CHEMICAL FREE LIFE

Don’t give up just because you don’t see immediate results. Know that each positive choice you make is affecting you in hidden ways, and will add up to BIG change over time.

After having so many medical issues from 2006 to 2009 and having to stop working, I decided it was time to take control of my body. I started to research how our environment and what we put on and in our bodies could affect our overall health. I was shocked that no doctor had even considered this. I found information from the David Suzuki website regarding the "Dirty Dozen". You can avoid these harmful cosmetic chemicals by auditing your bathroom cupboard using this list of harmful ingredients:

• 1 -BHA and BHT

• 2 - Coal tar dyes: p-phenylenediamine and colors listed as “CI” followed by a five digit number

  3 - DEA-related ingredients

• 4 - Dibutyl phthalate

  5 - Formaldehyde-releasing preservatives

• 6 - Parabens

  7 - Parfum (a.k.a. fragrance)

• 8 - PEG compounds

  9 - Petrolatum 10 – Siloxanes 1

• 11 - Sodium laureth sulfate

• 12 – Triclosan

You can read all about these on the davidsuzuki.org website.  I remember people saying that David Suzuki was a nut case but it turns out that he wasn’t so crazy after all. It’s been proven that so many of these chemicals are causing cancer.
Could all of these chemicals that I inhaled and put in and on my body have caused my health issues? I will probably never know but I could at least try to prevent any further problems.

The first thing I did was stopped using any household cleaning products that contained chemicals, which were many. Growing up I was taught that if a product didn't smell strong then it was not cleaning or disinfecting. Products like Javex, Lysol, air fresheners, and even candles were no longer kept in our house. I only used baking soda and vinegar for cleaning. I then found some companies who were making chemical free cleaning products. I have tried several different companies but the ones I use today is doTerra, The Soap Company of Nova Scotia and Clean People (links attached at bottom of this page). It also had never dawned on me that the animals were also walking on the chemically washed floors and then licking their paws and ingesting these horrible chemicals. I'm grateful that I realized this because our dog had only been exposed to this for a year. Mind you, she came from a puppy mill, and the conditions there were terrible. Her lungs were damaged from all the smells of urine she inhaled for the first five years of her life. At least I knew that I wasn’t going to contribute to any other health issues for her in the future.

I continued to read more and tried to find chemical-free body products. It was challenging! There was little out there. I took all my make-up, shampoos, body washes, and so on and threw them all in the garbage. I found a company named Arbonne that had some great products, so that was my first experience with natural based products. I continued with Arbonne for many years until my daughter got involved with a company named doTerra, which mainly sells essential oils and some chemical-free household products. Yes, it may cost more to buy these products, but knowing that I am not putting all that crap in my body is a good feeling.

I also was more careful with my diet. I tried hard not to eat refined sugars and more fruits and vegetables. I had a lot of stomach issues. I could not digest many foods and was always nauseous, so I did not have a healthy diet. My doctor sent me to a gastroenterologist, and he passed some tests. Turned out I had gastroparesis. Gastroparesis is when you do not digest your food as quickly as normal. I was put on medication but still had problems digesting store-bought vegetables. Again, with research, I discovered that many fruits and vegetables are sprayed with sulfites. That explained why I could digest the veggies I grew in my garden. Sulfites are the most notorious of additives and have been strongly linked to causing cancer, particularly of the throat and stomach. I then decided to invest in an aeroponic garden called Tower Garden. You can grow your vegetables year round in your home. I will add the link to the Tower Garden website for more information or you can always send me a message and it would be my pleasure to explain all about it. 

Someone recommended that I start taking Juice Plus, which is a company that sells supplements. They also had these fruits and vegetables in gummy form. I decided to take them, hoping to digest them easier than the pill form. It worked! I also started taking pea and fava based protein shakes by Epicure, which had a lot of added nutrients. I still have some stomach issues but do not get sick as often as before. Over the years I also introduced Epicure food products into my diet, which are without additives, gluten free and nut free.

When Covid-19 hit and became a pandemic, I never got sick until the tail end, which was nearly 3 years. I was using other supplements like Vitamin D, Zinc, and Vitamin C, which helped to boost my immune system. I also never got the Covid shot that they forced upon everyone. This is my body, and I was not letting anyone bully me into putting something into it unless I knew it was safe. I'm happy I followed my gut feeling. I guess I was doing something right!