Hi Wellness Warriors,

It’s here! You might not have been anticipating the beginning of September as eagerly as I have, but let me tell you—this month was a long time coming. I couldn’t be more thrilled to debut KrisCarr.com’s Prevention Month 2013! Each week this month I’ll be featuring a fun new collection of accessible and easy ways to live healthier every day, including amazing information from some of the wellness world’s leading thinkers.

You may remember my Prevention Month from last year, but if not, let’s start with a little background info. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month (which I totally support)—but cue the tides of pink washing over everything from cocktails to unhealthy makeup to “Buckets for the Cure;” remember that debacle? Pretty sure my cure doesn’t come from Kentucky Fried Chicken! Even handguns. Yes, you read that correctly.

There are so many issues around the pinking—

Many pink ribbon products are loaded with chemicals linked to cancer; companies not disclosing how much of the money actually goes to research or charities; and on and on. As the brilliant Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, put it, “[These companies] want us to ‘hope for the cure’ rather than having a serious discussion about how to prevent cancer—because prevention requires changes to the status quo.”

Now, I’m not saying that we don’t need research, awareness and advances in medicine. We absolutely do! But what I am saying is that we also need to focus on NOT getting sick in the first place, and I’m not just referring to cancer, this is about all preventable chronic shit pickles. If, like me, you’re already facing a health challenge, prevention can mean becoming an active participant in your healing. Awareness of the problem is always a good thing to have, but what about awareness of how to avoid the problem from the get-go?

Yes, there are things that are out of our control when it comes to health. But that doesn’t make us powerless bystanders.

Taking the reins of our well-being is one of the most important choices we make on a daily basis. Prevention doesn’t just mean avoiding your germy co-workers when the seasonal flu goes around or standing five feet away from the microwave. Prevention means delving into each aspect of our lives and examining where we can make better choices (emotionally, physically, even spiritually). It’s putting ourselves—and our health—first. It means living like the special, supercharged, informed and passionate people we really are.

To me, prevention is more like an exhilarating party than a boring or fear-based way of living. And for many of us, prevention is also a shift in thinking. We move from feeling incapable, unlucky or unworthy of the effort, to knowing our value and believing that we can absolutely make a difference in our lives and the world around us. Now that’s some serious soul growth! This shift helped me to fall in love (with myself) and with discovering new ways to keep my little being happy and humming, and then sharing them with all of you! That’s why I’ve lined up a month of top-notch goodies that are going to rock your world, plus one extremely special giveaway.

I’ve also teamed up with the brilliant minds over at the Environmental Working Group to examine all the various ways we can take good care of ourselves from the inside out. Want some good news? Protecting our holy, hot bodies totally benefits the world around us, and vice versa. By taking care of yourself, you’re inadvertently bettering the planet. Big time score. Without further ado, here’s a peek at the fun that’s coming along this month.

 

My Prevention Month Line-Up

10 Ultimate Prevention Tips

We’re kicking off with a bang, friends! I’ll be asking some game-changing doctors, nutritionists and other amazing experts about their all-time top prevention tips. These are the people whom millions turn to for advice, and I’ll corral them right here to share their powerful prevention practices that you can easily start to implement over the course of the month.

The Crazy Sexy Guide to Organic Foods

Something that I hear time and time again from readers is that eating organic produce is prohibitively expensive. It’s so important that a healthy lifestyle is accessible to everyone if we want to see widespread improvement in our health. This week, we’re going to take a good hard look at why organics can be pricier, how to make them fit into your budget, and how we as consumers can shift the governmental policies that dictate what we buy at the market. Whew! Are you ready for a serving of education and action? Let’s do it!

Healthy Living Checklist

What’s lurking in your kitchen? Are there monsters in your medicine cabinet? A boogey-man in your bathtub? Together with EWG, we’ll go through your home using a downloadable PDF and make sure that you’re surrounded by healthy choices. Some of the results might surprise you, and that’s ok. We’ll look at where you might be able to make better choices on your next shopping trip. These small changes can yield big results.

Self-Care Planner

It’s great to think about wellness, talk about health, read about self-care, yadda yadda yadda. But what about actually making time for it? When you’re busy, taking care of yourself often gets shoved to the tail end of your priorities list. Outside stressors from work, family, hobbies and even your beloved pup (who ate the trash, again) can all knock your well-being from its rightful place—the top of your to-do’s! With this easy planning guide, delivered in a handy, downloadable PDF, I’ll show you how I fit self-care into my nutso schedule, and how you can, too.

I really can’t wait to dig in to prevention with you. It’s something near and dear to my heart and health, and sharing it with you is a privilege.

There you have it: my prevention mission. Let’s do this together. Start with yourself by looking at what you’d like to work on this month. Then, think of one special someone you want to share Crazy Sexy Prevention with. Maybe it’s your sister or your neighbor down the hall. Maybe your daughter is going through a rough spot and could use a little extra oomph.

Your turn: Pledge to rock prevention this month with me, by commenting below with your Prevention Month goal and/or your prevention buddy!

Peace & red hot prevention,