16 Ways to Use Apple Cider Vinegar Every Day. ~ Stephanie Carlton

Via Stephanie Carltonon Aug 29, 2014

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Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is a must have in my house, and it is beneficial for so many things!

Raw, organic, unfiltered and unpasteurised apple cider vinegar is a cost effective and natural alternative to so much more than you think!

ACV is normally taken one-two tablespoons at a time, diluted in a glass of water. (1)

1. ACV can relieve and maintain gastrointestinal issues such as indigestion and bloating.

A dose of ACV is said to stimulate your digestive system to help breakdown food. Experts also suggest that the ACV contains pectin to help relieve intestinal spasms. Take up to 30 minutes before food to help your digestive processes. (2)(4)

2. It can help you recover from the common cold.

My number one remedy for fighting the common cold is a shot of ACV (diluted with water) followed by a glass of warm ginger water. ACV contains potassium and acetic acid which prevents bacterial growth and keeps your nasal passages clear. (2)(50

3. ACV is a natural energy drink.

Apple cider vinegar taken several times a day will provide quick and effective energy bursts. It contains potassium and enzymes to help combat fatigue. (2)

4. ACV can help clear the skin.

Dilute ACV with water and spread the concoction over your face with a cotton ball. You can do this morning and night, and also dab directly onto age spots. (2)(3)

5. ACV can make your hair shiny and treat your dandruff.

After shampooing, rinse your hair with ACV solution. Use several times a week for shiny results! The solution is made of 1/2 tablespoon ACV and a cup of cold water. (4)(2)

6. It Regulates and alkalises the body’s natural pH level.

Some natural practitioners recommend using apple cider vinegar to restore alkaline acid balance. Taking a shot of ACV (diluted with water) in the morning will provide alkalising benefits. (4)

7. It can regulate the pH of your skin and help clear acne.

Apply a washcloth soaked in diluted ACV to your skin and watch it do wonders. You can also apply a dab of diluted ACV to your skin overnight and help reduce the appearance of pimples or age spots. (3)

8. ACV can remove teeth stains.

Use your finger or a cotton pad and rub apple cider vinegar directly onto the teeth. Don’t forget to rinse out with water. ACV, removes stains; whitens teeth and kills the bacteria around your mouth and on your gums. (2)

9. Can provide relief from aching sunburn.

Run a cool to lukewarm bath and add a cup of apple cider vinegar. Soak for at least 10 minutes. (3)(4)

10. ACV can aid in weight loss.

A Japanese study has shown that even without any calorie change, adding the consumption of apple cider vinegar into the daily routine may reduce obesity. Take two tablespoons in water daily. (1)(7)

11. ACV cleanses and detoxes the liver.

Along with balancing pH levels, research shows ACV helps stimulate cardiovascular circulation and helps to detoxify the liver. (6)

12. ACV can cure reflux symptoms.

Apple cider vinegar is rich in acetic acid which helps buffer the acidity level of the stomach. Take one-two teaspoons diluted in a glass of water for best results. (8)

13. ACV maintain heart health and reduce blood pressure.

Potassium found in ACV helps balance sodium levels in the body, which aids in maintaining blood pressure within healthy limits. Apple cider vinegar also helps relax blood vessel walls through the mineral magnesium thus reducing high blood pressure. (7)

14. Relief for mosquito and insect bites.

Using as little as 1/4 teaspoon of ACV will relieve insect bites instantly. (7)

15. ACV cleans the toilet, bathroom and kitchen.

Just pour ACV into the toilet and allow it to sit overnight. You can use it in the dishwasher instead of detergent. Also make a spray of two parts water, one part ACV and spray onto surfaces.

The antibacterial and antifungal properties of ACV make it an effective disinfectant, preventing the growth of bacteria. (9)

16. It even cleans dirty and clogged drains.

For the drain, sprinkle baking soda down the drain then add apple cider vinegar and let it bubble for 15 minutes, then rinse with hot water. The acetic acid of ACV helps dissolve through mineral build up and cut through grease with ease. (9)

Sources:

1. http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/apple-cider-vinegar-and-health?page=2
2. http://www.rd.com/slideshows/apple-cider-vinegar-benefits/

3. http://www.doctoroz.com/slideshow/surprising-ways-use-apple-cider-vinegar
4. http://gerson.org/gerpress/8-amazing-uses-for-apple-cider-vinegar/

5. http://www.naturalnews.com/042226_common_cold_natural_remedies_apple_cider_vinegar.html#

6. http://www.livestrong.com/article/95855-use-vinegar-detoxify-liver/

7. http://preventdisease.com/news/13/071113_Is-Apple-Cider-Vinegar-That-Powerful-of-a-Health-Tonic-Science-Says-Yes.shtml

8. http://www.refluxmd.com/learn/resources/2013-05-01/2427/apple-cider-vinegar-acid-reflux

9. http://www.bobbyshealthyshop.co.uk/Apple-Cider-Vinegar-In-The-Home.php

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This is For the Women Who Don’t Give a F*ck. {Adult}

Via Janne Robinsonon Aug 26, 2014

Warning: F-Bombs ahead!

Love the ideas expressed here !

This is for the women who don’t give a fuck.

The women who are first to get naked, howl at the moon and jump into the sea.

The women who drink too much whisky, stay up too late and have sex like they mean it.

The women who know they aren’t sluts because they enjoy sex, but human beings with a healthy sexual appetite.

The women who will ask you for what they need in bed.

This is for the women who seek relentless joy; the ones who know how to laugh with their whole souls.

The women who speak to strangers because they have no fear in their hearts.

The ones who wear “night make up” in the morning or don’t own mascara.

The women who know their worth, who plant their feet and roar in their brilliance.

The women who aren’t afraid to tell a man to get the fuck out of her heart if he doesn’t honour her heart.

This is for the women who rock combat boots with frilly skirts.

The women who swear like truck drivers.

The women who hold the people who harass or wrong them with fierce accountability.

The women who flip gender norms and false limitations the bird and live to run successful companies giving “the man” a run for his name.

The ones who don’t find their success a compliment just because they have a vagina.

Women like Gloria Steinem who, when she was told, “We want a writer, not a woman. Go home,” kept writing anyway.

This is for the women who drink coffee at midnight and wine in the morning, and dare you to question it.

For the women who open doors for men and are confident enough to have doors opened for them.

Who use “no” to be in service for themselves.

Who don’t give a damn about pleasing the world, and do sweetly as they wish.

For the superheroes—the single moms who work three jobs to make it. I salute your resilient, cape-flapping, ambitious selves.

This is for the women who throw down what they love, and don’t waste time following society’s pressures to exist behind a white picket fence.

The women who create wildly, unbalanced, ferociously and in a blur at times.

The women who know how to be busy and know how to plant their feet in the earth and get grounded.

These are the women I want around me.

Relephant:

Quit Choosing Busy & Start Choosing what we Love.

This One’s for My Skinny Sisters.

Where Did the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Go?

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http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/08/this-is-for-the-women-who-dont-give-a-fck-adult/

Happy National Dog Day

10 Principles About Life to Look at Every Day.

Via Robert Piperon Feb 14, 2013

1. Bad situations in life are only temporary.

“If you are going through hell, keep going.” ~ Winston Churchill

Life is messy—bad things happen to good people. We all face hardships, but what makes us human is the ability to bounce back. We can become more resilient than we were before. Some things happen that we have no control over.

You can find strength in situations that you never thought possible if you just keep moving forward.

2. Be open and compassionate.

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ~ Albert Einstein

Sometime events occur in your life that cause you to close. You assume every situation is going to occur the same way: if you were hurt once, you will be hurt again. This is not true. It’s better to forgive than to hold a grudge.

 3. Things aren’t going to always workout the way you plan.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few. ” ~ Shunryu Suzuki

Don’t approach life with expectations of how things should or shouldn’t be. So many conflicts in life occur because someone is attached to a plan on how things should or shouldn’t work.

It’s alright to have goals, aspirations and dreams, but you don’t have to be set on a particular outcome. Sometimes the worst tragedies in people’s life turn out to be the best.

 4. People’s opinions of you are not who you are.

 “If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” ~ Paulo Coelho

Some people might say terrible things to you—who cares!? They might make a comment on your work, or your blog post. There’s no reason you need internalize it. Some people aren’t conscious of the things they say to people. So just be compassionate towards them.

 5. You’re going to fail at things.

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fail, fail and fail some more. Find inspiration in children, how many times does a child fail before they get something right, children are constantly trying new things and failing. Learn from them!

Go out and try new things! No one has ever been good at something without failing.

 6. Find a reason to laugh every day.

“A day without laughter is a day wasted.” ~ Charlie Chaplin

I think there is no greater mood lifter than to find a way to laugh every day. Find people every day to have a good laugh with.

 7. Some days are good; some days are bad.

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them—that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” ~ Lao Tzu

I one time was in line at a bank, and I heard something that changed my life. The clerk said to a customer, “How’s business?” The customer responded, “Some days good, some days bad.” Then the customer smiled.

You’re not your car; you’re not your fear; you’re not your feelings. Some days you will have good feelings, some days you will have bad feelings.

8. Do what you love every day.

“Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love.” ~ Rumi

If you’re a writer, do it every day. If you’re a musician, do it every day. If you’re an actor, do it every day. If you’re a bobsledder, do it every day.

Whatever you like to do—just do it. But make sure you do it every day. Because if you do it every day you’ll become good at it, and when you’re good at something you can make a living out of it, if you decide to.

Who do you need permission from—your friends? This is not their life. This is your life. Do what you love to do.

9. Find some time to do some meditation.

“I have so much to accomplish today that I must meditate for two hours instead of one.” ~ Gandhi

I don’t care if you hate spirituality and you think meditation is for people that live on top of a mountain and eat plants. You might just feel better if you take some time throughout the day to close your eyes and check in with your breathing.

If you think meditation is weird—that’s your opinion—it doesn’t mean it’s right. There are over 3,000 studies on the effects of meditation and over 2,500 years of Eastern philosophy behind it. I don’t understand why everyone in the world doesn’t at least try meditation. I think the world would be a better place.

 10. Be a rebel—with a cause.

“I rebel; therefore I exist.” ~ Albert Camus

Break the rules. Who cares?! Don’t get arrested for doing anything illegal, but it’s alright to break the rules. Anyone who ever did anything worth doing was a trouble maker. Steve Jobs—trouble maker. Albert Einstein—trouble maker. Amelia Earhart—trouble maker. It’s alright to be a troublemaker and break free from the status quo.

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What If? ~ Jennifer Zang {Poem}

Via Jennifer Zangon Aug 26, 2014

What if…

I stay, pretending I am not crumbling inside? That with each passing day I decide to start loving myself as much as I love you?

I begin listening to my barely audible, quivering inner voice.

What if…

I stay, using the pain as a secret ingredient, creating a concoction, sustaining both of our souls.

While lost in my crafts, I discover a hidden map in the landscape of the photography or a cryptic message between the lines of my erratic writings. The mystery of finding us again is solved.

What if…

I share a soliloquy with friends, portraying our struggles in the eloquence of a fleeting summer rainstorm.

We lean into each other as angry thunder erupts from our souls, holding a space to be heard and loved.

What if…

I know all of this is a maze of lies. Intricately designed twists, blind alleys and turns. I am unable to find the path leading to the outside.

So I stay.

Or rather, some form of me stays. A foreign being with a sealed door to her heart, the light within extinguished. A stranger to both of us.

Somehow you know the way out. Or maybe, the truth is, you never walked on a path with me. You remained on the outside.

So you leave.

I am stuck… with me, this foreign being, this stranger. And a growing collection of, “What if?”

I am running to the past, trying to recapture time. In the darkness, I stumble. Falling to my knees.

I am too tired to stand. Too tired to cry. Too fired to fight.

In the darkness, a soothing sound washes over me. My inner voice gently shares…

What if…

You let go of the questions from the past, the illusion of going back in time to change the outcome.

You quit running, trying to block the pain. Embrace it. Accept it as part of your journey.

What if…

You allow yourself to drop into this moment. Stand in your own truth, even if it feels messy and ugly. Drop the judgment, the fear. Open the door to your heart, inviting in the unknown.

You realize in this moment, in every moment, you are enough. Release the thoughts of inferiority hindering you from moving forward with your life purpose.

What if…

Pain is replaced with the love of forgiveness.

Forgiveness for him.

Forgiveness for me.

What if…

Relephant:

She Let Go.

Try Harder or Walk Away: The Decision.

~

~

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e.e. cummings’ Electric Fur. {Sex Poems 1/10}

Via Waylon Lewison Jan 24, 2011

Yowza!

From the Department of Oh, My. With thanks for the tip to Sir Richard’s Facebook Page.

Drawing and poem both by e.e. cummings:

i like my body when it is with your

body. It is so quite new a thing.

Muscles better and nerves more.

i like your body. i like what it does,

i like its hows. i like to feel the spine

of your body and its bones, and the trembling

-firm-smooth ness and which i will

again and again and again

kiss, i like kissing this and that of your,

i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz

of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes

over parting flesh….And eyes big love-crumbs,

and possibly i like the thrill

of under me you so quite new

~e.e. cummings

Swapping microbes with your dog

Posted by Jeff Leach on 17 Apr 2013 in Human Food Project |

We hug them, kiss them, sleep with them, and share our food with them – they are, of course, the family dog. In return, they share with us some of the microbes they pick up as they saunter about the neighborhood and places beyond. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado-Boulder reveals that families that own dogs harbor a more diverse and different set of skin bacteria than non-dog owning families. More importantly, the microbial exchange that takes place during the slobbering and paw-petting ritual of canine companionship reminds us of some time-honored interactions with the ancient and very microbial landscape that our western world and culture has walled off – and possibly not in a good way.

Following the observation that the gut microbiota of monozygotic twins (identical twins) are not any more similar than dizygotic twins (fraternal) – suggesting more than genetics determines the selection and source of the microbes on and in your body, the Colorado researchers wanted to explore how co-habiting with other family members and dogs shaped host microbiota. In other words, how does environmental exposure to other people (related and unrelated) and other species (dogs) shape your microbial ecology.

The researchers collected stool, oral, and skin (forehead, right and left palm) samples (swabs) of the humans and the same for the dogs, expect the all four paws of the dogs were sampled. In all, they studied 159 individuals (and 36 dogs):

Group 1: 17 families with children aged 6 to 18 yrs of age.
Group 2: 17 families with one or more dogs, but no children.
Group 3: 8 families with children and dogs.
Group 4: 18 families with no kids or dogs.

Not surprisingly, the researchers found that that family units share similar microbial communities at al sites sampled (stool, skin, oral). The skin was the most similar between family members – as family members often interact with the same objects and surfaces in a home. They also found that parents share similar oral (tongue) and gut communities with children aged 3-18 years in the home, but less so with children <3 years of age – a pattern seen in studies of other populations throughout the world – revealing the dynamic and still maturing nature of the infant oral and gut ecosystem.

They also found that cohabitating partners shared more microbes with one another than say the neighbors next door. They also found that on average, about 11% of the bacteria on someone’s hands (palm) was likely from oral sources, while less than 2% from fecal sources. In both cases, it demonstrates the movement of bacteria between various body sites – which are also ultimately shared with your partner.

They also found that the sharing of microbes between partners is also mimmiced with dogs. They found that dog owners share skin more skin bacteria (skin to paw) with their own dogs, then say with the neighbor’s dogs. But the similarities between human and dog were less pronounced in infants and seniors – possibly suggesting “behavioral differences between age groups.”

In an interesting twist, they found that couples that have a dog share more skin (palm and forehead) microbes between each other than do couples who do not have a dog. Conversely, people who live together but do not have a dog, look less similar to one another. In other words, the dog is the great equalizer and source of novel and rare microbes that are passed to their human companions. Side note: adult females have a greater diversity of bacteria on their hands than do males. Second side note: cats in the house (cats weren’t sampled) had no effect on the diversity of skin bacteria among adults. In addition, dog-owning adults seem to share more skin microbes with their dogs than they do with the children.

Unlike skin microbial communities, dog ownership had no effect on oral and gut communities in humans. Increasing family size had a significant effect on shared skin microbial communities – ie, bigger family, more homogenizing of the skin communities among everyone in the house.

In closing, the researchers note that much of the similarity between the skin microbiota of humans and their dogs can be explained by the oral-skin transfer – a.k.a. licking. In addition, a number of the taxa identified on the paws and forehead of the dogs are commonly associated with soil and water, which the dogs in turn track into the house and onto their owners. The paw and forehead of dogs also showed a greater diversity and evenness of bacteria, consistent with their frequent exposure to a great number of microbial sources.

All in all, the study reveals that our pets harbor a diverse microbial community that ultimately can influence our own microbial community structure and thus our health. The same goes for the people we cohabitate with as well – as their collective and shared exposure outside the home. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine that our overall broad exposure to the larger microbial world has decreased in our modern world. While some of this may be a good thing, we may be depriving our host-associated microbial ecosystems from some health-giving diversity once the norm throughout human evolution. In all things ecological, diversity is a good thing. If you want to channel your ancestors for some wisdom, you might start by hugging an animal or two and getting outside a little more often.

**You can join the American Gut Project to see what microbes you share with your dog – or kids – or your partner.