Making the decision to start a healthy lifestyle is usually met with some resistance. Whether it’s your family not wanting to give up their favorite sweets or the budget not being happy with the cost of organic produce, healthy lifestyle choices can come with a whirlwind of overwhelm and quite frankly, it’s hard to get started! But with that said, I am excited to share with you three actionable steps to start your healthy lifestyle transition, and how to keep from getting overwhelmed like I did in the beginning.
When you think about “healthy lifestyle” what are those buzz words we see plastered everywhere? No SLS! No Parabens! No Dyes! Avoid “natural flavors”! Don’t eat meat! (Spoiler, I’m not a vegetarian but there’s a lot of interesting evidence out there to support this lifestyle.) Once I opened the health box, I was so overwhelmed by all of the do’s and don’ts that I went through periods where I couldn’t handle the stress of making the best choice all of the time.
So eventually, I came to the point where I had to accept two things.
I had to start a healthy lifestyle with small steps.
I decided that if I was going to actually make a change to my life, I’d have to do it increments. Take one step at a time before moving to the next thing. This seems so obvious but I had tried to make leaps and bounds when I first started. The result? Feeling inadequate to provide for my family, both physically and financially, and thinking that I would never be able to live confidently in my home. Resolving to make just one change at a time was the key to unlocking this block.
I had to choose to ignore all of the information and focus on the step I was in rather than the step I thought I should be in. So I started tackling one area at a time. In my case, I started with nutrition. But this meant I chose to keep using my Dawn dish soap, my Pine Sol, and even my Dove body soap until I was ready to work in those areas. Trying to do it all at will leave you overwhelmed, confused, and undoubtedly broke. I’m here to tell you that it will take time to learn and truly change your lifestyle. And this is OK! And it is so worth it.
Which brings us to the second thing I had to accept.
There were going to be failures as I began to start a healthy lifestyle
There have been so many times I have tried a new recipe or brought home a new product, and then it didn’t work or worse, the kids wouldn’t touch it (feel me on that one?). When this happens, it’s OK to reflect and say, “Nope, not doing that one again” or “We’ll come back to this later” and just move on! Give yourself grace and make changes slowly.
So start with one thing at a time and then give yourself grace when it doesn’t go perfectly as planned! You get to try again!
Now for the actionable stuff, the shopping list stuff, the step-by-steps, the actual things to to do start a healthy lifestyle! There are three big areas that I like to focus on. Nutrition, Skin Care, and Cleaning Supplies. There’s a lot to unpack with each of these but for the purposes of keeping it bite size, I’ll give you what I think is the easiest to do first.
Nutrition: Start simple by switching out easy to find organic produce.
My health journey actually started with nutrition. When my husband and I lived in California, I had access to new food options that weren’t so convenient in rural North Carolina. It was during this time that I began trying new recipes that fueled our bodies and tasted delicious! I didn’t start by trashing everything in my pantry and shopping at whole foods. We actually didn’t have a whole foods within an hour and half! But the commissary on base did offer some organic options.
When you start looking at organic eating, brace yourself for a flood of good and bad advice. After some hard lessons, I now take information in bite-size pieces. If you try to learn everything you can about organic food, vegetarian or vegan diets, or even the effects that certain foods can have on your body, you run the risk of beginning to fear food. I did. Once I learned about pesticides and the “dirty dozen” I was hesitant to buy food that wasn’t certified organic for fear that I would wake up with cancer the next day. At face value, knowledge of toxicity in your foods is helpful. But there’s a very large mental component to starting a healthy lifestyle where you can’t allow yourself to stress over every little thing. Take it in bite-size pieces and be ok not changing everything at once. Let me reiterate.
You have to be ok with a slow transition. Take it one bite at a time.
So for anyone who’s ready to start improving their health at mealtimes, start with this. Take a look at the produce you use every week, for us it is apples, bananas, and broccoli, and just switch these for organic options. Most likely your grocer will have these readily available. Try this for a few weeks until you are comfortable buying these items. By that, I mean you don’t hesitate at the increased price when you put them in your cart. Only then, once it’s second nature to purchase these, should you start expanding.
It took two to three years of learning what produce was safe and what to avoid before I started considering removing ingredients from our diets like vegetable oils and gluten. A slow transition like this will also help your family remain comfortable as well. Nothing stirs the pot like a three year old demanding dino nuggets…We still do dino nuggets!
Skin Care – What is going to be convenient?
Switching out products that we use on our skin can come with some unique challenges. Unlike organic produce, truly healthy products can be a little harder to find. It takes a lot of label reading to get this down pat and even then, finding something that doesn’t contain sulfates or silicone is a miracle. Thankfully we have a local health store with many options in this department but if you don’t have access to a good store like ours, start by switching out something that is convenient for you.
One of the first things that comes to mind is trying goat milk soap. Goat Milk soap is usually artisan made and has ingredients like Ph balancing goat milk & essential oils. The variety of fragrances in these soaps is broad and they leave my skin feeling and smelling amazing! Just one shower with a commercial bar of soap will leave me running for the closest lotion bottle but not so much with goat milk soap. Just like with organics, switching out your soap first may help your family transition to other products down the road.
Some in our household suffer from psoriasis and using goat milk soap in conjunction with our favorite lotion has, for the first time ever, reduced inflammation! When I heard the words “I think my skin really likes this,” I was happier than ever. That was a huge victory!
PS. If you want the best artisan soap, my friend Grace at Jessup Ranch Soaps has an amazing collection of fragrances and they are wonderful!!
If you don’t have any local soap makers, you could also consider trying an aluminum-fee deodorant like Native or Jason. These brands are actually available in your walmarts. My favorite deodorant though, is by a brand called Primally Pure. This was the first all natural deodorant that actually worked for me. I’m serious. No pit smell at all. If you’d like to try a feminine smell you could do their Blue Tansy. If you prefer a neutral fragrance, they also offer Charcoal and Tea Tree. My husband tried mine once and immediately ordered the Tea Tree for himself. Absolutely worth it.
EDIT: Since writing this, I have started using a potassium alum stone and it works better than anything else I’ve ever used! Here’s a link to the one I’m using: Thai Crystal Deoderant. I’ve also written a post about how natural deodorants didn’t work for me until I started making a slower transition.
Just because I’m so passionate about skin care, here’s a whole list of more of my favorite products to use. I’ll have a full post dedicated to each in time to come.
- My Favorite Goat Milk Soap – Lavendar-Mint from Zum
- My Favorite Lotion (I’m starting to see this brand in grocery stores!) – Andalou
- My Favorite Oil Based Cleanser – Primally Pure (this link gets you $10 off $50)
- My Favorite Organic Makeup Line – Toupes & Co (this link gets you $5 off)
- Toupes & Co Sunscreen ($5 off link)
- Doterra Sunscreen
Cleaning Chemicals in the Home.
This is one of the toughest sections to tackle, mainly because cleaning supplies can get so expensive. It’s tempting to pay $4 for Dawn dish soap when a non-toxic dish soap starts at $9. But it will be worth it when you’re ready to take the step. This was the latest area I have begun to tackle and it isn’t easy. My best tip here is to look at what you use a lot of and see if there are any DIY alternatives. If not, look for a product that is meant to be diluted.
One of my favorite products is an all-surface cleaner made by an Amish company that is good for cleaning counters as well as floors. It is meant to be diluted so that $9 will go a long way. If you want to look into a few more Zum products, they also have a plant-based laundry detergent. I’m looking forward to trying it soon!
At the time of writing this, I’m early in this transition so I can’t wait to learn more and start using healthy products with less harmful chemicals. I’m particularly curious about the strength of vinegar as well as the antiviral properties of certain essential oils! But even here I’m taking it one day at a time, finding the best solution before moving onto the next thing!
So yeah, choosing to start a healthy lifestyle can be daunting. But if you want to make it as painless as possible…keep it painless. The amazing thing I discovered is that once our family got used to one small change, the next step was so much easier. Give it some time and before you know it, people will be asking you for advice…that’s what happened to me!
Now I just spent all this time talking about starting a healthy lifestyle, don’t forget your environment can play a huge part in your stress levels as well. Stress is a major health factor, in case you’ve missed that over the years. I just finished up a post on finding contentment in tiny living and if your home is stressing you out just a smidge, it’s worth a quick read.
Until next time, keep it simple.
Want more? Check out my 5 simple resolutions to start a healthier new year!
