Millions of people suffer from depression every year, and it can be a truly debilitating condition, sapping your energy, your motivation, and even your will to live.

While there are many avenues to treating depression, not all of them need to involve expensive therapy or drugs (which can often have negative side effects). In fact, for many people with mild-to-moderate cases of depression, even simple changes in diet and physical activity levels may help significantly according to recent research.

This month's free resource is a helpful guide on natural methods for dealing with depression. Grab your free copy below, and feel free to share with those you care about as well!

* Note: Major depression is no joke. If you are feeling severely depressed or having thoughts of self-harm, please seek professional advice right away.

We all know that we need to eat healthy and get plenty of exercise in order to maintain a healthy weight, yet if everyone knows this, why are we facing a nationwide epidemic of obesity - and obesity-related diseases?

One of the main issues is that while we all "know" this in theory, there is endless confusion over what these two necessities actually mean. What exactly is a "healthy" diet, and what type of exercise are we talking about? Some studies say 30 minutes of "moderate" daily exercise is enough - but how does the average person actually translate this into actionable steps? Is that just a couple of strolls around the block? Does gardening count? What about yoga? It is especially confusing when other contradictory studies seem to show that shorter, but more intense forms of exercise may be more effective.

We've covered healthy eating at length on this blog, so please browse our archives for more on this topic. Today, we are going to take a closer look at some fun and active forms of exercise that can actually keep you healthy, without having to slog away on the treadmill for hours, or force yourself to use those boring and repetitive machines at the gym (which actually aren't really all that great for your body anyway).

The first thing to remember is that the best form of exercise is the kind you actually do! Committing to a new workout routine every few months, and never really following through on any of them, is one sure way to never make any real progress towards your fitness goals.

Instead, it is important to find forms of exercise that you actually enjoy and will do on a regular basis, and you'll find it much easier to prioritize your fitness. Exercise doesn't need to be boring or stale - it's just a matter of mixing things up, and trying things you might not have even thought of as "working out." Not to mention, by participating in a wide variety of activities, you'll actually build stronger and more resilient muscles and joints, and reduce the risk of repetitive strain injuries.

Below are a few fun non-traditional workout ideas to incorporate into your regular activity lineup. Try these out, pick one, two, or several of them that you really enjoy, and sprinkle these throughout your week, along with some weight training and HIIT workouts. You'll be amazed to find how much they improve your fitness, without even feeling like you're "working out"!

 Welcome to March! With spring just around the corner, I've been busy as can be, trying to finish all my indoor cleanup projects before garden season arrives. The gorgeous weather this weekend (74 degrees!!) made it difficult to stay indoors, so I did get outside for a bit to clean out the chicken coop, pick some greens for the Buckaroos, and spend some time relaxing in the sun with the kitty.

Anyway, with a new month upon us, I wanted to share your monthly freebie - it's a really cool guide about forming healthy habits, from a functional medicine perspective. Grab your copy below, and if you would like to learn more about achieving health through simple healing habits like the ones you'll learn about inside, be sure to check out the upcoming online event on this topic (details below).

Although I am not by any means a baker, there's something about winter that just makes me want to pull hot, crusty loaves of fresh-baked bread out of the oven! Although wheat (especially bread) does cause some digestive issues for me, so I don't eat it a lot, I have done some experimenting over the years with homemade breads.

I grew up eating homemade fresh-baked whole wheat bread almost every day. My dad would rise at the ungodly hour of 4:30am to grind wheat berries into flour, then mix and knead the dough, set it to rise, knead it again, let it rise again, and so forth. Most mornings I would wake to the smell of fresh bread baking, or the sight of my dad kneading dough at the kitchen window. So homemade bread is "baked" into me in some ways, I guess! Maybe that's why store-bought breads (even the "fresh baked" kind) just don't really do it for me...

Anyway, over the years, I've tried making numerous variations of homemade bread - made in a breadmaker, using homemade sourdough, various combinations of whole wheat, white, and bread flour, and so on.

There is some sort of myth out there that making bread is difficult or complicated, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because of the kneading? (Which is actually very easy, and also kind of fun!) Or the time required? (Which is mostly just time spent waiting for the dough to rise - which you can spend doing whatever you want.) Anyway, the truth is bread is actually one of the easiest things to make. All you need is flour, water, salt, and some type of yeast (techniques may vary depending on whether you're using purchased dry yeast, or a sourdough starter), some time, and an oven to bake it in!

If you're not into kneading dough, or just don't have that much time to fuss with your bread, I would suggest trying the super easy recipe below. It's incredibly simple, and makes absolutely delicious homemade artisan-style bread with just 5 minutes of work!  (Okay maybe 10 - max.)

My chickens (aka my Chickies, my Chicklets, my Buckaroos, my Chookers) are so much more fun, adorable, and amazing than I ever expected, and even though they're not tiny cute little fluff balls anymore, I have loved them through every stage of their lives thus far!

They have brought me so much entertainment, joy, laughter, and yes, some tears as well, and I literally look forward all day long to the end of the work day when I can see them again and tuck them in at night. (Yes, I might be a little bit obsessed...) :-) So it's no surprise that making my own chicken feed is important to me.

There is plenty of debate out there about what you should feed your chickens, and some of the chicken owner forums I often peruse feature hot arguments about whether or not you should ONLY feed commercial chicken feed.

Whatever you choose to feed your chickens is, of course, up to you, but I, for one, have opted for homemade whole grain feed instead. Below are some of the reasons why, as well as a great recipe and helpful resource that I use for mixing up my own nutritionally balanced chicken feed.

Welcome to 2022!! I'm feeling refreshed after a wonderful visit with family, and am ready to get the new year started!

To kick things off, I'm sharing something a little different with you this month... I thought it would be helpful to start off the New Year with a resource to help you live a happier and healthier life on all levels. That's why I'm excited to share a wonderful and free learning opportunity with you, to help you get your year off to a great start! This amazing online class will help you learn how to tap into your heart's innate intelligence and create a harmonious connection between your mind, body, and heart for greater peace, happiness, health, and immunity.

While humans have always had an innate sense that the heart is of central importance - not only for our physical health, but also for our emotional well-being - Western science has only recently begun to realize this truth. In this one-hour class, you'll learn what science says about the energy of the heart, and how to tap into it to optimize your health and well-being. Register here to watch for free, or click to learn more below...

In modern day America, few of us think of food as a healing substance. Millions of people struggle with addictions to sugar and junk food (and the resulting obesity and diabetes), and many of us have an unhealthy sort of love-hate relationship with food: we know we should eat better, but we either can't resist the allure of the junk food that is marketed to us at every turn, or we simply can't afford the higher prices of healthier foods. Our bodies crave salt, fat, and sugar, and the creative geniuses at food manufacturing companies have figured out how to get these substances (or at least their flavors) into just about every type of processed food, making it nearly impossible for us to say no - even when we know we should choose to eat something with more nutritional value instead.

However, if you look at the animal kingdom, you see a different story - at least, in environments where animals are allowed to live in their natural habitat and eat what they want. Most animals in their natural environment will eat what they need nutritionally at any given time.

I see this even with our chickens. For example, when it's cold out, they prefer high-calorie grains to greens and juicy vegetables. However, in the summer, they will eat all the good veggies, fruits and greens they can get! When they're molting and growing new feathers, they will gobble up extra high-protein legumes (peas and lentils) that they don't usually enjoy.

Unfortunately, as humans, we seem to have largely lost the ability to eat intuitively - although I contend that we really just need to break our addictions, and then learn to listen to our bodies again - and this episode of the Doctor's Farmacy explores this topic in more detail, as well as many more elements of how to eat for healing.

We all know that fruits and vegetables are good for us, and there really isn't any need to overthink it. As long as you eat a wide variety of fruits and veggies on a daily basis, you're doing good things for your health. There's not one "magic" vegetable that is going to make you healthier, and you don't need to spend tons of time categorizing foods or counting calories.

However, if you really want to make sure you're doing all you can to optimize your health and longevity, you may want to be sure to include some of the high-nutrient foods that have become known as "superfoods" in your daily diet. These foods are especially high in antioxidant vitamins, minerals, and good fats. And no, they're not all weird, exotic, expensive berries from the Amazon!

In fact, most of these foods are common fruits and vegetables - but not all - and you may be surprised to learn what else made the list...

Check it out below to discover which foods you should be eating regularly for optimal health!

It's no secret that modern disease is on the rise. Despite having the largest (and by far the most expensive) healthcare system in the world, it seems we're constantly hearing about increasing incidence of health issues from Alzheimer's disease to auto-immune conditions, to autism, cancer, and more.

So what gives?

Given that many of these diseases and health conditions have a dietary component, or a link to gut health...  Could it be that our behemoth of a food system is failing us?

I have previously written at length about the problems with our food system, so feel free to check out more on this topic here and here.

In the meantime, I wanted to share this month's free resource. It's a truly eye-opening and amazing docuseries on how food can be both more nutritious AND more environmentally friendly! Watch the inspiring trailer here, and sign up to save your spot now...

Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

As fitting for this year, our weekend didn't quite go as planned due to weather... I had hoped to finish cleaning up the garden and spread all (or most of) the wood chips, as we usually place our new hay bales out in the garden this time of year.

Alas, with rain and chilly, windy, snowy conditions, I didn't get to spend much time outside at all - although I did bundle up and move the chicken pasture to it's winter location. Next weekend looks better, and I will just have to try to get as much done as possible while I can! The snow has already flown a few times, so despite our long, warm, fall, winter is definitely upon us now.

However, I thought it would be a good time to do a quick update on the homestead activities for 2021, as well as a few notes about gratitude as I usually share this time of year...