You know how you <<know>> what you should be doing but sometimes you just can’t bring yourself to DO the thing?

Yep, that’s me.

I’ve known for close to 20 years that plastic cutting boards aren’t good. I know they can harbor bacteria, contribute to plastic in food and are terrible for the environment, but I just couldn’t stop using them.

I’m the kind of person who likes things a certain way. I admit I’m not always the most flexible, especially in areas I care deeply about, and my kitchen/food/ingredient quality is a big one for me. I love cooking, creating healthy meals for my family, curating unique recipes and hight quality, healthy ingredients to nourish our bodies. But I also hate, I mean hate, doing dishes.

It’s kind of a bad combo. (I’ve often joked I need a sister wife who hates cooking but loves doing dishes…we’d make a perfect team, ha ha.) I don’t mind creating the mess but I’m not a fan of cleaning it up. This is where my aversion to wooden cutting boards comes in, since they can’t go in my most beloved appliance, the dishwasher. I haven’t been able to bring myself to let go of cutting boards that can be so easily cleaned and disinfected.

But today is the day, friends! I’m newly committed to the next layer of health for my family with the use of wood cutting boards. (I will keep just one plastic board I’ll use only for raw meat.) Welcome to the family (from left to right) fruit, cheese and veggie/chopping block, and my trusty bread board finally has a few friends.

No more plastic in our meals, thank you very much.

But this brings me to another important point about perfectionism. The truth is, our environment is quite toxic. Our bodies contend with microplastics and pharmaceuticals in our drinking water, flame-retardant chemicals in our furniture, heavy metals in our athletic wear and pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in our food. Unless you live in a pristine rural area that’s uncontaminated by farm runoff or air traffic and drink pure spring water you’re breathing, eating and drinking toxins constantly.

One of the ways we combat these unavoidable toxins is by reducing exposure in ways we can, like avoiding plastic cutting boards, but there’s nuance here too. (If you’d like tips for reducing the toxins in your life check out my free download here.) Life and living aren’t about perfection! We do the best that we can with the resources we have available.

For many years, I just didn’t have the resources (mental/emotional and physical) to put into thinking about washing another thing by hand. It felt overwhelming to me.

Perhaps there’s an area of your life where you *know* what you should be doing, but the thought of taking that action just pushes you over the edge or causes mental stress. Friend, that’s not the thing for you to be doing right now.

Hate cooking, even though you know you should be cooking? For now, just find some restaurants or prepared foods that are a little better than what you’ve been eating.

Maybe you love personal care products, makeup or lotions and potions that you’re aware can cause hormone disruption and add toxins to the body, but you’re so busy you don’t know where to begin to find good products. For now, just think about using up a product and finding one replacement at a time.

Or what if you have your lawn sprayed with chemicals you think might be toxic, but your HOA is out of your control. For now, take off shoes outside your home or have a shoe drop by the door so the chemicals aren’t tracked through your house. You can also add in a detox supplement to help your body and the bodies of your family and pets to reduce accumulation. (You can find my favorite detox supplement here.)

Whatever the thing is that causes you stress, do your best to find a way around, over or through and make your healthy changes in other areas of your life.

Remember: stress is also a toxin.

If you need help detoxing your life, I’m always here to help. My job isn’t to make you feel guilty or bad for what you’re doing, but to help you find reasonable, workable solutions that fit in with your life. You can schedule a free 15 minute call with me here if you have questions about my services.

With love,
Elizabeth