My journey of health ♡

My journey of health and passion for food started years ago. We ate amazingly growing up but from the ages of 18 to 24, I was working two jobs, managing a cafe & working at Priceline (nearly 80 hours a week), training at the gym every day, eating well and looking after myself although I was getting sick so often... why!? I truly just thought I was run down from working so much but something just didn't feel right! I saw naturopaths, Doctors (who told me I should take a multi vitamin (huh!?), Holistic Doctors, until a naturopath did iridology on me and told me I had the liver of an 80 year old.. how!? I was then diagnosed with a "MTHFR gene mutation". Basically my body was not absorbing all the nutrients I was consuming due to the mutation and was preventing me from keeping my immunity high! And I was constantly surrounded by cleaning chemicals (at the cafe) and a ridiculous amount of chemicals in the make up, perfumes & products I used and sold at Priceline every day! On top of my inability to absorb nutrients my body and liver was so overloaded with chemicals that it did not have the capacity to function to its full potential, hence I would get sick all the time, hence the liver of an 80 year old.. crazy!!

I slowly started to transition to a chemical free lifestyle but it wasn't till I was 27 that I really immersed myself that much deeper into learning when we fell pregnant with our first child Luka. I am so grateful to have had the honour of hearing Therese Kerr (the mama of Miranda Kerr) speak about the effects of chemicals on the body and wow... I learned so much!!! They tested the umbilical cord of children that had just been born and of the chemicals that were tested, they found found 286 chemicals in the umbilical cord of the bubs... chemicals not just from food but the chemicals that get put on your skin (shampoo, face wash, makeup etc) absorb within 23 seconds to your bloodstream... and as a pregnant and breastfeeding mama, the only way we detoxify is via our developing fetus or via our breast milk!

So this lead me to literally throwing out my whole bathroom and household products (from my Priceline days, I had soooo many things). On Therese Kerrs recommendation I downloaded an app called Chemical Maze which has become my go to for cross checking ingredients in everything! There's this one ingredient that kept coming up on all my bottles of moisturiser, shampoo etc... phenoxyethenol... WTAF!?

I knew chemicals were bad and lived mostly clean although during my pregnancy I was shocked to hear about how badly chemicals affect our unborn child, this is where my journey continued ... Our home and body's are now chemical free and we eat predominantly 97%+ organic. The occasional meal out that is not organic is totally okay as our bodies are clean and have the amazing ability to detoxify any chemicals consumed via the liver.

When my journey led me to fully understand how many chemicals we use in our homes, I quickly replaces them all with essential oils! Our home is our haven and we use only the purest essential oils for almost everything, from cleaning, to sniffly noses, to headaches to creating the sleepy vibes for a beautiful nights rest, the list truly goes on and on. Fun fact ~ Did you know, that within 22 seconds, the oils molecules have reached our brain, within 2 minutes they can be found in our blood stream and within 20 minutes they have affected every cell in our body!

I am so grateful that you took the time to read this blog and I hope I have inspired you on your personal journey of health. If you have any questions or would just like to chat, please reach out to me at stephanie@thevillagemumma.com or on instagram @the.village.mumma

Steph xx