Sharing simple swaps you can make for your heath (and the earth).

Hi friends! Hope you’re having a lovely morning! I’m looking forward to a hike with some friends and catching up on some SEO and other blog work I tend to put off as long as possible. 😉

Since we’re a bit into January of the New Year, some of the dust has settled and we can dial into some of the things we’re going to work on. I know that so many of us are looking to make healthy changes for ourselves, our families, and also the earth! In today’s post, I wanted to share some ideas for simple swaps and changes you can make in your routine. Please keep in mind that this isn’t a list to do ALL THE THINGS. Take a look and see which ones would be helpful for you and applicable to your lifestyle, and start with the one that feels the most reasonable and important to you. Once you’ve done it, maybe add in something else over time!

I find that habits are so much more powerful when we take the time to individually build them into our routine. There’s no need to overwhelm ourselves by trying to do everything at once, and some things on the list may not apply to you or be something you care about, and that’s ok, too.

Just sharing some ideas for inspo and if you have any to add, please chime in the comments section – I’d love to hear them!

Simple swaps you can make for your health (and the earth)

Assess water quality and invest in a filter

In many US cities, our tap water is… not it. Some places are better than others, but you can check out the quality of your local tap water here. Our lovely Tucson water is loaded with arsenic, in addition to nitrate and radium.

Unfortunately fridge filters don’t do a great job at filtering out the chemicals, bacterias, pharmaceuticals and pathogens. Our very favorite is the big Berkey – it makes water taste amazing – and I also recommend the Aquasana. Another option is Therasage. If you’re filtering out all of the bad bacteria, sometimes necessarily minerals are also filtered in the process. To add minerals back in, you can use real salt (like Redmond’s), trace mineral drops, or try the Sakara beauty drops <— this is what I use.

Compost

This is something I want to do this year. Every time I throw away food scraps and a myriad of other things, I think to myself, “You should compost that.” I know our garden would love it, and even if you don’t have a garden, there are local farmers who will accept drop-off compost, and some larger cities offer compost pickup.

Use less paper towels

Guys. This has been once of my goals for years, but I haven’t found a suitable replacement. I use way, way, way too many paper towels. If you have an option you love, please shout it out in the comments!

Decrease your morning stress (alarm clock, meditation practice, etc)

When you wake up to a loud, blaring alarm clock, you may be setting yourself up for a huge cortisol spi

Strawberry Blueberry Banana Smoothie brings summertime straight to your glass. Sweet and creamy, this good-for-you smoothie is an easy way to start your day or refuel in the afternoon.

My family loves smoothies and I make them several times a week either with our breakfasts or as snacks. Pink, purple, green, blue, brown, they come in countless colors and flavors. Strawberry Smoothies and Blueberry Banana Smoothies are some of our favorites that get made often.

A while back, I combined both of those smoothies into this one and it was an instant hit.

Strawberry Blueberry Banana Smoothie

This is a very simple combination that we all agree is delicious. I like to freeze all of the fruit ahead of time so that the smoothies get cold without any ice needed. On the rare occasion that I forget to pop some berries in the freezer in advance, I’ll add an ice cube or two but it waters down the flavor a bit.

When strawberries and blueberries are on sale I buy a ton to freeze so we always have smoothies on hand. If you prefer, ready frozen berries from the freezer section work beautifully in this smoothie recipe, too.

I prefer smoothies that are similar to a milkshake consistency and frozen bananas are the key. I buy extra bananas and simply peel them and put them into a ziploc bag in the freezer.

When I am ready to make a smoothie, I just grab however many I need and toss them in the blender. It’s also a great strategy for using bananas that are getting overripe and gives smoothies the perfect consistency.

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Creme Brulee Amish Baked Oatmeal

Have you tried baked oatmeal before?? It’s so delicious, I can hardly stand it! We are huge oatmeal lovers, but this Amish creme brulee version wins the grand prize!

A few years ago some friends went out to brunch with us (yes, we are total brunchers and if you haven’t caught that bug, by all means JUMP IN!!) and we had this glorious amount of food delivered to our table. When in a group, always order many things so you can sample the menu, am I right?! I knew, absolutely KNEW that the french toast at Gourmandise was going to be my winner and was flabbergasted (when’s the last time you wrote that word? 😏) when it was the oatmeal!

Now, you know I am an older woman at heart, so it shouldn’t surprise you that I LOVED the oatmeal, but to be the winner? That takes something special. Well, since I’ve been on this baked oatmeal kick, why not try a Gourmandise Creme Brulee Amish Baked Oatmeal?!

Just try to not pick off the entire topping, it is HEAVEN!!

What is Amish Baked Oatmeal?

Amish baked oatmeal like a warm oatmeal cookie but in casserole form that is made with oats, milk and a few other ingredients you will already have on hand. Traditional oatmeal is like cereal with a creamy porridge consistency. Baked oatmeal is more like a casserole or bread pudding. It is super versatile with endless amounts of add-ins or toppings. I’ll go into that more later in this post.

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Going through a traumatic illness or experience is unimaginably difficult – so making it through the other side is something to celebrate, right? But what people often struggle to vocalise is the confusing mixture of feelings that accompany this, and the burden of guilt that can, unfairly, weigh heavy on you

I remember the first time I heard the words ‘survivor’s guilt’. It caught my attention because it was finally a phrase that I could put to how I had been feeling for the last decade of my life.

For a little context, I’ve had 15 surgeries and, in many ways, shouldn’t have survived. If I had been born a few years earlier, or in a family with less financial privilege to afford the medical care I did, I would not be alive, and I have been acutely aware of that fact since the age of 11.

The problem is, at 11, it is a very adult problem to have when you are still very much a child, and with the limitations of the vocabulary of a child, and the confusion that comes with not being able to articulate how you feel. At 11 years old, I had been in the ICU for three months, and because the ICU was where the most ill children were in the hospital, I witnessed more deaths of children from six months to 15 years old than one should ever experience, and as each death occurred, it often made me wonder why I was still here. Why was I surviving? What was so special about me?

The only way I found to console myself at that age was to tell myself that I would do my best to compensate for those lives by spending my own trying to help as many people as humanly possible… I hoped that it would make up for it, and decided to never vocalise this guilt.

As much as it’s called survivor’s guilt, there are many other emotions encompassed in it, and the other main one was shame. Shame breeds silence, and so this became my deep dark secret, and ultimately led to me working so hard to overcompensate for all the lives lost.

I was often told in hospital ‘Everything happens for a reason,’ and this made the guilt so much worse. It forced me to try to make meaning out of something that has no meaning and doesn’t make sense. When someone tells you that everything happens for a reason, and you can’t find one, you begin to believe the reason is you, and that’s where the blame comes, along with the shame. Survivor’s guilt is nonsensical. Logically and rationally, you can understand you did not do anything to cause their death, but emotionally, it feels unjust and unfair.

What I wish someone had told me back then was that it was not my responsibility. It was not my fault that others had died and I had lived and, most of all, no one should have to earn their right to life. The fact is there is nothing special about me. There isn’t a reason why I survived and others didn’t, and the most peace I have found is understanding that sometimes shitty things happen, and not everything has a reason or a purpose.

I only began processing all of this while writing my first book, Am I Ugly?, and discussing it in depth meant I finally put words to how I’d felt for decades, and those wo

Can age-gap relationships really work? We answer your frequently asked questions about age gap relationships and explain more about what the research has to say

If there’s one thing that is bound to make headlines, it’s celebrity relationships with a big age gap. From the trending chart of Leonardo DiCaprio’s dating history (which revealed the then 47-year-old had never dated anyone over the age of 25), to top 10 lists of celeb couples successfully (and not so successfully) navigating big age gaps, we’re fascinated with the idea that there may be a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ number of years between our perfect partner and us.

But why is it that relationships with age gaps cause so much controversy? And what does the research actually have to say? We explore some of the most commonly asked questions about dating someone who is significantly older or younger than you.

What are age gap relationships?

An ‘age gap relationship’ typically refers to a couple who are seriously or casually dating, with an age difference of at least 10 years, though some people use the term to refer to shorter gaps. The exact number of years for a relationship to ‘count’ as having an age gap can also vary based on what is considered culturally normal, with other factors – such as a person’s gender or age – affecting how ‘acceptable’ others may see that gap as. For example, someone may be more likely to show concern over a younger woman dating an older man due to fears of grooming, despite the fact that young people of any gender identity and sexual preference can be at risk of grooming.

Anyone can be in an age-gap relationship – a celebrity, a friend, a family member, or a colleague. Age gap relationships can also happen at any point in your life, though someone in their 20s dating someone in their 30s may be more likely to experience comments or pushback from others than a couple in their 50s and 60s.

Why are age-gap relationships frowned upon?

Many people in age-gap relationships report facing stigma, despite nearly four in 10 (39%) of us have dated someone 10 years older or younger than us. According to research, men are more likely to have dated someone 10 or more years younger than them (25% vs 14% of women), while women are more likely to have dated someone 10+ years older (28% vs 21% of men). Over half (57%) of us would be open to dating someone a decade or more older than us, while just under half of us (49%) would consider seeing someone 10 years younger.

Despite around half of us being open to age-gap dating, research has shown an imbalance in how socially acceptable we see it to be for men and women to date someone significantly younger than them. 55% of people believe it’s