Shifting towards a low-toxicant lifestyle can be overwhelming. The more you learn, the more you may feel an anxious urgency to make changes. The more you become aware of the many toxins you and your family are exposed to on the daily basis, the more you might find yourself becoming reactive, fearful, or hopeless.
Fortunately, it doesn't have to be this way! Instead of allowing fear or frustration to get the better of you, reevaluate your expectations and mindset. Small, consistent shifts towards a less toxic life are powerful and effective. This is a lifelong journey, not an overnight race. Be proud of each baby step you take towards a healthier lifestyle.
Prioritize and Plan
Before you dive into making changes towards a low-toxicant lifestyle, I wanted to share some strategies that I've found helpful. I've found that it's best to have a plan when making lifestyle changes that can be stressful, confusing, overwhelming, or expensive. Having a plan can minimize all these negative feelings and help manage the expense of it all.
My first suggestion would be to practice your discernment and research skills. Cultivate a collection of resources you trust. I use a variety of resources that I've come to rely on and cross reference them with each other because I know that no source is going to get everything right 100% of the time. Some of these resources include:
Scientific literature, textbooks, and articles: available on sites like PubMed and Google Scholar.
Laraadler.com: Lara is an Environmental Toxins Expert & Educator, a Certified Holistic Health Coach, and someone who is "deeply passionate about changing the landscape of disease through addressing toxic exposures".
Mamavation.com: Leah Segedie is a food activist, author, blogger, and social media consultant who works with scientific and medical experts to "democratize health principles" for moms, often focusing on common household hormone-disrupting chemicals.
Jannyorganically.com: Janny is a blogger, podcaster, and health advocate who's passionate about "clean beauty and skin care, natural approaches to endocrine disorders or genetic mutations and/or tips for non-toxic living."
Wellnessmama.com: Founded by Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Wellness Mama is "an online resource for women and moms who want to live a healthier life. [Katie works] with a team of researchers and medical advisors [to] analyze a wide variety of health, parenting, and natural living topics and summarize the information in a clear and usable way."
EWG.org: The Environmental Working Group is a non-profit organization focusing on "protecting human health and the environment." Their website is filled with helpful guides and their EWG Skin Deep search engine allows you to look up products and ingredients.
Think Dirty: This app allows you to scan barcodes of cosmetics and personal care products to learn about the ingredients and gain a deeper understanding of the product's potential toxicity.
NONE of these resources are perfect. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses. This is why I prefer to use multiple resources to make decisions. If I have lots of time, I try to review the primary sources cited by these resources, but I don't put pressure on myself to do this if it feels overwhelming or I don't have time. Sometimes purchasing decisions need to be made more quickly than we'd like. So doing a quick search of a few of your trusted resources can help you make a more informed decision you can feel comfortable with.
Speaking of decisions, there are many strategies you can use to make them...
Decision-Making Strategies
Once you've decided to switch brands or products, I've found that there are a few strategies to make the switch:
The Quick-Switch
The Plan & Save
The Pass
The Quick-Switch
This is when you've decided that whatever product you're using is harmful/toxic to the point that you need to throw it away ASAP and replace it with something else. This can be hard because it can feel wasteful, but if the product is that toxic, it's worth it. I tend to do a quick-switch with things that we put in our bodies and on our bodies, such as switching from non-organic to organic foods and from plastic food containers and water bottles to glass and other safer materials.
The Plan & Save
This is when you've decided that it's okay to take some time to save up for a replacement product because the one you're using isn't terribly toxic, because you need to do more research before choosing a replacement, and/or because you need to save up for that replacement. I've gone this route for deodorant because the brand I was using wasn't too terrible and I had to research lots of brands to find one without coconut or almond components (I'm allergic).
The Pass
This is when you've decided that the product or brand that you're using, while not perfect, is okay to keep. Every family is going to have different abilities, thresholds, and opinions when it comes to how "green and clean" they want to get, and that's okay! A family with a history of autoimmunity and other health issues is going to have different goals than a family without a history of chronic health issues. It's okay to pass on making a change if it's not right for your family.
But Where to Start?
You might be thinking to yourself that there are just so many products we use day in and day out...where do you even start to make these changes? This can definitely be an overwhelming thought. One of the best strategies I've found is to prioritize by importance. For us, this looked like:
What goes in our bodies
What goes on our bodies
What's in our home
Everything else
It may look different for you. I chose to prioritize this way because I knew that what I put in and on my body has a major effect on my health. Focusing on these areas first allowed me to cultivate habits and skills that drastically decreased our family's toxic exposure.
Hunting for Brands and Products
One major barrier to implementing a low-toxicant lifestyle is that non-toxic products and brands can be harder to find and less convenient to purchase from. Many of the stores we shop at regularly usually carry only two types of products: conventional, highly toxic products or "greenwashed" products that are just as toxic but advertise themselves as less/non-toxic.
Thankfully this is slowly changing and larger stores are starting to respond to the increasing demand for non-toxic products. In the meantime, you may still have to by many non-toxic products online. This requires hunting for those brands. While this can be more time consuming, it can also be very exciting to finally find a brand you trust and feel comfortable using. Here are some tips for your hunt:
Many of the resources listed above have countless recommendations for all kinds of products. That's were I usually start when I'm considering a product switch.
On instagram, I save any posts I come across of brands that pop up on my feed or brands that I follow that offer non-toxic products I may want to purchase in the future. I keep all these saved posts in a folder titled "Brands." This makes them easy to find and scroll through. So, for example, when it's time for us to buy baby clothes and products, I can easily scroll through my Brands folder and quickly find posts I've saved from companies like Shop Hartland, Snuggle Me Organic, and The Tot. Then I can do a deeper dive into those companies to see if I may want to purchase their products.
I also bookmark websites on my browser and keep them all in one folder for quick and easy access.
Always use caution when purchasing products on Amazon. Do what you can to confirm that you're purchasing from the legitimate company, and not a imposter vendor who may sell you an inferior product.
Not Everything Will Cost You
While the cost of switching to a low-toxicant lifestyle might seem intimidating at times, it's important to remember that there are many things you can do that are completely free! Regularly cleaning your home can reduce air pollutants and other allergens. Spending more time outside in nature can improve your health in many ways by exposing you to negatively-charged ions, vitamin D, clean air, and physical activity. Gardening is a relatively small financial investment that can reap huge benefits. You can grow your own organic produce, enjoy the outdoors, and spend quality time with family.
When You Start to Feel Overwhelmed
Remember, this process does not happen overnight. It happens as you grow and learn and make new decisions for your family and your home. Lifestyle changes aren't a single-event phenomenon, they're daily decisions that build into habits that build into a life.
Be proud of what you're learning and how you're growing rather than focusing on what you haven't changed or what you don't know. Try to enjoy the process and be excited about
living a cleaner, healthier life.
You got this!
Happy Hunting!
REFERENCE
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
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