Your drinking water probably contains more toxins than anything else in your home, yet most people focus on skincare first when starting their toxin-free journey.

As an Environmental Toxins attorney turned Clean Living Coach, I've watched the non-toxic living space become increasingly overwhelming, polarizing, and fear-based. But reducing your toxic exposure shouldn't feel stressful! It should feel empowering and even fun. That's why I've created this straightforward guide for beginners that focuses on the five changes that will actually make the biggest difference in your overall toxic load.

From filtering your drinking water to ditching synthetic fragrances, these five simple swaps target what you consume and inhale all day long & the areas where most of your toxic exposure occurs. You'll be surprised to learn that you don't need different cleaners for every surface in your home, and that those disposable coffee cups are exposing you to more chemicals than you realize.

By implementing just these five changes, your toxic exposure will be lower than approximately 80% of the general population. Plus, you'll save money in the process by eliminating unnecessary products and using smart alternatives. Once these become part of your routine, you can continue your journey to becoming a little more toxin-free every day.

In today's episode, we're chatting about:

• Why filtering your drinking water should be your first priority

• The truth about non-stick cookware and which alternatives actually work

• How disposable coffee cups are leaching chemicals into your hot beverages

• Why you only need one cleaning concentrate for your entire home

• How synthetic fragrances are polluting your indoor air quality and what to use instead

Read the shownotes.

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Read The Shownotes Here

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  📍 📍 Welcome back to another episode of The Toxin-Free Each podcast 📍 📍 📍 where toxin-free living meets real life. As always, I'm

your host, Wendy. I'm an Environmental Toxins attorney turned Clean Living Coach,

and today we're just gonna get rid of all

of the overwhelm.

And if you're somebody

who is brand new to Toxin-Free Living,

first of all, welcome.

It is a wonderful place

to be.

But also I kind of say this like

how I talk about my teenagers, I'm like, I can't

even imagine what it must

be like to grow up with

social media, like when

I was

a kid

growing up. EV everything was like pictures taken and text messages like, oh

my God, it would've been a disaster.

I kind of feel that way about social media

and the internet and the non-toxic living

space. Like I'm so glad

that I'm not jumping in right now because

that space is so overwhelming, so polarizing full of a lot of things that

aren't true, very fear-based, and there's

just so.

much information.

There's so much information on the internet and it's so hard to figure out what's true, what's not true.

What

should you truly be concerned

about

and what are the things that you should actually pay attention to that matter to

your health? Because let me tell you, I follow a lot of people and I've unfollowed a lot of people. That talk a lot about wellness and biohacking

and non-toxic living that

are just so over the top that I am like rolling my

eyes into the back of my head like I can't even believe and, and.

Thousands of

people watch those things and they consume that information,

and then

they just go into total overwhelm, right? Flight, fight, freeze, all those things, and it just feels like this

overwhelming,

stressful thing to jump into. And that's literally the

opposite. It's the

opposite. It's the opposite of what

you should be feeling when you

start lowering your exposure

to toxins that are contributing to making you sick.

You should feel empowered.

You should feel

joy.

You should feel relief.

It should be this like. Fun. I always tell people it's fun.

Can we just make

it fun? I feel like it's fun. Maybe just in my world

we have a good time,

but I just am so glad that

I'm not having to jump in and try to learn in this environment.

But if you're listening to this, you may be that

person where you are jumping

into toxin free living. You're realizing

and recognizing you're hearing. That toxins in your products,

in your home are contributing to health issues and can contribute

in the future to health issues if you're not already experiencing them already.

I. So I want this episode

to be like, if

you were a beginner, what should matter? What

you should

care about.

And I'm gonna

make it stupid simple. I'm

gonna give you the first five things you should

do, and you might actually be surprised at what I'm

gonna say. And there's a lot of people that

might disagree with me, but that's okay.

I'm gonna tell you why I think what I think. And

we're gonna make this fun and we're gonna make this simple.

📍 📍 So let's dive in. 📍

📍 Hey, friend. Real quick before we dive into this episode, there's something you need to know.

This entire podcast is funded by you.

You will never hear paid ads or sponsorships on this podcast, like not ever.

Why? Because I believe in full transparency,

and that means only sharing the things that I actually love myself.

When you do hear me talking about something that I love and you use my affiliate links, you get a small discount and I earn a small commission

that

helps keep all of my content completely ad free.

And that means that anything I talk about or share is aligned with you and me and not sponsors.

So to be clear, no weird promos, no brand deals, no paid ads.

Just the real stuff that I use, brands I love, and literally what I probably use this morning.

So

if something that I mention feels like a fit for you.

click

the links in the show notes.

It's

win-win that helps keep this space truly 📍 ours.

📍 📍   📍 📍 Number   📍 📍 one,

📍 filter

📍 your 📍 drinking 📍 water.

That's, that's the number

one thing.

Absolutely. The first thing. Everyone should do

when they are looking at how can I reduce my exposure to toxins? 📍 Because your drinking water

📍 out of the tap

📍 is probably one of 📍 your biggest contributions

to your toxic load

and

one of the reasons why it's so important isn't just

because of what can be found in your drinking

water.

Everything from 📍 📍 chlorine

to

fluoride, 📍 to heavy metals, to

pharmaceuticals, 📍 to birth control,

to all kinds of things. Plastics, PFAS, chemicals forever. Chemicals, they're all

found in your tap water.

And

you know, the thing is you drink

water all day long. You should. I hope

you do. I hope you drink water all day long.

So not

only is it a place where you get a lot of

toxic exposure, just in general, even if you were drinking like one big glass

of water, but you are probably drinking

like eight. eight.

Right. You're probably consuming drinking water

all day long. 📍 📍 You are cooking with that drinking water. So your drinking water becomes just this

really big point

of exposure,

and in my

opinion, it

should be the very first thing that you address.

Now, over on my 📍 toxin-free shopping guide, I have all my top water

filters, and I'm not talking

about a Brita filter. Okay? Basic filters like Brita. That get rid of like

chlorine contaminants and maybe like maybe some total dissolved solids that make your water

taste better, but they're not actually removing like a lot

of the chemicals and the toxins that you should be concerned about.

Get something that is a high quality water filter.

If you wanna know what contaminants are actually found in your water,

you can go all the way back to episode number. 📍 Four. Four. I

think the episode is called Are there Toxins in Your

Tap? And

you can learn how to

look up

what you have in your water

and also

what kind of filter is best for you.

I personally believe that if you're gonna

get a reverse osmosis filter. Which removes everything you need to have a remineralizing filter or you need to put minerals back into your water because

ro water that does not

have those minerals put back in will not be hydrating

to your

cells. And that is really, really important.

So I have a list of all of my favorites on

my shopping guide that I'll link down in the show notes,

but you do not have to bust

your budget. So if you

are just,

you know, on a

budget, there are filter pictures that are on the list, you can go to those first and just do what's in your

budget.

But as far as like priority

filtering your drinking water and should be your number one thing, that should be the first thing that you do.

Okay? 📍 Number 📍 two,

in your kitchen. 📍 📍 What are you cooking on?

If it is a non-stick pan that is your number two thing. You need to

📍 stop 📍 cooking.

📍 on 📍 non-stick

📍 pans. Okay, so pfas chemicals, which are forever, chemicals are part of a class of toxins that

are contributing to endocrine disruption, weight gain, reproductive issues, and a

whole host of other health issues.

The

problem is when you

📍 📍 cook

your food on a non-stick pan you are exposing yourself to those chemicals, especially if it's an older pan,

especially if it's scratched and. I understand that this is

one

of those hard things where people are 📍 📍 like, cooking on stainless steel is not easy. I agree with you, and there is a trick to the whole butter egg. egg.

Non-stick thing on stainless steel. It's a pain.

I get it.

Right. We love convenience. I totally understand where you're coming from.

📍 📍 Cast iron, it's really heavy. 📍 A lot of you

have to learn how to cook on it. You have to season it, you have to

take care of it. And so I have a hack

for you. Okay? If you are somebody who is still cooking on non-stick pans,

my advice

is do not buy one of those non-toxic non-stick pans

like 📍 caraway.

Okay? They're 📍 not gonna 📍 last,

I'm telling you. The, Our place, the caraway,

the green pan, all of those non PFAS, the ones that say no forever, chemicals on them, no PFAS to, you know, non-toxic,

They're not gonna last you, you're gonna use 'em

for a couple years and then the coating is going to be off of them and they will not work anymore.

Everything will stick to it, and you're just gonna have to replace it anyway.

However, there is

one pan sitting over in my

kitchen right now. That is all I use.

I cook

on it every day, every single meal. My

kids cook eggs

on

it. Like it is the one pan, the one pan that we use

for everything, and that is 📍 our places Titanium Pro pan.

And what makes it. Super amazing 📍 📍 it's gonna last like 70

years. You can cook up to 700 degrees. This thing is indestructible, but there's no coating. There's no non-stick

coating,

and yet the pan is completely

non-stick. You still have to use an oil or

butter or whatever it's you're using.

But they actually

use grooves like stainless steel grooves in the titanium to create a

surface that is naturally non-stick without any coating.

So all you need is one pan for your kitchen

and it is convenient and it is non-stick and there's no coating. It's

completely non-toxic. You can throw it in your dishwasher, you can throw it in your oven,

and it's literally the only pan you need.

So that's my advice to you is the titanium propan.

it is literally listed at the top of

my cookware guide. I have been using and reviewing, cookware for years,

and it's like the one panel never give up. Like, don't

touch my, tate. I actually

I have two now. I have a

big

bigger one and I have a smaller one. I have two. So that's number two is

you want to stop cooking on non-stick

on

pan.

Okay. All right. 📍 Number

📍 three. Number

three is a lifestyle

thing, and

maybe you don't even do it, so maybe you can just skip to number four. But if you are somebody who 📍 goes to a coffee shop

📍 and

drinks hot liquids, tea, 📍 coffee, whatever it is, out of 📍 📍 disposable 📍 cups 📍 please 📍 stop. This is one of those things where all of the plastic

and those PFAS chemicals. Are leaching from those

paper cups.

Everything that it's

lined with on the inside, and every time you pour hot coffee in it,

all those microplastics and all of those forever chemicals, you're drinking them. They write, They leach right into your coffee,

your tea, you're chai, whatever it is you're drinking

and you're consuming it.

And a lot of times

what I hear from people

is they're

doing that multiple times a

day.

I know I did when I used to work in an office years ago, I went to Starbucks on my way in

And also on my lunch break

Twice. I was drinking it twice,

and so

you know, you're gonna see

me like if you follow me on Instagram.

I

got a lot of flack

When I was in the Dominican Republic on vacation,

I showed myself drinking out

of a disposable cup.

Well, guess what? I was on vacation and I'm not gonna carry a ceramic

cup around with me all the way to the Dominican Republic and ask for refills, at the resort we were staying at.

So I'm not like a hundred percent crazy about this, but if you're drinking it

every single day, which most people who are are doing this and drinking coffee out, they're doing it every day.

And so Starbucks.

Now you can go back to bringing your mug. I know they stopped doing this for a long time after

Covid, but I was just in my local Starbucks like two weeks ago,

📍 📍 and they're serving back in glass mugs 📍 and the plates and everything.

📍 So you can just bring your own in

📍 and refill it. I promise.

It is not the end of the world, I

promise. You'll get used

to it. You're not gonna miss your paper cups, and

it's just another way to not consume

these forever

chemicals and these microplastics.

So that's

number three.

All right, 📍 number 📍 four, and

this one is gonna save you a ton of money.

📍 📍 Get rid 📍 of 📍 all 📍 📍 of your 📍 📍 toxic cleaning

📍 products.

And unless you are purposely

buying non-toxic cleaners, you probably have things that are in your home like, Clorox. Even 📍 Clorox wipes 📍 or 📍 bleaches

or glass cleaners 📍 or

Windex or all of these surface

cleaners in your home,

you don't need any of them to clean your house whatsoever.

You

can go ahead and get rid of all of them,

but you probably also don't

realize that even if you're not using them and they're just like sitting under your cupboard,

they are actually releasing toxic VOCs, synthetic fragrances.

chemicals you want to avoid.

Even when they're sitting under your sink. They are

contaminating the indoor air of your home,

so you don't,

you don't need them

literally at a minimum, please go

move them into your

garage. Go move 'em and do a place in

your house where you're not going to be inhaling, you know, what's coming out of them.

Because just like the

first three things that I talked about, where it was what you're drinking and what you're eating every single day, the

other thing that

is a significant contributor to, to your toxic exposure is what you're inhaling in your home.

All day long, Americans spend

way too much

time inside their, their houses. Actually, it's

not just Americans.

Everybody, mostly if you're in a developed

country, you spend way too much time indoors,

and our indoor air gets polluted by

things like cleaning supplies.

Now, here's the hack. You

only need one cleaner concentrate to clean every surface in your entire

house.

That's it. When you go

buy

cleaning supplies, you're

buying water.

Like Those spray bottles, they're 90% water

and they're between like five and 10% actually cleaning products,

so you can

get a cleaner concentrate. I personally use 📍 Thieves Cleaner. It's like literally the only thing I clean with in my entire house.

You use a tiny little

cat full in a spray bottle and you fill it with water and I

clean 📍 📍 everything. Glass 📍 windows,

📍 floors, 📍 marble countertops, everything. Bathtubs showers, like I don't,

you don't. You do not need a different cleaner for every single surface in your home.

So if you have a

cleaner concentrate like

Thieves, also Earthly has a concentrate,

and I have some more options on the cleaning page in my toxin free shopping guide, and

all of this

will be linked by the way, in the show notes.

It'll be super easy to find all of my

favorites, but if you use that.

and you maybe have some baking, so

in your body in case you wanna do some scrubbing, that's

it. That's all you

need to

clean your entire house. That's what our grandparents used to do and that's what everyone before

us used to

do.

And then all of these chemicals and all of

these toxins came in and all of these disinfectants, and we don't need them to clean and they're polluting our indoor

air.

Now if you wanted to make,

let's say I have

my thieves cleaner and I have a bottle

of it. If I wanted to

make it a true disinfectant, let's

say there are,

you know, somebody in my house has norovirus or the flu or

whatever, if there's

something going around and I just wanna like

make sure that

I'm disinfecting those

spaces, all I have to do is add two teaspoons

of hydrogen peroxide to my bottle.

And that is a EP, a certified amount that counts as a disinfectant

and it's non-toxic. That's

it. So I just saved

you a ton of money. You don't need any of that

stuff that you probably own in your home. You don't need any of it. All you need

is a clean or concentrate, which is gonna save you a bunch of money.

It's gonna be like. A dollar a bottle versus I think you're probably, if

I, if you're buying stuff at the store, it's at least three to $4 a bottle. If you're trying to buy

things that are non-toxic, but

aren't quite clean, like

📍 Seventh Generation and 📍 Mrs. Myers that still have questionable ingredients in 'em, you're

paying like $6 for a bottle

and it's mostly water,

so ditch the cleaning supplies.

You don't need them. Just get a 📍 cleaner concentrate, 📍 get a 📍 glass bottle and

have some 📍 📍 hydrogen peroxide on hand just in

case. And

that's all you need to clean your entire house.

And

📍 number 📍 five. The last one, we're 📍 gonna ditch 📍 all 📍 the 📍 synthetic 📍 fragrance. And the reason why this is so important, this is just like

the reason why we're ditching our cleaning supplies, because they contribute to all of the, all of the things that you're inhaling when you're in your home.

Okay, so 📍 candles that have synthetic fragrance, 📍 glade plugins,

📍 room

sprays, 📍 toilet sprays, anything that has a synthetic fragrance in it.

You don't know if it's not full of endocrine disruptors.

And I

have a lot of podcasts where I talk about

synthetic fragrance and endocrine disruptors, and I'll link those below if you wanna go more in depth on the ingredients that

are actually found

in synthetic fragrance. But

it is a lot of reproductive toxins, a

lot of endocrine disruptors, a lot of things you do not want or need in your body as well as toxic VOCs.

And so, because again,

we spend a lot of time

in our homes, synthetic fragrance contributes to a lot of our indoor air.

issues,

And so going through and getting rid of all of those things, you don't need them. You don't even need to buy

anything to replace them.

Now you

just open your windows. You just open your doors.

You can make your house smell good. You can use some baking soda on your carpet. You can vacuum. There's

a lot of things you can do if you

are using them to mask

odors, but if you really

want a clean fragrance,

there are options. Gross spray, again,

Over

on the home fragrance page of my Toxin-Free Shopping Guide,

I've got Options for You. 📍 Grow fragrance makes room sprays.

If you're somebody who wants a

room spray, you wanna spray your couch it All it is is water and essential oils. It's great.

It works fantastic and it's

super clean. You can diffuse essential oils.

If you're watching

this on YouTube.

I've got

my aria diffuser behind me. 📍 📍 I'm diffusing my

allergy, essential oils. If

you didn't listen to

the last episode on

my seasonal allergies and how I manage them naturally

that's what I've got going right behind me. And My house smells absolutely amazing. I've also got

a bunch of candle options, clean candle options that use essential

oils and natural

fragrances, and don't have any synthetic fragrances in them.

So you can make your

house smell good without

these fake, synthetic

toxic fragrances if you want to, right? But this is just another

place where you could save a bunch of money by just opening your windows and enjoying the fresh air.

Now you probably noticed what I

didn't talk about

and I didn't talk

about

skincare and haircare and deodorant, and yes, when you are

on a journey to decreasing your toxic

exposure, those things matter eventually and at

some point.

But I want you to think about this. You're drinking water

all day long.

You're eating food that

you cook on your pans

All day long, you're inhaling the air

in your home all day long into your lungs. You probably put your skincare on your face twice a day,

right? So when it comes to exposure

and the things that

make

the biggest difference, the things that you should prioritize and you should pay attention to first in the beginning of your

journey, it's gonna

be those

five things that I just talked about.

So let's wrap all of them 📍 up. Number one, 📍 filter your drinking water. Get yourself a good

quality drinking water filter so you can be drinking clean water.

📍 Number two, get yourself a. 📍 📍 Pan

that you can cook on, that you can be

happy with that

does not have PFAS

forever. Chemicals, We know, they collo,

we call them Teflon. It's not technically the chemical Teflon,

but they're like Teflon.

You don't wanna be using non-stick pans. You wanna be using something that is not.

PFAS.

And so I

love my titanium propan, but if

you're using cast iron or stainless steel, those are also great

options. 📍 Number three, if

you're getting,

you know that coffee to go 📍 stop using those 📍 paper cups. Hopefully that is an easy one. 📍 Number four, 📍 swap

out your cleaning supplies.

Get yourself a

single cleaner concentrate.

Save some money, and get rid

of the toxins that are in

the air in your home from your cleaning products.

📍 And lastly, 📍 ditch the synthetic fragrances. And here's the thing, if you do those five things, your toxic exposure is lower than probably 80% 80% of

the

general

📍 population.

Those five things can

make a huge

difference. And Once you've got those five things

down and those are just a normal part

of your life, then you

can continue on your journey

to get a little more toxin freeish every day.

I

hope that was helpful. Thank you so much

for joining me

today.

If you're watching this on YouTube, go ahead and click 📍 subscribe

in

the comments let me know which

one of these was the hardest one for you to do. As always,

I appreciate you listening, and I'll see you next 📍 📍 week.