Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The hype on Coconut- anyone who cares about their health should read!

Oh my goodness I finally find myself a little time to sit down at my computer and write... here I am with my mug of coffee and I am ready to write about things I love. I had so many ideas for a new a blog, it has been so long since I have written one. I decided to write about coconut, as it has been quite popular in my house and becoming even more popular everywhere. My husband and I discovered coconut in a new form other then the awful shredded cover with sugar form, while we were shopping at one of our favorite places to go Wholefoods. We found coconut manna and since then I have become a huge fan and lover of all things coconut except the awful shredded sugar kind yuck!

Coconut Manna is coconut butter, its the whole fruit soft and spoonable. In cold weather it becomes hard, in normal room temperature it is soft and easy to spoon out of the jar. My favorite thing to do with Coconut Manna is plop a couple spoons fulls in a fruit smoothie, oh my gosh! It gives your smoothie texture and you bite into this really creamy and light lump that has just the mildest taste of coconut. It is so yummy, I used to think I hated coconut till I had this. Here is a picture of a popular coconut butter that I buy.

So after having my great experience with coconut my husband and I decided to look for some more great coconut products, we couldn't get over the taste and especially the health benefits! We found unsweetened finely shredded coconut. This stuff is my favorite to bake with! I love throwing this in cookie recipes, pancake batters, breads, and anything that I want to add some fiber too really. It has a very very fine texture so you hardly know it is there and unless you dump a TON in you can barely taste it. I also find this at Wholefoods and its about $3 a bag. 

Next we found this at our favorite place ever...Costco! This stuff is sooooo amazing, you will not believe how much fiber is in this stuff! WOW! It is dried young coconut with a dash of sugar to give it a little sweetness. This is one of the healthiest snacks ever and will have you regular after one serving, seriously. Find this stuff at Costco right now, its only $8 there originally about $17 so you can save huge! STOCK UP its very yummy and a great go to snack if you are trying to stay fit. There are 14 grams of fiber per 1.5 ounces! Thats over half what you need in a day! It is insane! 
Here is another form of baking with coconut, coconut flour! This is amazing stuff if you need to cut carbs in a recipe, hardly any carbs and again TONS of fiber! This is a very dense flour so be careful what you are using it in. I like to mix it with some wheat flour to make it a little lighter, its great in cookies, scones, pancakes, and some breads. I recommend doing a coconut flour recipe google search and see what you can find. I love this stuff!
Even though there are soooo many more AMAZING coconut products I am going to share my last and most favorite one! Coconut oil, this is my favorite EVER! I cook with it, I use it in my products, I put this in my hair, I put it on my skin and lips, I bake with it, I smell it! This stuff is just way too good not to use. Right now Costco is selling huge containers of it for $20 and I am telling you, for the quality and the amount you will NEVER find it that cheap, for the same product elsewhere for the same amount it is about $50, so go to Costco! This oil is loaded with amazing fats great for your body. It is so good for your skin and hair. I will put about a quarter size in my palm and rub it all over my hands then after the shower I run it through the ends of my hair, it is a great leave-in conditioner and frizz control at the same time. AMAZING! I put this in my body butters in the shop, I love it a lot I am going to start using it in more products. I love cooking with it, put it on pancakes instead of butter you will be absolutely shocked how yummy it is! Go to Costco and buy about 5 of these! They last forever and do not need to be refrigerated! LOVE LOVE LOVE!
Ok so now that i have told you a few of my favorite coconut products, here are the reasons why to get into coconut and why it is becoming so popular everywhere.
Benefits of Coconut:

-First of all lets banish the myth that Coconuts are high in cholesterol, they are not. The fat from coconut is considered saturated but it is actually called Lauric Acid which is a type of fat which is easily absorbed by the human body and used instantly as energy.
Lauric acid is a medium chain fatty acid which is abundant in coconut oil and is considered responsible for many of its health benefits.  Coconut oil is about 50 percent lauric acid.  The only other abundant source found in nature is in human breast milk.
This is quite amazing by itself and shows the power of the oil as it is such a close match to our mothers milk  just imagine how powerful this stuff is!
-Coconut is very high in fiber, which keeps you fuller longer and helps remove waste from your body.
-Coconut is a potent anti-bacterial and anti-fungal it is a great cleanser of our stomach and intestines and is something that can help heal the gut should problems occur. On top of this Coconut will help your body fight off infection so its a great thing to eat when you are unwell or feel something coming on, this is thanks to it being converted to Monolaurin by the body which fights off infections (viral or bacterial).

-Coconut oil itself is hands down the best cooking oil. It is stable at high heats retaining all of its benefits (unlike Olive oil) and it will leave the food with a delicious taste. It has a very long stable shelf life as well.

-The effect on your thyroid coconuts have are shocking, they can boost thyroid function by up to 20%. Having an efficient thyroid is essential for out bodies to carry out several functions including boosting our metabolism and energy production.
In the 1940′s farmers tried coconut oil to fatten their animals but discovered that it made them lean and active and increased their appetite. Whoops! Then they tried an anti-thyroid drug. It made the livestock fat with less food but was found to be a carcinogen (cancer causing drug). In the late 1940′s, it was found that the same anti-thyroid effect could be achieved by simply feeding animals soybeans and corn.
-It keeps getting better, coconut has been proven to have anti-cancer effects especially of the colon and breast. This is due to the oils protective nature and ability to safeguard the body from infection whilst cleansing your system.

-Coconut water is amazing, this stuff has an array of health benefits, it is low in carbs and sugars and one of the best hydrators, fluid replacers known to man.
  • Coconut Water is More Nutritious than whole milk – Less fat and NO cholesterol!
  • Coconut Water is Better than processed baby milk- It contains lauric acid, which is present in human mother’s milk
  • Coconut water is naturally sterile — Water permeates though the filtering husk!
  • Coconut water is a universal donor– Its identical to human blood plasma 
  • Coconut Water is a Natural Isotonic Beverage – The same level we have in our blood.




Wednesday, November 28, 2012

50% off EVERYTHING!!!

Yes, that is correct I am offering everything in my shop for 50% off. I am not making any money I am losing money with this sale, So Why? you ask! Well I have the privilege to work with a professional designer/illustrator and a professional photographer that have offered to completely revamp my shop! I am more then excited to say the least. So I need to get rid of all my old inventory and packaging and make some money back to spend on new packaging! So please take advantage of this and share with your friends and family. I am also doing this in hopes many new people will try my product, fall in love, and become customers for life! So to get your 50% please click here and once you have selected your final items use the promo code GIFT50 and receive your huge discount. 

You will never get this kind of quality product at this price so please take advantage and it is first come first serve I am just trying to SELL OUT!! I will be adding 46 body butters to the shop at this price too, b/c I have that left in bottles. These butters are not in the shop yet but will be in the next few days. These make extremely great and very unique christmas gifts for any lady. You can really impress with a hand made lotion or body butter that smells delicious and works wonderfully! With each order I will be giving away some 1 oz pump bottles of lotion as well! 

I am so excited to help support an amazing ministry Amazima ministries, they provide, food, health care, and education to under-privledged children in Uganda! I am so blessed to be able to donate a portion of my profits to them and I am so excited for this month and next to give as much as possible! I started this endeavor for my own child, so I could stay home with him and take care of our home like I felt God wanted me too, this is my way of sharing that love and sharing this gift God has given me (the ability to stay home and do what I love) what better way then to help other children who are not so fortunate as my little one who always can count on food and his parents being there for him! Please take the time to check out some of their programs here! They are such an amazing ministry, it fills my heart when I can make a donation! If you want to make a donation please go to their website here.

A look into the NEW Blissful Body!

This is a rough draft of something being started! Nothing is finalized yet, but I wanted to share a glimpse of what is yet to come! So professional and so nice! I am so happy! Along with the new look comes new ideas! I have been thinking and thinking and thinking on what I can do to expand my product and offer it to more people! I have come up with multiple recipes of my lotions to create different priced products so everyone on any budget can purchase some quality hand made products! I will be offering 4 types of lotion and also 4 types of butters all made with different ingredients that vary in price so that I can charge different prices. I also will offer FREE one time use samples with orders, if you want to try different variations! 

Another great concept I have is I want to offer a LOT of different fragrances, I want to appeal to many! So with each lotion you get to choose what fragrance you want! You will even be able to mix fragrances if you like. There will be about 40+ fragrances to choose from and the mixing possibilities are endless! I just got in a bunch of fragrances and OH MY GOODNESS Kory and I were going nuts at how yummy they all smell! I am so excited for this! It gives you a great way to have a custom lotion, choose your formula and choose your fragrance. 

Okay, just one more thing I want to share! I have done some research and I am happy to say that once the new design is in place and I start my new launch I can officially say I offer gluten free, paraben free, alcohol free, mineral oil free, all natural products with some organic ingredients thrown in there! WOO HOO! My only adjustment is the preservative I use. I will be using an all natural paraben free preservative that is harmless! You can literally eat my lotions and butters and it would be GOOD for you :)!

Thank you all sooo much for your support! My friends and family have just been unbelievable through all this and have helped me immensely at spreading the word about my product! Down below I have testimonials if you are interested in taking a look! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

I would like it to go on the record saying that the Blissful body products are wonderful!!  I have used different smells of the lotion and I love them all!  This lotion is one of the only I can use for it doesn't have alcohol in it!!.  Lotion with alcohol just dries your skin out more and this lotion makes it smooth all day long!  This lotion even helps with my scleroderma. I am so thankful that you are doing this endeavor Cassie!  Love, Sue
-Sue

I LOVE the lemon buttercream scent. It works really good on my skin, I have eczema on my arms and legs and it really moisturizes! Love love love your stuff girl, good job!
-Amanda

THANK YOU FOR MAKING SUCH A WONDERFUL PRODUCT FOR MY SKIN. I'M HAPPY TO BE ONE OF YOUR FIRST CUSTOMERS! I'M THOROUGHLY ENJOYING THE LEMON BUTTERCREAM AND ALMOND FRAGRANCES ON A DAILY BASIS. I HAVE TO USE VERY LITTLE ACTUAL PRODUCT BECAUSE IT IS SO MOISTURIZING...MY SKIN STAYS SOFT AND MOISTURIZED ALL DAY LONG! THIS IS A WONDERFUL PRODUCT AND WELL WORTH IT'S PRICE. I'LL BE BACK FOR MORE! 
-Cheryl

I have tried the body butter and the lotion and no joke ever since I have used it my severly bad problem with hives has nearly vanished!!!! My skin glows and it feels so so soft and has cut my lotion application number down to only 1-2 times a day where as before I was applying like 10-15 times a day!!!! I want to buy more and for sure girl, you are going to be my lotion/beauty supplier for life!
-Mandi


I have always struggled with eczema on my face. I have used prescription creams, nothing has been more beneficial for my eczema then the blissful body products. I put some on in the morning and at night and my face feels and looks a lot better. 
-Kory

I have tried the lotion, butter and face moisturizer and love all of them!  The butter is fabulous on my feet and heels, makes them so soft!  I use the body lotion daily on my arms and legs and they stay moisturized all day!  The face moisturizer is perfect for my oily skin and I use it around my eyes  too! My skin has never been this soft in my life.
-Barb

I love Cassie's lotion. I have used it for 2 years now. I have very dry skin and live in CO. Her lotion keeps my skin moisturized better than anything else using less than more expensive lotions. I also really, really love her mineral veil.  It is very light and applies so evenly and easily. 
-Elida






Friday, November 2, 2012

For my big love

My sweet sweet Kory! Today means we have spent four years being married! Four years of ultimate love and sacrifice! Our four years have been very far from being perfect... But for me they have been perfect! You have shown me the deepest love, the most grace, mercy, and the best four years of my life! 
Kory, thank you for being such a respectable guy! You never look at other women, I am the only girl in your eyes and bc of that you give me a great sense of security and you make me feel truly loved and truly beautiful. 
Thank you for always putting up with me! I know I can be difficult a lot! I like things a certain way and I have a good way of telling you how I like these things ;)!
Thank you for working so hard for our family! I know it's not where you want to be in your career you want more responsibility, it'll come babe! You have proven yourself not only to your family but the people who work with you! 
You are an incredibly special man! You are unique there is only one Kory and I'm the luckiest girl on earth to have gotten him! I got a loyal husband, a best friend, a true love! I am so excited we are celebrating four years together, but lets celebrate more let's celebrate the rest of our lives being together, holding each other, loving each other!
Kory I love you more then words can express! I thank God for you!
Happy anniversary my big love!





Thursday, November 1, 2012

This is a MUST read

Alright everyone, I have the shop fully stocked and ready for your holiday gift buying! I really appreciate everyone's support and all the purchases that have been made! All my family have friends have been so nice and have rallied behind me trying to get my products out there. YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING AND I APPRECIATE YOU ALL SO MUCH!
I have just donated $50.00 to Amazima Ministries! They help children get food, health care, and education! I am sooo excited about the donation! Thank you all for making it possible!

Thank you for your Donation to Amazima Ministries International

MERCHANT: Amazima Ministries International
DATE/TIME: 11/1/2012 3:49:46 PM
AUTHORIZATION NUMBER: 084916
AMOUNT: $50.00
- - - - - - - - - 
NAME: Cassie J Platt
Email: theblissfulbody@ymail.com
Confirm Email: theblissfulbody@ymail.com
Fund Designation: Where Most Needed
Personal or Business Donation?: Business
Business Name: The Blissful Body


I want to send them A LOT more though for the holiday season so I really need your help. I promise you that my lotion and butters will be a huge hit. It is such a unique, special gift to give any lady. Guys, your wife, girlfriend, daughter, mother, sister, aunt, grandma WILL LOVE IT!  Girls, your friends, your mom, your sister, your daughter, your aunt, your grandma WILL LOVE IT! The comments I have been getting have been so awesome, so far everyone has been so pleased with the results of my these luscious lotions and butter. 

I have two seasonal scents in right now that I am absolutely crazy about. Hot apple pie and Cinnamon pumkin. My mother in law purchased a pineapple citrus butter, she came over to pick her order up and when she smelled the cinnamon pumpkin she had to order another, they are delicious! Buy some now,  click here and use this promo code {HOLIDAY15} at checkout to receive my holiday offer of 15% off! I am now offering $1 sample bottles. They are limited so if you want to try some scents before buying the full size you can get a 1 ounce pump bottle- they are great for purses too! 






Another very exciting thing I want to share, I have been featured in the A-List's holiday guide. Kristina has been working for small businesses for 6 years. She helps keep standards high, and she helps promote small businesses that meet or exceed those standards. She has accepted my shop in her A-list and for the holidays she has made an amazing holiday gift guide! It's basically your guide to buying some amazing and extremely unique hand made gifts by small business owners. I cannot express to you how important it is to help support these businesses! You will receive very personal customer service and a product that you cannot find anywhere else! Please, please take a look at the gift guide here.

Thank you everyone for reading and all your support! I would love if you shared this blog on your facebook or twitter! All the networking we tiny businesses can get is so helpful! 

Happy Holidays everyone!

Friday, October 26, 2012

NEW Mineral Veil

I am very excited to introduce my new product. Mostly b/c I love to use this stuff myself! I am sure all you ladies have heard of the mineral veil by sheer cover, well come to find out it is basically corn starch. When I learned this I thought for sure I can create something just as great with a little more benefit to it. So I experimented and did some research and found that I can make the same exact thing with very fine ground sea salt and himalayan pink salt and a little corn starch. Gives you the same exact effect but really really great for your skin.

 If your skin is oily or you get acne ever this stuff will really help your skin. Salt is so good for skin. These two salts I chose have very high mineral content. 
You can buy my mineral veil for $6.00 a lot cheaper then the name brand, and it is better for you!!

I use it to set my make up, it gives me a very flawless and soft finish I LOVE IT! I personally am so happy I discovered this. I really hope you all will buy some and try it out. It is so cheap and will last you a LOOONG time!!! Buy some here


Monday, October 22, 2012

Health and Fitness advice from an ex-fatty

Ok, SO, I am sooo overdue for a blog post. Sadly I have been a little ill lately! I have been in such a slump on my diet and working out I feel like its time for some inspiration (more for me)



So I am going to share a recent tip I heard and sorta loved-

Pre-shower work outs!! I love this bc it is perfect for us moms who have literally only 10 minutes OR LESS to really work out, plus the sweating is never too fun so doing a pre shower work out is genius in my opinion. Here is my version of a pre shower work out:

-25 jumping jacks
-30 crunches legs crossed in the air bringing your knees toward your head as you lift up
-15 pushups girl style or man style if you are super cool
-15 squats (get that butt low ladies and keep that back straight do not let those knees go over your feet POSTURE IS SOOO IMPORTANT)
-10 lunges each leg
- Repeat as much as you can before the BABY WAKES UP!!!! (thats for me)

This should get your heart pumping if you do it very quickly and also targets most your body. The beauty of it, hop in the shower when you are done and heat up those muscles even more and relax too! This will really wake you up as well from that LONG NIGHT! It also gets your pores open and starts releasing all kinds of toxins, that you can wash off quickly in the shower, this will also help keep your skin soft too if you slather some lotion on right after the shower while those pores are still open and receptive to some nice moisture!

Drink tons of water, get rid of more toxins!

Ok, here are two things I would love to share with you. Some of you probably know about these two things, if not then you are going to pee your pants with excitement (I'm serious) Ok go potty first then read.

LOW AND NO CARB PASTAS!!! YES I SAID IT AND SOMEHOW, IT IS POSSIBLE!!!

First one is a low carb pasta, it has like 5 net carbs per serving and it comes just like your average dry pasta would in a box and I am telling you, there is no taste difference what so ever you will never miss your wheat pasta or your white pasta -Dreamfields pasta- click Here to read about it and also get a $1.00 off coupon. I find this pasta at most grocery stores where the other pastas are located.



Second one is a zero carb pasta and pretty much zero everything, they are called shirataki noodles. Now there are a lot of varieties of this noodle; the one I found is located by the tofu and sprouts in the dridge part of the produce. These noodles are a bit rubbery, but boiling them for a couple minutes helps and they are still wonderful regardless. These come in a liquid already soft and ready to serve and must be refrigerated. They have a slight fishy smell that goes away with a good rinse or boil. I am telling you my husband and I were thrilled to find these! If you do a google search about shirataki noodles you can see all the different brands and variations and also where you can buy them. 



Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Skin skin and more skin

Many of you have probably have heard the skin is the largest organ in your body and is made up of many layers. There are three main layers I want to point out though, top layer is the epidermis, second is the dermis, and third is the hypodermis also known as the subcutaneous adipose layer. Each have a specific role for your bodies protection.


The epidermis is basically a water shield and keeps water inside your body and is waterproof on the outside to keep pathogens away. The epidermis also helps regulate your bodies temperature.

The dermis, below the epidermis is where a lot of nerve endings are so this is where you get heat and touch sensation. The dermis cushions the body from stress and strain. In the dermis is where your sweat glands, hair follicles, sebaceous glands (these secrete your natural oils), lymphatic vessels (these carry lymph), and blood vessels are.

The hypodermis basically connects the two top layers to the bones and muscles in your body. It contains 50% of the your body fat and serves as insulation and padding.





Now that you know what your basic skin make up is, I want to share with you ways to keep your skin healthy and vibrant! Your skin is what people see, you don't see muscle or bone exposed bc you have this perfect blanket of skin. Many of us think about our skin daily (women totally do) and we try to make it appear healthy and beautiful, but what if what you are doing is actually not really helping your skin but rather damaging it?

Your skin is the body's largest organ, and it works with your kidneys to get rid of the bodies toxins. However, your skin needs to be able to breathe to perform these function. 

Mineral oil is probably the most common oil found in popular lotions and skin care, sadly the reason is it is cheap. It actually seals off your skin and keeps it from breathing as well as keeping it from absorbing good nutrients and moisture. This causes premature aging and clogged pores.
Mineral oil covers the skin like plastic wrap, inhibiting the skin's natural immune barrier and its ability to breathe and absorb. Also, mineral oil attracts needed moisture from cells deep in your skin. This means that cell renewal is slowed, then your collagen breaks down, and then your connective tissue is destroyed. Normal cell development is slowed down and the skin ages prematurely when skin cells are robbed of moisture.

Take a look at what you put on your skin does it have mineral oil? THROW IT AWAY IF IT DOES!

Another common ingredient in lotions and creams are different types of alcohols. There are some good alcohols that are natural and are not harsh on skin, but there are many bad ones that include ethanol, denatured alcohol, ethyl alcohol, methanol, benzyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, and sd alcohol, which not only can be extremely drying and irritating to skin, but may be cytotoxic. Meaning it is toxic to your cells.  Again check your products.

So why is it so important that we put good things onto our skin? The answer is clear our skin houses many many blood vessels and your skin absorbs what you put on it and then that is transferred into your blood. If that doesn't make you more careful about what you put on your skin I don't know what will.

Having good skin products is also vital for good skin health bc what you eat is not always enough to nourish your skin. When you digest your food only a very small percentage of nutrients actually go to your skin. So a great solution is putting these nutrients directly on your skin, your skin will get a lot more out of direct contact. This does not mean diet isn't important for skin health bc diet is very very important for healthy, beautiful skin!

Ok, I hope this has inspired some of you to be a little more cautious with what you put on your skin and more so I hope you all are inspired to love your skin! No matter what stage it's at! Scarred, broken, cracked, wrinkled, sagging, jiggly love it no matter what and take good care of it! It protects you from all kinds of awful things that could get into your body! So show some appreciation and love to the largest organ that works hard and gets a lot of abuse.

Some fun facts about your skin:

-Globally, dead skin cells account for about a billion tons of dust in the atmosphere. You shed about 50,000 cells every minute!- Another good reason to use good products that encourage the healthy reproduction of these skin cells, you want to generate new HEALTHY cells! (this is sort of a gross fact when you think of it. We are like breathing in everyones skin ugh)

-The average adult's skin spans 21 square feet, weighs nine pounds, and contains more than 11 MILES of blood vessels!! WOW

Keep watching out I will be posting many skin care tips! Next blog I post will be about dry brushing and why it is sooo good for your skin!!!


Get some good skin care products I make myself (approved by me and many others) go to www.etsy.com/shop/theblissfulbody Until October 16 enjoy 10% off use OPEN10 at check out!!