Coconuts: A to Z

Coconuts: A-Z | Boholistic Mom

(This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a benefit from your order.  Thanks!)

Inside The Coconut

Coconuts are filled with beneficial commodities.  Coconut fat (often labeled as raw virgin organic coconut oil) is a medium-chain triglyceride, which means it is a special type saturated fat.  According to a study done in 1983, these same medium-chain triglycerides had rats loosing fat deposits in the lab.1  In 2004, a study in India found that Virgin Coconut Oil decreased the total cholesterol, triglycerides, phospholipids, LDL, and VLDL cholesterol levels and increased HDL cholesterol.2 Aka, coconut oil helped the body maintain the good cholesterol and decrease the bad cholesterol.  Also, unlike other oils frequently used in the USA, a study performed in India shows that coconut oil has no correlation with coronary heart diseases.  This fat is not a contributor to heart disease, so if you are watching out for your heart or your husband’s heart, this oil will help you remain heart healthy.

The coconut oil, meat, and milk will help you stay healthy and make amazing dishes.  Read on to find out how to pull a coconut apart on your own!

Coconut Collaboration

I was able to team up on this post with a friend of mine who moved to Guam.  Erena is much more experienced with coconuts than I will probably ever be!  So I asked her how she choses her coconuts, cracks her coconuts, and also how she uses her coconuts.  Here’s what she had to say!

How Do You Choose a Good Coconut?

A green coconut usually means the coconut hasn’t formed and is […]

By |December 6th, 2014|Brooke S., Food or Foe, Real Food Recipes|0 Comments
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Natural Beauty Options: What Do I Use?

 

Natural Beauty Routine

Natural Beauty Routine: What Do I Use?

Let’s face it.  Being holistic and natural about external beauty is difficult.  So many products say that they are “organic” and “natural,” but for products that are not being consumed many of these claims are false.  False is probably too soft of a word.  Really . . . these products straight up lie.  Some of them have nothing natural about them, but perhaps they contain a drop of aloe or a smidge of clay and so a company calls them natural.  Really?  Are we really so gullible?  We are.  We are just that gullible.  We don’t know any better.  I’m confused.  You are confused.  We can’t decipher the information being fed to us by companies and the information that we are learning about taking care of our body in a holistic way.

How can we be fashionable and natural?  Is it possible?

I’ve begun to find an answer to this question, but it’s a gradual answer.  I’ve had to try and fail.  I’m still not using the products that I’d like to use because they do not offer me the benefit that I desire.  However, I’d LOVE to pass on the success that I have had in beauty and fashion.  Today, I’m going to let you know my “External Beauty: What Do I Use?”  These are the products that I am currently using and I’ll let you know how I like them.  I’ll even let you know what products I’m not using and why.

Ready to be challenged in your view of external beauty?

Hair

For the past three months, I have not been using shampoo.  A year ago I tried the backing soda […]

By |November 10th, 2014|Au Naturale, Bohemian Style, Boho, Brooke S.|6 Comments
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Companies Who Do and Don’t Ship FPO/APO/DPO

Ship FPO | Boholistic Mom

In 2012, my address was an FPO address.  I am a Boholistic Mom, but my husband wears a uniform.  He serves his country in the United States Navy.  I am a military spouse and I am proud to serve my husband as he serves the United States of America.

Many military members and military families become stationed overseas while they are a part of the military community.  Before we leave our home country to move overseas, we know that we are sacrificing time with our families and some of our American conveniences in order to stay together as a family.  We may have to buy transformers to make our appliances work, buy new bulbs for our lamps, and have to learn how to hang clothes out to dry because the electricity cost is so high in other countries.  These sacrifices we gladly make, but some we shouldn’t have to make.  We have access to the USPS through our local bases.  We live overseas, but we can send things home and we can receive packages from our families and from companies in the states.

We’ve found that many companies are fully willing to ship to FPO (Fleet Post Office), APO (Army Post Office), and DPO (Diplomatic Post Office) addresses.  These companies take the time to fill out the customs forms and allow us access to our American goods.  We can’t buy everything from the states, but these companies help us to get what we need to care for our families.  Unfortunately, not all companies are so kind.  We’ve found some companies that add hefty charges to FPO/APO/DPO orders because they will have to fill out customs forms and take their packages to the post office.  I’m glad they […]

By |August 24th, 2014|Brooke S., Natural Lifestyle, Travel|95 Comments
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Squatty Potty Review by Boholistic Mom

Squatty Potty Review | Boholistic Mom

Alright, let’s face it ladies. We all do it. While many of us prefer to do our business at home or at least do it in private, we all have to take care of it. Some of us try to hurry our business along by eating a little more fiber or trying a magnesium supplement, but it all comes out in the end. If you haven’t figured out the topic of this post . . . you are really inept in potty humor.  Today, I’m talking about . . .

poop.

Yeah. Not extremely glamorous, but hey it’s got to get done.

This is very much a sales post and I’m completely going to introduce you to something that if you buy, I’d make a little affiliate money from in the process. I’m just being honest. I have no problem with this, but if you do, now you know. Still, I don’t sign up to sell things if I hate them and really I only advocate products that I believe in.

I believe in this product.

About a year ago, I was surfing the web for different natural cures and solutions for . . . constipation. It was one of those days and honestly, I wanted solutions. Then I stumbled upon a post reviewing The Squatty Potty. Let me admit, I laughed for a good five minutes when I saw the picture of the squatty potty and thought in my head, “are these people serious?” But they are and it totally makes sense AFTER you finish laughing.

Say 200-500 years ago, we didn’t all have toilets. We either had a forest or a […]

By |August 23rd, 2014|Brooke S., Lifestyle Tips, Natural Lifestyle|2 Comments
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My Real Food Timeline – How It All Started

Real Food Timeline

My Real Food Timeline

I started this Boholistic Mom website in 2013 to reach out to my friends, family, and any of those who were interested in real food like I was.  Yet my real food timeline and journey started many years before that point.  So many people get bogged down and frustrated when they think about all the different changes they could made and maybe should make, but when you realize that life is a process it isn’t daunting . . . it’s about learning and growing.  Walk with me through my life and how I changed and grew into the Boholistic Mom I am today.

1992-1998Inhaler: My Real Food Timeline | Boholistic Mom

  • Suffered with asthma and allergies

2000

  • Realized I was lactose intolerant after having problems every day at 1 p.m. after having milk at lunch

2000-2006

  • Had vaccinations containing heavy metals before college and before going on a trip to South Africa

2006Boxed Meal: My Food History | Boholistic Mom

  • Married my husband, James
  • Picked up my husband’s Diet Coke habit
  • Started “cooking” for our family . . . by box and by freezer meals

2007

  • Diagnosed with IBS by a Gastroenterologist
  • She never was asked what I was eating or drinking . . .
  • Began to cut out high fructose corn syrup

2008Soda: My Real Food Timeline | Boholistic Mom

Are You Too Busy?

Are You Too Busy | Boholistic Mom

Did you know that there is an epidemic spreading across America at an overwhelming speed?  The symptoms include a racing heartbeat, stressed mind, and a lack of focus.  This condition affects 3 out of 4 adults.  In fact, it affects men and women alike.  No one is exempt from this epidemic.  Children are even catching it from the adults.  They are “late,” “running behind,” “don’t have enough time,” and “can’t catch up.”  The condition is spread mentally through words.  “I’m too busy.”  “I don’t have time.”  “I’m swamped.”  We are all infected.  We are all “too busy.”

I have begun to read a book written by Danny Silk.  The book is called Keep Your Love On.  Why, you might ask, would a book on love have anything to do with being too busy?  Well it’s his first chapter that really caught my attention.  He stated that many people are powerless.  Things happen to them.  They are affected by the things around them and believe they have no control.  When we are powerless, we become too busy.  We don’t have control over our schedules, our time, or the events that occur in our lives.  They just happen.  We are at their mercy.

Then Silk writes about powerful people.  They make choices.  Things don’t just happen to them.  They have situations and they make new choices.  They are in charge of their time, their schedules, and the events that occur in their lives.  When they have something unexpected happen, they are not powerless.  They survey the problem and they make a choice.  They are […]

By |July 15th, 2014|Brooke S., Faith: Heart, Mind, Body, & Spirit, Mind|1 Comment
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Soap Alternatives that keep you clean

 

In this day and age, we have come to believe that a magical clean is only achieved with soap.  Soap being whatever the store sells as soap.  It may not even be soap, but if the store calls it soap then it must clean and we are safe.  Safe from the nasty obnoxious germs we all fear.  These evil creature must be fought with foaming cleaners (sodium lauryl sulfate), antibacterial cleansers, and if that wasn’t enough, we make sure to use enough hand sanitizer to kill off yesterday’s germs, today’s germs, and tomorrow’s germs too.

Once we are sure that our hands are clean so we don’t get sick . . . we get sick because our bodies haven’t developed any resistance from the germs that we don’t have on our hands, then we beg the doctor for antibiotics or antiviral medications to zap the evil bugs from our body.

If only we understood how to live at peace with the bacteria in our lives,
instead of constantly waging war.

Can you get clean without soap? - Boholistic Mom

Symbiosis

Did you know that we live in a symbiotic relationship with bacteria?  We need bacteria and bacteria need us.  We as humans are the host to all types of bacteria.  When we are at our healthiest, they have thriving colonies in our intestines, colonies on our skin, and even colonies in our mouths.  Our body can thrive and even heal when the good bacteria are succeeding in our body.

Why then are we always trying to get rid of bacteria?  Obviously, not all bacteria are good bacteria.  Because of these little creeps we like to call germs, all bacteria get a bad […]

By |June 23rd, 2014|Au Naturale, Bohemian Style, Brooke S.|14 Comments
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Modern Childbirth: My Story

Modern Childbirth: My Story | Boholistic Mom

7.19.2016 – Update to my story here – “Redeeming My Birth”

Before getting pregnant, going through nine months eight months of carrying a child, having my water break, and ending up in the hospital, I really thought that childbirth was straight forward.  You got pregnant, you grew a basketball, and you popped that sucker right out after 9 months.  I knew there was a little pain behind it at the end, but women have been “birthin’ babies” for centuries.  With all the medical knowhow that we have these days, why shouldn’t my baby’s birth go well?

Soon, I discovered something . . .

“I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies!” –  Prissy, Gone with the Wind

It all started with my water breaking.  I was getting ready to go to work at my Decorating Consultant job with JCPenny’s and I ran to the bathroom.

Basically, I heard water hit . . . then I peed.  My water broke!!!!  Of course, I had to be home alone that day.  My husband had to be at training a couple states over.  So I called the only friend who had offered to come drive me to the hospital (because no one else offered a whole month early, who would think of it?).

I happened to pack my hospital bag up two days prior.  Somewhere in my head I must have known.  Before I left I called my husband who was heading to his […]

By |June 16th, 2014|Brooke S., Natural Fertility and Childbirth, Natural Lifestyle|3 Comments
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The Unsettled Mom

The Unsettled Mom | Boholistic Mom

Settling.  What an interesting word, right?  Settling down, to settle, unsettling, or settling up.  As American’s we are even familiar with the term “settler”; the American pioneers who settled in the land west of the original colonies.  The original German work setle was literally a place to sit, a seat.  Yet with all these perfectly adequate definitions of the word settle, we have a definite malaise when we think of someone settling for something.  Such as a women settling for a guy who doesn’t treat her right or someone settling for second best.  It appears that taking a seat and settling can be a bad thing.

I think that we need to become unsettled moms.  Not because settling down is bad, but rather because we’ve been settling so long for things that are not God’s best that we do not even recognize what his best is.  The reason that I bring this up is not to forcibly upset your norm . . . but because I realize that my norm needs to change.  I need to become unsettled to follow God’s will for my life.

I want to talk with you about a trend in parenting that I’ve been seeing lately.  It’s parenting by excuses.  Not only that, it’s parenting by excuses and other mothers helping you feel excused by offering their own failures as examples to ease your conscience.  So really, you end up deciding that you are doing a good enough job because you’ve heard all the ways other people have done worse.

What a load of CRAP!  Do we really want to parent […]

By |May 29th, 2014|Brooke S., Home, Mom, Spirit|0 Comments
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Should You Reheat Your Coffee?

 

In the years since my first induction into the coffee obsessed hall of fame, I’ve learned a lot about coffee.  It wasn’t hard to start learning considering I had so very much to learn after sipping my first Folgers . . . actually it was probably an off brand . . . that was loaded with Coffee Mate powdered creamer . . . actually, no, that was probably also an off brand . . . with almost as much sugar as coffee.  Then and only then could I down the strange lava like substance purportedly known as coffee.  Learning, as I mentioned before, was easy.  I learned quickly that the strange substance sampled in my teenage years could hardly be called coffee.  There is fresh roasted coffee . . . and there are coffee grounds.  Let’s discuss fresh roasted coffee before my mouth gets bitterer and my soul echos its sentiments.

What I know about coffee is almost all from experience and very little from books and further roasting knowledge.  I know what tastes good.  I know what doesn’t.  Fresh roasted coffee tastes phenomenal.  I went from drinking coffee from strange coffee grounds, to drinking coffee at coffee houses, to drinking coffee that was freshly ground, then finally to coffee that was freshly roasted and freshly ground.  After drinking the later, there’s really no returning to the former.  Fresh aromatic coffee takes you in as it brews with the smells permeating the air.  Then when you pour the deep brown liquid into a […]

By |May 9th, 2014|Brooke S., Lifestyle Tips, Natural Lifestyle|0 Comments
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