Saturday, February 5, 2011

Natural family

It may be obvious that I am a teeny bit passionate about living healthily and naturally. I don't often talk about is as it's easy to come across as a nutter banging a drum. Also I am not a "greenie" with green ideals so I tend not to come out of the closet (so to speak!)

But here we are, exiting the closet! (Getting on soap box) I really think that we use too many chemicals and that they are seriously bad for us. We want our home to be a chemical free zone as much as is possible within reason and budget. I started looking into a healthier lifestyle when I tried to solve my infertility by becoming as healthy as possible. I did the Makers Diet for ages and loved it and so we gradually introduced as many natural options into our lives as possible.



And I love it. I would be totally organic and natural if I could but we just can't afford it. We could grow our own veggies but trying to find 5 spare minutes to brush my teeth is hard some days, let along weeding and nurturing a veggie patch along with everything else.

This is what we can afford to do (money wise and time wise):


  1. Drink filtered water- getting rid of chlorine and other yukkies in the water supply. We installed a filter with its own tap beside the big one.
  2. Use natural cleaning products. Dida buys these from Advance Cleaning Products, their regular ones are organic. They sell them in really big bottles and you dilute them to use. They last for ages.
  3. We use natural shampoos and soaps and toothpastes. There are some great options at the supermarket (eg EcoStore) I have to buy Rupi's toothpaste from a health food store as there are no natural toothpastes for kids at the supermarket.
  4. Natural washing liquid for washing clothes. I also get this from a health food store but there are options from the supermarket.
  5. We take lots of vitamins (fish oil, evening primrose, Vitamin B and Vitamin D. Oh and Magnesium) We are moving onto the zinc and flaxseed oil as well. To be honest I remember to take them all most of the time not ALL of the time!


So that's us. As far as food is concerned we try to eat as healthily as possible. I am in love with our kefir. It's so good for the colon and gives you lots of good bacteria. You are basically growing bacteria water. It's not as gross as it sounds! I am super sqeemish and could not cope with anything that's disgusting. The kefir are kind of clean smelling and low on anything verging on gross (like sliminess)




I would love to be even more natural in our eating and eat tons of whole foods. Baby steps! I think we'll get there eventually!



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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

again
we echo what you are doing Sammy
it is really about changing the way we have been taught to think for generations...like things must smell like bleach or they are not clean....so not true!
Keep up the good work. I applaud you on keeping an open attitude and an open mind to the realities of the things alot of people don't think twice about. Not that they are trying to be careless, but just that they trust a little too much, a little too quick.

love and light

Leonie said...

Oh great! we are trying to do some of these things too.
We have changed to washing our children's hair with a goats milk soap, followed by apple cider vinegar ...comes out beautiful and soft.
I have also started making our own washing powder...especially nice with a bar of nice peppermint soap added.
I think it is all about step by step in making these changes, and you are right, its can be expensive.
I would love to use Kefir too but have a dairy intolerance and Ive heard so many different views about whether I would be able to have it or not.
I love hearing what other people are doing to live more 'naturally'.
Have you seen the blog Craving Fresh on KMB? She has lots of great ideas too.
And I love the blog 'Modern Alternative Mama'.

Sammy said...

Hey Leonie
The kefir we have is water based kefir not the traditional milk based kefir. The "grains" are smaller and more like rice and you end up with water not yoghurt-like milk....
If you are auckland based I could grow you some from mine????

Leonie said...

Oh wow! seriously, that sounds awesome. My body is in desperate need of some good pro biotics. Im not in Auckland but come up and down quite regularly.

meg said...

Hi Sammy,

Good posts :o) Hope your wee ones are feeling much better by now. I was wondering about the kefir thing too, do you drink it like water? Or do you do something with it? the grains or just the water? I figured that with our serious dairy issues it wouldn't be any good for us... but if it's dairy free?

mountain mama said...

amen! i love it!! :)

nice to meet you too sammy!

have a great weekend!!

grace said...

wow sammy, that takes a lot of determination to go that extra mile. i've been meaning to do the same, always too lazy to get started.....i'll be taking inspiration from you!
my biggest challenge now is cutting white sugar and artificial sugars from my drinks and snacks....God help me!

xoxo

Widge said...

wow I have heard so much about the makers diet recently. I even googled it and read about it for ages the other day...(maybe someone is pointing me towards something! ;)
Great stuff sammy

Tea said...

I liked reading about your healthy choices, Sammy. I've been trying to take steps to making good changes to our diets. It really bothers me, the amount of pesticides being used on food. I haven't started yet with natural cleaners, etc., but would like to move in that direction too. Thanks for sharing.

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