Dry brushing is a simple exercise that improves health by increasing skin circulation and stimulating the lymphatic system. How do you get started and how should you dry brush? Get the answers here.

Hi friends! How’s the morning going so far? The kids are at a morning camp, and I’m working on getting things together for upcoming travels. I hope you’re having a great day so far. 🙂

For today’s post, I want to talk about dry brushing! This is something I’ve done since the Valdosta days (the first time!), and figured it was finally time for a post. Some of my regular habits are so engrained in my routine, I forget about them, and a friend or someone will will say, “Wait. You do/did what?!” lol. These things can be anywhere from chiropractic, functional medicine doctors and testing, acupuncture, Mayan abdominal massage, placenta encapsulation, meditating, using FAM to track my cycle, etc.

Dry brushing that came up in conversation recently, and I wanted to write a blog post and share a short video on this super easy hack you can add into your routine. Friendly reminder that this post is not medical advice! Just sharing my experience.

The Health Benefits of Dry Brushing

Dry brushing involves using a soft bristled brush to gently brush the top layer of skin. You can do this for a variety of reasons: to improve circulation and lymphatic drainage, for skin texture and exfoliation, or because it feels great!

Improves lymphatic flow

Our body is covered with lymph nodes that are concentrated in the head and neck area, the armpits, and groin. Our lymphatic system helps with tissue drainage, fat transport, removing waste, and immune function. If these vessels become congested or clogged, you may notice swelling or inflammation. I like to do gentle lymphatic massage on my face and neck, and dry brushing on my body to help encourage my lymphatic system to function properly and keep things moving along!

Can exfoliate and improve skin texture

The act of dry brushing the skin helps to remove dead skin cells on the surface and can help improve skin texture. If you don’t typically exfoliate your body, this is a great way to do it! When you exfoliate your skin, it also helps your moisturizer or body oils absorb properly to hydrate the skin.

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Hi friends! Hope you’re having a lovely morning so far! In today’s post, I wanted to chat a bit about how to eat clean and healthy on a budget and my tips for saving money on food!

I shared a post here on what it means to eat clean, and how this phrase is common (and this post is really titled like this for search purposes) but it isn’t my favorite phrase. No food is “dirty” and I’m a huge believer that you should eat the things you enjoy that work in your budget and lifestyle. Eating clean emphasizes eating nutritious and minimally-processed foods (though many processed foods are actually healthy!), eating fresh fruits and veggies, unprocessed veggies, smart carbs, and whole grains.

Eating in this way can seem expensive, especially when you’re buying organic options, but it’s absolutely possible to eat clean and healthy foods without breaking the bank when you know how to shop smart and plan ahead.

How To Eat Clean And Healthy On A Budget

Avoid trendy health foods

Trendy healthy foods are usually = $$$. You don’t have to include trendy superfoods (like spirulina, chlorella, goji berries, hemp seeds, chia seeds, and micro greens in your diet to have a nutritious and fufilling style of eating. While ya’ll know I LOVE a trendy superfood now and again, the beauty truly is in the basics. Fruits, veggies, protein, starches from the earth, and healthy fats. When all our fails, check out the perimeter of the grocery store (this is where the fruits, veggies, meat, and eggs are typically found) and the freezer section for healthy staples.

Bring nutrient-dense snacks

If you know you’re going to be out and about, a great way to save money is to bring your own snacks instead of buying something while you’re out. Some of my favorite grab and go snacks: jerky and an apple, trail mix, yogurt (if you like dairy), a hard-boiled egg, tuna packs and veggie packs from Thrive Market. I’ll also often bring a salad, a breakfast cookie, or a wrap with me when I’m out of the house working.

Meal planning

This is my favorite way to save money on food because we minimize waste and know exactly what we’re going to eat each week. If you meal plan, it also helps you stick to your budget for the week since you’re not buying food on the fly. My exact formula for meal planning and meal prep is here! I break down how I plan each night and organize our weeks.

Prepare meals with ingredients that you have

When I make our meal plan for each week, I also try to take into account foods we already have on hand and would like to use. I get almost all of our meat from Butcher Box, so I’ll think of the meat and seafood we have here when choosing recipes for healthy meals.

Create a grocery list

Throughout the week, I have a list I’ll add to as I realize we’re out of certain items. This way I don’t spend extra money buying something that we already have on hand. (We also know to double up on certain items, like almond milk, peanut butter, and maple syrup, when we run

Google how to calculate your own nutrition needs and the results will yield a plethora of online nutrition calculators. But how do you know which one to choose? Are they accurate? And then what happens? How do you apply this information to your own body? This post was written in collaboration with Mia, who is a Registered Dietitian on my team. 

Nutrition calculators are EVERYWHERE online and it’s easy to receive macros and suggested caloric intake after answering a few questions. The problem is that these calculators are rarely accurate and don’t consider factors that can have a huge impact on how much and what types of fuel you should choose for your unique situation and health goals.

Online nutrition calculators fail to account for various factors, including:

Stress: mental, emotional, physical

Nutrition quality. How do you know you’re getting enough vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, potassium and zinc?

How much NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) are you getting? This is the amount of activity you get in each day just from house work, moving around, running your kids to practice, walking to dinner with your spouse, etc.

Nutrient deficiencies. Are you on birth control, pregnant, breastfeeding, are you currently injured or recovering from surgery or a medical procedure?

How long have you been in an energy deficit? Have you potentially decreased your metabolic baseline from over-exercising and under-fueling?

What is your environment like? EMF’s, mold, water quality, heavy metals, personal care products, plastics, chlorine, etc.

How to calculate nutrition needs

So, how can you customize your nutrition for your own needs?

Ideally, you want to work with a certified nutrition coach or Registered Dietitian (not a random person with a nice bod on Instagram). After a full assessment, they can objectively help you evaluate the above along with your personal biometrics and customize a perfect plan for you. Having a coach that can look at the entire picture will help you weed out the “shoulds” and noise from the general recommendations and create a plan tailored to you.

So what can you do in the meantime?

Generally speaking, if we are looking to optimize health and longevity, we want to ensure that our diets are meeting the following requirements:

Optimal protein intake, preferably from animal sources. Include a wide variety of grass fed, pasture raised meats (all cuts) like beef, turkey, pork, chicken and wild caught fish like salmon, snapper, shrimp, sardines, anchovies, oysters, etc.

Maximize protein at each meal, eating a palm to palm and a half full of protein of choice. If you aim for 3 meals and 2 snacks per day (pre/post workout) you can easily hit a minimum of 100g without tracking or weighing any food!

Include vitamin A rich foods such as grass fed beef liver, raw milk dairy, egg yolks, peppers, sweet potatoes and carrots.  

Enjoy vitamin C rich foods such as peppers, kiwi, citrus, pineapple, acerola cherries, plums, etc.