Oil Pulling is wierd

Have you heard about it?

Oil Pulling.

It's weird.

So here's the deal:

1) Get some coconut oil (or apparently sesame oil works too)

2) Get that s*it it in your mouth

3) Swish-it, swish-it gooood... 20 minutes

4) Spit it out into the garbage (not down your drains cause it's going to solidify once its out of the warm inviting crevice of your oral cavity.

So the many sites in a quick search say, the oil 'absorbs' any 'bad' bacteria in your mouth, and traps it, them you spit it out. How the oil magically traps the bad bacteria without taking the good, I don't know? Also, the oil (thank goodness for this one) pulls toxins out of your body through you mouth.

I'm calling BULLSHIT!

The oils is about as likely to pull toxins out of my body through my mouth as at ionized water is going to pull it out of my body through my feet.

Apparent benefits

A shit load. The kind of number of benefits where someone might say, 

"Gosh, that sounds too good to be true!"

And maybe they are right! Google this b*tch, there's a lot. Here are the ones I might actually believe:

Whitens teeth

Strengthens gums, teeth and jaw

Prevents cavities and gingivitis

Prevents dry lips, mouth and throat

Here are the more dubious ones:

Hangover relief (I wish!)

Migraine relief

Corrects hormone imbalance

Reduces eczema and pain... and insomnia... and gastro-enteritis... and symptoms of bronchitis... and allergies... and sinus congestion... and, and, and....

You get the idea, it's like this thing could cure every ailment you could possibly have, and some your didn't even know you had!

Possible bad-ish things that could happen

You get oil down your sink, because you're totally out of it in the morning and forget that's a bad idea.

You waste 20 minutes of your life

You get bored in the 20 minutes and plan world domination, probably unsuccessfully

You swallow nasty, 'bacteria filled' oil

You look like an idiot with oil leaking out of your mouth

Your grocery costs go way up because you are literally spitting out a lot of coconut oil

People think you're crazy

You are committed to a mental health institution

There's not coconut oil available there

So why am I bringing this to your attention?

Well I'm going to try it. It probably won't kill me, it won't exactly ruin my life (hopefully), and we have a lot of coconut oil hanging around from out cleanse in January, and this is as good a use for it as any.

Results pending...

     designing a life more greasy?

          Anna Felicity

New Years resolutions and insincerities

**Full recipe at bottom of post, please feel free to skip my jibber-jabber**

Well with January first this came the expected resolutions (quit drinking), the obvious ones I’m not going to keep (quit drinking), and the ones I’m going to give my best efforts to keep (run a 5km race in March).

My lovely sister (in-law) suggested we do a cleansing detox the first week of January. I am VERY hesitant to even use the word detox, or cleanse, cause not only are they often dangerous, or strait up wrong, they can also be confusing to do and carry with them the stigma of “Oh, you’re on a cleanse, what do you think you’re better than me?” (or maybe that how I’ve always looked at people who do them…)

Today is the first day of week two, and oh dear GOD I want a chocolate bar so fuckin’ bad! Strangely enough though, celery is starting to taste sweet to me (WTF?).

The basic idea is:

            Sugar free (including fruits)

            Gluten-free 

(easy now, considering that particular dietary need has found its place to limelight)

            & Dairy free (I miss butter.)

The first week we graded down towards the Full Monty, so to speak, with limited dairy, natural sugars (no refined sugar, not a bad thing after the holidays) and no bread products. Not that bad… we were still allowed coffee (with unsweetened non-dairy milk, Hello Almond Milk!)

Ooooh wait though!! Hold up… this week:

            No Sugar (of any kind, no refined sugar, no fake sugar, no FRUIT?!)

No coffee (black or otherwise, FML)

No legumes (good-bye sweet, delicious beans)

That’s a lot of NO

This week will be an adventure of and in itself (note: I am writing this powered solely on omelette muffins (no cheese, it’s a crime) and green tea… pfft!)

Last week though Manfriend created a delicious granola recipe, totally gluten free and totally fucking delicious! (and not just because we were jonesing for ‘real food’)

Delicious Nut Granola

            Gluten Free

            Dairy Free

            Freaking Awesome

Time: 35 Minutes

Tools: Food Processor, rimmed baking sheet, microwaveable bowl, 

Ingredients:

o   ½ cup each of:

·         Almonds

·         Hazelnuts

·         Brazil nuts

·         Walnuts

·         Pumpkin seeds

·         Almond Meal

·         Coconut Flakes (unsweetened, if you’re cutting down on your sugar)

o   ¼ cup of honey (OR ⅛ cup of honey, ⅛ cup of Maple syrup)

o   1 Tbsp. of Vanilla extract

Directions:

1.    In a food processor, chop all the nuts and pumpkin seeds into pea-sized pieces or smaller.

2.    In a large microwavable bowl combine nuts, coconut flakes, honey and vanilla extract.

3.    Microwave about a minute, to make heat honey.

4.    Mix all ingredients until honey is evenly distributed.

5.    Spread evenly onto a rimmed baking sheet.

6.    Bake at 350ºF for 20 minutes, or until light golden brown, stirring occasionally.

Omelette Muffins and Homemade Ketchup

And that’s it! It’s awesome, unfortunately we can’t have it this week, because of the honey, but after this intense thing, I am ALL over it!!

Hope you try it out and enjoy, it’s worth the 35 minutes of your life.

Stay tuned for my post about homemade condiments. 

designing a healthy life

Anna Felicity