The lifestyle change in my last blog post that started with our diets, due to several family illnesses, (CLICK HERE), led to that snowball effect I mentioned… which became a journey for my family. Soon after we corrected some of our dietary habits mentioned before, my research led me to several other concerns that had been lurking in my life. Throughout my teenage years and early adulthood, I had made mental note of several instances that would immediately irritate my sinuses and give me headaches, however, the awful thing is, is I never thought much about it. *CrAzY*; I know! I would often have a headache develop after visiting the mall, after cleaning house, when wearing clean clothes that had been washed/ dried with strong smelling detergents/ drier sheets, and when around anyone with perfume on. So my research continued in the food arena, yes, but then was lead to other concerns too, thinking maybe, just maybe there was something behind the headaches! And OH BOY the information I uncovered. sigh. 🙁
So the food journey continued… my father-in-law had suffered a heart attack and my husband was really researching heart disease. Which of course, led him to canned foods due to their sodium levels. But another recurring topic was surfacing; the fact that some canned foods have plastic. liners. (Whaaaaa??? Whyyyy???) Now here are my common sense thoughts and how my brain processed this whole plastic sitch’iation: “WHY plastic in a metal can??? Is there something about the metal can we don’t know about??? What are they not telling us? Ok, back to plastic… isn’t that made from petroleum… you know, like “black gold, Texas tea, bubbling crude” kinda oil? And ohhh, but wait, I have noticed the headaches occur when I open new plastic storage containers (we were moving and unpacking at the time)… why is it, that when I deal with these plastic containers, they STINK to high heavens and I instantly receive a headache? Something isn’t right about that! Amiright?!!! ” And the list of questions that started consuming my mind just took over! This is how it happened for us; the plastic in the canned food, led to just researching plastics in general.
Canned foods with plastic liners became an issue for me that I needed to know more about (9 years ago now). And this led to MUCH research on my end, which nowadays is pretty much summed up right here in this trusted article (CLICK HERE). This article also explains why we switched our plastic food storage containers and drinkware over to glass and stainless steel. We also made sure any plastic kitchen utensils were replaced with stainless steel. I mean… WHAT is leeching out of those large plastic spoons when you stir a big pot of hot GRITS, y’all?!?!
And then let’s not even TALK about how awful the headache was that I got when dealing with new shower curtains… 9 years ago, we bought a house in TN. Naturally, I was all about perfectly outfitting every room and bathroom, right down to the shower curtain. I had my cloth curtains in place, and broke open the packaging on the plastic (sometimes referred to as vinyl) curtain and the off-gassing of chemicals was unbelievable! Cue the aforementioned headache. ughhhh. Now, because I’m all about NOT re-inventing the wheel, here’s an awesome article that explains my thoughts EXACTLY on this topic! (CLICK HERE) And the headaches I would receive from chemical off-gassing… yep, discussed in GREAT detail, CLICK HERE. What did we switch to? Just strictly a cloth shower curtain! And I just throw it in the wash about once a month! Easy peasy.
And before I end this segment of our lifestyle change, let’s discuss the fragrance/ parfum issue. These two words literally mean nothing except “chemical cocktail of froo froo stuff to make this smell good but we’re not going to tell you *exactly* what chemicals those are”. It’s shady, and I don’t like it. And my body tells me not to like it (headaches!). This explains the headaches when I visit any mall too! #ALLTHESMELLS y’all; YIKES! And for more scientific information about fragrances, CLICK HERE!
There WILL be a third segment to my lifestyle change story, but until then, if you would like to follow a little more closely with some of the products I’ve replaced in my home with more natural alternatives, I would love for you to join my friend Katy and I (online, from your own home!), Wednesday, July 19 as we discuss some of the most common household products that we have replaced, why we did so, and what we replaced them with! Message me with your email address and I can get you the invite to join in! I look forward to working through some of this with you and helping you learn to lead your family to a better state of wellness. Naturally, this is a JOURNEY. It takes time; and educating yourself is the first step to any change! Let’s do this together y’all!!! See ya Wednesday!
