“I make my own shampoo/conditioner!”
“I haven’t used commercial toothpaste in 5 years!”
“I didn’t cook meat for six years! (but I still eat meat)”
“I make my bone broth.”
“I make my coconut milk.”
“I believe in reducing and reusing. Recycling is my last resort.”
“I will not buy zip lock bags, cotton balls, plastic containers, etc.”
The response I often get from people is, “I could never do that!” TRUST ME! You can! I have been on this journey for the past ten years, and I’ve been taking baby steps to get here. There are still more changes I want to make… but rather than changing overnight, I realized baby steps worked better for me.
There are so many blogs that explain these things better than I do, but why am I writing about it? In the past few months, I’ve been sharing my journey of clean and minimal lifestyle, and a few of my friends have said, “oh wait… you make it sound doable.” I get it. Sometimes, when you read other people’s blogs, it sounds overwhelming and daunting. I’ve been there. I am not the person to grow a pumpkin to make pumpkin pie. I will buy canned pumpkin puree. I like convenience just as much as the next person. However, I have been journeying towards a healthier, cleaner, sustainable, and eco-friendly lifestyle… and if I can do it, then anyone can (really)! So with the nudging of a few of my friends, I have decided to write about easy things you can do to be on your journey!
So what happened ten years ago?
I was diagnosed with massive fibroids that made my doctor say, “there is no way you should be walking around with no pain.” I still don’t understand, but I had zero pain (which is the reason it lingered longer than was healthy and led to other issues later on). My doctor’s recommendation was three months of hormone therapy (which cost $3000 with insurance) as my first course of action. My blood test results weren’t much better. She had put me on six supplements that included giant pills that made me gag each time. At the time, I was watching a lot of food documentaries, and I thought, “There has to be some truth to all this food heals stuff… why not give it a shot?” So for five months, I juiced 4-5 days/week for breakfast, didn’t cook any meat at home but allowed myself to order meat in restaurants as long as they were good quality, and ate more vegetables in those three months than I probably ever had my entire life. Oh, and I threw up while taking one of my supplements during the first month, so I just said, “screw it… I’m not taking these anymore.”
Six months later, I went back to my doctor for a follow-up, and she was shocked. All my fibroids had shrunk by 50+%, and my blood test results were near perfect (and I had stopped taking all my supplements, remember?). My doctor said, “I have not seen results like this… whatever you’re doing, keep it up!”
It occurred to me at that time that changing my diet made a huge impact (and saved me from a potential mountain of medical bills). Then I started thinking about other areas of my life that may be affecting my health and wellness. At the time, I had a couple of friends that were giving up chemicals in cleaning products or self-care products. Some of the information given to me was daunting… but at the time, I loved a good challenge. I decided to start with no-poo (washing hair with homemade shampoo once/week to re-train hair for 6-8 weeks). When I think back, that was a horrible way to start no-poo, but that’s what all the blogs said to do. Now I tell people, it’s not worth it! Start washing your hair every other day! Take baby steps!
So this is why I have decided to write about it a clean, healthy, minimal, sustainable lifestyle. I am passionate about living a healthy (both physical and mental) lifestyle. I’m still learning new things and trying new things. And of course, whatever I have learned, I love to share with my friends! So I have decided to include changes I’ve made over the past ten years by writing one post at a time (hopefully weekly)… and share tips I have learned that are doable. Trust me, taking baby steps will help you keep it up!
gloria s. lee 