Home remedies for a fit and healthy life....
federica
Seeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
Currently:
I drink up towards 1.5 litres of apple cider vinegar water, per day.
I'm following the 5:2 regime
I use coconut oil exclusively as a cleanser/moisturiser, and people are noticing the difference!
I am making my own calcium supplement from eggshells....
The emphasis is on spring water, pure organic eggshells and all that uber-natural good stuff.... But as it has been shown that eggs from ANY type of chicken are equally nutritious and all this organic malarkey is pointless, when it comes to eggs, and that, furthermore, any water you boil for 10 minutes will be 'purified' anyway, I'm using whatever eggshells I have, and clean tap water....
What are YOU doing, using exclusively 'home-made' remedies to boost your health?
And can you see, or notice a difference?
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Yay! Great thread.
I try and go for a walk daily, I take my two woofs for about an hour. Try and get into nature and sunlight. These promote amazing feelings of well being and if the dogs are well behaved it's awesome meditation.
I try and eat the majority of my food as meat, vegetables some fruit and nuts, little starch and less sugar as possible.
I aim to exercise 4 - 5 times a week doing resistance training and circuit style. This helps mental well being, deactivates flight or fight and makes furniture removals easy(ier)
You guys are really going to laugh at this if you've read my other thread. But I'm trying to up the anti with sitting meditation. Twice daily. Minimum of 30 minutes. Need it get in touch with the body and concentrate the mind.
Drink less alcohol on weekends
Metta
A colleague, on discovering I am past 58, asked me if I had botox.
Absolutely, most emphatically not.
I have a phobia of needles - imagine if I would even let anyone near my face with one of the most toxic substances known to man, in a syringe, simply to iron out a few wrinkles!
No. Since I have stopped using any chemical cleansers or pharmaceutical soaps, wipes or so called beauty treatments, and have resorted to using pure organic Coconut oil for all measures, my skin tone, elasticity and health has improved no end....
Thanks @federica for opening this thread. I am really into this sort of things.
I also use coconut oil as face cleanser and hair mask. Coconut oil gets rid of all makeup or face sunscreen like nobody else's business. I used to wash hair when I shower, now I move the hair washing routine to morning, just to shorten my time in hot shower. And I try to wash hair with cold water (may be a little warm), it helps with ashy looking tired black hair.
I have got a few skin conditions (eczema, spots), if I dont take care of my skin and diet properly. Nuts, prawns and cow milk are trouble makers for me. I easily get allergy too from the products. So I pay good attention to the ingredients list in the products and I don't try to change the skincare products a lot. My system seems to agree with products from Holland and barretts. Their floride free toothpaste, natural salt of the earth deodorant and dr organic lotions & shampoos are also nice, especially vitamin e range and the vitamin e oil. I read that chemicals like parabens, SLS and too much alcohols in skin products are not good. The higher they are on the ingredient list, the more of them in the product. But there are good ones like AHA and BHA (alpha and beta hydroxy acids) exfoliants. I use them regularly as toner as well. It helps getting rid of dead skin cells from the epidermis layer. So any topical skincare products you use penetrate deeper into skin.
I also use Retinol (vitamin A), which helps with renewing the skin at the deeper level (dermis, I think). So, AHA and retinol work at different layer of skin. But using these, sunscreen is a must, because newer skin is exposed. It is also very important to start really gentle with retinol, like once a week to get your skin used to it. There are a few blogs and sites I read for those sort of things.
http://www.carolinehirons.com/
http://www.paulaschoice.com/beautypedia
I get occasional insomnia, which is getting better these days because of meditation. For that I have been drinking turmeric milk. It seems to help with iron overload also. I used to drink whole lemon warm water in the morning. it probably too much vitamin c, that it gave me dark lips and turmeric milk seems to help with that. Green juices are also nice. I made it every morning with kale, spinach, celery, green apple and green grapes. it is easy to get five a day vegetable portion that way.
Another thing I really like to drink is tamarind which is good for digestion. It is very tangly fruity drink anyway. I leave 4/5 tamarind in a really hot water for a few hours. All gets soften and I smash and just drink it as thick juice. It is better to buy to buy tamarind in its natural state, not as paste or ready made form. Probably more hygienic. Lovely vegetable shop near my house sell this brand of tamarinds. It looks like this
Sour cherries have probably the highest anti-inflammatory content of foods. I planted a sour cherry "tree" into my little garden this summer and the first harvest will be huge: 10 cherries
. But I'm afraid birds will be quicker than me. (Me loves garlic too).
Yeah, use coconut oil on my scalp and hair once a month (my hair is fine so I don't need to use it that often) and it makes my hair look so shiny and eases the scalp condition - used to be really bad, now it's much improved. I'll have to look for that tamarind because it's very popular around here - have only seen the different types of candies and snacks with it in/on. I use those baking powder boxes designed for the fridge under the seats of my car to keep it smelling clean and fresh.
Now and again, I eat good chocolate ... 70% cocoa. I have no idea if this is healthy or not.
Were I inclined to examine the rest of my daily regimen, I suspect I would find I am eating and dosing myself in ways that allow doctors and big pharma to live pristine and well-heeled lives.
I call it the Altruism Through Idiocy Discipline.
PS. The other day, I read that a university study had figured out a way to make seaweed taste like bacon, which sounds sensible and healthy. But at $90 per pound, I believe I'll stick to an occasional slice of bacon.
Mostly I work at how best to be at ease in accepting the natural aging of my body mind, when so much of humanities sufferings is about our inability to do just that.
But...
Getting enough sleep..
Don't expect your mental inertia to just switch off because you've decided it's time for sleep..The peacefulness of your mind during the day will largely determine the peacefulness of your sleep at night.
Nutrients....
Vary your food sources taking into account how much more depleted our soils are today than how they were a 100 years ago.
Food quantity...
2/3rd of your stomach feeds you/ the final 1/3 feeds your docter.
Not being sedentary when you have a choice...
Many of our normal bodily functions work at a reduced efficiency when the body is not moving around enough.
Practice stress observation....
Monitor the tenseness of your muscles throughout the day to question why we are allowing the mind's fears to become un necessary toxic stress reservoirs in the body.
Vegetarian triathlete.
Except I eat meat when socially reasonable,, and I don't enter many competitions; I'm content to swim, bike, and run recreationally.
Lately I've gotten a recumbent tricycle, a Windcheetah (British) and that's been a lot of fun.
I try to use my bike as often I can, connects me with mother nature, in the morning its nice to ride the bike, not that many cars on the road, its quiet and still.
People buy expensive cars just to drive 5 minutes to the grossary store, totaly unessary
Food, I love to cook since my wife dont know how to do it, It could be intersting to test a vegetarian diet..but not right now :P
I also walk a alot everyday, but for me, it is not by choice, as I don't have the driving license yet.
Working on it also. But walking does help. My phones got health and fitness app, which records the number of steps. I got like 10k steps mon-fri.
@mmo Thats good, Walking meditation all day long
Good luck with your driving license, are you a good driver? I hate to drive, buy a bike instead, you dont need a license either 
@Namada, i got a small bike i bought long time back. it is just sitting behind my bed.
I am a bit rusty with using that. And the area I go to have a lot of big lorries and high speed motor ways leaving at the roundabouts also. That is why I am a bit putting off before. I will definitely try to give a ago with bike.
Yea. I do some awareness exercise during the walking part of my journey. It helps with meditation and losing weight.
My wife has taken up the hobby of brewing kombucha. She's made a few different recipes, some with fresh blueberries, some using frozen mango, some with fruit teas. It's actually quite good - most have quite a bit of effervescence, similar to a beer. Oh, and it can be about 2-3% alcohol too! So you can get a nice buzz as well as the numerous reported health benefits.
It can be quite a mess if it gets too bubbly though....
I've been drinking it for about 2 months now and I have to say that I do feel better overall since drinking it. It's hard to specifically point things out, but I can tell my energy level is better, and I think my (minimal) dandruff has diminished as well. I did have some pseudo-gout issues at one point which more or less cleared up before I drank kombucha, but they haven't come back yet.
We joke about the vast supposed benefits of kombucha - if anything positive happens in our lives, health-wise or not, we just go "It's the kombucha!"
Also, being frugal and not buying very much junk food helps - when I lived with my parents, they would always have biscuits or chips around, and I'd always graze. Now, I only really have food for meals, save for the snacks left over from having friends over.
Adding exercise to your daily habits is good - I've been commuting semi-regularly by bike for quite a few years now, and it makes my mood improve a lot, even if my actual weight doesn't change too much.
Nuffink like a nice portion of fish and chips...
Are couch potatoes healthy for you ?
@Shoshin
Some claim that they aren't too bad with some fava beans and a little Chianti.
Please excuse me but I simply cannot resist tucking in this rhapsodic paragraph from a BBC article about the wonders of the English breakfast:
And here I thought all English food was consigned to a single vat over a crackling fire ... and left to cook for a hundred years or so.
Yo momma's stew!!
Britain "the fat man of europe"
They are nr 1 and Irland on the second place, partly because of the breakfast hehe or drinking?
but I think its a huge problem in most western countries,
just look at picture from the 70s, everyone were slim and were in good shape.
"The car, TV, computers, desk jobs, high-calorie food, and clever food marketing have all contributed to encourage inactivity and overeating".
http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/loseweight/pages/statistics-and-causes-of-the-obesity-epidemic-in-the-uk.aspx
Homemade kimchi. The real kind, fermented for weeks, etc.:)
Oooooh yeah! Am I an absolute mega-fan of home-made kimchi!!
Great thread!
I have noticed that organic coconut oil is fantastic for skin and hair health.
Turmeric in my daily smoothie.
Tepid water feels 'lighter' and therefore I'm able to drink more than ice water.
Sea salt for energy cleansing (even if it's a little much for some).
Getting up before 8am seems to help me feel more energized.
@seeker242 Just wondering, do you put it in a pot and bury it? I've never tried making kimchi. I tried my hand at home-canning for the first time last year when a neighbour gave me a bunch of tomatoes. Did some sauce and a tomato/apple chutney. The chutney was my first attempt and turned out a little runny. Then I got ambitious and made some brown pickle, very close to Branston according to Mrs. Walker.
Sounds like a plan.
The formal ways are yoga nidra (loads of examples on youtube) and chi-kung standing ...
http://developyourenergy.net/zhang-zhuang-chi-kung/wu-chi-the-first-position/
as for the 'full english'
... here is 'mock fried bread':
toast the bread and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil
Yum! How about Chinese Sunday breakfast ... Dim sum ... Yum ...
I already feel better just thinking about food ...
Mind Nutrition
@seeker242 & @federica
For vegetarian version, do you use Kelp powder when making kimchi? A few google search said I can also use fish sauce and dry shrimps for non-veggie kimchi. Not sure.
No, it's too hot around here to do that.
But I've read that is the traditional way to do it, but that's normally done at the beginning of winter to keep the proper temperatures. Different temperatures make a different taste.
No kelp powder and I substitute red miso paste for the fish sauce.
Also, does it have to be korean chilli powder?
Never used anything else but I've read it's important to use authentic "gochugaru". But other people said they have used normal american chili powder and it was fine.
I have made my own miso paste. It is fermenting as I speak, and will be ready in October....
Two other beauty oils worth investigating are olive and sesame.
I would like to mention again the use of spices and herbs in cooking.
Top herbs/spices include:
cinnamon (another surprising one) useful as a sweetener but also has health uses
http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/10-health-benefits-of-cinnamon.html
parsley, very popular with the french but for me rather mild flavoured, but so cleansing, grows in the shade, which is cool ...
... time to cook ... maybe porridge with prunes, cinnamon, dessicated coconut and lemon ... mmm ... could be plan ...
Then time to heal the mind ... eh body. Both!
http://corespirit.co.uk/the-minds-role-in-healing-2
-Go to bed and wake up early
-Drink tea and water
-Eat a lot of fruit
-Physicall exercise (play football -soccer-, running, yoga or go to the gym) twice a day
I eat garlic on a monstrous scale.
one of my coworker tried my lunch box and said I can wake a dead with that. 
Some time ago, I bought some epsom salts to use in bathing. Epsom salts are said to be enriched with magnesium which is a mineral to help you relaxed. I havent tried it (partly becuase I am lazy and not used to bathing in bath tub), but I will do that and report back.
What a great topic!
I'm learning to incorporate more coconut oil in cooking. I love it on my skin. Last winter I used coconut oil on one leg and regular skin lotion on the other leg, just to compare. The skin on the coconut oil side was amazingly smoother.
I wonder how to use it in my hair...Any advice? I have fine hair that needs a bit more shine.
It depends on how long your hair is...
My hair is very short, so I just needed a level teaspoonful. Rubbed it between my palms to melt it, and then rubbed it into my hair. I wrapped it in a plastic carrier shopping bag, then a towel, and left it for an hour while I did the washing up, made some lacto-fermented lettuce, and then I washed it thoroughly with a gentle shampoo.
I DID have to wash it 3 times, until the hair was 'squeaky' but when my hair dried, there was a definite gloss to the hair.
Washing and rinsing thoroughly to remove all the oil, is important though.
Thank you I will do this!
Pardon my naivety, but what is a 5:2 regime? 5 days exercise? 2 days rest?
It's this....
Thanks for sharing!
No problem. I have said before and I will say again: It's important folks investigate this for themselves. All I know is that, adhering to the regime (I refuse to call it a 'diet') it has worked very well for me.
It's an adaptable and versatile way to approach food....
Water?! Nuffink like a nice cup of Rosy Lee but don't drarn it wiv loads of water.
Going hiking next weekend. Haven't been hiking in a few years, since my son finished Boy Scouts.