In January, I quit a 15+ year cigarette habit.
In February, I sold my tanning bed.
I have all but given up soda and I have begun excercising regulary. (Of course by regularly, I mean approx. 3x per week, but I wouldn't set my clock or calendar by my schedule.)
None of the above come anywhere close to comparing with the fact that in June I ended a 10+ year hiatus from church. (Don't judge me. It went by really fast and I had NO IDEA I had been out that long.)
I'm not sure what happened in my mind exactly, but I suddenly realized just how young my Dad was when he passed away. I also realized how fast that age was approaching for me. I have managed to do a lot of damage to my body and health over the years, but I am hoping that I can possibly reverse some of that. I would like to stick around to see Ty grow up, graduate college and possibly have a family of his own.
Anyway, the point of this little message is that with each change I have made I find myself wanting to make more. My way of thinking is changing. My desire to make healthier choices is increasing. I'm (slowly) making healthier food choices, like including more fresh fruits and veggies into my diet and choosing whole grains over processed ones.
But as with everything else I do, I don't stop with what's normal. I take everything to an extreme. (On some level I wonder if I do this purposely to make things more difficult, just so I can fail?... hmmm)
For example: After I sold my tanning bed, I bought some self-tanning spray. Before I used it, I had this hair-brained idea to research the product and it's ingredients. Wow! Was I ever surprised?! I couldn't believe how many ingredients were considered unsafe. There were CHEMICALS! Chemicals that I was preparing to rub into my skin, and allow them to penetrate and soak into my body!
So of course I didn't use the self-tanner. It has taken some getting used to, but I can almost stomach the pale reflection that looks back at me each morning. ;-)
Unfortunately, this bit of knowledge has been slowly eating away at me. I kept
Seriously, do you have any idea what is in the products that most of us use daily?? According to EWG's Skin Deep Database it's anything they want to because the government doesn't test product safety.
Scary isn't it? You can check out EWG's website by clicking here.
Let's take paraben. Paraben is a very common preservative used in cosmetics and health care products. There have been several studies that these are weakly estrogenic. When tested on the skin of infant rodents, it produced abnormal hormonal effects. Particulary to males which resulted in decreased testosterone levels. Parabens have also been found to accumulate in cancerous breast tissues.
Now where is paraben likely to be found? How about in hand lotions, shampoos, conditioners, makeup, etc.etc. It is used every where. To me one of the scariest things is that I willingly rubbed lotions all over my son as a baby. Lotions that, as I have now discovered, all contained parabens.
That is only one example of thousands.
So exactly where am I going with this? Actually I am not sure. I'm grounded enough to realize that I can't rid myself from exposure 100%, but silly enough to be thinking about making my own products.
I switched a while back to Wen Cleansing Conditioner, to eliminate subjecting my hair to harsh sulphates. I love, love, love this product by the way. I'm just wishing I could have it without the few ingredients I find a little alarming.
I'm still in the R&D part of this idea. It may come to fruition or it may not. I'll keep you posted.
Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored by Wen Hair Care. I purchased my own product and I was not compensated in any way. I am also not affiliated with Environmental Working Groups. I am just someone with opinions who likes to share them on the internet.
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