Radical Beauty by Deepak Chopra & Kimberly Snyder

You’re eating chia seeds all wrong. Yes, there is a certain way to eat them to get all the health benefits and it’s not how you see your favorite health bloggers eating them on Instagram. I see so many amazing smoothie bowls on Instagram with chia seeds just sprinkled on top and I’m guilty of doing this too! Apparently, though, it’s important to consume chia seeds after they have been fully hydrated. Fully hydrated means the seeds have soaked (in water, coconut milk, almond milk, pick your poison, etc.) for 30 minutes in order to get their full health benefits. Waaaaaaaa. That means if I want to eat chia seeds I actually have to plan somewhat ahead instead of just throwin those goods on like I’m salt bae?!

Radical Beauty: How to Transform Yourself from the Inside Out by Deepak Chopra and Kimberly Snyder is packed with hundreds of tips and tricks like this. If your newish to living a healthy lifestyle, it can be REALLY overwhelming. What food HAS to be organic? What kind of deodorant can I wear that actually works? How can I actually get a good night sleep when I haven’t slept through the night in the past 7 years? This book BREAKS IT DOWN from top to bottom on living a healthy life. The BONUS? You will FEEL like a beautiful million dollas. Deepak and Kimberly give just enough detail to help you become dip your toes in becoming a Healthy Living Master but also footnotes the research in case you want to dive deep and get clinical.

Pillar One takes you through the dos and don’ts of what to put inside your body. All about food. How to detox certain organs, recipes, tips for healthy digestion, and all the hot facts about chia seeds, mushrooms, aloe vera juice and MORE.

Pillar Two is probably the most important pillar. Why? Your skin is the LARGEST ORGAN. Crazy, right? So what goes on your skin is just as important as what you put inside of your body. Get the download on all the bad ingredients that you cannot pronounce that you are slathering on your body. In contrast, though, there is a long list of important staples for skin care and hair care such as clay and jojoba!

Pillar Three I was dreaded reading the most. I’ve been working around the clock for the past 12 years and have two small children. I don’t really know what sleep is. I considered sleeping my long lost soul mate that I just wouldn’t have the opportunity to connect with in this lifetime. I’ve dangerously tried to adapt the “sleep when I’m dead” mentality at times in my life. This pillar certainly guilted me into changing my thinking and sleeping habits. Did you know the effects of too little sleep include – but not limited to – accelerated aging, anxiety and depression, permanent brain damage, weight gain, and ughhh more. I’ll forever be a student to Pillar Three, but I have made drastic changes to my sleeping habits.

Pillar Four gets interesting. While the most useful section breaks down the toxicity of cleaning products in your house there some interesting content on how to live season to season (if you experience seasons – sorry SoCal), physically touching the Earth, and how our menstrual cycles are very similar to moon cycles. Probably of NO interest to any fur friend lovers out there but there is a section on setting boundaries with your animals. I skipped over that one.

Pillar Five gets you moving. Take the stairs. Walk while you talk on your phone. Stretch. There is a whole section that provides easy yoga positions  – even if you’re a newb to yoga – for you to physically stimulate and cleanse your organs (yes, yoga stretches do that for you). Interestingly enough, certain ways of breathing offer huge health benefits – breathing exercises are included too.

Pillar Six takes us inward. The section that probably gets most people squeamish. Worth your time though. Learn how to manage your stress (the secret killer), the benefits of meditation, and how to find your own personal path in life that you can feel good about.

I read Radical Beauty back when it was released near the end of 2016 and here’s a list of things I have implemented into an ongoing – if not daily – part of my regimen. These aren’t all things I went and bought overnight either. I tried other products, did my research, and decided on these – for now. Not all them are perfect – but are huge steps in the right direction of leaving behind many toxic products in my life – especially when it comes to an external beauty routine. I made the most changes in Pillar Two after reading Radical Beauty.

Pillar One:

• Adding Vital Proteins to my coffee and smoothies. I often show this in my Instagram Stories, follow me to see where I sneak Vital Proteins into my daily life.
• Indulging in higher quality chocolate – big fan of Eating Evolved – can’t go wrong with anything of theirs – even the banana flavored one, I don’t like bananas but LOVE those cups – but I tend to opt for their Keto Cups to keep sugar low or the Midnight Coconut.
• Making sure I hydrate my chia seeds.
• Eating a teaspoon of bee pollen each day. If I eat a smoothie bowl, I add on top. If not, I just eat a spoonful and wash it down with water.
• Being more consistent with my omegas, I take Udo’s Oil and eat a can of Wild Planet Wild Sardines every morning – which I added to my routine after reading Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris.
• Working more warming spices into my foods and drinks each day such as cayenne, cinnamon, and ginger. If I’ve been slacking on my diet – I’ll sometimes take cayenne/ginger capsules to help detox my body. Mostly when I am traveling and don’t stick well to a certain way of eating.
• Gut Health. Radical Beauty led me on a journey to really learning more about my gut health – I’ve been adding digestive enzymes, kombucha, fermented foods (I love Farmhouse Culture foods), and Vital Proteins Beef Gelatin.

Pillar Two:

• Switching my body wash. I’ve been keepin’ it clean with Jason’s Aloe Vera body wash.
• Change my shampoo/conditioner to Matrix Biology Raw (I use Uplift because I have fine hair) – I got this recommendation from ShutTheKaleUp (go follow her now). I LOVE this stuff, it smells amazing and works really well.
• I’ve been using Sun Potion’s Shea Butter to moisturize my skin.
• Switched over to Pacifica brand for my skin care – I use their Kale Detox face wash, Dreamy Youth face cream, and their Pore Refine face mask. I also mix in Franklin & Whitman face oils and masks, as well S.W. Basics products of all ranges. I usually mix in the Frank & Whit face serum into my Pacific face cream at night and the S.W. Basics oil serum in the morning (morning because it has coffee in it lol – anything that might help wake me up)
• Rose Water. I spray 100% pure and organic Rose Water on my face before I put on moisturizer and I add this Rosewater to my bath water.
• Dry brushing. I also read about this in Kris Carr’s Crazy, Sexy, Diet book. The one I have, from SpaVerde, comes with a mini brush for your face, and a larger one for your body that you can detach from a stick to help you get those hard to reach places of your body. It also came with great directions on how to actually go about dry brushing your body properly.
• Deodorant. Yup, NO ONE wants to make this change. I tried once, about 7 years ago. I switched to Tom’s. Nope. Didn’t work for me. I decided to give it another go recently and well, I got lucky. I’ve seen many health bloggers try several all natural deodorants leaving them smelly and disappointed. I purchased Schmidt’s Rose+Vanilla deodorant. Works great for me, I think it actually makes me smell better. The downfall? Application. It comes in a jar. I have to scoop it out, warm it up in between my fingers then massage it onto my armpits.

*PRO TIP: Many of the products I link to are on Amazon for convenience, since most people shop there. However, I STRONGLY encourage you to check out Thrive Market. It’s like the Costco for health and wellness products. Huge discounts. I usually check there first before buying elsewhere.

Pillar Three:

• I’ve implemented the One Hour Rule. MOST days – not all, because I’m a real person who gets lost in very deep text messaging conversations that must continue until my eyelids close – this rule is implemented with both myself and my kids. About an hour before I put the kids to bed, we turn off all electronics and I have them do some bedtime yoga and read books. Same with myself, I do yoga with them and then try to read myself to sleep with a physical book – no e-reader or audiobook.
• Use airplane mode. Most nights I put my phone on airplane mode when I go to sleep and take it a step further and my phone in the hallway outside of my bedroom so that I have to get out of bed to turn off the alarm – and then I implement Mel Robbins’ Five Second Rule to keep my ass out of bed.
• Blackout curtains. There is a constant “city glow” that shines through my windows at night. Making my room darker has helped keep my mind from wandering about all the weird shadows.
• Ditching the co-sleeping (not in Radical Beauty, but the book inspired me to change this). I co-slept with my babies, which carried on into Toddlerhood and slightly beyond. It became a habit for me to just fall asleep next to them while I put them to bed many nights a week. Difficult habit to break because I used co-sleeping to deal with my mom guilt.