Au Natural!

Hey guys! A lot of times I don’t think people realize how damaging the products they are using are. Why do you think women’s skin look so bad when they get older (apart from nutritional deficiencies)? So I found some really great products as far as makeup and skin care goes for those of you who don’t want to put a ton of chemicals on your skin and/or trying to be more natural.

Here’s a list of the products I’ve found:

Physician’s Formula Organic Wear 100% Natural Lash Boosting Mascara, 70% of this product’s ingredients are in fact organic. It is hypoallergenic, fragrance free, and even gluten free.

Everyone’s favorite, the EOS lip balms. This product is 100% natural with 95% of their ingredients organic. In addition, it is gluten free, paraben free, petroleum free, and phthalate free.

Burt’sBees Citrus Facial Scrub contains all natural ingredients. This product is never tested on animals and does not contain phthalates or petrochemicals.

St.Ives Timeless Skin Apricot Scrub is sulfate free and paraben free with 100% natural exfoliants. Not only that, but this product is hypoallergenic, non-comedogenic, and vegan (doesn’t have any animal ingredients). It’s better than some of the harsher scrubs on the market, but keep in mind that your body is made up of 70% water, and water is the best way to cleanse your face.

QueBella facial masks contain a minimum of 80% natural ingredients. Que Bella also has bath soaps, body scrubs, and other hair masks. You can find them at Target.

Tom’sWicked Fresh Cool Peppermint toothpaste contains no animal products or animal ingredients. No artificial colors, flavors, fragrance or preservatives. 5% (12 days) of employee time is spend volunteering, and 10% of their profits go to human and environmental goodness. Most of the packaging is made from recycled content and is easily recyclable as well.

Tom’sNatural Odor Protection deodorant has the same values as their toothpaste. It also does not contain artificial fragrance or preservatives and has no animal testing or ingredients.

Organix hair products has a variety of different shampoos and conditioners that are sulfate free, paraben free, and won’t damage color treated hair. They don’t test their products on animals, but they do contain animal products (such as egg whites).

A great hair mask is straight up coconut oil. You can melt some of it in your hand and massage it through your hair and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes before you wash your hair. It really helps to strengthen your hair and prevent spilt ends. Other oils, like olive oil, work great too.

Hope this helps! If you have any natural or organic products that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to leave a comment down below.

Savannah

Why Disease and Sickness?

Disease has invaded every aspect and part of the world in which we live. America spends more per capita on health care than any other country, and yet our health continues to fall. Most people will find themselves struggling with the ‘common cold’ each year or perhaps take a week or two off of work due to the flu or some other type of illness. You probably know someone who is obese or a family member who is fighting against cancer or heart disease.

The sad truth is that this really isn’t ‘normal’ for our bodies to be sick. It’s ironic because all this pain and sadness can be easily prevented if we just changed our diet and our lifestyle. In fact, half of us don’t even know what true health feels like or the miraculous things our bodies are capable of doing.

Going to a doctor is pretty much pointless as they recommend the option that will make them more money. Not only that, but they are focusing on a small part of the bigger picture at hand and at the cost of your health. This is why I want to be a nutritionist/wellness coach (or I’m headed in that direction anyways).

My recommendation for America is to take an interest in their health and wake up. Here are some resources that I have collected that prove that a low-fat plant based diet is the way to live a long life full of happiness and energy.

These are books that I highly recommend that you read if you have any interest in your health and preventing disease:

-“The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Thomas M. Campbell II, MD

-“Whole” by T. Colin Campbell, PhD

-“The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World” by John Robbins

-“The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food” by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

-“The 80/10/10 Diet” by Dr. Douglas Graham

Here are some additional resources from Youtube that I have linked for you below:

-fullyrawkristina

-rawfullyorganic

-Megan Elizabeth (Youtube) and meganelizabeth.com

-Kat Green

-FoodnSport (Doug Graham's 811rv Youtube channel)

-Arnold’s WayChannel

I hope that you find these resources to be of help to you whether you are interested in health or just curious. My goal is to share with you what I've discovered about life and hope that you take this information and apply it to your own life as well. I strongly encourage you to read the books listed above as each one has very important information in it that might help to save your life. And i often find myself visiting these youtube channels for guidance and inspiration for my own life. I hope that you find them inspirational as well. 

Your "Opinion" on Harry Potter?

About two weeks ago, my friend Ivey invited some of our friends from school to a tea place. All of us were chatting away when Ivey said, “hey, Savannah, I read the first couple pages of the first Harry Potter book!” (I’ve been trying to get her to read the series for months.) However, this erupted in bashing of the Harry Potter series by our other friends. Let’s just say they are damn lucky I kept my mouth shut because I had some things to say.

First of all, I completely understand where they are coming from. Some of my friends grew up not being allowed to watch Harry Potter as children. But seeing as they (nor their parents for that matter) have not read the series or watched the movies, have no right to be saying what it does or does not have in it (i.e. witchcraft or sorcery). While it does have spells and potions in it, you have the take into account that this is a work of fiction. J. K. Rowling used Latin words for the spells, not actual Wicca.

In addition, there is a lot of Christian theology and moral in the Harry Potter series that I think a lot of people tend to overlook:

• Harry Potter didn’t grow up like a king despite his “fame” and lived in a cupboard under the stairs with the Dursleys.
• Harry Potter resisted temptation from characters like Malfoy who are into dark magic throughout the entire series.
• Harry Potter always made an effort to do the right thing.
• Harry Potter defeated death.
• Harry Potter was the only one who could defeat Lord Voldemort.

• Jesus Christ was born in a stable and didn’t grow up as a king the way everyone thought the Messiah would come.
• Jesus Christ resisted temptation from the Devil and those around him.
• Jesus Christ was perfect. He never failed to do what was right.
• Jesus Christ defeated death.
• Jesus Christ is the only one who can defeat the Devil.

Furthermore, all of my friends are over eighteen. I think it’s time they start thinking for themselves. Just because your parents say something is “bad” doesn’t mean you have to believe it. You are your own person and can think for yourself. If you don’t like Harry Potter then fine, but don’t not like it because your parents say so. (If that makes sense.) Develop your own opinion.

That’s all I have to say on the topic.

Savannah

I Might be Going Fully Raw!

Hey! So I know that I haven’t written a post in a few weeks, but I wanted to let you know that I’m alive and all is well. There are several things I wanted to talk about, but for the purpose of this post I will only be talking about one of those things. This is something that has given me a new spark on something that I am very interest in and very well may be what I go into as my career. That is, I’m very interested in eating healthy and living a healthy lifestyle. And I am highly considering becoming a dietitian or a nutritionist or something along those lines.

But what really inspired me was a Youtuber that I came across named Kristina or “fullyrawkristina” as she is known on the ‘tubes. Kristina has been eating “fully raw” for about eight years, curing her body of any type of disease and/or sickeness she had (hypoglycemia—a type of diabetes—and other problems that caused her to be hospitalized at least once a month) as well as changing her eye color from a milky brown to a hazel-almost blue color. Kristina runs the largest non-prophet co-op, Rawfully Organic, in the U.S.

Another one of the raw foodies that I follow on Youtube is Megan Elizabeth. Megan had just gotten accepted into the university that her mother went to when she came down with a mysterious bedridden illness that prevented her from going to school. It wasn’t until she read “The 80/10/10 Diet” and started eating raw that she finally felt good again.

What is eating “fully raw” though? Eating a diet composed of uncooked, natural fruit, vegetables, and seeds/nuts. The book “The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell, Phd and Thomas M. Campbell II talks about how consuming animal products is a main factor in cancer, diabetes, hormone problems (for example, girls getting their periods in their early teens versus when they are seventeen/eighteen), and many others. Another great read which goes into the details of going raw vegan is the book “The 80/10/10 Diet” by Douglas M. Graham, which I am dying to get my hands on. Two other great reads, “The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World” by John Robbins and “The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food” by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson.

All that said I really want to go raw vegan. I was planning on starting over my winter break. Seeing as I’m in college and have practically a month off from school, I figured it would be the perfect time to start. One of the problems I am going to have is that the first couple days of detoxing, I am one of those people who get nauseous. Some people feel really great when they are detoxing, others get sick—almost like the flu. Also, it’s so hard to stay away from food I can’t eat when all my friends get dessert at lunch. It’s so tempting when they bring up cake not to grab a piece or ask them to surprise me with something. I figure if I go a month eating raw, I will get sick if I eat cake. And I won’t want to eat it anymore. So, that’s why I really want to start over my winter break.

Of course, I know lots of people are going to judge me and wonder if I am getting all my protein and all that nonsense. First of all, on a raw foot diet (not to be confused with dieting), you have to eat large portions of fruits and vegetables in order to get 2,000 calories worth of food. This is mainly because fruits and vegetables are low in calorie and high in water content. So while you might “feel” full, you are just bloated due to the water content. For example, you might eat an entire watermelon for breakfast, 5-7 bananas for lunch with two young coconuts, and an entire head of lettuce or spinach or kale with toppings and a raw dressing for dinner. [In order to keep with the 80/10/10.] You don’t want to eat a ton of fruit at dinner as it sits in your stomach longer than vegetables (this is the same if you eat meat… which takes longer to digest and therefore, you should not eat at night—even though most people do). [A good app/website to use for keeping track of all your calorie and nutrient intake is cronometer (cronometer.com).]

Now I know this seems like an expensive lifestyle. But I can assure you that if you know where to get your produce, it’s not. A good place to start is to buy from a local co-op like Rawfully Organic in Houston. It costs a million times cheaper than in the grocery store. Also, you want to buy in bulk. A lot of times stores will give you discounts if you are buying in bulk. But that’s just my two cents!

I’ll catch you guys later with some more interesting posts!

Savannah

An 'F' on my First Apologetics Test

FOREWORD: Yes, I am a Christian. I do believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I believe that He was crucified, buried, and on the seventh day he rose again. No, I’m not going to try to preach or attempt to make anyone a Christian or believe what I do and nor do I have any devious plan to. But I would really appreciate it if you were open-minded to what I have to say. It is not my intent to offend anyone in any way, shape, or form so if you are going to find this blog post offensive I’d highly suggest you not read it. This is strictly my thoughts and opinions on an event that took place during lunch on a cloudy Wednesday, October 16^th.

Without further a-do, here’s the post…

It is pointless to debate with someone who is not a Christian. You can preach all day at him until you are blue in the face but he will not understand—even if you make a perfect point. I’d compare debating a non-believer to trying to make a blind man, who’d never seen the light of day before in his life, understand the color blue. You could say that the color blue is the color of the sky or the ocean. While the explanation makes perfect sense to someone who can see, the blind man still has no perception of the color blue. The unbeliever is like the blind man—blinded by sin.

This happened earlier today as three of my friends and I engaged in a heavy debate with Ivey’s friend from Japanese class—a hardcore atheist with an interest in theology who had studied various religious texts such as the Koran and the Bible—who we had met just minutes before. (Not exactly a great start to a budding friendship.) Each question went around and around in a figure eight—the atheist standing her ground, us standing ours.

One of the things Ivey’s friend accused us of was not being ‘strict Christians’ purely because we weren’t following the Old Testament (sacrificing animals and not wearing jewelry or not getting tattoos) to the ‘t’. She brought up the verse in Matthew 5:18: 'For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.'

We countered that not only was that the custom for the time period, but Jesus dying on the cross paid for our sins so that we don’t have to do all those rituals anymore.

'Excuse me, I couldn’t help but over hear your conversation,' said a nice young man sitting at the table next to ours. 'I believe that the verse in Matthew 5:18 is referring to the Beatitudes.'

'Oh! That’s right! But…' the atheist continued to argue her point with a smirk. If it made her that happy to think that she was right, then by all means…

'May I ask you what you think of three things?' the man injected once more.

'Sure,'

'I used to be a drug addict. I used to smoke and did a bunch of pot. It got to the point that I wanted to quit. But every time I tried I would give up and tell myself I couldn’t do it and I was worthless. It was like a continuous climax ending in ‘crap’ over and over.

'And one day, while I was fixing my car—a few days before I had hit a deer—I sliced my finger on a piece of plastic. When I say I cut it, I mean, a stream of blood was coming from my finger. And so I rushed inside, and as I was cleaning myself up my phone started ringing. Of course, I was in no state to answer the phone, but it was this woman whose child I used to read to. I hadn’t talked to her in years.

'So I answer this phone call and the woman goes on to say she’d been praying for me lately. She said God showed her a vision of me climbing up a mountain. And just before I would get to the top, I would find myself sliding back down on the rocks.

'It was at that moment that I just started bawling my eyes out.' He continued. 'So the second thing that I wanted to say was that I was on a mission trip to Africa and Papua New Guinea. I had sold my car to go on this trip. And after we had been in Africa, I was trying to earn some money to pay for the Papua New Guinea part of the trip. It came down to the last twenty-four hours before the money was due and my friend ended up double paying for the trip because he ended up getting a scholarship for the trip. Well, part of his money went to my trip. However, I was still short of about five hundred dollars up until three hours before the money was due when an anonymous donor donated the money—you know the whole you give and receive thing.

'I just wanted to hear what you had to say about those scenarios. Do you think that that was God’s work?' He finished.

'Well, I think that it was nothing more than coincidence,' she replied.

The whole conversation reminded me of my apologetics Bible class my senior year of high school (I went to private Christian school from pre-K through 12th grade.) The theme verse of the class was 1 Peter 3:14, 'But in your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.' As Christians we are called to be ready to give a reason for the hope that is our hearts. We need to be readily available to those who are earnestly seeking the Lord and who are looking for salvation.

The atheist presented herself as a skeptic - someone who refused to believe and could not be convinced of the truth. God doesn't call us to persuade the hearts and minds of those that are choosing not to believe. If it's in God's plan for her to be saved, then she will be saved. He will open her mind, and it's not up to us to try to save her. She is nothing more than a 'dead' corpse, and it's going to take a miracle to revive her.

I’m really sorry for the terribly long post, but I just had to get my thoughts out on paper. And instead of just writing them in a journal (diary, whatever you want to call it), I thought this needed to be shared. That being said, I am open to hear what your thoughts! Please feel free to leave any and all opinions in the comment section down below.

Savannah

Here is some suggested reading if you would like to look more into Christian theology:

-The Bible (NIV)

-New Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell

-Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

-The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
-The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis