Cleaning Up Your Lifestyle One Step At A Time
Starting on a journey to rid yourself and your family of toxins can be overwhelming to say the least. They say ignorance is bliss and once you learn about some of these toxins there’s no going back. When I first started my wellness journey back in 2010, I remember feeling like I could never make, let alone sustain, all these changes in my life. The naturopath that I was seeing at the time tested me for my blood type and introduced me to the Blood Type Diet by Dr D Adamo. I grew up on a very standard American diet of meat and potatoes and processed snacks so this was a shocking change for me but I wanted to improve my health so I started keeping a food journal and followed this diet. It was a very short time that I began feeling much better overall, sleeping better and having way more energy throughout the day. I also shed about 20 pounds or so without any effort of working out. I was instantly hooked on this new lifestyle.
So I began researching and removing other toxic things from my life - I looked into the cleaning products I was using, my body care products and even household items such as my mattress. I began making small changes and learning more and more. I am so passionate about living a healthy lifestyle and love helping others do the same! I’ve spent countless hours and trial and error for more than 13 years.
As you begin to clean up your lifestyle, here are my three practical tips:
1. Make small changes a little at a time: don’t try to swap out every single thing in your life all at once. This is quite literally a recipe for disaster. Like most diets, trying to do it all at once is usually only sustainable for a short time. Instead, identify areas that are the most important to you and start making small healthy swaps. For example, maybe you drink coffee every day and you swap your dairy creamer for a plant-based milk creamer. Or perhaps you use a body lotion nightly and swap it out for one made with organic ingredients and not full of chemicals and endocrine disruptors. Small changes made over time will develop into a lifestyle of healthy habits.
2. Don’t overanalyze everything: this was a big one for me since I go big or go home! When I first started my journey, I wanted to overthink everything I used and purchased and ate. Give yourself grace as you progress and let go of unhealthy habits. But don’t beat yourself up if you want to eat those m&m’s while watching some trashy TV shows. It’s all about balance! Just being more aware of what’s in your food and the products you use in your home and with your family is more than enough to start with.
3. Learn from others' experience: we are lucky to live in the age of the internet where information is available at our fingertips. While we do have to sort through the true information from the fake, learn from bloggers who are real life moms and advocates and have been down this road. But know that not everything that works for one person will work for you or your family. I can’t even tell you how many times I would read and relate to a blog and then become so hopeful about some product I wanted to try and be let down or discouraged.
This being said, I do thank you for taking the time to get to know me and read about my experiences! I absolutely love sharing and talking about these things. To me, it’s so very rewarding to make a suggestion about a healthy swap for someone and it truly benefits their life in some way and helps with some ailment. I hope that you can take away even a small nugget of information from my blog that can help you live a healthier, cleaner life.