What if I told you that you were doing something everyday that is going to kill you. What if I could promise that you can do something very small to save your life. Would you do it? Sadly most people won't.
It boggles my mind how absolutely ignorant people are. It never ceases to amaze me. I get called names like "crunchy" "granola" "hippie" pretty frequently because I make lifestyle choices that are not only good for the planet but are health and will in fact make me live longer and better.
Our culture of fast and convenient is killing us. Not only the toll that stress is placing on our bodies but the products that we choose to indulge in daily. We are surrounded by death and passively sit by doing nothing as it steals out very lives away.
The funny thing is that I live much better than most people and yet I am probably more efficient than most too. There are very simple things you can do that will drastically change your life for the better. Not only for your health, the planet but for your wallet too.
Cleaning for example. I can clean my entire house using only naturally occurring substances. Vinegar, baking soda, water and on occasion tea tree essential oil. Distilled vinegar is a powerful cleaning agent and extremely effective at killing bacteria. Tea tree oil is a natural anti viral anti bacterial agent as well. Instead of polluting my home, body and the world with Clorox and other nasty chemicals I get my entire home sparkling clean with vinegar. The smell? I add a bit of lemon juice to my mixture and viola it's gone.
Since switching to natural cleaners my asthma has almost disappeared. I'm not having major allergenic episodes. Vacuuming doesn't bother me any more. And better yet I don't have to worry about my kid coming into contact with toxic substances and could poison him and do cause cancer.
A simple change that has saved us a lot of money and me my health.
Cloth diapers. EWWW! That's so gross!! At least that's what I'm told. Ummm you think that's nasty? Have you ever seen the mountain of diaper you create by using disposables that will never degrade. That's what is truly disgusting.
Cloth diapering has saved us an estimated cost of close to $2000 this year alone. My son has NEVER had diaper rash. I can rest well knowing that though he spends 24 hours a day in a diaper 7 days a week he is not being exposed to harsh chemicals and carcinogens. Yes, disposables diapers have TOXIC chemicals in that that no child should be exposed to. You know something else? It's easy. I wash diapers maybe twice a week. When it's poopy I rinse it in the toilet with my sprayer and flush. Done and done. Our diapers are air dried and sanitized in our high efficiency washer. It's fantastic and great for my son. But still people can't get over the convenience of disposables or the ick factor.
Here's another way to look at it: is cancer convenient? Obviously not. Yet the things we choose to expose ourselves to are leading us down a preventable path toward illness and death. Choosing convenience now means suffering later.
The products that we constantly put on our bodies are full of toxic chemicals that are KNOWN to be killers. We rub these nasty things on our skin where they are directly absorbed into our blood. We do this because we are told they will make us "pretty" "younger" "sexy." This is insanity. I got many disapproving grunts from friends and families when I announced that my son will not be doused in harmful chemicals. The damage done to my body is done but I will not allow it to continue into the next generation because they are convenient and smell good. Want proof? Visit : www.cosmeticsdatabase.com and look up your products for yourself. Prepare to be horrified.
It's the same thing with food. Choosing to eat organic and vegetarian may seem inconvenient (it's not) and expensive (only slightly more) but in the end I am much healthier because of it. I am not putting GMOs in my body. I am saying no to hormone injected, corn fed, meat. I refuse to eat an animal that spent it's life unable to move and never saw light. I refuse to eat something that was coated in feces. Yet millions of Americans knowingly choose to. It's disgusting. The price I pay upfront for healthy whole foods will be more than worth it when I have far fewer doctor bills as I age.
What's worse is the machismo that goes with. "A real man eats meat." What a load of horse shit! A real man takes care of his body and his family. A real man is manly enough to not care what others think. Not 50 years ago meat was served on Sundays for one meal now we eat it 3 times a day everyday. That is NOT healthy.
Wake up people! We are killing ourselves for convenience. We are sitting back while our lives are being stolen from us. Living simply is not foolish. It is not something to be mocked. It is life saving. We don't need more drugs to save us, we need to go back to basics.
I have a feeling this will be the first of my many "green" rants :-)
Good post! That is one reason I loved living in Oregon, because people were more conscientious about these topics. You are right that people eat meat in larger quantities than is healthy- it's absolutely slovenly!
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