Workin' Mom Homestead

I have always been into fitness, healthy lifestyle and doing what’s good for the planet (Earth day is basically my favorite holiday after Christmas). A few years ago, I was really into the zero-waste/low-waste movement. I did research, read books, and watched videos. It caused me to have this eco-anxiety where I was constantly worried about how my purchases affected the planet. I tried avoiding throwing things in the trash as much as possible- I told my husband I only want to fill one trash bag a week (that changed when I had a baby and dirty diapers!) and we did it for quite a while. I bought the silicone zip-lock bags, mouthwash tablets, reusable feminine pads and a menstrual cup, bamboo toothbrushes, zero-waste laundry pods that came in a cardboard box, shampoo and conditioner bars (horrible for my hair), and just tried avoiding buying plastic as much as possible. It was a lot of work, but because I was passionate about it, I didn’t really mind. However, it’s discouraging when you know that no one else around you cares. None of my friends or family members were doing what I was doing. I tried buying sustainable Christmas gifts for them (like lipstick that comes in a cardboard tube), but I wondered just how many people out there were making the same conscious decisions and if we were making a dent. 

As the years went on I got more into gardening. Growing your own food is also sustainable- everything you pull out of the ground is potentially saving a plastic bag or container that it would have come in at the grocery store (hello spring mix) or the carbon emissions from less trips to the grocery store. You’re also decreasing your exposure to pesticides, and not supporting the companies that use them. Those pesticides are terrible for the soil by the way. Baking your own bread, or just cooking from scratch in general saves plastic packaging. On top of the sustainability aspect, it’s healthier! Less preservatives. We are now in a time where many people are concerned about the preservatives and chemicals in their food. So now, on top of the eco-anxiety we (I) have, we have to constantly be worried about what’s in our food. I was always one to read the nutrition label, but I wasn’t always reading the ingredients label. It just depended on the item. Now, we have to read EVERYTHING. I was buying breadcrumbs today and decided to read the ingredients label. Many of them had HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP! WHAT? Why?? Especially the Italian seasoned ones. The ones that didn’t have high fructose corn syrup had canola oil or high oleic safflower oil or some type of bad oil. I found ONE that was free from all that; it had dextrose but you can’t win them all. So now I’m leaving the store just annoyed that I really can’t buy anything without having to do this ingredient label comparison, this back and forth in my head of which is the lesser of two evils. I just want to make chicken parm for my family, who by the way could care less about what ingredients they’re eating, but I’m here worried about getting hormone and steroid free chicken, organic marinara, fresh mozzarella and apparently breadcrumbs that are free from high fructose corn syrup and bad oils. On top of worrying about what’s in the food, we have to worry about what’s in the food packaging- chemicals leaching from the plastic into our food, and that the plastic isn’t even recyclable and will never biodegrade! It’s just too much. Is it healthy to stress about this? No. We are adding stress to our systems in an attempt to keep toxins out, but either way our bodies are triggered to produce more free radicals.

Maybe this is just me, but I think there are really a lot of us out there that are constantly worried about this. At least it seems that way on Instagram. Now I have to worry about my clothes too. I’m pretty sure the pants that I’m wearing are completely synthetic, but my shirt is 100% cotton so am I kind of okay? If I’m washing my cotton laundry with other family member’s polyester clothing, am I just contaminating my cotton clothing because it’s shedding microplastics in the dryer? I read something about that. Maybe I just need to stay off my phone. That’s bad for you too by the way- radiation. Don’t hold it to your face. Talk on speaker. Oh and you can’t use the microwave either, apparently that’s bad for you? When I researched this, I couldn’t find anything that said the radiation from microwaves actually gets into your food because it uses non-ionizing radiation, but I do know that microwaving food in plastic is definitely not good because the chemicals can leach into your food. I’m slowly trying to replace all of my food containers with glass.

Another thing! I thought I was being healthier drinking herbal teas while at work. Nope- microplastics in the tea bags apparently. I can’t escape it. I’m getting hit everywhere I turn. Now I need to buy a stainless steel tea infuser and loose leaf tea…oh and slowly transition my wardrobe over to natural materials, continue trying to cook and bake as much from scratch as possible, grow as much of my own food as I can, take care of my household (and try avoid using too many chemicals to clean), work out, and work full-time. I consider myself pretty self-motivated and hard working, but it gets to a point.

If you’re still with me, I’m sorry if I added stress to your day. I do enjoy cooking and baking, gardening, tending to my chickens, and I can’t help but think that if I didn’t have to work outside the home, doing all of these things wouldn’t be as stressful because I wouldn’t have as much of a time restriction (like having to be somewhere by a certain time). However, I have a mortgage and need health insurance, so here I am, at work. I’m hoping that things start to change, but I’m not relying on any governing body to make the changes for me. I’m a firm believer that any amount of toxins we can eliminate from our systems is going to benefit us. We just have to stay vigilant. End rant.