We are currently working through a 30-day guide to low-tox living and we are diving into week three today! No matter what you have accomplished thus far, the fact that it is on your heart to make changes is a wonderful and positive thing. It’s all about baby steps. With that being said, let’s dive into week three of my 30-day guide to low-tox living!

*Note: If you missed the first and second week of my 30-day guide to low-tox living, you can catch them right here: Week One and Week Two.

If you haven’t yet, be sure and download the free printable guide to have as a visual while you tackle each baby step:

You can download that resource for free right here!

A 30-day Guide to Low-Tox Living: Week 03

DAY 15: Start Swapping Your Makeup For Better

The beauty industry is highly unregulated. And the average woman applies 80 chemicals to her body by breakfast every day. This is through skin care, makeup, and hair products. I know this one can feel like one of the most monumental steps when it comes to reducing your toxin load. Not to mention, makeup is expensive! Simply throwing out what you currently have feels so wasteful. However, when we understand how important the ingredients are that we apply to our skin every day? It’s a major step in the right direction!

I have tackled this for myself in a very simple way. Once I used up the entirety of one product, I simply replaced it with a cleaner option. So when that mascara ran out? I added the Savvy Minerals one from Young Living to my cart. For me, utilizing the clean products through the Savvy Minerals line from Young Living made the most sense. Why? Because I order so many of our everyday products there as well. Not to mention, I also get points back on everything purchased. Plus, I love the makeup! However, there are many brands out there to give a try and enjoy cleaner options for your skin!

P.S. If you are needing to try out a clean brand of makeup, you can shop my Savvy Minerals favorites right here.

DAY 16: Sweat Every Day

This one is a habit-building baby step, but when we make moving our bodies part of our everyday routines we will see the most incredible benefits to our health. When it comes to helping our body detox from the heavy metals and toxin load, of course, our liver and kidneys are part of that detox process. However, sometimes the burden is too much and our body stores the excess in fat. What secondary system helps our body get rid of the excess? Sweating!

Making sure we sweat is a way to help our body flush out even more toxins. On top of that? Daily exercise helps us to boost our heart health, increase immunity, unclog pores and clear up skin, as well as uplift our mood and improve our mental health.

DAY 17: Know Your Local Water Rating

The water coming through our pipes contains many contaminants such as fluoride, PFAS, heavy metals, lead, pharmaceutical drugs, and more. And with things like fluoride being a known neurotoxin and PFAS never breaking down in the body, this is all having effects on our health in one way or another. 

A great first step is to find out the ratings of your local water supply. If you go to ewg.org/tapwater you can type in your city or zip code and have a better understanding of what is coming through your pipes. Here is a look at what I discovered where we live:

Don’t get me wrong! Modern-day conveniences like running water in our homes is an incredible thing! However, I want peace of mind knowing that the water our family is drinking is as safe as possible. There are many wonderful filters on the market for you to find a good fit for your home.

Just to name a few: AquaTru, Berkey, and ProOne.

DAY 18: Throw Out Your Perfumes & Colognes

One of the first baby steps I took was tossing out any perfumes and colognes in our home. Synthetic fragrances have terrible effects on our endocrine system and hormones. And unfortunately, they are added to many products we purchase regularly. While this baby step has developed into saying no to “fragrance” listed on the back of any products, it started with the ditching of our perfumes and colognes.

But why no synthetic fragrances? Approximately 95% of chemicals used in synthetic fragrances are derived from petroleum. And remember, because of a loophole with the federal government, the ingredient listed on a product as “fragrance” can actually mean thousands of chemicals added to the product to create its scent. But again, you can dive into all of that along with studies right here.

Now, we make our own using essential oils that smell incredible without harmful effects. I haven’t once missed any of my old favorites. I’m working on a future post to share how to DIY your perfume and cologne that will also include my favorite blends and recipes. Be sure and keep an eye out for it!

DAY 19: Switch Out Those Hand Soaps & Sanitizers

When I thought about just how often we wash our hands in our home, I was so excited to ditch what we had before and make the jump to a clean, plant-based solution. Trust me, I relished in those Bath & Body Works hand soap sales as much as the next person back in the day. But when you start to know better, you get addicted to doing better!

Throughout this 30-day guide to low-tox living, you have heard me mention the Thieves line from Young Living. Discovering these products has truly been the easy button for me as a mom to ensure that what I am bringing into my home is most importantly safe for our family, but also gets the job done. We have loved the change to Thieves hand soaps. During the fall season, I use the regular Thieves foaming hand soap, but then I love switching to Winer Nights through the winter season and then the Lushious Lemon scent for spring and summer. 

DAY 20: Toss the Plastics In Your Kitchen

This is one we did very early on in our low-tox living journey. Easy for the most part since I was more than willing to rid my life and kitchen of the crappy plastic save ware that you could never find matching lids for anyway. The struggle used to be so real! You might know about BPA-free options when it comes to plastics. However, it has been shown that the alternatives are just as toxic and harmful. And when we are talking about chemicals like phthalates and bisphenol A where we are cooking, preparing, and eating our food? No thank you!

Instead of plastic save ware, we made the switch to glass save ware. Instead of plastics cups, we switched to glass. *Mom hack: We love purchasing mason jars for everyday drinking glasses. Super inexpensive and easy to replace if broken from little ones handling them. We currently are also working through ditching one-use plastics such as Ziploc bags. I have absolutely loved the Stasher bags we are collecting to make this happen!

DAY 21: Go Natural With Your Toothpaste

Come to find out, the products sold to us on store shelves are not always what they seem. I was shocked when I found out that our favorite family toothpaste actually contained some awful ingredients. An example? Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. You know when you are brushing your teeth and work up a really good lather? Those suds make you feel like it’s getting the job done, things are getting clean. Sodium lauryl sulfate is the compound used as a foaming agent in cosmetic products, cleaning products, shampoos, soaps, and in your toothpaste.

The problem with this ingredient, which also happens to be used in insecticides, is that it can irritate your mouth and strip away the lining. This can cause something as simple as canker sores to something more serious like organ toxicity. How? Because even though we don’t ingest our toothpaste, it is being absorbed through the mucous membranes in our mouth.

As I mentioned, this is just one of the handful of ingredients I realized I did not want anywhere near our mouths. Of course, I shared more about it right here which you can dive into, but in the meantime? Use that EWG app and find yourself a healthier and cleaner option!

Another week down and even more baby steps we have tackled in an effort to reduce our toxin load and create safer homes for our families. What has been your favorite baby step that you have tackled so far? Have you noticed any improvements in any area from ditching toxins?

Be sure and catch Week Four of our 30-days to low-tox living right here!