Mother's Day Weekend Wrap-Up, Motivation, Lemon Caprese Pasta Salad and Spaghetti with Meat Sauce Recipes

Hope all you moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!  I had the best one yet (out of all four I've celebrated so far).  It was my first one as a mom of two, and my first one as a complete family.  I kicked it off with a trip to Paducah, KY, to run the Iron Mom 1/2 Marathon Relay with a group of awesome gals, and it was a blast!  It was great to get away for an overnight trip too (and Justin did just fine with the boys on his own!).

On Sunday the four of us went out for sushi for lunch (well, Harlee and Elliot didn't have any but Justin and I indulged - we love sushi!), did a little shopping, and got frozen custard later.  Yum!  I'm pretty sure I added back all the calories and then some that I burned off on the run... but oh well.

Now I'm back to the grind.  I did a crossfit workout this morning, then I came across an awesome post by Felicia Newell, a nutrition coach I follow on Instagram and Facebook.  I wanted to share her post with you and reflect on it a bit, both for my own benefit and maybe yours, if it resonates with you.  Here's the link to her post, but I'll copy and paste it in case that link doesn't work.

One of the very first (and most difficult) steps to making a lifestyle change is finding the motivation.

Do you, like many others, struggle with self motivation? Having a hard time getting yourself to your regularly scheduled workouts? Finding more and more reasons to cheat on your healthy diet?

Guess what? You're not alone! We all struggle with motivation sometimes, but I have some tips that can help you self-motivate and reach your goals.

A healthy dose of motivation coupled with determination will get you almost anything in life. So how do you know if you’re genuinely motivated?

- Motivation will tell you to get to your workout no matter what.
- Motivation will nag you to put down the doughnut.
- Motivation makes passing on fries a reflex.
- Motivation makes a sweat drenched workout exciting.
- Motivation constantly reminds you why you do what you do.

Self-Motivating Tip #1: Find Your Motivator.

Motivation stems from having a goal. What is your goal? Why do you want to get into great shape and/or make a lifestyle change?

Once you uncover your personal motivator you’ll find that motivation flows quickly your way.

Take a minute to really uncover the reason that you want to lose the weight. Don’t say something vague like you want to 'Be thinner' or 'Look more attractive.' Dig deeper – there is a very specific motivator in your life, you simply need to uncover it.

Here are some possible motivators…
- I want to have more energy to keep up with the kids.
- I want to improve my health through weight loss to extend and improve my life.
- I want to lose 15 pounds before my vacation.
- I want to restore my confidence to wear sleeveless shirts.
- I want to regain my figure to impress and attract my significant other.

Self-Motivating Tip #2: Make It Official.

When you write something down it suddenly feels official, doesn’t it? Write down your motivator for getting into great shape, and post it where you will see it often—next to your alarm clock, on the bathroom mirror, or in your car.

Each time you see your written motivator take a moment to visualize yourself accomplishing your goal. Try to make the scene as clear in your mind as possible. This is a powerful tool for maintaining your focus and direction.

Self-Motivating Tip #3: Be Practical.

It’s game plan time. You know what you want, and now you need to map out exactly how you’ll achieve it. It is important to be practical in your planning, rather than throwing out ideas that you know you won’t stick with.

With any weight loss goal it is important to 1) maintain a healthy low-calorie diet, and 2) participate in a consistent and challenging exercise program.

Plan a routine that will fit into your schedule and you’ll be more likely to stick with it. Also choose an exercise program that you enjoy—don’t force yourself to jog everyday if you hate jogging.

Self-Motivating Tip #4: Call For Backup.

Enlist the support of your friends, family and co-workers. Tell everyone about your goal to lose weight and get fit, you’ll be surprised how supportive most people will be. By being open about your goals you’ll likely be an encouragement to others to make healthy changes in their own lives.

I really liked that post, and it got me thinking about my own motivation.  I struggle with motivation to work out on my own, to go for a run on my spare time, and to eat healthy as often as possible.  Swimsuit season is fast approaching and I've just felt kinda "eh" about it.  And I know I won't feel that way when it's time to actually go swimming, so to do something about that I need to start NOW.  Apparently I need to dig deeper than the swimsuit though.  What is my motivator?

Feeling good is a motivator.  I came to a realization in the last couple days - when I eat foods that contain a lot of gluten, I have allergy attacks out of this world.  I feel like I have glass in my eyes, my nose is constantly running, sneezing, the works.  If I watch what I eat, I can tolerate the great outdoors without much trouble.  And I've been finding that it's not worth the great taste of food with gluten in it to put up with allergy attacks like that.  Added to that, I feel better all over when I eat right.  I have more energy, I have more mental clarity, I have more balance when I eat right.  Motivation.  And that's my step #2 mentioned above - writing it down.

What is your motivation?  I don't often get comments on this blog.  Feel free to comment your motivation!  Let's work together and fulfill #4!

So how about a couple recipes?

Remember that vegetable spiralizer I mentioned in my last post?  Yeah, that thing has been getting a workout!  I made classic spaghetti (though I just took a shortcut and made meat sauce instead of meatballs) and it was like the real deal.  Honestly, now that I have this spiralizer, I doubt I'll ever mess with a spaghetti squash again.  These zucchini noodles are way closer to the real thing.  They're awesome.

Sorry about the bad lighting...

Yellow zucchini squashes turn out even closer to the look of real pasta!

Basic Spaghetti Meat Sauce

1/2 lb ground beef (or venison in our case)
~ 30oz tomato sauce
1 6oz can tomato paste
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp basil
1/2 tbsp oregano
1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown the beef in a skillet and drain off the grease.  Meanwhile, combine all remaining ingredients and cook over medium heat.  Add the beef and mix until well incorporated.

I added about two zucchinis worth of noodles to this recipe and cooked it all together until the noodles were soft enough to my liking.

And it was delicious.

So this morning I was feeling inspired and decided to pluck some of my basil growing outside and use up the last of my zucchini  noodles with some of cherry tomatoes we had in the fridge.  Allow me to share my recipe!

Lemon Caprese Pasta Salad

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 clove of garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese cut into 1/2" pieces
2 zucchinis, peeled and cut into noodles

Whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper together (I used a glass measuring cup).  Add the basil, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese and stir until combined.  Let sit while cooking the zucchini noodles over medium heat in a dry skillet, about 3-5 minutes.  Don't overcook or the noodles will become mushy!  Once they get a bit of a transparent look to them take them off the heat immediately.  Let cool, drain off the water, and add in your lemon caprese mixture.  Toss until well combined and enjoy!

Cooking the noodles a bit

Lemon caprese mixture

Tossed together

Serve!  Yummy!

A Day in the Life of Jami: My Medicine Collection

So I was all excited about this new series... And now it's almost been a month and I haven't written another post in it.  That's what I get for being busy I guess.  I should try to schedule blogging into my day.  It can't be that hard, can it? I mean, I schedule my clients at certain times on certain days of the week, I schedule appointments for the family on my days off, I schedule working out every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday (and add in work-outs as the opportunities arise). That's just how things get done, it's scheduled in.  Aaaaand that's why my laundry piles up... Because I don't schedule it in... But we won't go there.

Justin got sick a couple days ago.  Pretty sure my mom shared it, because she had the same symptoms.  Nothing major like the virus we all got hit with awhile back, but still no fun.  He was tired and achy and whatever this was attacked the digestive system.  So that was no fun.  I got him taking homeopathic FluGuard, which I had never tried before so he was kinda my guinea pig with that one, he was taking shots of oregano (see his strep throat adventure to learn more about that), and I upped his olive leaf extract, vitamin c, and echinacea/goldenseal (good for the immune system - I should probably write a post about those). He also had a low sugar intake, as I've been trying my best to be more strict with Paleo cooking at home, and I know that helped.  Sugar weakens the immune system - it heightens your body's inflammatory response so it more or less steals all the attention from your immune system, which isn't good when you've got a bug or virus needing attention first.  I believe he recovered quicker than my mom did, and I'm fairly certain diet played a big role in that... But I pester my mom enough about needing to form clean eating habits so I won't drag it out here ;-).

In the meantime, I was diffusing Thieves oil all over the house, rubbing it on our feet each night, plus I made a cleaner in a spray bottle - I put half witch hazel and half hydrogen peroxide (I would have used rubbing alcohol but we seem to be out) with several drops of Thieves, Purification, and Oregano and sprayed it all over everything - the furniture, the bed and bedding, pillows, rugs, surfaces, everything.

All has been well.  Until Harlee and I got hit by allergies.  Our noses are like faucets, ugh it's awful.  My throat is getting scratchy because of the drainage too.  And speaking of sugar earlier, I've been bad and stole more than my fair share of Halloween candy... so I'm really not giving myself the best chance at recovering quickly.  Harlee's been good and drinking more water than juice, plus I rub RC and Raven oil blends on his chest and that seems to help clear him up.  I'm sitting here with a cup of hot jasmine green tea with honey and lemon oil.  It's my fourth cup this morning.  I've been using lavender around my nose, which seems to help but goodness gracious does it make me sleepy... I also rubbed oregano oil around my nose (diluted with coconut because it burns) to help dry things up, which also seems to help.  I'm trying to talk myself into gargling a bit of oregano oil in a shot of my tea, but I haven't done it yet.  It's horrible.  Well, it's horrible for like two minutes, then after the hellfire in your mouth and throat wears off it turns out to be a fantastic resolution to a sore throat.  And that's what I need right now.  It's getting past the hellfire part that has me stuck...

All this excitement made me decide this is a good opportunity to share my medicine drawer contents with you.  I also got several requests for that since I posted that picture of my special delivery on Facebook.  A couple weeks ago my iHerb order came in -  I swear I get way too excited about that.  I usually try to place a big bulk order every so often - all our vitamins, immune boosters, general supplements, etc.  Then when it arrives I feel like Christmas came early.

So in this box I got cod liver oil, which is a great source of Omaga-3s and DHA.  Oscillococcinum (don't ask me how to actually pronounce that) which is a great homeopathic remedy for the onset of the flu, as is the bottle of FluGuard, and after our recent bout of that I decided I should be armed in case we ever get hit again.  I also ordered some colloidal silver, which needs a post all its own.  It's a natural antibiotic, again, a great thing to have on hand in the event of a nasty virus.  There's a bottle of vitamin C, a few bottles of liquid vitamins for Harlee (he will not take chewables or gummies for some reason, so instead I put these in his cup of juice or whatever hes drinking and it's been working great.  There's also a bottle of Echinacea/Goldenseal for immune support and pau d' arco, which is also great for the immune system.

All this got added to my medicine drawer:

I'm super proud of this drawer.  It's so much easier to locate different things than it was when I used to have everything in a cabinet, but best of all it's becoming quite full with a great variety of remedies!  I've got my growing supply of essential oils in the bottom left corner (and that's not even all of them - my most frequently used ones are in the diaper bag), my most commonly used homeopathic remedies in the bottom right corner, then throughout the middle-right I've got a bunch of herbal remedies, vitamins, etc like olive leaf extract, vitamin c, echinacea, vitamin d, and so on.  I've got things in here in place of common conventional medicine cabinet items like papaya instead of Tums or Rollaids (and it works way better and tastes better, too), homeopathic eye drops and ear drops, and the multitude of essential oils play roles like lavender for wound healing (to replace Neosporin), peppermint for headaches (although we do have ibuprofen in there, that's the only conventional medicine we've got I think) and also for digestive upset for cases beyond the scope of papaya, Purification oil in place of anti-itch cream, the list goes on and on, and continues to grow as I learn more and find more!  In the back I've got replacement bottles of things like my Juice Plus and olive leaf extract and cod liver oil - basically the things I take daily as a supplement, plus the things I don't want to run out of like Harlee's vitamins and elderberry syrup, which I add in with his vitamins if it seems like he might be coming down with something or if he's been around other people who were sick.  I'm currently giving that to him with his vitamins.  The temporal thermometer is in there, a tub of coconut oil for diluting essential oils, and a bottle of witch hazel for mixing up cleaners, bug sprays, etc.  Oh I also have Little Remedies fever reducer, too, just in case.  Little Remedies seems like a good brand of products for conventional medicines without the conventional additives, so in the event of a high fever striking that my natural remedies aren't strong enough for, I've got a safe alternative.  Luckily we haven't really needed it though, as peppermint has always helped keep fevers from creeping up too high.

Ta da!  That's my collection so far!  I'll say it again, I'm quite proud of it.  It just makes me feel really good that I've got plenty of things to help us stay healthy or recover if we do get sick, while at the same time not pumping us full of harmful chemicals or risking the side effects of conventional drugs.  Justin's learning his way around the drawer too, which is great.  I'm so glad he's open to learning more about alternative medicine, and I've enjoyed watching his trust in it grow as everything we use continues to work.  We're definite in the same boat as parents - we want to keep our kids and ourselves healthy in the safest ways!

I should get back to work now - I'm off on Fridays so this is when I try to get things caught up like laundry, cleaning, and obviously blogging :) (which obviously doesn't always happen).  Have a great weekend!

Vegan Mozzarella Cheese

Harlee helping spread the sauce

Elliot is definitely dairy intolerant.  It makes things tricky for me when cheese is involved, but otherwise I've been totally fine with it.  Unfortunately, I had been craving pizza for a week or so and pizza is just not the same without cheese.  So I just kept trying to remind myself that one day I would no longer be breastfeeding and then look out, Dicarlo's, because I'd be going on a major pizza binge!

Then I found a recipe for vegan mozzarella cheese on OneGreenPlanet.org.  I thought, what do I have to lose?  I'm going to give it a try!  I'm still pretty strict about eating Paleo (at home... I'll admit I'm not as strict as I should be when we go out) so I made my dairy-free cauliflower pizza crust recipe and tried my hand at this vegan cheese.

Harlee is quite the little chef!

It was so weird... once it thickened up it totally took on the consistency of cheese... Crazy!  Fortunately it's really easy to make, tastes awesome, and keeps well in the fridge.  So all you dairy-intolerant people, fear not, for now you can enjoy pizza again!

Here's the recipe from the website:

• 1/4 cup raw cashews soaked in water for several hours or overnight
• 1 cup hot water
• 2  tbsp + 1 tsp tapioca or arrowroot powder (I used arrowroot)
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 3/4  tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1. Blend all ingredients together in a high speed blender until completely smooth, or with an immersion blender, for about 1 minute.
2. Pour into a small saucepan and cook, stirring constantly over medium high heat.  Once the mixture starts clumping up, reduce heat to medium and keep stirring.
3. Keep stirring for another 2-3 minutes until you have a big melty blob of "cheese" that's goopy and stretchy.
4. Remove from heat and let cool a bit while you assemble the pizzas
5. For pizza, once it's cooled just pick apart pieces of the "cheese" and stretch it out over your pizza crust.  It's weird stuff, but you can work it to make it cover the pizza.  Then just bake it according to the crust instructions posted in the link above!
    

 Enjoy!

Mine is the bottom left pizza and the rest are made with regular mozzarella.  Could you tell?

looks totally legit!

Food Sensitivities and Vegan Mayonnaise

No, I am not going vegan.  I am still very much as omnivorous as before, as it's my personal belief that humans were designed that way (and you can read my post about eating meat here), but when there's a possibility of an egg intolerance for my little breastfeeding baby, seems as though the vegan recipes are coming to my rescue.  "Vegan" is more or less the next step beyond vegetarian.  Not only does one not eat meat, but also does not consume animal by-products as well like eggs, milk, cheese, etc.  And since eggs, milk, and cheese are now on my do-not-eat list, I've been searching vegan options as far as things like condiments, baked goods, and snacks go.

Since my last post, I took little Elliot to his pediatrician to discuss his digestive system a little further.  After reviewing my diet as of the past few days, she said it might be a good idea to not only eliminate dairy and eggs, but also gluten, grains, and soy as well.  Thank goodness I've been following a more or less paleo lifestyle for the past couple years (here's when I started, and here's some more information about it), or I'd be LOST.  Probably even devastated... For most people, this would require a MAJOR overhaul of life as they knew it.  A lot of moms would probably toss in the towel and find an allergen-free formula instead.  Having to give up everything you're used to with your normal diet cold-turkey would be a huge shock... But I already gave this stuff up over two years ago (well, except eggs) and have worked on this lifestyle ever since then, finding tons of great alternatives to common foods that contain grains and gluten.  Really, cutting out eggs is the only hard thing about this.

There's a great article on the La Leche League website titled Allergies and the Breastfeeding Family that reviews allergies and explains how our bodies are allergic or sensitive to certain substances and the chemistry behind it, as well as detecting sensitivities and what to do about it (getting into the topic of an elimination diet).  If you're a breastfeeding mom with an especially fussy or colicky baby, I HIGHLY recommend looking into this.  I shouldn't say just breastfeeding moms - formulas definitely contain allergens too that are worth checking into if your formula-fed baby is fussy or colicky. I wish I had this information more available to me when Harlee was a baby - I feel almost certain his colic was due to a food sensitivity and all those sleepless nights could have easily been avoided.  I've cleaned up my diet considerably since he was born, but I'll admit I haven't been eating the cleanest since Elliot was born.  As I shared in my last post, it's like all my will power went out the window and I've just been eating whatever I feel like eating, no matter how unhealthy it might be.  Not good!  Luckily we don't keep our cabinets stocked with junk at our house, so I've only been "bad" when we go out to eat, but still... I definitely had a lot of room for improvement.

So here I am, eliminating quite a bit of common allergens from my diet, which would make the average person feel like they can't eat anything at all, whereas I'm actually pretty excited about the forced change of diet.  I'm feeling better already, and I think Elliot is, too, considering how much better he's sleeping and getting along throughout the day.

It was time to start exploring options for egg substitutes, though.  I figured I'd start with mayonnaise, since I enjoy it as a condiment and it's pretty versatile, like using it for salad dressings and chicken or tuna salad.  I had already experimented with flax eggs (1 tbsp ground flax seeds mixed with 3 tbsp hot water), so I felt confident in trying a recipe I found on TheClothesMakeTheGirl.com for egg-less mayo that involved using the flax egg.

It worked beautifully.  She said to use light olive oil rather than extra virgin, but I only had EVOO on hand so I used it instead, and it still tasted great.  It's super easy, too.  I honestly like it better than conventional mayonnaise, and I definitely like it better than the homemade egg version.  It's thicker, creamier, and just plain yummier.  To the point where I was licking the spoon when I was done.

Here's the recipe:

Mix your flax egg by whisking 1 tbsp ground flax seeds with 3 tbsp hot water.  Let it come to room temperature.

1 flax egg
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup light olive oil

Place all ingredients in a container that a stick blender can fit into (I definitely feel a stick blender is a kitchen staple!!), place the blender in the container, and blend away until all the oil is incorporated.  It doesn't take long, and you can watch the ingredients turn into mayonnaise as you tilt the container to make sure it all blends together.  Once you've turned it all into mayonnaise, stop blending (don't want to overdo it!).  Store in a mason jar in the fridge and enjoy!

I made a BLT wrap with it shortly after making it.  Yum!!

Antibiotics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I strongly dislike antibiotics... For such good intentions they might carry, they're pretty harmful... but... what scares me is that not many people know how dangerous they can be!  Some people do, but there are SO MANY people that are hacking up a lung and saying, “Don’t worry, I’m on antibiotics, so I’ll get better soon.”  Or, “My immune system must be pretty great with as many antibiotics I’ve been on!”  That one about knocked me over.  And I’ve heard it SEVERAL times.

Antibiotics are very dangerous things.  Let me tell you what’s going on in our guts:

Adult humans have about 3-4 POUNDS of bacteria and yeast in our intestinal tract.  Yuck, right?  Wrong actually, you may think of bacteria as a bad thing, but in this case, they’re very very good!  They do a lot of things for us, one of them being create Vitamin B out of the food we send through our intestines.  They also keep the yeast in check, which is a very good thing, because if those little guys get out of control, oh boy… look out… Trust me from my personal experience, it’s not pretty.  These guys can eat away at your intestinal walls too, changing the very structure of them, and leaving you weak against things you used to be strong against (they can lead to food allergies!), and to make matters worse, they cause us to crave unhealthy things like sugars and carbohydrates in breads and pastas, as these are the very things the yeast feed off of to grow.  See how important it is to have the good bacteria in your system?  These little wardens are keeping the balance to help you stay healthy.  Some examples are Lactobacillus and Acidophilus, which are acid-forming bacteria you can find in yogurt.  There are some that are good AND bad too, like E. Coli, which is in EVERYONE’S intestinal tracts and even on our skin!  It helps us extract nutrients from the food we eat.  But if we come in contact with it in bad meat, then it’s not such a nice bacteria…

Unfortunately, some bad bacteria can find their way in that you never want there in the first place, such as Streptococci (which causes strep throat) or Pneumococci (which causes, you guessed it, pneumonia).  And we get really really sick, which is no good and no fun.  Enter in antibiotics.  Okay, okay, so in these cases I guess they’re a blessing in disguise, until we find safer ways to combat these dangerous illnesses.  I would experiment with it and look for natural remedies to fight off the dangerous bacteria, buuuutttt that’s way too big of a risk to take right now.  I’m much more comfortable experimenting with the common cold, or things that won’t kill me.  In the meantime, I guess I’ll take an antibiotic if I contract something evil and deadly.  I had to recently, actually.  I came down with a urinary tract infection (horray for the life of a new mom…) and did everything I could think of to fight it off naturally (which, by the way, has worked in the past) such as cranberry pills (since I hate cranberry juice, yuck), Echinacea and vitamin C, increased probiotics (getting to that in a moment), and mannose supplements I found at the health food store in town.  Nothing was working.  And I know not to mess around with these things – these infections can travel up your ureter and into your kidneys, and then you’ve REALLY got a problem.  So I finally, reluctantly, went to my OBGYN (not to an MD, partly because I don’t have one of those and didn’t want to go through the process of becoming a new patient, and mainly because after my penicillin incident I’m a little leery of MDs…) and she ran a culture, and E. Coli happened to be the intruder.  And it was getting pretty out of control.  So out came the antibiotic prescription (NOT penicillin, since that can kill me now) and off to the pharmacy I trudged.  With a pretty little snarl on my face.

So, if these antibiotics can kill off those evil deadly bacteria, why do I harbor such a hatred towards them?  Because they don’t JUST kill off the bad bacteria.  They kill off ALL the bacteria.  EVERYTHING.  Even those happy little guys keeping the yeast in check and making us some nice vitamin B.  Dead.  Now if you’re someone that rushes to get an antibiotic for yourself or your kid at the first sign of a possible infection, think about what your intestines must be looking like by now… Craving some pasta or candy, are we?  Or getting sick more often than you think is normal?  Know what else can happen when these bacteria are all gone?  Your whole system can lose balance.  Dormant cancer cells (yes, we all have them) don’t have anything to keep them dormant, and they are free to fester and grow.  Food allergies you may have developed from the lining of your intestines getting messed up can develop into things like diabetes or Crohn’s disease or what have you.  Or horrible yeast infections (*raises hand to represent*).  Scary, isn’t it?  And if something this serious doesn’t happen to you, you still risk missing out on important nutrients your body needs to stay healthy because the good bacteria aren’t there to extract it from the food you eat.  You also risk getting sick again and again and again, as there’s nothing to help your body learn how to defend itself on its own to prevent sickness the next time around.

Okay, so what do we do about this?  Well, first of all, don’t jump to take antibiotics so quickly unless your life is in danger.  Find alternative methods to get well.  But if you have no immediate choice other than to surrender to antibiotics, like I experienced when I was at risk for my situation turning into a kidney infection if left unchecked, then what? Replenish the good bacteria, of course!  Now you already learned that good bacteria is in yogurt, but you’re going to need to eat a LOT of yogurt to get your gut back in check – eating yogurt kind of only gives you a maintenance dose of probiotics.  Fortunately, you can get them in capsules in the refrigerated section of your local health food store.  I take a multi probiotic, the bottle says there are 20 billion live cultures in them… that’s a lot!  And when I was on antibiotics, I was taking about 8 capsules a day.  Hopefully that was enough…  Another good idea when you’re on antibiotics is avoid sugar (yes, carbohydrates too, they break down into sugar), since yeast feeds on sugar and without the friendly bacteria keeping them in check, you don’t want to help their situation that much more.  Taking immune-boosting supplements like Echinacea or garlic are good too, to help feed the good bacteria and nurse them back to health so they can report to duty and keep those yeast at bay.  But definitely definitely definitely take probiotics!  If the antibiotics are killing everything off in the first place, then your immune-boosting supplements have no good bacteria to support, and avoiding sugar will only give you grief.  Take those probiotics!!

Are they safe for kids?  Absolutely!  I’ve got Harlee on one every day and have since he was born.  When he was a baby I only gave them to him if he was taking a bottle of my pumped milk by pouring half a capsule of the probiotic powder into the bottle with the milk and shaking it until it disperses.  It wasn’t all that often, but being breastfed helped his system anyway so I wasn’t that strict about it.  If you’re doing formula they actually make probiotics for babies that you can mix in with it.  Now that Harlee is a little older I’ll put a whole capsule into his juice or milk every day.  He’s been going to daycare, playing outside as the weather has been dropping, and carrying on his daily life with nothing more than a bit of a runny nose.  Knock on wood!

A side note, before I wrap this up, think about where else antibiotics are used… Yes, in livestock.  Sure, it makes the farmer’s life easier not having to worry about their cattle dying from infections, but these antibiotics lock their evil little bodies into the cattle’s bodies, and also pass through their milk… So think about that when you buy that sirloin steak for dinner tonight, or that carton of milk for you and your kids to drink.  You’re consuming all the antibiotics (and steroids, and artificial growth hormones, but I’ll save that for a different day) that were injected into that animal while it was alive.  And they can have a similar effect on you as though you just got a bottle from the pharmacy.  Yummy!  In this case I feel it’s worth the extra few bucks to buy organic milk rather than the cheaper, “regular” stuff.  Grass-fed, organic meat too.  Fortunately my hubby is a deer hunter and stocks our freezer fairly well every year, and I’m pretty sure nobody’s out there shooting antibiotics into the wildlife!  I’ll admit I’ll take the easy way out and not buy organic when it comes to beef or pork or chicken… but I (hopefully) justify this with the thought that we don’t eat it THAT often… I’ll probably end up doing a little more research on this and decide to only buy organic meat too, even if it means driving an hour to Whole Foods to get it!  I do buy organic milk, though, because (thank God) IGA stocks it.  I need to ask them to stock organic meat too…

Anyway, just some food for thought!  Here’s a great article to read about bacteria and antibiotics, and a little history too.  Now go get some probiotics and boost your immune system!  It is cold and flu season, after all!