Basically Invisible.

It’s a safe assumption that unless you live completely off the grid (and that’s even debatable), you cannot avoid plastic…

You may be a highly don’t-use-plastic-conscious-person. Which is great in theory, but in today’s day and age, it’s impossible to remove it entirely. Let me give you a short list of commonly used items that cause us to come in contact with harmful microplastics.

-Packaging (food, clothing, any physical product, and even the products you buy that are supposed to be plastic free come in plastic wrapping..)
-Clothing (it’s all infused)
-Can and “Paper-Cup” Lining (yes, your aluminum can and coffee shop paper cup still has plastic… and in the worst spot it could be)
-Drinking Water (tap, bottled, and coming from any filter that’s not reverse osmosis)
One more and I’ll move on…
-Printed Receipts (the ink that is printed out on these have extremely high amounts of microplastics that are absorbed through skin) if you work somewhere that touches receipts often, it’s probably a good idea to wear some sort of glove

Now my intentions here are not to play off of fear mongering. I want to bring more awareness to issues like this. Especially because it’s having a shown effect on our performance, health, and general well-being… and it’s basically invisible.
So by now, I’m sure you know that having plastic in our body is not ideal. And I do want to list some of the reasons why. This is just in case you know that they’re not good, but not entirely sure what makes them so gosh darn bad.

-Hormone Disruption and Alteration (Research showing a drop in testosterone and sperm production, with increases in estrogen. and this is only scratching the surface)
-Links Pertaining/Leading to ADHD, Autism, and Fertility Issues (affecting both men and women)
-Can Cross Our Blood-Brain Barrier (it’s specifically in place to protect our brain from contaminants and toxins… yet, a lot of them are small enough to pass through and accumulate, doing who knows what)

So what’s the point of me pointing all of this out? Making it clear that you can’t escape it.

But there are things you can do that will heavily reduce your plastic intake. A few great and recommended fixes are:

-Buy and Use an In-Home Countertop Reverse Osmosis Water Filter Machine (this is the number one best way to eliminate about 99% of all the crap in your water)
-Store, Drink From, and Eat Off of Glass/Metal (as much as possible at least)
-Do Not Heat Any Type of Plastic and Touch It (the heating of it with food or drinks will release all the plastic associated chemicals: here is a link to a short PDF on these https://www.endocrine.org/-/media/endocrine/files/topics/2020-dec-7-harmful-chemicals-backgrounder.pdf)
-Not Cooking With Nonstick Type Pots and Pans (they contain and release what we call forever chemicals… so that’s great)

There are more precautions you can take, but if you try and follow the above, you’re significantly reducing the amount you’re exposed to.
And I know, it sounds and feels like a lot of extra work and friction. I myself am slowly trying to do better with switching out for better options. I’m a big green tea drinker and I’ve switched over to loose leaf and a metal steeper/strainer. Which was a little annoying at first, compared to the tea bags, but I know personally I’ve decreased how much plastic I’m consuming with just that switch.
After you implement it and keep doing for a bit, it will become your norm.

And obviously, we have a lot of things to worry about. Focusing on sleep, physical activity, food choices, and stress regulation are always going to be at the top. I get that, and preach that. But if you’re doing your best in all those areas, switching to glass, metal, and wood for drinking, eating, storing your food; then looking into some sort of water filtration, might not be the worst idea.
Especially in a time when mental issues are on the rise, along with the out of whack hormone production… might not be a bad idea to take a closer look.

MINDSET

Just do your best. It’s all we got.

Train smart, but never forget to train hard.