You Deserve Your Own Approval - #SelfLoveQuote

I shared my quote and video on Instagram, but felt it was worth sharing here as well. Truth?

Return to Bella Terra by MaryAnn Diorio is a Sweet, Faith-Based Read!

It’s 1905 and Maria Landro Tonetta has been living with her husband and three children in America for the previous eight years. She and her family left Italy to make a better life for themselves in the States, but it hasn’t been easy. When Maria receives a telegram from Italy, saying that her mother is terminally ill, Maria heads back to her homeland with her adult son Nico. When Maria begins questioning her return to America, she finds herself facing some very difficult challenges.

This is a lovely story of love, redemption and forgiveness. The author’s writing is charming, descriptive and compelling. I enjoyed how the characters were portrayed realistically, with faults they needed to overcome.

From the blurb description, I didn’t know the story takes place so long ago. The beginning goes into the poor treatment of Italians in New York at the turn of century. As the great granddaughter of Irish immigrants I know all too well what this was like for our ancestors. But I did find that the author was just a little too heavy handed when talking about America in those days. Just my personal observation.

I can recommend this sweet faith-based book to readers. Thanks to Book Crash and the publisher for a complimentary copy of this book!

Dog Food Recall Alert

Lola and I wanted to share this important notice that we found online today. 

As a pet parent, I'm naturally concerned when there's an issue with any sort of pet food. When I spotted this new dog food recall I knew I wanted to share it here. It looks as though it concerns canned dog food and not any of the dry food varieties. 

*More info on this article from The Dogington Post here. 

My IBS Flare Up Was Caused By WHAT?!

I discovered that I have IBS back when I was in my early twenties. If you don’t know what IBS is, it’s an agonizing stomach issue, which seems to affect sufferers differently and to varying degrees. Flare-ups are difficult, if not darn near impossible, to predict. Triggers vary greatly among sufferers as well. The worst thing is there is no cure. You simply have to learn to sort of live around your IBS. There are now some medications available on the market, but I prefer to treat my IBS holistically. It’s what’s worked for me over the years so I’ll stick with that.

So…what has worked for me? Well, one MAJOR change I made was eliminating gluten from my diet. I won’t pretend to completely understand the ins and outs of how gluten is processed in the body. I’ll only say that, once I stopped eating gluten, I went from having biweekly IBS flare ups to having a flare up maybe once every six months or so. In other words, the difference for me was like night and day.

Recently, when I began having terrible IBS symptoms out of the blue, I was perplexed. I was faithfully eating a gluten-free diet. I don’t overeat fiber too many days in a row (another known issue for me). No more GMOs or premade, processed foods. What the heck was it? Well after finally narrowing down the one thing I was “eating” a light bulb went off. Could it be??

After consulting my good friend Google (via IBS message boards, of course) I was relieved and a bit shocked to find that it was the sugar free gum I had only recently started chewing. It just so happened to be Orbit in my case, but it certainly could have been any sugar free gum. It has something to do with the sugar alcohols that are released in the stomach.

Sugar alcohols aren’t actually sugar and they aren’t alcohol. There are FOUR sugar substitute chemicals commonly found in sugar free gum:  maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol and xylitol. These are the sugar alcohols, which are really non-sugar carbs. These are the culprits that can wreak havoc on your digestive system because they actually have a laxative effect in the stomach. I know! Some people are more sensitive than others (people with certain stomach issues like IBS, for instance).

I was shocked, since I consider myself so cautious about everything I eat (chew) and drink. Needless to say, I immediately omitted the Orbit and bam…problem solved. I've since gone back to my trusty peppermint candy (non-sugar free) and all is well - side note: peppermint is amazing for settling an upset tummy!

I hope you found value in this information. It took me a few days of agony to figure out what was going on and I was dumbfounded when I discovered that a little piece of gum was tearing up my tummy. Hopefully, my experience will help you too! As always, comments are welcome below.