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 give you an update on the kraut we made with you all last week.
Check out this quick video:
Raw sauerkraut is easy to, just make sure to keep the liquid above the kraut. When done just transfer kraut to smaller containers and enjoy at your leisurely. Store in fridge.
Update on how we are doing:
Lori had another breakout last week, got a little depressed again, but things are turning up again. We are starting to keep a food journal, finally! We have been doing it for a week, so we will keep you updated on that as once we start to see patterns. Mainly we have been keeping track of our fat and fiber and our water intake. Also when we eat things and when we workout. You may be thinking, I did not think raw foodist cared about calories and stuff. Well this is true but for us to really understand what is going on with each of our own bodies, we want to see what works and what does not. Food journal is the best way to find results for us.
Although our schedule varies everyday so it is hard to keep a routine, but we are trying to find our routine that works for us. Hormones seem to be better for both of us, as least emotional wise, but Lori still has not gotten her period. Michelle will know if she gets her period again next week, so we will let you all know.
Hope everyone is doing good with your hormones and such.
We have to remind ourselves everyday that this is a journey and our body takes time to heal. Stay positive! ; )
But to end on a positive note as we mentioned yesterday we are running a St. Patty’s Day special starting today till Wednesday, so get your orders in!! Our online store has been updated with our specials (our green line is on sale plus some new items for a limited time) and new t-shirts are available, $5 off!!!! The shirts are very high quality, custom designed, some our organic cotton and some our made out of bamboo!!! One of a kind ; ) And you do not have to a raw foodie or vegan to wear these shirts. The shirts are made for anyone looking for a high quality shirts that do good for the planet!! Also the shirts can be translated into your own personal meaning, for instance the Raw t-shirt could mean you enjoy things in the raw, pure state, no bulls**t, so to speak. It does not necessarily only mean raw foods, but it can if that is what you want it to mean. So have fun shopping!!!
Note: the shirts are women sizes again, run a little big.
We have had a busy day…farmers market then had a meeting all afternoon.
Hope everyone has a great Saturday everyone!!
And good luck to our sister tomorrow in her race!! She is running in the Disney Princess Half Marathon. She begged us to do it, but we just could not leave work! ; (
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!
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.
Lori and I are so happy to hear that everyone has been enjoying our last two post on hormones. If you missed them, please check them out and let us know your thoughts.
Today we are showing you all a video of what products we currently use to wash and take care of our face. I say currently, well because we are always trying new things, plus as we grow are skin changes too, so are products might change.
As you all know Lori and I have troubled skin, and lately Lori has been dealing with acne due to going off birth control. As for me, I have dealt with it for many many years, and remember we are not experts, this is just what we do and it works for us from our personal trial and error : )
Extra Virgin Coconut oil – we love it to wash our faces at night. Does a great job on getting makeup and eye makeup off! And it taste good too : ) Add we add MSM powder and sometimes B-5 powder.
Live Live Bee Yummy Skin Food – is raw and organic. I apologize for my mistake in the video (i was a little nervous), but I was trying to say it is not vegan because it contains honey, but we still love it. It contains honey, honey cappings, bee pollen, propolis, st john’s wort oil, royal jelly, pure water balsam fir needles.
Raw gaia – raw chocolate face pack – we love it because it contains turmeric, plus cocoa powder, sun-dried red clay, and amia fruit.
The Solution – great face lotion and serum all in one. It contains DMAE, Vit A and E, ALA, plus more great ingredients that are wonderful for the face.
Avocate Skincare – love it because it contains just sea salt, avocado, and honey (again not vegan, but a great natural product). We heard about this product through the lovely and beautiful Jenna.
I rather have my skin care product be non-vegan than contain chemicals I cannot pronounce! I like to know that it is safe, natural, and if some happens to run into my mouth it is okay : )
Now we know there are other natural skin care products, but these are what we use and love.
What do you use? What is your must have natural skin care product?
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.
Hormones can be a pain for most women which is why there are so many “hormone” treatments out there. Most women suffer from a variety of symptoms like migraines, cramps, swelling, bloating, fever, nausea, and vomiting. Most women take birth control to regulate their hormones and manage these symptoms this is why we did.
Both of us have recently stopped taking birth control to regulate our hormones. We have recently noticed our body struggles to get back into balance. Everyone has there own reasons to get on birth control and to get off of it. Well we took BC to help with our hormone imbalances, lighter periods, cramps, and PMS.
Michelle got to the point when she did not want to put “foreign” chemicals into her body. She decided to stop taking it and was off of the pill for 6 months. She experienced some side effects from getting off the pill such as breakouts, irregular periods (which actually she never got it for 6 months). She than felt she must need the pill to help regulate her periods therefore she started to take the pill again. But to only find out your body can take up to 1-2 years to adjust from not being on the pill. She just did not give her body enough time, she starting taking the pill again for 2 months and then finally said NO! Though this time around her body’s side effects are not as bad.
I just recently stopped taking the pill and I am experiencing similar side effects as Michelle did her first time off the pill. My face has broken out in acne with majority of the break outs located around the mouth and chin! We have been told that this means hormones due to the location of the acne.
It is very frustrating to both of us because we thought with eating RAW foods that are full of enzymes and nutrients that our bodies need to heal we would heal quicker, but we are realizing everybody is DIFFERENT! We are trying to enjoy this journey of healing, although there are times it gets very hard to put up with the side effects.
Twins natural hormone balance regimen:
We take Maca. Maca is a hearty plant root cultivated high in the Andes of Peru. This ancient nutritional source and efficacious endocrine system remedy is being dispensed by health professionals as a safe and natural substitute for drugs. It a replacement for hormone replacement therapy! Maca contains over 55 naturally occurring, beneficial phyto-chemicals. These naturally occurring chemicals include important hormonal precursors and sterols proven time and time again to assist the human body in a number of recognizable ways.
We love our MACA
The scientist responsible for much of the current knowledge of the maca root is Dr.Gloria Chacon de Popivici, a biologist trained at the University of San Marcos, in Lima, Peru. Dr.Chacon says that maca root works in a fundamentally different way than HRT, supporting optimal functioning of the hypothalamus and the pituitary, thereby improving the functioning of all the endocrine glands.
Maca is a safe, natural alternative to hormone replacement therapy. It is important to remember that maca does not itself contain any hormones, but its action on the body jogs the pituitary into producing the precursor hormones which ultimately end up raising estrogen, progesterone and testosterone levels, as well as helping to balance the adrenal glands, the thyroid and the pancreas. But this occurs naturally, not with time-bomb drugs which throw the entire body into a dangerous state of confusion. It seems to help the endocrine system to stay in balance.
Maca adapts to the body’s needs and supports menopausal health. IT works through the hypothalamus and pituitary to bring about healthy, balanced hormone levels in the body. Many women who start taking maca notice improvements within several days to several weeks. It is best to take maca consistently. Maca allows a woman to produce her own hormones and enhances your body’s production of progesterone and estrogen.
In addition, we are taking a natural hormone balancer called Vitex. Vitex is also known as agnus castus, chaste tree, and monk’s pepper.
Vitex Agnus-Castus
Vitex does not actually contain hormones. It appears to increase progesterone by stimulating the release of a hormone called luteinizing hormone from the pituitary gland. Vitex is also thought to normalize excessive prolactin levels and promote fertility.
Female infertility
PMS, especially breast tenderness, cramping, and headaches
Acne, especially if it is related to the menstrual cycle
Fibrocystic breast disease
Heavy menstruation
Menopausal symptoms
Some other natural ways of helping with hormones production and regulation are:
Milk thistle
Magnesium
Zinc
B vitamins
Royal jelly
Vitamin A
Flax oil or evening primrose oil
And of course exercise and the foods you eat will affect your hormones
If you struggling with hormone balances or are thinking about getting off the pill, I hope you have found there are natural ways of healing! Sometimes the quickest and easiest way is not always the best way. Therefore enjoy the journey of taking a more natural approach to healing and regulating the body’s hormones.
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.
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. 
So good…wanted more ; ) Love millet!! So easy to digest and quick to make. 
© Pure2raw Yacon Pumpkin Spice bread
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
