Eco Living is Alkalizing-Celebrate Earth Day

In celebration of Earth Day coming up this thursday April 22nd I would love to share how choosing to be more conscious of our environment can be incredibly alkalizing for your body.  About 2 years ago I made a conscious effort to eliminate harsh cleaners, iffy plastics, non-organic produce, pesticides, non-voc paints, off gassing items like plastic shower curtains, rubber backed bath mats, mattresses and more.  I also re-evaluated my personal hygiene products like make up, shampoos, soaps, lotions etc.  And I have noticed a huge difference in many ways.

Firstly, there is a real sense of inner peace around the fact that I have consciously made this effort to protect my family and our planet.  When I use one of my newly chosen products there is such a sense of satisfaction, the fragrance alone of my Caldrea counter spray lifts my spirits and in turn alkalizes my body, just by shining my sink or washing my counter tops.  Who knew that house work could alkalize my body this way!  Essentially just by enjoying the task at hand, you are eliminating the production of metabolic acids which are created by negative thoughts and stress, thereby allowing your body to maintain a more alkaline state.  This is important as begrudging the house work and wishing you didn’t have to do it, you are further acidifying your body.  Make sense?  You should try it if you haven’t.  Do you have any favourite products you’ve found that make you feel great when you use them that you’d like to share?  I’m always on the hunt for a new lovely scented product that makes cleaning not so bad.

Secondly, I feel much better in my own home with natural products around me.  I don’t sneeze as often, I have fewer headaches and a clearer head.  I recall scrubbing the shower a long time back and the harsh cleaner made me feel so light headed I had to lie down.  It was horrific.  I instantly changed brands to a lesser strength but it still wasn’t as natural as the cleaners I can find today.  I am grateful that there is such a movement to save our planet that manufacturers big and small are offering options for us to choose vs making our own home remedies.  It’s certainly possible to create some of these basic recipes but not everyone has the time or the desire to get creative this way.  I still pull out the baking soda and vinegar for certain jobs and I use essential oils to jazz  things up a bit and add the alkalizing element.

Thirdly, by adapting a household policy to only buy organic our health factor has improved immensely and once again this conscious choice leads to a more peaceful feeling in my knowing that I am providing the best possible food options for my family.  I also have a sense of contribution with my grocery dollars voting for more organic produce to be made available.  Again these thoughts are all alkalizing versus my thoughts prior to having implemented these changes.  I would have those pangs of guilt when I chose unhealthy options and non-organic items thinking “they were less expensive and my kids won’t eat anything else”.  It was an illusion to think that buying my kids a processed turkey or tofu hot dog was cheaper and easier than a sprouted tortilla and hummus with veggies or agave sweetened jam and almond butter tortilla.  These are similarly priced, just as simple and is 10x’s better than the hot dog even if it is a tofu dog.  And guess what, my kids happily eat this and many other new things while understanding what’s really in a hot dog!  If you are curious about hot dogs take a peek here at this video of how a hot dog is made.  Just the massive scale of the operation is enough for me. I just ordered these two books for my kids and we’ll be sure to read them on Earth Day so that they get a clear understanding of how they can be more aware and contribute too.  The Organic Farm by Shawn R. Frost is a friendly thorough tour of an organic farm including some alarming facts as footnotes such as “The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates pesticides contaminate the ground water in 38 states, polluting the primary source of drinking water for more than half the country’s population”.  Shocking isn’t it?  The second book That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals is beautifully illustrated and written by Ruby Roth.  She takes a candid, compassionate look at the emotional lives of animals and their plight on factory farms while using colourful friendly animals to introduce vegetarianism and veganism to children.  Minimizing or eliminating animal proteins in your diet will greatly impact our planet in a positive manner.  Check out this fascinating YouTube with Michael Pollan the author of  The Omnivore’s Dilemma who will make you want to read his book.

As much as I’ve done to date to become more eco friendly the efforts being made all around us are much more extensive than my little contribution. I find it tricky to be on top of all the eco friendly options available to us.  Thus I picked up this book called Ecoholic Home that provides tonnes of ideas for carrying on with my eco friendly alkalizing journey.  I loved it so much I bought the previous edition. Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products and Services in Canada.  I highly recommend both books if you would like to get started or would like to continue your journey and reduce your foot print while minimizing your exposure to deadly toxins you may not even be aware of.

Below is another lovely book that is very inspiring by Sheherazade Goldsmith, A Slice of Organic LifeWhat I love about this book is the real back to basics, back to the farm kind of ideas that all make sense.  Things that in our modern busy hectic city lives we have forgotten.  Things that are important for living harmoniously with nature and treating our planet with care and in turn providing our families with healthier options.  Simple ideas like planting an apple tree in a pot (you can choose one with small root stock) or figs-yum, bake bread- good old fashioned healthy additive free bread, grow and dry your own herbs, start a compost-even on your apt balcony, collect rain water, garden w/o pesticides. All these great ideas used to be everyday activities.  It’s what the generations before us did everyday.  If we look at the rates of disease back then of course it was minimal especially this cancer epidemic we have today.  Not only were the foods healthier back then but the lifestyle of living a simple life, free from the stresses that we live with today, translated to much longer life spans for the average person. We should pay attention if we want to live to be a hundred!

This week I encourage you to think about your existing habits and what you can do to be even more conscious of our environment and easier on your hectic lifestyle.  We all know that change is needed and that we should be part of the movement to be proactive with our health and reduce our footprint.  If we don’t consider our habits and our impact, Sheherazade Goldsmith says “the kind of world that we might end up passing on to our grandchildren doesn’t bear thinking about.”

If you have any activities planned for earth day please share.  I love ideas and my kids would be thrilled to partake in earth friendly activities. Are you up for adopting a new habit? Do you already make a daily contribution that you can share?  Recycling, reusing or reducing, these all count.  I’d love to hear:)

I liked this quote from David B.Smith. “I want to see the world go round.”  He’s dedicated his life to making it so, read here.  We all know the world needs to keep going round and we have to do our part to make sure it continues to do so.

PS. I’ve just become an Amazon affiliate so the links to Amazon are part of my affiliate program.