Please keep in mind we are not nutritionist or doctors. We recommend checking in with your doctor before making any changes to your diet and exercise routine. Most of our information is based upon our own experiences and research, although we do hope you keep an open mind.
We wanted to go over a few things going along with our coconut kefir video. Michelle forgot to mention a few things. Many of you might see kefir starter packs in your local stores or online. The difference between the kefir starter packs and the grains is that the packs only last a few times while the grains could possible last a lifetime. That way you really only have to buy the grains once because they will continue to populate and make more. Though if you are just curious and starting out with making kefir the starter packs are a great way to go.
Going along with the grains there are two types water and milk. Both are great! We use both. And now for the ‘milk’ grains you do not necessary have to use dairy to make them as you saw in our video coconut milk seems to be working out just fine. Yes you all may be thinking that the ‘milk’ grains are not vegan, which is true. But we do not make our kefir using ‘real’ milk just coconut or hemp milks and we are loving it because it is very similar to real kefir and it has the sour and creaminess that we love. So to us it is ok even if it started out with real ‘milk’ grains. Though you may experiment with whatever type of grain and liquid you feel most comfortable with doing. We plan to show more on making water kefir later this week.
Anymore questions please just let us know. We are here to help and would love to see more of you trying out making your own kefir!!!!
Ok enough of kefir now onto our eats for over the past few days.
Going along with Gena’s theme of saying “I LOVE TO EAT!” And you all know Michelle and I love to do that. Though we have struggled with eating disorders too. Our journey was a little bit different (our food issues all were based around our stomach issues- we would not eat because we did not want to feel like crap) though eventually over time we finally learned to love food again and embrace ourselves and the food we eat. We also struggled with our body images that we know many of you deal with as well though we will save that big topic another day!
Therefore in honor of National Eating Disorder weekwe wanted to show you all that eating healthy can be fun, delicious, and comforting! And of course great for your body and mind!
Hits the spot of us both every time. We are huge fans of key lime!!!!
And of course to start our day today …. green smoothieThis delicious smoothie was filled with dino kale, grapefruit, coconut oil, sunflower lecithin, stevia and lots of fresh ginger
Lately all I have been craving is sauerkraut and grapefruit! Not sure why but I guess those are not bad things to crave
Ok well I challenge of all you to say you love FOOD and yourself!!! And talk about food and why you eat food. Remember food is not your enemy as long as you are eating what is right for your body and it makes you feel good. It took Michelle and I a very long time to realize this and now we are happier than ever! Though not every day we are perfect or 100% happy with everything, though we are grateful with the food choices we make and know that we are on the journey to a better health!
Now go out there and make some delicious food and tell us all about it.
Today’s video is on coconut kefir. We have made coconut kefir before using water kefir grains and it came out alright, but we realized we wanted to test out milk kefir grains. We liked it better, but it does still do fine with water kefir grains.
Ingredients:
2 cups of coconut milk (or any milk of choice)
2 measuring cups
wooden spoon
plastic strainer
milk kefir grains
We got our kefir grains from Marilyn the Kefir lady. She sends you the grains as I mentioned in a bag all ready to go. You just have to add your 2 cups of milk. Directions are provided along with some recipes. Marilyn also sells water kefir grains and Kombucha cultures.
Another source to get kefir grains, water kefir grains, and Kombucha cultures is Cultures for Health . This is where we got our water grains and mother Kombucha, which will be some of our next videos!! Cultures for health sell their milk kefir grains dehydrated, so when you receive them you have to rehydrate them before you start making your kefir. Again, directions are provided.
Here is a quick video of how we make our coconut kefir puddings that you see all over our blog.
Wow this week flew by. We have been busy here, and if you follow us twitter you would of seen that last night we got interviewed for a feature in a local paper in regards to raw foods in the area. It was very exciting to hear about all the things raw in our area, it is small but at least something. We will let you all know more once we hear more. ; )
Today we are going to update you all on our hormones. As you all know we have shared our issues with hormonal imbalance and birth control before. I know many of you suffer from hormone issues of your own and some of you have asked to give an update of how we are doing.
First, how is Michelle?
Last week I was a mess. My hormones were all over the place…my emotions, my appetite, my sleep patterns, my energy…I was not myself. I was eating more cooked food than normal…more sweets than normal. I started to get really bloated and then on Monday I woke up to realize I got my period!!!! So it explains my behavior and symptoms, but now I forgot what it feels like to have one. Remember it has been a little over a year since I stopped birth control, which is when I stopped getting my period. My skin still has breakouts, but I have seen improvements. I do not really have much else to say because this is just the first time since I have my period in year, so I will just have to wait and see how each month from now on goes. I will keep you posted. But I do believe my new changes in my diet have helped balance me, but again I am not healed yet, still have a journey.
I will now hand it over to Lori.
I have no idea. I mean really that is how I feel. I am not sure where or how my body/hormones are doing. I have my ups and downs still, no period yet for me. My breakouts are slowing down but are still happening. My overall skin appearance is alright, still have a long journey to go. I am staying optimistic because I know that everything that I am doing with my diet is going to work just have to give it more time. My sleeping has been great lately and my appetite strong. I still crave sweets but not as much as I used too. I have really been wanting my sauerkraut and smoothies It seems that I go through stages with my eats (which I am sure many people do) one week all I want is chocolate and than the very next week I do not want any; I want more savory things. I am still trying to figure everything out but taking one day at a time. Really liking all the fermented foods and msm. I have incorporated more into my diet. I feel they are really helping.
Well as you can see we both are still on a journey as each of you too. So we say hang in there and treat your body good with good food, exercise, and relaxation, and give it time!
Yesterday was a nice sunny, but cold day here yet we felt like going for a run. So we layered up and headed outside for a quick 25 minute run. Then followed the run with some Tracy Anderson mat workout. It was a hard intense workout yesterday, both of us were tired by the end. Luved it.
What did we eat afterwards to helps us recover?
Post-workout iron filled smoothie
Green smoothie filled with hemp protein, parsley, pumpkin seeds, lemon, yacon, maca and camu camu (high in Vitamin C,which helps absorb iron). Perfect! Very filling!
Check out our comforting dinner last night….semi raw fermented dinner ; )
Millet with sauerkraut, fermented veggies, cilantro, and coconut oil.
It totally hit the spot last night for both of us. Just needed something warm and comforting. It has a very long time since we have had millet. It was a nice change
So good…wanted more ; ) Love millet!! So easy to digest and quick to make.
Now onto something exciting….we finally made raw bread!!! This is a recipe we have practiced over and over and finally think we have it!!!
Now this is not your typically large loaf of bread, but for us this actually tasted like bread. It was moist, good texture, and very satisfying. This bread is not only raw but gluten free, vegan and nut free
Perfect with a nut butter…we chose walnut butter which is a mixed of walnuts and cashews. The amazing people over at Artisana sent us some extra samples of some of their nut butters. You all know we love their coconut oil and butter, so we were excited to try the nut butters.
It was creamy, rich, and wonderful flavor! It did not have to much of a walnut flavor which we liked. The texture was perfect for spreading onto our slice of bread!
We are very pleased with our raw bread!
Very smooth! A great source of your omega’s 3 and 6. We love our GOOD healthy FATS! Another great thing about this company is that their products are made in a facility that does not handle any peanuts, gluten, dairy, or GMO’s! Love that and we really enjoyed this walnut butter. The only con about their products is that they do not soak their nuts. But still a great buy in our opinion.
Well, time to get go do some yoga. Happy Friday to you all!
Lori and I have been trying to create new pre-workout snacks, because the ones from the marathon worked so well for us that we are interested in creating more.
Check out the one we created yesterday:
Can you guess what it is??
It was so good!! You all know we love our puddings ; )
This one was a blend of our coconut kefir mixed with banana, coconut oil, dates, vanilla, spirulina, maca, and sprinkled with cacao nibs
Brendan’s new book is a continuation of his first book Thrive, another great read if you have not read it already! Thrive focused on the basics of fitness and the importance of proper nutrition. Thrive Fitness is geared to improving your athletic performance. Now some people may be thinking they are not athletes, but I feel anyone who loves to get a good workout in is an athlete. There are just different levels of athletes ; ) because there are all types of exercise!!
We feel everyone would benefit from reading Brendan’s new book. Individuals new to working out would start to see the benefits of a regular fitness routine. As veterans you can see how you can improve your endurance and stamina. Now what person does not what that for their workouts ? People who just workout on an everyday bases, like us, would benefit because there are little tips that you may not have thought to try before, plus there are more great recipes!!
We love how Brendan refers to it as lifestyle. Lori and I totally agree because change does not happen overnight. We have to constantly work at it, but the key is to find something that you enjoy. As Brendan says, if you enjoy something you tend to stick with it!
I enjoyed learning more about short high intensity trainings. Back in high school I can attest that this works because over the summers we would have some hard intense training sessions with our volleyball coach. Nothing like you can imagine. We did all types of jump training activities out the hot Florida heat, followed by sprints, running up and down bleachers. Well to make my point, at the beginning of our training our coach measured our performance on a few things, one was our vertical jump. And at the end of the summer Lori and I both improved our vertical jump by 7 IN!!!! That is huge!!! Our coach was blown away…I must say we both were in the best shape of our lives then. Oh sometimes I wish I could go back….sometimes ; )
I would recommend everyone to read Thrive Fitness because whether you are a beginner or seasonal athlete, each person can learn and take what they want away from Brendan’s tips. And I love learning something new ; ) We should all look at ourselves as everyday students. That you can never learn too much, that everyone has something new to bring to the table.
Brendan does a great job reviewing what key ingredients are needed for good fitness. I like how he has a nutrition and training log, which is great for those who need to visualize things to reach their goals. Lori and I both have been enjoying our new style of workouts and are excited to try some of Brendan’s recipes to see if we notice anything from them.
Glad to see everyone liked our pizza and key lime cookie sandwich! We both felt great after eating this pizza, which in the past was not always the case due to nuts found in most raw pizza recipes (Ian would understand your issue with too many nuts). We are happy we were able to make our pizza nut free ; ) We had happy tummies.
Check us out on Crazy Sexy Life…we are so excited to share our story!! Let us know what you think.
Today we wanted to talk about a topic that is a bit controversial.
P-R-O-T-E-I-N
Some readers asked us about where we get our protein? We have a lot we could say on this topic but going to try to keep it short.
When we first when vegan to be honest we never thought about protein. Actually we never thought about being deficient in anything. Our focus was to feel better, have energy, and most of all have happy tummies again.
We grew up with two older sisters that were into body building. They ate a very very high protein diet with little carbs and pretty much no fat. And they gained muscle, a lot of muscle. They looked great during their training, but Lori and I never wanted to look all muscular. We want to look lean and long….like a dancers body, even though we are not dancers ; ) (Note: our sisters do not eat this way…they are almost vegans now ; ) )
We eat for energy…we eat to thrive. Animal proteins and dairy cause acidity in the body, which can lead to gaining fat. Acid gets stored in fat cells. One of our favorite books is Eating for Energy by Yuri Elkaim, Yuri goes into this topic in great detail, check it out. Working out causes acid. Meat and dairy cause acid. Solution – eat raw alkaline foods….like greens to help the body use energy to restore muscles!!
Brendan Brazier has two great books about fitness and eating for optimal performance. (our review on Thrive fitness coming soon) And then our friend Tim talks a lot about fitness, food, and protein. Check out his video where he talks about protein myths.
When you eat to much animal products, whether they are high in fat or lean, you still make your stomach and digestive system work harder to break down these heavy proteins into their amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks to build muscle tissue. Plant based foods on the other hand are a lot easier for the body to digest due to being smaller chains and/or individual amino acids. Amino acids are a pure source of protein…this is what we are looking for!!
We do not eat beans or soy, and eat little nuts, so where do the twins get their protein?
Pure2raw Protein sources:
hemp seeds/hemp protein powder (full of amino acids)
Vega Health Optimizer (hemp,pea, and rice protein)
Tahini/sesame seeds (good source of calcium too which lost in workouts)
Dark leafy greens (the darker the better)
Spirulina (contains all 22 amino acids that the body requires)
Pumpkin seeds (also a great source of iron, which is lost when working out)
Bee Pollen (we do not eat this all the time, I know not vegan, gasp, but it a complete protein)
Chorella (great source of concentrated amino acids)
Greens have the highest amount of amino acid per oz than any other food….one reason we love our green smoothies!! We have noticed ever since we started eating a high raw diet, and following some of Brendan’s tips we have started to notice our bodies change. They are small changes, but positive ones, it is still a journey. Every thing takes hard work and time! We can work out hard for a shorter amount of time and are still getting results. We do not get sore, even after our marathon we were not sore. We can train less, which is great for us because with a busy schedule we can only get in short workouts.
Now to some people we may not be getting enough protein, but for us we feel we are getting the right amount. Plant based proteins are easy to digest and are easier for the body to absorb the nutrients, so you get all the protein. Your body does not waste energy digesting them as your body would if digesting animal protein. If you still prefer to eat animal products, please get organic and local!!! They will be better quality than what you find in the stores.
Lori attempting side crow
But for those who do not believe you can gain muscle while being vegan please check out the amazing Kristen’s blog about protein.
Our friend Heather did a great post here. Check it out. Remember everyone ones is different and can handle different amounts of protein….fats….sugar….carbs….etc. We have noticed the same results as Heather with eating more fats and less protein. You just find your own balance! Find what works for you to get the results you want. Remember it is a journey!
We just know from our experience we do not need a lot of protein. Protein tends to slow us down. Our workouts lately have been mostly yoga and our newest obsession is Tracy Anderson’s Mat workout. We bought a few weeks ago and started it over the weekend.
Well speaking of fitness it is time for us to go work out!
Glad to see everyone liking our malted chocolate avocado pudding, so good. I will share the recipe with you next time I make it. It has been a little crazy around here, but it a good way They are predicting snow, sleet and ice this coming weekend! Which means not sure what is going to happen with the farmers market :/
Workout:
Yesterday Michelle and I took to the road for an easy run. We did about 40 minutes total of a mix of running and walking. We geared up in our Under Armour clothing that we were in for our marathon because it was in the 20s again for our morning run. It was déjà vu for us.
Does déjà vu ever happen to you?One thing that my boyfriend always says when it happens to him that he tries really hard to think of what is going to happen next! Now that is what I always think of when deja vu happens to me!
It felt glorious to just put our shoes and warm clothes on and just run. We didn’t really have any set time or goal we just wanted to get outside and stretch the legs a little. Sometimes I enjoy those runs more than when I actually have a set time or distance. Or maybe it was because I was not training for anything. My mind was free and ready to just enjoy the run
Though it was weird running outside freezing when there was nothing to be training for at the moment :/
To treat ourselves when we got back we whipped a creamy delicious smoothie
Gladly enjoyed this smoothie out of our marathon wine cups This green smoothie was filled with parsley, banana, spinach, coconut oil, msm powder, maca, lemon juice, and ginger! Superb! Great combination to have after a run, got the potassium, iron, alkalinity to put my body back to balance!
Little bit later got the munchies so grabbed some fermented veggies and a big scoop of tahini.
Was a little bit on the cold side so made some coconut milk chai tea with a slice of raw onion flatbread
Than it was time for LUNCH! Well it was a little late lunch. But we enjoyed an arugula avocado wilted salad with some dulse flakes, lemon juice, and a sprinkle of our cheez crackers Splendid!
We did enjoy this salad of real food while watching the all anticipated Oprah.
Our thoughts on the show:
1) Overall great that Oprah brought this very important topic to her show
2) Michael Pollen is truly inspirational and makes you want to really spread the world about how much the food industry has changed. Please go out and see Food Inc and make your own opinions! Knowledge is power!
3) Little disappointed that not more was said about really “HOW” to change the government and food industry to stop making Americans fat! Stop hiding sugar and corn in our foods!!!!!!
4) Wish they showed more of the impact of the meat industry and the overall food industry has on the environment – how it impacts your local community, local farmers, etc. And especially how it impacts our kids generations, and their generations to come! How it is so hard for people to get fresh produce? Why does have to be so hard for people to eat healthy? Why is buying a can of processed food ok with people? Remember you have choices and options!
I would rather pay $2.00 for an apple over paying medical bills the rest of my life. And with wholesome foods less is more!
Ok well that is my two cents on the matter! Sorry for being so bold about everything it is a topic that I am very passionate about. I just care so much for the general health of Americans and really would love to change how people view their food
What were your thoughts if you got to see it? If not, what are your thoughts in general about the food industry and how our food has changed so much over the years?
Do you think the overall show was a success or failure?
Dinner was a simple coconut kefir spirulina smoothie with coconut oil, sunflower lecthin, stevia, and yacon syrup! Sprinkled a little cacao nibs on top for a little bonus!
Not the most prettiest day here in the NC :/ But that is ok because it is supposed to be a glorious day this Saturday which is great news for our farmers market
Michelle and I wanted to briefly share with you all in regards to where we stand on Candida cleanse. As you saw during our marathon we were not following the diet because we needed the sugars from the bananas, dates, and agave nectar for energy And ever since being back we have been doing better at getting back on track.
It was a nice treat having some ‘sugar’ again though we did notice some breakouts on our face which may have been from the sugars, stress from marathon, or stress from traveling?!?! Still unsure exactly. The few days from being back from the race we did eat a little bit more non raw foods (more than we typically do) so that might have caused the breakouts as well. It took us a few days to get our regular routine of eating back! I guess we kept telling ourselves “Hey, we just ran a marathon we can what ever we want.”
Therefore we are planning on following the Candida ‘meal plan’ that we did a few weeks ago. And the food we listed for helping out with hormones we also incorporate into our diet. Basically again we are being very careful of our sugars and rotating our foods as much as possible!
Our morning started with a delicious purple kale apple blueberry smoothie with all of our typical fixings’.
Lunch was a simple cilantro salad with fermented veggies topped with hemp seeds and apple cider vinegar!
Along side a cup of carob hot chocolate sweetened with stevia and a little coconut butter
Sipped on some homemade kombucha in the afternoon. Than dinner was a creamy, velvety, chocolaty avocado carob chia seed pudding! Another recipe that our gift of health basket customers will be receiving
This has become one of our all time favorite chia seed puddings This one is going to be a keeper!!!!
We stayed up extremely late doing work so we got the munchies therefore trying to be good girls we ate some more raw sauerkraut! But we have been bad in the department of eating late at night again (mainly due to our schedule) that we have been noticing that both of us have not been sleeping. Starting today we are REALLY going to try not to eat past 7pm! To see if that helps us sleep any better.
What are your thoughts on eating late at night and sleeping? Does it affect your sleeping or not? Do you see a difference in how you sleep and feel the next day compared to when you stopped eating the night before??
Workout:
Did about 45 minutes of a mix of ExerciseTV shows. Since we won the amazing giveaway from the lovely Stephanie we have been trying out a variety of fitness shows from ExerciseTV. There are just so many to choose from though we definitely like Jillian Michaels short programs
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We are so happy to see and hear that our story of our battle with hormones and our skin care routine is helping you all out We wanted to share our story in effort to help someone else who maybe dealing with the same issues!
In case you missed any of the hormone action you can catch up here, here, and here
I wanted to share with you a quick re-cap of our some of eats over these past few days.
Lots of delicious green smoothies, of course
This one out of our new marathon cups – great buy!
Had one kombucha while shopping at the grocery store
Trilogy is one of our favorite flavors though the lemon and ginger are our top 2 favorites
Our ever so favorite meal: raw sauerkraut
We added some MSM – E3 Renew Me into it. This is a new product we have added to our diet due to the MSM in it
Starting to get back into juicing a few times a week. By having some fresh juice while down in Orlando made us realize how much we miss our fresh vegetable juices
Beets, carrots, cucumber, celery, burdock root, and ginger
More coconut kefir – this one made into a basil smoothie! Seriously delicious. So thick and creamy and a little sweet from the stevia YUM!
Some chia pudding with all our favorite fixins like coconut flakes, coconut oil ,and cacao nibs with a dash of stevia drops
Made some roasted vegetables with some coconut oil, rosemary, coriander seeds, and sea salt
Rosemary has to be one of my all time favorite spices to roast veggies with!
What is your go to herb or spice to grab for roasting your veggies?
Now that is just a few of our meals that we have been enjoying over these past few days.
As for our workouts:
Yoga vs. Gym?
We did it! We cancelled our gym membership and started going to some local yoga studios to start really concentrating on our yoga practice *Now I know some of youare probably like “why is cancelling a gym membership so great?” Well one of our new year goalswas to start doing more yoga and therefore could not afford both a gym membership and yoga one.And we decided to go with yoga this time : ) over paying for our gym membership. Yes they do offer yoga classes but it is not the same as actually going to a YOGA studio. Well, at least for us it is not the same! We like the whole experience of going to yoga studios.
So far we have done two different classes at two different studios. Still trying to figure out what studio we like best Plan to do more classes this week. Also we went for our first run after our marathon on Saturday. It was a nice 30 minute run. It was hard at first but after the first 15 minutes we got back into our running groove. Though must admit it felt weird running again after the race. We are really starting to enjoy yoga and strength training nowover the pounding aching body we feel from running!
Our fitness routine is changing a bit this new year. We still plan on running about once a week but trying to focus our yoga, core strength, walking and jump training type activities.
Thank you all for the awesome comments. Sorry for the late post. We know this is a very personal topic, but one we feel needs to be addressed over and over again. A few months ago we briefly mentioned our issues with hormones here.
We hope to address some of the questions we have received, so here is goes.
First, if we were to go back 10 years, we probably would not have taken the pill by knowing what we know now. At that time in our life, we felt we needed it to help control on our flow, PMS, and cramping, but we have learned there are other health issues that can lead to more problems by taking the pill for long periods of time. And for us that is not worth it!
Would you still take the pill knowing about the side effects?
And as some of you pointed out, doctors do not discuss the aftermath of going of the pill. Our oldest sister had problems coming off it and our second older sister has a “thing” in her arm (a new device for birth control) that is supposed to monitor her hormones, but ever since she has had it in her, it has only caused her more health problems. Not to blame anyone, I just wanted to throw that our there. We just want everyone to be on the same page so you can make better decisions.
Anyways we have noticed some improvements in our overall health in regards to hormones. As many of you know, we also suffer from severe stomach issues, but as we are realizing it is all related….hormone imbalance, thyroid issues, yeast overgrowth, tiredness, cramping, mental fog, depression, and yes constipation. All our problems are related but can be cured!!!
Now we know everyone is not going to want to change their diet or anything, but we do feel by us eating a more clean diet has helped our body cope better with the changes going on inside us. Remember we were on the pill for many years, so our bodies have to relearn how to regulate everything again. It is not easy!!! But we make little steps each day to help our bodies out.
Are we healed? No! But improving each day!
What do we do??
All of this goes along with the food regimen we mentioned yesterday!
We take Pan d’arco supplment. It is a great supplement to fight of yeast and help balance hormones. We have taken it both in a powder form from Mountain Rose Herbs and liquid form, which is available at any local natural food store. We have felt some benefits of taking this, although we have not been consistent with it, so maybe our results would be better.
We take a daily dosage of maca, coconut oil, pumpkin seeds, and hemp seeds*
*Remember these our best consumed in their RAW natural state.
Now we have just started playing around with some of this, but we will keep you updated.
WHY?
As you all know we love our maca, please check out here for why. Basically it helps balance hormones. Twins intake – 1 tbsp daily, normally in our smoothies.
Coconut oil helps stimulate thyroid (which has been linked to hormones). It helps balance hormones due to increased pregnenolone levels. Pregnenolone is an essential hormone (derived from cholesterol) that is a precursor to progesterone. (Source). Twins intake – 3-4 tbsp daily, we eat in our smoothies, chia puddings, raw desserts, and with our roasted veggies.
Pumpkin seeds is a great source of zinc and b-vitamins, and contain hormone building elements. Many people that have PMS show low levels of zinc and magnesium. Pumpkin seeds also have tryptophan which is an amino acid that helps improves ones mood. Twins intake – normally in the form of pumpkin seed milk or in our Pure2Raw Pumpkin seed crackers.
Hemp Seeds contain GLA (Gamma linolenic acid) which is a type of super omega-6 fatty acid that has powerful anti-inflammatory properties, as well as helps maintain hormone balance. Twins intake – a combination of hemp oil, hemp protein powder, and hemp seeds, about 1-2 tbsp daily.
Sunshine and water are two other natural things that help regulate hormones!! But more importantly you need drink out of glass because plastic can be harmful to you because it can mimic hormones in your body causing glandular imbalance. Just another reason to go green by getting rid of plastic!!
Exercise is another natural way to handle PMS and other hormonal issues. Daily exercise helps regulate hormones, strengthens organs, removes toxins, and lessens PMS symptoms.
Now before trying anything please consult with your doctor because everyone is different, and needs different things.
Some of other natural things to consider is your B-vitamin levels, Vitamin-A, and Vitamin E. All of these vitamins are important to help regulate hormones! Other natural supplements that have been show to help with hormones are:
Agnus castus (vitex) (helps produce more progesterone)
DHEA (helps increase estrogen levels)
Donq quai (helps with cramps)
Milk thistle (helps normalize estrogen levels)
And as we all know controlling your stress is a huge factor to keeping everything balance!!!
Best of luck to you all and together we will get our healthy bodies back!!
We have received a lot of emails and comments in regards to hormones and we wanted to go ahead and address this issue on our blog. We wanted to give you all an update on how our hormones are doing since being off birth control.
Twins Hormonal Story:
We both had been taking birth control pills for 10 tens when we decided to call it quits! It was each of our own personal decision to do it. **Remember it is your own individual choice to take the pill or not because everyone has their own reasons.
Michelle has been off birth control for about 1 year. As she learned more about the ‘natural world of eating’ she decided she wanted all of her life to be more natural and went off the pill. She got off it for her own reasons, she did not want to have to take a pill anymore. She just got tired of putting foreign/fake hormones into her body. Her body was also showing her signs that it was time to re-think the pill. She started to see some of her old symptoms coming back which made her realize that the pill and her body were not getting along any more.
I have been off the pill for about 7 months. I definitely have seen pros and cons from going off the pill. I saw Michelle do it first (she is the guinea pig in our family) and saw how mentally she was loving not being on the pill. Though I did see her downsides like breakouts, emotional ups and downs, etc. Even after seeing her struggles I still wanted to GO OFF THE PILL! And I did!
**Side note – plus both of us still have not had our periods since going off the pill. Michelle has had test done, both nothing showed up. We thought maybe it had to deal with thyroid, but test result came back fine. Both of us were at first alarmed but now have realized it will take time for our body to come back into balance. I mean for 10 years it was on auto-pilot, so to speak!
Now I have been sharing some of my struggles of me ‘going off the pill’ here on the blog. Some symptoms I have been experiencing are emotional ups and downs, acne (this has been the hardest to deal with), change in my energy levels, and depression (another big issue). Remember each person will experience different symptoms. Some people may not experience any of these but yet some people will experience all of them. It just all depends on each person individually. Sorry that we can not be like “yeah you will do fine off the pill, you will see no side effects” because that is just not true. Though, we do feel going off the pill has been a great decision no matter the side effects we are going through because we know our body will eventually get back to normal! Remember healing is a journey!!!!!!!
Ok enough of the side effects let’s get into how we are naturally healing our hormonal imbalance!
Twins Healing Hormonal Imbalance FOOD Plan:
Things that we have been doing to help ‘heal’ our bodies after going off birth control are
eating a high raw diet
drinking green smoothies everyday
incorporate at least 2 fermented foods a day
eat more zinc, vitamin A and E containing foods
make sure we are getting are essential fatty acids
increase our coconut oil intake
drinking clean water (natural spring water and/or reverse osmosis)
have MSM powder
incorporate pumpkin seeds and hemp seeds more into our diet
We have been reading and learning more and more about how to ‘eat’ the right things to help with hormones. Our part 2 post will be more about this and our face care routine. We will provide more natural remedies in our next post too.
And we got an email from a reader,Jessica, who told us about a great online community for hormonal and birth control help and advice that she started up. Please check it out, goingoffbirthcontrolpills.com. Also our friend and counselor, Gena, discussed her thoughts on birth control you can read here.
It is great to see others sharing their experiences because it really helps mentally knowing that you are not the only one with issues!
Please stay tuned for Part 2 of Hormones! We have so much great insight to share with you all.
High raw gluten-free foodie enthusiasts. Passionate about fitness, nutrition, health, cooking/baking, running, yoga, wine and much much more. We are fraternal twins who are raw gluten free vegan chefs/bakers. Living our life long dream running our own bakery - Twin Cakes and raw uncooked bakery Pure2raw. We hope to inspire others to appreciate food as nourishment to the body. Embark on a healthier lifestyle where you enjoy food and exercise, and have fun living your best life to the fullest...pure&simple.
A great lunch filled with coconut oil, pure2raw sunflower cheez flatbread and sauerkraut!
Hits the spot of us both every time. We are huge fans of key lime!!!!
This delicious smoothie was filled with dino kale, grapefruit, coconut oil, sunflower lecithin, stevia and lots of fresh ginger 
Till next time,
So good…wanted more ; ) Love millet!! So easy to digest and quick to make. 
© Pure2raw Yacon Pumpkin Spice bread
It was so good!! You all know we love our puddings ; ) 
Till next time
Coconut oil helps stimulate thyroid (which has been linked to hormones). It helps balance hormones due to increased pregnenolone levels. Pregnenolone is an essential hormone (derived from cholesterol) that is a precursor to progesterone. (
Pumpkin seeds is a great source of zinc and b-vitamins, and contain hormone building elements. Many people that have PMS show low levels of zinc and magnesium. Pumpkin seeds also have tryptophan which is an amino acid that helps improves ones mood. Twins intake – normally in the form of pumpkin seed milk or in our
