hello! i’m kara
Follower of christ, wife, mother, and less toxic living enthusiast
My hope is to steward my God given passion of less toxic, and healthier living, to help others on their journey to creating healthier homes + lifestyles. Reducing our toxic burden, and adding in foundational wellness habits, can help aid in our overall wellness.
My goal is to help others reduce the overwhelm while creating A Less Toxic Home + Lifestyle, one addition, swap, or ingredient at a time.
I had my own health battle many years ago that lead me down this path of pursuing wellness, alongside the Lord. I believe wellness can look different for each individual person based on their specific needs. I truly believe that ANYONE can pursue a healthier lifestyle and home, in EVERY season, with ANY budget (or lack of), and with ANY knowledge base. If you stick around you will often hear me refer to this as; taking YOUR Next Better Step.
I love the Lord, and aim to put Him at the center of all I do (far from perfect, but consistently working to take my next better step in every area of my life). I’m a mother to four amazing girls (19, 11, 6, and 3), and wife to one incredible husband, Ryan. I have passions for healthier living, fostering, adoption, supporting single mommas, home decor, homesteading, being in nature, and spending time with my family. We live on land, SLOWLY starting a little homestead. Ryan and I both run businesses from home + homeschool our kiddos together (our oldest is now in college).
Here is a deeper dive into my personal health journey:
Roughly 8 years ago I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, labeled as RA. I was often in intense and nagging pain. I had times I woke up screaming from the pain. I had a hard time holding or nursing my newborn at that time, Hunter Grace. I was put on medications by one of the top rheumatologist in our state. One day I went into my doctor at that time, and begged for help. I was in so much pain. His answer was to increase and alter my medications. I asked him if he had heard about the AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) diet, and if he thought it could help? He looked at me and in a nutshell said, “It won’t help much, if at all, right now our goal is to prolong the harsher side effect medications for as long as we can”. I felt incredibly defeated. He left the room and his PA said, “I have heard of that helping others, you should try it, I want to try it myself”.
I dove into research. SO.MUCH.RESEARCH. I knew I could heal. I felt strongly called to start AIP, and look into my lifestyle.
Fast forward to now and I have been medication free, and mostly “RA” symptom free, for 8 years. I put RA in quotes because we are now pretty sure it was Lyme disease in combination with other things out of balance in my body vs what they classified as RA. Alongside the Lord and guidance from others, so many of my symptoms are gone, and I am continuing to work toward overall wellness daily.
I changed my diet to whole real foods, I focused on nutrient dense foods (the ones I needed to heal), I learned how to read ingredients + research ingredients and care about what I put in, on, or used around this one body I was given. I started using less toxic products in our home. I started focusing on sleep (this is a huge factor for me), proper hydration with minerals, circadian rhythm based sunlight exposure + working on overall light hygiene, grounding, walking, blood sugar regulation, and so many other lifestyle changes. Things I’m still working on, learning, researching, and growing in.
I did NOT start to focus on all of this at once! I started slowly, with one area at a time. For our family, food and products were our first area to focus cleaning up. Going back I would add morning sunlight and limiting / avoiding blue and green light past sunset to go right alongside food and product swaps. Working on light hygiene is free, and impactful, for our overall health and wellness.
One mistake I made, and have changed drastically on this less toxic home and healthier living journey, was getting too stressed and overwhelmed chasing perfection. Looking back I can see how, at times, that potentially caused more harm than the items I was running away from. ONE big piece of advise I have for you: do not stress or chase perfection. Do what you can, as you can, and as you are ready.
Disclaimer: My personal story is not medical advice, please do not just stop taking medications, that can be dangerous. Work alongside your provider. **Finding a provider that has a root cause approach can be life changing.
**Written in March of 2024.
