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Paraben Free is the Life for Me

Reason #6 your 30s are actually awesome:

Sanity > Vanity

I don’t know about you, but I spent most of my 20s feeling pretty much invincible. I ate a ton of fried foods and barely broke 120 lbs. My skin was so elastic. Bikinis were my friend. I lived at the beach and didn’t even own sunscreen. Ahh...the Optimism bias. Such a beautiful thing.
Then, I started approaching 30. All of the sudden I began reading all of the ingredients before I purchasing any product to check for words like “parabens” and “talc.” I began to only buy organic foods.  I actually opened the emails with my lab results and paid attention to my blood count. I proactively went to the dermatologist to get a mole checked. I began to focus on having a balanced diet and not just the number on the scale. I mean, I even started watching documentaries. It’s basically like wikileaks but on television so I can limit onscreen reading. Gotta keep those eyes healthy. I started working out 6 days a week. Taking vitamins. Getting a full 8 hours of sleep. Basically, I realized how fragile I am. I started to understand that this is the only body I’m getting. I had this uncontrollable compulsion to take damn good care of it.
The most wonderful thing about being 30 is that my college vanity got lost somewhere along the way. Probably having drinks somewhere with my dignity… #besties. In my early 20s, I would wear makeup to the gym, the grocery store, to walk my dog, check my mail. I mean, you just never know who you are going to see roaming the streets of Charleston. “OMG, is that Ryan Gosling?” Yes, yes it was. Nowadays, I got lots of places to be and notta one person to impress. My skin needs to breathe. My soul needs to breath. I have a “no makeup Saturday” every chance I get. Let me be clear, I also love to wear makeup. I wear it to work, church, and all social outings. It takes like 10 minutes and makes me look 3,000 times better. So, there’s that.
Fake & Bake? You bet. I used to have one of those cancer boxes in my house. Then, I moved out of my house to the beach where I could lay out for 10 hours a day for 8 months of the year. With.No.Sunscreen. How am I not a walking melanoma? After I turned 27, I started wearing SPF 45. SPF 70 on my face. Go ahead get me one of those SPF chapsticks too, will ya? I don’t care if it’s February. The sun is out today.
Food. Y’all I love food. I know some people view food only as nutrition and sustenance, and a means to survive. I see food as one of life’s greatest pleasures. Had a bad day? Eat a cupcake. Nothing makes you feel happy like cream cheese frosting. Had a long week? Order yourself a pizza, girl. Don’t worry if your neighbors judge the Marco’s Delivery coming to your house twice this week.  Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge or you too will be judged.” Thank you, Matthew. Short, sweet, and to the point. Its Picture Day at school and the photographer brought Krispy Kreme again? Girl, eat 2 doughnuts. Just do it. #yolo. In college, this was my life every day. Not just a little treat here and there, but the daily. Now that I’m 30, I think about things like gut health, inflammation, digestion, plant-based diets. Ignorance truly is bliss.
The point is life gets real. You have to take care of yourself. You have to live the second half of your life making up for the crap you did to your body during the first 25 years. It isn’t about impressing others or keeping up with the Joneses or even your public image. It’s about longevity. It’s about being around long enough to see your grandchildren. I will wear my yoga pants that still have dog hair all over them to pick up my child from daycare. I just got back from a 15 mile run, and we’re going straight to bunch. We’re walking out the door to go on a date and I literally just woke up from a 2 hour nap and I’m wiping the drool from my face (gross). It’s more about actually living my life, and less about how I look living my life. It's about proactively doing things to live a long, healthy, active life. You know, the whole strong is the new skinny, or R+F Go Naked Day, whatever - just Be-you-tiful y’all.

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