Attempting to Use More Environmentally Friendly Products.

There are no failures, only new beginnings!

At least that’s how I see it. I didn’t work out as hard and as often as I normally do last week. I definitely snacked too much. But my drive is back this week. I even started doing yoga again. Tara Stiles is my yogi if I am limited on time. I love her YouTube videos and have pinned some on Pinterest for quick references. (I am City Mouse on Pinterest if you want to check it out). I started to do her Core Strength for Beginners 9 minute yoga video daily. What an ab workout! Have I been doing sit-ups all wrong up until this point? Why do I hurt so much the day after? I am not discouraged! My plan is to do the routine every day of October and see how much better I can get. I even went all fangirl and had a Tara Stiles inspired smoothie this morning. I used one that she posted on Instagram. Her recipe is literally just the ingredients in a line, which I love, and then I added a few ingredients of my own.

So my very yummy smoothie this morning was,

Frozen banana, Spinach, Almond milk, All-natural Peanut Butter, Ice, Chocolate Protein Powder, Oatmeal, Flax Seed. Blend together.

I am so full I can barely move.

Another diet tweak I have done is I have started to eat more protein and more green vegetables. I also have been using nutritional yeast on everything instead of cheese. It took awhile to get used to the taste, but my husband introduced me to it. My favourite meal to use it in is scrambled eggs with roasted garlic, spinach, chopped tomato, and mushrooms. I add in a large handful of nutritional yeast and stir it in at the last minute, then remove from heat and serve. So great as a protein packed lunch or in small portions as a post workout snack.

Snacks! So important. I usually have a handful of almonds, a rice cake with all natural pb, or a protein smoothie. Lately I have been failing and eating rice crackers as a snack but it’s a terrible choice. I am never full and end up over-eating at dinner time.

Besides my recent health obsession, which has been renewed after last week’s laziness about it, I have been fired up about using as natural as possible everything.

I have recycled and reused things since I can remember, but it’s not enough. I can do more. I have always worried about the amount of packaging used on things, and try to buy used whenever possible. I reuse everything from foil to plastic bags. I even wash out my Ziploc lunch bags to reuse as much as possible. I never buy bottled water and if we buy bottled juice it is the two or four liter option, and we reuse the bottle until it falls apart.

Recently I have been obsessed with the idea of ground water and cleaning products.

Cleaning products give off emissions of chemicals and smells. The smells give me a headache, so that is a huge motivation for me on its own. We started to buy the Method cleaners. I love their fabric softeners but their cleaning products are so smelly I can’t stand it. If you are so natural than why do you smell so fake, Method? Every time you clean with unnatural products and wash the cloth off in the washing machine or sink, those chemicals have to go back out in to the environment. That doesn’t sit well with me. I am going to start using vinegar, baking soda and the like as soon as we have finished the cleaners in the bin. Chatelaine, Real Simple and Pinterest have great ideas! Also, the website Mind Body Green will have suggestions as well. It’s also cheaper this way.

Another concern for me is my shampoo, body wash and conditioners in the shower. My hair, my skin, and my ground water don’t need all of those chemicals. My Canadian solution is LUSH products. I just started using Cynthia Sylvia Stout Shampoo and their Veganese conditioner. The girls at my local LUSH (shout out to the Market Mall staff!) were very attentive and asked a lot of questions before recommending products. My hair is tricky because, although short; it is curly, with medium to thin strands but thick because I have a TON of hair, and dry. It’s also not soft, but not coarse…. that weird in between. They also gave me a sample of Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy conditioner (I love the Ren & Stimpy reference!) which I am dying to try. They warned me that there may be a transition period while my hair gets used to natural products but I have already noticed a positive change (three days in).

We use one more thing from LUSH currently. My friend gave me a jar of Sweetie Pie Shower Jelly because she wasn’t in love with the smell. Turns out, neither am I. I prefer Whoosh. But it makes a fantastic children’s shampoo! We used it one night when we ran out of Johnson & Johnson’s and it was WAY BETTER. Less chemicals and smells better. Isabella’s dry scalp is gone, her hair is softer, and the kid’s hair is incredibly easy to brush. Both of my kids have incredibly soft and sensitive skin and the shower jelly doesn’t irritate it. I also use the shower jelly as a body wash and as a shaving gel. Works great for both and one little pot goes a long, long, long way.

I am not being paid by LUSH to say this, I am just very excited to find Canadian products that are better for the environment and make our bodies all shiny and clean and beautiful. I buy Canadian whenever possible and lately I have been very concerned with as natural and as safe for the environment as possible. With both ends of production, by the way. You have to think of how they treated the environment when they were making it as well.

I think that’s enough for today. I have a whole list of other ways I could improve my relationship to the environment, but those can wait.

Any other suggestions of environmentally friendly products I could try?

 

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