Introducing Ali

Hi! I’m Ali: wife, mom, photographer, and self-diagnosed greenoholic. (and sister-in-law to the beautiful and very talented Dr. Carolyn).  I will be writing on the Foundations Family Wellness blog from time to time about my own experiences and findings in my path to a cleaner life.  I am not a doctor, or a chemist, or an environmental engineer;  anything I write is solely based on my own experiences and my own research.  Here is my story.

My husband and I have cleaned up a few things in our life here and there over the years, but nothing too over the top.  A couple of years ago, Carolyn told us about the BPA in the Nalgene bottles/plastic water bottles and Tupperware type containers.  Naturally I took the calmest option and threw away pretty much everything plastic in our kitchen!  That was certainly fun, considering that my husband and I are also wateroholics (made up words are a necessity from time to time) and are rarely seen more than a few feet from our water bottles. 

The year after that, Carolyn informed us about the Environmental Working Group website and the problems with sunscreen and personal care products.  Same thing again-- the most rational and calm reaction was to throw away ALL the sunscreen we had and half of my makeup.  Ugh.  Wouldn’t recommend. (also a Sephora-aholic) 

Almost two years ago, another friend turned me on to Nina Planck’s book, “Real Food For Mother and Baby” and luckily that time I didn’t throw everything out, but my diet and the food that I buy hasn’t been the same since.

The big push came when my daughter was about 9 months old and some stupid dramatic thing was going on with the government.  I woke up one day and thought, “well, if I can’t leave behind financial and governmental stability for her, then maybe I should think about at least trying to leave her some clean earth and her health by doing little things that I have power over.”  My goal is to be around for as many days of my daughter’s life as I can possibly manage, and if that means going a little green-nutso, I at least have to try.  (And yes, I’m fully aware that anything could happen tomorrow, but today feels much better knowing that I’m doing everything I can to have the cleanest, healthiest, and happiest home I can manage.)

Within a week of that realization we were full-time, cold turkey cloth diapering! (Thanks to the wonderful ladies at Diaper Junction!!)  Everything has snowballed from there and I feel like we’re already different people living in a different world.  Through a special “Healthy Home” party hosted by a friend, I discovered the book Healthy Child, Healthy World.  This book has opened my eyes more than any other book I've come across and I’ve been able to easily increase my “cleaning up my life” efforts using their research and tips.  

Please come back for recipes for homemade cleaning and personal care products, book reviews, how-tos, and condensed versions of interesting research I stumble across!!

Remember:

'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."  -Lao Tzu (or Confucius)