Katie Wells, author of The Wellness Mama Cookbook and founder of Wellness Mama, finally shares the secret of how she manages six kids, a company, and a career without sacrificing a healthy lifestyle with this step-by-step, comprehensive guide to clean, natural living. By following her simple detox plan, you'll be able to implement a system for better living by reducing toxic exposure, transforming your diet, and regaining control over your health. Katie provides practical tips for slowly incorporating this rewarding lifestyle into an already busy schedule, giving you the option to choose what area of life you'd like to work on first. You can detox your body with whole foods and natural medicines; clean up your beauty regime with all-natural moisturizers, cleansers, hair products, and makeup; get rid of toxic household products that include bleach, ammonia, and acids; try a digital detox for you and your family; or learn how to de-stress by adopting healthier sleeping habits and finding time for yourself. The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox is the natural answer to matters of home, nutrition, and motherhood with over 150 homemade versions of essential household and personal products like: - Citrus Fresh All-Purpose Cleaner - Unscented Liquid Laundry Detergent - Lavender and Honey Face Wash - Mineral Foundation - Lemon Cinnamon Cough Syrup - Chamomile Calming Balm "Katie Wells is my go-to expert on how to make your home a healthy oasis. In her new book, she shares countless ways that you can lower your chemical burden and take control of your families' health. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to have more control over the health trajectory of their loved ones."    -- Alan Christianson, NMD New York Times Bestselling Author of The Metabolism Reset Diet  Katie Wells , the "Wellness Mama," is an award-winning blogger, author, podcaster, and real-food crusader. Her mission is to provide simple answers for creating healthier families through practical tips, real-food recipes, beauty and cleaning tutorials, natural remedies, and more. As a mom, Katie offers advice for living a wellness lifestyle with a family and on a budget. Chapter 1 What We’re Up Against I’ve always considered our bodies like a bathtub. You can put a lot of stuff into a bathtub. You can just add water, which is nonthreatening and easy to drain. You could add sand, or dirt, or fruit, or chemicals, or rocks, or any other substance really. No matter what you put in it, it has a maximum capacity. Once that bathtub is filled to the top, it is going to overflow, no matter what you put into it. It is the same with our bodies. You can put a whole lot of different stuff into (and on) it and our bodies are pretty good at draining and cleaning out the junk. But if it’s full of toxins, then the body can no longer drain it out and disease will manifest. Our bodies can handle only so much. In their day, our grandparents weren’t trying to put too much into the bathtub. Their bodies could relatively easily drain and stay below capacity, even if there was a large influx in a short amount of time. Now we’re throwing junk into the bathtub all day long. We’re cramming them with plastics and chemicals and junk food and slowing down the drain with lack of sleep, too much stress, and lack of real human connection. To fix it, we must reduce all the junk we’re throwing in and address the draining issues. But before I get into that, let’s delve into what we’re up against (what’s going into our bathtubs) so that you can understand how to combat it. Food Additives There are thousands of chemicals in our foods, and some experts estimate that consumers eat about four pounds of chemicals annually. Sure, some additives are harmless, but others haven’t been adequately tested and a bunch are downright dangerous. After looking into this issue, I’ve compiled a list of the ten most dangerous. 1. Artificial Sweeteners. Anything dubbed “sugar-free” probably contains artificial sweeteners, none of which have any redeeming value. I’m talking about aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame potassium, and others. These have been linked to cancer and a number of other serious health problems. 2. Cochineal Extract. Found in beverages, candy, ice cream, yogurt, this additive is a red coloring made from the dried and pulverized bodies of insects. It has been shown to cause rare allergic reactions that range from hives to life-threatening anaphylactic shock. 3. High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). Found in almost all processed foods and beverages, this highly refined form of sugar is the chief source of calories in American diets. HFCS promotes obesity faster than many other sugars, builds up levels of low-density lipoprotein—LDL (“bad”) cholesterol—and promotes the development of type 2 diabetes and other illnesses. 4. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG). A flavor enhancer found in soups, salad dressings, snack foods, chips, frozen meals, and many restaurant dishes,