Friday Round-Up–6/28/13

For those that entered the my giveaway for the Recharge Protein & Greens Powder, I’ll be back a little later this morning with the winner. I have a date with the pool this morning – first swim in almost a year – and then I’ll draw/publish the winner. I’m taking advantage of the rare day of the week that my pool opens before 8 a.m.

In the meantime, here are a couple of items from this past week:

• How to detox your home in 10 simple steps. When we were on vacation last week, I experienced a need to really be flexible – we were away from home, from routines, and, staying in a rental house with traditional soaps, cleaners, and other things most people would consider “normal.” 2Chili gave me a hard time for buying some natural soap and using my special sunscreen, as well as packing my own shampoo and conditioner – asking if I felt these little things were really important. My answer was adamantly, yes, I believe they are. When I wasn’t feeling so great and my thyroid was on the fritz, I took a holistic approach to getting better without medication, and I believe endocrine disrupters in the day-to-day products we take for granted contributed to my situation over the long term. That was a long way to say  it’s ideal to get the toxins out of everything you possibly can! This article makes it easy.
• Stevia: Good or Bad? This is a great article on Stevia, its history, and, has a recipe on how to make your own liquid stevia. I only recently started using Stevia, on rare occasion, and it is the pure Stevia from Trader Joe’s. I really prefer dates, coconut sugar, pure maple syrup, or honey as a sweetener. But, when you don’t want to add calories, the right kind of Stevia can be an okay option – just choose with care!
• Dairy Free Lemon Cheesecake Smoothie. I wish I had thought of this – yum!
• I tried a new snack this week – Biena Roasted Chickpeas – and oh my gosh are they good! Whole Foods knows exactly how to merchandise (clearly) and I picked them up from an end cap the other day on a whim. So delicious – my only gripe is there’s not much in the bag – only 2 servings!

Lastly, thank you to everyone that pins my recipes and tips to Pinterest. I always love to see the pins and what you say under them – it really does mean a lot to me.

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!