Introducing My Big Fat Nut (Milk) Sacks

Sometimes when I see almond milk at the store, I wonder how hard it would be to make nut milk at home. Well, it turns out it's not that hard at all. There's a very cleverly named and easy to use product called My Big Fat Nut (Milk) Sacks that lets you make the nut milk of your choice at home.

Almond, coconut, and cashew milk are the most popular choices, of course. But you can also use the mesh sacks to make cheeses, cauliflower rice, and other food items at home. This product is currently on sale at Amazon for under $10, and for that price, you get two 12" x 12" triple-stitched sacks made of BPA-free Italian nylon mesh. You get two different sizes of nylon mesh, 75 micron and 200 micron.

The idea behind making the sacks from nylon is that they are easy to clean and don't retain odors. They can be reused many, many times. It's a green way to make nut milk rather than buying containers of milk every week at the store. And you can use fresh, organic nuts to make sure you're getting the healthiest product possibly.

If you are at all interested in paleo eating, nut milk is a highly recommended food. These nut milk sacks could be a great way to shift from packaged products to homemade goodness.

Introducing INRTracker, a Tool for People Who Take Warfarin

Do you or does someone close to you take Warfarin (Coumadin)? It's a very commonly prescribed blood-thinner. Personally, I've had more than one relative who has been on this medication, and it's one of those meds where you have to keep on top of your follow-up appointments for blood draws to make sure that you have the correct level of medication in your body.

INRTracker is personal health management tool for people who take Warfarin, and the name of the tool comes from the INR Test that patients get to check their level of Warfarin. INRTracker is a free web app that lets you enter your personal health data and generate reports to keep track of your medication level and try to figure out why you might be having any fluctuations in your drug therapy. You can use the app to enter lots of data that factors into your health, such as what you eat and what your blood pressure is.

INRTracker was co-founded by someone who is on Warfarin therapy for a genetic blood clotting disorder (Veronica), and someone who learned code specifically to build the website (Pavan). Oh, and they are also a couple. :) In other words, the site is brought to you by people who care about people who need to take Warfarin.

In addition to their app, Veronica and Pavan share other resources useful to patients. For example, check out their Warfarin diet guide. And check out this article about blood clot symptoms in the leg.

This screenshot also gives you a good idea of the app.

I think this is definitely a resource worth exploring if you are managing Warfarin therapy!

Kelly Le Brock Takes Action for National Hunger Action Month

Did you know that September is National Hunger Action Month? Actress and model Kelly Le Brock (I know you remember her in The Woman in Red and Weird Science) is busy with a project that both helps food banks across the country and helps families eat in a healthier way.

The project is a collaboration with foodtweeks™, a mobile app that you download for your Android or iPhone. The idea of the app is that it suggests tweaks to help you adjust your diet in little ways that add up to big reductions in calories. The cool part is that foodtweeks™ donates the same amount of calories you save to food banks across the US.

When you set up your free account and use the promo code KELLYLEBROCK, foodtweeks™ will double your donations. Kelly Le Brock is also doing some special social media campaigns where you can add even more to your donations. Check out her Pinterest page as well as Instagram. Kelly will be using hashtags such as #healthycooking and #foodtweeks4foodbanks and #hungeractionmonth. Keep an eye out on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Kelly will be doing public service announcements and other publicity throughout September to promote National Hunger Action Month and increase awareness of the needs of our food banks. In her off-screen life, Kelly has been a rancher for the past ten years and raises her own food for her family. She hopes to promote healthy eating choices through her work with foodtweeks™.

Leap, Live, Learn: A Blog on Personal Growth

I recently happened upon leap, live, learn, an interesting site by a blogger from Australia named Kate. She writes about the different things she's been doing and learning as she focuses on making small yet significant changes in her life. When I asked her about the purpose of her blog, she said, "It is a project of sorts to help myself live as healthy, simply, and freely as I can."

I found useful posts on healthy eating and fitness. Kate has an engaging style where she combines her own experience with links and information from other sources. Recent posts include an easy recipe for coconut mango popsicles. Kate writes about giving up sugar, and she makes it sound delicious with her guidelines for baking a chocolate cheesecake without sugar.

In particular, I like a post from November of 2012 when she discusses her longtime love of Diet Coke, or in her words, "a story... about a girl and a bad relationship."

I can recommend Kate's blog to other readers like myself who find inspiration in other people sharing their own stories of making efforts toward personal wellness through everyday choices.