Let's NOT GET Cancer: Simple Steps for Long Term Health

I'm a day late on my musings this week, because, you know.... life 🤷‍♀️ But I've been thinking a lot about health lately. Not just weight management & preventing the common cold, but REAL health. The kind of health that we can't see, the kind of health that is embedded deep inside each and every cell in our bodies, the kind of health that sets us up, decades down the road, for chronic illness OR freedom from doctor's clinics, hospitals, and pharmaceuticals. I choose the latter. Perhaps the larger the number on my age grows, or the life experience of witnessing friends go through health struggles, friends losing friends to health struggles, and hearing story after story about life-altering diagnosis's has me thinking about health in a completely different light than ever before.

And while it's easier to close my eyes, plug my ears (lalalalalala) and ignore the massive health problem that plagues the United States, its like a train wreck I can't help but gawk at and thank my lucky stars that I'm a gawker.  You see, losing both breasts, chemotherapy aka poison, chronic and uncontrollable inflammation, difficulty breathing, heart operations, insulin injections, none of the chronic illnesses seem very fun, and quite frankly who has time for that $#!t.  Through breast cancer awareness month, I watched the social feed of so many cancer survivors proudly wearing "cuck fancer" or "kick cancer's butt" shirts and logos, women marching down the road topless proudly sharing their mastectomy scars, the empowerment, the lets take control of this disease, the a$$ kicking, the take no prisoners energy makes me feel like "yes, YOU GO GIRLS (& guys) and kick some serious cancer bootie" 💪👊🦵, but also, if I'm being honest, really makes me feel like "let's NOT GET cancer."  Now if you are going through cancer please know that from the depth of my soul 1) you do not deserve this and 2) YOU GOT THIS - you go kick cancers 🍑.  For those who have been lucky enough to dodge the growing behemoth that is cancer, how about we NOT GET cancer?  

It sounds so simple - and yet since no one ever asked for cancer and often times no one really knows why some get cancer - the answer has many more layers than my simple declaration of lets NOT GET cancer.  For the sake of controlling what is in our realm to control there are a few (simple?) things I like to do to hopefully NOT GET cancer.  This list is clearly not exhaustive, but hopefully 🤞 effective:

• Eat a whole foods rich diet - spend more time chopping than opening packaging
• Move my body - multiple times a day even if its for 5 minutes
• Get outside in nature - everyday and pause for a few moments to watch the sunset, admire the leaves changing, catch a snowflake for the sake of appreciating its' intricate design, smell the pine trees, feel the ocean breeze
• Limit exposure to known carcinogens - clearly in my wheelhouse and also my day job, but also kind of feels like "duuuuhhhh!!!"

Every.Single.Day we are exposed to hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of chemicals that are known carcinogens.  And while we simply cannot control our exposure to many of them we can certainly control our exposure to some of them, namely the quality of food, products, air & water we bring into our homes and the places we frequent like gyms, schools, and workplaces.  To continue on with the theme of a simplifying something enormously complex here are my top priorities when it comes to limiting my exposure to toxins.

• NO pesticides - everyday I see a new report on some common product on grocery store shelves that has excessive levels of pesticides - even "healthy" things like whole grain cereal, chickpea pasta, pistachios... it's simple:  buy ORGANIC or grown your own.  The dirty dozen is a start, but for me, I want zero pesticides in my home.
• NO fragrance - I got rid of fragrance in our home long ago, but it can still sneak up on you if you aren't careful.  Read labels or look for Fragrance-Free.  Even "Unscented" can have "Fragrance".  You see, if something smells bad & the company wants it to smell unscented, guess what they will use to mask the foul scent?  FRAGRANCE!  Say NO to Fragrance!
• Limit PLASTICS - I say limit because I think it is impossible to eliminate plastics.  They are literally EVERYWHERE.  Especially plastics that may touch your food - eliminate those - and those can be in sneaky places like the lining of your paper coffee cup, microwave popcorn bags, cans, wrappers, pizza boxes, your dishwasher pods.  Bring your own cup, replace plastic with ceramic, stainless, glass or silicone, use non-toxic dish cleaning agents.
• Air + Water Filtration - pay attention to what is in your water and make sure you are filtering water and air like its your job!  Can't live without 'em, but poor quality air and water can certainly make living real hard.

Over simplified yes, but I'd argue that those few over simplified focus points can whittle down the chances of a cancer trigger taking hold dramatically.  Eat organic whole foods, move our bodies even if its 5 minutes at a time, get outside & appreciate the beauty of the world, and eliminate the toxins in your realm of control.  To help with that, we have a 28-day Px2 (paraben + phthalate) detox happening on our instagram stories.  Common areas these cancer triggers can hide & simple swaps you can make that won't have you missing the pesky Px2s but will bolster your REAL health and help us all NOT GET cancer!

Here's to life less toxic!

Live free,
Dana

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