Going "No-'Poo"

Ready for an extremely crunchy topic? No 'poo! No, I am not talking about not going to the bathroom, I am referring to the method of not shamPOOing your hair.

Before you start thinking, EWW, gross! Let me explain. No 'pooing does not mean that you are not washing your hair. Although some die hard crunchies will go that far and only wash with water. It does not begin that way and it does not have to end that way. Most no 'poo fans stick with using baking soda and vinegar.

Yes, the same ingredients that you use to clean your house can clean your hair! Go figure. Baking soda becomes your "shampoo" and vinegar becomes your "conditioner".

The Recipe:

Shampoo: 1 tablespoon baking soda mixed in 1 cup of water.

Conditioner: 1 tablespoon vinegar in 1 cup of water. ( most people use this amount, however I use 1/2 cup vinegar in 1/2 cup water.

The Reality:

Day 1: Washed my hair with baking soda, let the baking soda mixture sit on my head for at least a minute and then rinsed out. Followed with vinegar mixture, let that sit for awhile as well, and then rinsed. It all felt very strange. Washing with baking soda made my hair feel squeaky clean in the shower and obviously, vinegar did not have the same smooth feeling that traditional conditioner does. Once dried, my hair was just as clean as before I went no 'poo. My hair did smell like a pickle factory when it was wet but once my hair dried the vinegar smell was gone.

Day 2: I got compliments on my hair today! They said it looked soft and shiny! Yay, for no 'poo!

Day 3: My hair wasn't as greasy as it usually is by this time. Same wash method. Same results. (Note: I think the reason my hair did not go through the usual detox period of horrible greasy hair is because I had been washing every 3 days for a long time before going no 'poo and I had been using natural shampoos. If I had gone from shampooing every day and with the traditional toxic stuff then my hair might have freaked out.)

Day 5: My hair is pretty greasy. Although this is probably my fault for playing with my hair so much. Today is definitely a hat day!

Day 6: Wash Day! Same baking soda mixture but this time I did half vinegar, half chamomile tea. (Note: chamomile can give natural blonde highlights, so use it only if you want to have some blonde in your hair.) My hair smelled great! I was worried about my hair not getting clean enough because it was so greasy but it came out perfect!

Day 12: I have continued with the same washing method. I still use vinegar and water, although once in awhile I will use the chamomile tea. My hair is much softer and looks great! I wash every 3 days and by the third day it does get a little greasy but definitely not as greasy as it used to with traditional shampoo. My dandruff is better also. I never had a horrible case of dandruff but it has definitely improved since going no 'poo.

The Verdict:

I love going no 'poo! I will never switch back to the traditional stuff. This is an amazing way to wash your hair. However, I will never go completely no 'poo and wash with only water. There is no harm with sticking to the baking soda/vinegar washing method. I could probably wash more often if I really needed it but I don't.  I hear if you do need to do a wash in between no 'poo days then you can just do a vinegar rinse or wash with just water. I have not tried that yet simply due to the fact that I do not like having to dry my hair.

There it is! Now the world knows that I do not use shampoo or conditioner. What will they think? Honestly, nobody will ever know unless I tell them. However, with how great this method is, I'll probably be shouting it from the roof tops!

Still have questions concerning no 'poo? Check out my No 'Poo FAQ post.
Go here if you are giving no 'poo a try and you need some troubleshooting.

And yes, that is me in the picture with my no 'poo hair! That picture was taken on day 2 of no 'poo. (a few weeks into no 'pooing) See how amazing it looks?

Toxins in Shampoo

For years, I have used shampoos, never thinking about what chemicals were in them. I never thought that what was in them could be toxic. I mean, how could they possibly be able to sell something that could be harmful? Sadly, there is no regulations on personal products. This means that anything can go into a bottle and then onto a shelf.

What is in shampoos that should be avoided? Here is a list of some of the commonly used toxins. Mind you this is only some of the toxins, there are still plenty more lurking in shampoo bottles.


IODOPROPYNYL BUTYLLCARBAMATE Reproductive system toxicity, inhibits human development, and reduces fertility.

LECITHIN Penetration enhancer.

RESORCINOL Possible human carcinogen.

PARABENS Reproductive system toxicity. Mimics estrogen increasing the risk of breast cancer, hormone imbalances, and infertility.

SODIUM LAURYL SULFATE Gastrointestinal toxicity.

PROPYLENE GLYCOL Immune toxicity, skin irritant, can cause liver and kidney damage.

TOCOPHERYL ACETATE Immune toxicity.

FRAGRANCE Immune toxicity.

DISODIUM EDTA Penetration enhancer.

Now go read the list of ingredients on your shampoo bottle and see if you have any of these toxins in them. What to do if you find out that you do have a toxic shampoo? Thankfully, there are many alternatives. There are quite a few natural shampoos on the market. My best suggestion for finding the good shampoos is to use Skin Deep just look under shampoos and they do all the ingredient searching for you.

Cleaning to Death

Did you know that companies are not required to list the ingredients in their cleaning products? Do a little digging and you will be shocked at what is in cleaning supplies.

Ammonia, Bleach, and Formaldehyde are all carcinogens and yet they are found in the bottles of cleaning products. Deadly, if swallowed, which is why parents get lectures about locking their cupboards. Most of us, do not chug bottles of window cleaner but these chemicals are hazardous even in their fumes. Just spraying air freshener can cause allergies, asthma, and other respiratory problems. Yet, people spray this stuff constantly, just because it smells nice. Let's just breathe in the formaldehyde, shall we?

There are many toxic chemicals in our cleaning supplies. Here are just a few.

Propylene glycol: main ingredient in anti-freeze.

Sodium Lauryl Sulphate: causes gene mutation.

Formaldehyde: respiratory problems, has been linked to brain cancer, lung cancer, and leukemia.

Phthalates: is an endocrine disruptors and is known to cause hormonal abnormalities, reproductive problems and birth defects.

If any of these toxins were not enough to convince you, just think about the fact that cleaning chemicals are harmful to the environment. If these chemicals effect dogs, birds, frogs, etc, why should we be using them?

What can we use to keep our home clean? The answer is probably in your pantry already! There are three amazing products, when it comes to non-toxic cleaning: vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice.

Vinegar is a wonderful disinfectant. I now use it in place of my usual disinfectant spray and wipes. It is also great for windows, mirrors, actually it's great for everything! Well, everything except marble, do not use it on marble. Won't my house smell like a giant pickle factory? Only when the vinegar is wet, once it dries there is no more odor. In fact it is also good for removing or eliminating odors. I use half vinegar, half water in a spray bottle.

Baking Soda is a wonderful abrasive, yet it is gentle enough to use anywhere. Great for scrubbing the tub!

Lemon juice is much like vinegar actually. It does smell better but it is generally more expensive.

All of these natural products work for cleaning your home just as well as the toxic cleaners. The only difference is that you will not be chocking on the fumes. This is such an easy and inexpensive change and yet it makes an enormous impact on your home and even the world.

The Dirty Dozen and The Clean Fifteen

Can't buy organic all the time? I can't. Want to know what produce that you are best off buying organic and which ones you could buy conventional? Here is a list of produce with the most and least amounts of pesticides.

The Dirty Dozen (aka the ones covered in pesticides, either aviod or buy organic)
#1 being the worst.

1 Peach
2 Apple
3 Sweet Bell Pepper
4 Celery
5 Nectarine
6 Strawberries
7 Cherries
8 Kale
9 Lettuce
10 Grapes - Imported
11 Carrot
12 Pear


The Clean Fifteen (aka the ones you could buy conventional if you need to)
# 1 being the best.

1 Onion
2 Avacado
3 Sweet Corn - frozen
4 Pineapple
5 Mango
6 Asparagus
7 Sweet Peas - frozen
8 Kiwi
9 Cabbage
10 Eggplant
11 Papaya
12 Watermelon
13 Broccoli
14 Tomato
15 Sweet Potato

Organic, Coventional, and GMO - how to tell the difference

We have come a long way from the day when you walked into the produce department and you only had to decide between a red or green apple. Now you step into that section and there are dozens of choices, not only in colors but also in how the produce was grown. We now have the decision of organic, conventional, or GMO produce. What's the difference? How can you even tell? Isn't an apple, an apple?

Not anymore. In fact, they even make apples that taste like grapes now! So what IS the difference?

Conventionally grown food is your standard produce currently. This means that they were sprayed with pesticides, fungicides and chemical fertilizers. Think of spraying your piece of fruit with bug spray and then eating it. Not going to happen! Yet that is really what we do when we buy conventional produce.

Genetically Modified Organisms or GMO's are the new thing hitting the grocery store. These foods have been genetically altered. Scientist now can essentially cut and paste different genes into produce. The purpose of which is to make it resistant to pest, grow quicker, taste different, etc. It has potential but it has not been tested long term. Obviously, if you could grow fruit without pesticides and still have it turn out perfect, then it would be a wonderful thing. However, there are issues with GMO's. First off there is the allergy issue. Since we can cut a gene from one food and paste it into another, then it can possibly transfer the allergy causing part to a new food. Thus if someone is not allergic to a normal apple, they could be allergic to a GMO apple because it might have a gene from a food they are allergic to. Talk about taking chances with your food! There is also concern that GMO's are causing "super pests". Much like how we, humans, are causing super bugs because of all the antibacterial products we use. So in the end run, pest might become a problem for GMO's and a greater problem for non GMO's. There is also the possibility of it causing problems to humans. As GMO's have not been thoroughly tested, we cannot know for certain if we will be affected or how. However, I for one do not want to be used as a guinea pig for this test.

How do we spot the difference? Most of the time, the organic will be separated from the non-organic but sometimes things get mixed up. GMO's don't even have to be stated as such and therefore, you could buy one without even knowing!

The secret is this: the PLU codes! I knew there must be a reason for those silly stickers and annoying stamps!

Conventionally grown produce with have a PLU code of four digits. Such as 4011.

Organic produce has a PLU code of five digits and will start with the number 9.

GMO's will have a PLU code of five digits but will start with an 8.

So there you have it. There is the difference between organic, conventional, and GMO's. As well, as how to tell the difference.

Safer Sipping

Drinking water is a great way to have a healthy body. However, the container we use to hold the water might be causing us to have toxins in our bodies.

Many people drink water and other liquids out of plastic water bottles. Sadly, not all plastics are safe. Many contain Bisphenol A, a hormone disrupter. BPA has been linked to reproductive problems, obesity, and even hyperactivity. Not something I want my water bottle to be made out of.

Thankfully, there are a few companies who understand this problem. Quite a few plastic water bottles are being made without BPA, just look for the label. I, personally don't trust plastic at all any longer. Many baby bottles that claimed to be BPA free have now been shown to actually have BPA in them. I do not see why adult water bottles will be any different.

There is a alternative to plastic: aluminum lined water bottles and stainless steel.

My only problem with the aluminum lined bottles is that many of times, the lining can contain BPA. It's a good alternative, just read those labels!

Stainless steel happens to be my personal choice. The wonderful thing about stainless steel is that it will not break, doesn't make your water taste like plastic, and will last forever.

So Many Chemicals, So Little Time

There are hundreds of chemicals that we put on our body. Could you name all the ingredients in your shampoo? Could you point out the toxic ones from the safe ones? I can't.

I can read books upon books but I am still not going to remember all of the bad chemicals. I do want to avoid these toxins. It's just not feasible to carry a huge list of chemicals to avoid and read the ingredients on every single bottle in the store.

Thankfully, someone has realized this problem. The lovely people over at the Environmental Working Group have compiled a database of beauty products and the chemicals they contain. They have taken all the guess work out of finding safe products and rated them for people like me.

Based on the chemicals in a product, it can be rated '0' being completely safe to a '10' being run away as fast as possible. Just type in a brand and up pops the ingredient list, the problems with each chemical, and the safety rating. Wonderful!

If you rather not search by brand then simply click on a category (like shampoo) and all the products in that category will appear and in lowest to highest rating order. This is great when you know you want to replace a product but you have no idea what to replace it with.

If your brand isn't listed for some reason, you can also search by individual ingredients. This of course takes more time but it can be very eye opening to see that the one odd sounding ingredient in your "organic" body wash is contaminating the whole bottle with toxins.

So go on and visit Skin Deep. You will be amazed at what is hiding in those products we use to be beautiful.

Soda Free

For over a month now, I have been soda free. Makes me sound like an alcoholic, doesn't it? For many people, it is not all that different then alcohol. Soda can be very addicting and in my opinion it is probably just as unhealthy as alcohol. We all know that soda is just full of empty calories. That's reason enough to stop. Why bother drinking soda when you could have juice which is actually beneficial to your body, or good old water? Then there's the acidity of soda. Did you know that soda has the same acidic level as vinegar? It can remove rust! Remind me why we put that into our stomachs?

If you think like me then you switch to diet sodas, at least that way you don't have empty calories or any calories for that matter. Not so fast! Diet soda has no calories because they replace sugar with aspartame. Aspartame that wonderful calorie free substance that was supposed to be the answer to our beloved sugar. Companies wouldn't put it into drinks if it was harmful, right? WRONG! Aspartame is made up of phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol. Once you drink aspartame it breaks back up into these three substances and then it further breaks up into: formaldehyde and formic acid. Both formaldehyde and formic acid are carcinogens. Well that removes diet soda from my drinking list!

The final piece that I needed to quit drinking soda was not actually the soda but the can that the soda was in. Did you know that soda cans have a lining? It makes sense, it's an aluminum can and you don't want to use aluminum on its own. I, honestly, had never thought about it. Until I began reading about BPA in canned food. You know what else BPA is in? Yep, soda cans. Just what is BPA? Bisphenol-A is a chemical that is used in plastics and in epoxy resins. BPA has been linked to many different problems including: birth defects of the male and female reproductive systems, cancer, miscarriages, obesity, early puberty and Type II diabetes. Most mom's will remember when BPA was the big thing concerning baby bottles. Walk down any baby aisle now and you will see large labels saying that their product is BPA Free. There's a reason why and now that parents have become aware of what BPA is doing they have caused baby companies to remove BPA from their products. However, it's not just toxic to babies. Babies are more susceptible to chemicals due to them being much smaller in size than adults but we, adults can still suffer from BPA. This was what caused me to finally stop drinking soda (and stop buying canned goods). If I can lower my risk of getting cancer, or messing up my child's reproductive system then I will give up drinking soda.

As I said, I've been "clean" for about a month and a half now. The first week was tough. It doesn't help when you decide to eat out a couple of times that first week. However, once I was past the two week point, it wasn't that hard. There are still times when I watch a soda go buy and I can instantly "taste" it in my mouth, all I have to do though is think about what is actually inside soda and what is on the soda can and I suddenly have no problem letting that soda slip away.

Beginning on a Journey for a Lifetime

They say your life changes once you have kids and that is true. However, nobody tells you that not only your kids will change your life but YOU will change your life for your kids. Now I'm not talking about not eating out, giving up Saturday shopping to go to soccer practices, or even the lack of sleep so your child can eat. I'm talking about how once you have a child, suddenly the world around you is no longer "safe". Things you never even thought about instantly become horrors and the stuff that keeps you up at night.

Now there are many things that have to change once baby comes along. I'm going to focus on the healthy living part. Granted some of it will be safety related but not in the sense of put locks on your cabinets.

When my first child was born, I was determine to not let him grow up as unhealthy as I am. This child would be healthy, he would like vegetables, not be addicted to sugar, and who knows maybe actually LIKE exercising! So I started out as many moms do, making my own baby food. Now I'll have to be honest with you this really started out as a save money thing also. My boys are now too old for baby food but I'm still feeding them fruits, veggies, and when I make baked goods for them, you can bet they are zucchini muffins with more veggies in it than anything else. I'm of the believe that if you start them out eating ridiculously healthy then they will stick with it. Now don't get me wrong, my kids still eat junk. It's too rough (on me and them) to forbid certain foods when we are out. However, even with knowing what a doughnut tastes like my boys will still eat those ultra-healthy muffins.

That was the beginning for me. Just the eating part. Then I started reading. Oh dear! What had I begun? Suddenly, there are everyday products that are toxic in my house! The baby body wash contains horrible toxic chemicals, the bottles contain BPA, the toys are made with phthalates, and my makeup is full of parabens. Gasp! How did I not KNOW this??? What in the world are they doing in my products? Most importantly, where there any substitutes for these toxic substances???

Thankfully, the answer is YES! This is what my blog is about; finding alternatives for the nasty everyday products we use. Although I'm sure I will have more than just alternatives on here. I am also hoping to explain some of these chemicals in detail. There is no reason why I should not share with everyone just what parabens are or why dying your hair could be harmful during pregnancy.

I hope you will read this blog and learn all about what we are putting in our bodies and our children's bodies. There is a reason why "going green" is so chic right now and why "crunchy" is becoming increasing popular. It's because people are becoming aware of what we are doing to ourselves and the world. This is just my part to helping people become aware.