Over the last few years I have been trying to live a more natural lifestyle and help my family become healthier. It has been a journey, we’re not all the way there yet and I’m nowhere near perfect at it, but we continue to move forward in the right direction.
Here are three small steps you can start taking to create a more natural lifestyle.
1. Replace chemical cleaners with natural cleaners
I knew that chemical cleaners are dangerous to the environment and our health (with effects such as headaches, breathing difficulties, skin rashes and long-term effects such as contributing to cancer and causing hormone disruption) and wanted to remove as many as I could from my home. When I first started trying to live a more natural lifestyle, I made my own cleaners. As I have used them, I have not enjoyed the smell of vinegar and have noticed that it is has been eroding the finish on my sink stopper. I also do not let my girls clean with vinegar, in case it accidentally goes in their eyes.
I came across Shaklee’s cleaning line, Get Clean, on a blog and started reading about the blogger’s health transformation and her switch to natural cleaners. I decided to try these products and they work really well. I plan on using them for a long time to come. My girls now love to help me clean and I am comfortable allowing them to help me as these cleaners are completely natural and non-toxic.
2. Increase Your Real Food Consumption
Instead of making drastic changes, like throwing away all your boxed foods and then being overwhelmed, start slowly. Making a few simple changes each month will make it easy for you to keep moving forward on your healthier living journey.
Some suggestions are to add an extra serving of vegetables at dinner, make a protein shake or smoothie for a snack or add a salad as a side dish a few times a week.
Choose a few favourite food items and make them from scratch. Salad dressing, pancakes and pizza dough are easy to do and ones that children can help with.
During the summer, visit a farmer’s market and buy fresh, local fruits and vegetables or even plant a herb garden and add some delicious flavour to your homemade meals.
3. Add Fitness Into Your Daily Life
Adding fitness into your daily life does not mean you have to spend an hour at the gym every day (unless you want to!).
Here are some ideas to add in exercise to your day:
- Park further away from the store or if it is a local errand and a nice day, take your time and enjoy a walk.
- Ride bikes with your children to the local park.
- Stretch and add some simple exercises when you are cooking in the kitchen. Instead of bending over when you take a pan out of the cupboard, do a squat instead or practice your push-ups on the counter.
- Play outside with your children and show them how to use a skipping rope or a hula-hoop.
- Set up a soccer game with your friends at your local park or play frisbee.
- Have a dance party after dinner.
- When you are watching your favourite t.v. show, do as many push-ups or jumping jacks as you can or lift weights during the advertisements.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
- Wash your own vehicle.
- Clean your home. Washing windows, scrubbing the bath and mopping floors will help you burn calories.
Small steps can lead to a lifestyle change over a few years. Go at your own pace and enjoy the journey!
This is such a great post Debbie! I will definitely have to add some of these to my home routine! I just recently started using essential oils from Eden’s Garden for little aches and pains that they have really helped my family feeling better faster with out all of the chemicals! As an added bonus they are not so expensive like other oils and they smell awesome too! 🙂
Thank you for visiting Taylor! That’s great to know about the essential oils! Have a wonderful week.
I agree with all of these tips and have been slowly implementing them into my life and our family life. One thing I am trying to implement in our family life is more time outside and less technology – it’s a struggle in this day and age, but so necessary for a natural lifestyle!
Great tip Angela. It’s all about trying to get the balance right, as children need to know how to use the technology in school and often have homework to do on the computer, but being outside is so much better for them!
Debbie, these are all helpful suggestions. I really like #2 to gradually replace prepared and boxed foods with natural and whole foods. Then you don’t feel overwhelmed. It’s probably more likely you maintain the change over time too. It’s all the small little changes we make every day that eventually give us results.
These are wonderful tips and so easy to implement. I use quite a few natural cleaners in my home too.
Thank you for sharing with Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop.
Olivia
Reinvented Collection
Great beginners tips. It’s all about making small changes. I’ve been doing that for about 5 years now, and over time they really add up. 🙂
Love these tips Debbie! I have recently added in Green Smoothies to my daily food consumption. We already eat a fairly full real foods diet – but I found it added something yummy to my morning routine. Sharing this great post with my readers over at the Simplified Life.
Thank you so much for visiting Victoria! I am slowly implementing more healthy recipes in my family’s health journey. Do you have a favourite green smoothie recipe?
I do – You can find it at SimpleGreenSmoothies.com – It’s called Beginner’s Luck Green Smoothie.
The receipt is as follows –
2 cups packed spinach
2 cups water
2 bananas
1 cup pineapple
1 cup mango
I blend it together in stages – Spinach and water together, add the banana and blend. Then I add the frozen pineapple and mango pieces. That way it’s cold and you can drink it right away if you want.
It will also store in the fridge for a day or two. I find it makes enough for 2-3 servings.
This sounds great! Thank you so much for sharing.
Great tips! Thank you for sharing this post at Tuesdays with a Twist! -Marci @ Stone Cottage Adventures
This is a great, basic list to take those important first steps. Thanks for sharing at the Healthy Living Link Party!
Blessings, Leigh
Awesome tips! I’m always looking for more ways to live a healthy lifestyle. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Blessings,
Edye // Gracefulcoffee
Thanks so much for visiting Edye! I hope this post is helpful to you. Have a wonderful week.
Great tips. We have been going more organic. Thanks for sharing at Home Sweet Home!
I try to get outside as much as possible, garden and eat a vegetarian lifestyle.
Thanks for sharing at #bloggerspotlight! Come link up again tonight and see the features.
#1 is so easy its stupid, too! We make our own vinegar based cleaner. It’s so much cheaper and safer than store bought stuff!
These are some great tips! Recently switching to vegan, I’ve started eating more whole foods straying away from the processed stuff. Next step is to somehow fit a workout into my jampacked days lol
I’d love it for you to share this on my weekly link party, it goes live tomorrow at 6PM:)
What a great post!
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
Great ideas for living a more natural lifestyle. I find it’s all about baby steps – every time you take a step towards a more natural lifestyle, other things tend to fall into place to help you! Thank you for being a part of the Hearth and Soul Hop.
Great tips! I am trying to add more fitness in my routine such as by taking walks and going for runs.
Good for you Anna! Have a wonderful week.
Hey Debbie,
Great post! I think all of these are very important steps when wanting to start having a healthier lifestyle. I agree that any changes need to be made slowly. It is not practical to throw out all your old ways and start fresh overnight!
I need to work on the first step. It has been hard to find products that I feel are actually cleaning and disinfecting and being completely natural. I will continue to search for a product or a line that I enjoy cleaning with that is completely natural!
Thanks for this post! I am glad I found it on Totally Terrific Tuesday link party!
-Lyndsey