DEMAKEUP

Hi guys!

I was never a big fan of make up remover wipes, which are not so good for the environment, or other quite aggressive make up removers. So, I only washed my face with a soft soap, which worked alright except for the mascara, which leads to black eyes in the morning. But if you wear eyeshadow, foundation, lipstick, liquid eyeliner, ... I guess this won't work either.

Now, this is the solution that is much better for your skin and it takes off really EVERYTHING!

VEGETABLE OILS !

It's actually logical that it takes off make up so good, because make up is made of oily compounds that water can't remove. But oil only solves in other oils, like water only solves in other water compounds, that's why oils can remove make up so easily.

You can use any kind of vegetable oil; olive oil, macadamia oil, jojoba oil, ... It works with all of them. Just put some oil on a cotton-wool and wipe it over your face. Mascara, eyeliner, blush, foundation, lipstick, ... it takes it all off!

One of my favorite is jojoba oil;

                - it makes the skin very soft

                - good for any type of skin (from very dry, sensible skin to acneic and oily skin)

                - it also works against eczema and psoriasis

                - it rehydrates and restructures the skin

                - really good for your hair too; it's nourishing and fortifying, also good when you have quickly greasy hair, it works against the excess of sebum

                - it protects the skin from the cold; you can wear it as day and night creme

                - it's a natural anti-UV

                - it's anti-aging!

Now, go throw those wipes away and go buy some of those fantastic oils!!!

PS : I buy most of my oils and essential oils on www.aroma-zone.com (if you understand French, click on the French page because it's much better explained and illustrated, they still have to work on their English site).

SPELT

Why we should all eat more spelt? Let's talk about that! My dogs, cat and horses have a daily spelt menu! 

Wheat, the most common cereal, loses all of is qualities when it has been grinded. The only thing that is left over are gluten. So you always should use whole-wheat products! 

But with spelt, all the good qualities stay after the grinding process!
Spelt contains about % 57.9 carbohydrates (excluding 9.2 % fibre), 17.0 % protein and 3.0 % fat (good fats), as well as lots of dietary minerals and vitamins. Spelt also contains lot of amino acids and these are responsible for making the happy hormone -> spelt makes us happy too :). It also keeps us blood-sugar value constant, this is good against cravings! 

Why choose spelt in stead of regular wheat?

• it has a better ratio carbs/fats
• it lowers the cholesterol, thanks to the good unsaturated fatty acids
• it delivers lots of energy (good for athletes)
• it helps the digestion, because it's really easy to digest and the nutrients go quickly in our blood and handle cell renewal, and at the same time it detoxifies our body because it stimulates our kidneys
• it contains more vit B's than wheat, those are good for the metabolism of our nervous system and our brains.

When you buy spelt in full grains, like on the picture above you need to soak the grains a whole night before cooking it. Throw away the water where it soaked in. Then you put it in a dish with 2 times his volume of water, on low heat and cook it for 30-40 minutes. You can make a nice and healthy salad if you add some vegetables and a little bit of olive oil with it! 

Spelt soup  = this is a really nourishing spelt soup recipe, good for cold winter days!


- Soak chickpeas or other beans a whole night in water, same with the spelt.
- Cook some onions in olive oil
- Add celery and onions (you can add lots of other vegetables; carrots, fennel, leeks, garlic,...) with chickpeas, and let them boil together
- Add the onions cooked in the olive oil; mix the soup like you want it to. 
- Add the spelt and some water, cook everything together till the spelt is tender.

I really love spelt bread also!

Also spelt is the only cereal that doesn't require any pesticides! You don't need to buy it in bioshops, it's always bio:). 




Remember :

 Spelt everyday, keeps the doctor away!

batch of cookies

Made these cookies today!

I always adapt vegan recipes I find with things that I have at home, and it always turned out great. Now I made almond-dates cookies.

- 1 cup of almonds

- 3/4 cup of spelt flower

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 10 medjool dates (or more/less to taste)

- 1/4 rapadura cane organic sugar

- 1.5 tablespoon coconut oil (you have to melt it)

- 6 tablespoons almond milk

- 1.5 tablespoon flax seeds

- 1/4 cup of maple syrup (I didn't had any maple syrup left so I put some agave syrup, but not enough so my cookies were a little drier than usual)

- 1 cup oats

- 1.5 tablespoons cinnamon

- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

You don't have to translate the cups in grams, I just take one of my cereal bowls and use this for every ingredient.

Put your almonds on a baking plate, and put them in the oven at 170-180 C° for 10 minutes to roast them. Always check to see that they don't burn. Then mix them roughly. Mix also the oats roughly. In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients: spelt flower, baking powder, oats, flax seeds, cinnamon, sugar, almonds. Then add the wet ingredients; vanilla essence, almond milk, coconut oil, dates (chopped in little pieces), maple syrup. Whisk it all together. Then you make your cookies in the size you want them; 180 °C in the oven for 10 minutes, then let it cool down for 5 minutes in the oven and then take them out of the oven and let them cool down and dig in!

the cold - the oils

When it’s so cold outside, you should better protect your skin, hands, hair. 

This is an easy recipe for a face mask, that will make your skin have an healthy glow and help it against dryness.

·         Carrot juice freshly made

·         1 egg’s yolk (eigeel)

·         A little bit of olive oil

Preparation: beat the egg yolk with the olive oil in 100 ml of carrot juice. Put this on your face for 30 min and wash it off. 

Your hands will likely also suffer from this weather;

·         1 teaspoon of lemon juice

·         50 grams of quark

·         1 tablespoon of flour 

  

Knead your hands with this preparation and wash off with warm water. This will keep your hands soft and young!

I love taking baths, certainly the baths that I make with different kinds of oils. It's really relaxing and my skin is very oily afterwards, this is good because I have a dry skin.

This is how I make them; I take two tablespoons of a certain oil. You can use olive oil, macadamia oil,... Don't choose too expensive oils, but try to use biological oils. Sometimes I use some argan oil, here it's expensive but not in Marocco so if you know someone who goes there always ask to bring some for u! Then I garnish this oil/oils with essential oils. 

* LAVENDER = lavendula officinalis. This essential oil is really one to have at home, it works for so many things. I never make a bath without lavender :). It treats insomnia, agitation, anxiety, digestive problems, stress, nervosity, depression. It also heals scars very well, restores tired skin, burns, .... If you have trouble sleeping, take a bath before you go to bed, with 2 tablespoons of any oil with 4-8 drops of lavender essential oil. You always have to dilute your essential oils in any other normal oil because you can't put it straight on your skin, it's too concentrated. 

* PEPPERMINT = mentha piperita. This one has a tonic action on the body. It relaxes your muscles, relieve your articulations. Besides a relaxing and stimulant action, it also has the ability to relieve real migraines, headaches, stimulates the nervous system; it's really good when you have a mental fatigue. Because it's so stimulating, don't use it before you go to bed, it won't help you sleeping! It also works to lower fever. 

* LEMON = citrus limonum. Lemon essential oil has a lot of good things to offer. It's works antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, healing, it liquidizes the blood, works as an hypo-tensive, anti-infectious, it regularizes the nervous tone, helps the digestion, it's diuretic, draining (good for cellulites), and many more:). When you use it in your bath, it will have a slimming effect; anti-cellulites, good against acne, releaves pain from insect bites, good against wrinkles, it's also good against anemia and mental fatigue. Lemon is a good one to mix with lavender! 4 drops of lemon essential oil and 4 drops of lavender essential oil diluted in any oil.

Here is a little anti-cellulite recipe : In 15 cl of normal oil, you dilute;
        - 20 drops of cyprès essential oil
        - 20 drops of juniper essential oil
        - 20 drops of lemon essential oil
        - 10 drops of geranium essential oil
        - 10 drops of grapefruit essential oil

When you take your bath or shower, scrub your cellulite zones with this oil to activate the circulation. Then when you are dry, knead yourself firmly with this oil again on those places, even if it hurts a little! You can make more and put it in a bottle, keep it in a cool and dark place.

There are really a lot of essential oils with amazing properties, it's difficult for me to talk about all of them in one article. Those three that I just talked about are really good basics to have at home. Essential oils are also quite expensive (between 5-15 euros) because you need really a lot of flower/plant to make a little bottle, it's so concentrated. Don't try to buy them cheap either because bad made essential oils are dangerous, always buy them in pharmacies or bioshops!

DON'T USE ESSENTIAL OILS IF YOU ARE PREGNANT. Off course there are only a couple who are dangerous for your baby, but I just want to warn you. I suggest you go to someone who really studied aromatherapy, if you want to have an anti-stretch mark oil for example during your pregnancy (I think it's the only thing that works against it!).
The way I use it, is really inoffensive and I have a couple of books about it that teach me the basics and simple ways to use them in your daily life.

Also don't use any agrums (lemon, mandarin, bergamot, tangerine, orange, ...) essential oil and go into the sun afterwards, because they're photo sensitizing and you'll burn very quickly.

This is the book that I have :).

If you have any questions about it, leave me a comment!

I hope you'll enjoy essential oils in your bath (and in your life) as much as I do!

Love, Shady

From the mountains

It’s very  cold here, but the sky is blue and the sun shines! We even managed to ski with my dog Prince, he’s so cute jumping around and following us in the snow! 

Here is a muesli recipe for skiers;

For 1 person:

-          100 grams of dried fruits like raisins, peaches, apples, plums, apricots

-          125 ml of water

-          3 tablespoons multi-grain flakes

-          250 g quark

-          2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

-          1 tablespoon honey

-          2 tablespoons almond milk (or more to taste)

Let the dried fruits soak in the water a couple of hours.  Then roast the flakes in a pan and then mix it with the quark, orange juice, honey and almond milk and then put the dried fruits together.

For the people who aren’t skiing, here is a recipe for joggers;

For 1 person: 

-          4 tablespoons of oat flakes

-          1 tablespoon millet

-          8 chopped hazelnuts

-          1 teaspoon of soymilk powder

-          1 teaspoon of royal jelly (bio and organic stores)

-          1 teaspoon honey

-          1 cup of milk

Mix the soy-milk powder, royal jelly  and honey in the milk. And pour this on the oat flakes and hazelnuts. Eat this one hour before your workout!

Here are also other ingredients you can add to your muesli;

·         BANANAS = calms down the nerves . Because bananas contain serotonin (happy and feel good hormone). Lots of vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C, D, E. Lots of kalium, fosfor, iron, magnesium, calcium, fluor and jodium. It has a very high nutritious value.

·         PEERS = good for the brains. Vit C, pectin and minerals and specially lots of fosfor. This increases our intellectual capacities and our concentration. Children who eat muesli in the morning with a peer, have a better concentration. 

·         PINEAPPLE = good for the love life. 

·         PEACHES = fresh peaches when it’s the season taste delicious with your muesli. Have a lot of vit A and C, copper and manganese. It’s lightest rheumatic pain and prevents muscle disorders and raises the body resistance. And last but not least, it is a great beauty mean because it makes the skin soft and elastic. 

·         GRAPES = when the season is there, we should benefit of this fruit in our morning muesli. Lots of vit C,A,B1, B2 and niacin. They contain a lot of dietary fibers, help the digestion. Eat the grapes with their peel and kernels; the peel works as fibers  en the kernels contain valuable substances. You should drink a lot of mineral water when you eat muesli with grapes, this helps your body to eliminate the wastes in our body. Putting grapes in your muesli also stimulates your liver, your kidney and regulates your blood circulation.

·         ELDER BERRIES (VLIERBESSEN, SUREAU) = these little black berries contain a lot of vitamin B and work blood forming. They’re also very good against neuralgia.

    I'll write soon about face masks and oil baths for very dry skin! Absolutely necessary with those temperatures :)!

   Love, Shady

granola

Haaay! I'm going skiing tomorrow, so I quickly made these granola bars to have a lot of energy on the ski slopes! I mixed oats, spelt flower, 2 ripe bananas squashed, cranberries, raisins, flax seeds, coconut oil, rapadura whole organic cane sugar, almond milk and it's done! 35 minutes in the oven at 160 degrees. I already tasted them, very good and healthy ;-)!

Hopefully we won't get stuck in the snow, like lots of people today!

See you soon!

Love, Shady

argile

CLAY = ARGILE = KLEI 

It's crazy for how many thing clay is wonderful. In the nature you find pink, yellow, white, red, blue and green clay. The one that you can find the easiest is green clay, and has all the good properties. 

So much minerals in clay : silicium, aluminium, calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, sodium, manganese, fosfor, titan, copper, cobalt, lithium, selenium, zinc. 

Actions : 

• kills microbes and bacteria, very good against parasites; 
• for very deep injuries, it heels so amazingly fast without leaving scars
• if you take it internally, it will go to the damaged organs and help them repair themselves
• its purifies and cleans the blood
• cures diarrheas, irritations of the digestive organs
• against colds and angina
• for burns, sunburns
• very good for your skin;  for detoxification and softer skin

Clay is something everybody should have at home, and take with them on holidays. Here are some examples of how I frequently use clay;

* My dogs run all the time in the fields, sometimes they can eat a rotten rabbit or something not very good for their digestion. When I see that, I immediately give them clay water. You put a couple of stones (if its in stones) or two tablespoon of clay powder in their water and you stir the water couple a times a day.  Giving your animals regularly some clay water is also very good against parasites. Same for my cat.

* Every two weeks, I make a clay mask for my skin. I use green or pink clay. The basic ingredients that I always use are; 1 tablespoon clay, 2 drops of lavender essential oil (I'll post about aromatherapy later, if you don't know what this is; NOT MORE THAN 2 DROPS!), 2 tablespoons rose water (or other kinds of floral water), 1 tablespoon of oil; you can use all kinds of oil; olive oil, argan oil, jojoba oil, sesamoil, macadamia oil,...I use now oil of the raspberry tree for tired and irritated skin. Make sure it's extra virgin oil and biological. And then you stir everything to a smooth paste (use a plastic or inox spoon). Apply to your face, for 15 minutes. You can put afterwards your day cream or not, because they will be an oily layer on your skin, that protects your skin also.

 I use the clay from 'Argiletz'. You can buy it in little stones, or in powder. It's not expensive; 8 euro's for 1 kg and trust me I think you can go a whole year with 1 kg.

Left you have the rosewater, salvia flower water, juniper flower water. Then a couple of oils; oil from the plum tree, bresilian nut oil, abricot kernel oil (noyau d'abricot), buriti oil, olive oil, raspberry oil. Different kinds of flower waters and different kinds of oil for different purposes, skin types. If you buy your oils like me, pure, you should put some drops of vit. E in it. Because otherwise you won't be able to keep it very long, it will oxide.

* My horse had a bullet strain (foulure du boulet, kogel omgeslaan). So we had to put cataplasms of clay on her bullet. Three times a day, and always wash it off with warm water. It's easy to make a cataplasm, just mix some water with the clay till it's a good paste.

You put it on the leg and make a good bandage around it. You can do this if you sprained your ankle, or any other limb. Also if you burned yourself, make a cataplasm!

You can also do a clay cure, in the spring. You melt some clay rocks or powder in water. In the beginning you only drink the water, the clay will sink in the bottom, first thing in the morning (you make your glass the evening before). After a week or so you can stir a bit in your glass and drink some clay with it. This is really a good detox cure, you can do it for 3 weeks. The more your body is intoxicated, the more reactions you will have, your body will be eliminating the bad things and this is not always pleasant.But you'll know your body is doing is his work :).

* You can also use clay powder in your bath! It detoxifies your skin, so it's very good. But the only problem is that clay isn't really good for your plumbing, it gets stuck in the pipes. So my mum won't let me do this very often :). Also when I make a face mask, I always take the clay off with some tissues and then I rinse my face with water.

 More about my different kind of oils, soon :)

Shady

muesli muesli muesli

Muesli...I think I'm eating this every morning for more than 6 years now! A couple of years ago, when I was in Amsterdam with my friend Emma, I found this book : Het Muesliboek ! This is a book from 1985, I payed it 2,50 euro's but for me it's worth 10000 euro's :). It explains how a REAL MUESLI should be, what things you can put into (almost everything), and what it does to your body! I'll try to resume the book for you;

1) GRAINS = graankorrels

    

         * BARLEY = gerst, orge (most of minerals, good for the intestine, lungs, lots of vit B1 B2, vit E, niacine and pantotheenacid (these two are precursors for making coënzymes, really necessary in a cell! (I just studied this for my exam Biochemistry ;-) ) )

         * OAT = haver, avoine (this is very good for your strenght and intellectual potential, very good when you are in need of magnesium and egg white, also if you have cardiovascular diseases or anemia; vit B, kalium, calcium, magnesium, iron and fosfor) 

         * RYE = rogge, seigle (you can find this a lot in bread; strengthens your whole body and helps for a better stool, really high kalium concentration and this stimulates your liver in a good way:)!) 

         * MILLET = gierst, millet (really good for your SKIN, nails and hair, lots of iron, magnesium, fosfor and vit B's - if you have a bad skin I really recommend to eat a lot of millet in your muesli for a couple of weeks, you will see the difference) 

          * SPELT = spelt, épeautre (lots of iron and fosfor, good for your bowl) BUT I WILL DO ANOTHER POST soon ABOUT THIS EXTRAORDINARY GRAIN 

          * BUCKWHEAT = boekweit, sarrasin; this has to be soaked in water before you can use it. (Gives the essential amino-acid LYSINE (also studied that), VIT B1, B2, iron, kalium, calcium). Buckwheat is one of my favorites, I really like the nutty flavor of it! I also cook it and use it in salads, very good! 

2) SWEETENERS 

Never WHITE SUGAR; when our body need to decompose white sugar, it also brings vit B1, B2, nicotinacid, panthotheenacid and B-biotine down (essential coënzymes). That's NOT a good thing!!! If you put white sugar in your fresh made muesli, I think you'll kill me from the inside. 

what I like to see : HONEY, FRESH FRUIT, concentrated pear juice (ingedikt perensap)= good for diabetics,  DRIED FRUIT

                                           

raisins = vit A, vit C, vit B1, vit B2, niacine,  they help our bowl, clean our intestines, help our kidneys, our liver, also for old people they are really good to make them stronger!

dried plums (pruimen, prunes) = those keep our intestins in very good condition, vit A, vit C, vit B2, vit B6 and all minerals! Not too much, one or too, otherwise you'll maybe have some diarrhea.

dates (dadels, dattes) = my all time favorite, this is so jummie and so sweet :). Lots of kalium, magnesium, calcium, fosfor, iron, natrium, vit B1 B2 A and C, and proteins! It also keeps you thin, because when you eat dates, you don't want to eat candy and other bad sugary things! 

apples = fresh apple! They contain vit B, vit C and lots of minerals. It increases our immune system against sickness, calms down the nerves, helps the making of blood, helps our teeth gum, intestines, ... = one apple a day keeps the doctor away!

3) NUTS NUTS NUTS NUTS NUTS

Yeeeeeeesss all kinds of nuts! These are very good for our brains, my fellow students ;-). And please don't say, 'they make me fat'. Okay, if you eat really lots of them and salted nuts but if you only put them in your muesli, it will even make you skinnier! Because the oil in the nuts, helps our body to break down FATS! Also lots of minerals; kalium, lots of magnesmium, calcium, fosfor, magnesium, iron, fluor, vit B's, VIT E! Nuts contain really really a lot of vit E, so if you want to stay young: NUTS.   

This was my muesli of this morning;

- one apple 

- regular muesli (mostly with oat)

- raisins

- pistachio nuts

- sunflower seeds

- pumpkin seeds

- oat bran (son d'avoine)

- chia seeds 

- CINNAMON offcourse (I will talk about this later)

- oat milk 

- dates on top mmmm

Yes, my dog Prince wanted to taste it also ;-)

Love!

ANTICANCER

This book changed my life! It made me realize that the nature, the earth had given us everything we needed to cure en to stay healthy, so why not use it? This book is the story of a French doctor, psychiatrist who worked in Pittsburgh. He was diagnosed with a really bad brain tumor, stage 4. He had only a couple months left...After doing surgery, chimiotherapy, ... He started looking at other ways to make him feel better; our own body :) He started running everyday with his dog, he started meditating (this increases our immune system) and he changed his eating habits! He tells you in the book what is the best to eat for what kind of cancer, he explains how it all works :).

This man lived with his brain cancer more than 20 years...He died the 24th of July 2011. I was really sad to hear that but on the other hand I'm so grateful that he shared his story with the whole world.

This book is a best-seller in France, Belgium, Zwitserland, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Israël, Brazil and America! It's been translated in more than 40 languages!

THIS IS A BOOK I REALLY RECOMMEND!!!

Love, Shady

Introduction

Hello!!! First post on my blog :) 
Who am I? I'm Shady, 20 year old vet student, living near Brussels and studying in Ghent. 
It's difficult to say about what I will write, mostly about living healthy, yes! But living healthy is not only foodwise...it's everything! How you clean your house, how you treat your animals, what kind of medication you take, which skin products you use, ... I have an opinion on all of these subjects! 

So...let's get this started ;-)


Love, Shady