So there’s this girl I know…
She microwaves popcorn and eats the whole thing in one sitting. It kind of seems to make her cough. She doesn’t seem to wonder about that, though.
Her idea of a quick meal, is the kind where you pour the contents of a sachet into a bowl, add milk and microwave for 3 minutes 50 on high and add some chopped zucchini for the last minute.
She smokes a lot. Nearly a pack a day. She ‘really enjoys it’ so she’s not quitting anytime soon although she promised her family with some pie in the sky date in the future that she would (May 1 2005)
She has a couple of cocktails after work every night and sometimes a couple of shots of tequila too.
She drinks rum and cokes with fresh lime (Cuba Libre) – it’s a favourite in the summer
She’s on 4 different long term medications for sinus issues, contraception and migraine relief.
She gets put on antibiotics every other month for her crappy tonsils and then anti fungal medication that’s a really pretty shade of bright blue, to deal with the aftermath.
Her vices are cherry ripes, movie popcorn and maltesers. Can’t seem to say no.
Her favourite naughty chips are plain cc’s. Like, a whole ‘family’ pack.
She has a collection of over 50 perfumes. Only 9 are non synthetic and made with essential oils (Guerlain)
She has a migraine or at least one severe headache every other week and gets nervous if there isn’t any panadeine forte or mersyndol night strength in the house.
She uses rexona deodorant, has over 50 skin products in her cupboards all with parabens and petroleum and fake smells and harsh chemicals and many with sodium lauryl sulfate.
She uses a scrub with magical micro exfoliating beads – 350,000 of them in every tube. All plastic heading out to the environment. She’s pretty sure there are less wrinkles on her face because of it so she raves about it to her friends.
She has over 200 makeup items which she keeps in a 3 tiered display chest, not one of which is petroleum free, hormone-disrupting-chemical free or naturally pigmented.
She buys low fat yoghurt, low fat dressing, low fat cottage cheese, low fat crackers, fat free chocolate pudding, low fat tasty cheese, skim milk, fat free marshmallows and breakfast shake poppers all of which are highly processed and most of which are laden with additives.
She’s not sure why she gets so sick all the time and needs to pop so many painkillers and cold and flu tablets.
She poops hardly ever so she takes something to sort that out.
She gets the runs every time she eats a big breakfast in a cafe, but can’t figure out why. So she takes something for that too.
She uses febreeze for her hospitality uniform and fabric softener to make everything super soft and smell ‘yummy’.
She’s really thin, so she must be pretty healthy, right?
“She” is actually me, aged 26.
While you can’t choose a different past, you can always rewrite the rest of the book. I don’t have or do a single thing on this list anymore. I don’t long for any of it either – especially not the ill health parts. Slow and steady wins the race. Do the work to truly understand how something doesn’t serve you and it will fall off your tree and feel quite natural that it go.
This 26 year old girl was about to meet her naturopath during a health crisis of a triple round of super heavy antibiotics that weren’t killing her strep throat, and the year after that, the love of her life that would be strong enough to quit smoking alongside her, clean up their food, go low tox and start a family – All on a peanuts budget might I add (as in not much cash, not actually just eating peanuts. Although yum, I love peanuts. Ok… tangent over. Focus.).
So, if you’ve just started on this journey, you have to start somewhere. I did. There is no failing. There’s only doing a little better as you learn better. There is no judgement here. Only support to get you to the next stage of your journey towards the low tox life. There is no worry about what happens the odd time. There’s just a focus towards awesomeness in what we do most of the time.
You will become a better and better detective as time goes on. You will find beautiful, authentic products and shops that you can trust and you will so love the peace that you find from knowing where your dollars are going.
There will always be someone who knows more than you. There will always be someone who knows less.
The invitation is always extended here if you’re ready to take a new little step.
There will never be judgement or eye rolls.
The thing is, I often think that people who have come from a mess can serve the world beautifully when we make that mess our message. I see it all the time in inspirational friends who’ve come from messy pasts.
Thanks for being here and if you’re a low tox lifer and have been for a while – thanks for being one of the peeps that help newbies along. You are so important and valued as you show support to others along their way.
Here’s to the low tox life and watch out for Sunday starter series – A little something for the newbies to the low tox journey, every Sunday on the blog, freshly pressed!
In the meantime you could read about what I do on my ‘odd times’ with 10 things I sometimes eat that aren’t wholefood organic.
And then there’s these that I wrote when I first started my blog. Here and here. are 10 tips to leading a low tox life that you can get started on this week if you fancy. Your pace. your way. If you’re super keen to learn more, Go Low Tox is your answer – It’s epic and awesome and I’d love to have you there.
Or if you’re thinking: How do I break this cycle and prevent my kids from being like this at all? We have THRIVE e course on demand. Pop through here to check that one out. Very exciting!
Happy reading and journeying
