Living Clean: The Journey Continues

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As well as testing how well the all-purpose cleaner did on the kitchen worktops, we were interested to see if the Biological Odour and Spot Remover did in fact work on upholstery. We found it effective at removing a fresh orange juice stain off a rug. Using the Biological Drain Maintainer was rather satisfying too and it comes in a neat little recyclable sachet. We poured it down the sink at night and ran the tap in the morning to give it a little spruce. Melemis SM. Relapse prevention and the five rules of recovery. Yale J Biol Med. 2015;88(3):325-332. Essential oils can be used to create glass cleaners and shower sprays," says Cameron. “They also break down grease. The essential oils that I’ve personally used are tea tree, lemon oil, and lavender.”

Do you know how toxic your water is even if you’re using a filter? EWG has this awesome resource where you can type in your zip code and get a list of the toxic ingredients in your water. For example, for my zip code, this is what we have in our water: What you can do about your toxic water I was having some health issues, went to the naturopath and got some blood work which showed I was very intolerant (the highest on the scale) to eggs and dairy. At the time we were just buying the eggs and cheese from the grocery store. We completely cut eggs and dairy out of our diet, and then slowly incorporated high-quality, raw, and pastured eggs and dairy into our diet again. I had no issues! This is very anecdotal, but I’m not the only one with a testimony like this. Drinking water not only helps your body to function better overall, but it can also help to detox and flush out your system. I tend to lean toward the direction of giving my body .5-1 oz of water per lb of weight. This logic makes the most sense to me because it’s specific to my body weight. In general, though, just drink more water! Saxbe DE, Repetti R. No place like home: home tours correlate with daily patterns of mood and cortisol. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2010 Jan;36(1):71-81. doi:10.1177/0146167209352864. PMID: 19934011. Clean living lifestyle change: drink one more glass of water per day until you’re up to optimal ounces per day.Lang M, Krátký J, Shaver JH, Jerotijević D, Xygalatas D. Effects of anxiety on spontaneous ritualized behavior. Curr Biol. 2015 Jul 20;25(14):1892-7. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.05.049. PMID: 26096971. Clothes swaps – known as swishing – are one of the greenest ways to refresh your wardrobe. They offer credits based on the value of the items you bring, which can be swapped for items brought by others. Avoid trends and hunt for quality pieces you’ll wear for years. Find one near you at swishing.com. The Restart Project is a social enterprise that aims to fix our relationship with electricals and electronics. Cofounder Janet Gunter says the first step in keeping household appliances for longer is regular cleaning. “By simply cleaning and maintaining your white goods, laptop or mobile, you will prolong its life.” Restart runs a nationwide network of skill-sharing workshops as well as promoting a directory of commercial repair options in London. (See also repaircafe.org for events in your area.) “If we don’t have access to spare parts,” says Gunter, “these appliances will be thrown away, which has a huge carbon impact.” Brown S, Tracy EM, Jun M, Park H, Min MO. Personal network recovery enablers and relapse risks for women with substance dependence. Qual Health Res. 2015;25(3):371-385. doi:10.1177/1049732314551055

Dearing RL, Stuewig J, Tangney JP. On the importance of distinguishing shame from guilt: Relations to problematic alcohol and drug use. Addict Behav. 2005;30(7):1392-1404. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2005.02.002 Clean living lifestyle change: Chose an activity that you love and commit to doing it at least one more time per week and gradually increase until you reach at least 3 times per week. Clean living lifestyle change 12 Swap to non-toxic products Marketing will make the term ‘natural flavors’ sound like a good thing! However, the term ‘natural flavors’ is just another term for chemically processed. To earn the term “natural” the flavor only has to have one tiny drop of a natural flavor and the rest of the substance can be chemically processed. For example, the flavoring could be 1 percent real strawberry but 99% chemically made. This is obvious, but it’s probably my favorite benefit of having a clean living lifestyle! When I’m being good about clean living, I have so much more energy to care for my sweet baby boy! When I’m struggling to live clean, so does my energy! 4. You’ll sleep better WIRED tested: The Eco-friendly Complete Cleaning Kit, which was filled with essential cleaners for each part of your home. Inside the cardboard caddy, you’ll find a brush, three microfibre cloths, a dry carpet cleaner and a selection of all-purpose cleaners including a very effective glass cleaner and limescale remover and bathroom cleaner in one. The solutions have a mild inoffensive scent, but the ingredients listening was a little vague on exactly what makes the ‘fragrance’.

Hendershot CS, Witkiewitz K, George WH, Marlatt GA. Relapse prevention for addictive behaviors. Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 2011;6:17. doi:10.1186/1747-597X-6-17 Similarly, while we are on the topic of controlling what’s in your food – eat out less. The more you eat out, the less control you have of what’s in your food, what your food is cooked on, or how your food is prepared. Commit to eating one less meal out per month. That’s a totally doable change – if you’re eating out once per week, start by cutting out one of those per month. Then continue to cut out as possible. I’ll tell you, once you start cooking more from scratch, you won’t even want to eat out because your food will taste so much better at home!