About this show:
Have you ever felt super passionate about making a change for people or planet in the low tox sphere, only for it to land like a lead brick with your kids, partner, family or friends?
Maybe you’ve joined the groups, watched the documentaries, read the books and you can’t understand why people aren’t excited to come along the ride with you…
Maybe you’re struggling to make a positive case for change…
Maybe your family members think you’re a hippy who’s overreacting, or an annoying parent or a partner just wanting to buy lots of things we don’t need, or someone trying to make everyone do more in an already busy day or someone making up problems when you could just paint over it (hellooooo the mould remediation discussion!).
Whatever it is, this week’s show, I tackle a few of the most common objections from family members across body, food and home topics, as well as talking about the best ways to encourage people around you to get on board whatever changes you know would benefit you all.
Today is about creating low toxic unity, not ‘annoying overreactor division’ as it often goes down. Has this been you?
I’d love to hear what you struggle with sometimes in getting people around you to see why it matters not just to you, but to them as well.
Enjoy the show and tag me on Instagram with your AHAs or shares @lowtoxlife
Alexx Stuart
Founder of Low Tox Life and the Low Tox movement
Join me on Insta @lowtoxlife
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Thank you to this month’s show sponsor for helping you make your low tox swaps easier:
@ausclimate continues giving 10% off their Winix Air Purifiers and Dehumidifiers at ausclimate.com.au. CODE: LOWTOXLIFE at checkout https://bit.ly/ShopAusclimate
@Biofirst with 15% off sitewide for the entire month of June – welcome to your new podcast swaps offer for one of my favourite low tox brands when it comes to skin with challenges and how frustrating it can be. CODE: LOWTOXLIFE https://bit.ly/3ydRS8T
@koalaeco gives you 25% off all of July CODE: LOWTOXLIFE. It’s a delicious range of home and personal care products using no new plastic, fake fragrances, dyes, harmful preservatives or phosphates. I’m a bit obsessed with their clothes-washing liquid, stain spray and doggy wash are all on repeat order at our house! https://bit.ly/3sOmxr1
Be sure to join me on Instagram @lowtoxlife and tag me with your shares and AHAs of this week’s episode.
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About Alexx Stuart:
Alexx Stuart is an educator and change agent who founded Low Tox Life in 2010 after seeing the lack of transparency in our food system, personal care and cleaning products. She’s built a movement that’s non-judgmental, positive and says low tox peeps are a force to be reckoned with! A columnist for Wellbeing magazine, she is also a sought-after speaker and consultant to businesses committing to change for good.
Facebook: LowToxLife
Instagram:@lowtoxlife
More about this month’s sponsors:
Thank you to this month’s sponsors for partnering with our show and helping you make your swaps with their special offer:
Ausclimate’s highly recommended range of WINIX Air Purifiers is the ideal solution for cleaner, healthier indoor air. Easy to use, reactive features and settings with a truly comprehensive 4-5 stages of purification, including Hospital Grade True HEPA Filtration and Winix’s unique PlasmaWave® technology. Perfect for smoke, dust, pets, viruses, bacteria, household odours, and allergies (covering a variety of allergens). Breathe easier, sleep better, and feel better. Winix; is the most complete air purifier on the market!
Offer: Ausclimate is now giving all Low Tox Life followers an EXTRA 10% OFF their already discounted prices. Simply enter the discount code of LOWTOXLIFE on check out via: https://www.ausclimate.com.au/
This discount can also be redeemed for over-the-phone orders verbally.
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Enjoy the help in making the skin product swaps with this month’s generous offer from Biofirst, Alexx! Anyone tried the products yet? I love using the Ultra sensitive skin rescue lotion towards the end of my luteal phase as my day/night moisturiser, and I’ve given both that one and Manuka skin saver to people as gifts with Eczema or Dermatitis skin challenges. The little self heal salve tube is a very effective first-aider too
Enjoy 15% off site-wide with your code LOWTOXLIFE and if you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments via our Facebook or Instagram.
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/koalaeco
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Title show track, by LIOR.
Love the podcast music? You will hear excerpts from Lior’s track “Caught Up” – go check it out on iTunes or Spotify if you want to hear the whole song or album, Scattered Reflections. Co-written with Cameron Deyell, it’s a great song and I love the reflective energy of it – perfect for the show, right? Enjoy. Lior is always touring, so do check out his website. It is wonderful to hear him sing live, trust me.
Low Tox Club – The place to bring your low tox life to life.
Want to join a community of like minds and enjoy all the perks of being in the Low Tox Life inner circle such as an online membership platform, 50% off all our Low Tox courses, an awesome chat group, my monthly Q&A, and special guest star interviews for just $49AUD ($29USD/28EUR/23pounds) per YEAR? We have created a special place and set of resources to help you achieve your goals and it’s a wonderful place to be – MORE DETAILS AND REGISTRATION HERE.
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If you would love reading like me or you just simply want to go through the full transcript, you can check below.
[Alexx Stuart] (0:00 – 1:04:07)If you find it sometimes a bit tricky to get the LOTOX changes you want to implement across the line with people in your circle, then today is the show for you. Hello and welcome to the LOTOX Life Podcast. I’m Alexx Stuart, your host, founder of the LOTOX movement, and today, the one and only person on this podcast. It is just me doing a solo show and I wanted to jump on because lately I’ve been having conversations with coaching clients, with members in our LOTOX club, and a lot of what we’re workshopping is how to get something across the line with various family members, with the school, with work, and while I’m not going to tackle school and work today so much in terms of those more professional conversations outside the home, I am going to be running you through 20 very typical situations of pushback, whether it be around food and kids, partners and values alignment, appliances and cost, repairs and cost, health, commitment, body products, and issues around preference and performance, skepticism.
We are looking at it all through these 20 bite-sized situations and I’m betting you are going to recognize at least a couple of them. So I’m going to hook into those in a minute and I just want to also say this is the start of this conversation because from these 20 situations, I’m pretty sure you guys are going to come out of the woodwork and share other things that you find tricky to get across the line, conversations that you find difficult to have, and I want to hear them. So when you share this show on socials, of course, always tag at lowtalkslife in Instagram stories so I can share it across too, but I want you to also share or, you know, divulge maybe something you find really tricky and everyone that shares one, everyone is in the draw to win my duo of books, both books one and two, signed by me, sent to wherever you live around the world for sharing something you’ve found tricky. Um, bonus points if something in the show today helps you. So we have a lot to cover and I have some wonderful show sponsors that help you with your low-tox swaps to quickly mention before we hook into it all.
Now, you know, Ozclimate is our major sponsor for the Aussies only this one, but boy, is it a fantastic brand if you are in the market for an air purification appliance or for dehumidification. And I also want to add that they’ve brought onto their range recently EcoSmart heaters. Now smart, meaning you can pair it with your mobile device if you want to, but of course you don’t have to.
So if you don’t enable that on your heater, it will not be picking up signals from your phone. Don’t worry. I checked for us because that was a concern of mine, of course.
And, uh, they’ve found a way to make them use about a third less energy and yet give the same heating output. So less expensive energy bills. I am all for code is low-tox life, 10% off.
They’re often already discounted prices. So do try and use your code on top of any sale prices you ever see on their website, ozclimate.com.au. And the next one is a brand new one sneaking in Koala Eco, a beautiful, uh, local business here in Australia, but also available in the U S and I love these guys. Delicious fragrances from the Australian native landscape.
When you’re, um, cleaning your kitchen, when you’re washing your clothes, you can literally smell Australia as you go. It’s so beautiful. And they’re very committed to no virgin plastics.
Uh, they’re also committed to refills to providing a glass bottle for your refill to go into, or for any DIY wires that want to tweak things and make some stuff up. They have a great range, everything from laundry liquids to dog wash kitchen and bathroom cleaning products, and even adding in some body products to their very reasonably priced range. Your code is low-tox life for 25% off the range this month.
Uh, but I will also let you know, even if you don’t want to do that, you can save even more on a subscription of theirs, which you can cancel anytime. So I’m letting you know about that one, just in case you want to go even further and try a whole bunch of things. Uh, but 25% off the range.
If you want to just try a couple of products and see how you go code is low-tox life. And it of course excludes any discounted packs. Lastly, bio first, because you guys are loving discovering this wonderful range of powerhouse healing skin products and they’re delicious Manuka soother syrup for the kiddos, uh, sore throats, uh, as just like a little extra thing in their range, they’ve given us an extra week code low-tox life gives you 15% off site wide.
And that is for Australia, New Zealand, and the U S I love bio first because it is about healing and treating the skin and giving it its strength and vitality back. The ingredients are top notch, very high performance. Uh, the self-heal salve should be in every SOS, uh, bumps, cuts, bruises, um, uh, bits that are just sort of not healing very well that need a bit of extra support.
You can smell the frankincense as you rub it in so delicious. Uh, and then of course their Manuka skin saver and the ultra sensitive skin rescue lotion. I have shared on Insta and you can actually go to my profile where you see highlights and then click on fave products.
I’ve actually shared some of the ways that I have inadvertently picked up a bio first product and used for one of us in the last couple of months to give you an idea of the scope of these products. So it’s not just, if you’ve got eczema, psoriasis, hives, dermatitis, although if you look at the website reviews, very useful for those things. And people are often seen saying things like, Oh my gosh, finally something works.
But I also wanted to broaden the scope of what you could use them for everything from soothing angry skin after exercise, and they were just helping you calm the farm to brightening the complexion. I find the Manuka skin saver, Manuka skin saver. Yes.
Uh, just delicious for that. My skin looks like I’ve got a tan if I put that on, even if I don’t in the dead of winter. Um, and they can just be incredibly useful everyday products as well as specialty treatment products.
So I wanted to highlight that and you’ve got until the 7th of July for that offer 15% off always code low tox life now, nice and easy. Okay. Let’s hook into these different situations.
So before I let you know what the situation number one is, I want to talk about the value of bringing people along with you versus telling people what to do. I know this might be a little bit triggering for people. You might have a moment of, Oh my gosh, I so do that.
I boss my family around. Oh my gosh, I’m doing the wrong thing. Now, please just put those thoughts away.
This is all about learning. This is all about reframing and changing our mindsets around how we get our loved ones on the low tox train. I think one of the most important things I see go wrong is when we create division by creating a sense of superiority or a difference between you and your loved one for being in conflict about what to use or what to eat or what to do.
And it’s always for me so much more impactful if we can find a way to create common ground in the conversations of change and adaptation towards more low tox stuff in our everyday lives. So an example of this is, and I shared this as a bit of a nugget of thought on socials today, actually, you’ll see it if you are on Instagram or Facebook, low tox life is where you find me. I talk about how often if you’re passionate about something, you develop a passion, you’ve never thought about it before, but it completely makes sense once you do.
And so you devour lots of podcasts, read a couple of books, maybe you join a couple of Facebook groups to see what everyone’s talking about. Maybe you even do a couple of courses. You’re doing all of this on your own.
Your teenagers, your three-year-old, the husband or wife, they are not doing these things, chances are. And so when you announce to the world, i.e. your family, that everything has to change because it’s all toxic and you can’t use that deodorant anymore, it’s full of hormone disruptors, it can be a really big shock, surprise. And then your shock and surprise is going to be that they’re not just, oh yeah, great.
Well, let’s just change it all then. Great. Good idea.
Because they won’t. It’s very rare that someone will just blindly change without more of a why. And then if they dig their heels in and you dig your heels in, what does it create?
Conflict. It creates division. You are going to be so much less likely to get them on the Lotox train than if you found a way to connect together.
If you want to go into this particular aspect psychologically of this whole thing, I’ve linked in the show notes a free webinar I did years ago that is every bit as relevant today as it was then, into how you create and set the stage for unity and togetherness. Like, oh my gosh, can you believe they didn’t have to independently test this stuff before it went to market? Can you believe, or are you as shocked as I am to learn this kind of language can really be so much more helpful when you explain a concern about something, the research you’ve done, and then say, can you believe this?
Like, should we look into this a bit more? And then that’s when you recommend one of those documentaries you’ve already watched, but they don’t need to know that little white lie there that can be very effective. Not saying I’ve used that if my husband is listening.
Of course not, sweetheart. Okay. So that is my first little tip, and I’ve linked that webinar in the show notes.
My second tip is it can be a really good thing to establish some family values around health and around sustainability. And of course, sustainability isn’t enough for our planet. Regeneration is probably a really good value to set as well.
This can be a bit more complex, but I think it’s really valuable to sit down and say, well, what do we want for our family? What does all of us feeling great and healthy look like in the main, in terms of the everyday actions and things that we could do to cultivate everyday health? And so that can just be a really powerful conversation that you can come back to when you’re wanting to implement change or something different or add something new, and they might push back against that.
And you say, well, like this is about health and that conversation we had about let’s try and stay healthy and cultivate health rather than be the kind of people who wait until the fires have to be put out, the crisis comes, which is very naturally human, by the way, we’re so apocalyptic that way. We often wait for the worst to happen before we change. But if we want to front end health instead of react to crisis, then this is why this is important.
What do you think? Like, can you offer a different perspective or do you have a new idea about how we could do this, but it could be more affordable. And these sorts of conversations keep you together because you’ve had your values chat.
It’ll help with the impulse buyer in your family and the thing they’re considering purchasing that wasn’t in the budget that month, where you say, OK, so remember how avoiding things going to landfill is one of our key family values. Well, this thing is probably going to be quite a short lasting thing and it might be really fun to have for now, but it will end up in some dirt ditch somewhere that we never see until the dirt ditch catches up with us because, of course, there is no way. And we are contributing to that dirt ditch full of junk catching up to us faster by buying something like this.
What could we do that is going to satisfy your need for that thing or your gap for joy or having something new in your life right now? You know, op shops are a great place to go for something that already exists and giving it a longer circle of life that could potentially serve the same purpose. So having family values as your outset is a great thing to then be able to come back to.
So I just wanted to share those two things before starting to look at specific situations. And it would be something we’re going to look at in the Low Tox Club in our July member sharing circle and Q&A with me. And I invite you if you’re not a club member, it’s only four dollars and eight cents a month.
Can you believe it? Forty nine dollars a year, Australian. So for the euros and USDs out there, that’s only, I think, about 30 bucks.
And we have these sorts of conversations. We help each other move the needle and inspire each other in a positive, unifying way. You know, I was really sad about all the division in the world.
It really got to me so deeply, so just awful, like so bad. I thought, well, we have to be the unity person if we want more unity. And that can start in our family homes by really thinking about what brings us together versus what pulls us apart.
Food for thought. OK, so situation number one, kid who has friends obsessed with a particular type of drink bottle. That’s a fun one.
So now we have a situation that I’ve actually experienced with my son. All of his tennis camp buddies, there’s just this one tennis camp that he went to years ago. Everyone had a plastic Nike branded water bottle.
Go figure. He became obsessed with getting one every time he saw one, every time we were out and he saw someone using one. See, mum, everyone’s using them.
And it was a bit unlike him, actually. But how I tackled that was coming back to our family values. We’ve watched things like, actually, what I’ll do is I’ll put in a couple of plastic oriented documentaries in the show notes if you wanted to watch them, some more age appropriate ones and older ones, depending on how old your kids are, if you’ve got kids or if you’re just trying to get a partner on board.
And I came back to that. Remember that time we watched? Actually, it was that long ago that I can’t remember the name of the movie now, so that’s not very helpful.
But I will put it in the show notes for you because it really was great. And he said, yeah. And I said, remember how we saw the life cycle of the plastic water bottle and what happened to it in the end?
And do you remember how we saw how many of them there were being bought every single year? And do you remember how we’ve talked about every little thing that we choose to not buy helps to create a healthier planet? And he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I said, so let’s have a think about the drink bottles you’ve got now. Have you got anything that actually works, that is fun? What’s your favorite one that you’ve got?
And if you really wanted one, could we wait till your birthday and get you a stainless water bottle? That’s not so much about trend, but about something more steady that you like. And so the idea was born to get a Rafa Nadal stainless steel drink bottle that, of course, because I’m a Rafa fan, I may borrow from time to time.
And we’ve still got it today. And it’s capitalizing on a different part of something that they like and lining it with a more sustainable, more durable material that’s not going to flake off microplastics that they’re going to then drink and absorb into their bodies and is going to last longer because it’s steadier, it’s sturdier, and you’re not going to have the endocrine disruptive aspect of the plastics in the heat when they’re playing matches during the summer. And he agreed to that. So going a bit bigger picture, reminding them of family values you’ve discussed in the past.
If you haven’t discussed those things, and if this is coming up, and if they are over eight or nine, then that’s the time you could maybe watch a documentary on the state of plastics and petroleum manufactured products in the world so that they understand that you’re not just saying no and being an annoying parent, but they’re actually learning what it means to be a good human citizen and think more responsibly about the products and choices we’re making.
And if you can’t get them to agree to not buy something, then to at least move towards something that’s going to last longer, be healthier for them, and that aligns with another part of them, they think, oh, that thing’s cool, that person’s cool, and therefore it’s cool to get that bottle. It’s really tricky consumerism with kids, and I find it’s often just a case of trying to slow the whole need for stuff down, because we’re also going, of course, against human nature, which is to collect, to collect, to collect, to hoard, just in case there’s a famine, or just in case we run out of options to procure things for safety and shelter and all of those primal instincts. So to remind them that they are primal instincts, and it’s not unnatural to want things, and it’s not unnatural to want to be like the tribe, but that if we now know what we know about certain things, then how could we maybe do that better?
Could we avoid buying something at all here? Or if you really do need a drink bottle right now, let’s think about the best possible option that you still find cool. And you will see that idea coming through in all of the suggestions I’m going to be making, especially when it comes to kids.
Situation number two. Oh, this is a tricky one. Teenager in the cool gang at school, but then the cool gang often tend to be first to market when it comes to things like smoking.
Well, not so much smoking now, but more vaping or wearing really heavy fragrance sprays. My son was telling me about a trend at school called fragrance maxing. And fragrance maxing, I haven’t had a chance to look it up on the internet yet, but he said basically what it is, is people having as many options as possible, sometimes multiple options in a single day of different fragrances to use.
And he said, mom, I swear if I get to use the lift pass, like if he’s got a sore knee from sport or whatever, and he gets to use the lift pass, he’s then stuck in the lift because inadvertently everyone goes, oh, can I get in the lift with you? And there’s someone there with a lift pass. And he’ll say, just being stuck in the lift with people who are fragrance maxing is the worst thing ever.
And I’m like, oh, thank God I’ve done my job here. He never wants to wear that kind of stuff. We started early.
And of course, having no synthetic fragrances in the home for his entire life, he doesn’t know anything else. So when he smells those fake fragrances, he genuinely can’t breathe, which is the appropriate response. And anyone who’s done my pack it all up, all the air fresheners, the deodorants, fabric softens, all of it, and put it in the garage for a couple of weeks and then bring it all back and use it and see what you notice.
No one’s ever gone back. I mean, it’s just that we’ve never realized these things are poison. So we’ve adapted to them.
But if they’re not in your day to day, you will much more easily recognize them as poison. So what do we do with this teenager? Well, we know that their friends are starting to be into this kind of stuff, and we’ve got to have some tough conversations.
Now, of course, your go-to’s like Maggie Dent, like Dr. Justin Coulson. These guys are fantastic at navigating these tricky conversations with teens around gotta be like everybody else. But my two bobs worth is to think about their values and their goals.
Now, if they want to not be debilitated by period pain as they establish their hormones, so let’s just say we’re talking about a chick here or someone who identifies as a girl, and then we have the responsibility to inform them of the link between endocrine disruptive chemicals in both vapes and in fragrance to products marketed to teens. I’m talking like the links and the impulse, all those cheap kind of sprays and link that for them to painful periods or really unsteady hormones. Do you enjoy having those deep periods of sadness or deep periods of frustration and anger in your month as your hormones are fluctuating all over the shop?
Puberty is hard, and we don’t want to add extra things that are going to make it extra hard, right? And these two products, vapes and fragrance sprays with synthetic fragrance are both terrible for hormone pattern establishment and healthy cycles. And so to link that and to maybe share a couple of great resources, I adore the work.
I did a puberty conversation with Nicole Jardim is a wonderful health coach, so knowledgeable about girls and cycles from every stage really, but we did a particular show on young girls, then that could be a really great place to go. You want to sort of build some resources where people know how to talk to younger people so that it doesn’t feel like you’re the boring parent trying to tell them they can’t use stuff. And then around vapes, I mean, I love telling the story of our dentist starting to notice more and more oral cancers in very young people since vapes were introduced, much more than he used to see in cigarettes.
And I’m not saying so choose cigarettes instead, I’m saying it’s all bad. It’s just that vapes are appearing very quickly to be even worse. And then of course, with the synthetic fragrances and flavors in vapor form, you are then coming into more contact with endocrine disruptive chemicals.
And so it is a really big opportunity here to talk about it through that lens, through the cancer lens, because cancer is a scary word, no one wants to get that. But then also acknowledge the peer pressure factor and talk about how they can get out of it without looking uncool. Because I think, I mean, you might poo-poo that, but I think we need to meet teens where they’re at and the social challenges that they’re having.
And I can’t wait to interview Maggie Dent on this next month, because I will be hammering her with a ton of questions on this subject ahead of her new book, which is Help Me Help My Teen. And so we’re doing a podcast on teens. Um, but here is where you can actually speak to their goals and interests.
So let’s just say your kid is in the rock band at school and they have to do shows or that maybe they’re the singer, then speak to the fact that they’ve got to look after their vocal chords and they don’t want to sound like they can’t sing all of a sudden, especially because they’ve got to sing in public. You could appeal to them in that sense on the vaping front. What if they’re a really good cross-country runner?
They’re a star performer on the tennis court or they’re, they absolutely love, nevermind being great at it. There’s just a particular sport they absolutely love in their community sports program. Play to the fact that they love that sport and say something like vaping unfortunately reduces lung capacity and means that you’re not going to be able to enjoy it as much as you do.
And, and so that can then have them say to their friends, if they get offered, um, a vape, I don’t even know if you say a puff, who knows and inhale. My, my son actually told me the term the other day. I’ve forgotten it.
He gives me all the, the teen intel, um, and say to them, like, let’s rehearse what you could say without sounding uncool. So, uh, you know, you could say, Oh mate, nah, I can’t. Um, I’ve got soccer and, uh, I’ve really got to bring my A game, but you do you like all good, you know, never make them be feeling bad about the choices they’re making.
But the very fact that you’re choosing very consciously not to, and in a very friendly way also might show that kid in an unspoken way that maybe they don’t have to do that to be cool. And what if the cool kids are tomorrow’s rock stars and, um, top athletes. Uh, so, you know, you’re not going to see, um, them chuffing down, um, their vape.
So it’s really important to connect to their goals, rehearse with them, some cool ways they can reject an offer of anything, drugs, uh, alcohol, vapes, whatever it is that doesn’t put down the other person and doesn’t create division. Um, say, Oh mate, that’s so kind of you. Uh, but no thanks.
Um, I’ve got this on tomorrow or, uh, no thanks. You could even like, they could even pretend if they have to, uh, like, no thanks. Um, last time I did it, you know, my, my mum could smell it and I got grounded for a month and I really like going out with you guys.
So it’s cool. I don’t mind either way. So I’ll just skip it and just try and rehearse ways that they feel comfortable with.
Because if you don’t think that this is applicable to your team, uh, and them having an easy way out, isn’t important to them in establishing good patterns and habits, then maybe you need to have that chat because I’m pretty sure it is from the various psychologists I’ve had on the podcast, from chatting to my own kid about what’s important to him in the face of social situations and how you can have that delicate balance of staying healthy and well, and also not, uh, putting other people down for their choices, um, or creating division or creating a way that people could then use that against you to make fun of you. Then, uh, like it’s a really important skill for them to have.
You’re helping them skim skill build, um, socially, you know, we all have to be diplomatic in life and learning diplomacy rather than, you know, as if I do that, you know, of course, fine. If that’s what you believe, but you don’t have to say it that way because that’s not going to get you anywhere. All right.
Number three, little kid getting fussy because they’ve started going to daycare or school and they’re starting to see cool things in other people’s lunch boxes, AKA branded, uh, bars with cool drawings on them, maybe action figure yogurts or snacks. Uh, who knows? There’s just so much ultra process stuff that we’re up against out there.
And you’ve got your little kid in the mix, just wanting to start to fit in and you’re, you’ve, you’ve loosened the grip of the it’s really important for us kids to be out of the home and socializing with a variety of kids so that they don’t grow up in a bubble. And so we can’t prevent them from being exposed, but what do we do to navigate the exposure and the conversation around it? So you can say, you can, you can always pick something that they can have that looks a bit similar, that still fits in with your values.
So in junior school, I always used to put a handful of plain corn chips or plain popcorn in a, um, uh, a little container so that he was always chomping away at something that looked like what everyone else was eating, but he’d also have a really nourishing stew in his hot pot or, um, uh, you know, whatever else, uh, he was like having a meat and veg bento kind of situation. So you could do it that way, or you could find a way to do slightly cooler lunches, like Vietnamese spring rolls or sushi, things that you can do very healthily and scratch made or easily bought, not too expensive. Um, and, and they could be cool with their little mates that way.
So that could be a way to play that, but you could also bring it back to the values that you’re going to start to say, and just be really clear. You’re going to start to see how all these different people eat. We are never going to judge other people for how they eat, but I am here to tell you, we have to remember that for the main, we’re going to eat healthy foods that we recognize the ingredients of.
And then every now and then, if you want to try your friend’s cracker or biscuit provided, of course, there’s no anaphylaxis. So if you want to go to a party and have some food there, and we don’t exactly know what it is, or the chips are flavored and the flavor is synthetic, then it doesn’t matter. But our everyday breakfast, lunch and dinner, if we can, especially at the junior school age, where they’re still just growing so fast, we really want to get that nourishment in.
Um, then we really want to try and keep it to just that overlap of something slightly like the other kids, but a good version of it. Uh, and then a really great foundational food alongside that. So they’re still getting their nourishment.
They can still focus at school and, uh, and have energy to play. It’s really, really important. Um, there we go.
You know, your kid might keep coming home with the apple, but if you cut it up and you cut up some pieces of cheese with it, then boom, it starts getting eaten. So also think about how things can be prepared for ease. And I want to stress here, I mean, this is not really oppositional, but if your kid’s not eating their lunch, just prepare less, you know, maybe they just don’t want to eat at school because they’re just having too much fun.
So prepare a couple of favorite easy grab and eats. And then from there, just really focus on the afterschool, uh, and your breakfast and dinner. It’s okay.
They will survive. I think we often think, Oh my God, they haven’t eaten lunch. They’re starving.
They’re not just focus on the times when you do have their attention and when they can sit down and calmly eat and they’re not itching to get out into the playground and play handball or whatever else the kids are doing these days in junior school. Situation number four, narrow food liker, uh, and you’re trying to always get them to eat something more, something different, increase diversity. Then you really want to focus on their goals.
So the white food eater, obviously we need to rule out deficiencies that might be causing them to be, uh, uh, trying to practice food avoidance. We also want to have a look at neurodivergence and sensory processing and whether that might be playing into them wanting to eat a very narrow amount of foods or focus on the white foods. Uh, and once we’ve addressed those and we’re working on those, if they do come up, then focus on their goals and link the diversity of what you’re offering to them being able to achieve their goals.
Whether it’s a goal around smarts and ability in the classroom, whether it’s a goal around sports and physical activity, whether it’s a goal around being able to climb the tree out in the bush or in the back garden, uh, link the fact that the food that we create, that we have the very, very great pleasure of being able to access and cook and prepare is the food that helps us do all the things we want to do. And that’s one of the simplest ways to get it across to small people and even to teens who can be a little bit obstinate in this department that you are doing this because you know, it helps them be their best selves.
That’s it. And then again, when it comes to teens, which is situation five, um, to then link that to, uh, their goals. And, uh, that’s a really important one.
So don’t try and be at them for every single thing they put in their mouth. Once they’re teenagers that ship has sailed, you cannot, they will probably eat something revolting that you would never put in their mouths or on your table, but they will be okay. Uh, just obviously be allergy aware if there’s a health issue and risk there.
But other than that, focus on when they’re at home, when they come and when you can love them up on good, nutritious food, playing into their favorites. So they’re often in the mix and then adding in diversity, um, on top of that. Now, um, micro trends is my next one.
Uh, and so this is number six micro trends on Tik TOK. And this is happening even with so-called sustainable products, like your stainless steel, the old Stanley cup. I mean, two years ago, it was the hydro flask.
I didn’t even know that was a trend. I happened to buy one. Um, when I was on a business trip and came back and a girlfriend of mine said, gosh, you’re very trendy.
And I was like, really? Um, I forgot my water bottle. So I got a really good one so that it would last me a few years.
And I’ve still got it by the way. And that was gosh, that particular trip was about six years ago now. And she said, well, all these Tik TOKers are doing this thing.
And the hydro flask is the bottle. Now it’s the Stanley bottle. I’m really concerned about these refreshes that we see in active wear space in the drink bottle space, because, uh, especially with the drink bottles that are stainless steel, they can do the whole eco sort of avoid single use plastic thing.
But if you’re having to buy a different bottle every month to keep up with the trends from the Tik TOKers, then that’s just as bad a landfill disaster as any. And so we really need to acknowledge micro trends and explain the influencer universe of they’re getting paid to recommend that they’re going to clip the ticket of every single thing that they sell. And it is in their best interest to keep changing it up every single month so that you have to keep buying these new things so that they keep getting their ticket clipped by all the new things that they’re making you buy.
So once you have made, it’s like, I always say, working with brands, I obviously want to help our company, our community make low-tox swaps, right? There’s a lot of people always new coming into the movement who are in there. Okay.
I need new kitchenware, uh, rather than buying the scratched up, um, replacing the scratched up old Teflon pans with new nonstick pans of that elk. What can I get instead? Like, I don’t want you to buy pans every month.
Just if that’s the swap you’re making, if that’s the priority you’ve got right now, then do it, but please never buy something just because there’s an offer on. Right. And we want to teach our kids the same thing.
So focus on, uh, perhaps helping them choose like an absolute favorite person they follow and then a seasonal option. Like we, you, it’s very hard to get a kid to just completely opt out of what everyone else is doing and talking about. So try and slow down the need for buying new things by saying, I’m happy to look at one thing that is recyclable or that will last a really long time.
And, uh, we can do that once every three months, let’s say, and that might be all that fits in your budget. You might not even be able to fit that in your budget. And then you can just have a really honest financial chat.
And if you want to talk finances, you could also sweeten this slowing down of buying all the things into a chat about, I’m thinking about my gorgeous friend, Mel Brown here, and I’ll put a couple of resources of hers because she’s so good at teaching people about money. And I’ve had her on the show three times, and we’ve done a member masterclass together. Uh, she talked, you know, talks about compound interest and the earlier you can get saving, the better it is for you in the long run.
Imagine having that conversation in and amongst the micro trend conversation, and then talking to your kids about how you might put that money away for them in a compounding interest account. Every time we don’t buy one of the micro trend things, and then you can help calculate once they’ve done year nine, year 10 maths, I think compounding is, uh, you can then calculate that together or just jump on a compounding interest calculator at online and say, look at what this is going to mean once you’re 18 and you finish school. And if we avoid spending X every month and just get one special thing every now and then birthday, Christmas, and maybe one other time in the year, then by the time you’re 18, you could actually go backpacking, or you’re actually already 15% on the way to being able to put a deposit down on a small property or a little parcel of land.
Uh, you know, so could this conversation be a broader one is my question around, uh, slowing down purchases and addressing micro trend insanity of always having to buy new things, even if you’ve got that thing in a different form already, because that’s really bad for wallets and it’s really bad for the environment. Uh, and then if it’s plastic, uh, or recycled plastics in fashion, then it’s a really bad for health as well. When we think about the micro plastics coming out into our household dust from the dryer or the wash.
Okay. Number seven, personal care and hygiene. This can be a tricky one for the whole family, actually.
And I think it’s really important to just remember the goals we want to cultivate health. How do we do that? We brush our teeth twice a day.
We don’t wait to get a filling that then costs us a couple of hundred bucks at the dentist and a lot of pain, right? Feelings are awful. So teach your kids, watch a feeling being performed on YouTube.
That’s enough to get any kid to be what brushing their teeth a couple of times a day. Um, or the kid who drank all the Mountain Dew on, uh, what was that? Was that the, um, the sugar documentary that, uh, Damon Gamo did, you know, show them their teeth and just say, you know, that’s the sugar in the soda.
Um, but like bad teeth cost a lot and it hurts like heck to sit in that chair and get an anesthetic drilled into your gums and then to get your dentist drilling into your teeth. So really show them why it matters to brush their teeth twice a day. Uh, another objection could obviously be around, uh, fluoride.
Uh, a partner might think, um, fluoride is good. We’ve always been told that it’s actually quite recent and it’s actually only about half the world that recommends fluoridation in toothpaste and water. So there is a lot of counter research.
The fluoride that we use in our water and toothpaste is mostly a waste product that can’t be disposed of any other way. Uh, so there’s that consideration and I always like to talk about, and we’ve had many fantastic integrative dentists on the show. I will put some links in the show notes for this particular suggestion, but I always like to talk about how cavity presentation is not about fluoride deficiency.
Fluoride does show some use in slowing down the progression of a cavity. Uh, but it doesn’t really show prevention when it comes to overall cavity presentation. It’s definitely more about the diet you’re consuming and it’s more about the regularity of your hygiene.
You could also look, of course, at microbiome health. We actually had Dr. Vijaya Malloy in the Lotox Club recently do a masterclass on like a huge Q and A on dental health. And she talked about the different microbiome aspects to people who get cavities, particular vitamins and minerals that are really essential to either eat or supplement.
If you have a, an issue with a weak enamel or weak teeth, really so much you can do. And very rarely is it because of a fluoride deficiency. I remember I had seven fillings, my one and only go at having fillings.
When Seb was two, I went to the dentist and sure enough, uh, pregnancy and growing a 4.2 kilo baby took every mineral and its dog out of my body. I became a bit frail. So my teeth of course, uh, got decayed and you know, uh, it, it was what it was.
I was using fluoride toothpaste up until that point, actually. And then I had an experience with, uh, actually trying the Walida salt toothpaste, which is a brilliant toothpaste. Uh, and if you like that kind of style, you’ve also got the OGG, uh, brilliant tooth powder powder range, which is completely plastic free.
Uh, if you’re over in the U S you’ve got FYGG fig from Dr. Stacey. Um, and Mark, you’ve got, uh, some really great, uh, natural toothpaste now. And for some reason, it really spoke to me that it made no sense.
I beefed up our, our nourishment made sure we’re getting out A, E, D and K vitamins made sure we were getting a mineral rich diet and switched to natural toothpaste. And I can safely report zero feelings since. So, and same for my husband who used to have shocking dental health and my son’s never had a feeling and he’s turning 15 next month.
He’s never used fluoride. So I really think we could be looking at what builds strong teeth and a healthy oral microbiome rather than what can I do in a crisis, uh, when cavities keep popping up, uh, there are so many answers that we can explore and try and use. But one of the chief ones, is no vacuous packet, grainy snacks that you just kind of, um, feeding yourself slowly, uh, that just all that starch sits in and around your teeth, um, turns to sugar.
No good. So, you know, again, knowledge is power when you’re getting those objections around the personal care and the toothpaste. All right.
Uh, no, I knew this was going to be a long, uh, podcast, but hopefully useful. I feel like I might actually do this in two parts, guys. I might go up to number 10 today and give you a little break.
And then I’ll do part two, uh, a little later. So here we go. I’m going to talk about the home.
So here is another place where you want to establish family values around home purchases. What are your family’s non-negotiables? Um, when it comes to purchasing things from the heart for the home and when it comes to cultivating home health.
So will you commit to an annual very deep clean of your house, including gutters, including repairing any grout that is starting to be compromised or any silicone that is starting to show gaps to prevent mold from growing behind and under things or moisture from getting into the house. If you’re built on a slab and there’s outdoor grout around your property, uh, then that could need an annual review as well. Uh, so does that make sense to everybody in the family, every decision maker on the budget?
Yes, it does annual. And what will we budget for that? Well, let’s cost it out the first time and then we’ll know what it costs thereafter.
Do we commit to repairs as soon as we think something sucks. So a tap is a bit leaky or, uh, it’s a bit stinky under the sink. All of a sudden I can smell a mustiness that wasn’t there three months ago.
Would we all agree it is worthwhile to get that investigated as soon as anyone notices stuff like that? Yes, yes, yes. I mean, you’d be a fool not to.
Why are we agreeing to that? Because if we leave things like that, it costs us far more than a building biology, check it out, or plumber, check it out, a situation or tradie to fix up some silicone or grout. Then, um, you know, if we leave it, it costs us far more in big remediation down the track, big repairs, ripping up tiles and all sorts.
So I think establishing those values is really great. Do we commit to avoiding the growth of mold on our soft furnishings, soft furnishings being any padded chairs, the couch, uh, any, um, cushions, mattresses, mattress protectors, sheets, clothes, jackets, shoes. Would it be reasonable for us as a family to figure out how we can best prevent the growth of mold in those spaces?
Would it be a good idea for us to prevent the growth of mold on our dry wall in, on the bathroom ceiling or in that little shady bedroom that never gets sun at the back of the house? Yes, yes, yes. Of course it would be good to prevent mold.
We all know prevention is best and it is definitely cheapest because that means when it comes to getting something like a new washer and dryer, it’s very easy to come back to your family values where you’re all committed to mold prevention. We want a front loader that doesn’t have a plastic, um, what do you call it? Seal.
Uh, the Asko brand is great for that. By the way, I’m trying to get them to sponsor the podcast, but I can’t seem to find someone to reach out to. If anyone has any ideas, I would be so happy to get us a group deal on Asko appliances.
Um, but their front loader doesn’t have the rubber seal. Uh, could you then justify getting the dryer that is a condenser dryer that has the inbuilt dehumidifier so that your laundry doesn’t start to get moldy because it’s always 80% plus humidity because drying wet clothes creates a ton of humidity? Uh, would it therefore be reasonable to spend an extra few hundred dollars on that appliance rather than buy the cheapest because we are a mold prevention family, right?
So these situations come up, right? When the dryer breaks and then everybody needs to think about the new one to get, if you come back to your values on mold prevention, that you agree you don’t want a moldy home and you don’t want moldy rooms and you don’t want moldy stuff, then it’s much easier to say, remember how we said we’re going to be mold preventers? Well, yes, the condenser dryer is an extra 400 bucks, but it’s going to prevent mold growth in our home.
Uh, and it’s going to keep our home air healthy. That’s the very small price to pay. Uh, you know, I’m not a huge fan of payment plan type apps like zip and after pay, because I think they often, I mean, the data shows us, it often has us spending more, but in times like this, if it means you buy once, buy well, then, uh, you certainly have my blessing.
I did it with our last moldy house move when we just didn’t have the budget to replace everything again. It was my lifeline. So I totally get that that is situational and can be really helpful if it means you get the right stuff.
Um, that’s going to be good for your health. Okay. The next one is, um, justifying filters and dehumidifiers.
Again, this speaks to, um, our desire to prevent mold and to prevent our clothes, shoes, bags, jackets, couches, um, mattresses, pillows from going moldy. Trust me when I say when I have had to replace everything like that three times in my time and how much that costs, uh, in your savings, uh, IE, it completely drains them. Uh, I don’t want that to happen to anybody.
So buying a good quality dehumidifier, remembering you always have 10% off code low-tox life, Ozclimate, uh, Ozclimate.com.au if you’re an Aussie. Um, but I’ll also put a good deal for the Americans for the brilliant air filter, the Jasper, um, which I have for our low-tox club members, but I’m happy to give to our podcast members as well, uh, in the show notes too. Um, and so, uh, this can be when you say, um, honey, I know the 35 liter is, I think it’s about $550 or the, uh, 50 liter capacity dehumidifier is, you know, $700 or whatever it is.
They’re around that. I know that’s expensive. Uh, but if we don’t go out for family dinner this month, and if we do this, and if we, if I don’t, uh, if, you know, I’ll not get, you know, whatever it is, um, or we’ll just go a bit leaner on the groceries and not get the little extras like the fresh herbs or you know, just the, the extras that aren’t essential to building a meal, then we can get one of these.
And what it will mean is a really strong, powerful motor, especially if you live somewhere humid or with a lot of rain, uh, that will cut through that humidity and be powerful enough to suck it all up and keep our home dry and stop us from having to replace expensive items that cost way more, uh, than a dehumidifier does. So that can often be a way to get it across the line. Now, another one for the home that I often hear around expense or not understanding enough about the coatings of is frying pans, cookers, appliances, um, because often the nonstick surfaces are the cheapest ones you can buy.
Um, and the nonstick by that, I mean, uh, the PFOAs, PFAS, a family of chemicals. So these are forever chemicals that while there’s some pretty cool research around detoxification and the environment starting to eat them up. So I have a bit of hope around them not potentially being forever.
Um, but it’s very nascent. Uh, it’s much better to assume that these are terrible for the environment and they don’t break down easily in us. Um, and, uh, it’s really important to try and avoid them.
And one of the things when Teflon was banned in 2015 in cooking appliances, what you found was the cousin PTFEs started to be used. Uh, and it started to be used in this kind of green ish nonstick, uh, new gen way, but they are still a cousin of Teflon. It is still the same type of technology.
It is still very short life. I E as soon as you scratch it, it’s stuffed. We are sending 7 million of these things to landfill every single year.
And we are a tiny nation of just under 30 million people in Australia. So God knows what the world is sending to landfill when it comes to cheap nonstick technology, just ditch it and move to a buy once buy well brand. I’m going to put my all time faves in the show notes that you can explore if you want to.
And of course, if you haven’t done go low talks, my, uh, signature e-course, which turns 10 this year, by the way, that has every possible daily category swap why we want to swap. So you can communicate it to people and what we want to swap to with lots of ideas, including international resources. Then I’ll put that in the show notes as well.
Really, really good. Um, uh, resource there. Uh, the next thing number, uh, no.
Okay. So I just did number 10 and I think, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to finish with, um, a little conclusion here and then we’ll do part two next time.
So a conclusion here is that gifts are a really beautiful way to help people see that going low tox is lovely and high performance and wonderful. So that could be a gorgeous, uh, Luke beauty food or her raw lip gloss for your, um, preteen or teenager. Uh, it could be a brilliant natural leader, lemon deodorant spray for your male team that comes in a glass bottle.
And at least it’s still a spray. It could be a beeswax wraps for the, uh, grandparents who are glad wrappers. If it’s never going to run out, it could be a new frying pan for your, um, daughter or son-in-law who’s just moving out of home, uh, daughter or son-in-law who’s just gotten married and you want to get them something special.
It’s their birthday or it’s Christmas. And you’ve noticed they’ve got a lot of cheap cookware and this could be the buy once, buy well, uh, solid techniques piece that they have for their lifetime and the many generations to come after them gifts work because gifts have no objectable, uh, aspect to them. It’s a lovely thing to receive if it’s useful, if it’s pretty, if it smells nice, uh, if it serves a purpose in their lives, they’re of course going to appreciate it.
And so this can be a great way to get people on side. So I’m finishing there because that was already an hour just doing 10 scenarios. Uh, and so I’m going to do another 10 for you in a part two of this.
And while I have written my 10 down, I am happy to receive some suggestions for things you’re finding tricky. And I can maybe do a bit of a Q and a at the end of that 10 around some of the things that came up for you listening to this part one. Okay.
You have a deal from me. I’m happy to answer those questions. So hit me in the comments of the show notes, which you can always find at lotoxlife.com forward slash podcast, and then click on today’s show. Or of course, uh, you can just pop me a DM and the team always aggregate those for me. Uh, I can’t get to them all. Unfortunately with a community our size much as I would love to, um, it would just burn me out.
I would be up till literally 4 AM replying to personal shopper questions. So thank you for understanding that a great place to come and join us is the Lotox club because I am in there two full hours a week answering member questions and the monthly member Q and a on zoom, as well as the awesome masterclasses we have with visiting experts. So much good stuff in there.
So you can go to lotoxlife.com hit the explore tab, and then you’ll see Lotox club is the first option, but I’ll also put it in the show notes for you. I hope you found today useful. See you next time.
I hope you loved today’s show as much as I loved bringing it to you. I want to remind you that if you are someone who craves a Lotox community, that is judgment free, full of empowerment has health professionals and building health professionals that can support you as well as me in there answering questions multiple times a week. I want to invite you to join the Lotox club for the price of less than a cup of coffee a month.
You have an annual membership for $49 Australian. So it’s about $30 US or Euro that allows you to have a member masterclass every single month with a health professional or global expert from the podcast, where we have them to ourselves for an hour to ask questions and deep dive further. You have the beautiful supportive chat group.
You have Q and A’s with me, me answering questions. We read books and talk about them and a whole bunch more. You can head to lotoxlife.com, hit the explore tab and join the club is the very first option on that list. Of course, we have over 10 evergreen courses that you can jump into anytime, whether it’s navigating everyday Lotox swaps with our Go Lotox signature course, whether you have kids and you’re wanting to know how to best support them with our Lotox kids course, whether you’re planning a family and looking at a healthy Lotox preconception journey, reducing inflammation, especially the chronic kind with our inflammation ninja course, many, many other courses. You can again, head to lotoxlife.com, hit the courses tab and you’ll see all of the options, which includes a business course, my Lotox method program. A lot of people don’t know, but I was doing a lot before starting Lotox Life in 2009. And I was a business consultant across hospitality, health, retail and cosmetics. I have been in business consulting for a very long time.
So I absolutely adore helping people move into the Lotox space or develop their Lotox businesses. So that’s a way I can support you. And then of course, there’s our wonderful social media communities at Lotox Life on Instagram.
And of course the website with over 250 gluten-free recipes, blogs, downloadable PDFs to help you navigate wanting to get rid of synthetic fragrances in your school or office. I could go on. So head to lotoxlife.com, see what takes your interest or fancy. And thank you so much for being a part of our podcast community. I love, love, love reading your reviews. I appreciate every follow and subscribe.
And I want to just remind you to finish off that if there’s anything you heard that you found interesting from medical or scientific perspective, it is intended as education only. Please always chat to a health professional who knows you and your situation best. I’ll see you next week.
Bye.
