When I was in my 20s, I weighed about 20-25 pounds more than I do today (even after having a baby last year!) although I was constantly obsessing over food and exercise. 

I was also super anxious and felt like the smallest thing could either lift me up super high or crash me down super hard. My anxiety was manifesting in an uncomfortable, tightening sensation in my throat and I was feeling tired and unmotivated.

I wasn't balanced at all although I was striving for balance all the time.

Looking back and knowing what I know now, I can pinpoint exactly what I was doing wrong:
 

When I was preparing for my pregnancy with Felix, I learned an incredible amount about the female body and how to support it gently and naturally to be as healthy as it possibly can be.

Amongst my explorations, I found a study that was spearheaded by the Environmental Working Group that showed that an average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants were found in umbilical cord blood. The study also revealed a total of 287 chemicals found, of which 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests. (1)

When I learned about this, I knew that some things had to drastically shift in the kind of food, household supplies, and skincare I was choosing.

I have to confess: I am somewhat of a skin freak. Some women love emphasizing their eyes or their lips or whatever else, but I've always been a skin girl. Hand me a good moisturizer and some blush and I'm a happy camper ;) 

That also means that if my skin feels and looks healthy and smooth, I feel confident, and if it doesn't, well, you know how it goes:
I spend too much time in front of the mirror picking at my face while telling myself to stop (but not listening!) and then beating myself up the next morning when I see the battlefield that is now my face. Ugghhh... why is that so tempting?!

Luckily, I've been able to solve these issues for the most part in recent years and in today's post, I am going to start dissecting the issue of beautiful, glowing skin, how it is connected to your hormones and your greater health and what you can do NATURALLY! to finally get to the root-cause of what's causing your skin problems and how to fix them.