Winter Ready? 8 ways to keep you warm and healthy this season

Oh, baby it’s cold outside. Are you winter ready? If you are lucky enough to experience a winter season where you live, here are a few tips that will help you stay warm and healthy.

STAY WARM

1- Keep your hands warm

A good pair of mittens is a must! If you like to sew, these upcycled mittens are quite easy to make using an old wool sweater. They are snug, toasty warm, and make great Christmas gifts. The PDF pattern includes adult sizes XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL, and child-size large. It also comes in infant and child sizes.
A detailed measuring guide comes with a pattern to make sure you sew up the right size! You can get the patterns here in my  shop

Pop these little hand warmers in the microwave for 30-40 seconds and place them in your coat pockets and you’re good to go. They are a great thing to send your kids off to school with, or on the ski slope. VERY easy to make! The free sewing tutorial can be found HERE.

Winter Ready

2- Keep your feet warm

If your feet get cold in bed, I have the perfect remedy. Corn or rice-filled therapy bags are the best. Just microwave and throw under your covers. They’ll keep your little tootsie warm for hours. The tutorial and pattern can be found HERE.

Sweater slippers and sweater slipper boots made from (you guessed it) upcycled wool sweaters are an excellent way to keep your feet nice and toasty. Patterns HERE.

3-      Keep your insides warm

Winter Ready

A nice cup of yarrow tea is sure to keep your insides warm AND keep your immune system in check in case you get sick!

What is Yarrow good for?

  • ANTISEPTIC and VIRAL INHIBITOR
  • BLOOD PURIFIER
  • CIRCULATION
  • COLDS AND FLU
  • DIGESTION
  • FEVER
  • INFLAMMATION
  • TONIC

Yarrow tea is a great preventative remedy. If the crud is going around the neighborhood, don’t just sit there waiting for the symptoms to start, drink 1 to 2 cups of yarrow tea a day as a preventive tonic. If you already have symptoms, start flushing it out with 4 to 8 cups of Yarrow tea each day. Get the full yarrow scoop HERE.

Winter Ready

There is nothing better than a hot bowl of soup to warm you up inside. Here are a few soup recipes you may like to try.

4-      Keep your head and ears warm

Of course, you need to keep your head and ears warm too! Hats, hats, hats, there are all kinds of hats. Beanies, pilot, pixie, and pillbox hat styles can all be made using an upcycled sweater.  The patterns can be found HERE.

WINTER READY TIPS FOR STAYING HEALTHY

Staying healthy and well during the winter is a good thing. Here are a few preventative things you can do to help keep your immune system up and running.

If you were to ask me what I thought the most important thing you could do to promote and maintain a healthy body, mind, and spirit would be……….. MOVEMENT would be at the very top of the list. I am talking about PHYSICAL MOVEMENT, moving the body in some way or another.

5-    Rebounding

Winter Ready

At this time I want to bring to your attention a form of movement that you may not have heard about or considered something of real value, REBOUNDING. Who would have thought that bouncing on a little trampoline could do anything for you? Well, I am here to tell you, by experience, that it can

Rebounding provides benefits to nearly every body system, from increased flexibility and skin tone to decreased stress. Its up-and-down movement improves circulation and lymphatic flow and gently massages the internal organs for whole-body health.

In my research, one of the things that intrigued me the most was that jumping on the mini-tramp 10 minutes equals running for 30 minutes for a cardiovascular workout. That is quite amazing!  I think a lot of us have it in our heads that in order to be in the top physical shape we have to RUN marathons to achieve it. Rebounding is so much easier on the joints than running and can get the same results in less time.

Get the full scoop HERE.

6-      Skin Brushing

Winter Ready

Skin brushing is simple, quick, and very rewarding. This is another one of those things on the top of my “stay healthy” list! Skin brushing has been part of my morning ritual for quite some time. I can tell a big difference in my skin and in the way that I feel. Here are just a few of the benefits of skin brushing.

  • Stimulates blood and lymph flow
  • Helps eliminate toxins from the body
  • Removes dead skin cells
  • Encourages cells to regenerate
  • Helps combat cellulite
  • Results in smooth glowing skin
  • Anti-aging through cell regeneration
  • Strengthened immune system
  • Stimulated nervous system, toned muscles, and tightened skin
  • Stimulated both the sweat and sebaceous glands (contributing to the restoration of moist and supple skin)

You can learn how to do it HERE.

Although preventative measures are the best to keep you healthy, there still may be times you come down with that nasty cold or flu. Here are a few things you can do naturally to get you back on your feet.

7-      Sore throat remedy that REALLY works!

Winter Ready

If you are experiencing a sore throat, don’t jump in the car and run to the clinic just yet. I am going to share with you 4 simple alternative remedies for a sore throat that really work! Many of the ingredients you probably already have in your home.

  •  HONEY, CAYENNE AND GARLIC
  •  ORANGE JUICE AND CAYENNE PEPPER
  •  SALTWATER
  •  LYMPH MASSAGE

Go HERE to find the details and recipes

8-    Thyme Bath

Winter Ready

If you have the aches, chest congestion, and a lingering cough, this thyme bath is the perfect thing to get you going onto a QUICK recovery.

When my kids were small, they would ask for a thyme bath whenever they weren’t feeling well. My youngest son is now 24 and had the flu a few weeks ago. He came home for a thyme bath because the place he lives doesn’t have a bathtub, only a shower. Can you see how this has been ingrained in their heads as something that WORKS!

The thyme bath is not real labor-intensive and most likely you may have everything you need right there in your home. If not, you can get dried thyme at your local health food store or use Thyme essential oil.

You can learn the whole process HERE.

So, there you have it, 8 different ways to get ready for the cold WINTER ahead. It’s going to be a good one!

I am Wishing you a warm cozy and healthy winter season.

Jan Howell

Jan Howell

Whether it’s a new recipe, a fun craft, or some handy tips for your garden and home, I hope to empower and inspire you with skills that you can use to create joy, improved health, and to do it in a simple way.

Read More

26 Day Detox: Emotional Reactions

I went to bed last night feeling like crap physically and emotionally. I was thinking to myself “what the heck have I done?” It’s one thing to choose into something like this, but another to make it public and have to be accountable, and who wants to screw up, right? Who would have thought that changing the way you eat could create such intense emotional reactions! Well, I have been doing pretty good until last night. We were counseled that is expected and almost inevitable that we may have an emotional reaction at some point during this program. After all it is pretty much like going through food addiction rehab. I have always thought to do something like this I would need to go to some place and live for 3 weeks while they prepared my food, monitored my blood, had massages, and had a support group.

I seriously did not think I could do this by myself. I mean I have days that I get so overwhelmed and feel so wiped out that to think of only eating cucumbers, tomatoes and green smoothies all day and having to prepare it all, seemed WAY too overwhelming. I will have to admit that having 23 days left kinda freaks me out a little bit. I try not to focus on that, and like my husband said this morning, “lets just do one day at a time”. So nice to have encouragement like that!

So, back to my night last night. I went to bed with a throbbing headache. My head felt a lot of pressure and my face felt flushed, but the bottom part of my body was cold. Here I am in Utah where the temperature has been in the 90’s the past week and I was cold. Oh, but that didn’t last long, because an hour later I was sweating hot. It felt like I was getting the flu, achy and my stomach did not feel just right. It is not uncommon for me to feel this way occasionally, but I haven’t for a while.

Not only did I feel yucky physically, but my mind started going crazy on me with a bunch of negative chatter. So I started tapping. EFT tapping that is. I was having thoughts like “you have failed as a mother”, “why did I sign up for this thing”, “who am I to be posting about this”, “no one cares about this”, “I have wasted my money”, “SHOULD NOT BE DOING THIS”, “it’s not safe”, ………………………..I continued to tap and express how I felt, softly in my head of course, because my husband was sleeping next to me. He is used to it. After getting it all out, the thoughts quickly began to change to more hopeful thoughts and I felt more at peace and was able to go to sleep. I LOVE EFT!

I had to get up a few times to go to the bathroom, (dumping a lot of water) but slept pretty good, once I fell asleep. My husband woke up this morning so weak. He had lost another 3 lbs. CRAZY. He is not a big guy. I was a little worried about him. He had worked hard yesterday out in the sun while doing this detox. WE ARE FINALLY PUTTING THE BACK PORCH ON OUR HOME ADDITION, YEA.  I had a thought to put a particular essential oil blend on his feet to BALANCE him. Seemed to be quite effective. He felt he needed to eat a normal breakfast (bowl of grain cereal). After he ate breakfast he was fine, and up and running.

I laid in bed a little longer this morning, but popped out of bed and got going. I didn’t feel too bad. Drank my usual lemon water and did a little meditation then jumped on the rebounder for a bit. That thing seriously does wonders. If you haven’t tried jumping on a mini tramp or don’t know what the heck I am talking about, check out my post about it here. Another thing I do, that I think is really helping, is SKIN BRUSHING.

I have been diffusing essential oils that help with letting things go, and applying some motivating blends to my adrenal glands. Doing good so far today. Still craving something salty and crunchy!

It has helped to stay busy, and also to have a nap sometime during the day. Oddly enough, I feel I have a little more energy in a different way, and feel more hopeful and empowered.

We got this!

Until tomorrow,

jan2

Skin Brushing, Positive Affirmations and Mirror Work: The Perfect Combination

Skin Brushing affirmations

You know how passionate I am about dry skin brushing, and I am also a huge fan of positive affirmations and mirror work. ( Louise Hay is to thank for inspiring me all these years). This stuff really works, and I have been doing it for a long time.

I want to share with you how skin brushing, positive affirmations and mirror work are really the perfect combination. This is part of my morning ritual right before I get in the shower.

As much I would rather not place myself in front of a video recorder, I made a little video for you to demonstrate how I do it. I teach this in my yoga classes and stress how important it is with my clients, and I want to pass it on to you. I think it is good stuff for everyone to know. Skin brushing is so simple, doesn’t take a lot of time, and cost only the amount of a Wholesome Beauty Dry Skin Body Brush with a Removable 11-Inch Wood Handle.

What are you waiting for? I hope you enjoy this lovely video, ha, ha.  Send me a note if you have any questions.

Play Video

Some of the physical benefits of dry skin brushing

  • Stimulates blood and lymph flow
  • Helps eliminate toxins from the body
  • Removes dead skin
  • Encourages cells to regenerate
  • Helps combat cellulite
  • Results in smooth glowing skin
  • Anti-aging through cell regeneration
  • Strengthened immune system
  • Stimulates nervous system, tones muscles, and tightens skin
  • Stimulates both sweat and sebaceous glands (contributing to the restoration of moist and supple skin).

You can find more information and get the link to print out your own skin brushing chart here.

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