Taking Toxins out of your Personal Life

Did you know that your hormones are affected by the products you use on your body?

It's true and according to my guest Nicki Williams who I had on the Vibrant, Powerful Moms show July 9th and 16th, it's a great idea to become aware of how these products are affecting you so that you can make informed decisions about what you want to change.

Last week I shared 5 simple tips you can use to remove some of the toxins from your regular tasks like laundry, dishes, hand soap, cleaning your house and even shopping. This week, I want to share simple tips for body products and intimates.

Although I will be sharing some name brands, but I want you to know, that there are other options out there…these are just the ones I use because they are what I’ve found and have access to. Some of them I’ve totally fallen in love with while others I use more out of necessity.

As I did last week, I strongly suggest you listen to the podcast to hear all the stories and explanations about the products I use… below is the list of products I mentioned so you do not have to take any notes if you want to give them a try.

Face and Body Moisturizer:

When I first read Dr. Hulda Clark’s book I switched to using sweet almond oil as my one and only moisturizer.

I still love my sweet almond oil although I mix it up with fractionated coconut oil, jojoba and apricot kernel oil; and mix it with my favorite essential oils to create a moisturizer I absolutely love. I’ve also made some with shea butter for those times when you need something heavier.

My favorite essential oils for face and body lotions: lavender, frankincense, grapefruit, geranium, fennel, cinnamon, cedarwood and wild orange.

Simple Tip #1: Buy a good quality oil like sweet almond, jojoba or fractionated coconut for a carrier oil and find a glass bottle. Pour in your carrier oil then add some good essential oils and roll the bottle in your hands to mix it. If you use more than one oil the smells will blend and change a bit over time.

Note: Essential oils have some really wonderful health benefits, so if you learn about them you can use them to help you sleep better, heal quicker, detox…  I use doTERRA essential oils only which are therapeutic grade, meaning you can ingest them because they are really pure. There are plenty of others around, just be really careful or you’ll be replacing one set of toxins with another.

Deodorant:

I stopped using deodorant over 18 years ago and switched to a salt rock. In time I found a salt spray which I found much easier to use and then I discovered Weleda rose and citrus deodorant sprays. They smell great, work fine (although once you clean a lot of the toxins out of your body, you’ll find you don’t have odor issues very often)…and I love them. Rose is my absolute favorite.

Teeth:

During my Hulda Clark years I also learned about amalgam fillings as well as the problems with fluoride in tooth pastes, mouthwashes and such. I found an awesome dentist who removed these fillings and replaced them with a much less toxic composite.

Listen to the full story on the podcast

The book I mentioned on the show: It’s All in Your Head by Hal A. Huggins explains the connection between mercury poisoning and amalgams.

Since then, I’ve come across a very reliable source by the name of Anthony William,the Medical Medium, and he suggests that you not risk the potential mercury fall out by having amalgams replaced unless the filling is starting to crumble. When you must have them removed make sure you use someone who really understands the dangers of mercury and is willing to go the extra mile to do it right.

I’m happy I did mine and even happier to know the detox process shared by Anthony William to get mercury and other heavy metals out of your system when it is ingested. I strongly suggest you read his book if this is of interest to you.

Simple Tip #2: pay more attention to how you brush, how often you brush and how good your toothbrush is. Try eliminating toothpaste from one of your brushings and notice that your teeth still feel clean. Try swishing with water with lemon, salt, an essential oil or even just chewing on a few fennel seeds to freshen your breath if needed.

Some of the other ‘clean living’ things I learned through my resulting friendship with my dentist is that your toothbrush is what does all the work when it comes to teeth cleaning. Toothpaste is not required, especially if it has sodium laurel sulfate (SLS) and fluoride in it.

SLS is what makes things foam, so you can imagine that it’s a pretty common ingredient in soaps, shampoos and tooth pastes. The small amount in any one of these products is not dangerous but when you start reading the number of things it is in which you use every day you can see how it becomes a major concern.

Flossing is still a must, fluoride is not. I use pumice stone (ground up and given to me by my dentist) or charcoal, for the occasional stain removal. I use a mint essential oil for freshness (spearmint, peppermint or wintergreen) and make sure the oil I use is therapeutic grade (like doTERRA). I also purchased a metal tongue scaper which I use every morning to pull the toxins from my body’s night time work off my tongue.

There are toothpastes out there that are safe to use…but I’ve gotten so used to not having any that it’s very rare I even think to use them..

Make-up:

Dr. Clark suggested I use a charcoal pencil (like you would draw with) to line my eyebrows – and pinch my cheeks if they needed colour. Mostly though, I just didn’t wear make-up until one day I happened to put some on for work and so many people made a comment about how healthy and glowing I looked that day that I decided it might be a good thing to do more often.

Mascara was a tricky one, but I’ve since found a good quality ‘safe’ one called Lavera at one of my health stores. I haven’t checked it out for safety, but since I use it so rarely it’s not a big deal either way. I also have a recipe to try making my own I just haven’t done that yet.

Simple tip #3: Taking a day off from make-up gives your body a chance to cleanse out the toxins. Go for at least one day without. Try pinching your cheeks and putting a bit of oil on your lips and perhaps doing one thing with your eyes (eyeliner or mascara, or shadow) rather than the whole deal or switch to products from different companies so your body gets a break from some of their regular ingredients.

If you are a person who would never be seen without make-up try to at least find a more natural line of mineral based products. I used those for a while and they are nice, it’s just I’ve never liked wearing foundation so I ended up going back to the au natural look.

For my lips I use Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmers which I started using back when their products were so pure you could eat them. I’m not sure if that changed with ownership, but it’s always a good idea to check if you’re concerned.

Nicki shared an app with us during her interview called Think Dirty which you can use to get an idea of how toxic different products are. They even offer links to products that rate clean with them.

I use a Norwex cloth or my home-made moisturizing oil to remove my make-up when needed.

Feminine Products:

The products we use to deal with our monthly periods are a really big problem when it comes to toxins. Unfortunately many of them are bleached to make them white, perfumed with toxic fragrance and have dangerous dioxins in them.

Because they are being used on and in a very sensitive part of our bodies for hours at a time we can absorb all of this into our body and wind up majorly increasing our toxic load on a monthly basis.

The Medical Medium, says that 80% of a woman’s energy is being used during her monthly cycle for that process alone. That means we only have 20% of our normal energy to do all the things many of us insist on doing during this time like nothing is different. If we are adding more toxins to our load during this time, we are definitely in danger of running down our bodies.

To deal with these toxins I purchased reusable pads about 17 years ago and they still work perfectly and look clean. I also bought a reusable diva cup.

Although both these pads and the cup have worked well for me over the years they are not convenient when I travel, camp or am away from home for any reason. As a result, I purchase a line of ‘clean’ disposable products called Natracare from my health food store which I use on those occasions.

I’m guessing these items are more expensive than the regular brands you buy at the store so this might be an issue for you, but because I save so much by having my reusables, it all works out.

Simple Tip #4: If natural alternatives don’t sound feasible for you, make a point of cutting down on other toxins in your life during this time. Remember it’s the full load of toxins that causes most problems, so by cutting things out in other areas of your life, you decrease your load.

It does take a bit more work to wash pads each month, but I have a system that I have perfected over the years which I find works well and keeps everything looking clean. Nothing takes out blood like hydrogen peroxide, so if you try the reusables keep that in mind.

I’m happy to share my system with anyone who wants to discuss it further, however, talking about it on a podcast that goes out to over 90 different outlets doesn’t feel like the right way to do that. So send me an email at debbie@empoweringnrg.com and I’ll give you all the goods in person. If enough people want it I’ll even write a short blog on it and make that available on my site.

Hair:

When I first read Hulda’s book I got rid of all my shampoos, conditioners, gels, sprays and other products. I switched to using borax to wash my hair and a rosemary infusion to rinse it. An infusion is made by simply putting an herb into hot water and simmering it for around 20 minutes.

The infusion actually felt wonderful on my scalp, but it was a pain to make and both the borax mix and the infusion were impossible to use when travelling.

I ended up trying a variety of natural shampoos I found at the health store and made sure to switch them up so that I wasn’t getting a common toxin from any companies bottle cleaning process.

Today, I use a shampoo made by doTERRA called protecting shampoo and their moisturizing conditioner. I only use them once a week or less and on the other days I use a one step shampoo and conditioner from Pacifica which is very pure and gentle.

I use curl control products when needed, mostly from Marc Anthony, but some are from Giovanni or 2 Chic.

Once again, I have not checked all these products out for top quality, but I know they are less toxic then many of the main stream products and feel like I’ve removed enough toxins to warrant having less frizz in my hair.

I also use Lush body washes most of the time when I shower. For many years I didn’t use any soap, just a mesh scrub cloth which worked fine, but I love the smell of the Lush products and since they are made with natural products like essential oils and honey, I enjoy using them.

I colour my own hair using a product called Herbatint which I buy a few boxes of at my health store and then mix then until I get close to my natural colour.

Simple tip #5: Notice how much product you use on your hair regularly. Try not using some on different days – especially when you are just hanging around. If you can’t go without, start reading labels and do your best to find one that works and doesn’t include known toxins.

3 other categories I want to just touch on are sunscreen, bug spray and drinking water.

I rarely wear sunscreen choosing instead to limit my time in the sun. Most days I sit outside for about ½ and hour in the morning sun and about 20 minutes at lunch. I also do my best to get out in the evening sun, but it really depends on the day.

On days when I’m outside a lot I put on a light cover, use my homemade sunscreen (which is around an SPF 8) and move in and out of the shade. I know the sun provides a lot of important and necessary health benefits and that slathering a lotion on my body just because other people have decided in their wisdom that this is best practices right now, does not fit with who I am. My body loves the sun – I can feel that and while the warnings are well intended they are based in fear and have the potential to create much bigger problems than they think they are preventing.

For bug spray, I make my own using ½ cup apple cider vinegar, ½ cup witch hazel and 40 drops of essential oils (like lavender, lemongrass, eucalyptus, rosemary, tea tree…) It doesn’t scare away all the bugs, but it’s enough to deter most of them and I still smell and feel lovely in my skin.

Finally, I just recently switched from my plastic drinking bottle to glass and do my best to avoid purchased bottles of water. Having said that my reverse osmosis water is still stored in plastic bottles so it’s possible there are still some toxins getting into me there.

Remember, when your toxin level is getting too high, problems will start to arise. You might not make the connection between what is happening for you (i.e. waking up at 3 am) and toxins, but if you keep this knowledge in mind, you can start decreasing your toxic load before going for a prescription or toxic cream to deal with it.

I think it’s really important we all start to notice the things we are doing to our bodies, to our environment, to our kids… and make sure we are doing more of the ones that strengthen us than those that weaken us. Becoming aware of your toxic load allows you to make decisions about which toxins you are willing to allow and which ones you are going to take steps to eliminate.

So take it one step at a time and decides which things you can’t live without. Remove as much as you can of those that aren’t critical for you and see how it goes. I’m amazed at the number of products that have appeared on the shelves in the 18 or so years that I’ve been doing this, and while I know they aren’t all trustworthy, I do believe those of us that are voting with our dollars are making a difference.

Listen to the podcast to hear all the stories and extra details about the tips!

Still feeling a bit overwhelmed at the idea of detoxing your life? Set up a complimentary discovery call with me and together we will brainstorm where you can start along with a longer term plan of action.