5 Steps to a More Natural Lifestyle

Any improvements you make to living a more natural lifestyle are steps in the right direction.  I am nowhere near perfect myself, but I started by making small changes. 

Here are my top 5 changes to a more natural lifestyle

1.  Eliminate plastics! Take inventory of the plastic you have that are used in your kitchen.  Especially those which you heat or freeze and get rid of them! Do you want toxins with your food? I would guess not.  Replace the plastic with glass or stainless steel.  I am a big fan of Pyrex but another cheaper alternative is mason jars.  I use mason jars to store nuts, flours, chia seeds, fresh fruit and the list goes on. Pick up a glass storage container every time you are out shopping . They will add up and your cabinets will be full of non-toxic glass containers that will last much longer than those nasty toxic plastic containers.   

2.  Replace toxic (non-stick) cookware with much safer alternatives such as cast iron and ceramic cookware.  It has been proven the non-stick coating on cookware breaks down over time which in turn emits multiple toxic gasses into the air.  Appetizing? Ya, not so much.  I recently found these awesome alternatives on Amazon and am quite pleased with how they have been working out. Check out Lodge Cast Iron and Wearever Ceramic Cookware.  Stainless steel cookware is another option to look into.  I cant live without my Wolfgang Puck chicken fryer.

3.  Personal care products in the US are minimally regulated which should cause you great concern.  You really need to be your own "police" when it comes to what you use in terms of personal care products.  Your personal care products are full of chemicals.  A solution?  Make your own! The Internet is full of recipes to make your own personal care products. I am planning on putting together a blog post of the top chemicals to avoid when choosing personal care products.  You can also  research what you buy through websites like Skin Deep.

4.  Follow the dirty dozen and clean fifteen, organic dairy and grass fed beef when available. It is personally impossible for me to buy all organic. I do my best!  If you are looking to switch over to a more chemical free lifestyle, I would suggest following the above guidelines at the grocery store. 

5.  Avoiding fragrances at all costs. These suckers are everywhere and in the U.S. they are simply called fragrances or natural fragrances.  We all know how worthless the word "natural" is in the U.S.  The fresh rain fragrance in your dryer sheets is probably derived from petrochemicals.  More often than not fragrances contain phthalates and you can read more about them here.  It's in your best interest to avoid all products labeled with a fragrance whether "naturaly derived" or not.  The word fragrance is synonymous for loophole.  Fragrances can be found in detergents, candles, perfumes, lotions and the list goes on.  Essential oils are a great alternative to avoiding the nasty chemicals.  I use them on my dryer balls in place of dryer sheets, diffuse in place of candles or air fresheners, as perfumes, added to coconut oil as a lotion and in my bath salts.  In addition to avoiding the nasty chemicals of "fragrances" you are also benefiting from their therapeutic qualities.

What steps have you made to living a more natural lifestyle?