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Edema in my feet and legs

The unknown cause of Edema & Treatment for Swollen Feet

I promised you a mini-series of articles about edema and edema treatments and it is full time that I made good on that promise. If you missed the first installment in the series be sure to read “Is Turmeric A cure for Edema?”. Hope that it is helpful. Before we jump into to another edema treatment we might want to look at some causes of edema. Do you know what’s causing your edema? I was pretty surprised to find out what causes mine.

What is Edema Anyway?
Edema is basically swelling in the body caused by water retention. You can have swelling all over the body, internally and externally and most people get it in the extremities. This is when we get swollen ankles, swollen feet and legs.

Edema in my feet and legs
Swollen ankles, soles of feet and lower leg from edema

This is a condition that can happen to anyone although when I was younger I only saw it happening to alcoholics and the elderly. Well, I’m no longer an alcoholic and my family won’t be shipping me off to a home anytime soon, but I still wound up with it. But why? What is the cause of edema?

What Causes Edema?
When I asked people around me and even doctors they all just told me not to eat any salt. SALT? REALLY? All this is happening to me because of salt? I think not. My husband tried to get me to stop eating salt on my food and then realized I don’t really eat salt. If I ate any less salt it would throw my body out of whack. I mean I know I get salt in processed foods but what about when I was on a health kick and not eating anything but the good stuff? Why was it happening then? Well I traced it down and found out the culprit behind my enormous elephant like swollen ankles and swollen feet (bottoms). It is simply GRAIN. I realized it when I decided to try out a low carb lifestyle. I was exercising and trying to eat right so it could have been either of these things that did it but…then I let exercise fall by the wayside. I was munching away on veggies in butter (with salt), grass-fed organic meat The unknown cause of Edema & Treatment for Swollen Feet

How our “small wedding” got BIG

Well as many of you know, I’s married now! Lol. My new hubby asked me to marry him for the first time a few years ago. I don’t even know when it was because I didn’t pay him no mind. I thought he was kidding. Well however many years, months and days later we have finally tied the knot and I’m so glad it’s over! Whew. I was feeling like the process was aging me. What an emotional roller coaster! Only once for me for sure. (Our video Wedding Album with all the pics is at the bottom of the page!)

Me and my hubby
Our wedding day 2013
Raymond & Aisa Wedding Day
I mean I planned on something super small and ever so simple but I got all bridezilla on myself and took it a little bit bigger. For starters I knew I really have always wanted to have a huge beautiful wedding with hundreds of guests and everything super lavish. I also have parents that would pay for such a wedding in this dream. In reality, that was not the case. First off I live 3,000 miles away from my family, friends and sorority sisters. Second Ray & I can barely rub 2 dimes together and my family ain’t coming up off of no cash so squandering on frivolities was out the window. I figured a justice of the peace wedding would get the job done for us. The original plan was to just get married and have a reception and stuff at a later time with my friends and family.
How our “small wedding” got BIG

Why Matcha Green Tea is the best Green Tea

Who, by now, hasn’t heard about the health benefits of drinking tea? It’s the obvious choice over sugary, processed, GMO & pesticide laced drinks. Many forms are chock full of cancer fighting antioxidants including plain old black tea. I was way into the oolong tea craze for weight loss (that we heard about from Oprah). Not too bad, but there have been many other teas touted for their health benefits since then. There’s been red tea, white tea and of course green tea, with green tea having the most popularity and staying power. How did green tea become so popular, and why? Well, anytime people find out that something might help lose weight with no effort on their part they are all gung-ho, myself included.


I don’t wanna have to work for everything. Really. Well this isn’t just hype talk when it comes to green tea. It does help with weight loss by boosting metabolism, which is the way that we metabolize food into energy. The faster our metabolism the slimmer we tend to be. It is, of course, best to drink our tea (black…I mean green) without added sugar to keep calories low and benefits high.

Matcha Green Tea is a shade grown powdered tea grown only in Japan
Matcha Green Tea is a shade grown powdered tea grown only in Japan
Green tea is not only good for weight loss but it has the highest antioxidant levels of any other tea. The flavor is also pretty light and can be spruced up with cinnamon, ginger, lemon etc.

Drinking green tea is definitely a step in the right direction but…..can we get on a straighter path to wellness? Are there levels of green tea? Are some better than others? Are you drinking the best green tea? Chances are you haven’t even heard of the green tea with the MOST benefit.
It’s called Matcha Green Tea
and it’s so awesome that it comes with its own accessories and ceremonies. Why is this the best green tea? Because of the way it’s made. Normally tea leaves are picked, dried, cut/crumbled and dipped into hot water. The water then becomes a watered down version of the benefits of the leaves. Totally good for you, but not as good as match green tea. Why Matcha Green Tea is the best Green Tea

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The big FAT lie. Is Saturated fat GOOD for you?

The BIG FAT lie? Is Saturated fat good for us?
This is a repost of one of my articles originally written for “Women Talk, Little Girls Listen”

Whenever I am online looking up natural ways to overcome an illness or condition, it is a given that someone is going to mention giving up meat and going low-fat. It never fails. Many have been brainwashed to believe that meat is what is killing off our nation with heart disease and coronary disorders. Last week I spoke with my 80 year old mother-in-law about butter. She said “You shouldn’t be eating butter anyway”. She uses margarine instead. Coconut Oil
was deemed so bad for people, at one point, that it took a serious hit on sales and seemed to disappear from the American diet all together.

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Virgin Coconut oil & Pastured butter
Nobody would eat it for fear of an early demise. What do these anecdotes have to do with each other? They all have to do with the fear of fat that has been perpetuated in the U.S. Thank goodness that kind of silly thinking has cleared up. Or has it? Let’s take a look at where it came from.

Sometime back in the 1950’s, a man named Ancel Keys came up with a VERY flawed study of dietary fat. He believed that eating fat, mostly saturated and animal fat, lead to obesity, sickness and death by way high cholesterol levels which he thought caused cardiovascular & heart disease, basically. He studied 22 countries to try to prove his theory. His theory, however, only was true for 7 of those 22 countries. All the other countries came out with completely opposing conclusions. Instead of him showing the “Real” results of the study, and then trying to find out the real reason for disease, he simply ignored the data that went against his theory. He published the 7 Countries study that oddly enough is pretty much viewed as the gospel still today. People now appear to be fine with the fact that this correlation only seems true for 1/3 of the countries in the entire study. The big FAT lie. Is Saturated fat GOOD for you?

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How my Fibroid caused a duodenal Ulcer!

If you’ve followed me or my blog for a while you know that I have a fibroid that just won’t quit. Fibroids are non-cancerous tumors that grow in or on a woman’s uterus. A doctor at the clinic told me mine is about 12cm. It has been very easy to spot if I just lay down on my back. It has a definite shape and sometimes grows and/or shrinks according to whim. This thing has been a thorn in my side and has caused me many a miserable day, bedridden and balled up in pain. The fibroid doesn’t hurt, per se, but it somehow causes women to have extreme cramping, and to bleed excessively with blood clots and the whole nine yards (dysmennorhea).


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Duodenal Ulcer is a type of peptic ulcer.
This is basically what caused my problem. Let me tell you how this horrible fibroid caused a duodenal ulcer Well, when I explained my horrific symptoms to a doctor I was informed that my cramps are overboard. They are so intense, in fact, that the pain is similar to child birth. No Bueno!
Having to endure this pain and still live my life is no easy feat. How my Fibroid caused a duodenal Ulcer!

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We Lost Our Baby

I have some very sad news. Our dreams of parenthood have been tossed away again. We lost our baby that we had been fretting over for the last few weeks. The story is a tad… We Lost Our Baby

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I FINALLY tried a Braid-Out

In case you haven’t noticed, I share a lot of protective styles with you all. I like them most because they look so neat and polished.

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Braidout on 4a/4b natural hair
I also have a naughty side and it wants nothing to do with my neat girl image. Sheba (She’s such a queen) likes to let loose. I have found that I can only really do this (Be wild) with a twistout previously, because my wash and gos are stiff and my braid-outs like to showout, and not in the good way. I have disliked braid-outs so much on my hair that I just stopped trying them all together for years. I thought I had rid myself of them forever but something has lured me back. Doggone youtube friends have been having stellar results. After seeing many 4a/4b haired ladies come out with good results I decided it might be time to try again. Welp, here goes. I first over-moisturized which didn’t turn out too bad because my hair dries out quickly from being left loose and free. Then….um I FINALLY tried a Braid-Out

International Natural Hair Meetup Day 2013 (L.A.)

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INHMD 2013 Los Angeles

Since my very first meet-up I knew they were the thing for me. I am kind of an attention whore so I fiend for the attention and I have always been a bit of a social butterfly. It fits right in line with my talking to much (don’t act like you didn’t know). Lol. When I took to my Facebook page to talk about meet-ups I realized that there are lots of women who have a desire to meet up with other naturalistas and share stories, product ideas and just plain ole fun with each other. I felt for the people who had never been to a natural hair meet-up. How much fun International Natural Hair Meetup Day 2013 (L.A.)

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Upside Down French Braid Bun

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Upside Down Braid Bun
This style has been a favorite updo hairstyle of mine for quite a while. I have quietly admired it from afar on other people on youtube but dared not try it. The Upside Down French Braid Bun was a special hairstyle and it deserves special consideration. I had never even seen it done on Black hair until very recently and that woman was either relaxed or had her hair straightened by some other method. I definitely never saw it on natural African American hair. I secretly thought there must be a reason for that. Maybe natural hair wouldn’t look right? I mean, I know I’m not the only person to see the style and like it. It’s very popular amongst the straight haired ladies and has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Oh well. If I must be the first then I shall.Upside Down French Braid Bun