#SwitchToSafer

Let’s get started!!

(Note: This post is the first of an e-course on learning about how to clean up our homes from toxic substances.
Click here to join!)

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Links for Specific Individual Posts

Switch to Safer Change Outs

All Purpose Cleaner: Thieves Household Cleaner

Laundry Solutions

Produce Solutions

Taking Care of the Dishes

Cleaning Your Hands

Cleaning up your Mouth

Lotions and Deodorant

Cleaning up as you Clean up in the Shower

Room Fresheners

Perfume

Skin Care

Cosmetics

Fun in the Sun

Did you know that the average household contains around 62 toxic chemicals. SIXTY-TWO!!

It is time to step it up. To take our own education about what is out in the world and what we use to the next level.

Our homes aren’t toxin-free. And the chemicals that are in many of our everyday products here in the US are incredibly scary.

To be honest, I chose not to look at it for awhile. My husband and I made many changes when our kids were born with safer products that directly affected them, but I liked my skin care routine and my make up and my sunscreen. I didn’t want to change it so I chose not to look at it.

But at what cost?

These chemicals found in our everyday products have been known to:

1. Disrupt the endocrine system: Infertility is at an all-time high here in the US and girls are starting their cycles younger and younger. Endrogenic toxins also increase histamine levels in the body which affect allergies.
2. Affect our cellular health – even rewriting DNA
3. Reduce mental clarity: 1 in 150 children had ADD & ADHD 10 years ago. Now it is 1 in 50.
4. Reduce our focus: Brain fog anyone?
5. Increase allergies
6. Harm our respiratory health
7. Reduce our energy levels

And I wish that was all! Scary, isn’t it?

Did you know…

• In 1976, the Toxic Control Substance Act grandfathered in over 70,000 chemicals approved to use in the US and over 65,000 of those are considered hazardous to your health.

• AND Toxic Labeling Requirements are mandatory only if 50% of the animals tested die.

• The European government has banned 1,300 times more chemicals than the U.S. TIMES, chemicals that are used in our everyday products.

Did you also know…

• Our skin is our largest organ – about 20 square feet! It is responsible for 1/4 of the body’s daily detoxification.
• Skin is highly absorbent. In fact of all the ways to get things into our body – mouth, nose and skin – it is the only access path without any filters. What we put on our skin goes right into our blood stream and liver. (Includes: personal care products and cleaners and anything in the air that lands on our skin.)
• Our skin is also our body’s thinnest organ. Only 1/10th of an inch separates our delicate organs from all sorts of toxins, many of which have estrogen-mimicking effects that can destroy all of our good health intentions.

Once you start learning these things, you want to make changes!
And we want to help you.

Initially it was frustrating to learn that there is so little regulation here in the US. But then I realized, I can simply educate myself and make the changes I need to make AND I can educate YOU to make changes, too!

Let’s get started:

Set your intention to begin stepping into safer products. It might mean letting go of something you really like. (I found it much easier to let go of something I liked when I learned about the toxins in it!)

Get your tools in order:

1. Download the Environmental Working Group’s app: EWG’s Healthy Living. (It used to be called Skin Deep – It is easier to search for it in your app store under this name but it is called Healthy Living now.) This app is the perfect go to when you aren’t sure about a product. (You can also use it to look up food products to check the safety.)  The app gives ratings on a scale from 1-10, 1 being safe and 10 highly toxic.
2. Add the EWG.org database to your Bookmarks. (While the app is good, the database is much more complete. You’ll be able to look up individual ingredients, too. (If you want to start checking your Young Living products, here is where you do it. Young Living products aren’t in the app, but the ingredients can be found in the database.) And each item receives the rating from 1-10 and also lets you know how much information and research is available on that item.
3. Finally begin perusing the info on EWG.org. Good stuff is there!
4. Scroll down and sign up for the emails we will be sending out. You will receive 15, 15 days in a row, starting on August 20. Each one will be a product area. Save them in a folder so you can go back to them, one at a time, when you are ready to learn about that product. The emails will also send out the schedule and reminders so they will help you stay on track.

Ready? Let’s get you “cleaned up”!