Reducing the amount of toxins in your life could, quite possibly, be the best thing you do for yourself and your health. This has been a major impact on my healing adventure. So, I thought I would compile a list of the most helpful ways I have reduced toxins in my life, just in case it might be helpful to someone.
A couple of things before we get into the goods~
*The most important part about this post is that if any of this brings you stress, it’s not your time to incorporate the ideas. Incorporate things as you are ready and as it makes sense, taking on a little at a time. Maybe one new thing every 6 months to a year…? Or maybe in order of importance; for example, if the water in your area is really bad you might put that at the top of your list.
* Living a cleaner lifestyle can be difficult, I get it. It goes against the majority of society and everything that is being promoted. It takes a strong willed person to go against the grain. But I see people doing it every day…it can be done!
* A cleaner lifestyle isn’t cheap. I totally get that too. A couple of things to keep in mind: a) Take inventory of where you are currently spending money. Are there some things that add up that you could possibly cut back on? Getting your nails did? Eating out regularly? Daily Starbucks? Isn’t a Starbucks like $7 per drink these days? If you do that 5 times a week, that’s $140 a month that you could put towards a healthier lifestyle. Starbuck’s lovers, don’t @ me… it was just an example. I still love ya’!
* Could it possibly be saving you money in the long run by lessening your potential health issues? Health issues are not cheap! Even if some things are covered by insurance, you end up paying large hospital bills, prescription costs, etc. Not to mention the hundreds of appointments…!
* Shoot for a goal of 80/20. Living a clean life 80% of the time, then doing whatever your soul desires the other 20% of the time (unless that’s crack or meth…do that 0% of the time!!).
If you don’t filter the stuff you consume, your body becomes the filter.
Let that sit for a minute. This saying is one of the main reasons I try filtering out as much as I can, to allow my body to free up some time so it can focus on doing the things it was meant to do, such as: regenerating liver cells, and healing wounds (inside and out). Our bodies were not meant to be bombarded with the mass amount of toxins they come up against these days. Every little bit you can cut out is helping you on a cellular level.
Below are some of the big hitters that I did in order to reduce the toxins in my life, and are not in any particular order~
1. Water – This is a hard one to keep up with. There are always different views on which water is the best and which filter is the coolest. A good choice for your home depends on your water source, and if you are on well or city water. It also depends on how much money you want to spend. Do some research to find a good option for your home. The ewg.org website has a Tapwater Database where you can enter your zip code. It will give your water a rating, along with recommendations for types of filters. It will show you the contaminants that have been found in your water for that zip code (there are a lot of big words…it’s frightening!). I imagine this is just for city water though. Since we are on well at my home, we ordered a test kit from radiantlifecatalog.com to test our water. There are full house filter options, under sink mounts, and countertop options – something for everyone!
There are so many nasty things in city water, like flouride, pharmaceuticals, etc. that it makes sense to filter it. And there are so many anomalies in well water it also makes sense to filter that. Remember, if you aren’t filtering your water (well or city) your body is the filter (your liver, kidneys, etc.).
2. Food – My best tidbits on this are to do what you can and where it makes sense, as this can easily get overwhelming. I started by cutting out processed foods as much as I can, getting back to the basics of cooking whole, real foods. There are so many resources for lifestyles like Anti-Inflammatory, Paleo and Whole 30, it’s silly not to try something like this. I also started by simply sneaking in organic products, grass fed, free range, etc. Ewg.org has a list of “dirty dozen”. That could be a good place to start – just buy those products in organic.
3. Air – our indoor air is not clean. Off-gassing from furniture, building products, etc. linger in our homes. An easy thing I do is open the windows for 10 minutes a day, in any kind of weather. Another step I have added is room air purifiers. I have one in the master bedroom and one in the main area in our home. This is also a good option for those that rent. Another option that is now being put in newer homes – a Fresh Air Intake system. It pulls air from outside, filters it, then sends it through your main heating/cooling system to add fresh air into your home. We have not invested in this yet and not sure that we will but it is a great option for some people.
4. Supplements – These aren’t for everyone, and that’s totally fine. They have been instrumental in my healing so I thought I should give them some attention. This day and age it seems we do need to supplement our diets with extra nutrients. It’s next to impossible to get all the nutrients we need from our food. And depending on what we might have going on health-wise, supplements can be utilized to help us with certain health goals. So, good for you if you are already giving this some effort! This is one of the areas that I would say it makes sense to buy higher-end. Do some research on trusted brands that have clean, minimal and identifiable ingredients. If you are taking supplements from Target or Walmart or Walgreens, open the bottle walk to the nearest garbage can and throw them in the garbage. They have more harming ingredients than good (fillers, cheap vitamins that our bodies don’t recognize, etc). You are better off not taking any at all – save your hard earned dollars for better supplements or organic strawberries.
5. Products – All the way from makeup, to household cleaning products, clean that ish up! I did research (don’t fall for branding/marketing bs) to find trusted companies and started to reduce my toxic load early on with makeup and household products. Did you know, the FDA has not reviewed their “allowable” ingredients since like the 1930s or something crazy like that. A lot of companies hide harmful ingredients under things like “fragrance” on the ingredient list. It could be literally anything and the FDA doesn’t give a fack. There are also a lot of endocrine disruptors in personal care products, especially makeup and perfumes. And we wonder why estrogen dominance is on the rise!?!? A couple of things to take a look at around your house: makeup, personal care products (like shampoo and soap), cleaning products and candles. If you clean those up you are doing a ton for your health!
6. Mental Health – I was very lucky to find a counselor early on in my healing adventure. This is towards the bottom of the list, not because it’s less important than any of the others on this list. In fact, I think everyone could benefit from focusing on their mental health game. I have been noticing a common theme amongst people with chronic illness. Surprisingly to some, the common theme I am noticing is unmet needs and/or untreated trauma. Please get a mental health practitioner to help you work through traumas and stressors. There is no shame – everyone has trauma and stress. And if you know someone that is doing this hard Work, commend them. Do not ever make fun of someone that has the balls to go to counseling or work with a life coach, etc. This needs to be normalized, especially in our crazy-ass society.
7. Relationships – While we are at it and cleaning up the toxins we put into/on our bodies, lets start cleaning up the people we surround ourselves with. Toxic relationships are so 90s.
I think that’s enough for now (there are more ways to cut down on toxins but this list hits most of the biggins). Remember, it’s not needed to go all in. You can start phasing some less toxic things in and phasing some toxic things out. AS YOU ARE READY. Any bit will help. I just encourage you to start now, start with something small. OR take a big leap and knock a big one off your list. Whatever you want to do in order to make forward progression.
I’d like to end this article in full disclosure. I was doing some of this stuff before I got really sick. So it’s not a 100% foolproof system. I had already started to eat clean, organic foods. I was already filtering my water and doing some of the other things on this list. But I do think the adoption of these healthy choices prevented me from getting completely wiped out by Lyme. I also believe I had Lyme long before I knew it, making me more sensitive to chemicals. Which is probably why I was naturally drawn to reducing my toxic load early on. AND my biggest take away, if you follow my story closely, you know that my Lyme was stirred up by a stressful time in my life. Had I been focusing on my Mental Health maybe I wouldn’t have had the Lyme flare that knocked me out the way it did? One will never know…
Any relief you can give your body is beneficial, your body will thank you.
If you want to check out some of the specific products I like, I did “30 days of nontoxic” this past year – check out my highlight on IG. (@adventurously.healing). If you like it, let me know. I have been tossing around the idea of doing it again at the beginning of 2023.
As always, thanks for reading!
EZ E
