As we approach the new year, it is so easy to think up a massive list of “New Year’s Resolutions” that will overwhelm us—and by the first of February, it is done. Maybe what is better and more sustainable is to make simple changes in our lives that we can keep doing. That will become a habit quickly. I see changes in Kirk and me as we work on our second month of changes.
Before the pandemic, I had a goal and made that first goal. I was pushing an 18-20 size in misses, and I worked out to get to a 14 in pants. Our middle son was in 4th grade that year, and we were going on walking field trips. I didn’t want to embarrass him, so I worked on myself, so I could keep up with the class. I have kept that weight off, but while I had lost so much, I still had so far to go. I went through the pandemic years muddling. I wasn’t eating clean, and my body felt it. I felt like I was aging and aging fast—that feeling where you might need a cane soon. I was also skirting the start of menopause, and it just exhausted me.
I wouldn’t say I liked that feeling. It’s like looking in the mirror at my Mom’s memory.
Maybe vanity isn’t a bad thing.
The past year, I felt it in my muscles and bones, and just standing hurt.
Kirk asked if we could change how we ate. I protested and argued, and when I ran out of excuses, I started trying to do what he wanted.
As we changed how we ate, I could feel a difference rapidly within weeks.
Finally, seeing change matters even if no one else sees it but yourself. It helps confirm in your mind that it is worth it. The journey to cleaner living, while hard, is very worth it.
Waking up to less physical pain, seeing my perimenopause symptoms lessening, my pants less tight: this all matters. Can I prove it has changed me? How I feel is enough for me. It is the thing I hold on to when all I want is junk food. Or to not work out. I ask myself if I want to hurt the next day when my legs will ache.
These are what I keep telling myself:
Clean Living Changes That Add Up
- Give yourself the grace to be human. You may fail one day but return to your commitments the next day. You didn’t fail permanently.
- Convert to more natural cleaning products for dishes, laundry, and home.
- Quit putting nail polish, makeup, perfume, and similar products on your body. They are toxic—all of them. Our skin needs to be able to breathe and function.
- Quit dying your hair. It may look cool, or cover grey, but even the semi-permanent ones are so bad for us. Even “natural” dyes sold at natural food stores still carry warnings.
- Quit adding more tattoos. I have a number of them—I don’t regret the artwork, but I wish I had known how ink injected into my skin would affect me over time. So I haven’t added any in years.
- Use as few OTC medications as you can. It’s not the worst thing if you have a bad headache or are sick, but the key is to use it only when needed, not daily. Some OTC meds our bodies get so used to that you have to wean off them (for example, pain meds and ones for keeping you “regular”).
- Start working out, even if you can only do one or two weekly sessions. Just get moving.
- Use an app to track steps, sleep, and workouts if it helps you remember. I do.
- Go outside daily. Even if it is raining and dreary, natural light will reset your body daily. It would help if you had it, especially in the winter months.
- Start or maintain a garden. Even in an apartment, you can have a small one in windows and on a patio/deck.
- Learn how to forage for seasonal berries, nuts, and more in your area. Get outside and enjoy in-season foods!
- Learn to preserve food, whether through dehydration, freeze-drying, or canning. Unlike commercially prepared foods, you know what goes into the food.
- Stop drinking pop/soda, even the “healthier” probiotic ones. Your skin, stomach, and body will thank you—as will your wallet.
- Swap to water if you can. I know how hard this is, but your body will thank you.
- Stop eating out at fast food unless it’s the only choice. Even then, you can make it work (don’t eat fries, buns, salad dressing, and so on).
- Commit to leaving the Ultra-Processed way of life. You will feel left out. I can guarantee that. But eventually, you feel better internally, and this makes it all worth it.
- Commit to not consuming seed oils. Use only quality oil (extra virgin olive oil, avocado, tallow, lard, butter).
- Start shopping only for raw ingredients—base ingredients. Start in the produce section, eggs, dairy, and meat. Only go into the core aisles if you need rice, flour, or canned unsalted tomatoes – that kind of thing. Otherwise, avoid those aisles so you are not tempted.
- When you buy base ingredients, read the packaging. Look for US-made over imported ones. Look at things like yogurt to see what it contains. Avoid adding thickeners (pectin, gelatin), gums, and seed oils.
- Try to buy in season and from US producers first.
- Avoid artificial coloring, flavors, “natural” flavors, preservatives, nitrites, and heavily added sodium.
- Accept that you can eat what you want – IF you make it from scratch with real ingredients. Chances are, you will be lazy, and it won’t happen. And if it gets made, you put in a lot of work and can enjoy it. It’s that. It would help if you were more connected to your food.
~Sarah