Wherever you are, you're already on your way

There's no wrong place to be standing.

The wellness world has built up its own language over the years. Some of the words are warm, some are stereotypes, and some people wear them proudly while others never use them at all. If you've ever felt unsure where you belong in all of it, this page is for you.

I've put these in a rough order, from the gentlest first steps through to the people who turn their whole life into an experiment. It isn't a ladder, and the top isn't better than the bottom. It's simply a map. Read it the way you'd wander through a garden, not the way you'd climb a wall.

A quick word before you read

None of these labels is a finish line. Most of us move between several of them depending on the season we're in, what we can afford, and what we're learning. As you read, notice two things: where you are right now, and where you'd love to be. That's how a journey begins.

Gentle beginnings

Mainstream Wellness

Someone who wants to feel healthier while keeping a fairly conventional life. Moves their body regularly. Reaches for more whole foods. Buys organic when it fits the budget. Takes a multivitamin. Still uses everyday cleaning and personal care products.

Curious and reading

Wellness Enthusiast

Someone who actively researches their health and enjoys trying new things.

A common home base

Low-Tox

Maybe the most common modern term, and the one many of us in the wellness world land on. A low-tox person works to reduce unnecessary chemical exposure without chasing perfection. This is a soft, forgiving place to live. It leaves room for real life.

Looking outward

Green

Reads ingredient labels. Uses supplements. Steers clear of artificial colours and flavours. Follows podcasts and people they trust. Drinks filtered water. Switches to safer cleaning products. Chooses gentler skincare and cosmetics. Uses glass instead of plastic where it's practical. Doesn't panic if a conventional product slips in now and then. Often more about caring for the planet than personal health.

A wider lens

Eco-Conscious

Similar to green, only broader. The focus widens to sustainability, ethical sourcing, carbon footprint, plastic reduction, and farming that gives back to the land.

Shopping by values

Conscious Consumer

Makes buying decisions based on what they believe in. They look at ingredients, company ethics, animal testing, environmental impact, and whether they're supporting small businesses. Composts. Recycles. Chooses eco-friendly products. Reduces waste. Supports sustainable companies.

The whole person

Holistic

Sees the body as one connected whole rather than separate parts. A holistic view holds nutrition, sleep, stress, emotions, movement, spiritual wellbeing, and environment all together. Many practitioners use this word.

Both hands open

Integrative

Brings conventional medicine and evidence-informed natural approaches together rather than choosing one over the other. A GP alongside good nutrition. Surgery alongside rehabilitation. Medication alongside lifestyle change.

Looking deeper

Functional Wellness

Looks for what's underneath rather than only quieting symptoms. The common focus lands on gut health, nutrient gaps, hormones, inflammation, and the way we live day to day.

Nature first

Natural Health

Tends to reach for natural approaches first where it makes sense, while still turning to pharmaceuticals when they're truly needed.

The well-loved nickname

Crunchy

Probably the best-known slang term, born from the old "crunchy granola" types. Today it usually describes someone who leans hard into the natural life. Nearly always said with affection. Herbal support. Nutrition. Lifestyle changes. Essential oils. Supplements. Eats mostly organic. Avoids processed food. Uses natural products. Loves a farmers' market and a garden.

Crunchy, at home

Crunchy Mum / Crunchy Family

The parenting version. Often woven together with breastfeeding, babywearing, cloth nappies, natural remedies, gentle screen limits, and organic food. Sometimes homeschools, sometimes uses cloth nappies.

The balanced middle

Scrunchy

A blend of crunchy and mainstream, and a deeply practical place to be. The classic line is, "I'm crunchy where I can be, but not where it makes life impossible." So many of us live here, because it's balanced and it's real.

Out in the open air

Granola

Uses low-tox cleaners. Reaches for antibiotics when they're needed. Loves organic food. Still grabs takeaway some nights. Close cousin to crunchy, with an extra love of the outdoors. Think hiking, national parks, homemade sourdough, gardening, herbal teas, and time spent in nature.

Keeping it simple

Purist

Wants the cleanest, most traditional version of things. Whole foods, very short ingredient lists, and a strict line held around a particular way of eating or living.

Measuring everything

Biohacker

Focuses on tuning health and performance using data and a bit of experimenting. Wearables and sleep tracking. Continuous glucose monitors. Ice baths and red light. Peptides and blood testing. Some lean heavily into the tech. Others blend it with good food and rhythm.

All of it at once

Wellness Maximalist

Not a formal term, but you hear it more and more. Someone who tries nearly everything, from sauna and cold plunge to grounding, breathwork, fasting, and beyond.

Everyday choices

Clean Living

Reduces unnecessary exposures through simple daily habits, like whole foods, low-tox products, filtered water, fresh air, and movement.

A word about marketing

"Chemical-Free"

This phrase is everywhere in marketing, but it isn't quite true. Everything is made of chemicals, including water. A fairer way to say it is "made without certain synthetic ingredients" or "lower in ingredients of concern."

The label reader

Ingredient Detective

Not an official label, but a familiar one. Someone who reads every label, researches ingredients, compares formulations, and knows half the ingredient names by heart.

A values question

Health Freedom Advocate

Cares about personal choice in healthcare and informed consent. This often overlaps with wellness circles, though it speaks more to values around healthcare decisions than to any one habit.

And where am I in all of this?

People sometimes ask me which of these I am, and the answer is a few of them at once. If I had to name where I sit, it would be somewhere around here: holistic wellness advocate, low-tox educator, conscious consumer, ingredient educator, science-informed practitioner, functional wellness advocate.

Those grew naturally out of my years in dermal therapy, my love of understanding what's actually in a product, and my habit of looking into the evidence before I put my name to anything. I don't reach for the more extreme labels, because that's never been me.

If I'm picking the single word that fits my real life, it's scrunchy. I lean toward natural choices and I want to reduce the unnecessary exposures I can, but I also respect good medicine when it's needed, and I don't treat health as all-or-nothing. I'm crunchy where I can be, and I give myself grace everywhere else.

I didn't start here. I moved through several of these places to get to where I am, and I'm still moving.

Wherever you land, you're welcome here

You might read this list and see yourself in the first paragraph. You might see yourself in five of them. You might not recognise yourself anywhere yet, and that's perfectly fine too.

None of these is the right answer, and none of them is the destination. We're all walking different paths toward the same quiet thing, which is to feel healthier, calmer, and more at home in our own lives. By God's grace, that's a journey worth taking one gentle step at a time.

So here's the only question that really matters. Not so much where you are today, but where you'd love to be tomorrow. Picture the best version of it. Your absolute dream of a healthy, happy life. That's the place to keep your eyes on.

Find where you are. Then set your heart on where you're going.

If you'd like to see where my own path led, come and read about how low-tox living found me.