siblings, and I love the area we are renting in. I love the ducks, especially the newborn babies, and I love being able to garden and grow things. The sun sure shines down on us here, and the plants just love to grow. I love the mountains, and the weather. (did I just admit that?) I feel healthier out here than I did in Minnesota. Maybe it is because I am now able to find time to go to the gym to take classes and work out. Maybe it is because I am near family, and that usually helps lessen stress. Maybe it is because I am growing a lot more food, or have more time to cook meals from scratch instead of eating out all the time. But whatever it is, I am grateful that amongst the added burdens that have been placed upon my shoulders, I also have been given additional blessings to compensate.

I don't know what the future will bring. But I will have faith that it is where I am supposed to go. 

Do Detox Foot Pads Work?

If you are wondering "Do detox foot pads work?" then read on...

Many of my dear customers who purchase my foot pads tell me they are able to sleep better, and are more rested when using the foot pads. I even had a customer tell me that she had an elementary school-aged son whose school performance was dropping because he was exhausted and couldn't sleep well. IT was leading to his misbehaving and acting up, too! She started putting the foot pads on him and the difference it made was remarkable, within just a few days. He slept through the night and was able to be refreshed in the morning. That helped him to be able to focus on school, and the concentration helped him bring his grades up and it was just a happy ending to what could have been a child who got shuffled around, maybe labeled as having learning problems, and his life could have ended up so differently.

Here is another testimonial from a customer who just started using them last month:

"I've used the Purify Your Body detox pads for several weeks, and it has helped me to feel more rested upon waking. And judging from the dark gunk that formed on the pads, the pads must have done their job! After a few days, the pads got less dark, so they really do help to get rid of toxins. If you're on the fence, I suggest that you give it a try." - Jonathan H. from Ephrata PA

Lead Poisoning

Lead Poisoning

Lead is one of the more dangerous heavy metals to humans. (Others include Mercury, Cadmium and Arsenic). The problem is, it is everywhere! We import $366 BILLION of our consumables each year. Other countries don't have as stringent standards (ok, China) and we have had many recent recalls due to contaminated baby formula, toys, pet food, and more. We can't trust that our lives are going to be lead-free. But we can do our best to make sure our bodies are. My detox foot pads have been proven to pull lead from children, and within weeks the symptoms go away. The foot pads also pull other heavy metals out of the body, and work amazingly well with other chelation therapies.

Remember back in high school when you were studying history, the Europeans thought tomatoes were poisonous for the longest time, because whenever they would eat a tomato dish, they would get sick? They blamed the tomatoes. Instead, they later realized that the lead dishes they were eating off of, were the cause of it. Since the acidity level in tomatoes is high, it was leeching the lead from the dishes, and as a result, sickening the people who were eating.

Here is the list of symptoms of lead poisoning from the Mayo Clinic. I am taking it directly off their website because they have phenomenal research capabilities, are trustworthy, and their website seems easier to read for me than WebMD. And, since I lived in MN for 10 years, and was only 2 hours from them, I feel somewhat of a bond!

What is scary about lead, is that initially, lead poisoning can be hard to detect — even people who seem healthy can have high blood levels of lead. Signs and symptoms usually don't appear until dangerous amounts have accumulated.

Symptoms in children
The signs and symptoms of lead poisoning in children may include:

  • Irritability
  • Loss of appetite
  • Weight loss
  • Sluggishness and fatigue
  • Abdominal pain
  • Vomiting
  • Constipation
  • Learning difficulties

Symptoms in newborns
Babies who are exposed to lead before birth may experience:

  • Learning difficulties
  • Slowed growth

Symptoms in adults
Although children are primarily at risk, lead poisoning is also dangerous for adults. Signs and symptoms in adults may include:

  • High blood pressure
  • Declines in mental functioning
  • Pain, numbness or tingling of the extremities
  • Muscular weakness
  • Headache
  • Abdominal pain
  • Memory loss
  • Mood disorders
  • Reduced sperm count, abnormal sperm
  • Miscarriage or premature birth in pregnant women

Most Common Causes of Lead Poisoning

Lead in paint
The use of lead-based paints for homes, children's toys and household furniture has been banned in the United States since 1978. But lead-based paint is still on walls and woodwork in many older homes and apartments. Most lead poisoning in children results from eating lead-based paint chips.

Water pipes and imported canned goods
Lead pipes, brass plumbing fixtures and copper pipes soldered with lead can release lead particles into tap water. Although lead solder in food cans is banned in the United States, it's still used in some countries.

Other sources of lead exposure

Lead can also sometimes be found in:

  • Soil. Lead particles that settle on the soil from leaded gasoline or paint can last for years. Lead-contaminated soil is still a major problem around highways and in some urban settings.
  • Household dust. Household dust can contain lead from lead paint chips or from contaminated soil brought in from outside.
  • Pottery. Glazes found on some ceramics, china and porcelain can contain lead that may leach into food.
  • Toys. Lead is sometimes found in toys and other products produced abroad.
  • Traditional cosmetics. Kohl is a traditional cosmetic, often used as eyeliner. Testing of various samples of kohl has revealed high levels of lead.

Baking Soda Shampoo results

As I have mentioned time and time again, we put toxins in our bodies on a daily basis, in our shampoos, conditioners, lotions, face creams, makeup, hair products, etc. This is in addition to all the toxic chemicals we consume via our food supply! So I have tried cutting down on allowing toxins to enter my body, and one of the ways is by avoiding toxic beauty products. I have been using the baking soda and apple cider vinegar "shampoo / conditioner" recipe, and my hair is amazing. I wash it about 4 times a week, and have been doing it for over 2 months now. I don't plan on stopping. It takes less than 5 minutes to make 2 weeks worth of shampoo/conditioner, and costs just pennies. (well, it may cost a couple dollars if you want to purchase an empty container to start. I just used old containers that I had). My hair is thicker, and no tangles. With my commercial conditioner, my hair would get baby soft, but would also tangle very easy. Now, my hair is not as soft, nor does it smell like the conditioners I used to use. It really has no smell. But it is still fairly soft, and oh boy is it shiny and healthy.

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I also have been using some homemade body butter, which moisturizes my skin better than most other lotions I have used, and doesn't give me that yucky feeling on my skin afterward. However, that is not cheap. It is probably equivalent in price to Nivea or Eucerin from the drugstore, but a LOT better for you, and I think works even better. I put essential oils in to create whatever scent I want.

The vinegar-water combo that I am using to clean my house is amazing, as well. My bathroom shines, and my kitchen counters and cupboards are always clean now. I use miracle soap (all natural) on my floors (my dogs have a tendency to lick the floor and eat things off the floors, so I don't use toxic chemicals on the floors at all, for sure!

Lastly, I have been making my own laundry detergent and not using fabric softener sheets in the dryer. Instead, I am using dryer balls. The clothes feel very different, they don't have a fresh smell, but they don't stink, either. They just feel like clothes. My sheets on my bed, though, seem a lot softer, and my clothes don't make me itch, either!! I hated putting on clothes where I used regular detergent on them, and they made me itch all day. And I avoided the Tide Free -type detergents because they contain chemicals that have been proven to cause cancer, even if they may be allergen free.

So, in summary, I have to say that it is a lot more work to be chemical free in the beginning, as you get used to it. But now it is simple, easy and makes me feel good about myself and my environment.

So far, everything has been going good. And I will continue to report back every few months. I want to make this sustainable!

But if you need to pull those toxins out of your body, and don't want to do all these things, then try my detox foot pads. They will help you get rid of the toxins that your body is exposed to.

Are you putting toxins into your skin?

 Most skin care products contain ingredients that are not only bad for your body, but they also absolutely DESTROY your complexion and cause you to look years older. Lab studies show they can trigger redness, acne, enlarged pores, wrinkles, irritation, and more!

  • Sodium Laurel Sulfate
  • Sodium trideceth sulfate
  • PEG-30 dipolydrydroxystearate
  • PEG-120 methyl glucose dioleate
  • Mineral Oil
  • Diethnolamine
  • Triethanolamine
  • Methylparaben
  • Propylparaben
  • Diazolidinyl urea
  • Red 3
  • Yellow 5

These are some of the most common toxins you will want to avoid. They will be doing you more harm than good. If you are young now, you want to preserve the youthful glow of your skin, and although you might think it will never happen to you, why risk it? By the time you are 45-50 and the wrinkles start to show, it will be harder. So start now.

What works? Without toxins?

Well, I have been ozonating olive oil for over 7 years, and using that as a moisturizer. But recently I fell in love with coconut oil for my face. For the past few months, I have been using Miracle II moisturizer (which is all natural, maybe about $15 for a large bottle of it that will last more than 6 months...) and then I put coconut oil on top of that. Sometimes I use Miracle II neutralizer gel as well. I don't sell these products, but my favorite brand of coconut oil is Nutiva, and I use Miracle II soap to wash my face, wash my hands, mop the floor, etc. and I can't say enough good things about their products.

For my body, I use homemade body butter that I make out of shea butter, coconut oil and almond oil. Every ingredient is natural and I love the way it makes my skin feel.

My make up is organic-mineral based, I don't use foundation, and my only vice is mascara. I love Clinique's mascara so at any given time, I will be wearing one non-organic item of makeup on my body.  And sometimes I use Physician's Formula Organic mascara.

How does my skin look? Well, I just turned 37 and no one here (I am new to this area) believed me. They thought maybe I could be 27. I don't have wrinkles yet, and my skin is soft and supple.

I also detox my body with my detox foot pads, and they are STILL pulling out toxins from my body. When I first started wearing them, even before I created Purify Your Body, it took me about 3-4 months of wearing them every night before they didn't pull anything else out of the bottoms of my feet. But I don't wear them every day now. Sometimes I go months without them, and sometimes I wear them on Friday and Saturday nights. They now have a ton of goo coming out of them in the mornings, since I am somehow putting more toxins in my body than I am taking out. I blame that on my eating habits! But the amount of goo is nothing like it was when I first started, now THAT was gross!

If I can do it, so can you!!! NO EXCUSES!!!

The second week of February this year, we joined a gym. I battled bronchitis that first week, but started going to classes anyway. I am bound and determined to get into shape. The past 4 years have been bad for me, with my shoulder problems, and 3 surgeries. I am in pain while I work out... every part of my body hurts, it seems like! Here are the things I have to deal with:

1) Thoracic back pain. This is from injuries on the playground in grade school, and car accidents I have been in. My T4 vertebrae / rib pops out and causes extreme pain. I have been in physical therapy for this many times. This doesn't hurt bad while I am working out, except when I do anything requiring me to be on my back (like sit ups!)

2) My right heel near where my Achilles tendon meets it, has arthritis from an injury I sustained 15 years ago. This hurts to jump around on. I am thinking about getting some sort of support band for it, if there is one.

3) My hearing loss is in my inner ear, and with that, my equilibrium is so out of whack that I can't really do anything that requires standing or hopping on one leg or the other! (and I am very ungraceful just because I am a brute vs. a dancer!)

4) My left bicep has the tendon removed. As a result, my strength has been decimated. I am working slowly to build up my upper body strength. I am doing this mostly with the BodyPump class. But I won't ever have full strength of that arm,and my shoulders don't move normal anymore since both shoulders have had the bursa removed and the end of my clavicle cut off.

5) Both hips have bursitis. The actual joint of the right leg has inflammation of some sort due to #6

6) My arches fall when any weight is put on them. As a result, I finally have custom orthotics to wear, but the 33 years of not wearing any support messed up my feet and legs/hips. Sometimes my SI joint pops out of place and I am in extreme pain for a few days. This has been a LOT better since I started wearing orthotics.

7) My right knee sometimes just gives out due to a track (hurdle) accident I had when I was 16. I never know when this will happen but I am hoping to strengthen the muscles around the knee to prevent this (it mostly happens going down stairs or doing a squat).

8) I have exercise induced asthma, so when I do a lot of cardio, I have a hard time breathing.

So... all these issues sound like EXCUSES, right? WRONG!!!
These issues make me more determined to get in shape. I am viewing them as obstacles I am going to overcome, though I don't overdo it. I don't want to cause more problems. I have been given the go ahead from my orthopedic surgeon to do whatever I want, no limits on working out (except be smart about it). I will do pushups until I can't anymore. I will rest and then start again. I will do as much as I can, and then take a 15 second rest and begin again, I am getting better each class, and already doubled my weight in BodyPump. Each week I feel like I can do a little more. How cool is that!?

I am doing 4 classes a week now. I started with 2 a week, then 3 a week, and finally I am doing 4 classes a week:

1. BodyPump -- for strengthening (Monday)
2. TurboKick -- for cardio (Wednesday)
3. RIPPED -- for cardio, strengthening, endurance (Friday)
4. BodyCombat -- cardio, endurance, strengthening (Saturday)

And, every day I play with my dogs or take them for a walk, clean the house, run errands, or all the other things that keeping up a household requires of you. Only when I am working or relaxing and reading a book do I sit down on my bum!! (and when I write in my blog!)

If I can do it amongst all the pain I am in, then you can, too!

In just 7 weeks I feel like I have much more energy (although my muscles seem to be sore after BodyPump and RIPPED). My legs feel almost solid muscle. I am getting more definition in my body. I still have fat on my mid section... but I am working on that!! You can actually see that I have a bicep muscle now, which is really cool! My shoulders are becoming more defined. I am sleeping a little better at night (I have sleep issues, so this is a big one for me). I also am a lot hungrier, but am trying to make wise food choices. (not always successful).

So, again, if I can accomplish this, you can, to! I am the most uncoordinated, ungraceful student in my classes, but I don't care. The people are nice, they don't laugh at me (sometimes with me, though!). Take this as the encouragement you need to get started.

Your health is so important. Don't delay!!

Purify Your Body Detox Foot Pads Bring Relief to Gout Pain

There are a lot of emails that I get from customers, telling me how my foot pads have helped them so much regarding their health. I don't put testimonials up on my website for good reason, however, I do post some of them up on Purify Your Body's business page. But the testimonials that consistently keep coming to me is how the detox foot pads help with gout.

If you have suffered from gout you know the pain that accompanies it. I have never suffered it, but know it mostly happens in the feet and joints. I don't know exactly what causes it but I have read before about how uric acid builds up in those areas, causing extreme pain.

The foot pads help with gout by pulling out the uric acid in your body, so that you don't get an attack in the first place. Prevention is the best way to go. But if you do get an attack, you can put the foot pads directly on the area that is causing the pain, and from what I hear, within an hour or so the pain subsides drastically, and by the next day the pain is gone completely.

It is important to have the foot pads on hand, and use them as often as you are able to, so you can avoid a gout attack to begin with.

For more information on the detox foot pads, visit my website at www.purifyyourbody.com

And the second most often testimonial I get consist of migraine and headache relief. That is another topic altogether, because this is one I have first hand experience with!