In Perilous Danger of Becoming a Crunchy Granola Person

This is a follow-up post to the previous one (titled "Why I'm Always Cold", if you care to go read that first). I promised an update as I continue with some revised eating patterns.

Well, it might be starting to get out of control.

Not in terms of my body, though. That part is doing great. As of Sunday morning I was down 7 pounds total from where I started the morning I began this change of food habits. (The word "diet" does not seem fitting for what I'm doing, since I'm still eating plenty and I do not feel deprived.) I feel better and am no longer caffeine-dependent. I say this with some pride, as my Diet Coke habit has been tough to kick in the past. I had a small Diet Coke at McDonald's on Sunday morning and wasn't really that into it. Before we left, I rinsed out my cup and refilled it with ice water. I'm still having a Spark in the morning most of the time, but on Saturday I forgot. And guess what... I was fine. No caffeine-deprivation headaches, no sleepy-time crashing... nada. I've been walking on my breaks at work when the weather's nice, and I'm starting to actually like the exercise. I think it stabilizes my mood throughout the day a bit. My job can be pretty stressful, and there have been a lot of days in the past where by the time I got home I did not want to talk to humans for a while. I haven't had any of those days in the last couple of weeks, and I'm not sure if the change in food and exercise is what did it, but I'm sure it didn't hurt.

No, the trouble started when I started reading some of the other articles that were on some of the sites I was getting recipes for "clean" foods from. It seems that one thing leads to another in this lifestyle... you stop eating stuff with a bunch of weird chemicals in it, and suddenly you become aware of the zillions of other weird chemicals that you're ingesting/absorbing without really meaning to.

Before I go any further, let me pull over and park (as Ron would say). Inevitably when we discuss this subject, someone makes the comment, "But EVERYTHING is made of chemicals!" Yes, that's true. Some of those chemicals are even naturally ocurring, and some of those naturally occurring ones are even meant to be in your body. But when I say "chemicals", I am speaking of the man-made ones that you can't spell or pronounce without a chemistry degree that most likely do not belong in your body. I'd copy something off of a bottle of Diet Coke as an example, except I don't have one of those in the house. 

Getting back on the road (parking over!), I happen to be female. This seems to be inextricably linked to the use of various cosmetic products... shampoos, conditioners, perfumes, deodorants, shave gels, body wash, foundations, eyeshadows, mascaras... the list goes on and on. Your skin is the largest organ of your body, and something I read (don't know for sure if it's true but it certainly sounds plausible) stated that any sort of chemical you put on your skin is absorbed into your bloodstream in less than 30 seconds. Go read the ingredient labels of some of your cosmetic products, ladies. Decide how many of those things you actually WANT in your bloodstream. It's going to be pretty close to zero, if your bathroom is anything like mine was. 

Let me take this opportunity to say that my husband is an amazing human. He did not complain when I went out and spent probably far too much money on ingredients. He did not bat an eyelash when I took over the kitchen and made my own shampoo and conditioner. He did not comment when I *used* said homemade shampoo and conditioner. And that was day one. 

Day two I made my own deodorant. I even put it in an old deodorant container (I may have accidentally thrown away the last quarter inch or so of existing deodorant after reading the label), so I can dial it up just like regular deodorant. So far, no complaints. It's sort of a dark gray, which looks a little funny, but it goes on clear. The husband even justified that a little. When I asked him if he knew what kind of chemicals were in deodorant and that some of them were carcinogens, he said something about how we put it under our arms right where the lymph nodes are. He didn't complain about the homemade deodorant (nor has he complained about me being smelly, so I guess it's working). 

Day three we were cleaning the house. He was vacuuming the carpet in his "man cave" room, and noted that the carpet was smelly and that we needed to get some Carpet Fresh. The first thing out of my mouth was, "I think they have that at Dollar Tree." The next thing to pop into my head was, "Wow, I wonder how many nasties are in that stuff?" And I fled to Pinterest, which has become my first source of DIY info. About ten minutes later I brought him a "repurposed" frosting container (frosting recently tossed in garbage, because eew) with holes punched in the lid. "Try this," I said. We applied it generously to the carpet, waited a bit, then vacuumed. He admitted there was an improvement, though he informed me he did not prefer citrus cents. 

This "carpet fresh" was comprised of exactly two things. Baking soda and essential oil (sweet orange). 

Tonight when he was headed through the kitchen on his way to bed (he's not feeling well so he turned in early), I was standing at the stove over an improvised double boiler. Mind you, I don't know how to cook very well. He asked me teasingly, "What kind of meth are you cooking now?" I informed him that what was in the double boiler was beeswax, shea butter, and coconut oil, and what was in the bowl on the counter was honey, olive oil, and sweet orange essential oil, and that the two were just about to be combined and then poured into that muffin tin over there to make lotion bars. He just nodded and said okay, and made me promise to put at least a little money in my savings account this pay period. I get paid Thursday, so that's an easy promise. And I informed him that while it might be more of an investment initially to get the raw materials, it'll probably be cheaper in the long run since I'll be making stuff instead of buying it. 

After he went to bed, I made body spray. The lotion bars are cooling in the fridge. I am excited about them. They smell yummy. I'm also learning how to clean wax off of kitchen things. I think I will probably break down and get some cheap stuff at Goodwill that I use exclusively for my "meth-cooking". 

I also had a brief panic attack yesterday about plastic containers. Specifically, re-heating my lunch in plastic containers, because those things leach nasty chemicals when they get too hot or too cold. Ran to Dollar Tree. Dollar Tree came through for me. I now have glass containers with plastic snap-on lids. I got 3 of them to start, so $3. Yay! 

So I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I've gone a bit crunchy. Not entirely... I still dyed my hair tonight (it was too yellow), but then I followed it up with homemade conditioner. I am not yet insisting on all organic produce, nor do I forsee that happening (though I may buy some things organic). I plan to contiue experimenting with less toxic homemade versions of household cleaners and cosmetics. The scarcity of mango butter in Portland is the only thing stopping me from making some killer body lotion right now (that and I just used the last of my beeswax in the lotion bars that I made because I couldn't find mango butter, so they were my second pick). 

The boys don't like my chia seed pudding (I happen to love it!) but they've at least been accepting and supportive of me while I'm trying something new. And who knows... we might all be better for it.

I made a cinnamon/honey/lemon face mask tonight. It was slightly runny.