Whole 30 - Day 22

I smell like a candy cane right now. Weird, right? Especially considering that it's September; I'm a few months early for the Christmas holiday... just a few. Anyways, you're probably wondering why the smell of peppermint is wafting from my skin. Well, in my ever-encompassing effort to incorporate the Paleo ideals into my life, I bought a bottle of Dr. Bronners Magic "All-One" castile soap which is supposedly a good option for Paleo/all-natural-fanatics, of which I'm becoming (or have already become). There are a lot of different scents available: tea tree, lavender, eucalyptus, almond, citrus, rose, peppermint, peppermint/hemp, aloe, and unscented. You can purchase it in bar form or in liquid form. Personally, I got my hands on an 8-oz bottle of the liquid soap. I probably would have gone for a different scent than peppermint, but it was the only option that came in 8-oz at the grocery store, and I didn't want to invest in a giant 32-oz bottle if I didn't like the stuff or the smell. Now, I've only used it once, but I have no complaints so far. My skin feels soft and minty-fresh. It also feels moisturized, which means that my skin isn't itchy right now, if you exclude the locations mosquito bites magically appeared after my Saturday morning row, and even they aren't terribly itchy.

You may be wondering what is castile soap, and why should I use it? Well, castile soap is the name of olive oil-based soaps that are made in similar style to that originating in Castile, Spain. Dr. Bronner's soap is a popular version that is well-known for the insane amount of tiny text all over the bottle's label, and more importantly for its foaminess. If you're like me, you're used to your soaps developing into a lather when you use them, however, there's some soaps out there that don't lather. For instance, Cetaphil is a soap that had been recommended to me by my dermatologist as a gentle face wash. It was moisturizing and gentle as claimed, but it didn't lather and I just felt like I wasn't getting clean. That being said, my experience with Cetaphil was ages ago (a.k.a. high school), and now that I've switched over to the oil cleansing method for my face, I no longer need that foaming action to consider my face clean. I haven't completely accepted that for my shower though, so Dr. Bronner's Magic "All-One" is a good option for me to start going more natural for soaps. I've looked up some recipes for making my own soap though, and I imagine it's going to happen some day. I mean, I've taken to making everything else and using natural household ingredients for everything from face wash to toothpaste to leave-in conditioner and moisturizer. Why wouldn't I eventually get around to making soap. Yeah, I see that in my future.

In the meantime, let's talk about the present, or technically the past at this point. After getting home from Krav Maga and a brief stop at Trader Joe's for some veggies and unsweetened dried fruit, I whipped up some steak with fajita veggies, and a side of plantain chips with salsa. For the fajita seasonings, refer to my post here: http://adventurepaleo.blogspot.com/2013/08/whole-30-day-4.html

I used a bag of frozen 3-pepper medley (red, green, and yellow) with onions. Toss that into a cast-iron skillet, and cook with the seasonings until it's melted and the excess water from freezing has started to evaporate. Then toss in the steak (or half a steak as shown above), cooking for a few minutes on each side until the insider reaches your desired pinkness. As always, go for the grass-fed beef if you can find it. And the plantain chips are a good option (when you can find them not cooked in canola oil) if you're really craving chips and salsa. Don't go wild on it, because we don't want to have too much dried fruit, and it falls into that iffy region of "Sex With Your Pants On." But I feel that as long as you don't eat ALL of the plantain chips in one sitting, you're probably okay. And if it feeds the craving, that great, and you can get back to all of the other healthier options.