Living Clean: The Journey Continues

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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: drink one more glass of water per day until you’re up to optimal ounces per day. The using life is not a clean one-no one knows this better than we do. Some of us lived in physical squalor, caring neither for our surroundings nor ourselves. Worse, though, than any external filth was the way most of us felt inside. The things we did to get our drugs, the way we treated other people, and the way we treated ourselves had us feeling dirty. Many of us recall waking too many mornings just wishing that, for once, we could feel clean about ourselves and our lives. When you rid your home and your body of toxins and start living a clean lifestyle, your body will thrive. 8. You’ll probably save money

This is kept very general for a reason. Not everybody likes a traditional “workout regime” and I’m a big believer in finding what works for you and doing that. If you love hiking until you work up a sweat, but can’t stand the gym – go for a few hikes a week. If you love doing Crossfit but hate Pilates, go to Crossfit! In any case, you want to make sure you’re sweating (meaning, getting your heart rate high enough to enjoy the cardiovascular benefits) several times per week. The keyword here is “natural” not artificial. Artificial sweeteners can actually be worse than refined sugars due to all their chemicals. Natural sweeteners are things like honey, maple syrup, maple sugar, date syrup, date sugar, and coconut sugar. If you are looking for a way to reduce your environmental impact and want to spend less time cleaning, you should consider using professional cleaning services that use environmentally friendly products. Here in Norfolk, we're the number one company offering that service.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.” Toilet cleaner: To make your own toilet cleaner bombs, try 1 cup baking soda, 1:1 (20 drops each) lemon essential oils and any other citrus essential oils, ¼ citric acid, spray water two times with a spray bottle. Mix it all and press it into a silicone mold, and then leave it overnight.

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. By making this small change you’re helping your body to absorb the nutrients you’re providing it, as well as flush out toxins.

Which eco-cleaning products actually work? 

Related: Read this post on how to source good quality food Clean living lifestyle change 7 Clean up your cookware 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 Shower spray: 1/2 a cup of water, 1 teaspoon vinegar, 1/4 rubbing alcohol (can also use vodka!), 1/2 a teaspoon dish soap, 20 drops tea tree essential oil 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. Zemore SE, Lui C, Mericle A, Hemberg J, Kaskutas LA. A longitudinal study of the comparative efficacy of Women for Sobriety, LifeRing, SMART Recovery, and 12-step groups for those with AUD. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2018;88:18-26. doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2018.02.004

Reusing furniture is the best thing to do, and so much more fun than buying new,” says Nicola Harding, founder of interior design studio Harding and Read. “Secondhand items come with interesting stories and force you to think creatively, and give you have something far more unique.” To keep mileage down, start at your local auction houses and charity shops (the British Heart Foundation has dedicated home stores and a free collection service), followed by a targeted trawl through Freecycle and Facebook Marketplace. Reduced environmental impact: Using environmentally friendly products helps to reduce pollution and protect the environment. Clean living lifestyle change: this is a large investment, but if you want to make a smaller change, you could use a pitcher filter like the ProPur (I think it’s called ProOne now). This is a good filter and it’s much more affordable. If you do a side-by-side comparison of the Brita, Berkey, and ProPur filters, ProPur and Berky blow Brita out of the water (pun intended). Berkey Discount Clean living lifestyle change 3 remove “natural flavors” from your diet 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 EKS Living Clean are currently looking for a motivated cleaner to join our friendly team in Norwich. Ideally you will have cleaning experience although full training will be provided.There is a middle ground where ‘eco-cleaning’ solutions that claim to be kinder to the environment and our wellbeing sit, however. And these products are fulfilling a public demand that is gaining popularity. Simply take a look in your local supermarket - or perhaps you have a local refillable shop just launched nearby - and you’ll notice a number of ‘eco cleaning’ solutions lining the shelves including multi-purpose sprays, bath cleaners, washing up liquids, biodegradable surface wipes and more. These products are taking on the mainstream cleaning brands that we’ve been using for years. When I stopped chasing the next best thing and started making more of what we consume in my own home, I started saving tons of money. I had a complete mindset shift away from consumerism and toward creating for myself and my family. I didn’t realize how important sleep was until I wasn’t getting it. With my son, Jaxon, I had horrible adrenal fatigue (still recovering, actually) and it wasn’t until I started prioritizing clean living that I started to recover. Leave it to having your first baby to throw you off your clean living game, right?! 5. You’ll have a better outlook on life You can never have enough house plants,” says Oliver Heath, who runs a sustainable architecture practice. Certain plants are best for certain rooms: “Mother-in-law’s tongue gives off oxygen at night, which makes it best suited to the bedroom.” According to Chillingsworth, peace lilies and boston ferns thrive in rooms with high humidity and can reduce the mould spores in the air, making them ideal for bathrooms; weeping figs have been found to be the best plant for removing formaldehyde released from carpets and furniture, making them good for living areas. Unlike harsh chemicals, a probiotic cleaner such as this is non-toxic and uses Bacillus bacteria. What we particularly like about this all-in-one spray is that it can be used across the home cutting through grease and dirt on worktops in the kitchen and enamel on the bathroom sink. We tried the formula to clean the windows too and were impressed at how well it cleaned the dirt and left a gleaming finish. There’s also a rather lovely air freshener in the range and a very ample 500ml refillable pouch that will last you quite a while.

There is a world of waste-free sanitary protection to explore, and Chillingsworth suggests buying a reusable tampon applicator. “The reusable version fits every size of tampon, is antimicrobial and easy to insert. After use, give it a wipe, rinse and return to the storage box that fits in your handbag. Sterilise in hot water between periods.” Clean living lifestyle change: eat out one less time per month. Clean living lifestyle change 6 Source better quality food Related: Read this post on the 10 sneaky toxic products in your home Clean living lifestyle change 13 clean and organize your life Make the most of seasonal gluts and preserve vegetables in oils, vinegars, chutneys, ketchup and marinades, or freeze them. “Blitz and freeze tomatoes in containers for passata all year round; make kimchi from cauliflower stalks and leaves; use beetroot in jams, vinegars and oil, then chop stalks and leaves to top pastas, pizzas, curries and dal,” says Hunter.

Carpet Cleaning

Bio D sells a range of cleaning solutions with ethically sourced ingredients. The company has been creating natural household products for over 25 years and values itself on vegan, cruelty free solutions, that are great value and include naturally derived products. While the bottles are made from plastic, they are 100 per cent recycled and you can also bulk buy to refill the smaller bottles. The company’s Bio-D Lavender fabric conditioner, for example, comes in a 20L easy pour container. As well as covering laundry products, you can find solutions for the bathroom, kitchen, dishwashing and handcare. 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.” 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. If a year without buying anything new seems too big a challenge, try a month, or buy only secondhand. Livia Firth, founder of sustainability consultancy Eco-Age, follows the “30 wears rule”: ask, “Will I wear it at least 30 times?” before buying. 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!