Well at least I do anyway- particularly ones that require minimal ingredients and allow me to mentally recall the inventory that is my current bare fridge and realise that, “Yes – I have all those!”

Last night, I attended a scrumptous launch for the cook book Supercharged Food. And boy was the food anything but sausage rolls and party pies. I have to say though – my hands wouldn’t stop gravitating to the Oven Roasted Pumpkin Chips. They were devine! Needless to say I was the girl at the food table devouring the bowl rather than making small talk. Woops.

When I managed to retract myself from the aformentioned bowl I asked Lee Holmes – author of Supercharged Food- to give me the recipe. Although I had my pen and paper ready, they were not necessary. Two ingredients – a little time and you have the makings of the coolest chip since Kale.

Get ready to eat a whole pumpkin in one sitting – I kid you not.

Oven Roasted Pumpkin Crisps

1/2 Small Pumpkin

Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Brushing

Preheat the overn to 150 degrees celcius. Cut the pumpkin into two or three chunks, then peel. Using a mandoline or the slicing blade on your food processor, cut the chunks into very thin slices, about 2 mm thick. Dry the slices on paper towels.

Place the pumpkin slices in a single layer on two lined baking trays. Brush with Olive Oil and sprinkle with a good pinch of sea salt. The salt helps draw moisture from the vegetables, so let them sit for 5 minutes before placing in the oven.

Bake the pumpklin for 25 minutes or until crisp.

Remove from the oven to cool completely. The slices will crisp as they cool. Keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Makes lots!

 And if  you want to find out more about Lee Holmes’s Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Dairy Free recipes..head on over to superchargedfood.com.

The very nature of the environment we live in – regardless whether you are a city our country dweller – means we are absorbing toxins every day. This is a reality and unless you were born in a plastic bubble, you can’t escape it.  On the plus side – our bodies are naturally detoxifying all the time. But if you’re getting more in than you can get out, they’ve got to go somewhere and they tend to get stored in your fat.

That’s why we want to detoxify every day.

The problem with ‘cleanses’ is that we tend to think of them as an extreme. Where you drink water, maple syrup, lemon and cayenne pepper and don’t eat for a week. Which, we will see, isn’t one of the most cleansing and amazing things you can possibly do.

In its rudimentary form detoxification has two phases. Once you understand these two phases and see your body’s ability to detox in this light – I am quite sure you will see the fallacy of strict somewhat ridiculous ‘cleanses’.

Let’s see how we detoxify.

Firstly – our body tries to make toxins in a form for easy removal. It does this by trying to make them water soluble.

If though we are getting too many toxins, our bodies won’t be able to make ALL our toxins water soluble and they are stored in our fat. This is why I am emphatic about Organic cosmetics. It is one of the simplest ways of combating excess fat. But that’s another rant for another day.

Now that our bodies have made them ready to escape – we need to usher them out. In order for our bodies to do this, we need amino acids. This is where protein comes in to play.

Limited amino acids in your body = stalemate in getting toxins out of your body.

Now…where in a week of Master cleanse or juice only diets, do you get abundant protein? Certainly drinking lots of hydrating juice or water will ignite the first phase of detoxification – getting the body to release the toxins into a more water soluble form – but there will be a limited ability for your body to remove them as you aren’t ingesting any protein. So now, you have all these circulating toxins in your body and there is no way of them getting out.

What do they do from here? They create stress and inflame your body. Little wonder then that people complain of massive headaches, rashes and lethargy when they are detoxing. Yes they are removing toxins INTO the body but they AREN’T leaving your system. Detoxing shouldn’t be painful, so when I hear people saying they “Feel crap so it has to be working” it takes a lot of self discipline to prevent me from telling them that they are probably aging their bodies and encouraging cellulite. Harsh I know.

My piece of advice is to detox EVERYDAY. Drink water to get phase one of the detoxification process firing, fill up on fibre to allow the food you eat and the toxins you accumulate to be swept out of your system and ensure you eat protein with EVERY meal. If you want to do a juice only cleanse – try to incorporate at least two clean organic protein shakes each day to ensure you are just as capable of removing toxins as you are in converting them to an easy water soluble form. Got it?

Master Cleanse officially over.

]]> http://femmefiles.com/2012/02/detox-smart-not-hard/feed/ 1 http://femmefiles.com/2012/01/have-friends-will-feast/ http://femmefiles.com/2012/01/have-friends-will-feast/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:51:37 +0000 Holly McBride http://femmefiles.com/?p=1787  

The media likes to blame McDonalds, and other convenient food for the role of obesity in Australia. And sure, blame it on the hamburger for stealing your slimmer waistline – but I, on the other hand, beg to differ. Yes, those carb and trans fat bombs do have a role in our rapidly expanding waistlines – however, after taking part in Australia Day festivities and the plethora of birthdays surrounding this event, I know there is another factor at play.

 Over the weekend I was reminded of how our fast paced ways has affected our eating patterns – that is how our desire for instant satisfaction has undermined our ability to enjoy the process of eating.

 Rather than giving our loved ones a wholesome breakfast that ignites the metabolism, parents and workers are walking out the door with either nothing in the stomach, slamming a latte with an accompanying ‘low fat’ muffin or yielding soy based milky ‘Weetbix in a popper’ garbage – to name but a few bad choices. This is a poor replacement for what eating should be – an act that involves sitting down, savoring each bite of a well-balanced home made meal– not inhaling Thai takeaways, pizzas or fish and chips.

 More importantly we definitely self medicate through food. Hey – me too. Stress appears to be easily managed when we eat mindlessly. In reality – we should be aware of each and every mouthful and put our cutlery down between each bite to allow us to fully appreciate the feeling of being full.  

 During my social escapades this weekend my friends and I were lamenting the price of Sydney’s social scene – we realized that in order to go out and meet friends we either have to base it on food or drink or invariably both. I know from my own experience, when meeting friends or family – there is such a large lure to fill up on food as part of the festivity. Which begs the question, do we sustain relationships and mask our inability to connect with people on a personal level through food? Is it at all possible to sit down and catch up without basing it on food? Or would we be left staring awkwardly at our navels while we caught up with loved ones?

 This cyclical relationship between food and social gatherings appears to be so entrenched in our culture that straying from the norm is seen as novel. Suggesting to a friend that we catch up for a walk rather than a coffee was met with an empty phone pause and a sly giggle. What am I now- an anti consumer, tree hugging hippy?

 Over the next few weeks – I am going to give the social sans food a shot – maybe I might just find a new hobby or become addicted to cheap pedicures with friends. Or maybe- the harsh reality that I have nothing to say to my companions will become a stark reality.

The girl in question, continually batted her eyelids, spoke down to me as if I was a delinquent and repeated her terrible directions at me louder and louder to hammer the point home. The moment I shook her hand and introduced myself, I knew she was trouble. She chose not to look at me, not to smile and to judge me on what I looked like.  Attempts at conversation were left to dwindle awkwardly in the air as she CHOSE to answer in single word sentences. She pouted, tut tutted and stared me down whilst telling me the process I had been operating (which had worked beautifully previously) was WRONG and ‘clearly I wasn’t listening’.

The funny thing was that she appeared to be nice as pie and super friendly to everyone else who walked into the marketing booth we were manning. Any other person who came into contact with her, particularly of the male orientation, she talked candidly, laughing and cooing at appropriate times. She even scored a free coffee from the male barista next door and failed to introduce me to him so I was left standing there like a shag on a rock. I also noted how comfortable she was in talking to girls who were not as gregarious, smiley and relatively attractive. (No I am not suggesting that I am lustrous, radiant and a stellar example of what beauty is, but I know how to present myself when necessary as most girls do)

The problem here is deep down I knew this girl was simply trying to build herself up by tearing me down. I should have felt sorry for her as clearly she was deeply insecure, but I still felt like throttling her. She was so territorial over her work and deeply competitive that I couldn’t help without being seen as trying to overstep her. Rising above it became exceedingly difficult.

Given that I actively choose not to entertain these people’s games I found it down right impossible to tolerate this girl’s attitude. I also knew confrontation would have made my day go from bad to worse as she was most likely an expert in the art of the cat fight. A sport I can happily admit, I have little experience. Despite knowing how vulnerable I was to her insults I still tried again and again to smile, engage and move forward. I’m thinking the smarter person would have just ignored her outright. But I am stubborn and desperately sought to win this girls attitude over.

 So enough of a rant, hopefully this gets it all off my chest and I can move on. I’d hate to think she manipulated my thoughts this much, but tell me, how do YOU remain civil and deal with these moments of female ferocity?

 I started walking as daily exercise 3 weeks after my baby was born, to gently loose weight while my body was healing from birth. After 2 months I had lost a total of 4kg from walking during that time. But I wanted faster, more visible results!  

 Having learned of HYPOXI during my over-seas travels to the UK in 2010, I was very keen to try it for myself.

 After the “all-clear” from my GP to commence exercises of any nature, I signed up with HYPOXI the next day. I had a lot of anticipation and was absolutely worried about committing to a different weight loss method. There are so many companies that tell you, “You will lose weight!”, it is hard not to be a sceptic.

 I began my time at Chevron Island at HYPOXI Body Zone on the Gold Coast on September 27th 2011, weighing 97kg.  Doing 3 or 4 HYPOXI sessions and infrared sauna’s per week, I maintained a healthy diet, as well as continuing with my walking on the days I did not do HYPOXI. Even with my new born, the Hypoxi sessions were only half an hour long, so time management was never an issue!

 Today in the 2nd week of December 2011, 12 weeks of sessions later and less than 3 months after I began HYPOXI, I have now lost an amazing total of 18kg, a total of 109cm of pure body weight!

 This current result of 79kg has far “out-weighed” my expectations.

 With commitment, dedication and determination these results were achieved by simply putting my mind to it and being persistent, but in half the time than if I was working out at an ordinary gym.

 I can highly recommend HYPOXI to anyone and everyone for all the things it stands for and represents itself, ”the most effective fat burning and cellulite reduction treatment to come on the market”. I am living proof that it works and with the results you want!

 HYPOXI has given me back my figure, not to mention my self-confidence, in record time and I’m ready to face each day again with my head held high! 

 I will continue to use HYPOXI, without a doubt, for the rest of my life.

 For more information or to find your closest HYPOXI studio visit us at www.hypoxi.com.au

Why do I like it? Keeping in mind that my brain is not wired for economics and analysis of fine data is not my forte, they advocate a 4 day work week in the name of reducing the impact of our consumer economy. Given that Australians currently work some of the longest hours in the world, I think this might be something to somewhat consider.

As government bodies and businesses embark upon cost cutting measures, the idea behind the 4 day work week sounds crazy and contrary to the hard wired idea that hard work = hard profits and productivity. According to plentitude economy however, 3 day weekends (just writing it feels luxurious) would not only save money but alleviate the crushing demands placed upon our environment and public health at large. 

While the 4 day work week has not been attempted in Australia, it has been surprisingly implemented in the land of golden opportunity in Utah and with dramatic consequences. Utah transformed the working week for its 17,000 workers, back in August 2009.  On Friday, all the lights, elevators and computers are firmly switched off and there is a distinct lack of cleaners scrubbing the floors of vacant buildings. Not surprisingly their electric bills have reduced significantly, indeed as of May; the state saved $1.8 million. 

The recent economic downturn could be seen as the catalyst in debate surrounding the 4 day work week, as businesses sought ways to reduce costs without laying off several members of staff. Employers realised that they could save money without reducing the weekly hours. That is, have workers, maintain their 40 hour week, but spread it across 4 days as opposed to 5. And just to make sure this isn’t spreading the workload thinly, a survey entitled ’Working for Utah’ which was conducted in May, showed that 82% of people wanted to maintain the 4 day work week!

On another positive note, it appears the 4 day work week is environmentally savvy too. According to John Langmaid of the Connecticut Law Review, “If employees are on the road 20 percent less, and office buildings are only powered four days a week, the energy savings and congestion savings would be enormous.”Furthermore if working hours are different for everyone Monday-Thursday, then traditional peak hour commuting times would diminish and speed up the route to work. Less time spent idling means less pollutants seeping into our environment.  

And what would we do with this blissful 3 day weekend? Well Juliet Schorr, the godmother, if you will, of Plentitude Economy sums it up nicely on her ‘Plentitude Blog’.  Reduced hours would allow us to engage in low impact, self providing pursuits that encourage us to be less dependent on the market. Growing your own veggies, making your own doilies, crafting dresses (the usual daily pursuits) are all such activities that are surprisingly satisfying. And no, I’m not living in some fairytale bubble. I seriously think if we had to take up pursuits we’d relish these simplistic measures of passing the time. Although I do know the sewing machine and I were never meant to be friends. But that’s not to say I can’t grow an awesome vegetable patch!  Imagine all the new business start ups or second careers, as people ran away to build a flea circus, liberated by their new found skills!

Freeing ourselves from the formal market will encourage a small but ultimately greener business sector. More time to yourself will encourage us to consume differently and we finally might be able to achieve the work life balance. I think this is the hardest concept to wrap our heads around, when so many of us have been brought up to ‘relax’, ‘unwind’ and ‘indulge’ via spending.  More time, and less money on consuming will force us to buy things we need vs want and more importantly buy things that last or can be repaired. That being said, given that we are so driven by instant gratification, I’d suggest we just might find it difficult not to make a beeline for the cheap and nasty when satisfaction is so dependent on spending.   

What do you think? Does the four day week sound laughable or plausible? More importantly, what would you do with a 3 day weekend?

]]> http://femmefiles.com/2012/01/thank-god-its-thursdays/feed/ 0 http://femmefiles.com/2012/01/procrastination-robs-your-health/ http://femmefiles.com/2012/01/procrastination-robs-your-health/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:27:41 +0000 Holly McBride http://femmefiles.com/?p=1708 They say procrastination is the thief of time and that would certainly explain where 2011 disappeared to.

It’d dishonest of me to suggest that I‘m not a committed procrastinator; but as a full time jack-of-all trade’s woman; my life is a finely honed juggling act and procrastination is the devil that can have it crashing down on my head.

However, I also see procrastination as a sure fire way to avoiding success in life. With the New Year, comes New Goals that we hope to achieve come December 2012 and given I’ve also written a small list of things I will achieve (note the word ‘will’ … hope seems somewhat unsteady) I am well aware my feeble list is in itself, a wonderful form of procrastination wrapped up in the guise of appearing proactive and productive. This year, I am seeking to actively choose to not put obstacles in my path by way of procrastination and I am learning a few things along the way.

The majority of experts are unanimous that to resolve your dawdling ways you first must identify why you are dragging the chain in the first place.

Joseph Ferrari, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at De Paul University in Chicago says that 20% of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators. For these people, continual stalling is unknowingly a way of life that transpires across several facets of their lives. They are the people who don’t pay their bills on time, repeatedly ‘forget’ to purchase those best selling tickets, lodge their tax returns way past the deadline and wander the stores late Christmas Eve randomly selecting presents for lack of time.  

According to Ferrari, procrastinators lie to themselves on a constant basis. Personally, as a devout non-liar this appears to be a bitter pill to swallow. Citing “I’ll do this tomorrow” or “I work best under pressure” is a huge fallacy. Everyone knows working within a limited time frame merely limits your resources and the ability to produce the goods. Protecting your pride is another reason in which procrastinators rob themselves of being honest. Trying to tell yourself something isn’t important to you, when it truly is, sabotages the goals that you are passionate about.

Procrastinators, as we know, also look for distractions, predominantly distractions that realistically don’t involve commitment. Facebook anyone? Checking emails, trawling through Facebook, googling your own name, are all apparently signs of regulating ones emotions and fearing failure.

Indeed, Dr. Ferrari distinguishes three types of procrastinators:

Arousal types, or thrill seekers, who wait until the very last minute for the exhilarating rush of it.

Avoiders, those folk who fear failure and more importantly, hate to think what others think of them. Ironically they usually want others to think they lack ability rather than have ability.

Decisional procrastinators, who absolve themselves of responsibility by actively refusing to take part in key decisions.

But at the end of the day if you’re getting your work done, what does it matter? Well according to one recent study conducted by the University of Windsor’s Health and Wellbeing Lab, it can be! Over one semester, procrastinating students showed they developed more colds and flu, gastrointestinal problems and more likely suffered from insomnia.

I’d also go as far as to say that your procrastination affects the lives of others. Shifting the load of responsibilities onto others who in turn feel cheated and more stressed is a sure fire way to sabotage team work with your colleagues and in your relationships.  

Putting procrastination in this light; something that sabotages not only your progress, but the lives of others actually reinforces my responsibility for avoiding procrastinating in the first place. What do you think? Can 2012 be a year of honesty and action for you? And more importantly….

How do you stop procrastination?

Like all of us at this time of year, trying to recuperate our taste buds to clean lean and satisfying foods can be a hard task when, in the past few weeks, all we have done is tantalise our buds into consuming decadent highly comforting foods. So how can we counteract the cure of comfort? 

Comfort food in all its guises; be it chocolate, chips or cheese on toast is often justified for nostalgic reasons. Although I would also suggest it is a cultural influence as well, perhaps best demonstrated when my Japanese flat mate erected a batch of Natto and cooed longingly over what looked like a specimen from the gastroenterology department.

This all begs the question then, what is comfort food and what sets off this desire for comfort in the first place? Recent studies demonstrate once more that comfort food is an intricate interaction of memory and your own chemistry – and while there are some general rules – the majority of us are swayed by fat, sugar, smooth and salty – the particulars are extremely unique and personal.

For me comfort food must be quiet and indulgent and never draw attention to itself. A bowl of white rice, plain yogurt that can be consumed from a tea cup, spoonfuls of peanut butter or rows of soft dark chocolate. Food that some could say are somewhat bland and unspectacular. I wonder what this says about me?!

For someone else it could be far more decadent or indulgent, a butter chicken curry with lashings of sauce or Caramel Cheesecake with a nice thick crust.

What makes these foods chemically comforting? Sugar and starch encourages a wonderful deluge of brain chemicals, in particular serotonin, which at its rudimentary level, makes you happy indeed it’s essentially what makes Prozac work. Salty foods on the other hand, ignite oxytocin or the ‘hug hormone’ which is also spiked via cuddles and orgasms. No need to guess why you reach for salt and vinegar chips in times of need.

Then there is the way the brain connects feeling with personal history and external senses. Flat lemonade for an upset tummy, McDonalds after winning your grand final or pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast on special occasions: The brain connects positive experience with certain flavours, smells and textures, programming them as vessels for happiness. Thus when you don’t even have an upset tummy, or haven’t even won the grand final, drinking flat lemonade feels helpful and McDonalds feels like a prize.   

For Neuroscientists, comfort is the opposite of stress and human beings inherently seek to relax by any method available. A relaxed brain is a one that reaches a level of safety, has been rewarded or feels connected to something above and beyond the individual.   

Each of these facets; safety, reward and being bonded are all activated by different sections of the brain. This accordingly, explains why we don’t all chase the same food cravings. Someone with little self esteem who feels undervalued will crave foods that the brain associates as rewarding. A social outcast will relish food that connects them with community and someone who lives with fear will attack safety foods.

What we do know is that all matters of psychology are profoundly complex and moments of guilty pleasure are convoluted with emotional histories. I would also suggest that there is a sense of embarrassment that I detect with some girlfriends who divulge their latest indulgence almost ashamedly. We are ashamed to desire the starchy, sugary, crispy, salty, because we feel we are far too clever to eat what the judgemental call rubbish – despite the onslaught of clever marketing that is playing to our most primal instinct.

So where does that leave us this New Year in trying to slay our comfort and steer ourselves off the ‘bad’ food path? Well interestingly in one recent study participants felt less depressed after WRITING but not eating about comfort food. Perhaps therefore, we need to clutch a notebook rather than a sneaky chocolate bar to our person in case of an emergency?

What do you think ladies, how do you seek comfort? Or better yet, what’s your guilty pleasure?

At Hypoxi, we are often asked about our thoughts on coffee for our clients. Given that caffeine is the most common stimulant consumed worldwide then it is only natural that we field this question more often than not.

First and foremost, beyond the fact that your skim latte tastes so dam good we all love to rely on it for its ability to decrease fatigue and increase our mental alertness. Furthermore, it also increases heart rate and relaxes the airwaves, which is why some asthmatics like to consume it therapeutically.

From a positive perspective, your coffee ritual can boost your workout and provide that spark for you to work harder. This is particularly effective for endurance based workouts, where increased mental alertness allows you to last longer. Additionally, consuming caffeine increases your heart rate thereby encouraging your body to push its heart rate potential. That being said, all the studies I looked at were rather inconclusive thereby suggesting that once again, it is really up to the individual as to whether caffeine helps or harms them when exercising.

From a less than optimal perspective, caffeine consumed regularly can decrease the efficacy of serotonin and activate the release of dopamine, a major neurotransmitter that provides feelings of enjoyment and motivates us to push through certain tasks. This is a potential positive although it does make the stuff highly addictive…like any drug.

Another factor to think about is sleep quality. As caffeine affects sleep quality in some people and sleep quality affects your hormones and controls your appetite, your afternoon coffee can prevent you from reaching your best body and optimal performance level.

Furthermore, because your morning coffee blocks adenosine in your body and adenosine functions as the ‘breaks’ on your central nervous system, once you quit, your body accumulates the surplus adenosine. This results in headaches, shakiness and upset tummies, all common complaints of people withdrawing from caffeine. Doesn’t sound too pretty right?

And for those precious people who are sensitive to caffeine (of which there are many) caffeine can leave you running to the bathroom as it aggravates your gut and encourages diarrhea. Given also, that caffeine is a diuretic it also may leave you rather dehydrated which we know is a recipe for disastrously limp skin.

So what’s our answer?

Try to use caffeine when you need it as opposed to making it a part of your daily ritual. Use coffee as the stimulant it is prior to exercise but never have a coffee post workout. Having put your body into a state of stress through exercising, your top priority post exercise is to calm your levels of stress and dampen your cortisol response. Caffeine will definitely NOT do that!

What are your thoughts? Think coffee is a necessary evil in our busy schedules?

What is apparent is that the more coffee you have the less you will actually see the benefit from it, so aim to treat coffee therapeutically rather than as a given daily necessity.

Given that our skin is the largest organ in our body I have a rule with my cosmetics, if I wouldn’t eat it I wouldn’t put it on my skin. (Yes as my boyfriend likes to think I am a healthy sustainable snob….but someone’s got to be right?)

I have touched on this before with ‘The Story of Stuff’ but I still feel this is a topic most women still appear to turn a blind eye to. This eco infused rant has been largely prompted from the recent spate of Christmas gifts given to me by generous, well intended colleagues and or clients that have been met by me with ABSOLUTE appreciation but also devastation that expensive face creams, lotions and potions are considered a step towards beautiful skin.

On average woman use 12 personal care products a day, which although seems a lot, is highly doable if you include, moisturisers, cleansers, toners, foundations, lipsticks, lip balms etc etc. As an aside I might also let you know that men use on average 6 products per day….they are not exempt! If each product contains a dozen or more chemicals than:

• The Average woman exposes herself to over 167 chemicals on her body and face during her daily beauty regime

 Which is all very well as some chemicals are natural BUT

• Out of 80,000 chemicals used in beauty/personal care products in Australia ONLY 200 OF THEM ARE TESTED FOR SAFETY!

Ok so if those stats don’t freak you out or you still feel nonchalant about the whole “let’s go organic in our skin range” rant have a look at what these common ingredients have shown in more than a handful of studies.

• Phthalates –  Neuro-developmental Disorders and Tumors
• Parabens  - Genital Abnormalities
• BHA – lowered sperm count.

 My best piece of advice would be to log onto the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep  site, which has a highly efficient database of ingredients and products that allows you to see how potentially toxic each product or compound is. As a person who is more inclined to the humanities spectrum of learning (i.e devoid in all maths and science skills) they present a product rating system that REALLY helps you see exactly how pure and natural an element is.

I would also be wary of the rampant green washing that occurs within the cosmetic industry. Just because it says organic or all natural doesn’t mean it’s clean and pure. Petrol can be organic and all natural, so to can alcohol be. The regulation of Australia’s cosmetic industry is rather flexible and thus labelling on most products can be used regardless of whether the said item has any of the aforementioned virtues.

 So where to from here?

 Why not make your own? (Cue the groans from domestic rebels, which I will have you know I am very much a part of)

 I love oil cleansers but if that’s all too hard Australian company Planet Eve Organics have the most beautiful Oil Cleanser. Even if you think your skin is too oily, harsh cleaners are not the antidote!

Otherwise a beautiful body wash made out of your own desired essential oils is also amazing! Like lavender oil? Throw it in! Can’t stand the floral aromas? Use Orange Oil instead. Get my picture?

 And do you know what the best part of this is? I have been able to return to the kitchen and indulge in my love of ‘cooking’ and not let it add centimetres to my derriere.

 Alright, I know sometimes you read articles where you can ‘Make your own vegetable soap’ and you just want to laugh/yell expletives with how inane some people are. I mean honestly, who makes their own soap today? Seriously though, these recipes, plus the plethora of EASY ones I have found on the internet are testament to the fact that DIY beauty products are a cinch.

 After therapeutically ladling batches of my coconut milk soap into ice cube trays this weekend I know how much more satisfying this is than licking the bowl clean of Christmas cake batter (that being said….I did do both over the weekend) 

 Above and beyond all this DIY shenanigans, make an effort to learn about the products that you are inevitably consuming via your skin. You deserve to detox your inside and out this New Year!

 If anyone has any other wonderfully easy recipes please share them. As a rule of thumb, no more than five ingredients please…anything else is a headache!