Crystal Stafford, MPH, is the founder of Jungle Momma, a plant-forward brand from Costa Rica. She believes plants are medicine and diversity builds resilience. She creates nourishing, fermented foods designed to support gut health and vitality.
For years, my afternoon ritual looked the same. Around 2:30 pm, the energy dip would hit. Brain fog. Low motivation. Slight irritability. So I did what most people do. I made another coffee. And for about 20 minutes, it worked. Then the jitteriness would arrive. My nervous system felt
They are disgusting. Do you have any idea the kind of crap that goes into Oreos? If you haven’t already seen it, you should watch this video where a young father makes homemade Oreos. It’s scary. Yet yesterday, I had to have them. I woke up and immediately
This morning I weighed in and found that I only lost 0.8 pounds. In the past, that number would have sent me into a tailspin. And I’ll be honest — my mind started reeling a little: All that work and only 0.8 pounds? But then I reminded myself
I stopped drinking on January 8th. Not because anything dramatic happened. Not because I hit some kind of rock bottom. But because I kept noticing the same thing: I feel better without alcohol. Clearer. More stable. Less inflamed. More in control of my energy. In my twenties, a glass of
And the benefits go far beyond nutritional value. There’s a reason your nervous system softens when you step into the forest. Heart rate slows. Breathing deepens. Shoulders drop. Nature regulates us. Research published in the Journal of Health Psychology found that 30 minutes of gardening significantly lowered salivary cortisol
When I say “lift routine,” I am not talking about running out to buy three new workout outfits, signing up for a monthly gym membership, and completely reorganizing your schedule so you can squeeze in five hour-long workouts a week. I am saying: start simple. Because inviting all of that
A huge part of this self-guided transformation is making space for myself. I look back on my twenties and crave the calm, natural way I moved through my life. I did yoga every day. I played music. I meditated. I wrote in my journal, painted, went on long hikes. All
Yesterday I did everything “right.” High protein. 30+ plant diversity. Beans. Greens. Seeds. Fermented cashew cream. Whey. Collagen. Soy milk. On paper? Elite. By 8pm? Sharp, sulfur gas. Bloating. Up multiple times overnight. I also started my period. The Problem Wasn’t the Food. It was the stack. I combined:
Let’s name the real problem. Women over 40 are not undisciplined. We are under-eating, over-stressed, and under-muscled. We’ve spent years chronically under-eating in the name of discipline. Prolonged calorie restriction can lower metabolic rate, reduce lean mass, and increase stress hormones. Extreme low-carbohydrate approaches — especially when paired with
This week, week ONE, the goal / theme is calm and centered. It's been a long time. I have been so scattered - starting this, trying that, nothing sticking. Nothing growing. It's time to look inside and determine what I truly want. To let that slowly appear
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For 30 days, I am treating my body like a client. My name is Crystal Stafford. I am the founder of Jungle Momma, a food and beverage company located in Nosara, Costa Rica. I started this company in my tiny kitchen, blending dressings and experimenting with ferments, because I was