A Quick Guide to Full Body Care

A few years ago, this lemon meant so much to me. I went through a devastating moment in my life with my business, we had a wild flood, and it was a really tough thing to figure out how to pick up the pieces. And, and, I had coined the phrase that so many of us know, “let’s turn lemons into lemonade”, and so it became about lemons. Lemons for me everywhere, and of course I love the colour, and I bought a lemon tree, and everything was we, everything was about turning lemons into lemonade for the rest of the year.

And I hung on to it, and there really is this wild sunshine that comes out of lemons. Not only is it a properties of vitamin C are amazing, they’re great for your body to help, help your body through the digestive system, and vitamin C is, I’m learning more and more, is great to put on topically.

So I wanted to talk to you about today just share some of the different things that I’ve been picking away at for years of trying to find my greatest health, along with my greatest self, but my greatest health, and what does that look like because it is as I’ve mentioned before, fitness has always been a huge part of my life but for many, many, years of his older but physicality. And as life has happened and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve looked at life a little bit differently and what my health looks like differently. I’ve had some physical obstacles as well with high inflammation which creates a lot of pain in my body, which I think is extremely common for people my age and older.

So, I wanted to throw out just some of the different things that I do, and maybe you might do them too. I’m sure you do way neater fantastical things which I’d love to hear about. I’m always curious, but all the different things that I’ve tried and worked with or stayed with. I always make a decision, I study it, I research it, see if it’s even possible for me to do. I’m not big on fads, I like to really understand what it’s going to do and bring to my life. So, I really encourage you regardless of what I say, that you maybe take it, and chew on it, and research it, and see if it would suit you and see if it’s something that you can you can adapt into your life, and then it might work and maybe not.

I always say when I go to a workshop or if I go and, and, I read a certain book or something that is up information, I just I don’t take it, I take it in and then I kind of pick. I decide what’s going to work for me, and what I can tackle successfully because it’s not going to work. And so, my point is that also when you decide to make a change, I really encourage you to do it for significant time period. Whether it’s our cells rejuvenated or repairing at whatever level in your body, all the way from your hair to your internal organs, you gotta give it time, and just one thing isn’t going to fix everything. So slowly taking those baby steps to look for a more healthy, a more holistic, a more natural way of doing things. And just ‘cause your gramma did it, my grandmother used Nivea on her face. She has beautiful skin and she’s 98. You know, it she, she, it wasn’t just ’cause she was putting Nivea on, she was also always conscious of the food she ate. She was very aware, and she walked every night. So just different things right that you need to put into your bucket of health.

So I’ve talked about this before, I’ll start with eating. I’ve talked about this before, that I start my mornings, I start my mornings with the black coffee. And interestingly enough, I’ve gotta say is that I had a week without coffee pretty much, and I was just drinking tea, and when I went back to drinking coffee, if ever done a detox of any sort, I don’t drink as much now, and it’s just doesn’t, but I still do enjoy a cup in the morning, so I nice hot black and strong coffee. And then I give myself about 15 minutes, and then I make, without anything going in my body.

Let’s step back a bit, before I get out of bed, I have a huge mug, probably about the size of this candle, filled with water before I go to bed. And before I get my feet to the ground, I drink that whole mug of water, so it probably is about 16 ounces, then I go have my coffee which I have it prepared and set, which I quickly will step aside here for a second. I drink organic coffee now. Research it, it’s, it’s important to know where your coffee comes from. I actually grind them. I bought myself a little grinder as well, like it’s $20, and it is beautiful coffee. I grind my coffee at night, I put it all in my pot with my water, and then I get up in the morning, and I just start it. So I drink my first cup of coffee and it’s, I really enjoy it, but I also know that that’s it.
Secondly, I go into my celery juicing. And when I do my celery juicing now, I’m to the moment that I do about 3/4 of a stock, and I use turmeric, I use I would use about 1/3 of this and I just chop that up. I have a chunk of ginger that I use and I also use a lemon. Here’s a real one it’s about that size. And I use the whole lemon. And that goes into my body, and then after you drink it, you wait for another 15 – 20 minutes and then I go into my breakfast.

And my breakfast and lunch I’m really specific that I don’t eat meat, so I, but I know the importance or understood the important if I don’t have enough uhh in me, I get hungry and I get into cravings and all that jazz. And so, one thing that I’ve really learned a lot about is kind of like the healthy fats. So, this is an avocado, a very ripe one. Avocados are a fan favorite of mine, but I eat bread. I actually eat a light rye toast, and sometimes I have oatmeal, sometimes, I usually there steel oats, and I make a big pot and I just put in the fridge, and then I can warm them up. And with that, I have almond milk, and I’ll throw some nuts. And I love chia seeds. I didn’t bring any out but chia seeds, if I don’t have them in the morning, I will have them at lunch with some Greek yogurt. And chia seeds are, you know a fibrous seed, it has protein in it, and yeah super good for you.

And a lot of things, to be honest with you, I get at Winners and HomeSense. One, I love looking for the foods there and different products because they’re a little unique, but sometimes they step beyond, and of course I’m always looking for things that are organic. And it gives me time to kind of research them, and then take it a step further. Many, many, times I will be in Winners or HomeSense and I will be Googling what it is. This where I got this coffee, I got it there, and I was standing there Googling, going is it really organic? Where did it come from?

And so, I think it’s all just kind of part of getting ourselves informed. So morning and lunch, I try to keep it that way. As far as no meat at night, I’m picking away. I, when I cook, I’m a shitty cook, I am a shitty cook, I don’t enjoy it. I’m trying to look at different ways of cooking and embracing it. I seriously got burnt out by cooking and complainers right? So, I pick away at adding more vegetables and sources of protein that are not just my same old, same old meat. But generally speaking, it’s turkey and chicken, and I love salmon, love salmon. So that’s about it for food.

So, I’ve got this guy. This is Robert Mondavi. It’s just today. It’s a yummy wine that I really enjoy. I kind of like have this thing for California wines. But that’s today and it will change another day because I do find wine is like that. But I love going into the LCBO and I love experimenting with different wines and, and I make it in adventure. I kind of had to slow things down. A few years back, I found that I was drinking wine every night, and it wasn’t, I always get concerned when I get, my habits and routines, become what I call mindless. So, I remember checking things in, and to be super honest with you it was difficult for me to break that that pattern. Monday’s were always a huge, huge, long day so my most favorite thing that I got into was after my shower and getting comfy, I had that big glass of wine on Monday night. And then it was Tuesday night, Wednesday night. And I was just finding that I wasn’t feeling that great. I was not sleeping super great, and again, I’ve got this thing that if something is too routine and I become mindless, I really have to check myself, and check to see why I am doing something, and if it is beneficial, and do I still really enjoy it.

And so one of the things was that I stopped kind of really enjoying the specialness of different wines and going to LCBO and getting them and everything. And so, I, I consciously try to cut back. It was difficult I’m not going to lie to you, it was difficult. There were nights when I was like shit, I want a glass of wine, and it was like, no, nope, I had you know, move on, move on, move on. And that’s discipline and that’s all of life. That certainly isn’t a lecture, I’m just being really open as to where I’m at. Same went for coffee. Gawd, I used to drink coffee all day, and all the way to a mug would sit beside me beside my bed before I fell asleep. It was like, check. And gum! There’s a time when I chewed gum so much to just like suppress my appetite, and it was upsetting my stomach, and you know, but yet could I balance the two out? Could I handle the stomach because of my appetite?

So, there were different things there was like either way this isn’t healthy, so that’s kind of been my question, general, I’m doing this, I’m thinking it’s a great thing, and then I really I don’t think this is so good for me. And this is how I’d like you to take you know anything that I’m kind of throwing at you, but just food for thought for all of you.

So, next what I’d like to, kind of like, when we go into hell. The next is the face. So the face and body should I say, it’s so Botox is a really interesting thing, I’ve done Botox. And again, here’s a crazy thing right, you do it, and you look fresher, you look more awake, you, umm, it’s wonderful. It’s wonderful. But I, there wasn’t one time that I had Botox that I didn’t go, “Oh my God what is being squeezed into me right now?” It could be totally harmless, and it can have no effects. Maybe, I don’t know, um, but I couldn’t think that way and I was like, why am I doing this, and who am I trying to. And I am the first girl to say absolutely get your hair done, absolutely throw those heels on, absolutely get dressed up, absolutely put makeup on, absolutely get a facial, absolutely get Botox, if that floats your boat, and if that is you standing in yourself and you are doing it for you, you, you, you know?

So, I decided that that wasn’t for me anymore, and it’s a little humbling but I just, it just wasn’t working for me. So, it added to my quest, which I’ve always been very curious about it, again, I mentioned earlier about my grandmother, she was always aware of her features and she did the Nivea thing, and, and, taking care of her body, and what she ingested. So, I certainly took that on as well, and so with that, I’ve kind of gone on this path of a few different products that I really, really, like and again, what are you putting on your skin? And how is it absorbing into your body? And how healthy is it? And can you balance it out if it maybe isn’t as healthy, are the benefits there or does it make you feel a certain way?

So, I’ve kind of, I’m not rigid on this, I’m still in this flow of figuring it out, but I’ll tell you what I do. So, one of the neat things is as I have to kind of go back where it’s a little bit, and this really one of my favorite products, so this is from Arbonne. I was with Arbonne for quite some time, and really great products and you know the cool thing that are Arbonne did for me is, prior to Arbonne, I used to hang out in the drug store, and I used to hang out in the, like the cream section, and you know like, what’s the next best thing. And I spent a lot of money and I spent a lot of time and again, it was my mindless stuff, right? It was my mindless behavior kind of like my mindless shopping online. So, I was so happy to pull that away because all they would do is, I was working with some really basic products, really healthy products, natural products, and they were wonderful for my skin.

Now I did that for about 8 years, 10 years and I’ve just decided to change, and I think it’s important your body gets kind of used to things. And so, I do, I make myself uncomfortable intentionally to just keep stepping into growth. But I must say, which my children use this if they have a bad zit or something, I just say go to bed with this on it. This is a sea mask and it’s phenomenal. It’s one of those dark green ones, and it’s, I don’t know how long I’ve had this tube and as I said everybody uses in the house, and I still have lots of it. It is well worth your investment, and there’s piles of people who are Arbonnies that you can get in touch with.

Next, I, my product that I use right now, are I hope I say this right, Delilah organics, and Alicia started this company out in BC and she’s from our area in Belleville, and I love it. I love her products, and they’re all organic and again I’ll list all the stuff below, but this, she started me on this vitamin C, and then recently I had a facial couple months ago, I had a facial downtown, and we talked about what is the most natural way of going about with their skin, and everything is aging and the esthetician talked about vitamin C. It’s extremely important to be putting it on your face. So, it’s a beautiful, beautiful, product where she has piles of products, eye creams to oils. I have Italian skin, so oils feel really great on my skin, I have big pores though, so therefore, I get a lot of blackheads and everything, but I still feel like I, it feels coating and nourishing when I have oil. So I have a lot of different oils that I use, and different companies.

The other thing that we talked about is that my body perhaps wasn’t absorbing vitamin C, so what I do is, this is a rosewater mist, so I spray this, got this at HomeSense, and you just spray it on your face, and the esthetician suggested just let it be dripping, and then I put my vitamin C on, so my body can absorb it. And that’s an Arbonne eye cream, just fantastic. This here you might recognize it, but I use it. I’m picking away using it, and I actually use some of this topically, I don’t know. The base of it is actually coconut oil, but I’m playing with it. It’s expensive to play with but I think there’s a lot of properties to it and it’s kind of neat, and then so I do a squirt in my mouth, and I put a bit on. Lip stuff, I’m always looking at lip stuff, and this is kind of neat because I do pick my fingers, you can kind of see, I pick them, and kind of through Covid, I decided that wasn’t going to do manicures anymore as well, and then I ended up getting one for my birthday, and I picked my fingers so bad like, I pick, I am a picker. So, I’m continually again trying to find ways to keep that area and moisturize, so I don’t pick my fingers because I do not like it, but yet, I’m not crazy about getting manicures, so I still haven’t figured that one out yet, because I really do like the manicure, I don’t pick my fingers and it feels great.

Sometimes I just do wipes, it was actually my son’s girlfriend, I asked her one day, like what do you do, like do you always wash your face? Do you scrub it or whatever? And so when I’m in the shower I scrub but when I don’t have a shower before I go to bed, I just use a facial wipe, and I really like it, and it’s refreshing. This here is a sauve for, that I just always have beside my bed, and I got it on the Reserve, it doesn’t actually have any CBD oil in it, which I’m sure there’s way better ones out there, but I keep it beside my bed because before I go to sleep, if I do have my neck, and going up into my jaw, it’s, I just try to really practice ways that I’m going to relax. So, whatever that might be, it might be cinnamon candles, that is probably my most favorite, I have another candle here, whatever it’s going to kind of take for me to relax. I also have sage that I burn, and not sea grass, and I just I choose different smells, I choose different things that are going to allow me to get into a different space, because that then, that restfulness is huge, huge. When we have a great sleep like isn’t sleep one of the most powerful beauty supplements out there. So, the CBD oil, the candles, the relaxing my muscles. Definitely turning my phone off in good time, reading. It might also be music, so whatever you need to relax.

This little guy, I don’t know where you guys are at with flossing, but I keep kind of thinking, there’s no replacement really for my teeth, like that we know what we can get dentures and different things but I really want to. And so, we have these little guys that we used to have for like kids and stuff, I have them everywhere. I just have him everywhere, and so it just always, just you know, making sure that my teeth are staying nice and clean. This, nothing organic about this guy, but it smells so delicious, and it just again, I’m in the shower, I love the smell, it literally puts his file on my face, and it’s all these different moments that you can just kind of go, “Ah, my God that feels good” Or “that is so delicious” or or my something about it I think reminds me of my childhood.

And then the last one is, you know, I as I mentioned I have Italian skin and it’s like doesn’t really absorb a lot and so therefore I can tan and but it also doesn’t have much sponge and also my hair is very curly and it’s almost course and dry, dry, dry, dry. I can go a whole week without washing my hair, and I just keep adding product in it and oils, oils, on the end and it just doesn’t look greasy. But I did come across a really great product to find him friend of mine quite a few years back got me this product. It is available, you can order it online, it is this particularly hair mask, but it’s a shampoo and a very deep conditioner that works really well for my hair. So, if you have curly coarse, you’re always trying to tame it, the 80s, you had huge massive hair like me, this is a nice alternative, and again, it’s about being open and taking care of yourself.

I talked a lot about or the earlier part about drinking water, I do drink water like crazy, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t not drink other stuff. I’m stepping more into herbal teas, and what that looks like loosely teas. And then lastly when I talk about my health, which I’ve talked about meditation before, which I think is taking that time, you know when you get up in the morning you have your coffee. I’ve been doing this for years and years and years is that I would set my alarm before the kids would get up, so I could have that quiet time. I wasn’t meditating then but it was a form of meditation, just taking it time for myself whether it was just sitting quietly listening to music or reading, drinking my coffee and just reflecting.

The other part though is movement. So every day, the most wonderful thing that we did as a family is get another dog and we’ve had Bea for a year and a half, and she’s been wonderful because in the winter we go outside, and I walk where I didn’t embrace the winter before. She runs with us. She gets us moving. We go for, my partner and I, would go for a walk about four nights a week like in the dark, with Bea around 9:00 o’clock in our neighborhood, and it’s just, it’s wonderful, we talk and there’s no phones, no kids, and we just, but we kind of make this this decisions and changes.

Yoga is huge for me. Yoga allows me to stretch. I had mentioned earlier inflammation is big factor with me and continually trying to figure out how to reduce my inflammation which in my mind, my only trigger point really is pain, so if I’ve overdone something, I’ve got to listen to my body. Even sometimes I can over do with yoga, so I don’t necessarily do yoga everyday, but I do stretch, and with that I do breathing, and I really focus on my breathing.

About two days a week I run, no more than 5 kilometres, it’s still a challenge. I’ve talked about this before too but I love it, I love it. That is my almost, almost my treat, ‘cause I get to sweat and I get to push myself I don’t do strength training anymore. My strength is through yoga, where I really focus on my balance and body awareness and posture and stretching out my body.

So it’s very different, extremely different, where I was eight years ago, even five years ago, I was super, super, intense with all the I was doing with my weights and training and exercising and going, going. I allow myself to sleep in now, I used to get up at 5:00 o’clock every morning. If I feel like I need to sleep in, I sleep in if I can, and I also don’t try to be the hero and stay up late. If it’s not working for me, I’m hopping in that bed and I’m getting cuddly, and I really embrace my bed. Now that’s a whole other thing! We have purchased beautiful sheets, like just, they’re not super, super, expensive there just like really, really, comfy and isn’t it great to get in your bed, and go, “Oh my God, I love my bed, I love my bed”. I have a comforter, I probably replace my comforter cover about once a year, just to change it up and to look differently, and then one of the kids get it, but it’s just doing these special things for you.

Are you taking care of you? Because here’s the thing it took me a long time to get this through my head but doing you, taking care of you, feeding you, relaxing you, energizing you is not selfish. It is when we feel great and when we exude this energy that we don’t even realize, but that it’s you know sunshine coming out of us. It’s so good for everybody around us. It’s so important for our children to see how we need to take care of ourselves, and that it shouldn’t be guilt ridden to enjoy and be and do. It’s not just for our daughters to understand that they need to continue to take care of themselves, but is also for our sons to see that this is how we celebrate ourselves as humans, but also with the women in our lives, if that is your route. And that it’s also our partners. If we’ve always done things a certain way and selfishness and whatever might be on the plate, it’s okay, you still get to do you. Taking baths, taking your time, not doing the dishes, changing up routines, dabbling with different foods, different drinks, it’s all good when your intention is simply how can I find my healthiest self. So I encourage you to join me on this path of our healthy stuff. We got this! You do you.