Welcome to HHH!
About Me:
Hey! I am 35 years old, married, mom of 2 rambunctious boys (4 & 2). I grew up in Alberta, Canada and still live here. I work full time in the energy industry. I have an undergrad degree in Business. Through my career I've built up my knowledge in data analytics. It really feeds my need to research the crap out of stuff and have enough information to determine next steps with relative confidence.
Why Half-Hearted?
I chose the name because my friends and husband all refer to me as their "hippie" friend/wife. With her "hippie" advice and "hippie" products, aversions and dreams. Half-Hearted is rooted in the fact that I'm pro-progress. I'm pro-capitalist, and pro-industrialist. I'm also pro-health, pro-nature, pro-human. I want to find ways to live healthy, fully and naturally. Get back to basics. We don't need all these pills, fast foods, chemical-laden cosmetics and detergents to thrive. Quite the opposite. Half-Hearted because no one is perfect, there are times where I eat garbage, I stress too much, don't have a whole lot of time to look after myself and some things are just so expensive they're prohibitive.
Why This Blog?
Prior to kids I was active and generally healthy 20-something. Playing volleyball, going to yoga, dabbling in Paleo and Blood type diets. All good right?
My first real foray into detoxing my life was when I was in my mid-20s. I had horrible acne growing up and I went to dermatologists, did the whole blue light therapy, chemical peels, accutane, proactiv schtick. Things would work, then not work, then create side-effects that were new and tricky to navigate like developing eczema in high school (and still to this day). People would always say, oh you'll grow out of it. But I wasn't. I said: screw this - why am I putting this garbage on my skin and it's doing absolutely nothing. So I pivoted to natural skin care. Slowly but surely, I've locked in on products that I love. And my skin has never been better. I haven't had skin like this since like grade 4; albeit with less collagen and slight wrinkling (working on that!).
After that shift, I started targeting other things in my orbit like toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner, lotions, deodorant, makeup, cleaning products and food.
After I had my first son, 4 months later, Covid hit. I was in full on panic mode. How do I keep my first child alive when everyone seems to be sick and the threat of death is heightened? I have no clue what I'm doing? How do I handle this responsibility? I started investigating what first foods I should be feeding him. Talking with nutritionists, looking into bone broth, egg yolks, spirulina, cod liver oil and grass fed beef liver capsules.
Fast forward to my most recent maternity leave with kiddo #2. Every waking moment I was listening to audiobooks and podcasts, reading books when I had any down time and just absorbing as much as I possibly could about this "alternative" health movement.
I've been talking to friends and family, sharing ideas and resources and passing on as much information as I can (if they let me). From throwing my mom's plastic cooking utensils in the garbage and helping her come to terms with the fact that butter isn't bad. To convincing my friends to come buy some land with me and my family and live in a commune. (They'll come around soon enough).
I'm still on the journey and will likely forever be learning. But I needed to consolidate all of the information that I learned and build as I learn more. That is what Half-Hearted Hippie has become. My brain dump of different topics and a method to organize thoughts and data.
I'm excited to finally be able to share all of this information with you! I hope you learn a thing or two and you can join me on this journey!