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Certified Holistic Health & Wellness Coaching

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Managing Environmental Toxins in the Home

May 8, 2017 Lydia Buschenfeldt Leave a Comment

We spend so much time think­ing about what we put IN our bod­ies, but what about every­thing that lives AROUND our bod­ies? Indoor air qual­i­ty, per­son­al care prod­ucts, clean­ing sup­plies, and elec­tron­ics can cause con­sid­er­able tox­ic expo­sure. Clean­ing up the envi­ron­men­tal tox­ins in and around my house has been a per­son­al goal of mine over the past few years but often when I have tried to “greeni­fy” my clean­ing rou­tine, I end­ed up bewil­dered and con­fused. The idea of mix­ing and cre­at­ing our own clean­ing prod­ucts seemed like it was much more trou­ble that it is worth. But fear not, I’m here to tell you that, just like adding more greens to our diet, there are a few sim­ple tweaks that you can make it quite easy to green up your clean­ing routine.

First of all, try to avoid dis­pos­able prod­ucts when­ev­er pos­si­ble. While they may be good in a pinch and save a lit­tle bit of time, dis­pos­able wipes, paper tow­els and oth­er throw away one-use prod­ucts real­ly do add up in our land­fills AND increase air pol­lu­tion from the plants where they were cre­at­ed. You know what is real­ly absorbent for spills, and works real­ly well as a soft clean­ing rag that is easy to wash, plus is pret­ty inex­pen­sive to pur­chase? A pack­age of plain, white cloth dia­pers. Yep, dia­pers. If that feels too weird, you can opt for a pack­age of plain, white tow­els, too!

Next, ease your­self in to cre­at­ing your own clean­ing prod­ucts as you need them. You would be amazed at what you can do with vine­gar, lemon juice, and bak­ing soda! Don’t feel like you need to run into your kitchen and throw away every clean­ing prod­uct you own this instant. Start with the ones you use the most, and have a DIY recipe ready for when your cur­rent all-stars run out. Here is a great web­site for green clean­ing recipes and advice: Nat­ur­al Clean­ing Tips & Recipes | Well­ness Mama

Despite our best DIY efforts, most of us will need to pur­chase some clean­ing prod­ucts at some point, so you want to be armed with knowl­edge to make an informed pur­chase. Luck­i­ly, my pals at the Envi­ron­men­tal Work­ing Group have us covered…again! (No, I’m not affil­i­at­ed with the EWG in any way shape or form…I just think they’re fab­u­lous and I’m so grate­ful for the con­sumer guides they offer!). Check out EWG’s Guide to Healthy Clean­ing before you head to the store, and be sure to recy­cle the pack­ag­ing when you’re finished.

Aloe Vera Potted PlantLast­ly, don’t over­look the pow­er of plants — both in and out of the body! Michael Pol­lan famous­ly said, “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.” We can take this lit­tle quip of easy, straight­for­ward eat­ing guid­ance and apply it to the envi­ron­men­tal tox­ins sur­round­ing all of us. Not only do plants pro­vide us with vit­a­mins, min­er­als, fiber, and ener­gy, and don’t need a lab­o­ra­to­ry to grow, but they are also mas­ter detox­i­fiers. Accord­ing to this NASA study, indoor house­plants are a major path­way for chem­i­cal removal and “plants can play a major role in removal of organ­ic chem­i­cals from indoor air.” So next time you head to the farm­ers mar­ket or your local nurs­ery, con­sid­er bring­ing home an Aloe Vera plant, Peace Lily, Eng­lish Ivy or Spi­der Plant. This is one pur­chase that may let you breathe just a lit­tle bit deeper.

Health and Wellness conventional vs organic, natural remedies, pesticide-free

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Based in Fairfax, Virginia, Hatch Health and Happiness offers full-service face-to-face health coaching in Northern Virginia and virtually around the globe!
lydia@hatchhealthhappiness.com
610-220-7036

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Healthy Living — Great Recipes and Ideas!

Trail Mix

Bulk Bin Trail Mix

September 4, 2018 Leave a Comment

Sure, it’s tempt­ing­ly easy to grab a bag of pre-made trail mix –col­or­ful, effort­less, and with such fun names to boot! But have you ever stopped to glance at the nutri­tion facts of that bag of seem­ing­ly healthy options? More specif­i­cal­ly, check out the sug­ar con­tent. Some com­mer­cial brands of trail mix have as much sug­ar as a 16 oz bot­tle of soda! The main cul­prit is sweet­ened dried fruit, and some brands add can­dy as well. If that deli­cious mouth­ful of sweet and salty is your taste­buds’ desire, don’t despair. There are plen­ty of ways to make a deli­cious AND nutri­tious trail mix, all with ingre­di­ents from your gro­cery store bulk bin! [Read More…]

Product Reviews — NEW!

Purely Elizabeth Superfood Oat Cups with Granola Topping — Cranberry Pumpkin Seed

More Great Recipes and Ideas!

Meal Planning

Meal Planning

July 31, 2018 Leave a Comment

One of the trick­i­est parts of most people’s healthy rou­tines is the meal plan­ning com­po­nent. Luck­i­ly for you, we have that cov­ered with the lat­est install­ment in our Hatch Video series! More…

Bloat Buster Smoothie

Bloat Buster Smoothie

June 4, 2018 Leave a Comment

Now that we are head­ing into the warmer months of the year, you may find your­self want­i­ng to spend less time in front of the hot stove top or oven. For­tu­nate­ly, smooth­ies are a great way to pack a lot of nutri­tion in one place. Check out the video below for one of my favorite smooth­ies — the bloat buster!

Pan roasted plantains

Pan-Roasted Plantains

May 1, 2018 Leave a Comment

Pan roasted plantains with mashed avocadoDespite the fact that plan­tains close­ly resem­ble a banana, they have a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent fla­vor and are def­i­nite­ly not to be con­sumed raw (you’ll only make that mis­take once!). Plan­tains are actu­al­ly a veg­etable, chock full of fiber, cal­ci­um and vit­a­min C. Pan-roast­ing the plan­tains allows them to caramelize, keep­ing the out­side a lit­tle bit crispy and the inside nice and soft. Cin­na­mon, gin­ger and turmer­ic add a tri­fec­ta of anti-inflam­ma­to­ry good­ness and a lit­tle sprin­kle of sea salt makes these plan­tains absolute­ly irre­sistible. Enjoy as is, or my favorite way –- with mashed avo­ca­do! More…

Energy bites

Energy Balls

April 2, 2018 Leave a Comment

Gluten, Grain, Dairy, Soy-Free and Vegan

Seeds need ener­gy in order to grow, and cul­ti­vat­ing your own healthy habits can take a lot of ener­gy too! Ener­gy bars and ener­gy balls are every­where we look these days. They are super easy to whip up your­self, but many peo­ple are intim­i­dat­ed by the thought. More…

More Great Recipes!

About Lydia and Hatch Health

Lydia Buschenfeldt

I was a happy, healthy, newlywed 4th grade teacher when a random virus paralyzed my GI system, along with parts of my … More...

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Client Testimonials

Rainbow

See what Lydia’s clients have to say…

I’d say Lydia Buschen­feldt has changed my life, but that would­n’t be exact­ly true. What she does is even more pow­er­ful. Any­one can tell some­one else what changes they ‘need’ to make to live a health­i­er life. It takes some­one spe­cial to enable and empow­er you to change your own life. Lydia is that some­one spe­cial. Dur­ing every ses­sion, at every twist and turn and bump in the road, Lydia meets me where I am with an incred­i­ble amount of knowl­edge and patience, and helps me iden­ti­fy one or two steps for­ward to accom­plish the goals I have for myself. She knows that each jour­ney is dif­fer­ent, and cus­tomizes our ses­sions so our dis­cus­sions are tai­lored toward what I need in that moment to help me build the health, future and hap­pi­ness that I deserve.
— L.S.
Man­as­sas, VA More…

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quoteThere is no passion to be found in playing small, in settling for a life that is less than you are capable of living. — Nelson Mandela

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Contact Lydia

Based in Fair­fax, Vir­ginia, Hatch Health and Hap­pi­ness offers full-ser­vice face-to-face health coach­ing in North­ern Vir­ginia and vir­tu­al­ly around the globe!
lydia@hatchhealthhappiness.com
610−220−7036

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