Goin' Natural (well...kinda)

So, this book that I've been reading "The end of overeating." has really sparked the desire in me to get back to natural foods and natural living.  The book mentions how the food industry, restaurants, etc. do all kinds of CRAZY things to the foods we eat just to make them more appealing to us AND to make us eat more of those products in bigger quantities...and, we keep going back for more.  BLAAAAAH!  It makes me dislike the people of our country (who make these awful food options) because they are doing/making such unhealthy/harmful things like this, but at the same time the majority in this country go right along with it-and even enjoy it-so the fingers are pointing right back at us.

I've gone through waves of health conscientiousness in the past and then I'd fall off the natural wagon and eat/do WHATEVER.  So, by no means have I been a stickler about the natural way of life but, here I am back on the wagon to the natural side again, and I'm ready to go far, far away from a lot of the unnatural.  And, the cool thing is that I'm able to pack my family (hubby and baby) on the wagon with me AND hubby is totally supportive of the lifestyle change.

Why did I fall off the wagon in the past?
Convenience of the unnatural stuff
$$ of the unnatural vs. natural
Family & friends influence
World & advertisement temptations
Taste & appeal of unnatural stuff
I didn't realize what was really in unnatural things
I was lazy from time to time
Lack of time
(the list could go on and on)

Like I mentioned, this isn't just about eating natural stuff but also natural living.  No, we're not moving to Pennsylvania or any other Amish communities (although, I'm a huge fan of how they do a lot of things).  No, we probably won't ever be as "natural" as I'd like us to be.  Yes, we will occasionally eat the unnatural things and use the unnatural things.  However, we're going to give it a shot and do as much as we can to accomplish the goal of "getting back to nature."  We pray that God provides the means for us to do so since it isn't cheap sometimes to do the natural thing and we pray for the endurance, perseverance, desire, etc. to do the natural thing most of the time.

What changes have we made already?
Well, we chose 1 day per week to call our "junk food day" and we've chosen to also enjoy unnatural stuff on special occasions (because let's face it, unnatural stuff makes appearances at A LOT of those occasions).
During the most recent grocery shopping trip, I was diligent about reading labels and not putting things in my cart that contained "x,y, and z" that I couldn't pronounce and didn't know what in the world it was, etc.
We don't "keep" junk food in the house.
I've looked up several "natural" blogs, sites, etc. in my quest toward the natural and I've found many recipes already.

Here's a recipe for Homemade Powder Laundry Detergent that I saw on a friend's blog (thanks, Nicole!) that I'm ready to try as soon as we get through the laundry detergent that we JUST bought at Costco.  And, I'm going to try the homemade laundry dryer sheet idea that Nicole provided, too.

Homemade Powder Laundry Detergent

Ingredients

1 gallon jar

1 bar natural soap (Nicole used Dr. Bronners)

2 cups Borax

2 cups Washing Soda

Directions

1. Grate bar of soap--either by hand or in food processor.
2. Mix grated soap with Borax and Washing Soda.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup detergent over clothes.  Makes 1/3 amount of a 1 gallon jar (good tester batch).

Homemade Laundry Dryer Sheet
4 safety pins attached to an old rag in the dryer

Here we go...