The power of a good shower

 When I workout I workout hard.  No ladylike glistening for me, I am covered in sweat.  Sometimes the only light at the end of the sweaty spandex is the thought of a relaxing shower.   I just have a regular ordinary old shower/tub combo (but at least it's mine, and not at the gym!).  No fancy jets, whirlpool tub, or even elaborate tilework for me - just a plain fiberglass tub surround.  Someday perhaps I will have a whirlpool bathtub with a huge picture window and the ability to soak my troubles away, but for right now I have what I have and so I make the best of it by having the right shower head, the best smelling shampoo, and the most decadent soap.

First the shower head.  Second only to good lighting in its importance in the bathroom, a great shower head can make up for whatever else the bathroom lacks.  Steve found one at Lowe's that has a sleek nickel finish, is low flow but still puts out a lot of pressure, and has this fantastic setting with a massaging blast in the middle surrounded by the regular rain shower.  Pure bliss I tell you.  Ours is made by Delta and cost about $55.

Next the shampoo.  Y'all know how much I love healthy-for-my-hair-healthy-for-my-body shampoo and my favorite is still the Nature's Gate Organics line.  It lathers without sulfates, isn't tested on animals, and contains no parabens.  Organic shampoo can cause sticker shock but I save money on the conditioner.  Conditioners frequently don't have sulfates because they don't lather anyway so I just find one that smells good and doesn't contain parabens (I like the J/A/S/O/N products).

Finally the soap.   I love soaps that have oatmeal, almond oil, or tea tree oil in them because I love the smells and textures.  We have a Lush store near us and the mixture of scents and textures can be quite heady and addictive.  Steve is an Irish Spring kind of guy and absolutely nothing will change his mind.  My daughter likes the Pink Grapefruit soap from The Body Shop.  Most soaps are made from palm oil which is creating some problems in the South American rainforests and many contain parabens but when it comes down to it, finding the right soap is more trial and error and personal preference.

When my daughter was a baby and I had to learn the art of Speed Bathing I kind of forgot how nice it can be to pamper myself.  I've been trying to allow myself a little more showering time each day so I don't have to rush so much or cut myself so often with the razor.  I don't think I truly feel awake and ready to face the world until after I've showered.

Whether it be first thing in the morning, after a workout, or the last thing you do each day, there isn't much that a little warm water can't cure (or at least make clean!).

Does makeup expire?

A few minutes spent at a natural foods store cosmetic counter and I'm like a kid in a candy store.  I want one of  everything, please.  I love to buy new cosmetics.  I like to have several lipsticks to choose from, depending upon my mood, outfit, and tan-ness (is that a word?)  Once I find a product that works I like to stick with it.  I can guarantee that I will be that old woman with the lipstick bleeding into her mouth wrinkles - the very dated hot pink lipstick that clashes with skin tone, outfit, and age by a few decades.  I just hope that though my look may be past its prime my make up isn't.

All cosmetics have expiration dates.

Sadly, not all cosmetics print their expiration dates on the packaging because they aren't required by law to do so.  Ironically it may be even more important to check your makeup for signs of deteriorating because anything you rub on your skin bypasses the liver and goes right into the ol' bloodstream without benefit of a filter.  Any bacteria, fungus, or viruses growing in your make up get rubbed right into your skin.  Here are a few commonly used items and when they should get replaced:

I love lipstick, and I do mean LOVE lipstick.  It hurts my heart to have to throw out a good lipstick, especially if I can't find the color again or if the new batch of color just somehow doesn't look as good as the old. I still haven't quite recovered from Burt's Bees changing their line of lip shimmers and not carrying my favorite shades.   Lipstick begins to chemically break down within 1-2 years.  I have usually lost my lipstick before this 2 year date approached, but you may be more organized than me, especially if you have a few colors that tend to stay in the drawer.  If you've had 'em longer than 2 years, toss them.

Now for mascara - poor mascara.  With a shelf life of only about 4 months before it has received so much air exposure that it is drying out/clumping/growing all sorts of bacteria/flaking off your lashes it is definitely the purchase we should make most often.  Until I learned about cosmetics expiring I could not have told you the last time I bought a new mascara.  Now that I know I try to remember to buy mascara more often but the one I'm using right now?  I couldn't tell you how old it is...in other words I should replace it.

Foundation/pressed powders can be tricky.  I use mineral makeup as a combined foundation and powder.  I use it up about every 8-10 months so I haven't been too worried about it expiring, I get more concerned about the makeup brushes I use.  Brushes need to be washed every 2-3 months but if you use a makeup sponge it should be washed daily and thrown out after a week.  When I used cosmetic sponges and liquid foundation I used a new sponge every day because my skin has a tendency to break out and I didn't want any extra bacteria causing me problems.  I also threw out my foundation when it was time to change colors with the seasons because I like to be tan, despite all health warnings to the contrary.

The more natural the cosmetic (which probably means the more expensive the cosmetic) the more quickly it will expire because it won't have as many preservatives.  This week I'll be blogging about some natural recipes that can replace some beauty care products so that being natural doesn't get so expensive.  But for now go find that make up bag and if you still see your frosty blue eyeshadow in it -- toss it out.

My toothpaste is controlling my mind...

Bad guy: "Sorry officer, but I just had a big glass of water and so my judgement was really impaired!"

Mom: "Son, go brush your teeth, then go get a job!"
Son: "Okay Mom, but once I brush my teeth I'll have no motivation and will lack the mental faculties to handle basic decision making."

On this very blog I frequently promote ingesting one of the most toxic and damaging chemicals found in our world today.  I can't help it, it's essential to life, will clear your skin, heal your headaches, and without it you are probably going to die within 3-5 days.

I promote drinking water.

But is there fluoride in your drinking water?  In your toothpaste?  In your canned soup?  In every product that has 'water' listed as an ingredient?  If I was asked to estimate my vitamin C intake I could do a pretty good job.  If asked to estimate my sugar intake I could come within a gram or two of my daily consumption.  If asked to estimate my fluoride intake I wouldn't have any idea.  Was the water in my shampoo fluoridated?  Was the water used to wash my 'washed and ready to eat' salad fluoridated?  How can I quantify my exposure to a toxin that is put directly into the drinking water in most places in the United States, added to my toothpaste, and has been approved as a pesticide in organic farming!

This is the scoop on fluoride: the Germans  used fluoride during World War II when they placed it in the drinking water of their prisoners of war because fluoride made the prisoners so docile.  Now there are different types of fluoride.  Pharmaceutical grade fluoride is what appears in our toothpastes.  This type of fluoride does have a good track record in reducing tooth decay when applied topically to the teeth.  There is no evidence that fluoride taken internally does anything but harm the body.  Another type of fluoride is what is put into the drinking water.  You don't really want to know where this comes from, but I'll tell you anyway so sit down because this is going to be gross: the fluoride in our drinking water is a by-product of pesticide manufacturing.  They scrape the fluoride "sludge" from the inside of the smokestacks and truck it to the nearest water treatment plant where they dump that sludge right on in and call it public health practices.  I kid you not, you can look it up here (type fluoride in the search bar).

So here are my suggestions: I try to limit my exposure to fluoride on a couple of levels.  First I am lucky because my part of Massachusetts does not have fluoride in the water.  I have a fluoridated toothpaste and a toothpaste without fluoride and I alternate between the two.  I like the Tom's of Maine mint toothpaste without fluoride and the Burt's Bees toothpaste with fluoride. In both cases you get good taste without high fructose corn syrup and/or silica which is in a lot of other toothpastes.  I take Calcium and Magnesium supplements to counter the effects of fluoride in my body.  I don't use fluoride rinses or allow the dentist to give them to my daughter.  I buy vitamins that do not contain a fluoride supplement (many do, you have to read the ingredients). 

There are filters you can buy that filter the fluoride out of drinking water.  There are letters you can write to city officials petitioning to get the fluoride out of your city's drinking water.  There are panic attacks you can have wondering what all this fluoride is doing to your body.  You could mix up your own batch of baking soda and salt with a little peppermint extract thrown in for flavor.  I think the most important thing is to be aware of what fluoride is and how it may be affecting you.  Baby steps, always baby steps.

And if you're ever in Massachusetts, stop by!  I'll give you a glass of filtered, refreshing, unfluoridated water.  I'll even throw in an organic lemon so you can lose a few pounds...but that's another post...

Just Massage it Right into Your Brain

When I lived in Toledo, Ohio I faithfully had my hair cut by Bill at Creative Headlines.  Having Bill cut my hair meant having Bill wash my hair and believe me when I say: you will never regret nor forget having Bill wash your hair.  First he would ever so gently recline your chair and put up the footrest.  Then he would work the warm water all through your hair.  Already you are feeling 5 years younger and kind of forgetting you ever had troubles.  Just when you're thinking "could this get better?" It does.  Bill lathers up with some wonderful smelling salon shampoo and begins to massage your head.   Your neck.  Your temples.  He works the lather all through your hair, kneading, massaging...whooo, is it getting hot in here?  Then he would rinse.  Then he would take conditioner and start the whole sensual process over again.  By the time he was finally done you are 10 years younger and in love with the world.  Don't worry if you are too relaxed and limp to walk under your own power to Bill's chair, he's very strong and will carry you to his station if need be.  He's used to that response.  Finally he will place a fresh towel around your neck, cover you with a cape and he's ready to begin the cut.  He gives a good haircut, but really?  Who cares?  Just let him wash your hair and you'd forgive him a terrible cut.  If you're ever in the greater Toledo area give yourself a treat, book a haircut with Bill.

I tell you all this to emphasize the importance of a fantastic hair washing experience.  Though I frequently practice Speed Bathing, I do make sure that once or twice a week I really take time to pamper myself and that means warm water, yummy smelling shampoo, and fluffy towels.  I do love me a good lather, and that used to mean sodium lauryl sulfate which irritates the skin, reduces the skin's immune system capabilities, and can enhance tumor growth.  Do any of those things sound good?  Then I found Nature's Gate Organics.

This shampoo smells fantastic, lathers beautifully, contains no harmful, irritating, or carcinogenic ingredients, is not tested on animals, and can be bought at almost any grocery or drug store.  Buy it at the grocery store and you may feel a little sticker shock (it costs $7.99 here in Massachusetts) or save a little money and buy it from here  for $4.91. 

I don't use this shampoo all the time.  When I shower at the gym I carry plain ol' Pantene 2-in-1 shampoo+conditioner in my bag.  If I run out of organic shampoo I keep an emergency bottle of Pantene in the linen closet, just in case.  (Pantene doesn't have any health benefits to my knowledge, I just like it.) 

I try to reduce my exposure to chemicals and acknowledge that I will still have some exposure, sometimes a lot.  Sometimes I use Pantene, Secret deodorant, and eat Doritos all on the same day.

Just not every day. 

My challenge to you: perhaps you could occasionally use an organic shampoo or conditioner.  Maybe you could try using a baking soda paste as a remedy to product buildup instead of a harsh clarifying shampoo.  If you don't want to switch your shampoo then try turning down the temperature of your water.  The cooler the water temperature the more 'closed' the hair shaft and the pores in your scalp, the more protected you are from chemicals.  Bonus: your hair will be shinier and you reduce your carbon footprint.

Oh, eat some Omega-3s and green leafy veggies too.  And have a great hair day.

Would you rub that on your kidney?

As a teenager in the '80s I never met a tanning booth I didn't love.  I religiously went outside every day during the summer between the hours of 11a.m. and 2p.m. with my bottle of baby oil and my Walkman.  I chose sunscreen by its smell, not by SPF (Mmmm, Hawaiian Tropics Coconut Oil....yumm!).  I thought Secret deodorant (baby powder scent) was THE underarm scent to have.   My skin was always broken out so I used anything I could find that promised to reduce breakouts.

As a young adult in the '90s I had less time for sun and tanning because I was working full time.  Instead to abuse my skin I slathered on foundation, pressed powder, and blush.  I was still breaking out so I used harsh benzoyl peroxide and alcohol based products to reduce breakouts.  I loved the new lines of body gels and liquid soaps and used them all liberally.

As a young mother in the '00s I had no time for make up or sunscreen so my skin was always exposed to something, though very little was rubbed into it.

As an almost forty-something looking in her new 10x optical mirror in the '10s I can see the thirty years of abuse, even without my glasses on.  Ooops, looks like somehow I forgot to take care of my skin.

Luckily I am smarter now, and have been for a few years.  Gone are the tanning beds, the lack of sunscreen, and the harsh chemicals.  I now read skin product labels as if I were going to eat them because guess what?  Everything you slather on the outside actually ends up on the inside.  I guess I knew this on some level, I mean after all the nicotine patches and birth control patches have been around for years and they all rely on putting something on the skin and getting it into the bloodstream.  What I didn't realize for 25 years was that products designed to go on the skin could be so...dangerous!

The first culprits are the parabens.  These chemicals are used as a preservative to extend the shelf-life of the product.  They are cheap to make but dangerous because our bodies can't properly metabolize them so they get stored in fat deposits.  Breast cancer tumors frequently contain parabens. 

Next are the sulfates.  We all love the sulfates because of the rich, foamy lather they create in shampoos and soaps.  Unfortunately all that lather comes with a cost:  our poor livers weren't made to handle this chemical so a lot of it is stored in the liver and that causes liver toxicity, or it ends up roaming around the body and causing all sorts of cancers.

Our next contenders are the perfumes and dyes that make our shampoos, lotions, toothpastes, and soaps look so pretty and smell so good.  The problem is that a lot of different dyes and perfumes are usually used to create that 'ocean breeze' smell and that means dangerous levels and combinations can occur.

The truth is that one little paraben never hurt anyone.  It's massaging them daily into your scalp in the form of shampoos, rubbing them into your gums in the form of toothpastes, layering them onto your skin in the form of deodorants, lotions, and make up that causes the problem.    We don't get exposed to one chemical one time, we get exposed to hundreds of different chemicals in thousands of combinations over a lifetime.  The good news is that there are alternatives, they are cheap, they are easy to buy or make, and they work just as well or better.  The even better news is that our bodies are so amazing at detoxing themselves that they'll get rid of all the junk we put in them if we just stop putting it in.

For the rest of this week I'll focus on the natural product alternatives to some of my favorite products.  Today I'll start with deodorant.  First things first: I currently do own and occasionally use Secret deodorant/antipersperant.  It works, it smells good, and there are times when I know I'm going to be nervous or sweating a lot and I want the extra chemicals to stop the sweat.

For daily use I use Tom's Of Maine Natural Deodorant.  I like the calendula scent.  Steve is more of a woodspice man.  Our daughter occasionally uses the lavender.  It is not an anti-persperant.  If you are sweating a lot, you will have wet marks on your underarms.  It is a good deodorant, you may smell your deodorant, but you won't smell sweat.  For most days I am not doing something so strenuous that I need an antipersperant.  When I work out I use the deodorant, but I figure I'm supposed to sweat so wetness isn't a concern.  Another alternative: use a powder puff to apply baking soda directly to your underarms.  Then spray on some tea tree oil (about a TBSP) diluted with 1/4 c. water.  Tea tree oil contains antibacterial properties and it's the bacteria that makes sweat smell bad.

Tomorrow I'll focus on shampoos and conditioners.  Friday I'll blog about lotions and toothpaste.  We'll all be so healthy we won't be able to stand ourselves!

Buying Organic: Healthful Choice or Yuppie Trend?

Well, both.  I had never even heard the term "organic food" before 1999.  I'm sure there were a handful of "hippie" commune farmers who had always grown their own vegetables before then.  And I'm sure there were always the "crackpot" environmentalists who believed in using sustainable farming methods.  But until the last decade or so, those people were on the fringe. Well that's all changed now and almost overnight mom-and-pop-organic-farms have become a staple in the pantry of the health-conscious, environmentally aware, and the trendy.

It all started for me when my daughter had a diaper rash that just wouldn't go away.    I had also recently watched Oprah where her guest, Dr. Andrew Weil, had spoken about a wide-spread but mostly unknown allergy to dairy that plagued many children and adults.  He mentioned that for some people it may be the protein lactose which they don't digest very well, but for others it may be the amount of hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides present in the dairy that made them sick.  I decided to go dairy free to see if it would help my constant hay-fever-like-allergies (they went away within 2 weeks) and to buy organic milk for my daughter to see if it helped her rash.  The rash went away.  Completely.  Within days.  A few weeks later I bought regular old milk again (thinking I had cured her and could return to regular habits) and her rash came back immediately.  Curious.  We have had organic dairy products since then.

It's fairly common knowledge nowadays that a lot more than milk  is in our milk.  That's true of many foods.  I am all for buying whatever organic products your budget can accomodate, but if you're like most me, you're going to have to pick and choose what you buy organic because it is so expensive.

I opt for organic dairy products first, followed by organic frozen fruit (because I eat a smoothie every day).  Next I'll go for antibiotic-free, hormone-free meat.  Then organic eggs.  Then organic vegetables.  Finally, if I'm feeling really rich I'll buy organic shampoo and conditioner.  I try to prioritize based upon our consumption, availability, and my ability to make natural substitutions that while not organic, may at least be less processed.  Our family doesn't eat a lot of meat or dairy, but we do eat a lot of fruit, eggs, and veggies.  I can afford to be all-organic on the dairy and meat because I don't have to buy very much.  I make the fruit and eggs a priority because we consume a lot of them.  I can find a lot of veggies at farmers' markets or locally grown so I don't worry about organic as much with them.  Personal care products are a minefield of chemicals but they are also easy to make yourself from stuff in the kitchen (but that's another post...).

Organic is healthy.  It's also very trendy.  Be both:  choose one item you consume a lot and see if you can switch to organic.  There, don't you feel better already? 

Grace #18 Organic Mineral Makeup

There is so much discussion these days about toxins: toxins in our water bottles, our food, our clothing, our furniture, our air, our homes, and our personal care products that it is overwhelming to me sometimes. Especially with a propensity toward hypochondria, I have to remind myself that I do what I can, do the best I can to reduce my exposure, and that is all anyone can do.

So I have stainless steel water bottles, and I buy organic food when I can, and I open the windows in my car and home and I feel virtuous, a little safer, and a lot more in control of my exposure to toxins.

But most importantly, I have changed my personal care products. You know, the stuff you rub into your skin everyday: the lotions, deodorants, moisturizers, foundations, powders, and lip balms and lipsticks. The stuff that goes directly into the bloodstream through the skin, into the lymph nodes on my neck and underarms, into my mouth via my lips.

It was all toxic.

I was so surprised when I first read and understood the ingredients used in these products. I just assumed that someone had checked the safety of these products and that someone had deemed them safe because of course no one would market, produce, and distribute a product that was harmful, right? (Yes, my naivete knows no bounds, it's like I'd never heard of a cigarette, isn't it?) When I first learned of the toxic chemicals in my makeup it was a no-win situation because more natural options were not available or not available in my price range: should I not wear any makeup, which, with my skin wasn't really an option; or use the toxic stuff knowing what I was rubbing into my skin. I couldn't decide if my vanity would win out against my health concerns and it was a moral dilemma every morning. I spent several years using less makeup, or not using any foundation if it was a particularly good skin day, but I never felt good about my decisions either way.

Then, one day while browsing through Costco, a beam of fluorescent light shown down upon a new product: Physician's Formula Organic Mineral Makeup. I could even hear the faint sound of angels' trumpets over the Muzak as I picked up the product, read the ingredients, and purchased this little miracle of science and nature. It was a good day my friends, a good day.

Now my skin is glowing with good health (and mineral sheen), my conscience is clear, and my bank account is happy.

Mineral makeup: it's a good thing.

(For more information about toxins and potential toxins in your makeup go to http://www.cosmeticsinfo.org/)