8. How to delete toxins & chemicals from your life | prevent toxic load

Hi, how are you? This is Lydia, your health coach. Today we're going to talk about banning toxins from your life. This is a topic that you voted on on Instagram. So this is something you want to know. And this is something that I've been exploring for the last 15 years. I can say to them, I've become quite of a specialist in this topic. Because once you go in this road of banning toxins from your life, it's kind of a road that doesn't stop. So I hope you're not going to get too overloaded with this episode because it's quite a lot. But I also just want to give you all of my experience and all of my knowledge. And then you can see for yourself which aspects you want to change in your life. So let this information come to you and see what sticks. I'm making this episode from my room in Bali. I have just moved to a different villa. My last place was in the city center. And it was quite busy there. There was a lot of construction and my neighbors were very noisy. And I felt really ungrounded there. Although it was a beautiful apartment and I had a beautiful view. I felt very distanced. Distanced from the nature. And I couldn't find my space to fully relax. So I'm very happy that I moved places. I wish I could see you. Let's you see what I see. Really peaceful places. Coconut trees in my garden. I have a little pool. There's a lot of greenery. And I really feel that being surrounded by nature and the place where there's actually this quietness has such a huge impact on you. I mean consciously we really like being surrounded by nature and having quietness. But just also during the day unconsciously this has such a big impact on us. Anyway, this is maybe a topic for another episode. How your environment influences you. But today we're going to talk about toxins. You know what? Sometimes we in our health journey we do really do our best. We try to eat clean. We move our body. We try to do a lot of things. And this is really good. And this is going to help our health a long way. But this is huge aspect of toxins that a lot of people who are into health completely overlook. I see the people around me having no clue how toxins influences their life. And I really want to open your eyes with this episode because I want you to be informed and not be like most people just using all sorts of random products in their life and realizing how much toxins they are actually getting into their body. I want to give you an example. When I was 16 years old, this is the time I began my journey to more natural living and less chemical living. And I was a child, you know, I was 16. And I had no clue about this. Like literally no clue. Nobody ever talked about this to me. Back then there was no social media, no AI. And there was this point that I started to buy my own skincare and hair care. And I just used it randomly. I had no clue what these things were. And there was one day that I used a new shampoo that I bought in the normal supermarket. And I used it and I got this huge allergic reaction. My whole body started itching everywhere where the shampoo ran out of my, you know, from my hair on my body. I got this red rash. It was horrible. I was freaking out. I never experienced this like this because I never had an allergic reaction before. So I went to the doctor with my mother and the doctor said like, look, this product that you used, there's so many ingredients inside. I can literally not tell you what products you've probably been allergic to because the ingredient list alone maybe has already 100 ingredients. But then this, for example, the word perfume and perfume can have another 100 ingredients inside. So it's basically not possible to test which product I was allergic to. And at that point I was like, okay, but I don't want to have these rashes again. And I was quite amazed because at this age, I never checked the ingredient list of products. I didn't even know that was important. And I've just started to realize back then that, oh my God, like not all products are the same. A lot of products contain a lot of chemicals, very harmful products that are not good for us, not good for our skin, not good for our body, also not good for the environment. And I got really into this rabbit hole and I started to change everything in my life to more natural products that actually help my body being healthy instead of working against it. It's just that most products that we buy normally just average products in the supermarket and the pharmacy or whatever, they are loaded with toxins without even knowing, without us even knowing this. For example, the hair care like my shampoo, but you also have skin care, you have clothes, you have household products, all of these things, they actually have so much chemical compounds that we have no clue about. And you know, a little bit of toxins or body can deal with it. But the problem is, if we use all of these products with toxins, skin care with toxins, clothes with toxic health tools, whatever, and they all contain some toxins, at one point, we will have a toxic load. So this means that there's going to be an accumulation of toxins. So you're not going to get cancer from one single toxin, you know. The problem is that our body can naturally filter toxins by our liver, kidney, skin, but this is in a natural world. And unfortunately, we live in a human world with human-made products and we've become farther away from nature every day. And by using these average products without knowing, we're going to have this accumulation of chemicals, which is called toxic load. And this is going to exceed the level that we can deal with. And this is going to not be filtered anymore by your body, so it's going to become, it's going to be stuck in our body, in our organs, in our fat, can disrupt our hormones, it can trigger inflammation. And in the end, it can also really hire your chances of cancer. I am not making this up, you know. I think the things that I'm saying are pretty logic. But if you would like to have some research, I'm going to give you three studies in the link. So sorry, in the show notes. So if you want to, you can just read them yourself. There is actually so much proof of this toxic load. So yeah, unfortunately, it's not just me making this up. So I feel really bad about this, you know. People just, just having toxic loads in their life without them realizing the trying so hard to eat healthy and to live healthy. And then in the end, they can still get cancer, still become sick or whatever have acne and they have no clue where this is coming from. So what I want to do now with you is this different categories where this toxins. And I'm going to show you, give you all these categories. And immediately also give you some solutions. So I can go very deep into this and I don't think that is necessary. If you want to know more about this, know that I have more than 15 years experience with this. So just reach out to me, ask me whatever question you want. I will gladly give you the knowledge. So the first thing that I want to talk about is everything in your household. I am specifically talking about the tools that you use in your kitchen because we eat food every day. Most of us are cooking every day. So if you can change this, this can have quite a big impact. The, you know, this defal pans we use or like this non-stick pans. The problem with this is that this layer of this pans is actually made of chemicals. And if you use it really well, the defal, and you use it with wooden utensils and you don't make any, any, any single scratch on this pan, then you're not going to receive any toxins. The problem is that this surface is actually so easy to hurt, especially when you're using like a fork or like a stainless steel utensil in this pot. You're going to have scratches in the non-sticky pan or pot and toxins are going to be released every time you cook in this potter pan. So if you have brand new non-stick pans, treat them very well so you don't scratch them. If you see you have scratches on your defal and your non-stick pans immediately throw them away. Please don't, sorry, don't use them anymore. And this actually, you know, we used to use this stainless steel pans and pots like our grandparents did. So just go back to this really cheap but good pans and pots and just use oil or whatever, so it's not sticking. Just use it in a smart way. And then if you really like this non-stick effect, you can buy a green pan. They are a little bit more expensive, but they are really sturdy and you won't have any toxins from them. So just look online for a green pan or a green pot or whatever and make sure they are certified. So the utensils we are using when we're cooking, if you buy the cheap ones, is often going to be made of plastic. And this plastic is cheap, it's easy to clean. The problem is when you heat up plastic, microplastics are going to come from the plastic in your food. So if you are cooking with like a plastic spoon or a plastic, whatever, because it is so warm and has such a high temperature, microplastics are coming into your food and you're going to eat your food and it's going to be full of microplastics. And maybe it's just going to be a little bit, but if you do this every single day, it's not that good, you know. Especially when you see that your plastic utensils, you see that they are like melted away a little bit or they have been scratched like this is the worst. So I really can recommend not to use this at all, this is really, really unhealthy and just invest in stainless steel utensils and in just wooden ones. Wood can be very hygienic if you just clean it enough. And my kitchen, literally everything is stainless steel or wooden. This is the best. It's also very natural and very hygienic, just change to those. Same way like a plastic cutting board, this is something I see so many people use, oh and I've got it so disgusting because if you see when you're like cutting your vegetables or your meat or whatever on a plastic cutting board, you will literally see that when you cut into the board like it's going to make scratches and plastic is literally going to come in, not only microplastics, but even bigger pieces in your food. So don't use any plastic cutting boards, change to wooden ones. What else do we have in the kitchen? I think that's everything in the kitchen, but when you go to your living room or your bedroom, maybe you are using candles. And most candles are made of petroleum, which is a product that actually comes from the urge from earth oil, but it's so manipulated that it's actually full of chemicals and it's not healthy for burning. So the fumes that are burned from petroleum can be candles. These are not good, don't use those. And what's even worse is if you have candles with like a chemical perfume inside, like maybe it says musk or vanilla or cinnamon or laundry, whatever, laundry. But as I say, like fresh sheets, those are full of perfume, which this perfume is not natural because natural perfumes are more expensive, so they're not going to use those. Luckily you do not have to stop burning candles. You can just use natural organic soy wax candles or any other like more handcrafted candles that are not with petroleum. And you can also buy those who contain natural essential oils because this is not bad for burning. Then another thing in your household is your cleaning products. If you look at the ingredients on your cleaning products, this is literally just all chemicals. Unfortunately. There's a reason why you have to wear gloves when you use this chemical product or why you cannot breathe them or why they smell so bad. It's because they are made so chemical so they can really, really clean your house in a very deep way. But the smell and the touch of them are disrupting or health. These chemicals are bad for health. So you can use your cleaning products until they're finished, but then when they're finished please buy a natural product. In the supermarket you have maybe one or two green brands depending on where you live. But if you go to the organic store or online you'll see that there are a lot of green products that are not bad for your health that clean us good. And honestly just using like vinegar is really good. Bicarbonate, bicarbonate, how's that in English? Bicarbonate soda? I don't know. Bicarbonate. And this is also really good. Just soap is very good. There's a lot of very natural products that don't have any bad influence on your health that you can use. To make it easy for you just buy a green label. I love my cleaning products. I love vinegar. I love soap. I just love water honestly. But if I need something more strong I'll use a green brand. Same with washing your clothes. This is the same thing. This is full of chemicals. The perfumes are very unhealthy. They're very hormone disruptive. You literally just need soap for clothes. We don't need this product that has 100 ingredients. So also buy a more natural brand. You can use as a fabric softener. You can just use bicarbonate and vinegar. And with water and essential oils I make my own natural fabric softener which is very cheap by the way. It actually works. Many more things actually in your household but I think these are the most important ones because we use them so much. So if you have any more questions let me know. And I'm going to go into the next one which is skincare and hair care. So do you remember my example with my shampoo which was from L'Oreal? If I visit my friends houses and I look at their skincare and their hair care I have really such difficulty of not saying anything about it because all of these products are so full of shit. And I'm like no way my girls using all these products. You know they think they're doing such good thing for their skin and yeah. You know the skin is a very open organ. It does have a filter but it actually eats everything you put on it. So if you put on natural stuff like coconut or vitamin E or like rose help oil these things are actually you can you could be able to eat them through your mouth. You know these are natural so these are really good for your skin and also for your health. But the product you can buy like in the pharmacy, in normal healthcare shops or in the supermarket and unfortunately they have such a big list of unhealthy ingredients that are so bad for skin in the end you know not like in the moment. And as a woman and maybe as a man you just use your skincare once or two times a day. So this is daily or twice a day so this is a lot. So if we can swap these products for your natural brand that is only has like natural ingredients and that also actually work that would be so good. I buy my products on this website called Ecoverte. It's Italian website. I'm not Italian but it's just such a good website. side because basically anything they sell is like healthy and they have such a big variety of products and brands because I don't really like to be narrowed down by this natural quest so I still want to have my choice of products of smells and you know have it to be good combined with my skin and my hair because this is also specific so you don't have to still have good skin and hair care when you go natural. I have my favorite brands in Belgium but I'm not sure where you live could be that maybe you're not from Europe but I know that natural brands are everywhere. Now in Bali you know I don't know if you're in Bali probably not but I'm going to the shop called Uttama Spice which I love and all their products are 100% natural and local locally made. I love the product so much they smell amazing nothing chemical about them and then in Belgium I love brands like Urtecram which is from Denmark I think Lavera which is from Germany I love Avril which is a maker brand this is from France what else I don't know I can make like a whole list of this if you're interested in this let me know then I will make a list for you and anyone who's interested but if you go to a natural makeup store or a natural skincare or hair care store this is the good thing is that you don't have to worry about anything because literally everything in a shop is going to be natural so you don't have to do the research on the ingredients yourself. Some people are using this app called Yuka this is an international app so you could use it anywhere I'm a fan of Yuka but also not because it does tell you a lot about ingredients ingredients which are true but some natural ingredients are also labeled as bad on this app because they for some people you know some people are also allergic to natural ingredients so this is kind of like off you know like if you use this app and you think that oh this product is bad because you know these five ingredients can cause me allergic reaction but they're basically just like essential oils or something very natural that like 95% of the people are not allergic to then it's so safe to use you know so yeah good and bad this app and then next the next one is traffic I think everybody knows that being in traffic is not healthy you can just smell it you know when you're in traffic on your scooter and your car with your bike walking whatever and you just smell these gases of the scars and the scooters it just smells bad you know and it is because it is bad I'm specifically talking about like the fine dust so these small particles that are inside air pollution in traffic and not only traffic also you know in industrial zone so it could also be that you live in industrial zone but I think most people rather live in traffic dance neighborhoods than in industry but in the city you know there's not enough air ventilation another enough nature to clean out these toxins of air pollution so we're breathing this in it even comes in your house and this has been proven to be really harmful in the long term for your health it can cause lung diseases it can cause asthma it can have it can you know give you this toxic load together with other things that can have that can give you health issues so if you are in traffic in a high dense traffic zone for more than like 10 or 15 minutes please wear a mouth mask we have this I mean this this in 95 masks which you can get at a pharmacy these are the only ones that have a good filter against fine dust or fine particles in air pollution at home please have an air filter if you live in a city or in a traffic dance area or in industrial zone in the stril zone and if you can maybe just go a different way to work you know maybe instead of being in a traffic with your scooter maybe you can use the subway maybe you can use like a more natural road to your work instead of like the busy road maybe you can plant more nature next to your house to help filter out the air this is something that unfortunately you do not have control over you cannot really delete this from your life instead I mean you could move but I know this is not possible for everyone this is quite a big decision but it does really have a big impact long term so yeah next one the next one is the clothes that we are wearing I think it's been like 10 years since I've started to buy natural clothes and it's been like one year since I've totally banned clothes with toxins from my life so that took quite a long time because for me this is difficult like as a woman I love clothes I love buying like second hand clothes I love I just love buying clothes as a lot of women and maybe men also like but more and more or clothes are made from plastic and chemicals so polyester is basically plastic which chemicals and then you have also a lastani and all of this other varieties of plastic made products the problem is that this is basically plastic that you wear around your body it looks like piece of cloth and it looks like fabric but it is plastic so micro plastics are touching your skin they are you're washing them in your laundry so they are also coming in the water they end up being in their drinking water and to make this kind of chemical clothes you need a lot of chemicals to make the fabric soft to make it look like a piece of clothes so have a look at what you're wearing right now and what kind of material it is like I'm basically now wearing cotton dress I'm not sure if it's organic but it's 100% cotton and so it doesn't have plastics it could have some pesticides sites inside because it's not organic which is also not good so the best thing you could buy is organic clothes made of cotton bamboo linem everything that comes actually from a plant or a flower so this also this fabric called fiscose fiscose I don't know the English word fiscose fiscose let's call it like this this is made this is made from wood from a tree but the problem is to make a tree into a cloth the process has so many steps which so many chemicals involved so yes I mean it's not plastic it is made of wood but it also contains so many chemicals that are really bad for planet and really bad for your skin and your health there are these two certified more natural fabrics made of fiscose so made of trees it's called like ecoviscose and the more specific term is lensin lensin viscose or tansil or leosel they are the three words that are yeah better viscose so me basically in my wardrobe I will have cotton stuff I will have bamboo stuff I will have linen I'm absolutely in love with linen if I could choose I will only wear organic linen this is like my favorite clothes because it's warm but you can also wear it when it's hot it's it ventilates your skin like feels so good I love love love linen it's very very good and then maybe I will have some of these ecoviscose viscose products but not so much what else can I say about this just you know when you go shopping for clothes I know it's gonna be more difficult if you want to buy non-toxic clothes but slowly this can become an automatic pattern like I do and I just know where in which stores I can buy cotton or linen like I know that like Uniqlo has some of these clothes is pre h&m and then you have also this more ethical stories. which have more organic and it's a key harvester clothes or it's a key made clothes. So it's totally possible. And then I have one last one for you, which is our food. I could make a whole podcast episode about this, you know, about all of these topics. I can say so much more about it, but I don't want to overload you. The problem is, you know, if we have packaged food, packaged food has a long date to expire. So this means somehow this product must be changed or products must be added so that they can stay a long time in its package. So we will have a process that is chemically or we have chemicals added to them. A natural additives, natural products added to them for flavor, for flavor enhancement. There are some natural products to let the product have like a longer time before it expires. Like, for example, vitamin C is a really good one. But unfortunately, most products have like more chemical additives to them. So if you look at the ingredient list of your food, it shouldn't have that much ingredients. It should everything, you know, should be natural on those ingredients list. So try to look at the food you buy. Just try to look at the ingredients list, what's inside. It's a learning process. I've been doing this for I think 10 years or 13 years maybe. And now sometimes I just know by heart or by seeing the product already like how unhealthy it's going to be. Because the problem is, you know, you can buy unhealthy food because you think it's full of sugar and fat. And of course that's very unhealthy. But then it's also going to have a lot of chemicals and additives which are even more unhealthy. So adding even more to the toxic load. So please, if possible, try to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, try to buy and process food like a whole wheat pasta, rice, eggs that are like from an organic local store like things like this. This is good for your body. Then we can also have the whole conversation about organic food. So I'm a huge fan of organic food because it uses less pesticides. They still use pesticides but from natural origin. In Europe, locally we have a lot of boundaries about pesticides and how harmful they are. But when you're coming from like the USA for example, oh my god there's no limits, you know, how chemical and how unhealthy these pesticides can be. And you're basically eating them. And yes, you're not going to die from it immediately. But the problem is if you have this toxic load, you know, from all of these products for like 10 or 20 years, then it's going to be unhealthy. And I hope you still want to be healthy in 10 or 20 years, at least I want to. So take care of this. If possible, buy straight from the farmer's market or even just from the farmer itself. Buy products that look really, you know, that don't have an ingredient list, that just are an ingredient. Yeah. So much more I can say about this, but I think this is enough. Try more organic food and more packaged food. What do you think? I think I've given you quite a lot of things to think about. I don't want you to be stressed about it. I want you to be curious about how you can change it in your life. Because this is actually such a beautiful process and such an interesting question, you know, to find out which products are unhealthy, which products are healthy. And it gives such a good feeling when you're swapping chemical products that are disrupting your body health and also environment. And you change them for more natural products are actually good for your body, you know. This is such a beautiful process. And please give yourself some time to do this. You don't have to do this overnight. I've been, you know, in this process since I'm 16 years. And I'm still like learning new things. So don't let yourself be overwhelmed. I think you can have a big impact just by choosing what you buy every day. Choosing the more healthy option, the more natural option, try to learn about the ingredient lists. This is already like a huge step. You don't have to throw away everything you have, you know. Especially the ones you don't have the funds to immediately buy new stuff that are then natural or healthy. Just over time change more and more products. Your body is going to be so happy about this process. What you can also do when you are starting this process is doing a detox because your body. So it absorbs all of these things right. And I told you because it's a toxic load, often your body can't really filter out all of these toxins because it's just too much for your body. So yes, if we would live in a 100% natural world, we wouldn't need a detox. Because our foods are healthy enough to help us with detox and antioxidants and all of those things. But if you live in a natural, like I do, then please do a detox once in a while, especially when you're starting this process and you haven't ever done this. So you can go to your organic store online and buy a detox supplement which consists, for example, milk distal, this is a plant. Then the line root, clorella, turmeric, often these supplements already have a complex that you can use. And they're going to help you detox your liver, your kidneys and your blood. So this is really good. You can do like a cure of like three weeks. This is really good, but at least two weeks. And if you do this for that moment, don't drink coffee, don't drink alcohol, don't do drugs, drink a lot of water and if possible, don't eat meat or processed food. But this is a lot. I know, I know. Just the most important thing I think is no alcohol and drugs and drink a lot of water. This is really hows. I can also make a whole episode about detoxing. It's so interesting. So yeah, the key takeaway from this episode is that unfortunately our life is full of toxins and we don't really know about it. And yes, one product is not going to kill us, but over time it's going to be a toxic load, which is unhealthy for the body. And it's going to put a lot of stress on our body, on our hormones, it's going to have inflammation and our organs are going to suffer from this. So in the long term, this could increase your chances of a lot of diseases like cancer, for example. The good thing is it's so easy to actually change these things over time. You can have like a big impact on your body health with having to change these things. So you can do it. Start with something that maybe you can do this week. Maybe you are like, you know what? I am cooking with this band, this default band, which has scratches in it. And actually I didn't know this was unhealthy. So you know what? I'm going to just throw away this band and buy one new band, like stainless steel one or like a green band. Or you could go through your closet and just take all of the 100% pure polyester products out of it and give it away for charity or like whatever. This is something you could already do. So I hope you found this episode interesting. As you maybe realize, I'm not kind of an average health coach. I really, really love this evidence-based research-backed health transformation techniques and behavioral techniques that I've learned in my university. But I also really like natural health, holistic health and intuitive health. I think the combination of those two worlds is the best way to transport your health. I have so much experience and so much knowledge I would love to share with you. And I know changing your life all around and becoming more healthy can be difficult. So if you need some help, I would love to keep you accountable, give you all the information you need and actually, you know, change your health for the long term. Because I feel that health is so important in our life, we should really prioritize it and prioritize it. And if we are healthy, life goes much easier. You have more energy, things are flowing more. Your body is actually working with you instead of against you. So you can book a discovery call with me. It's free just to check out if you can work together. I hope you have a nice day. Bye.