Welcome!
DownWithToxins.com is an information resource to give people what they need to live consciously, and attain quality of life with less stress via
less stuff,
less trash,
and less toxins, …
… and more Play!
So how to get there?
The best place to start is awareness of mindset and habits. They support each other and determine how you got where you are, and / or where you are going. Mindfulness or Being Present or Self-Awareness (however you wish to think of it) is how you get clear on your place and choose whether or not that’s where you want to be and if not, how to change to move forward.
Stuff
Trash
Toxins
Play!
With less stuff, you have more space to Play!
With less trash, you have more time and money to Play!
With less toxin, you have better health for Play!
The resources support others doing awesome work in these areas and provide resources for people wanting to learn more.
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Overview
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people are tired from stuff
overwhelmed
and scrambling to make enough money for stuff / health
people are subjected to toxins and related effects
people are exhausted from too much stuff, toxins, scattered info
and trying to sort it out
and too little time, coherent info, trusted sources
solutions – to make this Website and blog a resource
for people who perceive the problems and seek solutions that do not suck all of their money, time and energy
and / or
* people who are curious about the issues of trash, toxins, and clutter, and want a reliable source of information, solutions, ideas, inspiration—without having to do all the research themselves.
solution. to be a hub and trusted resource. different sources speak to different people.
lots of isolated info…what’s real deal?
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Who is this blog written for?
Partially, this blog is a reference source that I can access when / if someone asks me about trash / toxins / stuff issues. Mostly, this blog is for
* people who already know they want to make a difference in the world and in their own lives, and are looking for a reliable source of information, solutions, ideas, inspiration;
and / or
* people who are curious about the issues of trash, toxins, and clutter, and want a reliable source of information, solutions, ideas, inspiration—without having to do all the research themselves.
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When people ask me why I do something differently, and I try to explain the background and reasons for a habit or process, it is difficult for me to throw together a quick reference guide or soundbite off the top of my head. So the purpose of the blog is partially a journal and reference for me to keep track of what I have learned and also a way to share with others who are on a similar journey, at whatever location you are at.
[It is our intent to help. To resolve these and similar issues.]
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Who is this blog written by?
As you can see below, I am in the middle of my journey toward a healthier lifestyle. My family—a husband, and tween and early teen—while supporting my journey, are in varying stages of including changes in their lives and habits. My journey has been over 50 years in the making, with most changes happening in the last 20 years. While a few people can make stark changes and maintain those changes, for most people, change is a process that happens with mindset and habit adjustments—over time. For reference and perspective, following is a summary of where I’m at right now, which may influence my recommendations on this Website. That said, I am invested in being supportive of people in all places of their journey and whatever their destination—supporting improved quality of life for everyone. If you are curious, further down is an explanation of how I arrived where I am now.
Where I’m currently at in my journey:
* diet:
– whole food
– plant based
– evidence-based nutrition
– reduced toxins
* lifestyle
– wardrobe: I’ve essentially culled plastics—I still have clothes with a small percentage of Spandex, and still have to find affordable, natural material sources for coats and shoes
– household chemicals / cleaners: I’ve focused my cleaning chemicals to those with natural ingredients; for functionality, I still need to set up a system, with consistent recipes, to reduce stress in cleaning.
– personal care products: While I am buying products without harmful chemicals, I intend to eventually make my own products to reduce packaging and save money, and customize!
– household appliances, furniture, fixtures, etc.: This area is more challenging. We have been investing in more efficient appliances. We still have a ways to go to invest in changing things such as furniture and carpeting.
Background
I grew up eating margarine, salt, sugary foods—a favorite was Quisp cereal! Our family eating habits came from a background of my mother growing up with her family eating margarine, which is white and in that time period the packages included yellow dye to make it look more like butter. Today’s margarine, of course, has the dye already mixed in. And I have watched her stand over the chili pot on the stove, shaking the salt shaker into it for an extended period of time.
When I was about 14 years old, I noticed that my Rice Krispies(R) cereal tasted salty! After that, I maintained more awareness of my food, but was not knowledgeable enough to make significant dietary changes.
As a young adult….
When my husband was Managing Editor for Small Farm Today magazine, we learned even more about food quality and health. We learned about small farms, sustainable farming, cleaner farming with less stress on animals and plants that results in higher nutritional quality food.
When we were planning for kids, I delved further into nutritional info and made further changes for the health of our kids. I chose to drop drinking wine just so I did not have worry about it. To be clear, I know some pregnant moms sometimes have a glass of wine, and I have no judgement about that.
In 2017, being in my early 50s, I set an intention to improve my diet for increased metabolism while maintaining or improving food quality. After doing research on the Internet, including YouTube, I decided to start by trying the Ketogenic (or Keto) diet for 2-3 months in the fall. I strived for organic ingredients as much as possible and stayed spot-on with the Keto parameters, including only 5-25 carbs a day. While I enjoyed the food, and it seemed like an interesting concept, I neither gained nor lost weight, no matter how much I ate. I did, however, experience the “Keto flu”, which is basically a nutrient deficiency from the Keto diet, and I learned how to compensate for that with food choices and supplements. With no perceived benefits from the diet, I decided to move on to “greener pastures”. Benefit: My takeaway from this diet is that I basically dropped sugar, which was of enormous benefit.
Continuing directly after the Keto trial, I decided to try the Slow Carb diet, introduced by Tim Ferris. I follow Tim on YouTube and an entrepreneurial / personal development author and speaker, and based on what else I read, I decided to try that following Keto. Basically, this included a focus on beans and vegetables, drop most grains, and still minimize sugar (which was now easy for me). The setup is that during every week, you maintain the diet for six days of the week, and on the seventh, you immerse in a ridiculous amount of calories. The idea, as I understood it, was to spike caloric intake one day, and then with the reduced caloric intake, your metabolism would kick in and super-burn calories. It was also supposed to support a psychological need for people who felt restricted during the rest of the week, but that was not a need for me…I felt great from the foods I was eating during the rest of the week. Plus, gorging that one day (yes, one day included two pints of ice cream, but I didn’t make it to three, and I don’t think I quite made it to the optimum high calorie end)…made me feel horrible and miserable! Again, except for maybe not getting enough calories on the seventh day, I believe I followed this diet spot-on as well. Again, I noticed no changes in weight or metabolism, eating as much as I wanted or needed.
Then I noticed that some people used a combination of the two diets: Every month, three weeks on slow carb, and one of Keto. In January 2018, I tried that for a couple of months. Again, no perceived benefit.
In March 2018, two notable things occurred, I visited my primary care physician (PCP) and became aware of Dr. Michael Greger’s work.
After visiting my PCP, I had bloodwork done and learned that I had high cholesterol and was pre-diabetic. My doctor said she wasn’t concerned, but I was…and I was surprised that she was so okay with it. With my new awareness of Dr. Michael Greger from his original TED talk and his nonprofit foundation, NutritionFacts.org, I learned more substantial info about nutrition and diet and about a whole food, plant-based diet. The value of the information he provides is that it does not come from his opinion or traditional / mainstream thinking. The information he provides is based on medical research—he looks at the big picture of research that has been conducted on a topic, and in consideration of whether or not any research may be biased, or significant (e.g., a few subjects vs. thousands, or tests on humans vs. “in a petri dish”), and bases his information on those sources. And even though he is still on his journey as more research is available and he learns more, he has the background to evaluate the data in a useful way, make it understandable to a layperson….
So, after long-since having dropped artificial ingredients, and after having already dropped sugar from my diet, most grains, and including lots and beans and vegetables, and after the blood test results, I decided to make a final tweak and dropped all meat, dairy, eggs from my diet—going whole food, plant based. I still had some learning curve to go, and I have since learned a lot about the need for a mindset shift about food from Western culture’s food habits including baked goods, and more. Then I was able to have a followup blood test in July 2018 to evaluate my fasting glucose and cholesterol. Boom! My glucose was in the normal range and no longer pre-diabetic. All of my cholesterol levels had fully dropped to well within normal levels. Amazing! Data to back….
| test (optimum results) | results
3/9/2018 |
results
7/5/2018 |
| fasting Glucose (70-99 mg/dL) | 109 mg/dL | 97 mg/dL |
| Cholesterol (<=199 mg/dL) | 240 mg/dL | 133 mg/dL |
| Triglycerides (<=149 mg/dL) | 72 mg/dL | 48 mg/dL |
| HDL (>=40 mg/dL) | 77 mg/dL | 53 mg/dL |
| LDL, calculated (<=99 mg/dL) | 149 mg/dL | 70 mg/dL |
| Non-HDL, (LDL+VLDL) (<=129mg/dL) | 163 mg/dL | 80 mg/dL |
Because I do not have more history of bloodwork results, I don’t know if my high cholesterol was affected by exploring the Keto diet, but nevertheless, after dropping the meat, dairy, and eggs, my health drastically improved. Although I understand that not everyone will want to drop these foods—the rest of my family doesn’t—this is why I pursue the diet I have.