If you are a health and wellness enthusiast (OR you know a health and wellness enthusiast) here's a list of gifts to consider getting your loved one (or yourself ;)) this holiday season. I personally have and regularly use all these things and feel they're some of my favorite tools for maintaining great health! 

Vitamix Blender

A high speed blender that can cut through frozen fruit, make nut milks and butters, blend up sauces into a creamy delicacy is....kind of a game changer. A quality high speed blender will make you feel excited to make yourself a healthy smoothie for breakfast, or a delicious homemade soup for dinner. I say, make it easy for yourself to WANT to make the choice you know you want to make by giving yourself the tools to make it EASY! My favorite blender linked here: Link to Vitamix

The Prana Mat 

I love, love, love my prana mat! It is part of my daily routine and I have noticed a significant decrease in tension and stress since I've started using...

I often get asked where I shop and how I find good deals on quality fruits and vegetables. Where I shop and what I buy depends on where I’m living or visiting at any given time. Availability, variety and cost varies depending on location. But here are a few of the methods and tips I use:

1) Discount grocery stores. These don’t exist everywhere, but here in central PA there’s a whole bunch of them—basically stores that sell the overflow or abundance they receive from chain grocers. Think a second hand clothing store--but for food. 

2) If you don't have a discount grocery store near you, the next best option is somewhere like Aldi, or a Grocery outlet--even somewhere like Walmart--these are places where you can get cheaper-than-Whole Foods-options. If I'm on a budget (which I always am to one degree or another) I never buy all my produce at Whole Foods. I use Whole Foods to supplement--to get those items I can't get at other, more affordable stores. If I...

Ok, don't be intimidated--you can sprout! 

I'm just like you. I see people on social media with their trays of soil and wonderfully colorful varieties of sprouts and microgreens and I think "that looks complicated. I'd definitely mess that up."

But here's the thing--some things are incredibly easy to sprout. They take VERY little work or skill and they yield tasty and nutritious sprouts in just 2 days. 

So this is my advice if you're intimated or unsure where to begin: Lentils & Mung Beans.

I've found these two options to be the easiest, fastest, and least-space-consuming seeds to begin with. 

So here's what you need: a bag of mung beans. You can find dried mung beans at most Asian grocery stores, or some international aisles in grocery stores, or--of course--you can order online. Same with lentils, dried lentils (green or black), are easy to find in most grocery stores, Asian markets, or for sure online. 

Also, a mason jar--or really any glass jar will...

In January of 2017 I was studying abroad in Israel. I was told NOT to drink the tap water OR brush my teeth with it, and to carefully wash all the fruits and vegetables I ate.

Well—I did none of those things. And within several days of being there my neck started getting all blotchy and I was developing a severe rash.

Within a matter of just a couple more days I knew something was seriously wrong. My digestion was terrible. I was bloated to the max and my whole body had such an unbearable rash. I was so itchy and uncomfortable any place other than soaking in the bathtub. It was also so bad I was embarrassed to wear anything other than a sweatshirt so no one could see my skin.

Things continued to get worse for many months, and by April of that year I noticed a large bulge in the bottom right side of my abdomen—which I eventually realized was the home of my parasite.

I was miserable, tired, and unhappy—to say the least. And desperate to get the parasite out. I had very...