It’s been over a year since I’ve written a new blog post. This is mainly because it’s been the craziest year ever. That’s an understatement. Over the last year, I’ve gotten engaged, gotten married, bought and completely renovated a house, and as I write this, I’m 9 months pregnant.
I used to write about finance and fashion and while I’m still into those things, my newest interest is health/wellness. We’re allowed to have as many passions as we want ok.
I’ve always been pretty healthy but never made it through a winter, let alone an entire year without catching so much as a cold. I finally caught a little bug this month after not being sick for over a year (April 2023-May 2024). During that time, my husband got sick a couple of times and despite close living proximity, I didn’t catch what he had. I also tend to get sick when I am stressed out but I miraculously made it through wedding planning and a home reno/living with the inlaws without getting a case of the sniffles.
I believe that I am healthier than ever as a result of the many small changes I’ve made over the past few years to live a more non-toxic lifestyle. Here are some of them:
1. Drink filtered water
Investing in a high-quality water filter might be the most important change you can make, especially if you live in a city. Milwaukee’s water comes from filtered sewage. 💩 City water contains hundreds of toxic chemicals, pesticides, fluoride, and pharmaceutical drugs. Flouride is the hardest to filter out and only a select amount of filters will get rid of it. But I think it’s really important to get rid of the fluoride. I did a lot of research on water filters and decided on ProOne. I have this filter. You might have different needs depending on where you live or what your household looks like though. Here are a couple of resources:
- I found this article comparing filters very helpful.
- Enter your zip code and find out what’s in your water.
2. Get morning sunlight every day and spend more time outside
I heard recently that up until very recently, humans used to spend 70% of their time outside. Now, we spend 70+% of our time indoors. I still have to work on this but I’ve made progress. At the very least, I spend about 15 minutes outside first thing in the morning after breakfast. There are major health benefits to getting even just 5 minutes of unfiltered light (it doesn’t even have to be sunshine) before 10 AM. It’s supposed to help your immune system and sleep. I find the fresh air therapeutic. So every morning, I bundle up in my robe and blanket and drink my coffee outside on our back deck. I do a little reading too. No screens! Unless it’s super windy or raining, I’m out there. Even in the middle of winter. Even if it’s snowing a little. You can do it too!
3. Switch to non-toxic beauty, skincare, and household products
There is so much crap in products that we use every day. Learning about different ingredients is a process but a great start would be to avoid anything that contains artificial fragrance. If you see “fragrance” in an ingredient list, it could be made with over 3,000 different chemicals. It’s a major hormone disrupter and is found in everything from body wash to laundry detergent. I search for products on the EWG database (there’s an app too).
4. Drink raw milk
Raw milk has amazing health benefits and you might be able to tolerate it even if traditional dairy doesn’t agree with you. Raw milk contains probiotics, lots of trace minerals, and has more protein than pasteurized milk. Pasteurization (heating) kills all of the good bacteria in milk, making it harder to digest. If you’re worried about the safety of raw milk, take a look at this post. If you live in Wisconsin, I get our raw milk from Grassway Organics. I have been drinking a glass every day for my entire pregnancy. I either pour it over ice and add a little vanilla extract or put it in a smoothie.
5. Eat mostly organic
200 years ago, everything was organic. Now we have to pay extra to not have cancer-causing chemicals sprayed on our food. I think buying as much organic food as you can is important. Something you may not know is that organic means something different for produce, meat, and processed food. Organic produce is grown without pesticides, GMOs, or sewage sludge (eeeewww), plus some other stuff. Organic meat means no antibiotics or hormones. Organic processed foods (like packaged snacks) mean no artificial flavors, MSG, GMOs, high fructose corn syrup, and more. By no means are all snacks that are labeled organic healthy but at least you can know that they don’t have any of these harmful ingredients.
Food for thought: Anything not organic very likely contains glyphosate (found in Roundup weed killer) which has been linked to cancer. Bayer paid $10.9 billion to settle 100,000 lawsuits involving the weed killer. The company still faces about 50,000 Roundup-related claims.
6. Eliminate most processed foods
There are a few great brands that we buy snacks from (try Siete chips and cookies) but I make as much as possible from scratch so I know exactly what’s in it. I’ve been on a baking kick during my pregnancy.
7. Eliminate seed oils
I find it’s easier to remember what the GOOD cooking oils are: olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, butter, tallow, ghee. I use avocado oil most often in recipes as it has a neutral taste.
8. Eat mostly at home
Going out to eat is fun sometimes but the reality is that 99% of restaurants cook with everything in highly toxic seed oils. Cooking at home is better for your health and your wallet. We eat out so little that I find when I do eat at a restaurant, I often feel bloated or sick after.
9. Eat more beef and take beef liver supplements
Just about everything you would find in a typical prenatal vitamin is also found in beef liver. That’s crazy to me! Recently, I have been using this organ seasoning when cooking. You can’t taste it at all and it’s an easy way to get extra nutrients.
10. Get rid of all non-stick cookware
We use cast iron and stainless steel instead. If you want to learn more about the dangers of non-stick chemicals, I highly recommend watching the movie Dark Waters. It has Anne Hathaway in it!
11. Switch from plastic to glass for food storage
“BPA-free” plastic is still toxic. There are lots of other chemicals in plastic that are just as harmful as BPA. BPA is just the only one that suffered from a bad P.R. campaign so companies were forced to remove it. In addition to not leeching chemicals into your food, glass is just nicer to use. Healthy and makes you feel fancy. ☺️
12. Drink a shot of purified seawater in the morning
Probably the weirdest item on this list. I was very much convinced to start drinking one of these little glass vials each morning after listening to this podcast.
13. Switch to unrefined mineral salt for cooking
Did you know that salt is a health food? Real, unrefined salt that is. Traditional table salt is highly processed, bleached, and stripped of all minerals. Unrefined salt has trace minerals like magnesium, electrolytes, and many health benefits. You can use as much as you want! I use Redmond Real Salt. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I haven’t had any swelling during pregnancy. My wedding rings still fit!
14. Quit hormonal birth control
I quit birth control pills about three years ago after being on them for more than a decade. I’m not exaggerating when I say I felt like a different person after quitting. My skin also cleared up, my periods became regular again, and I stopped getting random UTIs. Before getting pregnant, I used Natural Cycles. It’s a natural birth control method that is FDA-approved. Look into it!
It took me a really really long time to achieve this level of crunchy. I’ve been making just one or two small changes per month for the last few years. Each little swap adds up. I think it’s important to make just one change at a time so you don’t become overwhelmed.
