Living With Eden's Treasures

DIY healthy Gatorade alternative

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What drink do you think of to replenish you after a hard full body sweating workout?

Most everyone will have a picture of a football player with a Gatorade come to mind… right?  

Buuut have you ever read the ingredients? It’s not really the healthiest of drinks in my opinion! What good is it to do healthy activities then put not healthy stuff back in us like sugar, artificial colors/flavors, dextrose, modified food starch to name a few from Gatorade’s ingredient list?

What if you could have a replenishing drink with ingredients you probably already have on hand,  at a fraction of the price, and without all the junk… aaaaand was super easy to make? 

Well you can have it if you want!  

This stuff is amazing!  I’m telling you! We have so many amazing experiences with this stuff but I’ll just share 2 life saving experiences! 

One summer it was absolutely horrible here.. ever day was about 106°F and 2 months with no rain.  My husband had a job doing a room and roof addition on the SOUTH side of their house in full sun! 

It was so hot he couldn’t work a full day at all.. a half day was even difficult!  

One day he was up on the roof and started getting COLD! He knew he was in trouble and needed to get down immediately and told them he had to leave right away!

He called me on his hour drive home and told me how bad he was feeling and to get him some electrolytes made up before he got there.  

He looked horrible! He went and laid down as soon as he walked in the door.  I brought him a pint full and he downed it. By the time I got the cup to the kitchen he hollered, “I already can feel a difference! Get me more!”

It was amazing how quickly it got in his system and how quickly he bounced back like nothing had happened! 

This drink became a staple in our home after that!

Ok soooo time for my  life saving experience! 

So I had this beautiful baby all natural at home! I’ll write about that story soon!  It was the most perfect birth! Only 4 hours long and a water birth too! Everything was PERFECT!  

 I had planned to stay hydrated with homemade electrolytes during labor very early on. In past pregnancies I had struggled with having extreme contractions thinking I was in full blown labor and then would drink a quart of water and it would stop or calm way down. 

It didn’t make sense… I drank enough water anyways but apparently my body needed more. Also my midwife had been presented with some studies on women and labor pain intensity.  

These studies showed a connection between low pain in well hydrated women and high pain in dehydrated women... well I don’t know about you but I want to prevent pain whenever possible… naturally of course though… so electrolytes were on the birth plan!  

Well I did so well with pain my midwife couldn’t even read me at all!  So checkmark on that part!  

But where’s the life saving part you may ask!

Well after this perfect beautiful birth… I had a severe hemorrhage during a severe snowstorm and almost didn’t live to tell you about it! (Well I did, so I will! It’s a long story I’ll be posting soon though!)  They poured the electrolytes and Chlorophyll into me as much as I would take. This was crucial to getting my blood volume up. 

Later on in life I was reading a birthing book.  In the chapter on hemorrhaging they had a section on homemade electrolytes and how it will keep a hemorrhaging woman from going into clinical shock!  What a provision and I didn’t even know it!  

Sooo how do you make this awesome stuff? 

HOMEMADE ELECTROLYTES 

Makes a half gallon 

• 1 teaspoon of a naturally colored salt like Himalayan or Real salt. (Colored salts are rich in other minerals besides just sodium making them a better choice than white salt)… Bulk pack of Real salt here.

• 2 teaspoons PURE Stevia give or take a little depending on how sweet you like things OR sweeten with a natural healthy sweetener like raw honey or maple syrup (they give healthy energy so vital for labor. I often mix my other sweeteners with stevia.) (Each sweetener will be different and everyone likes a different amount of sweetness so just play with what tastes good to you! My favorite is maple syrup mix with stevia. The mixture is sooo yummy!! The stevia cuts the carbs and price but you still get some of that healthy energy and great taste.

• Organic lemon juice or orange juice.. really it’s to taste but for me I like  1 or 2 cups of orange juice or 1/4-1/2 cup lemon juice. Here’s the lemon juice we use.

• Finish filling the half gallon jar with water, mix, and serve hot or cold. My family likes it cold mostly. 

• ENJOY!

It is similar to a Gatorade but with all healthy stuff! You can pronounce every ingredient and most likely have them on hand already! 

I hope you never need this in a life threatening situation! 

It is super helpful for everyday situations like having sick kids that need extra hydration especially if they don’t want plain water since it tastes so good, an after workout pick me up, anything that involves sweating, sports, gardening,  detox baths, enemas, outside work or play and the list goes on and on!

Let me know what situations you could use some homemade electrolytes! Have you ever tried homemade electrolytes?