Going through "the change": Part one

and no, I'm not referring to menopause. ;) I'm talking about something completely different. Before I launch into what it is, let me give you a little backstory....

I'm a big sunscreen girl. I slather it on my face daily, slather it on my kids when we go outside, and reapply often when we are swimming. Skin cancer and age spots run rampant in my family and I'm doing my best to try to avoid them (wish I could go back and talk to my teenage self). Last year, I did some research on what were the best sunscreens and ended up choosing a higher-end one that had a high SPF and did a great job. Zero burns. One day Dusty casually mentioned that he had read a article that talked about how the chemicals that are in our sunscreens could end up causing cancer. I pretty much ignored his comment and continued to slather.

Fast forward to this March. For one of Dusty's classes, he researched how chemicals are regulated here in America. The biggest thing he discovered was the lack of regulation of toxins and chemicals. These chemicals ran the spectrum from industrial production to household cleaners to "trade secrets" in our cosmetics. This piqued my curiosity. Since I spend a considerable amount of time near a computer, I ended up doing more of my own research and finding myself horrified at what I discovered.

Instead of leading you down the doom and gloom road I took for awhile, I am going to speed up to now, what I have since learned, and how I am implementing it into my life.

For starters I would like to mention how most chemicals/products in our home are not required to list their ingredients. Don't believe me? Go look at the back of your laundry detergent. Go look at the back of your toilet bowl cleaner. Go read the label of any cosmetic. What? There's not a label? Right.

If you are starting to be a conscientious consumer, you may have some "natural" cleaners that do list what is in them. What do you know about those ingredients? Are they actually "natural"?

But I digress. For this post, I would like to focus on what started my little search. Sunscreen. I figured that if I could find sunscreens for me and my babies that actually protected from the UVB and UVA rays, but limited the chemicals in the formula I would be happy. This led me to the EWG Skindeep Database. (After doing more research, I now realize to take what's listed on this website with a grain of salt, but it's a good starting place.) They recommended many sunscreens that were stable, gave good protection, and had limited harmful chemicals. I found some that I could purchase on the Amazon subscribe and save program and after reading reviews decided to try them out. So far I have been pleased.

Obviously no sunscreen is going to be perfect because it's still created in a lab using some synthetic materials, but I'll take the compromise with these.

I use this sunscreen daily on my face under my makeup. It's light, doesn't clog my pores, has decently but not obscenely high SPF, and is free of parabens, phthalates, and other icky things.

The sunscreen I found for my little boys is this: It's a physical barrier that is more chemically friendly than what we were using previously.

But, even after finding new sunscreens, what I had discovered about ingredients in everything in our home kept nagging at me at the back of my head and I knew I had to do better.

I could no longer be the blind consumer, shopping for the best deal, taking for granted that our government is carefully regulating what goes on our shelves. It hit too close to home. Because sadly, as I learned what some of these chemicals have been linked to, I realized that I couldn't have the "it happens to other people, not me" attitude any longer.

Because it has happened to me. We have struggled with infertility. Both of my boys have been born with birth defects requiring surgery. One defect being very major. I had to stop what I could now. Because I had the knowledge and I couldn't shove it away. I had to take action.

So as I launch into this next series of posts, I do so not to scare you, or make you feel guilty, but to hope that you become a little more informed, as I have become over the past few months. This blog is my little soapbox and I hope that what I have learned helps somebody out there. Please feel free to ask me questions or share similar information that you have learned.

Thanks for not thinking I'm too kooky or crazy, in advance. Except that I am. And that's okay. I accepted it long ago. :)