Several years ago, I became aware of what the products I was using on my body were doing to my health, and I didn’t like it.
I wanted to make a change, but I didn’t know where to begin.
There were just so many ingredients in products, and I didn’t know what 90% of the items on the ingredient labels were.
Did I really need to research every single one? Spend hours standing in the aisle at the store, looking up ingredients on my phone?
It had to be easier than that!
Then, I realized there was one ingredient that was common in almost all products which contained other toxic ingredients.
And I knew that if I eliminated that one ingredient, I would also avoid a lot of other toxins.
What is that ingredient?
Fragrance – sometimes labeled as “parfum.”
So what about fragrance makes it something to be avoided?
It is a cover word for thousands of ingredients, most of which are petroleum-based and, therefore, toxic. Because specific fragrance blends are considered proprietary information, companies are not required to disclose which ingredients they use in their own fragrance blends. It could be one natural ingredient, or, more likely, it could be 100 petroleum-based ingredients.
With this knowledge, I set out on a course that took me a full year to complete – making my home free of synthetic fragrances.
I began by replacing the items I ran out of with fragrance-free alternatives or ones scented with natural substances.
My deodorant happened to be the first thing that ran out, and my husband’s deodorant happened to be the last. In between, I replaced our shampoo, household cleaners, dish soap, laundry soap, skin care, and much more.
I ditched candles and air fresheners altogether and learned to make many things myself from pure ingredients, including foaming hand soap and perfumes.
I didn’t notice it at first, but over time, I realized that I wasn’t getting headaches anymore. More time passed, and I noticed that I hadn’t had any sinus issues in quite some time. In fact, I felt really good more often than not.
I won’t claim it’s easy to switch out nearly all products in your home, but like with most anything, take it one step, one product, one day at a time.
Small changes over time will get you much further than standing still because you’re overwhelmed at the thought of doing it all at once.
If you’d like to learn more about living a life free from fragrance and
other toxins, I welcome you to join me in my Facebook group.
First of all, you never need to wait for a new year to make changes in your life. Commit to starting with a new month, or a new week, or a new day. There is no inherent magic in a new year. You can change your life any time you choose! I want you to realize that!
That said, many people are planning to make big changes with the start of the new year. Sometimes, they don't know how to go about it, so that's what I'm doing here.
Health is a very common New Year's resolution, but many people fail to make specific and achievable goals or plans for how to achieve that health they desire.
How to Set Goals
Goals need to be specific. You can't just set a goal of "be healthier" and expect to achieve it. What is healthier? If you have just one more hour of health in 2023 than you did in 2022, that's "healthier," isn't it? But is that all you want?
Goals also need to be achievable. This is why a lot of weight loss goals fail. You can't necessarily control how much weight you lose. There are too many factors that go into that, including your metabolism, hormones, stress level, and more. A better goal would be to commit to a certain number of minutes of exercise each day or week or not eating after 8:00 p.m. or drinking a certain number of ounces of water each day.
All those items will contribute to weight loss, but you control them, whereas you don't control your weight. I know it's a fine line, but I hope that makes sense.
My 2023 Goal
My big goal for 2023 is to experience a new type of natural health contributor each month. I call it a health contributor because my list ranges from therapies like infrared sauna and reiki to nutrition changes like sourdough and raw dairy.
Basically, any new thing I haven’t tried yet that can contribute to my health can go on the list, and each month, I will choose one to experience.
Ideas for 2023 Goals
If you aren’t quite sure what to set for your goals, consider this list inspiration. Add your own measurements to the blanks, or feel free to take any of these ideas and tweak them to your own needs.
- Learn to make a new food from scratch each month of the year
- ___ minutes of fun sweaty activity each day/week
- Drink ___ ounces of water each day
- Identify one supplement you feel would help you and commit to taking it every day for 90 days
- Eat a raw fruit or veggie every day/every meal
- Spend 15 minutes in the sun at least three times a week
- Check in honestly with a trusted friend every week about your mental health
- Spend 3 hours a week with your Creator
- Choose one item of clutter to leave your home each day of the year
- Eliminate products containing fragrance/parfum or foods containing artificial colors
I’d love to hear your goals for the year!
Share them below, and let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you reach them!
Do you have any health goals for the coming year?
The beginning of a new year seems to be when many people focus on making changes, especially to their diet or weight.
When you're setting weight loss goals, you may consider popular fad diets as the method to get there. You may have had success with them yourself or know someone who did, but be careful about the plan you choose.
Here are two that have been popular but you need to be extra careful with.
Keto
Many people claim to lose weight with a keto diet, and it may not be inherently bad. However, you need to be very careful how you go about keto.
In general, any diet that cuts an entire food group is going to leave you lacking in nutrients, and keto cuts not only grains but many fruits and vegetables as well..
We were created to thrive on a balance of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. To cut any one of them completely forces our bodies to work in ways they weren't intended to.
But the biggest pitfall with keto is the food choices.
I personally watched two people go through keto for several months, and they did lose some weight. What bothered me, however, was that they would eat pork rinds with Cheez-Whiz without a second thought but turn down apples and carrots.
If you know even the basic fundamentals of nutrition, you understand that fried pork skin and fake cheese are not good for you, but apples and carrots are.
If you don't want to eat apples and carrots because of their carb count, that's your choice, but please, replace them with something that has nutritional value, not fake food.
If you’re doing keto, prioritize healthy low-carb foods rather than fake food.
Low-Fat
Again, the problem is cutting out an essential nutrient and likely replacing it with something fake and unhealthy.
You can eat a healthy low-fat diet if you’re careful to cut out the bad fats and make sure to get enough high-quality fats.
Avoid anything labeled “fat-free.” These foods have usually just had the fats replaced with something fake, and your body likely can’t process those fake ingredients.
Your body truly does require fat to function properly.
Essential fatty acids are necessary for every system in your body. You need them for healthy skin and eyes, preventing arthritis, and reducing the risk of blood clots. They activate the thyroid, reduce blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and aid the reproductive system. They are especially necessary for normal development and function of the brain.
Long story short – reaching a healthy weight is a great goal anytime, and if you are making it a priority going into the new year, please do it the right way with healthy, real food.
Don’t cut out entire food groups or nutrients. You may lose weight to start, but you’ll probably put it back on as soon as you end the restrictive diet. Plus, you’ll harm your overall health in the process.
Share your story
Have you tried any fad diets?
What were your results? Did they last?
Looking back, do you think your diet was healthy?
No shame here – we learn from our successes and mistakes.
I want to encourage you because we all need encouragement to keep us going when change is difficult.
Often, I felt like the small steps I was taking were doing very little to affect my overall health.
Was I ever going to actually see any changes?
Were the efforts I was making actually doing any good?
Was it all for nothing?
Should I just give up?
I chose not to give up out of sheer stubbornness! But if that doesn't work for you, I'd like to introduce you to a concept I discovered somewhere along my journey - the 1 degree effect.
Hang with me – we're going back to math class for a moment. I promise, it'll be quick and painless!
Remember that tool we used called a protractor? It was a half circle in shape and had all the degrees from 0 to 180 marked along the edge.
Now, the difference between those degree marks is not very large. They are really close together. When you drew lines from the center point to each of those marks, the lines were almost on top of each other, weren't they?
But ... here's the important part! The further those lines got from the center point, the more space there was between them.
That's the one degree effect.
Put another way, imagine you and your friend are standing side by side, facing exactly the same direction, and you start walking together. You'll continue along side by side, won't you?
But if you turn, so you are facing just a teeny bit away from your friend before you start walking, it changes, doesn't it? At first, it will seem like you're still walking side by side, but little by little, as you keep walking, you will begin to get further and further apart. After you've walked an entire mile, there will be quite a bit of distance between you, and there will be even more at the second mile, and so on.
It is the same concept with adopting lifestyle changes. You make a tiny change, a one degree change, and for a while, it doesn't seem to be making any difference.
Then, you get a bit further along your journey, and you start to see the changes from where you would have been if you hadn't changed that one degree.
You're also likely going to make another one degree change somewhere along the way, and then another, and another, and before you know it, you've made five degrees of change, or even 10 or 20!
It all starts to add up, and when you stick with it, you really start to feel the enormous positive difference that's happened along the way, one degree at a time.
So when you feel like the changes you're working so hard at aren't making any difference, please commit to another day, another week, another month. Over time, I promise, you will start to notice.
Don't give up!
Sleep is essential to health.
We would all like to deny that fact, but it's true.
One aspect of sleep I didn’t learn until a few years ago is how our brains repair/clean themselves. Without getting too medical on you, a fluid cleanses our brains during sleep. It clears out toxins and wastes. If you'd like to read the whole scientific explanation, there's a fairly good layman’s terms run-down of it here.
Basically, it's like taking out the trash. If you don't get all of the trash out of your house one week, it's not a big deal. You can catch up the next week. However, if you only take out some of your trash every week, it's going to pile up in your home and cause big problems. Only here, the trash is in our brains!
Effects of Lack of Sleep
When you are chronically short on sleep, it causes a number of issues. A few of them include:
- Impaired problem-solving and reasoning abilities
- Lowered attention to detail
- More difficulty forming memories
- Increased risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and hypertension
- Higher chance of anxiety and depression
Plus, one of the toxins the brain clears during sleep is known to accumulate in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's.
Fixing Sleep Issues
I used to have serious issues both falling asleep and staying asleep. On nights when I was particularly stressed, I would barely sleep at all.
Over the last several years, I’ve made sleep a priority and put a few lifestyle changes into place to make sure I get enough of it.
Here are my top three tips for better sleep:
1 - Have a sleep schedule – Going to bed whenever you’re tired doesn’t work very well. You need to set a schedule and train your body when it’s time to sleep.
2 - Make your bedroom a good sleep environment – A darker room yields better quality sleep, and both diffusing essential oils and playing white noise or sleep music can help you fall asleep more easily.
3 - Avoid blue light – The light from our phones, TVs, computers, tablets, even our LED light bulbs disrupts our sleep cycles. Do your best to avoid blue light for 30-60 minutes before going to sleep.
Want to Learn More?
I’m going to do a 10-day series on improving sleep in my group on Facebook. If you’d like to join in, just request to join the group. There are no strings – just education.
