What is lifestyle detox? I coach families on how to shop, read labels, and select the safest, cleanest items from food to floor cleaners. When I set upon this path as a practice, I researched product lines and companies I could use and recommend that provide something unique in the marketplace, are potent, clean and are priced fairly. I do encourage anyone to pick something I market and go out and try to beat that price, quantity, and quality. Not saying it will be utterly impossible, but you will struggle. ☻ For clients who totally rely upon my word, they do not take time to read all the ingredients on everything, they just pay me to put together superfoods, dog food, CBD, skincare, supplements and hand them a packed up box, this is not only an honor but I take trust very seriously, so it is my job to sell them something beautiful, full of natural vitality without bull-hockey ingredients. Therewith, here are just a few things you will never see in my promoted products:

THE BAD & THE UGLY
Read your labels, look up what you don’t understand, and align yourself with someone you trust that can help steer you to things that work and are safe. This list could go on for lightyears, this is just a few popular offenders I see regularly:

Plastics – ALL PLASTIC IS BAD, some are worse. # 1 Plastic is BEST. The higher the #s go up, those have more toxins in them. NEVER freeze or leave in a hot car. The softer the plastic, the more you are absorbing. I look for glass, sugarcane or otherwise eco-friendly containers. Not everyone is there yet so I also look at safer hard plastic as I keep up with that company on when they are switching out of plastics altogether.

Chlorine – This chemical was developed as a weapon of mass destruction in WW1. Trust science, remember DDT and Agent Orange? ☻

EDTA, PEG (Propylene Glycol), Canola Oil, Mineral Oil, Petrolatum, Fragrance, Meth anything, for example, Methylparaben, Parabens, BHA, BHT, Phalates, Nitrosamines, 1,4 dioxane, MEA, DEA, TEA lauryl sulfate, DBD, DEP (unless it’s Johnny), Formaldehyde, triclosan, Quarternium, Diazolidinyl urea
GMOs, anything Genetically modified (God Move Over) which is prevalent in everything including pet food.

Why is this important? Pollution is largely unregulated and affects our AIR, WATER, and LAND/SOIL quality. – There are 2000 newly created chemicals annually with an estimated total of 80k new chemicals. Man-mined debris fools the body. Mercury looks like selenium, lead looks like calcium, cadmium looks like zinc. Aluminum, nickel, and uranium look like magnesium to the body and all these affect the body at a cellular level. What we apply topically and otherwise ingest, affects our body at a cellular level. These man-made chemical pollutants affect every being on this planet, our quality of life, and our longevity. There are 85,000 chemicals in our water. Due to factory farming methods, and not rotating crops, we have bad soil and mineral erosion. Then we lace the land with pesticides and other pollution.

Most women of childbearing age have unsafe levels.  This is passed down to the child and each of us has what is known commonly as a Body Burden of harmful chemicals stored in our fat. Many times the body stores additional fat and fatty lipomas to contain what would otherwise harm us further. When we detox, our body slowly begins to release these toxins and heal.

This is important because we really do not get the straight truth of how safe any of these man-made chemicals are by themselves, let alone the fact there have been no studies on how all these chemicals work together, especially over time and re-application.

We are creatures of habit, use the same products repeatedly when we find one we like that works. It is crucial we find products we like that are effective that do not contain toxins.

How Our Lifestyle Affects Our Animal Companions. Our fur kids suffer many of the same diseases we do but are even more at risk since they have noses and paws on the ground, get into the yard and home at ground level then groom themselves, taking in whatever chemical stews there may be in our laundry soap, our floor cleaners, our yard sprays. Add to this high heat extruded kibbles with questionable ingredients, pesticide pharma flea, tick and heartworm treatments, so many completely unnecessary annual shots which are a known carcinogen, and you have the perfect storm for your 4 legged to present with skin/fur issues, allergies, food intolerances, itching, and neurological disorders just to kick things off with!

Help! Ok, How Do I Detox My Lifestyle stat?
For us and for them, you may begin at baby steps. As stated, there are a plethora of chemicals out there and I cannot possibly note them all but I have listed several insults above under THE BAD & THE UGLY plus below tips! Keep in mind that all man-created chemicals should be avoided. This means reading and googling labels.

1. When in doubt, the EWG is a great resource for chemical info.
2. Don’t separate ‘topical from internal’. Whatever you apply topically, gets absorbed into the body. Something isn’t ‘safer’ because it is a topical vs an ingestible.
3. To avoid many man-made contaminants, it is important to look into certified organic, wild-crafted products.
4. For meats, go Wild, Organic, Kosher or Halal
5. Supplements should be low/no heat processed whole foods to contain their natural components, enzymes, nutrition.
6. Least processed food is preferred over high heat snacks & kibbles.
7. Go non-toxic, natural with soaps, cleaners, sanitizers and organic and wild-crafted with all personal care products.
8. IF you see corn, soy and it is NOT organic, it is most likely GMO with pesticides.
9. Avoid the chemical isles at the grocery store. Honestly, this is a really good indicator for you and your toxicity load if you are a-ok with walking down that isle. As you lean toward cleaner ingredients, your body will shift too and become intollerant to the bad things you were once bombarded prior. While there are many of us who break out immediately or go into an asthma attack or otherwise get immediately ill when they encounter a toxin, for most of us, this is actually a slower process as the body atempts to cope and store offenders in our fat.
10. As you adopt a detox lifestyle, you and your fur kids may shed unnecessary weight.
11. Use superfoods to help with detox, amp nutrition and build resilience.
12. Deer in headlights? Schedule a consult. ♥