How Many Before 10 AM?

Okay, I have a challenge for you! Take just a moment to add up all of the products that you use on your body before 10 a.m. every day. I bet it’s more than you’d expect. Don't forget about hand soap deodorant toothpaste or body wash... Not to mention makeup.

The average woman in the US puts on about 15 products in an entire day, though many of those are in her morning “getting ready” routine. If you think on that a second, that’s a lot of exposure to potentially harmful ingredients if she’s using mainstream products. You see, in 15 typical products there are 168 chemicals and whether this particular woman is buying her body and home cleaning products (yes, those are included too) at the local big box store or the high-end department store counter, that’s a TON of exposure! Now, I do need to recognize here, “chemical” is a term that gets a pretty bad rap, which isn’t necessarily fair. After all, water is a chemical. It’s not chemicals we need to be concerned about but chemicals that have been scientifically proven to be harmful or, downright toxic. Guess what? There are over 1500 of those commonly used and completely legal in personal care products in our country. What?!?! How can that be? We’ll be getting into this lack of regulation in the weeks’ to come but for now, suffice it to say that the FDA (the governing organization that oversees the personal care industry) has publicly declared that this industry will need to “self regulate”. I bet you can take a wild guess here. That’s not happening. Not when there’s billions in profit to be had.

Let’s get back to the impact all these harmful toxins have on our bodies. Our skin is our largest organ and it truly is a carrier, not a barrier. There are a lot of factors in this equation but things we put on our skin can absorb in as little as 26 seconds. There may be low levels of questionable ingredients in your favorite products but what really matters here, folks, is the accumulation of all ingredients we put on our bodies on a daily basis. There might be some toxins in this product and some toxins and that product but it's all of them added together that create your "body burden" and if you're like me, it's much more significant than once thought.

When I first began my journey towards a less toxic, more natural lifestyle, I took on this challenge… to list all the products in my morning routine and analyze them for safety. (I’ll teach you how to do this in the coming posts so stay tuned). The sum of all the danger ratings on all my products was 54. OK, I didn’t have a lot to compare that to but I knew I wanted to see how I could improve. I switched out my products one by one as I found safer alternatives and am THRILLED to tell you when I re-analyzed my body burden about 2 months later, I’d decreased that number to 14. What a rewarding feeling that was! I truly believe that is a SIGNIFICANT daily gift I’ve given myself. We all want to live long and healthy lives and if this (choosing only safe personal care products) is just a piece of that equation, I’m on board for learning and doing as much as I can. It doesn’t mean I’ll never get cancer or Alzheimer’s or some other disease or disorder but I truly do believe it puts me at less risk - especially over the days and weeks, months and years as I continue to decrease the toxins to which I’m exposed. Because of this enormous learning curve I’ve ridden over the last three years, I’ve come to believe what we put ON our bodies is just as important as what we put IN our bodies. I’m so honored to welcome you on this path beside me.

So, how many products do YOU use before 10AM?