Realistically Holistic.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’m a health and wellness nerd. Anything holistic brings out my inner geek and I love spending time going down natural remedy rabbit holes….but I wasn’t always this way.

I used to trust the system…I figured that whatever was sold on shelves or prescribed by doctors couldn’t possibly be bad. There were standards to live up to, and tests to pass, right?

Not always.

Sometimes it takes a huge and negative turn of events to open your eyes. The adage, “It’s not real until it happens to you..” stands very true for us humans.

When my son was 2 years old that’s exactly what happened for me and so…here I am. Health nut with a cape and tights on….and fingers on a keyboard to give YOU my take on being holistic.

Realistically holistic.

Why realistically? Well, here’s the deal. The unfortunate truth is that living healthily is not always cheap. It takes less time and effort to drive through and grab a 99 cent cheeseburger than it does to shop for organic produce. That, and we don’t all have a Gwyneth Paltrow budget, right?!

When I started my path to recover my son’s health at age 2, I was quickly overwhelmed by the cost of everything that was meant to promote health, and prevent illness. Food, bathing products, cleaning products, supplements, healing modalities, you name it…all of it cost an arm and a leg.

It was worth it. No doubt….but I knew I’d have to figure out ways to stay on the wellness path with the spending limit of a miser. What I discovered was, that the health and wellness path is priceless….what you pay now will save you in spades later…but you can DEFINITELY cut some corners to make this path completely achievable.

So…what did I do?

I researched. A lot. Not just online.

I became close and communicated often with the doctors that treated my son. Acupuncturists, Chinese herbalists, naturopaths, chiropractors, homeopaths, allergists, neurologists, speech pathologists, D.O.s, and pediatricians. I took notes. Tons of them.

I wanted to be 100% holistic, but I always needed to be realistic about it. I also made decisions to cut out unnecessary expenses in order to have a little more to invest in our health.

One less Starbucks special concoction could equal to one more homeopathic remedy. It really can be that simple.

You’re probably ready to have me stop rambling and get on with it right? Ha! Ok….here we go!

FOOD

When it comes to the foods we eat I do try to stay as organic and GMO free as possible. To make this more affordable I go by the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen list. Not all produce has to be organic because some of it simply does not have the amount of pesticides that others do.

The Dirty Dozen are the ones you should buy organic….the Clean Fifteen you can get away with buying non-organic. I also prefer to buy organic when it comes to grains, meats, eggs, and dairy products.

Dirty Dozen: strawberries, spinach, kale, nectarines, apples, grapes, peaches, cherries, pears, tomatoes, celery, and potatoes.

Clean Fifteen: avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, onions, papaya, sweet peas, eggplants, asparagus, cauliflower, cantaloupe, broccoli, mushrooms, cabbage, honeydew, and kiwi.

SUPPLEMENTS, PERSONAL CARE, CLEANING PRODUCTS

When it comes to the things we use in the home for cleaning, laundry, personal care, and supplements I aim to buy as clean as possible. Don’t get me started on how or why so many carcinogens and endocrine disruptors are allowed to be ingredients in the stuff we are sold on a daily basis.

Once your eyes are open to this…there is no going back. Great smelling laundry and armpits should not have to come with a side of cancer. Seriously.

So…in order to keep my home, laundry and our bodies truly clean I opt for products that contain little to no of the following: petroleum, phthalates, sodium hydroxide, parabens, ammonia, triclosan, formaldehyde, synthetic fragrances, and SLS.

There are a ton of other toxins in our products we should avoid, but these are a good start. Part of becoming realistically holistic is to to take some baby steps…the process can be overwhelming if you try to overhaul everything you use and are used to all at once!

Unfortunately, the cleaner the item, the higher the price tag usually is….so I love using websites like Vitacost and wait for sales at natural grocers like Sprouts to stock up on my products. I also use rewards points to get some of my other supplements, essential oils, and cleaning products from Young Living, and really love the variety of clean body and home care products available at Trader Joe’s for the pennies on the dollar.

Same goes for supplements. Look for brands that use minimal fillers if any. Find great deals at Vitacost and again, Trader Joe’s is a great place for good prices on supplements and I have insider information on their best practices so I feel VERY comfortable buying from them. Health doesn’t have to cost a ton!!

BEAUTY AND SKINCARE

When I started on my holistic journey I did not give a rat’s behind about my looks. I was younger and overwhelmed by motherhood and recovering my kiddo….any extra dollar I had I was going to spend on him, not me.

This changed once I hit forty though! All of a sudden I started to feel like I needed to start taking better care of myself as well…after all I was living in Los Angeles the home of the perpetually Botoxed and plastic. My ego started nagging at me and I went down the anti aging/skincare/beauty rabbit hole…and quickly.

I discovered essential oils for my skin, studied the ingredients in my cosmetics and skincare, and knew I had to go clean with all those goods too.

I also soon realized that the cleaner my products got, the better my skin started responding to it. Makes sense though….our skin, and our bodies are not meant to respond to chemicals! Annnnd….our skin also absorbs up to 60% of what we put on it!

So…I cut out products that contain aluminum, mineral oils, parabens, PEG, phthalates, propylene glycol, siloxanes, SLS, and synthetic fragrances. If some of these ingredients sound the same as the ones I listed above under cleaning products, you’re right.

Think about that for a minute. Your eye cream has the same ingredients as your laundry detergent…why????

Yeah…like I said. Once you wake up to this stuff, you can’t go back.

I replaced my stuff little by little. I am still working on replacing my makeup since I rarely use it. Any makeup I have bought for my daughter (which she only ever wears for dance recitals) is 100% pure. She has better quality stuff than I do!!

Brands I love are Crunchi, Young Living, and Pacifica. They are definitely not cheap compared to the Wet N’ Wild of our youth, but you can price check online and Target sells Pacifica at decent discounts once in a while. Less is more anyways….unless you’re a make-up artist or a performer….do you really need a huge case of cosmetics? Nah.

EXCEPTIONS

I do make some exceptions. Like I said, I ain’t Gwyneth and I do have a budget. My hair is naturally frizzy and I started getting grays at age 30 (suspiciously right after having my first kid).

I dye my own hair because I’m not ready to embrace becoming a silver fox just yet…and while I prefer natural hair dyes….I sometimes opt for the traditional crap $4 box of which I know is a chemical storm. I do have a budget, after all.

Same with hairspray. I’m also using up the last of my Bath and Body works body spray and opting for natural scents from now on.

Baby steps, remember? 🙂

DOCTORS

Remember at the beginning of this post I mentioned the huge community of doctors and alternative medicine practitioners I worked with?

They opened my eyes to the concept of preventing illness and supporting your immune system. They taught me how to keep my son, and later my daughter and myself, healthy.

I paid a premium for my son to see many of these doctors as not all accepted insurance, but his recovery could not have a price put on it…and neither could the education I got from them.

I learned that investing just a little more upfront when it comes to your foods and home & health products makes things much cheaper in the long run.

My kids both graduated elementary school with perfect attendance awards and their pediatrician has always joked at the fact that she only sees them once a year for their yearly check-ups.

This is no coincidence.

I highly highly highly recommend finding integrative doctors for your family as opposed to strictly Western or allopathic medicine doctors. This is another huge piece of the realistically holistic puzzle.

Integrative doctors treat you from both a holistic and allopathic perspective. You get the best of both worlds which, again in the long run, will save you tons of money.

If your doctor only prescribes meds to treat everything that ails you….I suggest it’s time to look elsewhere. If a doctor doesn’t tell you about the benefits of nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, mindset, supplementation, etc….I recommend that you run.

So…there you have it! A few ways to become realistically holistic! At the end of the day, no one is going to advocate for your health better than you are. Treat your body like you would treat a luxury vehicle or whatever else you love and want to keep in good shape for the long-term.

Avoid pesticides and chemicals as much as you can in the things you eat, use on your body and in your home. Spend a little extra time comparison shopping and this new lifestyle won’t have you going for broke.

Find a doctor that will treat your body with the respect it deserves and understands the ROOT of disease, not just the symptoms. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how affordable natural remedies are too. Holistic does not have to be scary.

The rest will come easy. You’ll see! 🙂

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header photo by Jared Rice @unsplash