Maybe it’s time for a detox

Let me just say I’m not talking about detoxing in a hippie, commune, green juice kind of way. I’m not growing freeform dreads and burning herb and neither am I detaching from society. I’m just asking are there things having a negative impact on your life, your emotions or your health? Maybe it’s time for a detox. Getting away from the things that weigh you down, can give you the space to clear your mind and the opportunity to clear your head and make a sound decision. Detoxing is also about being mindful of what is beneficial for you and being equally honest about the things that are not. Have you read the ingredient list on skincare products lately? Have you read the labels on your food? Let’s be honest, these days it feels like we’re preserving ourselves like a Christmas ham, being constantly exposed to so many chemicals inside and out.

While I have been a skin person my whole life, I used what the magazines and experts recommended. I spent my teen years with a flawless and even complexion, then I hit my 20s and all hell broke loose. Well in my eyes it was like hell. I ended up at the dermatologist’s to calm things down. Then I moved to London and things got much worse than I’d ever seen. I was forced to learn the true power of concealer.

I bought everything I could think of to calm my skin and nothing worked.

Until I found a single product that had very few ingredients and it cleared not only my breakouts but restored my even complexion.

Unfortunately, this product is wildly expensive and I can’t even consider buying it while working for Trini dollars. I did learn something valuable though, less is more when it comes to skin. The cheaper the product, the more junk they cram into it and the more expensive it is, the less of the silly nasties are in there and more of the stuff that is actually good for you.

There are a few brands on the local market that I’m willing to use and of course I have to cut off my leg and arm and leave them at the store. I’m working on a way to be frugal yet detox from the harmful and frankly pretty unnecessary chemicals in everyday products.

Slowly my plans are taking shape and I’m seeing the benefits in my skin and in my wallet. I’ve decided to give up my very expensive body wash habit and now I make my own soap. Yup, I make my own soap. I make a batch that will last me about six months but then friends and family descend on it and let’s just say I’m up to making it every two months. It’s the new trend in the family: using only handmade soap. Another cousin of mine makes it too and her family is hooked as well. The next step for me? Handmade body butter and conditioner. This way I avoid all the parabens that disrupt hormones and sulphates that irritate my scalp and skin.

Just a few years ago, if you’d told me I’d be rocking my natural hair and making my own soap I’d have laughed you out of the room. But life happens and as people evolve and grow their priorities in life change. Try having a baby with skin that reacts to everything, it’ll get you thinking about changing your lifestyle really fast. After seeing my son suffer from eczema as an infant, the family all switched to simpler, less irritating skin care.

Then a few years ago, my best friend stopped using commercially made skin care products. Frankly I thought she was nuts but it seems to work. Now I’m almost there myself and my skin, hair and wallet are all in better shape.

I understand that food prepared for commercial sale must have a different formula than the things I’d make at home but sometimes I think manufacturers take things a bit too far. A loaf of bread for example. Maybe it’s not meant to stay fresh for a month on a grocery shelf and the preservatives that make this possible can’t be good for the human body. It’s not just about bread either, we all know that we should eat less processed and fast food. For the sake of our health let’s be more mindful of the things we eat daily. I’m not saying no snacks. I buy a particular premium brand of ice cream.

Ingredients? Milk and cream from grass fed cows, cane sugar, eggs, vanilla and whatever extra yummy add-ins to make my favourite flavour. The cheap stuff, for the same money you can get about three times as much ‘ice cream’. Ingredients? Corn syrup, soybean oil, xanthan gum, locust bean gum, artificial flavouring, powdered milk, artificial colouring and those are just the ones I can pronounce. How is that ice cream? Let’s take a detox from excessively processed food, the best part, it’s cheaper. For a frugal person like me it’s a big deal, and when I do buy “junk” food I buy high quality which guarantees I will eat less since I can’t afford to be a pig.

It’s easy to think about detoxing from food or harsh skincare but we don’t only consume bad things with our mouths or rub them on our skin. We devour bad TV, destructive music and take a swim in the vitriol online too. How about a detox from that as well? Or the toxic relationships we maintain with frenemies, negative family members and coworkers? Over my many years of working as a Social Worker I have counselled countless women in unhealthy and dysfunctional relationships, sometimes those recovering from the ending of a relationship as well and I realised as women sometimes we need a HE-TOX too. Take some alone time to sort yourself and your feelings and opinions about stuff without a significant other mansplaining why you should do what they think you should.

I think the point I’d like you to take away from this is it’s good to take a step back from things and to be mindful and conscious about the things we do and we eat and how we live our lives. Let’s all bring it down a notch and not just go with the flow or live reacting to everything.

Be deliberate in your decisions, clear your head and make up your mind, you’ll find you are calmer and more focused when you do. At the worst, it’ll get you in the mindset for those impending New Year’s Resolutions.