Sustainable Low Tox Living

We will explore practical steps to reduce toxins in your everyday life. Learn about cleaner, greener alternatives for your home, personal care, and food. Discover how to create a healthier environment for you and your family with simple, sustainable changes. Whether you're just starting your low-tox journey or looking to deepen your knowledge, this event offers valuable insights and actionable tips.

Transcript

Welcome to the Wild Becoming podcast,

Hosted by Amanda,

An epidemiologist sharing conscious living based in science,

Spirit,

And nature.

In this sanctuary of knowledge,

We blend the robust foundation of scientific truth with wisdom woven by diverse communities,

Disciplines,

And niches across the globe,

Simplifying the intricate patterns of our world.

So let's dive right in.

Today,

We're talking about low-tox living.

Low-tox living is all about making conscious choices,

Reducing harmful substances that you and your family are exposed to in everyday life,

And also involves opting for maybe more natural or safer alternatives that promote your health and well-being.

I'd say we have to be a little bit careful with that because we're not going to go entirely natural only,

Even the fruits and vegetables that we eat this day aren't the same fruits and vegetables that were from long ago,

They've been modified in different ways because as a society we know that certain things sells and we're not going to completely get away from that.

But sometimes we can opt for safer alternatives so we're going to talk a little bit about that but we're going to talk about it in a really balanced way so that we have options and we can strive for different options where possible but also remembering that the world that we live in today,

This day and age.

For example,

In certain cases disinfectants are necessary to eliminate harmful bacteria and viruses and are more important to use than say a natural cleaner in a certain instance.

And so we know that if we didn't use a disinfectant,

For example,

We would be,

You know,

Perhaps further causing,

You know,

Outbreaks or,

You know,

Causing ourselves to get ill,

Physically ill from the bacteria and viruses that live on surfaces or in healthcare settings or in other types of settings that are really important like the kitchen.

And so we know that while certain disinfectants have been targeted as like toxic products,

We have to be reasonable here and so we know that low-tox living offers us health benefits so we know that when we reduce our exposure to toxins we can improve our physical health,

We can enhance our mental clarity,

We can even support our emotional stability because we just generally feel better.

In terms of the environment,

We also know that natural and eco-friendly products help to protect the environment.

They help to promote that sustainability and reduce pollution which we're all moving towards given the state of the world.

And then from a spiritual perspective,

We know that living cleaner in a more natural environment more aligned with our more natural self or spirit can enhance our spiritual practices in creating a more harmonious and peaceful living space.

It also helps to optimize the feng shui of our spaces.

I'm sure many of you have noticed that when there's a really strong smell in the room like a scented product or an air freshener,

We notice and sometimes it's not necessarily in a good way but we also notice the difference and the nourishment that we get from a fresh air coming through our homes or when we're in a different setting.

One thing I will say is it's really important before we kind of get into the details of it all that it doesn't mean perfection and sometimes we,

You know,

Go out of these guidelines for experience purposes.

Sometimes we have to like I was talking about the disinfectants and I still want to mention that full disclosure,

I still enjoy a good poutine at a carnival or a bag of chips.

It's more about your everyday way of life and it's a life-giving practice.

And so I want you to remember as we move through things today to kind of put it in context of not letting low-tox living be life-stripping or restrictive.

It does require discipline of course like anything else it requires discipline but not restriction to the point of misery.

It's something that you notice impacts your life over time and so you want to take it at a good steady pace.

Low-tox living can impact your energy levels in terms of what you put in your body and so that's the biggest thing I just want to preface this discussion with because we need to really drop the belief that it needs to be perfect or that it means that we can't have these fun foodie experiences or light a candle every time you know every now and again when we want that ambiance.

And the deeper shift or perspective is knowing that more is not always more and that there are different factors at play here and we have to think about having a balance when we're diving into our low-tox living journey.

That balance includes also considering how low-tox living impacts our financial well-being and maybe that means we can't implement everything we want to implement right away.

And also just knowing that our natural state is to operate at an equilibrium rather than an extreme and sometimes the pendulum needs to swing when we're learning something new and when we're growing and shifting but we can come back to that center to our equilibrium and really operate from there.

So let's talk a little bit about the body.

So on this journey we do our best to keep a balanced perspective.

It can it can really be easy to fall into the trap of making one size fit all or becoming completely anxious about the world altogether.

Low-tox living is all about having balanced choices rather than eliminating all modern conveniences which is one of the reasons why we say low-tox instead of no-tox.

On our journey we want to be sure to avoid extremes as much as we can and just really being practical and reasonable with ourselves knowing that if we can't eliminate all modern conveniences or if we try to we're really putting that stress on ourselves and be becoming really impractical.

So instead of aiming for a completely toxin-free life let's focus on making small incremental changes that reduce our overall toxic load because oftentimes one sniff of an air freshener or a splash of bleach may have little to no effect scientifically or clinically.

It's more about the cumulative effect or what we'd call the overall toxin load.

And so we can stay informed and we can act accordingly but it's important to know that everyone's journey is going to be different and there's no one size fits all.

I know as we start this journey off we can feel really angry with the state of the world like why does there even have to be toxins in the foods that I eat or our physical environment to begin with like shouldn't this be regulated from the get-go and it's totally normal and natural to feel that way.

But we can also do something about it through our lifestyle choices.

So when I started my journey I had just become pregnant with my son and my brain and my hormones were shifting and going pretty much crazy.

I was becoming hyper aware of all the toxins I was exposed to day to day and I truly did become very overwhelmed with it all.

Over time I actually did develop a more practical approach that feels really good for me and for my family but it took a little bit to get there for sure and one of the lessons that I learned was gradual change is just so important because when you try to make huge big unrealistic changes to your lifestyle it actually ends up putting so much stress on you that you might not do anything at all.

So I noticed in the beginning for example that I would avoid if I needed hand soap I would avoid buying hand soap unless I could find you know the perfect product and I slowly came to realize that this is not practical this is not ideal instead why don't I make shifts as you know as it as possible right.

So instead of forcing myself to make a shift just making finding that peace being informed and then making small shifts one change at a time and you know looking for those opportunities and understanding the research behind it but not you know forcing myself to be perfect at it basically.

Over time I became way more grounded in my low tox living journey and so this began to look like if I was looking for a cleaner or detergent for example I was swapping out once the one I had before was done and I had a replacement for it.

I noticed that there were certain brands that were just cleaner in general which helped a lot as well because I feel like in the beginning you're kind of looking at all the ingredients and you're like nope this won't work because of this or this won't work because of this but then you kind of come back to just a little bit of being realistic with what's out there right now and I was able to find a more eco-friendly brand in general that was good for the environment that I didn't suspect of greenwashing or kind of pretending that it was good for the environment and also really good to have in my home and to be exposed to whether that be day to day or reasonably infrequently.

And so time is definitely a factor in the low tox journey just to get informed to start to recognize you know which what labels are an absolute like no I don't want to have that in a product that I'm using and to trust and start making shifts and investing and also making shifts that are sustainable for you whether that's financially whether that's you know you want to make sure that the product itself is sustainable and it's readily available at your local grocery store for example.

And so things did become they did start to become easier when I was out shopping for groceries and all of that great stuff but at first it was definitely you know not not easy and I was and that's because I was more I was a beginner and I was I was in the research phase and I was in that phase of becoming informed and becoming empowered to make those decisions where growing up I wasn't really taught to look at labels and I I think that that's probably the case for most of us.

I also aimed for better than versus perfect so I think that that piece is really really important and where I could be choosing more natural or organic over conventional I did but again sustainability also usually involves money and so if I did a lot of swaps the week before or was buying a lot more organic produce I was spending less in other areas and maybe holding off on things that were not as critical for example.

When I was pregnant I prioritized more like what I was putting in my body than anything else but I think the biggest thing is just it's a journey of small manageable steps towards a cleaner more conscious lifestyle.

A few other practical things I did was I started to swap out chemical cleaners for more natural options.

I started using refillable spray bottles and filling them up with vinegar lemon and cleaning soap to clean surfaces but again I made sure that I was really balanced in my approach so I still use disinfectants because I think it's really important if raw meat has touched a surface we know that you know within the meat industry for example things are are not how they used to be and so you know the chances of salmonella might actually be higher and so we can't just kind of go back to the stone ages and only use natural products because the way of the world has shifted and so again I balance this so I may not use a disinfectant every day but I tend to look at you know when is it most appropriate or you know once a week for example.

So no hard and fast boycotts because you have to really balance protecting yourself against infection and also reducing your toxic load.

So I reduced my toxic load in the other thing I would say is my personal care products such as beauty products.

This included deodorant,

Shampoo,

Toothpaste,

Looking for more natural products with fewer ingredients was kind of my go-to but again they were it was never really perfect.

I also checked and became more informed of what the ingredients actually were because in order for products to stay you know viable without without cultivating bacteria it does have to have certain things in it and so kind of what was like a no go for me like consistently kind of I began to become more informed about what that actually looked like for me.

So at the beginning it started with fragrances so I had I kind of stopped using fragrances and that was kind of like my big overarching thing and then I had the clean beauty app where I would scan product codes and it would tell me what was in it and like I was saying it wasn't always perfect and so sometimes I'd find products from brands that I trusted but there would be a preservative in it like I mentioned and after a while you just really get to know what you'll tolerate in your products and what you won't and since I was reducing my toxic load in many other areas I learned to just let things slide or go without within reason of course and so this process definitely has the potential to turn you into more of a minimalist which is really nice because I think sometimes it's more about you know more is not more and coming back to our equilibrium sometimes is becoming more minimalist and realizing like we really don't need all of that.

The other big thing in our home was plastic reduction and so this doesn't mean that we're completely plastic free but we use plastic products for certain things sometimes it's not it's not just about use it's about how you're using it and so we know for example plastic tends to hurt our earth so we do our best to reduce it overall but when you consider when it's actually bad for your health it's like heating it up and things like that and so the top three things for us are using glass containers for lunches where possible for us adults and stainless steel for kids,

Opting for stainless steel water bottles so that we're drinking out of stainless steel or glassware versus plastic and importantly not warming it up when we want to eat lunch.

The other typical thing that we're doing is reducing plastic by reducing our use of plastic bags as most of us are doing.

The world is shifting and changing and we notice that right like plastic bags aren't as readily available in grocery stores and things like that anymore and so we are all kind of moving in that direction but I'd say that there's still lots for us to learn and particularly as it relates to our body and so we want to reduce our toxic load day-to-day in our homes and in our physical environments our bodies are also another important consideration but the other important thing to consider is that our bodies are already made to cleanse on their own as well and so our body is constantly taking action to cleanse,

Get good sleep,

Reduce exposure to toxins by you know it's regular processes that it goes through every single day particularly when we're sleeping but I'd say that we can continue to prioritize this and work alongside our body by prioritizing sleep,

Reducing our exposure to the dirty dozen which is a really good thing to Google if you want to reduce your exposure to toxins in the fruit and veg that you eat and kind of what fruit you can prioritize buying organic if that's something that's important to you but again with prices of food let it be imperfect or you're basically contradicting all of the hard work you're doing because stress is also a very toxic factor and so we don't want to stress ourselves by thinking that it needs to be perfect.

The other super simple thing is drinking water also helps a lot of these processes these cleansing processes in our body and so by drinking water you're also helping to remove the toxic load.

Drinking water basically helps your kidneys efficiently filter and remove waste products and toxins from your blood and then they're excreted through your urine every day and so proper hydration really ensures that these processes take place and also ensures proper digestion and that your organs are functioning optimally which is really important for the process too and so it's recommended that we drink two liters a day but it's also you know this is this is not a one-size-fits-all and so you can calculate your hydration needs or connect with your doctor about it another great person if you're someone who has medical concerns or other things that you need to consider but they say that you want to drink about half your body weight.

So as an example based on my body weight I aim to drink about 1.

6 liters a day which again is an imperfect science I don't sit there measuring 1.

6 liters a day but I know for example that this is about four glasses of my regular 16 ounce glass that I drink out of.

I love to start my day with a 16 ounce glass of lemon or lime water and I tend to do this before I put any caffeine in my body including tea or coffee and I've been doing this for about four years and I can honestly feel the energetic impacts that it's had on my on my brain and my body in terms of just having more energy feeling good you want to feel good when you're moving through your day and yeah so I've been more hydrated and more energized so highly highly recommend and I think that that really brings us to the end here so I hope you have the most beautiful day.