Lifestyle

Araza Certified Paleo Makeup Review

Have you heard of Araza Natural Beauty? They’re the only certified paleo makeup brand. Non-toxic skincare is an important component in autoimmune health, and makeup often contains some of the most toxic ingredients. Our skin actually absorbs what we put on it, so this matters. Unfortunately, truly natural makeup often has a reputation for not working well. So, I asked my friend Christina to put this makeup to the test. As a former makeup artist, her standards are high! Read her expert review and enter the giveaway to get a chance to sample it yourself.

What Is Paleo Skincare?

We are so careful what we put on our babies’ skin. We intuitively know they are precious and pure, and we don’t want to risk exposing them to any harm. Why does that care disappear as we get older? The truth is that our skin is porous at every age, and what we put on our skin absorbs into our bloodstream. We need to read the labels of our skincare products, the same way we read the labels on food. In this blog post, I talk about the current lack of regulation in the cosmetics industry and share where we can find truthful information on what our personal care products contain. I also share the top 10 ingredients to avoid, and the 3 paleo skincare companies I love.

Episode 69: Healthy Deviance with Pilar Gerasimo

In the modern world, the cards are stacked against us. From grocery stores filled with foods that aren’t real food, to being bombarded by environmental pollutants, to a culture that takes pride in being busier than ever and wears sleep deprivation like a gold star. When we take steps to recover and enhance our health, we are going against this tide, stepping outside the norm, and it’s not easy! We’re doing it in a world that encourages unhealthy life choices, and sometimes even our closest friends and family try to sabotage our efforts. My guest, Pilar Gerasimo, is a healthcare journalist who has been writing about healthy deviance for decades. In this episode, we talk about the many obstacles we face and strategies for being successful revolutionaries for our own health.

Episode 56: Healthy Detoxification with Torea Rodriguez

Our bodies have natural detox pathways, but they are overwhelmed by modern life. More than 80,000 new chemicals have been released into the world since the industrial revolution 150 years ago, and most of them within the past 50 years. These chemicals have never been fully tested for their effects on our bodies or the environment. We are asking our bodies to detoxify far more than they were designed to handle, and this is an important element in reclaiming our health. That said, there are a lot of scams out there related to detox cleanses, powders and programs. Many people who try these end up feeling worse. So, in this podcast we’re going to learn how to detoxify in a healthy, sustainable way. My guest is Toréa Rodriguez. She is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and a Transformational Life Coach. She’s also a fellow autoimmune warrior.

Episode 51: Marriage and Autoimmune Disease

Autoimmune disease doesn’t exist in a bubble. Its onset changes our own lives dramatically, but it also impacts our relationships. In this episode, I interview three spouses of people with autoimmune disease, including my own husband Tom, Terry Wahls’ wife Jackie, and Matthew Sinclair’s wife Petra. We talk about what it’s like to be married to someone with chronic illness, how they try to support the person they love, and how they also make sure they don’t get lost in the equation.

Is Massage Therapy Beneficial for People with Autoimmune Disease?

One thing you may not know about me is that I worked as a therapeutic bodyworker for 15 years. In this article, I share the research into massage for autoimmune disease, describe a wide variety of techniques to choose from, share my best advice for finding a skilled practitioner, and also how to make sure your session helps rather than harms your health.

Go To Bed Sleep Challenge E-book Review

How much sleep are you getting each night? Is it less than 7? Does it fluctuate? Is it hard for you to fall asleep? Do you need caffeine to get going in the morning? Are you still having autoimmune flares even though your diet is perfect? Sleep my be your missing link. It’s intimately connected to autoimmune health, and today I’m reviewing an e-book that delves into this science. It’s called “Go To Bed” by Sarah Ballantyne (aka The Paleo Mom). It includes a 14-Day Challenge to get your sleep on track for health, and I’m giving away a copy to one lucky winner!

Episode 40: The Primal Connection with Mark Sisson

When I first went paleo, Mark’s Daily Apple was one of the first blogs I found. I loved how he presented detailed information in easy-to-understand small bites. I also loved his holistic approach. Yes, food matters, but it’s about so much more than just food. Three years later, it was a thrill to interview him on my podcast. In this episode, we talk about the many ways our lives have changed from the lives of our ancestors. We can’t go back in time, but we can learn from our past. Highlights of our conversation include: Why Being Selfish Is Necessary, The 10 Habits of Highly Successful Hunter Gatherers, Reconnecting With a Body That Has Autoimmune Disease, and more.

Episode 31: Healthy Habits – Gretchen Rubin Book Club

Are you a Rebel? Questioner? Obliger? Or Upholder? Knowing your “Habit Personality” makes a huge difference in achieving lasting change. The stakes are high for us. We have autoimmune disease which often comes with painful and disabling symptoms. Making healthy choices regarding diet and lifestyle can make a huge difference in our quality of life. Yet even knowing this, change is hard! In her books, Better Than Before and The Four Tendencies, Gretchen Rubin writes about 4 different “habit personalities”. In this podcast, we’ll help you figure out which one your are, and share which strategies work for each personality & which don’t!

Episode 16: Young, Single and AIP

This episode of the Phoenix Helix podcast is about living the autoimmune paleo life when you’re young and single. It’s never easy to have autoimmune disease, but when you’re trying to date, deal with roommates, handle flares on your own, and find a way to focus on healing while all your friends are drinking, it can be even harder. My three guests were all diagnosed with their autoimmune disease at a young age, and they chose the impressive path of healing through diet and lifestyle. Today, we’ll be talking about the blessings and challenges of that choice.

Episode 12: Circadian Rhythms & The Perfect Health Diet with Dr. Paul Jaminet

This episode of the Phoenix Helix podcast covers Circadian Rhythms: our internal body clock that does so much more than keep time. Balanced rhythms promote autoimmune healing, whereas wonky rhythms are a huge obstacle, throwing off our sleep, hormones, and so much more. I’m joined by Dr. Paul Jaminet, author of The Perfect Health Diet, to teach us how to harness these rhythms for optimal health. We also talk about his dietary protocol in detail, why he recommends eating white rice, and how infections relate to autoimmunity. It’s a great interview!

Can Skipping Sleep Cause an Autoimmune Flare?

How many of us try to squeeze extra time out of the day, by staying up late or getting up early? We sacrifice sleep, because in our modern culture, we don’t value it. We consider it unproductive time, but we’re wrong. When it comes to reversing autoimmune disease, sleep is as important to our health as diet, and it might be the key (or the obstacle) to remission. Research also shows that we can’t “catch up” on sleep over the weekend. It feels like we can, because we’re less tired after a couple of good nights’ sleep, but on a cellular level we haven’t recovered. In today’s post, I share the research along with tips for how to sleep well and long.

5 Ways to Reverse Autoimmunity That Have Nothing To Do With Food

When we follow the Paleo Autoimmune Protocol, food is foremost in our mind. We avoid the foods that exacerbate autoimmune disease and eat the foods that help us heal. The right food is essential, but healing is about more than just food. Lifestyle affects autoimmunity just as strongly. Here are 5 ways to tap your body’s full healing potential.

How to Survive an Autoimmune Flare

Today, I share 20 tips to make it through your toughest days.

How to Keep a Symptom Journal…and Other Journals, Too!

It’s a fact of human nature that we tend to notice what’s wrong, more than we notice what’s right. This blog post is about the power of writing things down, and how that can affect our awareness, our choices, and our mindset. I share tips for keeping 3 kinds of journals: a symptom journal, a gratitude journal, and a let-it-out journal.