I keep thinking about my New Years goals and how I can keep motivated after the “new car smell” wares off. I know many people struggle with the same things I struggle with, and I think its important to make small actions to obtain the overall goal. For example I want to walk 2017 miles in 2017. I have done some math…whoa…and figured I need to walk about 5.6 miles a day to reach this goal. If this doesn’t sound like a lot in one day then kudos to you because it seems a bit overwhelming to me! So I didn’t panic, and I downloaded an alarm app (I went with Tetra Alarm), and set it for every hour. Since I work from home it can be a challenge to get up fro my computer and take a break. So, every 60 min I get up and walk around the block or 2. Do I make EVERY 60 min break? No! Sometimes I am on a call and have to push it back, but its always in the back of my head and I get out and do it. Something interesting has started to happen….1) I start craving these breaks and look forward to them 2) I have started walking a bit farther than just one block because it relaxes me 3) I am almost starting to not need the alarm 4) I am meeting my daily goal. There were a few days I didn’t meet the goal because the weather was really bad last week, but I am slowly making it up.
Point is to break things down into little actions that over time produce a big outcome! Whatever your goals are this year, try and break them down into little actions!
When people tell me they want to reduce the toxins in their home or how they eat, these are my 10 favorite things I like to tell people to do when they are looking to change their lifestyle.
10 Easy Things You Can
1.Add 1 tsp apple cider vinegar in 1 cup of water and drink before every meal.
This helps our stomach acid, which declines as we age, and allow us to digest our food easier. If we can digest our food easier we will have better nutrient absorption and better eliminations! This is the Apple Cider Vinegar I use. It can be found at any Whole Foods or natural market in your area. Here is a VIDEO I send people when they ask about digestion and they want to know what they should take. In my morning apple cider and water drink I add a pinch of sea salt and 1 drop of lemon essential oil. The seat salt acts an emulsifier for the essential oil and distributes it throughout the cup. I also like lemon essential oil because it is made from the rind of the lemon and not the fruit so it won’t erode the enamel of the teeth. For more on essential oils go HERE.
2.Make your own hand soap.
It takes me less than a min each to refill our foaming hand cleaners. It saves money and removes common chemicals found in hand soap. Check out my post on that HERE.
3.Replace fabric softener and dryer sheets with wool dryer balls.
When I first began transitioning my home to be more chemical free, fabric softeners and dryer sheets were one of the first things to go. I no longer wanted the stinky chemicals that were in dryer sheets to infuse the fabric that touches my skin every day. Wool dryer balls are a great alternative to fabric softeners. They help dry your laundry faster, keep it free from static, and the best part is you can add essential oils to them for a lovely scent. You can buy them HERE or HERE. You can even make your own! I don’t have time for that so I just bought mine, but they are pretty simple to make: Make your own. Check out this SITE if you are interested in making your own.
4.Set alarms as reminders.
I have alarms for EVERYTHING…when to take my supplements, when to wake up, and now when to walk and get outside! We all have things we want to accomplish throughout the day but sometimes it’s the end of the day and BOOM you missed somethings you wanted to do!
5.Probiotics
A google search will give you endless information about probiotics. I think by now many people know the benefits of probiotics. They help digestion, boost immune system, repopulate good gut bacteria after a bout with antibiotics, etc. Good probiotics can be costly, but a great way to get probiotics is to eat them daily. Naturally fermented foods provide a whole host of great probiotics at a fraction of the price of a supplement. You can either make your own fermented food, or buy it. I enjoy making fermented food personally, and eventually I will write a post on it, but it took me a while to start making it. It seemed overwhelming.
Thanks to the paleo movement and the real food movement in generally you can find ferment foods at Whole Foods or your natural food store. Great fermented foods are kifir, sauerkraut, kombuca, yogurt, etc. When looking for kifir or yogurt look for the cleanest one you can find. Something organic and GMO free and with few ingredients. If you need something sweeter add your own raw honey. I really prefer to get plain yogurt that has milk and cultures and add more own flavoring. The same goes for sauerkraut. You want to see vegetables and sea salt. If it has vinegar its likely not naturally fermented. Also if you are anything like me, eating sauerkraut with EVERY meal seem blah. To take a GUT SHOT! I LOVE these. They are local to my area and have a stand at the farmers market, but I know Whole Foods has started carrying them as well! I have taken shots of pretty nasty things in my day and so this is a cake walk! Plus its a great way to get your fermented foods without eating them if you really can’t stand the taste!
6.Ditch your house cleaners.
Not the people, but the stuff you clean with. You can easily make your own cleaners with inexpensive ingredients. Vinegar and baking soda are your best friends. I really like this article because it gives you many DIY option. I was a DIY cleaner person before I had kids, now I need just a couple of things that are quick and easy to grab. I use Thieves for the majority of my cleaning. It is concentrated and you just need a couple cap fulls in a spay bottle of water. I can clean my counters, my toilets and my mirrors with this stuff. It’s amazing, and lasts a very long time! Sometimes I do need more of an abrasive for stubborn stains and for those I guess I still do DIY with this soft scrub. In all honesty though I don’t need a scrub often so I made this about a year ago and still have some available for when I need it!
7.Get rid of vegetable or canola oils.
Swap out conventional cooking oils for things like coconut oil, bacon fat, butter, ghee, or cold pressed olive oil. This article explains that “When you cook with polyunsaturated vegetable oils (such as canola, corn, and soy oils), oxidized cholesterol is introduced into your system. As the oil is heated and mixed with oxygen, it goes rancid. Rancid oil is oxidized oil and should NOT be consumed—it leads directly to vascular disease.”
my go to for high heat cooking is coconut oil. The other types of fats I use are bacon fat from pasture raised bacon, butter and ghee from grassfed cows. I use these to cook eggs or on pasta and toast. Olive oil I use in hummus or on salads. If you check out my Favorites page you will see the olive oil I prefer.
8.Swap out deodorant for natural option.
This is a tough switch for people. I get it. No one likes to stink, or sweat. The big thing we want to avoid in convention deodorants are ones containing aluminum chloride, aluminum chlorohydrate, or aluminum-zirconium compounds. There is some evidence that links the accumulation of aluminum in the body with Alzheimer’s Disease, so I personally would like to avoid it. I suggest trying some off the shelf natural deodorant that doesn’t have aluminum in it. I started with some off the shelf, and I liked them well enough but I am always looking for a way to reduce cost so I started making this one and have never looked back. My husband even uses it and I NEVER thought that was going to happen!
If you are worried about smelling then try armpit detox. I did this one for a week and it helped so much. So big question….do I not stink anymore? Do I not sweat? I do stink and I do sweat, BUT I stink if I go a couple of days without deodorant and I sweat if I am active. I never would have thought I would be the person going without deodorant but sometimes I forget. I will tell you this….since cleaning up my diet to real food and minimal sugar I do not stink like I used to so that is a factor. As for sweat…I have never been a big armpit sweat person so I don’t think that has changed much.
9.Swap out conventional stable salt with sea salt.
This is an easy one. Get rid of your table salt and get you some sea salt. I like this one and this one.
This article explains the benefits of sea salt vs. table salt:
“The differences between refined, processed salt (also known as “table salt”) and unrefined natural salt are as great as the differences between white sugar and freshly cut sugar cane. These differences can have a major impact on staying healthy, avoiding potentially toxic additives, and increasing your risk of diseases you want to avoid.”
“In other words, sea salt and table salt share the same amount of sodium chloride, but only sea salt retains the trace elements found in saline water. These trace minerals matter not only to taste, but to health as well.”
10.Use coconut oil as a makeup remover.
Since you have now bought some coconut oil use it as a make up remover! First off you will have it on hand for cooking and you don’t need to go out and buy an expensive makeup remover. It is hands down the best thing you can do for your face. Your makeup comes off without a lot of rubbing, and your skin is left to soft and moisturized!
I hope this list helps you make small changes in your lifestyle that will eventually leave you toxin free!