Based in Germany but available throughout the US at natural products stores, personal care company Weleda is in a class of its own when it comes to natural standards.

Weleda’s botanical ingredients are grown using a farming method known as Biodynamics. Now in use in various areas of the world, Biodynamic farming was actually developed by one of Weleda’s founders, Austrian scientist, philosopher and educator Rudolf Steiner, all the way back in 1924. The very first course in Biodynamic farming was delivered by Steiner in response to a request by farmers who had noticed degraded soil conditions and deterioration in the health and quality of crops from the use of chemical fertilizers.The methods evolved by Steiner have been in use at Weleda ever since.

“Biodynamics treats the whole farm as one living ecosystem,” says Jennifer Barckley, director of communications for Weleda North America. Insects and weeds are controlled by essential oils and various herbs as well as other natural ways. Live pests such as mice are deterred rather than killed. Weeds are managed by manual weeding, too. A quartz-water mixture is sprayed over crops during the wet season to prevent fungal diseases.

The Biodynamic philosophy also takes into account the heavens. “If you’re looking at the whole ecosystem, it includes looking at the planets and look­ing at the rota­tion of the sun and moon,” Barckley says. “While that may sound a little sci-fi to us today, that’s really how it was done when organized agriculture actually started. It’s a critical component that affects the growth patterns of plants and the natural rhythms on the plot of land where we’re growing these ingredients.”

Just as the entire ecosystem is interconnected, so are the Weleda facilities. The company’s production is vertically integrated, with production facilities right next to the fields. Ingredients are picked at the perfect time for their potency and sent straight to manufacturing, where they made into products right away. Many crops are ideally picked at sunrise, and within an hour or so are then formulated into ingredients.

Click any image to enlarge.

The Weleda gardens are located in the picturesque Swabian Alb of southern Germany. It is a beautiful gently rolling landscape dotted with forests, farms and small villages. “From Weleda’s offices in a small town, you walk up a hill and look down into the fields,” says Barckley. “From the top, you are assailed by a plethora of wonderful smells, and the colors of the flowers and the crops are very brilliant, like nothing you’ve ever seen. It’s obvious these plants are extremely healthy.”

Weleda knows that beautiful products start in the soil, and that the quality of the soil will reflect the quality of their products.

Weleda’s comprehensive catalog includes a complete line of skin care products, items for baby and mother care, as well as homeopathic medicinal preparations. Find out more about them at usa.weleda.com.

Obesogens belong in the class of chemicals known as endocrine disruptors. This class of toxins simulates the effects of natural hormones and disrupts normal hormonal responses. In terms of weight gain, “chemical calories” may actually be more significant than the caloric value of those calories.

How do obesogens exert so much influence? One method is by disrupting the normal release of leptin, the hormone that tells the brain you’re full. In addition, obesogens encourage the body to store fat by reprogramming cells to become fat cells, and they also contribute to insulin resistance. What’s more, they’re inflammatory substances, producing oxidative stress and causing damage to the body’s energy source, mitochondria, which then has a cascade of negative aftereffects.

Certainly some people are more sensitive to these toxins than others, though some are highly susceptible. Obesogens can have significant effects on children in utero, causing the fetus to produce more fat cells and increasing the likelihood of childhood obesity.

With those types of concerns and possible outcomes, the big questions are, where do these chemicals come from and how do you avoid them?

Meat and dairy are two major sources. Commercial meat production operations are permitted to use a variety of six hormones to promote growth in beef cattle or milk production in dairy cows. Studies have shown that people who eat hormone-treated beef have higher levels of foreign hormones in their blood and tissues, and one study with ten universities as participants states a connection can be drawn between hormones found in dairy and the drastic rise of obesity rates.

Fish aren’t off the hook either. The feed pellets given to farm-raised fish include antibiotics that are classified as obesogens, and the flesh of farm-raised fish has been found to have high levels of pesticide residue.

As mentioned, conventional produce is another large contributor. The sprays used on crops are estrogen mimickers and thyroid disruptors, both attributes that promote weight gain.

Sadly there’s more. BPA and other chemicals in plastic disrupt the endocrine system and increase the size of fat cells. Same goes for the pesticide residues, traces of pharmaceutical drugs, and other toxins in tap water. (The National Institutes of Health classifies tap water as a major source of endocrine-disrupting chemicals.)

Fragrances found in household and beauty products make the list, and so does that microwave popcorn your coworkers love so much. The popcorn, as well as non-stick and water-resistant products, contains perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), an obesogen that promotes tumor growth. Female fetuses exposed to PFOAs are three times as likely to be overweight or gain weight easily.

It seems that these obesogens are everywhere—one study showed 93 percent of Americans have BPA in their bodies. The question is, how do we make sure we’re part of that other 7 percent?

The good news is that we can control and limit much of our exposure, and the results can be dramatic. In one study the participants lost an average of 15 pounds in just six weeks by avoiding obesogens. How do you do that?

First off, buy your food from sources you can trust that use chemical-free growing methods. Buying from local farmers and ranchers who use sustainable production methods is ideal. Choose organic when shopping in the grocery story. If you can’t afford to buy everything organic, familiarize yourself with the Environmental Working Group’s list of the Dirty Dozen, the most toxic conventional produce you should make it a priority to avoid.

Avoid conventional dairy (milk, butter and cheese), and be very picky about your meat. Pasture-raised, grass-fed and grass-finished are the best options, and that goes for eggs as well. Make sure your seafood is wild-caught, and avoid canned options unless they’re from a reputable source like Vital Choice. Wrap your meat and cheese in butcher paper or wax paper instead of plastic shrink wrap.

Speaking of plastic, always verify your water bottles and food containers are BPA free, and even better, use glass, ceramic, or compostable materials when possible.

Of course only drink filtered water, and add tub and shower filters to your wish list, since your skin is no barrier to obesogens.

Make your own fragrances with essential oils, buy natural versions, or do without. This goes for home and body. Cosmetics are a common source of harmful toxins.

Make your popcorn from scratch with organic corn, or buy brands that state PFOA-free on the label. And for the rest of your cooking, ditch the non-stick. Stainless steel and cast iron are better options.

If you can believe it, high-fructose corn syrup makes this list as well (how is that stuff still allowed in food?!!). HFCS affects appetite by interfering with insulin and leptin, so there’s one more reason to always avoid it.

Finally, some great news: there are foods that can help you eliminate the toxins you do come in contact with. All vegetables are fantastic for aiding the body in its detoxification and elimination processes, and cruciferous veggies are the superstars in this regard. Kale, cauliflower, broccoli and other crucifers metabolize the harmful forms of estrogen and show them the exit when they’re all done.

All that said, this article isn’t meant to scare you into becoming a subject for the sequel of What About Bob? Just as our immune system protects us from foreign invaders, most of our bodies are naturally good at eliminating toxins IF we give them the fuel they need to do it and make a conscious effort to keep our exposure levels at a minimum.

Go out and enjoy life, try to be mindful of the sources of these fat chemicals, feed yourself clean food, and watch those fat cells melt away.

Now, here I am settled in northeast Ohio with a garden plot sitting empty in the yard of my new house—a perfect 9ˈ x 3ˈ plot waiting for activity. Last summer the plot lay fallow, as I was able to use the excuse that I “just moved in, in July.” But this spring the motivation to take it on is deep in my bones. And nervousness accompanies it.

My daughter goes to her dad’s in Connecticut for the summer, so these months are my “free” time. Am I ready to trade in the commitment of tending an 11-year old for tending plants every day? Well, I do believe that ritual feeds our souls, and the daily watering and weeding is certainly that. And how hard can it be to tend a garden? I’m growing determined to find out.

In an attempt to do it right, I recently gathered some soil samples to send off to be analyzed to see if my soil was missing nutrients, etc. The soil samples sat on my dining-room table for a week, and then a friend told me just to “amend” my soil by adding some compost and I’d be fine. I dumped the soil samples and decided to wing it. This is probably a bad sign. But why bother shipping dirt when I can “amend” my soil?

I have been diligently tilling the soil and plucking weeds as we approach Memorial Day—the big day in this neck of the woods for being able to safely tuck your seeds and seedlings into the outdoor earth without losing them to frost.

This past weekend I made a pilgrimage to Mulberry Creek Herb Farm with hopes of finding high-quality compost. I came home with four large bags and some miniature plants for a fairy garden (that’s a story for another day). I plan on mixing the compost into the soil this week. I’m still torn on whether or not to add some sand; I’ve read that it helps clay-heavy soil (mine) drain. Hmmm.

Often when I walk past the empty garden plot as I enter the house, a touch of anxiety washes over me. Will I be able to plant and maintain and really and truly grow vegetables? The kind you can eat? Or, will I give up partway and have to face a dead vegetable patch at the height of summer?

I’m feeling about 70 percent confident that I will succeed. Who knows? Maybe it will be a heck of a lot easier than I think. Maybe I’ll get addicted and become a full-fledged gardener. (If you know me and are reading this and laughing at the mere thought of it, well, I understand.)

Have you sprouted a green thumb in midlife? I’ll take any advice I can get!

But with the right tools and perseverance, the shift to love, and healthfulness, can belong to everyone.

First off, how does love help us eat healthier? “The lack of love you have for yourself, coupled with overwhelming guilt or other baggage, can control the food you eat, the feelings you have, the people you connect with, the decisions you make and the way you treat your body,” Vogel says.

She found that after years of self sabotage that manifested in unhealthy eating, finding self respect and acceptance of herself finally helped her shift the negative cycle  “For myself, I was always afraid of what people thought of me, how people saw me, and cut myself down when things didn’t go my way,”

Like most transformation, acknowledging that something isn’t working is the jumping off point. “One afternoon I remember declaring, ‘I need help. I don’t want to be this way anymore.’ That declaration defined the first day of the rest of my life. The process of healing was gradual, but that little slice of clarity was the miracle I needed to forge forward in all the right ways.”

From that moment on, Vogel committed to doing everything in her power to reset her life. ‘I chose to celebrate my food allergies, overcome my food restrictions, release my negative relationship with food and live freely. It’s a radical way of living, so much more meaningful than the un-living I was doing years before.”

To tap into your inner power, she says you have to think love, show love, and emulate love. Once you’ve let go of the anger, disappointment or stress, get into a loving place. “I create a list in my head of all the things that I’m thankful for, the people who make me happy, the gratitude I have for my work; I look at the situation with loving eyes and I stop fighting with the desire to be right and just surrender.

A morning meditation is a perfect ritual to achieve this sort of mindset, according to Vogel. “Meditate (outside if the weather is nice!) every morning and go heavy on the self-love—list all the awesome things you love about yourself, your life, and throw in a couple of accomplishments. Remind yourself that you’re fabulous, awesome, and true.”

Handling cravings

For many people, food cravings can easily throw off healthy eating for an entire day, then week, month and so on. For example, maybe you give into a sweet craving around 11 a.m. and then you tell yourself that you may as well eat poorly for the rest of the day since you’ve already blown it. Then the next day is a repeat, and so it goes. Learning to discern cravings from hunger is the first step in avoiding this vicious cycle, according to Vogel.

“I strongly believe in intuitive eating, a power that all of us have. You can tell the difference between a craving and an actual need that your body has, you just have to ask. Cravings are all in the mind. You know, those times when you’ve just eaten and you logically know that you’re not hungry, but your mind is begging you for that little something. You know that when you eat the food you’re going to just be overly full and unsatisfied, but you want it anyways. That’s a craving – when you want something even though (logically) you know, deep down, that you don’t need it.

Check in with yourself when you feel a craving and ask, she suggests “Am I hungry, do I want this food?” if the answer is yes, then forge forward, if the answer is no, then don’t. Another great question to ask yourself is, “What possible things are going on right now that are making me want this food?” Are you using the food to dull out stress or calm nerves? If yes, then back away from the food and take a walk, get outside or do something to change the situation.

Taking the honest route

It would have been easy for Vogel to hang her shingle and run her business and website, Healthful Pursuit, without ever alluding to her own issues around food. But she made the brave decision to share her own difficult journey that eventually turned her life, and health, around.

“When I first started my business, I struggled with whether or not I wanted to share these details of my past. I kept them hidden behind very closed doors but it massively affected my ability to be authentic. I knew I wanted to connect with women that have struggled with the same issues but not being upfront with my personal battles (and the steps I took to overcome them) made it really hard to create the business I wanted,” Vogel says. In order to create business truly inline with her vision, a space where women could go to feel supported and empowered, Vogel “got real with my experiences, embraced my true self and began to live authentically… online.”

I want to help women create the life they deserve and assist them on their journey by providing daily actions that create measurable results. I want to help women who perhaps don’t love their bodies the way that they should, aren’t happy with the life they’ve created and just constantly feel like they’re up against a wall with nowhere to go. Each blog post that I create, each product I plan, comes so directly from my heart.

Meal Planning

When transitioning to a more healthful diet, Vogel found that detailed meal plans were the ticket to her success. She loved the concept so much, it’s what she specialized in while studying holistic nutrition. “The power of a well written, whole food based meal plan is that it can take the guesswork out of the healthy eating equation. It makes eating healthy EASY,” she says.  She now offers a meal plan service through her website.  “Real Meals Meal Planning Program http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/meal-plans/ is a meticulously created 7 day meal plan delivered to subscribers inboxes every Tuesday. The plans are gluten-free and dairy-free and are created using my proven approach to the perfectly balanced meal. I also include ingredient and recipe substitutions for those following a vegan, grain-free or nut-free diet, too.

Click here for some of Vogel’s innovative recipes and visit her website, healthfulpursuit.com for more information.