For the new year, I know a lot of people are looking to make a change for their self and their family, but that change can be overwhelming. Where do I begin, what will I need, what should I be reading, who can I trust? Well, for those of you who are looking for a starting place, I've compiled a short list of products and books that I have found absolutely essential in my last year of regaining my health. Below, I've included my review of these products, why they are important to me, and also a link for each product for you to purchase yourself!
Ninja Master Prep Professional Blender: This is my pride and joy. I use it literally every day, usually more than once a day. I can't emphasize enough how instrumental it has been in my journey to start eating cleaner (although you will note how often it comes up in my recipes). From green smoothies, to banana ice cream, to pesto, to hummus, this guy gets me through a day of cooking. I can't say enough about it. Powerful, SUPER easy to clean (my greatest peeve about most blenders-- but this one is upside down so to speak, which means the motor is on top and the blades just slide in, rather than having to twist and untwist and risk horrible maiming), and so versatile. Worth every penny and then some in my opinion. Note: I have the "Professional" version. Again, worth the money and the extra, smaller bowl.
Practical Paleo: A Customized Approach to Health and a Whole-Foods Lifestyle by Diane Sanfilippo: While I don't categorize this blog as a strictly "Paleo" blog, much of my attitude toward food corresponds with the Paleo way of life. Even if you are not interested in "Paleo" at all, which is fine, this book is absolutely still worth buying due to the extensive yet easily understandable physiology information. If you want to know more about the physiology behind grain-free living, this is THE book. I bought it thinking it would be predominately new recipe ideas, but in reality it was the book that first opened my eyes to what is actually going on inside our bodies when we eat certain foods. As someone who really enjoys anatomy and physiology, not only did I find Diane's writing interesting, but also very clean and clear and easily understood. I would recommend this book as one of your first steps!
The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What You Should Eat and Why by Jonny Boden, PhD, CNS: This book was one I got a while back, just wanting to be healthier in general. I didn't know much about WHY foods were healthy, I just knew which ones had good reputations. I can't say I agree with every food in this book based on my own research, but the majority are spot-on. Plus it's really helpful if you're looking to find out the macro and micro nutrient ins and outs of certain foods. Some will definitely surprise you (or at least surprised me at the time), like how for example strawberries are a better source of vitamin C than oranges, and kiwis are pretty much one of the best things on the planet that you can eat! I actually predominately use this book to figure out what I should put in my smoothies to make the greatest powerhouse green smoothie possible!
Crock-Pot Cook Travel Serve 6-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker: This is the slow cooker I own, and I couldn't make it through the week without it. As someone who works full time, and weird hours at that, sometimes I don't get home until close to 9pm. At that time of night, I don't want to do any work cooking, I just want to eat. These are the nights when the Crock Pot saves my life. I throw a (frozen) piece of meat in with some spices and maybe some chopped veggies right before I head out the door and it's good to go when I get home. This one has a timer, and cuts into "warming" mode once the time it up, so the food is still warm but not burned when I get home. It truly has made all the difference while trying to eat healthier, because I can guarantee you that without it, I would be much more apt to reach for a convenience meal instead on those late working evenings.
Nutiva Organic Virgin Coconut Oil: Coconut oil is THE staple ingredient to have as you transition into a healthier lifestyle. The benefits are extensive. There's actually an entire book written about it (called the Coconut Oil Miracle). From cooking, to skin care, to personal uses, the uses for this stuff are only limited by your imagination. If you only add one new item to your pantry, this should be it. I like this particular brand because it is organic, cold-pressed, non-GMO, and virgin, which makes it the highest quality possible.
Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health by Jo Robinson: This book is filled to the brim with information. Not only does it teach you health benefits of different fruits and veggies, but it teaches you how to shop to maximize the benefits. What type of apple does more harm than good? Onions can be incredibly beneficial, but you have to know what you're looking for. How do you store fresh greens to preserve their nutrients? And how should you cook broccoli so you don't drain away the benefits? All of that and more is in the book. There's actually so much information in this read, that I had to take notes while reading through it. But if you're looking to maximize your shopping trips and eat on the wild side, this book is your new best friend.
Please note that some of the links in the above post are affiliate links that will take you to an Amazon.com page. If you choose to purchase a product featured in this post using an affiliate link, you will be directly supporting You’re An Animal. Thanks!
Deodorant is one of those things that we get in the habit of putting on everyday and don’t think twice about. What is its purpose? Well, to prevent your own body odor from smelling so obnoxiously to the person standing next to you that it makes them walk away. I always wore it until one day I just couldn’t deal with the suffering it brought me. I’m sure I speak for thousands of people out there, but I would break out in some type of rash and I wasn’t going to put up with that. I would have rather not worn anything and run the risk of smelling offensively than to wear deodorant and deal with a chronic rash. So for quite some time, I went to numerous stores and read up on deodorants and was determined to find one that worked that didn’t cause a rash. Finally, I came across one made by the company Nourish Organic at a Whole Foods Market and proceeded to view the ingredient list. By this point, I knew what I was looking for and was well into a natural lifestyle and enjoyed the study of biochemistry of the human body. The front was rather simple, but it fit my style. The best part was that it even fell under my rule of 7. Nothing more than 7 ingredients was coming home with me. After trying it for 1 day, it worked beautifully! No rash, no smell, no problem. It is free of all the terrible toxins such as parabens, phthalates, petrochemicals, artificial fragrances, silicones, propylene glycol, sulfates, triclosan, EDTA, aluminum, and other synthetically made chemicals or dyes. The ingredient list is as follows: Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Beeswax, Organic Corn Starch, Organic Cacao Seed Butter, Organic Shea Butter, Organic Saccharomyces Ferment. The last ingredient Saccharomyces Ferment is a fermented plant that comes from the fungi world. Nothing to fear, just looks difficult to pronounce. Basically, some plants had allowed me to be rash free and confident that nothing toxic was going to leak through the skin of my armpits. Clearly I had to look long and hard to find a deodorant that would pass my extremely difficult test. The point of all this is that almost every other brand of deodorants out there has at least some, if not many, harsh toxins that are going to ultimately destroy you. They will, without a doubt, contain one or more of the toxic ingredients I previously mentioned and slowly but surely make you sick and you won’t even realize the cause until long after potentially irreversible damage can occur to you, whether it be to your skin, liver, heart, or brain. Do yourself a favor and immediately switch your deodorant. It may be slightly more expensive at roughly $9 to $10, depending on where you purchase it, but you will be investing wisely in your health.
As a testimonial, here is a note I received from a woman I met at my workplace, who as a cancer survivor, needed to revamp her product choices:
Hi Andrew,
Wanted to let you know how much I like Nourish Organic deodorant and Thank You for recommending it. What you don’t know is that in June of 2015, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and had a mastectomy on June 18th, 2013. Upon a visit to my oncologist, he told me to stay away from any products with Parabens or Bovine Growth Hormones in them. After hearing this, it got me to wondering about what else I was using that was not good for me and upon further research, BOY WAS I SURPRISED! I had to change everything I was using and that’s when I turned to Organic Products for everything from soap to make-up to laundry detergent. I had searched for a deodorant that would work well particularly after a hard workout at the gym and that’s where you and I started talking. You recommended the Nourish Organic Deodorant and I tried it and now I love it. I controls odor as well as any other deodorant on the market and the fact that it was totally organic makes me a user for life. I have also tried other products from Nourish Organics and they are great too.
Thanks Andrew!
Cheryl B.
Please note that some of the links in the above post are affiliate links that will take you to an Amazon.com page. If you choose to purchase a product featured in this post using an affiliate link, you will be directly supporting You’re An Animal. Thanks!
Kiss My Face: Minimally Processed Body Soap Replacement
We all want to be and feel clean and it has been this way for thousands of years dating back to pre historic man. It is in our nature to live near water. Not only do we need water to stay properly hydrated on the inside but we need it on the outside as well. Our skin, known as the largest organ of the body, looks refreshed after a shower or bath. The reason is that the skin, just like a plant, will perk up and appear refreshed after being under water. It triggers the release of certain neurotransmitters in the brain that makes us feel happy, one of which is dopamine. Somewhere along the way we noticed the cleansing effects of soap and added to the water in our bathing routines to help clean the skin. However, due to the Industrial Revolution, we took the soap making process too far and utilized our chemistry labs too much. Chemicals that can range from being harsh and abrasive to drying agents to potentially cancerous were added to soaps to make a person think he/she was truly getting a squeaky clean body post bathing. This is a classic example of business marketing at its finest getting you to buy their product regardless of the detrimental effects it can have on the human body. This is what made me change my bathing routines and stopped using shaving cream to shave and soaps to wash the dirt off. Water worked beautifully just to wash off the skin. However, every once in a while you get super dirty or muddy. Maybe you just finished a tough obstacle race and this is when soap comes in play. The saponification process is why soaps work. It is the primary reason why sticky foods are hard to release from your dinner plate. When soap suds and warm to hot water mix it loosens up oily or sugary food particles so that they can more easily get washed away. Same concept goes for our skin, but I needed to find a way to do this without adding toxic chemicals to my skin, which not only moves toxins out but can also soak toxins in causing potentially dangerous side effects. This is when I found an Olive Oil bar of soap made by the company, Kiss My Face. It has only 3 ingredients! It clearly stood up to my rule of 7 ingredients or less. It contains Sodium Olivate (saponified olive oil), Water, Sodium Chloride. The benefits of Olive oil are amazing, providing a base that yields protection to the skin from outside invaders as well as providing a cleansing effect to remove dirt and mud. Sounds like a win win situation. Plus there are no toxic chemicals so you can be sure your skin will not be soaking in anything harmful. In the end, if you can’t pronounce the ingredient or it sounds like something that could be toxic, it probably is. My recommendation is to switch to a brand like Kiss My Face or start learning what ingredients are actually in your bar of soap so you are ultimately fully aware of what’s going on inside and outside of your body. Protect yourself as much as possible because the environment of planet Earth has rapidly deteriorated over the last roughly 10,000 years and even more rapidly in the last 100 years due to our own reckless behaviors that seem to take most things in life for granted.
Please note that some of the links in the above post are affiliate links that will take you to an Amazon.com page. If you choose to purchase a product featured in this post using an affiliate link, you will be directly supporting You’re An Animal. Thanks!
Graduating from college was a wonderful time, but for my health, not so much. It appeared that just about anything I ate irritated my tongue. Unaware of the cause, my first thought was “maybe it’s my toothpaste.” Long story short, it turns out it was not the toothpaste, but it did give me a lot of insight on what ingredients are actually in many toothpaste brands today. Really, it was a blessing in disguise. Having changed lifestyles for the better, I realized that everything you consume comes into contact first with the mouth. So I had to start there, literally. Shopping one day at a health food store I came across Earthpaste, a completely natural toothpaste made out of clay. Clay has been used around the world for many different cleansing routines for thousands of years. It has numerous minerals that will help to replenish what has been depleted from our systems while simultaneously giving you clean teeth. Sounds like a win win situation to me. My one rule of thumb is almost never to buy products with more than 7 ingredients AND you should be able to read the list without hesitating or having to ask “what is this?” Earthpaste passed the test with flying colors. With only 6 ingredients, occasionally 7 depending on the flavor, the Spearmint one has the following ingredients: Purified water, Food Grade Redmond Clay, Redmond Real Salt, Spearmint Essential Oil, Menthol, Tea Tree Oil. Redmond, a company based out of Utah, produces this awesome toothpaste that makes me confident in knowing nothing toxic is going into my mouth. On the other hand, just about every other brand out there has toxic chemicals in their toothpastes and their all too savvy marketing teams know exactly how to get you to bypass the toxic chemicals and buy their products. EVIL! One example is Crest. Most people have heard of them. One of there toothpastes that claims is Anticavity contains a few ingredients that I can guarantee you don’t have a clue what they are or what they do. The active ingredient of Sodium Fluoride might be OK but it isn’t naturally from the Earth. It’s naturally from a chemistry lab. Of the inactive ingredients, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Flavor, Cellulose Gum, Titanium Dioxide, and Blue Lake 1 are all begging you to ask “what is that?” Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (often listed as SLS) is a drying agent. Why would you want to dry out your mouth? That will only allow harmful bacteria to thrive and create problems. Anything that simply says Flavor is not good for you. My first question is “What flavor?” and then I’ll bet it came straight from a tube in a chemistry lab making it not from the Earth. Cellulose Gum is up next on the chopping block. Very quickly, cellulose comes from wood in trees which cannot be completely broken down by the human body. Titanium Dioxide is nothing more than oxidized or “rusted” titanium, a metal. Anything that gets oxidized, should be a whole food that gets oxidized in your body, not outside and then put in. That’s backwards to me. Even though I left out some ingredients because there’s no point in beating a dead horse, the last one is Blue 1 Lake. That sounds like they decided to numerically order every blue colored lake in this world. How is that an ingredient? OK, it’s not, but it is a food color. Yet again something made in a lab and has been known to have potentially cancerous properties. In the end, well, start in this case, put something safe in your mouth to help clean your teeth from the healthy foods you had previously eaten.
Please note that some of the links in the above post are affiliate links that will take you to an Amazon.com page. If you choose to purchase a product featured in this post using an affiliate link, you will be directly supporting You’re An Animal. Thanks!
This is a list of what we typically keep in our kitchen at all times. Of course, we often have things outside of this list as well, but as far as the basics go these things are usually kept in stock. Use as inspiration for your next shopping trip!
Garlic can be a powerful super food, but it needs a little forethought in order to get all of its wonderful benefits. Allicin is a compound in garlic that has been shown to be incredibly potent in the health world. Allicin is responsible for many of the cardiovascular, anti-cancer, and anti-bacterial benefits associated with garlic. However, allicin only forms when the sulfoxide alliin and its enzyme alliiase come into contact. While both substances are naturally occurring within garlic, we must break the barriers between the two in order to maximize their potential and form allicin. We do this by slicing, crushing, mincing or chewing raw garlic. Once alliin and alliiase are released, they must be given time to combine and form allicin. Therefore, once you crush/mince/slice garlic, you must give it a 10 minute rest before exposing it to high heat or acid. This also means that you should never cook a garlic clove whole, because by doing so, you do not allow allicin to ever form. Luckily, if you crush garlic and then cook it after giving it a 10 minute rest, the majority of the health benefits are maintained at this point!
So to conclude, to maximize the health benefits of garlic, always crush or mince your garlic first, and then allow it to rest for 10 minutes before proceeding with any cooking. Or eat it raw! Enjoy keeping those vampires at bay!
For the new year, I know a lot of people are looking to make a change for their self and their family, but that change can be overwhelming. Where do I begin, what will I need, what should I be reading, who can I trust? Well, for those of you who are looking for a starting place, I've compiled a short list of products and books that I have found absolutely essential in my last year of regaining my health. Below, I've included my review of these products, why they are important to me, and also a link for each product for you to purchase yourself!
