Thinking back to my own health journey to non-toxic, healthy living, I wish there had been a roadmap or checklist to help guide me in my changes or decision-making. Instead, I went with what was yelling at me the loudest and that was usually articles/blogs or people on social media sharing what worked for them. The problem with this is that we are all in different seasons of life and have different priorities that we need to focus on first. Yes, for someone buying a sauna or focusing on detoxification may be their next step, but for others making sure they have clean food and water should come first.
Based on this confusion, I think it is best to prioritize your own journey based on the approach of what is filling your toxic bucket, starting with the categories that you use or do the most. Here are some examples:
- FOOD: We eat (in general), three meals a day and maybe some snacks in-between.
- WATER: We drink, cook, bathe, swim, and brush our teeth with water several times a day.
- AIR: We (hopefully) ALWAYS breathing in the air around us in our homes + workplaces.
- PERSONAL CARE: We apply personal care products like shampoo, soap, toothpaste, lotions, perfumes, and makeup to our bodies throughout the day.
So, does it make more sense to you if you aren’t eating organic, whole foods to put your time, money and effort into buying a sauna? Or a mascara that you wear 1x a month? What would probably make the most sense is to first get your food sourcing and quality dialed in before you focus on detoxification or clean beauty products.
On the other hand, if you already feel like you have food locked down, you may want to start investigating the personal care products that you use every single day on your body’s largest organ (your skin). This is a logical next step for you as you’ve already improved one of your daily biggest toxic exposures from the foods you eat.
Two areas I find many people haven’t dialed in or even considered that they should look at is their WATER and AIR QUALITY. Someone much smarter than me said something along these lines: We care so much about eating organic and avoiding exposure to pesticides/herbicides on our food, but then we carelessly guzzle and bathe in the very water that contains those chemicals, PLUS over 300 other chemicals, other people’s medications, heavy metals, radioactive elements and more.
Yes, it’s easier to buy a non-toxic cleaning kit, but have we considered that our bodies internally also need a good cleaning as they have become the filtration systems for the dirty air we breathe and the contaminated water we drink? I’m not trying to be dramatic, but water and air are two things that we cannot live without for very long- however we drink straight from the tap, trusting our local water municipality’s filtration and we spray air fresheners, light scented candles and use scented dryer sheets and laundry detergents that off-gas chemicals into the air we breathe, disrupting our hormones and making us sick.
Overwhelmed yet? This is where the what’s filling your toxic bucket idea comes in again. We can’t change everything all at once, but we can start to chip away at the things that we do the MOST. And like I said earlier, this will be different for all of us. Here are some ideas for where to start:
- FOOD: Read last month’s blog on reducing exposure to toxic vegetable oils.
- WATER: Read this month’s blog on how to test and best filter your water supply.
- AIR: Consider reducing your use of air fresheners, candles, room sprays, plug-ins and scented products.
- PERSONAL CARE: Use this free resource to learn the “score” of your current products and find healthier alternatives.
STILL FEELING LOST?
If you want even more guidance on all of this and how your toxic bucket may be impacting your health and causing you symptoms, set up a Discovery Call and let’s chat about your options!