Everyone has a gateway into the “natural world”.  For me, it was my Children.  My Daughter was very sick with respiratory issues from infancy, sick with RSV,  pneumonia and eventually a diagnosis of asthma got tacked onto her bill of health.  I refused to accept that my little girl would struggle to breathe for the rest of her life, so I began exploring every alternative option available to me to help her.  Changing her diet was what it took.  As soon as we eliminated genetically modified foods, we started to see major improvements.  Once we eliminated gluten too, her “asthma” vanished.  It hasn’t been back since.

Once I began to see the dramatic changes in my daughter, I decided the rest of our family should try it out too.  Health problems and ailments began to disappear, everyone was losing weight and feeling so much healthier.  Our hair and skin improved, immune systems became bullet proof and we were amazed by our transformations.

We will never go back.  So, our first step was food.  As time went on, we began to remove other toxins from our lives, bodies and home.  You can’t do it all at once, so choose the most important thing for you to begin with and start there.  Once you’ve mastered it and it becomes habit/routine, add another phase.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.  Your new life wont be, either.

Here are the different options of where to begin.

Welcome to your Get Started Guide: Mainstream to Crunchy

Water: Water is packed with chemical contaminants, fluoride and traces of medications and other impurities.  Consuming clean, pure water is very important for your health and your body.  Since your skin is your biggest organ and it absorbs 60% of what you put on it, the water you bathe in is just as important as the water you drink.  About half of the toxins you consume in a daily basis will come from your water supply.  We suggest using a water filtration system, and for drinking water we suggest the Big Berkey.  It has an extra set of filters to remove the arsenic and the fluoride.  This is what we use in our homes and would trust nothing else.  For the shower, we like the Aquasana filters.  With as much time as my kids spend splashing in the bath, I would hate to think that they are absorbing so many toxins when they are supposed to be getting clean!

Food: The American food supply is terrible.  Food is no longer FOOD.  It has been genetically modified, drown in pesticides and other chemicals and stripped of any nutritional value to your body.  We will go more into depth about this important issue, but for your get started guide – know that you need to be shopping for Non-GMO Verified foods and USDA organic foods to reduce the likelihood that you are consuming genetic material from different species, pesticides and chemical contaminants.  A great resource for shopping is the Non GMO Project, http://www.nongmoproject.org.  It’s imporant to note that in the world of processed foods, the word “natural”  means nothing.  “Organic” in most cases means that only 70% of the contents are organic, leaving room for 30% toxins.  USDA Organic is a safer bet, but even that label can contain GMOs.   Shop local farmers markets and get to know your farmers.  Ask how their animals are raised, how their produce is treated.  Look around your area for an organic food co-op, or small health food stores.

Cleaners:  Household cleaners all the way from laundry soap to tile cleaner are packed full of chemicals that are dangerous for your family.  Certain products contain respiratory irritants, contribute to indoor air pollution, are poisonous if ingested, and can be harmful if inhaled or touched. In fact, some cleaners are among the most toxic products found in the home. In 2000, cleaning products were responsible for nearly 10% of all toxic exposures reported to U.S. Poison Control Centers, accounting for 206,636 calls. Of these, 120,434 exposures involved children under six, who can swallow or spill cleaners stored or left open inside the home.  Cleaning ingredients vary in the type of health hazard they pose. Some cause acute, or immediate, hazards such as skin or respiratory irritation, watery eyes, or chemical burns, while others are associated with chronic, or long-term, effects such as cancer.  We suggest home-making your cleaning supplies (check out our DIY section for recipes), buying safer cleaning supplies or just sticking to soap and water.  We trust the Environmental Working Group to give you the truth here: http://www.ewg.org

Body Care: Back to your skin being your biggest organ.  We flood our body with dangerous chemicals every time we shower with the name brand shampoos, soaps and creams that we find on every drugstore shelf.  Every time we lather up with a creamy lotion, apply makeup, perfume or topical medications – we are just putting more chemicals into our bodies creating situations where the risks outweigh the benefits.  Homemade body care is very easy and inexpensive, and lots of pure products exist on the market – you just have to know what to look for.  The EWG is also a great resource for this. http://www.ewg.org

Medications & Supplements: Most medications sold are over-used, over-prescribed and not needed.  Sometimes they even mask the problem causing the true issue to become more serious.  Medications like Tylenol are filled with artificial food dyes, corn syrup (GMOs) and sugar.  Homeopathic Remedies and Holistic Options are generally much more effective and much safer options.  To further discuss your personal health concerns, seek out a Homeopath, Naturopath, or alternative health Practitioner (some MDs and DOs have a holistic focus).  You can search for them online, or use a directory such as:  www.homeopathicdirectory.com.

In addition to the resources we have provided, you can also request a free consultation with one of us Crunchy Goddesses, who are trained and certified in holistic living and health.  We can help you, or direct you to someone who can.

We wish you much luck and success in your journey to healthy living, and we are here to support you along the way!