With synthetic fillers and injections being handed out like candy now a days and becoming a "norm" in many populations, I like to look at nature's alternatives. Natural beauty seems to be fading more and more into the past and I'm determined to bind with this community, bring it back and make it hot. What if nature truly does give us everything we need to look our absolute best and step into our bodies fully embracing how they were designed?
I want to share a little bit of a personal testimony here today. Lots of past garbage and a lot of hope for the future!
To start off, here's a fun picture of me last year on my birthday & this year on my birthday:
Crazy how much change can happen in one trip around the sun!
I want to point out a few key differences in these photos! (I do have a different hair cut, but aside from that I weigh even more in the "after" photo but most of you probably wouldn't have guessed that).
The first thing that stands out to me is the general shape of my face. There is some notable puffiness "before" and even my nose shape looks slightly different.
In the "after" photo, my cheek bones are more lifted, my eyebrows appear to be more lifted and there is more "defined" structure to my face (despite weighing more!). With the lighting it's a little hard to tell but on the right, my skin complexion is warmer, and my teeth are visibly healthier. On the left, I have deep crows feet in the corners of both my eyes & definite under-eye puffiness. And heck, look at my hair! Just the frizziness and overall health of it! And I swear to you I have not had any fillers! Keep reading because I've got some good selfies from my past below.
So how can this shift in appearance simply be because of minerals?
Minerals are the foundation of cellular energy and health in the body. Minerals fuel enzymes, enzymes fuel various cellular reactions/functions in the body and our whole health and wellbeing is based on that. Well hydrated and "plump" cells are healthy and have plenty of mineral stores to run off of. Therefore, the metabolism and overall function of the body is working in harmony together. The cells are happy and create a more fulfilled, natural beauty.
So what triggers an excessive loss of minerals?
When the body is under any sort of stress (mental, emotional, physical, environmental, etc) the first line of defense is for the body to use of minerals to combat that stress. Magnesium is one of the first minerals used up in the body during stressful situations. I would even go as far to say that most people walking the earth today are magnesium deficient, and don't even know. Our ancestors likely didn't experience the magnitude of mineral loss as us for a handful of reasons. 1) Their soil was much more nutrient dense and provided their food with essential nutrients and minerals. 2) Their environment was not filled with as many man-made toxins, synthetics, dirty electricity, WiFi, 5G and the list goes on and on and on.
What happens when our bodies don't have enough minerals for a prolonged period of time?
In a mineral depleted state, the cells in the body will weaken and not be able to create energy as well as they once used to. The cells will result to other mineral stores to create energy as best as they can. In a chronically stressed body, many minerals are depleted and the cells ultimately will start to die. The individual may start to experience symptoms like chronic fatigue, chronic pain, chronic inflammation, arthritis, heart palpitations, tumors, cysts, and ultimately cancer.
Minerals are something that I have found to be of utmost importance in our health, yet they are rarely discussed in the common medical space. I'm here to change that.
A trip into my past . . .
I want to share a few photos with you of times where my minerals were pretty depleted (for various reasons) and I lived with many symptoms for many years such as chronic pain, inflammation, severe allergies, and chronic fatigue:
Me in 2012: my face is super swollen. I weighed a lot less than I do now but I was so much "puffy-er". Looking back now, I can see my mineral foundation was skewed. My cells weren't hydrated and full of energy like they should be and it appears my lymph-nodes weren't working well to drain excess water - all signs of mineral imbalance. This imbalance likely stemmed from a stressful time in life. I had just finished my senior year of high school and was stressed all year about getting into the college I wanted to go to, applying for scholarships, etc. It was an insane season of my life and I was in a go, go, go state. I knew very little about replenishing minerals in my body back then.
Me in 2015: I had just had a pretty significant knee surgery. It's no surprise I was depleted in minerals because of the surgery. But I believe I was depleted in minerals far before this and that is what ultimately led to my injury. I had been stressed for a while just with life. And right before this had a pretty major heartbreak. I don't think injuries come out of "nowhere". They are deeply connected to our emotional states and our overall cellular health. The body is impressive and innately smart. Perhaps the injury was to slow me down and allow me to better focus on caring for myself at a deeper than cellular level.
The last one I'll share today! My face is crazy pale. I know during this time I had lost a lot of hair and my usually thick/luscious hair was just brittle. This was the tip of the iceberg for me. This was just a year and half ago. My body is in such a different place now. This was after a major hip surgery (the 3rd major surgery of my adult years) that my body wasn't really recovering from. I should have seen the red flags long before. In my mind, my body was slowly breaking down on me. One joint at a time. One brain cell and thought at a time. My health was in shambles. My cells were starting to produce less and less energy. My minerals and nutrients weren't being absorbed properly. I wasn't about to live in this state forever.
I knew there was a better way. Not a common way, but an uncommon, more natural, empowering way. I'm thankful everyday to have found that way through natural, holistic health and tuning in to our mineral foundations.
So what did I do to go from my major "before" to my "after"?
My first step, clean up my environment:
I started learning about the toxins in beauty products, cosmetics, fragrances, and literally almost everything around me. One day I dumped everything in my cabinets at home and started fresh. If I could make my home environment less toxic, I could reduce the overall stress on my body. I replaced my candles with diffusers and started diffusing my favorite oils that would help me calm down after a long day. I started ignoring things mainstream media and pharmaceuticals recommended and started doing the opposite. I replaced my makeup with "cleaner" brands. I started drinking only filtered water. I slept in a room with a high quality air purifier. I ditched all process food and enriched flours/breads. I replaced those things with organic, in season fruits and veggies, grass-fed meat, pastured eggs and raw milk. Some big steps, some small, baby steps.
My second step, become more in tune with my body:
Becoming more in tune with my body was not easy. It took an intentional slowing down of every aspect of my life to be able to better assess what my body needed and when. If I was tired, I would rest. If I was hungry, I would eat. If I was upset, I would take a relaxing bath. If I was energized, I would workout. If I was starved, I would heat up some bone broth instead of opting for my guilty pleasure of Chick-fil-a. Small, baby steps.
My third step, increase mineral intake:
Once I could better understand my body's needs, I could spot the red flags and symptoms that I needed to add in more minerals. Was my heart racing? Maybe I needed more sodium or potassium. Were my thoughts racing? Maybe I needed more magnesium. Were my joints aching? Maybe I needed more of all the minerals to better help with my calcium absorption. Was I running on stress hormones? I needed some more magnesium in my life and maybe some meditation.
I started small and slowly increased my mineral/nutrirent intake across the board. These are a few of the simple ways I started nourishing my cells:
I started drinking raw milk (rich in Vitamin A (Retinol), casein (which can help lower stress, bioavailable protein, Vitamin D, Vitamin K, and more!) You can use this link to find raw milk near you!
I started only buying nutrient & mineral dense dense grass-fed, organic, pasture-raised, in-season, food products (read this other blog post for a deeper dive on all this).
I started adding magnesium into my routine via many routes:
Supplement: MitoLife's Mag-ATP
Liquid Form: Mitigate Stress' Magnesium Bicarbonate (you can use LEXIEHAREN for 10% off)
In my foot soaks/baths: Mitigate Stress' Magnesium Bath (you can use LEXIEHAREN for 10% off)
Topically: Ancient Minerals Magnesium Oil
I started adding high quality salt to my foods
I started drinking remineralized water (added salt or magnesium bicarbonate to my water)
I started taking MitoLife's Vitamin E to help with my hormone balance
I started taking MitoLife's Systemic Enzymes to help break up old scar tissue and calcifications in my body
Here I am one-year later, not only with better energy and less pain, but a much better mental state and an overall happier body. Its been the most nourishing to my body year of my life and I ain't stopping anytime soon. I believe the pictures speak for themselves but I appreciate you taking the time to hear my story as well.
Cheers to you, a solid mineral foundation, and to the much more natural form of 'botox' (that's much cheaper as well). I'll take more raw milk and grass-fed meat any day, if it keeps working its magic like it has this last year.
Much love,
Lex
P.S. It's my desire to better equip the individuals in my life with tools to take their health back into their own hands. To allow a new lens to look at their wellness through and to ultimately bring hope back into the picture. Our symptoms don't have to be scary, they can be insightful markers that allow us to connect to ourselves at a deeper, more wholesome level. If you are interested in taking a deeper look at your mineral foundation, please book a free 15-min discovery call with me to learn more about working together!
**None of this is medical advice. None of the above should be used to diagnose, treat, or solve any medical issues. They are merely suggestions & based off of my own individual experience. Some links thought the blog may be affiliate links where I receive a small kickback for generating traffic towards a product or site. I only affiliate with brands I truly believe in and use regularly myself.**