Rewilded Wellness

Over the years, I've learned a hard but valuable lesson, and that is; it's harder to regain health than it is to keep it.  Maybe I should re-frame that, it's harder to be healthy in the first place. I know perhaps you may feel like you never were very healthy to begin with. I know I never knew how truly good my body could feel, until now.

I now believe my health is my most valuable and precious asset, and I no longer take it for granted. I am on a mission to help you love yourself enough to prioritize your health that way too.

Now that my perspective has shifted, I find it interesting that many of you take better care of your cars (or your house) than you do your own bodies. The thing is cars are machines and are replaceable, whereas your body is not, it's the only one you get to have.

I know for me, it was hard to really prioritize my own well being radically because I never saw it modeled to me. I believe that is largely in part due to how our culture lives and views health.

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I'm a bit of an addict when it comes to getting out on a hike as often as I can. I love to move my body, because I feel so good when I do.  I also enjoy finding new trails close to me and changing them up as well.

Today we headed to Chestnut Hill and hiked the Forbidden Drive trail. The weather was a crisp 70 degrees and it seemed like the entire community also had the same idea as us.

Brett and I figured out a way to make our hikes a little more challenging when we are ready using some body weight movements (more in a future post). We also decided to bring cash and do a longer version of the trail next time and stop for lunch at the Valley restaurant.

If you live in the area, I highly recommend you plan a date to get to Wissahickon Valley Park  and trek over Pennsylvania's trail of the year; Forbidden Drive Trail. We only did a section of the trail and hiked about 5 miles total. There are side trails off the main trail as well so the possibilities are endless.

We only...

I'll be 44 next week and as a woman in my 40's, I'm starting to really pay more attention to my skin. You see, it's common as a woman in your 40's to start to have tiny lines appear around your eyes, forehead, and crow's-feet start to set in. Even brown spots or broken capillaries may start to show up and your pores could look larger.

That said, you can do a lot to care for your skin and keep that youthful glow every woman truly wants. I am sharing my secrets with you today. Ready?

Diet Tips for Glowing Youthful Skin

First and foremost, healthy skin starts from the inside out. What you put in your body will show up through your skin.

It's important to stay hydrated to keep your skin glowing and rid your body of toxins. Just increasing your water consumption and staying consistent can give your skin that look of radiance.

Consuming a clean real food diet with plenty of fresh veggies and fruits, preferrably organic, will also be key.

Fresh greens like arugula, kale and collards...

It was the fall of 2014, just over 5 years after I had officially become a single mom. I had been trying to get my business off the ground and running, while dealing with the aftermath of a messy divorce and PTSD. I was beyond burned out.

In spite of all my best efforts to clean up my health, I was still struggling with exhaustion. I found myself crashing down after every single stressful event in my life. I was barely surviving. While I had come a long way in my health during those 5 years, it was hard to fully recover and stay steady; in my energy, mood, emotions.

I was so depleted that the stress would pile up and impact my physical health in extreme ways. Like the time, I bent over to pick up a sock in my bedroom and threw my back out and it took 4 other adults to step in for almost a week to help me manage my kids and household. Then there was the time, I had a mini panic attack while taking a bath that induced an asthma attack and I had to call an ambulance.

I was beyond...

What you put on your face should not be a disgrace to your health. Am...

I love getting to know myself and tuning into my inner wisdom. It's something I've craved my whole life that led me on a wild goose chase to trying so many things.  Such as, the next "it diet", to gain control of myself and life.

Having spent many years using diets and food plans to try and control myself, I'm here to tell you there is a better way to enjoy vibrant health.

If you are on a healing journey,  you will know that what you eat and the amount of food has a direct impact on your physical health. But did you know that those same choices also influence mood, mental alertness, memory, and emotional well being? Food can act as medicine, or it can be a poison to the body and mind.

But so can your approach to your diet. Your diet can liberate you or imprison you. You get decide which it will be. I choose freedom my loves. And in this post I want to share how I use boundaries to help me tap into my intuitive self when it comes to eating by using a mind-body food journal....

In light of my recent post, "How to love your body with safer skincare"; I wanted to share more about safer SUMMER skincare practices and products you can choose for your best health. I don't know about you but I enjoy being outdoors during the summer, and try to maximize that time as much as possible.

Since I'm in the sun more, I pay more attention to my direct exposure by covering up as much as possible and using protection, such as safe mineral based sunscreen.

Crazily, sunscreen is one of the most controversial topics in the health and wellness world. As well as how to stay safe in the sun. I'm here to shed some 'light' on the topic for ya (ha, see what I did there).

On one hand, sun exposure is healthy. We can benefit from the sun's rays, it's how we actually make vitamin D in our body. BUT avoiding overexposure is key. We do need sun exposure.

There are UVA and UVB rays. The UVB rays are the good guys. Those are the ones that stimulate the vitamin D production in our skin....

My journey to a more holistic lifestyle to recover my health did not stop with figuring out what to eat, improving my sleep and getting rid of MASSIVE stress. It included a search to make my personal care routine safer for not only my health but also my kids.

You see, I suffered with a bunch of skin related issues. Dry itchy skin every fall/winter, puffy eyes and eye bags, dry lips, red bumps on my thighs and sometimes my arms, eczema on my hands after my first son was born and dry hair with split ends.

After radically revamping my diet many of these things began to improve but I was afraid to put any products on my body for fear of some kind of reaction. At the time, it was so hard to find safer skin care. I went the DIY route for a bit and that proved to worked in the short term but was not a long term solution for every product I wanted to use. I stopped using so many products out of fear of all the toxins I'd be putting on my body.

I decided to love myself, my body by finding...

Meditation is a powerful practice anyone can do to help better cope with everyday stress. Practicing meditation helps me to stay centered even when my world is in upheaval. As a single mom, I could argue that life is stressful and hard and allow that to overwhelm me. OR I can create the time and space to be better able to deal with whatever comes my way.

Meditation has empowered me beyond what I can express, I used to think it was silly but that was only because I didn't know how or why I should do it. I used to overthink how it had to go. Like I had to lay still for hours and chant or transcend to the heavens or some such thing. Truth is, it's not hard, complicated or overly woo-woo (unless you want it to be).

Simply by creating and allowing space every day to sit or be still, calm your breath and watch your thoughts, your gain clarity on your inner self. Meditation helps to shine a light through the haze of life's distraction and illuminates deeper levels of meaning and revelations...

It was the summer of 2016, I was in a total funk, completely emotionally and energetically drained and I didn't recognize myself. I knew I was destined for SO much more in my life, but I wasn't even able to muster any energy towards anything. For 6 weeks I suffered in silence, losing sleep, gaining weight and sabotaging my health in numerous ways.

I was entirely overwhelmed in every way; physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I had lost faith in myself and questioned my life. I even wanted to quit my job to become a fashion blogger. I didn't feel worthy of what I truly wanted deep down so I buried it away to avoid the pain of not being able to have it.

I didn't realize how much my stagnant emotions were holding me back in my health and life.
I wanted SO MUCH MORE. I knew there had to be more for me in my life. I wanted my life to be full of purpose, passion, excitement. I was ready to live the life I really wanted but I didn't know how to. I was afraid to even...