New books and too many cookies

As much as I love the holidays, I'm looking forward to a daily routine which doesn't include eating cookies and chocolates! I know it's not benefiting me to eat them, and yet it's super hard to ignore a plateful of cookies. Sigh. As I've been paying increased attention to how my system reacts to food, I've definitely noticed increased congestion and tiredness that seems to correlate with my food choices for the day. To help balance me a bit, I've upped the wheat grass to 3 servings a day (they recommend 1-3 per day) and now have also incorporated in flax seed (no more than 2 tablespoons per day). I'm entering week #3 for the wheat grass, and the taste no longer bothers me at all. Fascinating. I've been getting a little discouraged by what the detoxing is doing to my skin, but I'm trying to be patient.

A little update on the hair, after roughly a month: I've had a breakthrough! Here's the routine:

• Massage your scalp with your fingers, vigorously
• Combine 1 tablespoon of baking soda with a cup of water (boiled, if you have hard water in your house). Pour on your head, concentrating on the scalp, then rub in. 
• I no longer let the mixture sit on my head for any length of time, as that seemed to increase the static in my hair. I rinse it out really well. 
• Combine 1 teaspoon of white vinegar (I've found it works better for me than the apple cider) with a cup of water (boiled). Pour on your head and run your fingers through until your hair feels easy to manage. Rinse well.
• Make the water as cold as you can stand, and do a brief cold rinse, which sets your hair and closes the follicles. 
• Brush with a soft bristle brush, to avoid breakage. 

What's awesome, is that I no longer do this every day - while I still shower every day, I now just wash my hair / massage my scalp with water on a daily basis and then wash with the mixtures every 3 days. The longer I keep this up and the healthier my hair gets, the longer I'll be able to go between washings. There's no dirty hair smell - my hair is clean, I never smell like vinegar as it's such a small amount needed, and I've going to save tons of money. I have to boil a big pot of water every 1.5 weeks or so, and then I just keep a pitcher up in the bathroom. The first few weeks were rough, but now I'm never going back! I'd suggest trying it. :)

For Christmas, I got two new cookbooks from Eric & family: Super Natural Every Day, by Heidi Swanson, and The Food Matters Cookbook by Mark Bittman. I'm excited to try new recipes, such as the AWESOME looking kale salad I flipped to in the salad section of Super Natural Every Day. Also, I finished reading Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr and now need to get ready for the Adventure Cleanse. What I LOVE about her book is all of the recipes for smoothies in the back, so I won't be totally clueless about how to begin. She suggests starting slowly before the cleanse begins, which is what I've been attempting to do with the wheatgrass. A few smoothie attempts in the next 1-2 weeks will be the next step, in addition to the final few stages of product research. If anyone has some good suggestions for natural laundry detergent, I'd love to hear them!