How to Not Get Overwhelmed Learning Ingredients
When you first realize why ingredients matter and that you need to be aware of the ingredients in your foods and products, it's overwhelming, isn't it?
There are just SO MANY! How will you ever learn them all?
Trust me, I've been there, and I've felt it!
And I am by no means claiming that I'm now an ingredient expert, but I have learned one very helpful trick along the way.

Learn one ingredient at a time!

Yep, forget about all the rest, and learn just one ingredient.
This seems counter-productive at first. How can just one ingredient make a difference?
It makes a difference because then you know that one. And you won't forget it when you go on to learn the next one.

Let me tell you how I started out becoming ingredient aware.
I would look at a label and read everything on it. I would look up all those ingredients that I didn't know. I'd read about them and whether they were good or bad or indifferent.
And then, the next time I saw them on a label, I couldn't remember which were good and which were bad and which were indifferent.
I got nowhere for quite a while.

My one-at-a-time method:
What I do now is look at a label and read until I find the first ingredient that I don't know. Ingredients are generally listed in order from the largest amount down to the least amount, so looking for the first ingredient you don't know will have the most impact because there's more of it in the product.
I look up that ingredient – where it comes from, the effects it has on my body, whether it comes from nature or a lab, what products it's commonly used in.
Then, for a while, I look for that specific ingredient on labels. If it's good, I seek it out. If it's bad, I avoid it.

Only when I feel like I know and recognize that ingredient do I look for the next ingredient I don't know and start the process again.

Now, when I learn a new ingredient, I really know it, and I will recognize it forever hopefully.

Knowledge isn't worth much if you forget it.

Take the time it takes to actually learn, and you'll be much better off for it!


Ingredient awareness is something I'm passionate about, and we talk about it a lot in my free Facebook Group.
If you'd like to join us there,  click here

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Meet Melissa Denelsbeck

 

For years, I was trapped in a fog, never feeling 100%, always tired but too stressed out to get a good night’s sleep, struggling through headaches 3-4 times each week. Almost every afternoon at work, I would hit that mid-afternoon slump and be unable to keep my eyes open. Often, my headaches would start around this same time and last through the rest of the day. All I wanted to do was go home and sleep, but when I went to bed, my thoughts would race, and I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep.

I felt like I was stuck in a never-ending cycle of fatigue – tired all day and wide awake at night, and the headaches just made it all more difficult to deal with. I pushed on as well as I could through the sleepiness and the pain, but I never felt like I was functioning at full capacity.

Then, I started making some changes in my life and becoming aware of what I was putting in and on my body. Over time, I realized that my headaches were becoming less frequent, and my sleep quality, energy, and mental clarity were improving.

Now, a couple years later, I feel my energy levels remain steady from the time I wake up until I go to bed. I am able to quiet my anxious thoughts and fall asleep quickly at night. And the headaches? They’re so infrequent that I can’t even say how often they come – maybe 3-5 a year?

It wasn’t even that difficult a change to make. I just swapped out products in my life that were contributing to my bad health, and I replaced them with versions that enhance my wellness instead.

It’s a step-by-step process that you can take at your own pace, and I am here to be your guide on the journey and empower you to take back your own health! Take a look around my blog or join my free Facebook group where we discuss tips for how to take back your health and live your life abundantly!

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