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Monday, July 15, 2013

You clean your hair with what?!?!?

I have a secret.  I've been dabbling a little bit into the Natural Living realm of things lately.  Just dipping my toe into the pool of "crunchy granola-ness" if you will.  I don't even quite remember how it all started.  I think it was a mix of several different situations all happening at once, mainly:



I'm a total researcher and love to learn so it has been exciting to learn more and more about natural living and the small changes I can make in my life to be living healthier and more naturally.  We have been taking things slowly.  Really slowly.  And that's ok - I know it could easily become overwhelming to feel like I need to make a million changes all at once.  I also don't want to make any rash decisions.  I thought about throwing out my microwave once I read about all the horrible things it can do to your food.  But I'm pretty sure my husband would not be ok with that.  He's been great about the changes I've made so far, but I also don't think he's totally sold on this way of living so I'm trying not to scare him off.  Teehee.

So what changes have we made so far? 

We make our own dishwasher and laundry detergents.  I'm loving the laundry soap.  We use Fells Naptha, Super Washing Soda, and Borax and it smells soooo good and I love the way our clothes look and smell (when I remember to switch them from the washer to the dryer in time...)  I'm not super sold on our dishwasher detergent yet.  Most of the dishes come out fine, but I'm picky about my silverware and glasses looking squeaky clean and streak/residue free.  I've been adding vinegar as a rinse aid and still am not loving it so I will definitely be tweaking this recipe next time.

We are slowly replacing our cleaning products with natural alternatives.  I've made my own granite cleaner for our countertops and was using a vinegar and water mix for general cleaning.  I also went to a Norwex party recently and have been using their microfiber cloths for cleaning.



We are growing food in our garden.  This hardly counts since it has barely been enough to supplement food we buy at the grocery store.  Right now, we are eating our own lettuce and cucumbers and that's it, but it's a baby step.  Who knows where it will go from here.  Gardening is hard work.  But don't those veggies look delicious? ;)

We make our own toothpaste.  This one took a little getting used to.  I don't like the taste of our current batch, so I need to research some new recipes for this one. But I do like the fact that I know what ingredients I'm putting into my mouth.  My breath is fresh and my teeth feel clean.  I'll take it.

We don't use shampoo anymore. What??  This might not be as weird anymore as it was a few months ago, I've seen it floating around online quite a bit.  Then again, if you're not in the natural living sphere, maybe it is still weird.  Either way, we have switched out our shampoo and conditioner for baking soda and ACV.  The real miracle to this switch is the fact that I didn't ask hubby to make this change with me.  I let him finish up our shampoo and started testing this method out on myself.  When we ran out of shampoo, he decided to try out the baking soda and ACV and loved it! He said it gave him the hairstyle he'd been trying get with hair products but never could.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to convince him to use this stuff on his hair, so I'm glad they did the convincing themselves!

So now you know my secret.  As you can see, this is a total work in progress and I'm just trying to keep an open mind about everything and learn as I go.  I figure small, slow changes are still better than no changes.  My goal is to keep me and my family as healthy as possible as naturally as possible.  Who knew that would mean cleaning my hair with baking soda?!  :p


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