We bathe everyday and sometimes fail to realize that the chemicals in the soap we use are actually harmful for our skin and entire body. Many commercial soaps contain harsh and even toxic ingredients that can lead all sorts of problems. Natural Health+ Healing Soap Box is a set of 5 virgin coconut oil-based cleansers:

 
Virgin coconut oil when applied topically is probably the best treat you can give to your body’s largest organ. You may not realize it but a lot of skin care products like creams and lotions do more harm than good as they are loaded with chemicals and cannot provide lasting benefits. Anti-wrinkle creams for example are mostly water. It expands the tissues of your skin which allows temporary elasticity and smoothness. Once the water evaporates, the wrinkles will return.

Virgin coconut oil is naturally healthy. The fatty acids present in virgin coconut oil like mcfa, lauric, capric, and caprylic are normal components of the skin and serve as a replacement for lost lipids in the skin barrier. It improves the skin condition, protects it from damage and heals skin diseases. Polynesian women are famous for their beautiful skin even though they work under the sun’s harmful rays for hours. Their secret? Coconut in their diet and coconut oil in their hair and body.

I had a breakfast meeting with an older gentleman yesterday, and as it is when spending time with people who know more than you, I walked away with more than a few nuggets of wisdom. One of the things we talked about was how simple living actually makes for healthier living. We talked about how different the world has become. These days we have so many options that it has become hard, even stressful, to choose. Worse, we jump from option to option, fad to fad, diet to diet, breakthrough workout to breakthrough workout, supplement to supplement, sport to sport, and sometimes, gym to gym. The main problem here is that we don’t stick to anything long enough to get really excellent results.

Don’t get me wrong. I love doing a lot of things. I play quite a few different sports, paint, play the piano, write, have a few businesses, teach a business workshop and have since taken up programming among other things. But I’ve arranged them all in an orderly sequence of daily events and alter as necessary. As much as possible I stick to a predetermined schedule set way ahead and plan around anchor activities. With all my different activities, a relatively rigid schedule allows me to enjoy my different interests and spend enough time on them to grow. As for health, I try keep my diet simple, use natural products when I can, take at least 6 capsules of squalene everyday, oil-pull with virgin coconut oil, run regularly, and workout at home. I don’t spend a lot and I feel good. Two other things that are very very integral to me are deliberate gratefulness and earnest prayer. I try my best to live right but, to be very honest, I know how incapable I am because of my many physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual weaknesses. I’m glad to have found a Father who is more than able to make up for what I lack.

This is what works for me.

While it may work for others, it may not work for a lot of people. We all have different needs, interests and contexts. You need to find what system works for you. But just to be clear, you still need a system, a disciplined way of operating in the different areas of your life. Why? Because without ordering ourselves, our lives will naturally slip into disorder.

I thought you promote Natural Health+?
Yes, it is. We promote natural AND health. But what has become natural to us, the fastfood, stressful work, pollution in the environment and media, were never intended for us. That’s why they make us unhealthy. Food was meant to be enjoyed. Work was meant to be fulfilling. The environment was meant to be sustain us. And media, which are simply ways of storing and transmitting information, was meant to document our development and pass on a legacy of knowledge and wisdom. Our lives have become very un-natural. That is why shifting to a simple life is so difficult.

So find what works for you. By that, I don’t mean do whatever you want. What I mean is, find that consistent, disciplined, and effective system by which you can achieve your purpose, enjoy life, and stay healthy. And when you do, COMMIT.

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High blood pressure is one of the most common ailments being fought by millions of people all over the world. When left untreated, it could cause further damage to your brains, arteries, kidneys, eyes, and heart.

The different symptoms of this silent killer are often ignored and considered normal because treatment of high blood pressure using different processed drugs can be quite expensive. However, repeating headache, nausea, dizziness, and blurred vision should be taken into account to prevent further complications.

Thankfully, there are natural ways to combat high blood pressure that will help one overcome the ailment without spending too much. The most basic way is to adhere to a healthy lifestyle and eating habits.

This means a small yet important change in your eating habit that is composed of carefully separating food choices into three groups.

With food combining diet, you may eat what you want; you may eat as much as you want; working within the parameters that proteins and carbohydrates are not to be taken together.

How it works is the way you segregate or separate your food choices strictly into proteins, neutrals, and carbohydrates. Identify what you crave, research what group they would fall under, and combine.

You would have to combine only two groups that work in perfect synchronization when ingested: either proteins and neutral or neutral and carbohydrates. And never combine the two outer groups, meaning, never eat proteins and carbohydrates simultaneously. For example, steak with gravy and salad.

Why food combining?

Food combining is equal to the biochemistry of our body that separates food groups namely proteins and carbohydrates, and prepares these upon ingestion for breaking down into the system to digest.

Carbohydrates are processed in the mouth with the help of alkaline saliva, while proteins are processed in the stomach with the help of the acidic gastric juice.

Food combining gives your body enough nutrition for one of the two natural digestive processes—from the “water-in-mouth-convergence”, which is the body’s first reaction to the ingested food until it travels through to the final digestion. The food is thoroughly processed, breaks down and leaves nary a trace in the stomach in a maximum of two hours, is thoroughly digested and therefore, would be excreted daily. Ergo, you would feel lighter and healthier.

Is food combining too complicated?

If you are just starting with food combining diet, it is not easy since you have to change your old cooking habits. But if you have started combing the supermarket aisles for your favorite food, you would, in time, get used to the concept of matching your chosen food groups with the ideal combination following the wisdom of food combining until this becomes habitual and a matter of regularity every meal time.

Rule of thumb—Separate sausages and bread, fish and rice, steak and potatoes, noodles and cheese, hamburger and buns, chicken and salad. Not too complicated, agree?

Natural Health+ takes its premium Virgin Coconut Oil and infuses it into this beautiful soap. Virgin Coconut Oil has incredible antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal benefits without being harsh on the skin. Bathing and washing with Natural Health+ Healing VCO Soap is a refreshing way to cleanse your way towards beautiful skin. To the left is Set of 4 VCO Healing Soap with Hand Towel (P380.00).

Set of 2 VCO Healing Soap with Hand Towel (P200.00)

Set of 3 VCO Healing Soap with Hand Towel (P300.00)

Check out this Green Guide article we found on GreenHomeGuide.com.

You can view the entire article here.

Goat’s milk soap is one type of soap that is highly beneficial for the skin and is prepared with only the most natural ingredients. This nourishing soap is a bit more expensive than others but the cost is certainly worth it, especially for people who have skin types that are sensitive. It is able to help in keeping skin looking radiant and healthy, and gives it a youthful glow that other soaps are not able to provide.

There are several types of good brands of soap available in the market today, which focus on specific skin types. However, a lot of them do contain certain chemicals and other harsh ingredients that can also prove harmful to the skin. This is the reason why goat’s milk soap remains to be the personal choice of a lot of people who are more concerned about milder, naturally made soaps. There are so many benefits offered by goat’s milk that remain unrivalled. When it comes to buying soap, one should take a good look at the ingredients used, especially when it comes to its pH content. In as far as ingredients are concerned, goat’s milk soap can boast that it is all natural and does not contain artificial additives or any form of detergents.

Among the many benefits of goat’s milk soap, a few of them stand out. For one thing, it’s being gentle on the skin makes it ideal for people afflicted with skin problems such as psoriasis and eczema. While other types of soap are typically harsh when used on the skin, goat’s milk is gentle and helps the skin instead to retain its natural moisture. Applying lotion after using is no longer necessary. Goat’s milk soap exfoliates skin naturally. This is because of the alpha hydroxy content, which can be found in the goat milk’s lactic acid. This type of acid facilitates dead cell and old cell removal from the skin, which leaves it feeling revitalized as new cells start to regenerate. It is also abundant with vitamins and other enzymes. Its glycerin content helps in nourishing and softening skin naturally. Because this type of soap does not have any petroleum derivatives, artificial additives, or harsh detergents, it does not produce any harmful side effects. One of its most important benefits is its pH content, which is exactly the same as that present in one’s skin.

Although goat’s milk soap comes highly recommended for people with dry or sensitive skin, it is very suitable for all types of skin, providing all of its many benefits. So before you start thinking about purchasing your favorite brand of soap, you may want to give goat’s milk soap a try to experience the wonders it can do for your skin.

The unthankful heart… discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings! – Henry Ward Beecher

“For each new morning with its light,For rest and shelter of the night,For health and food, for love and friends,For everything Thy goodness sends.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sailing Into the New Year
The night was bright with fireworks sparkling like twinkling stars. The build up towards the New Year had begun. Standing on the helipad atop 50+ stories of the Pacific Plaza South Tower, I could see a 360° view of Manila’s celebrations. Everywhere I looked, the excitement for something new, maybe a new start, maybe a new phase, maybe a new promise was evident.

I was excited too. I still am.

Up on the helipad was an older Australian woman who asked, “Who of you was born on the year of the rat?” I told her I was but didn’t know much about it. “This is going to be a great year for you!” I told her that I wasn’t superstitious, that my belief is that your year is either great or terrible depending on what you choose to highlight in your life and what you choose to remember. I choose to remind myself of my Father’s goodness.

It’s true.

The grateful will always feel blessed. They don’t have to try. The ungrateful or forgetful will always pity their situation. They, also, don’t have to try. Just earlier I was feeling that self-pity coming over me and I decided to stop, to pray and list down the many many things I’m grateful for. That’s the only way to win that fight: to remember and be grateful to God, for every big and small thing, even the painful things, and to never take anything for granted. Taking something for granted is like when we have something really special or important but we fail to notice it, or worse don’t treat it as special. In relationships, taking people for granted is not appreciating what they are there for, or have to offer, or can do, thinking they will always be around.

They won’t.

Relationships are not fixed points. We are like boats on the sea, either sailing together on the same direction or drifting apart.

Read more…

It’s not enough to want to do good. Sadly, effort is not accomplishment. This is a great time to reflect and assess. Honestly look at all areas of your life and determine where you came up short this year. Decide what to improve and what to eliminate. Decide who you want to be . . . and how you will become that person. Start now. And PR your life. – CrossFitLisbeth

I came across many tweets on Twitter and probably even posts in Facebook that basically summarizes 2011 – it was the most legendary year of their life! And I couldn’t agree more! 2011 was most probably the BEST year that I’ve ever hard. I came across CrossFit Lisbeth’s quote and I realized that there was a reason why 2011 was sooo awesome – because 2012 is going to be awesome-r and more legendary! Yes that’s right! When you come across the word “PR” in running terms it means “Personal Record” or “Personal Best” (in that case you need to “PB Your Life”). This means that you need to benchmark it against something first right? That’s why they have those Benchmark WODs (yes those workouts that have girl’s names? They’re all killer workouts BUT their JUST for benchmarking haha) so that you know where you’re AT in the coming months and years that you continue your fitness. What if we bring this idea to our WHOLE Life? What if you actually did “PR Your LIFE”? What would that look like? Maybe I should tell a bit of my story.

STRENGTHS

I came across this book called “Strengths Finders 2.0″ by Tom Rath and like lot of my friends 3 years ago – we bought the book, got the code, took the test and found out what our strengths were. I found out that my strengths were that of a Learner, Achiever, Strategic, Ideation and Activator. The descriptions of the strengths were amazing but after a year I didn’t exactly know what to do with it. I went through almost two years having glimpses of what I could do with my strengths but I still didn’t know what to REALLY do with it. And then 2009 happened. I started running and for 2010 I had a goal of running a full marathon which I actually did. I then started to ask the question – did my strengths have anything to do with it? I entered 2011 with that question – What if I approached life and asked questions in the CONTEXT OF MY STRENGTHS instead of my weaknesses? This actually sounded very strange the very first time I posed it to myself because the world around me had habituated me in always framing my life in the CONTEXT OF MY WEAKNESSES. It turned out that my top strength was that I was a LEARNER – as a learner I actually thrived in environments where I was always learning something new – I actually had to mind MORE learning opportunities even thought I was already in one – I was teaching Information Systems at a college. At the back of my mind, there was a certain doubt that kept telling me – you will not be able to do that, it will be too much, you will burn out, how many people have actually tried what you’re going to do.

BENCHMARKS

This brings us to the subject of benchmarks – you’ll only know if you are about to PR if you actually knew what you were able to do beforehand. Obviously – you need a measuring stick so that you know that you are going from strength to strength, victoy to victory, awesome to awesome-r! So I was teaching at one school – what if I taught in another school simulataneously! My brain was telling me that I was going to conk out after this endeavor but my STRENGTHS were telling me that this was something that I could do. And I actually did it – I was able to teach in a new school – teaching new courses I’ve never taught before and I had so much energy and passion in doing it. It never occured to me at any point that I was losing steam or that I was conking out – what happened? I was playing to my strengths! This was something that I was born and built to do. What would have happened if I did the opposite? If I had stuck to the conventional wisdom that I should stick to whatever I knew I was knowledgeable in doing – I would have been in a comfort zone and I would have denied my learning strength and maybe would have underperformed. All I’m saying is that – I never thought I’d be in a place that I would be teaching in two schools and be happy with it but my asking that question through the lens of my strengths – the answer was yes! PERSONAL RECORDS

I might have taken some of the ideas to the extreme but you never really knew the limits of your learning until you press the envelope, right? At one point – I was learning Java in the morning and I was teaching it in the afternoon and evening. After I had finished that class – I was asked to teach MySQL and PHP – something that I’ve never really learned and never taught before. I was certified in IBM db2 for the first time and I conducted reviews and my students got certified. Certification was new for me and so were certification reviews but apparently this was something that I could learn to do. I was breaking personal records week after week after week! And I was helping my students break their own personal records as well! Some of the were the very first certificants from our school! Apparently I could learn how to help other people PR too! I started meeting some of my friends and shared some of these ideas. I had a friend who was hit a wall in her career and I asked her to find out her strengths and start asking questions in terms of where she was good at and not what she was bad at. She went further and even asked her daughter to take the test! When her daughter found out that she was a Learner (like me!) – she started learning on her own. My friend who was on the doldrums for failing to get on an international trip started planning based on her newfound strenghts and before I knew it she was on the second leg of the international trip and when she came back she was promoted! Wow! This thing works!

PR YOUR LIFE

So what am I asking you to do? You can read up on Martin Seligman’s “Authentic Happiness” and find out how Positive Psychology can help your mindset or even Angela Duckworth’s GRIT Scale so you can be encouraged to keep at it. Or you can watch Kelly Starrett’s mobilitywod.com so you can learn how to take care of your body and prevent injury by taking more ice baths or even by taking more rest and more fish oil (or Issho Genki squalene haha) or even do the mainsite WODs at CrossFit.com and embrace a new sport while you’re at it. You can even try conjugated periodization and start strengthening yourself and get into General Physical Preparedness (GPP) – whatever it is – you can do better that what you did last year and you can set new PRs! But you’re not competing against anybody else – you’re competing with yourself. Find out where you’re good at and be the best at it and leverage that to PR YOUR LIFE.

Cleansers, cosmetics, and other beauty products can be expensive. When you think about all the products that are out it sometimes gets confusing. We try to keep things simple by looking at what’s already available – at home. We really don’t need fancy serums or pastes. What’s important is that we keep our body healthy and that includes keeping our skin healthy. Here’s another great link from Whole Living.