The First Three Steps to Creating a Toxin Free Life You Actually Love

THE DETOX DILEMMA

Nov 6

Written By

Taking control of your health should not be a competitive endeavor. We're not out here trying to win a game. I don't believe in extremes or making anyone feel bad about their choices. Instead, let's embrace a toxin-free-ish approach, where every small step makes a significant difference.

The internet is packed full of tips and tricks to detox your life. But if you try to do it all at once, you're going to spend a TON of money and stress yourself out so much that it will all be futile. So today, I'm going to tell you exactly what I would do if I went back in time and started this journey from scratch. We'll be going over the first three steps I would take towards a toxin-free-ish life!

You'll also get a sneak peek into my course 'Toxin Free in 3', so if you've been curious about what it's like inside, you won't want to miss this! By the end of this episode, I hope you'll be inspired to make small, manageable changes that can have a big impact on your health and the health of our planet. Let's embark on this toxin-free-ish journey together!

In this episode, I discuss:

Why it's important to take one small step at a time
The first three steps I would take on this journey
- Ditching fragrance in the home
- Swapping out harmful cleaning products
- Finding a clean laundry detergent

Every Bit Helps

Let’s start by saying you don't have to give it all up. Any little bit helps. Any toxin, product, brand, or swap you make in your home is a step in the right direction, and it is worthwhile. You don't have to go around your house with a trash bag and literally throw away everything in your home that you have now figured out is admitting toxic chemicals and then spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on all new products for it to matter.

I did not create my business to scare people. I created my business to be a place of education and awareness, not through shaming or judging, which I feel happens a lot. My motto is ‘we don't do fear… we do facts, and we do fun.’ Getting rid of toxins in your house should be joyful, and it should be freeing!

3 Steps to Toxin-Free Living

Alright, let’s get into the good stuff! These are the three steps to start your journey towards toxin-free living.

1. Eliminate Synthetic Fragrances

The first thing you should do is get rid of as much synthetic fragrance in your home as possible. I'm talking about anything in your home that you put on your body, that you have to make your home smell good, or anything else containing a synthetic fragrance. Here are a few common examples:

Febreeze room spray
Air freshener plugins
Wax melts
Scented candles
Scented location
Perfume
Fragranced trash bags
Synthetic fragrance can also be hidden in things like your cosmetics, skincare, laundry detergent, and hair care products

What's wrong with these synthetic fragrances? There is a very good chance they contain a class of chemicals called phthalates. These phthalates stick to that fragrance, and they make them long lasting. Whenever you use something and hours later, you can still smell it, that's how you know there are phthalates in there. Phthalates are known endocrine disruptors. They have a similar shape to estrogen in our bodies. When they get into our bodies, they can block or mimic our estrogen and that disruption of our hormones leads to a whole host of health issues, like endometriosis, thyroid issues, infertility and even breast cancer.

Natural fragrances like essential oils, plants, bark, leaves, citrus, or fruit will dissipate fairly quickly and the smell doesn't stick around for a long time. So if you're using something and the smell sticks around for a really long time, you know there are likely toxins in there.

Rather that purchasing endocrine disrupting fragrance and products, do this instead. Use pure essential oils in a diffuser on an intermittent setting for home fragrance that last all day and choose perfume and personal care products that are free of endocrine disrupting toxins.

2. Analyze Cleaning Supplies

We clean our homes with toxic chemicals. We're basically saying we don't like germs, and we want to clean the germs up, but we're going to replace those germs and expose ourselves to toxic chemicals instead. In a recently published study, scientists tested 30 cleaning products that included a mix of multipurpose and glass cleaners, as well as air fresheners.

The analysis detected 530 unique VOCs, including 193 with the potential to cause health harms such as respiratory system damage, increased cancer risk and developmental and reproductive problems.

That's probably what you're cleaning your house with! The fragrance-free options scored significantly better and safer in this study. That doesn't surprise me because fragrances, which we just talked about, have phthalates in them. By choosing fragrance-free, you're automatically taking away a significant amount of harmful ingredients.

You don’t need toxins to clean your house, there are some really fantastic toxin free cleaners on the market now that actually work!

3. Ditch the Detergent

Switching your laundry detergent takes a little bit of a mindset shift. A lot of people don't think laundry detergent is something that they need to be super concerned about, but it’s actually one of the things that you should be the most concerned about. When you wash your clothes in laundry detergent, especially if there is any kind of fabric softener involved, a lot of chemicals are left over. They're all not just washed away in the wash. They attach themselves to your clothing, sheets, and towels that you use every day and then are absorbed in to your skin when you wear them and sleep on them.

Fragrance is one of the biggest culprits in laundry detergent, but there are other issues as well. Most laundry detergents contain ethoxylated ingredients, which leave cancer-causing contaminants behind. What you wash your clothing with matters so much.

I promise you, shopping for toxin free laundry products isn’t as difficult as you think it is!

There are you have it.. 3 very simple steps towards a lower tox life. Want to dig a little deeper? You can download my free ebook, Tossing the Toxins and shop for all your toxin free products on my Toxin Free Shopping Guide.