FACT: coconut oil is AWESOME

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Kaia Calhoun

I’ve been itching, but not literally thanks to coconut oil, to get this post up! Every winter I experience extreme leg and hand itch due to super dry skin. At my first itch I automatically sought relief in the various kinds of lotion strewn around the house. Finally, on the third or fourth try I opted for my coconut oil and I will never go back. It is officially the ONLY thing that will completely vanquish my terrible itch!

What is Coconut Oil?

Coconut oil is an edible oil extracted from the meats of mature coconuts. It has provided the main source of essential fats in the tropical region through the generations. It comes in two familiar forms: expeller-pressed and regular – in my experience, regular retains the coconut scent and expeller-pressed is without.

I use coconut oil for…

lotion
deodorant
butter substitute

Lotion

I’ve briefly explained this scenario above, but I particularly have found coconut oil to be my winter itch saving grace. I’ve had this problem since I was a kid… come winter time I itch myself raw in my sleep and it is utterly unbearable. I’ve tried the cheap and the expensive lotions, vaseline, ointment… everything I could think of. This year I thought of coconut oil and by the miracle of its super hydrating nature it worked! I find that, not only does it hydrate, but it leaves a protective coating over my skin that helps it to remain itch-free all day.

Beyond this personal experience my research indicates that it is indeed recommended for a lotion due to its moisturizing qualities and it reduces protein loss when used in hair. Ironically, I have already intended on using coconut oil on my hair as soon as I run out of my current hair product. So, perhaps I’ll have a personal testimony on that soon 🙂

Deodorant

As for deodorant, this tip-off came from my sister-in-law, Alison. She did a hard-core hormone reset dieting plan through her gym about a year ago. As a part of it they weren’t allowed to use deodorant or anything on their skin except for coconut oil. Alison mentioned that, according to research, the body should give off a naturally pleasing aroma as long as one’s food consumption is in line with your body chemistry. I’m not certain about that but I have found coconut oil most sufficient when in line with good eating habits. I will warn you though, if you are going to commit to such a healthy method to deodorizing your body be aware that it may take several weeks for your body to adjust to the freedom of no aluminum or other anti sweat and pretend smell agents that are prevalent in manufactured deodorant. There are still some days when I need to apply it more than once because I find my left armpit stubbornly stinky 😉

Butter Substitute

I am not officially a vegan, though I am a vegetarian and rarely consume animal byproducts. I believe God wouldn’t give us unfertilized chicken eggs and other animal byproducts unless it was in His blessing that we use them kindly. After all, he did promise a land of milk and honey to the Israelites – that is, of course, real, right-from-the-cow milk and raw honey so there is noteworthy difference there.

However, since coconut oil is so nutritionally full of great things and butter is not, I occasionally use coconut oil in place of butter in my frying pan and it surely is tasty. It can, and is, also used in baking and in place of butter in other scenarios as well.

My Health Benefits Testimony

Now, bear with me, I am going to tie my research to these new habits and to other things that have taken place in my life because of them. For those of you who know me you might be aware that I have dropped some weight; according to my calculations it was about 20 pounds total since October and I dropped 2-3 pant sizes (depending on the brand).

In October I made a couple of changes. Josh was gone most of the month and I tend to gravitate towards eating mostly fruits and vegetables instead of pizza and pasta whenever he is gone so my carbohydrate consumption lessened. And, right around that time, my winter itch kicked in so I started using coconut oil as lotion and figured, while I was at it, I would try it as deodorant. Those were my only changes.

Now, the point in my research that stunned me most was learning that coconut oil helps increase metabolism. Research also specifically states that reducing carbohydrate consumption and increasing coconut oil in the diet can lead to weight loss.

So as I am using coconut oil across the surface area of my largest bodily organ I believe that my integration of steady doses of coconut oil into my blood stream through my skin seems to be a logical explanation for my sudden weight loss – especially when paired with consuming less carbohydrates. I had only wondered at this possibility until doing my research today.

My research also indicates that coconut oil has anti bacterial and virus fighting qualities. It is primarily the lauric acid that contributes to this quality. Lauric acid is only found in one other place, breast milk. So, as mothers breast feed their children through the flu season to keep them from picking up the bug I, essentially, am doing the same thing by adding coconut oil into my body chemistry. On top of moisturizing my skin and increasing my metabolism, apparently I am also fending off the winter illnesses that are plaguing all of my friends. Some people actually specifically use it as an oral dietary supplement for that reason but my theory is that I haven’t been sick yet this winter because I’ve been integrating it into my body through my skin.

For all these reasons, and the fact that there are so many studies out to advocate keeping the manufactured products off your skin, I strongly recommend using coconut oil as your lotion and deodorant and maybe even occasionally instead of butter.

Some Final Facts…

Medically, coconut oil is also said to benefit hypothyroidism patients and to have repairing and even reversing qualities on Alzheimer’s and diabetic patients. In people with hypothyroidism the coconut oil combats the disease by increasing metabolism and it raises body temperatures which, in turn, also promotes thyroid health.

Source: http://coconutoil.com/

Book Review: A Voice in the Wind

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Kaia Calhoun

Josh has been gone for almost a week and a half so that means I’ve finished a 496 page novel and already started the next on in the series 🙂

Ordinarily I succumb to watching Disney movies, or at least having them on for the vocal company, but for this spread of alone time I resolved to commit to keeping the TV off and picking up a book instead. I had barely started A Voice in the Wind before Josh left and I finished it at 2:30am Saturday night.

If you are like me and prefer to know as little about a story as possible before diving in, I simply tell you this tale is about a young Jewess facing the calamity and debauchery of a post Nero Roman civilization. So, count this your SPOILER ALERT and skip the Summary but the rest of the content is safe for you. However, I do reveal very little in the Summary.

SUMMARY

A Voice in the Wind is the first installment of a three book series by Francine Rivers called Mark of the Lion. The story is split from multiple perspectives with a main character a couple secondary characters and a couple more tertiary characters.

The predominant main character is a teenage Judean slave girl named Hadassah. She is a soft-spoken, humble, and compassionate Christian. The reader begins with her in a rotting Jerusalem with her dying family.

Our secondary characters, Atretes, Marcus, and Julia, narrate the story intermittently as well.

Atretes has the second most noticeably dominant voice. He is a barbaric and to-the-core macho, yet beautiful and soulful Germainian clan chieftain’s son. The reader starts a journey with him in the middle of a thick forest in Germania at war with the Romans.

Marcus is a handsome and cunning wealthy Roman aristocrat. He is the very image of corrupt Rome and gives voice to Rome’s debauchery and vile desires.

Julia captivates the reader briefly at the beginning of the story as the innocent and beautiful little sister of Marcus but her brightness rapidly dissolves rendering her an utterly selfish and loathsome character. Not too far into the novel she is presented with Hadassah as her personal slave and the story unfolds deeply from there.

Tertiary voices include Marcus and Julia’s parents Phoebe and Decimus, the dark Calabah, and a generous sprinkling of other characters.

REVIEW

To be honest, I avoided this book for years. Josh and several other friends highly recommended the book to me but, as a writer, I struggled to bring myself to start because of my experience with River’s Redeeming Love several years back. In Redeeming Love I found that I loved the story but the overbearing amount of sappy loving and the undesirable, and sometimes unprofessional, writing style almost had me setting the book aside. River’s is a brilliant story weaver but sometimes emotions run rampant and the Christian aspect gets in the way of the storytelling. That being said, I am a strong advocate for Christian fiction because I love learning Biblical messages in a creative way but it irks me when it’s an excuse for bad story structure and evangelical interruptions. I am a firm believer in practicing love and life to emit Christ rather than always confront non believers over the head with Bible thumping and I find too often that Christian fiction falls in the latter category.

Anyway, I committed to reading it and fell in love with learning about Biblical and Roman history in such an entertaining way and, in the end, I found myself convicted by the character lessons within the story.

A Voice in the Wind gave vivid picture and detail to the history of Rome and Ephesus as it coincides with Biblical history. I cherished learning about historical Rome at the collapse of Judea, post Nero, and in the midst of gladiators. One of my all time favorite movies is Gladiator so naturally that was an easy point of connection and intrigue but I also love learning about world history, especially as it pertains to the Bible. I found River’s depiction of Rome visually and socially very enlightening and infinitely interesting.

The other aspects of the novel that struck me were the lessons I was left with to ponder when I turned the last page of the book. I won’t divulge too much of what happened because I truly hope you will commit to reading the book yourself but I found myself left with convictions to boldly speak up, stand up firmly in my faith, and persevere down God’s path even if death looks me in the face. I have a new and profound respect for Christians that lived, loved, and died during that time period and feel so blessed with the religious freedom I possess.

My grievances with the novel were in the characters, the plot and the structure.

The most believable character, and, thus, my favorite character, was Atretes. But I struggled with the other main characters. I found Hadassah unrealistically and irritatingly long-winded in her evangelical exploits and her personality somewhat inconsistent. I loved her gentle and compassionate spirit but I never fully loved this character that the reader is supposed to adore because she sometimes spends pages reiterating Biblical passages, she rarely spoke a word that was her own and not recited from the Bible, and she had bursts of boldness that were uncharacteristic of everything I’d learned of her personality.

As far as the plot is concerned, I found most of it more than satisfactory. Overall it was continuously engaging while remaining believable. However, at the introduction of Hadassah to other Roman and, later, Ephesian Christians I was occasionally subjected to lengthy Biblical banter consisting of scriptural recitation and rigid religious conversation. Plot interruptions by Hadassah’s occasional Biblical rants were also unnecessary and unwelcome. I liked River’s intention of driving a message home but I just wish she would have done so with more brevity and cleverness.

The structure of everyone contributing their perspective in the story is interesting but somewhat immature. I believe a good writer should be able to give a well-rounded view of their characters, story, and the setting without having to succumb to grappling for every character’s perspective. I can appreciate a good novel with a few narrators but not everyone should get their voice in the story.

CONCLUSION

Despite my qualms with the novel I do highly recommend it. The reward of learning more about the history surrounding the Biblical letters and the personal Biblical conviction delivered is well worth trudging through moments of religious rants and disagreeable characters. Not to mention, the story is captivating.

My highest recommendation in reading this book is reading it along side Romans. I so happened to accidentally stumble on this excellent pairing. When I started Voice in the Wind I simultaneously and coincidentally started Romans for my daily devotions. I loved the picture painting of the novel paired with the Biblical history and telling of Roman civilization.

FACT: it’s a Friday with FOTOSTRAP

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Kaia Calhoun

For Christmas my mom gave me a beautiful yellow FOTOSTRAP. All of my cameras come with a generic and, although useful, pretty ugly camera strap. Since I am doing “a Photo a Day” (check out this weeks post) I wanted to give myself just a little more incentive to carry my camera everywhere and better showcase my personality by wearing my favorite color with my camera 🙂

So, I decided to showcase my new lovely FOTOSTRAP because I love it and they represent a VERY exciting mission. And, while I photographed, Sam pounced on me every moment I was still so he made it into the pictures as well. For a set of photographs he actually lay propped on my calf, as shown below, just staring curiously all the while 🙂

The Product

FOTO is dedicated to using only quality materials in their straps. They are environmentally friendly and use 100% genuine leather and organic cotton duck fabric. Each strap is also equipped with a strong webbing fiber and durable brass hardware. And all straps are made in the USA and nothing is imported or exported for their production.

The Mission

One of my favorite aspects of FOTOSTRAP is that the owner, Katie Norris, actually started as a professional photographer for a giving based business called Fotolanthropy. Her dream was to better finance the giving projects she was doing my donating a portion of every FOTOSTRAP sale to the photography business.

Giving Back

Fotolanthropy is a giving based business that shares real stories about real people. Fotolanthropy connects with photographers around the country to use the art as a gift. When a truly inspiring story is found Fotolanthropy backs a photographer in financing a free photo shoot and covers the expenses of the products offered (disc, album, etc) for that family or individual. That family’s story is then stared on Fotolanthropy’s blog.

If you have a story or someone in mind that would love this gift either let me know or go to Fotolanthropy and nominate their story.

Wednesday Words: Walking through a Desert

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Kaia Calhoun

Today my world suddenly crumbled beneath me. I can’t specifically pin what started it but all I know is I suddenly, involuntarily succumbed to messy tears. To say the least, nothing was going right and I was feeling significantly lack luster in my line of work.

I stumble outside, hop in my car, turn the ignition .. some whiny noises then the clicking sound of death. She was not going to start. I marched to our other vehicle and she hesitantly gave way to life.

I headed on my way to meet some girl friends at Starbucks while popping in at various establishments to accomplish some errands while in transit. At none of these places did I get helped by anyone I’ve made friends with, nor anyone that was particularly kind; I realized later that was for the best because with my dam threatening to break a kind word would have meant my overflow. So, I made it to the post office, the bank and Starbucks intact; however, I was slowly breaking and my last shred of will power almost crumpled while waiting for the barista to finish my hot chocolate. The girls didn’t pay notice to me except for Erin who simply said she’d meet me back at their place because there were too many of us to fit at Starbucks. Again, thankful nothing else was said because it surely would have meant my end.

I trudged to my car again and felt my face shattering along the way. I hurried my fanny onto my driver’s seat, shut the door, and sobbed. My phone rang and I proceeded to hastily blubber to Josh that I didn’t want to talk and I would talk to him later or something.

“But I kind of need to talk.”

“Fine, you can talk but I don’t want to so I’ll just listen.”

Of course, after he opened up about his trying day I was able to calm my inner storm enough to share my trouble with him.

I had to pop into UPS to drop a package off so we had a brief conversational interval and I’m fairly certain the other customer in the store and the clerk could tell I had been crying but I was all too aware there was nothing I could do about it.

When I got back in the car I spilled over again and was starting to reach hyperventilation.

I finally reached the bottom line of it all in our conversation, I was so lonely I felt sick and I was struck by the realization that with my husband out saving souls with their ministry my job of photography felt utterly meaningless.

It amazes me how, so often in our marriage, he knows just what to say. This time he simply told me he understood and that he knows what it’s like to be walking through a desert. He also said that it is always right after the dry seasons that God pours out the biggest blessings.

Since I had reached the hyperventilation level of blubbering I continued to sob until my emotions ran out. A short walk and two long hugs later I could breathe easy again and sorrow gave way to an unmistakable rise in hope and thankfulness.

Now I am excited to see what lies at the end of this desert. And, even though I live an out-of-the-ordinary marriage with my man on the road, I’m so thankful that the love we share is forever deep and that I have a husband who adores me, misses me, calls me often, and encourages me. Today I count myself so blessed.