10 Heal Endo Gifts to Ask for this Holiday Season

It’s that time again: Holiday time!! I love the holidays, like, a ridiculous amount. Yes, I’m one of those people. I love the smells, the excitement, the cutting down the Christmas tree, the foods, watching Love Actually 100 times … please, stop me now.

Of course, the holidays are also know for their gifts. This can be obnoxious consumerism, yes, and when it’s super obnoxious I really become quite disdainful. I know some families that hate the holidays to the extreme because certain members are way too caught up in gift getting. However, taken lightly and in good spirit, I really do think it’s a nice time to a) consider other people in your lives and show them love with a gift, and b) consider yourself for a moment and really think what gift would make you happy. Not just immediately happy, but really benefit your life.

That’s why I’ve compiled this list of 10 Heal Endo Inspired Gifts you may consider asking for this year. All of them are geared towards really healing, and what better time to start than with a new year hot on your heels!

For The Chef (or chef in training)

1) Instant Pot

The Instant Pot will revolutionize the way you cook. Not. Even. Kidding. As a whole foods chef, I spend absurd amounts of time in the kitchen, but the Instant Pot eliminates this in so many ways. First off, bone broth, which used to take 24 hours and make your entire house smell like meaty soup all the while, now only  takes 4 hours with no smell at all (because it's a pressure cooker the steam is trapped inside). Plus it perfectly gels every time. Then there's a whole chicken or pork tenderloin: only 30 minutes, and fall apart tender. You can literally make hard/soft-boiled eggs or beans, yogurt or desserts, stews, soups, and every other delicious concoction in about 1/5 of the time as stovetop or oven.

If you're worried about the learning curve - i.e. that you'll get another kitchen tool and stuff it promptly in your closet - have no fear. Not only are there a gazillion recipe books dedicated to the Instant Pot, but my favorite way to find a recipe to is to google whatever I'm trying to make PLUS the word Instant Pot. There are always instructions a click away.

2) Cookbooks

If you're bored in the kitchen or looking for food inspo - especially along this ancestral food train of thought - there's nothing like getting a few new cookbooks start the creative juices. A few of my favs include the following:

Nourishing Traditions: I, of course, have to start with Nourishing Traditions. This is the cookbook based on Weston Price and ancestral foods. Not only that, the first 100 pages are all about nutrition - real nutrition. Heal Endo kind of nutrition. It's amazing to read, kind of like avant garde text book and recipe book in one. If you're into my recommendations at Heal Endo, I can't recommend this book more! May it become your healing bible in 2018 as it once became mine years ago.

Hemsley and Hemsley have 2 cookbooks I love and recommend: The Art of Eating Well and Good and Simple. Not only do I want to be these sisters, I also want to eat all their food, all the time. I'm terrible at following recipes, but I find when I follow these girls directions my food flavors come out sensational :)

Terry Wahls Recipes: Last, if you're looking to jump into some serious gut healing in 2018, remember that while the gut healing diet is short term it's very strict. That's is why it's imperative to have some good recipe ideas under your belt! Lucky for us, Terry Wahls - guru of gut healing - released a cookbook to help us all along: The Wahls Protocol Cooking For Life. 

3) The Perfect Pickler

If you're ready to dig into fermentation, I really love this lid. You don't technically need a lid like this to ferment, but for novices it's an AMAZING way to learn without having to deal with the mold factor (yes, that happens from time to time). Plus, it makes for really quick ferments. Having this accessory was my jumpstart into the fermentation field, so if you feel held back, definitely ask for this cool set HERE.

For the Mover and Shaker

4) Zero drop shoes + whole body barefoot

Zero drop shoes are shoes without any heel at all. If you wear a tennis shoe that's not zero drop, it's definitely going to have a heel - yes even your Nike's or Adidas. Heels 'ef up your alignment by shoving your hips forward, making you into a forward leaner, shortening you calves and hammies, all therefore hurting your pelvis. Zero drop shoes are a great way to start re-training your body how to move appropriately again. They're definitely, 100% part of the Heal Endo solution, which is why it's great to have a pair you love.

Nowadays there are quite a few brands to choose from. In my experience, I recommend Altra Running Shoes for the ladies who like cushioned shoes, as well as those women who have never tried zero drop before. They're a great transition shoe that allow your legs and pelvis to re-align without forcing your body to rely as much on foot strength.

For ladies with a bit more experience in the barefoot realm, I really love Lems Shoes, as well as the infamous Vibram. These are the ultra-minimalist - the ones that make you use your foot strength a lot more - so best reserved for those of us who have been working on foot strength for a while, OR only plan on wearing these for short periods each day until they re-grow their foot strength.

Last, if you're totally new to barefoot or zero drop and your feet look like cute little pencils, don't hurt yourself! Pencil feet = atrophied feet, and you're going to need some foot mobility work to start correcting these poor little guys. For this I recommend Whole Body Barefoot, a very affordable book to make sure you don't injure yourself in the process of healing yourself.

Do some foot and lower leg rehab, get some zero drop shoes, and allow your pelvis to fall back into place in 2018 :)

5) Restore your core program

I recommend this program to endo-girls wanting to learn how to actually use their core correctly. The site promotes it mainly as a post-partum program, but I'd like to promote is as a Heal Your Endo program to help you re-train your body to ignite your weak and brittle core. Here you will learn how to breath properly in ways that heal your middle, move properly, and strengthen properly. Although there are workout's, it's not super intense. Instead it's more about learning how to use your most important core-girdle muscles in ways that will bring blood and nutrients to your parts that need it most. Find it HERE.

6) Nutritious Movement for a Healthy Pelvis

This downloadable video program is more affordable than the one above ($15 instead of $200) and quite different though still very impactful. This is made by my superhero Katy Bowman (she should be your superhero too if you have endo) and takes you through 11 alignment correctives - I'd say endo correctives - plus 2 short workout flows. Really simple, no sweat breaking, but all incredibly powerful in getting your body back into its natural shape. Find it HERE.

7) Squatty potty

Last but not least, the Squatty Potty! This is an amazing contraption that puts your body into a position your ancestors would recognize as the only way to eliminate: the squat. I love this video to explain it all :) Find one HERE.

For the Beauty Queen

8) Leahlani Skincare

Leahlani Skincare is a Kaua`i line of products I'm OBSESSED with. And yes, I'm obsessed with the results and quality as much as the beautiful packing and amazing "au natural" scents :) These oils, balms, perfumes, masks, and toners live up to my very high Heal Endo standards for purity, and my skin has seriously never been so transformed from a natural line. Plus, Leahlani is a fellow endo-warrior like us! So when you support this home-grown company you support an true endo-preneur :) Find all her products HERE.

9) Ilia makeup

Finding chemical free makeup these days is easy, but finding one you like is another story. Until, that is, I found Ilia! This company is rad, their ingredients are organic and sustainably harvested, plus they work perfectly for a minimalist Kaua`i girl like me. The foundations are sheer, the bronzer natural, the creamy blushes and lip colors offering a sun-kissed but not too done up sort of glow. They of course also have more dramatic looks - I've never tried them but they look beautiful on their insta!

Find their entire range HERE.

10) Living libations shampoo and conditioner

Last, but certainly not least, the splurge of the century! It took me a good long while of hearing this brand's hair care line recommended to me before I actually purchased it, but when I got the shampoo and conditioner I wondered why I waited so long! Well, I didn't wonder, actually, I knew it was because the price tag was up there. I will say they lasted a lot longer than expected, with one bottle lasting 2 months.

The thing is, these products changed my hair from this curly-frizzy-thingie to real defined curls, perfect without even any hair product. These are the ingredients: Organic and/or wild crafted ingredients with pure spring water: herbal infusions of calendula, red clover, oats, coltsfoot, horsetail, comfrey, nettles, chamomile, and bladderwrack seaweed in golden jojoba oil; yucca and coco-protein to saponify; orange wax; supercritical extracts of seabuckthorn, sage, and rosemary; and essential oils of grapefruit, peppermint, vetiver, and lime. Yah, it's like fairies made it in the woods and, after putting a magical good-hair-day spell on it, sold it. American girls find the conditioner HERE and the shampoo HERE.

Oh, and if you want to watch this cool chick talk about her beauty routine as seen through the lens of Living Libations and natural products in general, you can watch it here :)

Wishing all you girls a healthy, happy, and festive holiday season, wherever you are and whatever you celebrate!!

Much love and aloha, 

Katie