A Little Less Toxic’s Shawna Holman Shares Her Wisdom On Going Toxin-Less In Your Home
I was introduced to Shawna Holman from A Little Less Toxic by My Green Friend Lauren Muller. She thought I might want to check out her tips on reducing toxins in your home. Lauren was right - Shawna has plenty of everyday, doable tips for replacing toxins in your home with healthy alternatives. I am thrilled to share my interview of her here so you can learn from her wisdom. Check out her Instagram @alittlelesstoxic to help you on your journey to Go Toxin-LESS.
1. I love that you have the same idea of lessening the toxins in our homes and our environment. How did you start your journey of Going Toxin-LESS or A little Less toxic?
Thank you! This journey started in my adulthood. In my final year of college I got what I believed to be a bad sinus infection. This began a very uncomfortable part of this journey. After trusting doctors blindly, I not only suffered chronic and sometimes debilitating pain for 5 years, my immune system tanked because of all the contributing factors. Lifestyle, diet, environmental toxins, and the repeated course of treatment for my illnesses. After a life threatening situation was brought on by all of this, I felt my doctors failed me and I decided to inform myself and become my own advocate. I began reading. I did an elimination diet and discovered my doctor was wrong and also a bit unintentionally reckless. The things I was eating were in fact causing my pain and illness despite his declaration that was impossible. Once the offending foods were out, I was pain free. Finally. Something I read at that time in regards to diet and inflammation made my mind open more. One author described how she is unable to speak about certain food items and their negative impact on health because the stations she speaks on many times are funded through advertisement by those very companies that make the products she warns against. My mind was blown. I did not trust what I saw on TV anymore and began to educate myself more and more. I wanted pure whole foods entering my body. I wanted to heal my gut. I did a huge overhaul of our kitchen and pantry. I had already at this time been making my own household cleaners concerned over chemicals without any good information. So, I began to read up on that as well. I started this in 2013 and went full throttle. Changing one thing at a time many times. Replacing things as I needed with better options. My life has taken a 180 turn for wellness. I continue to be free of that pain and have had no further health scares related to the initial one that landed me in the hospital. I continue to educate myself and am passionate about every aspect of living less toxic and am now sharing that passion with a broader audience after the strong nudging of friends and family for many years.
2. What would be the tops 3 most simple things a person can do to Go Toxin-LESS?
For me, I believe becoming informed is number 1. If you can start to see why this even matters, the swaps and changes will be exciting and empowering. Next, I'd say to read ingredients. On everything. If it has things you don't recognize and aren't confident are safe, put it back, and find a better option. Finally, Start where you are. If you have the time, energy, and resources to completely overhaul your life, by all means, go for it! But, if you're like most of us and this is overwhelming because of info or expense, start today where you are with what you can. Replace one item at a time with something better for you and start removing things that aren't benefiting you. Do what works for you to make this long lasting.
3. What have you learned in your journey about reducing toxins?
We have so much power in this! We are not helpless and we can do great things to make our bodies and environments more well. Also, the changes we make, every single one, add up! We're making a difference in our lives as well as the world at large.
4. How has Going Toxin-LESS helped your and your family's life?
Wow. In so many ways. Mostly in that I am confident we're doing what we can to heal our adult bodies from being children of the convenience age and that our children are having a completely different upbringing in regards to toxins of various sorts. We're giving them the best chances we can for longterm wellness. I live free of the pain that plagued me. I am confident I am helping my body to continue to heal. I'm assured that my children are being well nourished and are building strong and capable immune systems. We feel energized and nourished. My husband and I have been changed by my experience and by educating ourselves. We continue to seek wisdom in this and other areas and we are loving learning and growing and raising up our children to live less toxic too.