For October's challenge, we're asking you to get healthy, from your feet to your teeth to your brain.
Avoid wearing or using chemicals.
Every day, I slather a ton of chemicals on my face and body. But until I was asked to reduce my chemical intake for a day for GOOD’s 30-day challenge, I had no idea just how central synthetic chemicals were to the products I use on the regular: Contact solution, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, face soap, body wash, shaving cream, moisturizer, deodorant, sunscreen, chapstick, lipstick, concealer, perfume, pomade, hair spray, sometimes nail polish, other times nail polish remover. I even ingest a ton of this stuff, including the lipstick that slowly disappears from my lips (presumably into my mouth), the preservatives in my breakfast cereal, and whatever Diet Coke is.
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I wasn’t eager to give up all of this stuff—I need chemicals to protect me from the sun and keep me awake in the afternoon, after I ingest all of my lunch chemicals! But I could seriously cut down on my intake. I started by swapping my regular soap and shampoo for Dr. Bronner’s natural version, and my bright blue-and-white toothpaste for Tom’s (how is it that a more “natural” toothpaste makes your teeth feel so much more unnatural?). I successfully ditched all my other regular skin, beauty, wakefulness, and vision-enhancing chemical products. Then, lunch happened.
Is the mayonnaise in my apple and cranberry salad pumped full of chemicals? Are there chemicals in bread? Cheese? Isn’t water a chemical compound? What does “chemical” mean, anyway, and how do I identify it on the back of a box? The most difficult part of today’s challenge wasn’t going without hair spray—my hair is valiantly unpredictable for the cause!—but realizing that I have no idea exactly what I’m putting on my skin or in my stomach on any given day, and am unequipped to differentiate between the 20-letters-long chemical compounds listed on my shampoo bottle.
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Ready, set, go! Good luck completing today's challenge. Share your experience on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook by using the hashtag #30DaysofGOOD, or let us know how it went in the comments section below.
Tomorrow's challenge: Clean out your pantry.