5 Things I Can’t Live Without

December 15, 2015

1. Maya Nut ‘Coffee’

Coffee is like a tragic love story, on the slipperiest of slopes. The taste rivals nearly anything, but the aftermath is not so pretty. The jittery, spun out feeling, the adrenals begging for reprieve from continued fatigue, and the many loose stools that follow (you know what I’m talking about).

Now, Maya Nut has replaced coffee and become my new love. It has the bitter, rich flavor that I’ve always loved about coffee, without all the negative effects. It is not caffeinated so I add a touch of matcha (green tea powder) as I work on tapering off of caffeine all together…

Why no caffeine? Because in today’s day and age of stress, working like a dog with no rest, stress, toxicity, and stress, did I mention stress, our adrenals end up unhappy and fatigued. Caffeine takes your poor little tired adrenals and puts a vice grip on them. Take the vice grip off, and stop drinking caffeine like water.

2. Pan Scraper

This is a little square plastic object that scrapes food off of your dishes and pans. It may seem trivial, but it sure does make me happy! It saves your sponges from going to sponge heaven early, therefore, keeping our planet happier. It may be made from plastic, but it will last a long long time.

3. Essential Oil Diffuser

This is the time of year when colds and flus become rampant, and you need to ramp up your protection. Adding anti-microbial essential oils to your diffuser is an easy way to boost your immune system, kill off bugs, and make your home smell nice.

4. Snowboarding

(Replace with your favorite physical activity)

Movement is SOOO important in achieving and maintaining health! When you work too much from a chair and follow that up by sitting behind a TV because you’re too tired to do anything else, you breed stagnation. Stagnation breeds disease. Our bodies must move in order to be healthy, as increased circulation of lymph, blood, water, and cerebrospinal fluid delivers health to all the areas of the body it runs through. Not only does it feed your physical body but it floods your brain with mood lifting substances!

5. Elk & Venison

Our freezer is filled with Elk and Venison right now and I’m so thankful for both my man who was successful hunting this year, and the beautiful animals that are nourishing our bodies.

Purchasing meat from the store is a crapshoot. Companies may claim ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ meat, but we still don’t always know the conditions they were living in, or what they were being fed. Wild game lives off the land, not on Purina dog food, and are healthier than an animal that has limited acreage to peruse and is living in cramped quarters, which makes them more susceptible to infection and disease resulting in need for the antibiotics, growth hormones, etc).

Wild game does not cause the inflammatory and circulatory effects (ie. atherosclerosis due to ‘marbling’ of meat) that feed lot animals trigger, and is therefore a healthier, and leaner source of protein.

So, what are a few healthy items that you can’t live without?

<h3>Dr Jennifer Letellier Smith, ND</h3>

Dr Jennifer Letellier Smith, ND

Naturopathic Doctor

As a naturopathic doctor, I help patients facilitate their journey in healing, bring awareness to a model of health and shift it away from a model of disease, strengthens respect and relations across all medical professions, and in due course, contribute to the healing of our planet.
Phone: (970) 247-3717