October 24, 2025 • 52 mins
Join Katie and Chrissy as they record together in person for the first time! In this episode, we share practical tips for maintaining your health while traveling—from bringing your own breakfast to navigating restaurant menus and minimizing toxin exposure in hotel rooms.
Got a trip coming up or love to travel? This episode is for you!
In this episode, we discuss:
- Bringing your own food while traveling (oatmeal, coffee, and more)
- How to order healthy meals at restaurants when nothing on the menu works
- The best types of restaurants for clean eating (Mediterranean, salad spots, and Chipotle)
- Minimizing toxin exposure in hotel rooms (bedsheets, towels, shampoo, EMFs)
- Beach tips: zinc oxide sunscreen and the benefits of grounding
- Katie's discovery of Sabbath mode on appliances
- Dealing with chlorine in hotel water and fragrance sensitivities
- Balancing health consciousness with travel stress
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship
00:38 Random Revelation: Sabbath Mode on Appliances
05:45 Recording Together for the First Time
06:58 Crunchy Travel Tips
27:55 Packing Essentials for a Healthier Hotel Stay
32:05 The Importance of Avoiding Fragrances
36:23 Beach Day Tips: Sunscreen and Grounding
43:53 Balancing Health and Stress While Traveling
Helpful Resources Mentioned:
- Vanni Hari (Food Babe) - Book: "Feeding You Lies" - https://amzn.to/3L49avH
- Bobby Approved App - For scanning food ingredients and finding healthier options - https://www.bobbyapproved.com
Remember: You don't have to do everything at once! Pick the tips that work for you and your family, and don't let the pursuit of health create more stress than it relieves.
We pray these episodes are helpful in your journey to becoming a better steward of your body, mind, and soul!
Connect With Us:
Join Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crunchychristianmama
Follow us on Instagram @crunchystewardship
FREE How to Afford Non-Toxic Living Workbook: https://crunchystewardship.com/how-to-afford-non-toxic-living
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, and welcome to CrunchyStewardship.
My name is Katie Fiola Jones,and my name is Chrissy Rombach.
We are two cousins who arepassionate about learning and
sharing knowledge to equipothers to steward their
spiritual, mental, emotional,financial, and physical health
in order to honor God with everyaspect of their lives.
In our podcast, we take deepdives into what it means to
(00:21):
steward our lives as Godoriginally intended for us with
the resources that God has givenus.
We look at topics like food,medicine, finances, and mental
health, and lots more through anatural lens and with a biblical
foundation.
So now before we get started ontoday's episode, we are going to
(00:42):
do a random revelation for thisweek.
Katie, what is your randomrevelation?
Okay.
So if you tuned into last week'sepisode about, and where I
talked about all of ourrenovation stuff and how we're
doing research on all the thingsthat we're putting in our house,
(01:02):
uh, we were doing lots of.
Appliance research recentlylooking into like refrigerators
and dishwashers and microwavesand I guess honestly I'd say
microwaves, we're not actuallydoing a microwave.
Um, but we were looking at allthese other things and I was
reading some questions andreviews from people on one of
the refrigerators that I waslooking at, and somebody asked
(01:25):
in the questions for arefrigerator, is there a Sabbath
mode?
For the refrigerator.
And I thought, I like literallyread that question and I was
like, are they joking?
But then I read the likeresponse from the manufacturer
and they were like, yes, thisone does have a, um, Shabbat
(01:48):
mode is what it's liketechnically.
Called, I think is what theyofficially call it.
And I was like, what is this?
So I, I literally, I go andGoogle it and it's a legit thing
that they have a Sabbath mode.
And what a Sabbath mode is, is afeature on appliances like
ovens, refrigerators, um, anddishwashers that temporarily
(02:10):
disables functions such aslights, sounds, and digital
displays to comply with Jewishreligious laws for Shabbat,
which is the Sabbath, um, andother Jewish holidays.
It allows the appliance tocontinue operating without
violating these laws enabling.
Continuous function like apreset oven temperature.
(02:33):
Um, but it prevents users frominteracting with the control
panel or activating componentslike the ice maker, which would
be against Jewish laws.
And so I saw that and I waslike, I had no idea that that
was a thing, but then it got methinking that I wish.
There was a like quote unquoteSabbath mode just for like every
(02:55):
evening because then you canturn off the lights.
Yeah, because weren't we talkingabout that?
You go into the fridge rightbefore bed and you're like, oh
my gosh, it's so bright.
And then even just like thelittle like panel with the LED
lights on it and stuff.
It'd be nice for those to notalways be on, I think.
Yeah.
We talked about it last weekabout the LED lights, which we
(03:16):
don't have to get back intoagain.
But it's like, oh, it'd be nicefor all these LED lights to be
off if you don't want all theexposure, um, in the evenings to
the LED lights.
So I looked, and it seems likethere's some refrigerators and
things out there that have suchlike a component where you can
like change it and it'll dothat, but it is not common that
(03:41):
you can just like turn thepanels off on things and the
when you want, which.
I would love, but that's not athing at this point.
I do know there arerefrigerators that the panel
turns off when you're not usingit.
That's true.
You're right.
Yeah.
And then when you start usingit, it turns back on.
Yeah, that'd be, yeah.
The ones that we were lookingat, I don't think did that.
(04:02):
Oh, I don't remember.
I'd have to look at it again.
Kind of look at fancier ones.
Fancier one, I need to spendmore money now.
You're not spending enoughKatie.
Oh my gosh.
Money.
Ugh, this.
Oh, things cost a lot of money.
We actually learned this pastweek, well, I, I learned it a
little bit ago that our floorsare heated in our kitchen.
(04:23):
Did I tell you this yet?
No.
So it sounds really cool andfancy.
And it is, it's kind of neat.
They put heated floors in thekitchen and on the like front
door, like right where you walkin at the front door, and that's
where there was tile in thehouse.
And then everything else wascarpet.
So tile by the front door and inthe kitchen.
And then our contractor pointedout, Hey, look, you have heated
(04:45):
floors.
And we're like, well, that'sreally neat.
And then he proceeded to like,tell us that, yeah, it is really
cool, but make sure that you,you get flooring that can handle
the radiant floor heat becausetraditional hardwood and a lot
of, um, vinyl plank and laminateflooring, it'll warp.
If it gets heated.
(05:06):
And so you need to be reallycareful on what you put on it so
that it can handle thefluctuation.
So I've literally been goingthrough and reading warranties
for flooring.
That's why I had all those tabsopen for all the flooring.
'cause I'm like trying to findthe the right one.
And a lot of the ones that dohandle it are really expensive,
which we're learning.
But we actually found a few justyesterday that can handle the
(05:31):
heat.
It doesn't void their warranty,and they don't require me to
sell a kidney, so sell a kidney.
Yeah.
So anyway, that was, that was abig win.
That's awesome.
I love it.
Okay, so today's episode isgoing to be a little bit
different.
Um, this is the first episodethat Katie and I are actually
(05:53):
recording together, together inthe same room, in the same state
at the same time.
I guess if we're in the sameroom, you'd think that we were
in the same state.
Right.
I should say that back the otherway around.
In the same state?
In the same building, in thesame room.
Whoa.
Yeah.
This hasn't happened before.
All of our previous episodes,we've been recording long
(06:16):
distance.
I've been in North Carolina,she's been in either Colorado or
Michigan.
Mm-hmm.
And right now we are both inNorth Carolina for our cousin
Abigail's wedding.
The wedding happened last nightand it was so beautiful.
Such a fun time.
Yeah.
I'm so happy for them, and so wedecided to take this as an
opportunity to record an episodetogether for the first time.
(06:37):
I know, and maybe the only time.
Yeah, maybe sometime in thefuture.
We'll see.
I don't know.
We see each other probably liketwice a year.
Three times a year.
Yeah, maybe.
Yeah.
At least like once or twice.
You're right.
Yeah.
It's kind of hard.
We don't see each other inperson all that frequently, so.
(06:57):
Mm-hmm.
Um, yeah, these episodes aregoing to be very few and far
between, but we're doing ittoday, and because we are
traveling, we decided to talkabout crunchy travel of how do
we travel in a health consciousway, because, let's be honest,
(07:18):
when you're traveling, you'reeating out for every single
meal.
And you end up spending a buttton of money just on all the
things you're stuck with.
Hotel breakfasts and bedsheetsand towels and hotel shampoo and
conditioner.
Mm-hmm.
All of those things addedtogether can cause quite the
disruption in your hormones andyour endocrine system and
(07:41):
everything like that.
So we're just gonna talk aboutwhat are some things that we are
doing or would like to do.
In terms of travel to make it alittle bit healthier and less
disruptive to our bodies.
So Katie, you wanna start usoff?
What is one thing that you didthis trip in particular?
(08:01):
Mm-hmm.
To be quote unquote crunchy.
Yeah.
Well, this is actually somethingthat my parents taught us when
we were traveling as kids, wasbringing our own breakfasts as
much as possible.
Um, we, it was just one way thatwhen we were traveling as a
family, we could save money andthat was kind of the primary
(08:24):
thing was just, Hey, we won'thave to go out and spend extra
money on breakfast in themorning if we bring oatmeal or
if we pick up bagels at thegrocery store, or something like
that.
But it was by no means at thatpoint, any, in any way really
very healthy because it would bethose.
The Quakers, Quaker Oats, likesugar oatmeals.
(08:45):
And then it would just be, yeah,the bagels and cream cheese, you
know, the cheap stuff from thegrocery store that probably had
a lot of glyphosate andpreservatives and enriched
flowers and stuff.
So it wasn't necessarily at thatpoint in any way, like a health
move.
But now Wes and I have kind oftaken that a step further and
um, we actually really do.
(09:07):
Eat a lot of oatmeal ourselves.
In the mornings, I, I put a tonof like healthy, yummy, good
stuff in it, including likeprotein powders and flaxseed and
chia seeds and um, all sorts ofother stuff.
And so we, this time actuallybrought like a big mason jar of
just oats and then a smallermason jar.
(09:29):
And I mixed up all the stuff weusually put into.
Our oatmeal.
So I actually, I am sittinghere, I'm like staring at it
while we're talking and I havelike walnuts in it and the flax
seed.
Um, the one thing that Wes, wewere eating it and he's like,
it, I feel like it doesn't haveas much flavor as usual.
And the one thing that it doesnot have is maple syrup.
(09:51):
Mm-hmm.
Because I basically only mixtogether dry stuff and then just
forfeited.
Bringing any maple syrup or anykind of sweetener for it.
So it, it is not as yummy as itusually is, but it's still very
filling and very good.
And that's what I like.
I feel like flying with maplesyrup is like a game Yeah.
(10:12):
Of exactly.
Russian roulette sort of thing.
Like at what point do we trialflying with Naples syrup that
Yeah.
Hoping that it won't explode inthe suitcase.
Yeah.
So yesterday actually, when wewere sitting downstairs, he.
When I think, did you see thatwhen he went and got, um, some
like honey packets from the Ohno, I didn't.
Front desk and I, I super waslike holding my tongue because
(10:34):
he knows, like he, he hears megiving these like little spiels
about all the stuff and he knowsthat the honey that is from
those little packets, it's notlike real honey.
That stuff is basically justlike corn syrup and stuff and is
just, yeah, I mean, it's notgood for you.
But I let him have his honey inhis oatmeal.
(10:55):
Which was just kind of funny,but yeah, the most hotel rooms
have like a little coffee maker,and these ones are really nice
because they, the coffee makershere are basically just like
little hot water makers and youdon't even need the little like
pod, like pod thing in it.
And it, they're like the podpart, these removable, so it
(11:15):
doesn't have, you know, itdoesn't run through it like it
Keurig, your, your hot waterstill goes through where the
coffee would be sitting.
These little coffee makers, youcan actually pull out the tray
where the coffee would sit soyou don't get the coffee taste
in your water, which doesn'tbother me, but it bothers Wes
'cause he doesn't like coffee.
So it's perfect for makingthings like oatmeal as well as I
(11:37):
jimmy rigged these things tomake my own coffee.
'cause I also brought my owncoffee with us.
Oh.
'cause that's another thing thatI'm like.
I like using my own coffee whenI can that I actually, I did not
do that before because I did notcare too much about coffee.
I just was like, coffee iscoffee and I'm gonna drink
coffee no matter what.
But just as we've been goingdown this journey and learning
(11:59):
more, I'm like, coffee is one ofthose things that it's a staple
and I drink one or two cups ofit a day that I would prefer it
to be a good coffee.
Like good as in healthy, notjust like flavorful or whatever.
Um, so these systems were hardto figure out, and I went
(12:20):
through this whole thingyesterday morning trying to
figure it out, and Muss waslike, you are going through too
much.
And I was like, I want mycoffee.
And I literally opened up, haveyou seen these coffee packages?
I haven't even looked at them.
They're, it's like a little,they look like little tea bags
with coffee in them.
Oh, yeah.
And so I ripped one open anddumped out the grinds of like
(12:41):
that.
Coffee, the grounds of thecoffee.
And then I put my own coffeeinside of it.
But then I used another onebecause then I'm like, it's open
on one side.
I folded it over and put it inthis little tray thing, and then
I put another one that was emptyunderneath it, so it was like an
extra filter, whatever.
Anyway, it was this whole bigthing and West thought it was
(13:01):
hilarious.
And it worked though.
And I made another cup of coffeethis morning like that.
Great.
So I think if I tried to dothat, max would say, Chrissy,
you're done Just drank thecoffee.
And to be fair, I've had other,like, I did use one or two of
those like packets.
I didn't just dump out the one,the one dry one I did dump out
(13:23):
totally unused.
But then I have used, I havedrank the other ones.
Okay.
So I'm not super crazy, but onlylike half crazy.
I feel like it's a balance, youknow?
So with this new diet thing thatI'm doing to the gut reset, so
in case you guys haven'tlistened to our previous
episodes, I'm doing a full gutreset right now.
Um, it's a six month longprocess and essentially the
(13:46):
process is wean your diet downto just meat and vegetables,
detox, and then add back all thethings that you took out slowly
but surely, and.
Through that healing the gut,repairing the microbiome in the
gut to have the appropriatelevels of good bacteria and bad
(14:06):
bacteria, and ultimately fixingour hormone levels and our
stress and all the other thingsthat go along with it.
Um, and so One of the thingsthat they recommend in this
program is if you're going outto eat.
You wanna eat like a salad orsomething like that.
A lot of salad dressings arehuge culprits for sugar and seed
(14:29):
oils and everything like that.
And so they recommend justbringing your own salad
dressing, which in theory soundsfine, but I don't carry a purse.
Oh.
And so I'm like, what am Igonna, I didn't realize that.
Yeah, no.
I put my ID in Max's wallet andI have my phone in my back
pocket.
I didn't realize that about you.
(14:49):
Yes.
I hate carrying a purse.
That's so funny.
I will carry a purse to churchbecause I have my Bible and
that's it.
Ah.
But anyways.
Um huh.
Yeah, so I will not do that.
They, they say, bring your ownsalad dressing, and I'm like,
absolutely not.
That's such a Karen thing to do.
Just walking into therestaurant, a jar of salad
dressing, or even if it's likein a bag or like even a very
(15:13):
small Tupperware dish, you know?
Mm-hmm.
I just can't get myself to bethat person to be like, and can
I have no dressing on that?
Pulls my own dressing out andput it on my salad?
I just think that's such a Karenthing to do that at that point
I'm like, is it even worth thestress of bringing my own salad
dressing and trying to figureout how to hold it and not spill
(15:35):
it everywhere?
Yeah, really.
It would spill.
You could use, I, we use masonjars when we, um, make our own
salad dressings the smaller onesthan the, um, it's like the.
Half pint.
What are those ones?
Yeah, I know what you're talkingabout.
Anyway, they, that would fit, itwould fit in a purse.
So for me, I'm like, oh, I couldtotally do that.
I should do that.
That's such a good idea,Chrissy.
(15:56):
Um, I feel like these days itwouldn't be as weird because I
mean, hear me out, it's like alot of people have allergies.
True.
You know, and it's like for you,you know, a salad is going to
have no allergens'cause.
It's not cooked with otherthings, right?
It's just like, here, here'syour salad, here's your leaves
and ingredients and stuff.
It's not cooked in seed oils andstuff.
(16:18):
And then you would just, uh, ifyou were someone who has an
allergy, it's like, you knowthat you're bringing a salad
dressing that is, that has allthe ingredients that you can
have.
And I don't know, I feel like atrestaurants that wouldn't be as
big of a deal these days.
Probably not, but it still makesme feel weird.
Yeah, it is still weird.
(16:39):
It is still like, I just thinkI'd be such a Karen.
And yesterday we went to a tacoshop.
Mm-hmm.
And obviously I'm not eatingtacos right now because like
corn tortilla flour, tortillaeither way, that's corn and
gluten and so, and nope.
Um, and all of the other tacooptions that they had had like
(17:01):
sauces and other things that hadsugar in them.
And so I ended up going with thevegan.
Taco.
Oh, which had the highest amountof vegetables in it.
Yeah, it was like oh,cauliflower bell peppers and
onions was in this taco, andwhen I ordered I was like, yeah,
(17:21):
so can I have this?
But.
In a bowl, no rice and beans,just on a bed of lettuce.
And Can we add chicken andavocado please?
And my sister looked at me,she's like, what the heck?
She's like, since when do youbecome so picky with the things
that you're ordering?
Oh, I was like, yeah, I reallyjust created like my own meal
(17:43):
here.
Yeah.
Because there was nothing on themenu that I, and I, oh, and then
I also said, and the sauce onthe side, of course.
Oh, but then it was like a, thiswas actually really funny.
It was a cilantro lime sauce.
Mm-hmm.
And when it came to the table, Itasted it a little bit just to
see like, does it have sugar init?
Sweetened?
(18:03):
Yeah, it definitely did.
Oh, and I just put it to theside, not really thinking about
it.
Well, my mom thought it wasguacamole.
She took a chip and dunked thatthing and had like a huge chunk
of it and took a bite.
It was not.
Guacamole.
Oh, solo.
It was great though.
(18:23):
But overall, yeah.
Traveling, being crunchy.
Yeah.
I feel like sometimes requiresus to be a little care and like
Yeah.
Oh, totally.
With what we're eating.
Well, okay.
So a lot of the ideas that I'vebeen getting for traveling,
including the oatmeal thing,there's, there's a few more tips
that like, I would like to tryto implement, but the person
I've actually learned some of itfrom is, um, Vanni Hari, who
(18:46):
I've mentioned before.
She's considered the food babe.
Um, you can like look her up onInstagram and everything, but
she has some cookbooks and Yeah,I think it's, she has cookbooks
and then the book that weoriginally read and we, I mean,
Wes and I, we read, uh, lastyear kind of about this time.
(19:08):
It was maybe summer last year,so it's kind of crazy.
That was, that was kind of thebook that really kicked us off
into.
Our super crunchy era, likereally, like that was the one
that I'm like, I'm awake.
Um, it's called Feeding YouLies.
And I read that book and then Iproceeded to go and check out
her cookbooks.
(19:28):
And in her cookbooks, she has alot of just tips for different
things.
She has one for families andgives you lots of ideas for.
Kind of healthier eating withkids.
Um, and I don't remember if itwas with her kids one or her
just regular cookbook, but inone of them she actually has a
whole section of tips for, likeideas for when you're traveling.
(19:49):
And I very much remember a lotof them.
And, and one of the things shetalked about at restaurants was
when you go to a restaurant andthere's like nothing on the menu
that you really want to eat thatfeels healthy enough.
She said to, and, and it reallyonly works if they're like, kind
of higher end, not like, notsuper high end, but like able to
(20:09):
make, able to kind of, they,it's not just like a set, uh,
yeah.
Like you couldn't do it atsomething like probably Cracker
Barrel or, um, even theCheesecake Factory because, you
know, the Cheesecake Factorykind of does specific things.
Maybe they would do it, butbasically the tip is that.
You ask for veggies, just likesome sauteed veggies and like
(20:30):
saute them in butter and justlike be very simple.
Um, and then asking for justlike a chicken breast or
something, you know, just likevery meat and veggies, very
basic.
So nothing, none of their likeveggies that are in bunch of
like sauce creamy saucesoftentimes or whatever.
So it's just like, Hey, can Ihave some.
Green beans and butter withchicken, and sometimes they'll
(20:53):
be like, okay, that's superbasic.
And then they have to, the, theissue is then the pricing.
'cause it's obviously, if it'snot something on their menu,
they have to figure out how toprice it and stuff.
But I, I think that's a goodoption too, if you're like going
out with friends or something toa nicer restaurant and you're
like, I don't really want any ofthese, like pastas or mm-hmm.
(21:15):
Fried things or, you know, allthe stuff that's cooked in seed
oil or has.
Like glyphosate from the flourand stuff.
So, you know what I learned,what kind of restaurant I
learned is actually the easiestto eat super healthy is a
Mediterranean or Turkishrestaurant.
Oh.
Last weekend when we weretraveling to Dallas, um, our, we
(21:39):
went with a group of people andour group decided to go to a
Turkish restaurant, and it wasthe first restaurant that we had
been to the entire weekend.
That I could eat more than halfthe items on the menu.
Oh, that's, and remember, mydiet is limited to meat and
vegetables at this point.
And so it was very encouragingto me, like, wow, I can get like
a full salmon filet and likepickled cabbage and pickled
(22:03):
carrots and.
A cucumber, like all of thesethings on the side, and I know
they're gonna be good for me.
The pickling is also reallygreat.
Mm-hmm.
Because it gives you, um,probiotics that you're not gonna
get from regular vegetables thatyou're eating and things like
that.
Or you'll get more frompickling, pickled things mm-hmm.
(22:24):
Than regular.
Um, but yeah, that's one thing.
So if you're need to go to arestaurant, maybe look at like.
Mediterranean restaurants or um,salad places are often like
really great.
You can either avoid the saladdressings or just look up on
(22:44):
Google, like which saladdressings have seed oils, which
ones have sugar, you know, andavoid those ones because
oftentimes if a place is goingto like pride themselves on
being super healthy, they'regoing to actually have.
Healthy options and they're notgonna try to hide a bunch of
stuff in their salad dressings.
(23:05):
You know the place that, um,Bobby from Bobby approved, you
know that app, right?
We talked about that?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
So there's an app called Bobbyapproved that you can use to
scan food items that will tellyou.
What ingredients are in it thatwouldn't be healthy for you?
So they look out for differentthings like seed oils or um,
(23:27):
preservatives or any badadditives or sugar.
katie (23:31):
They look for sugar in a lot of things, and that's a big
red flag for the Bobby approvedapp.
But he has a, an Instagramaccount where he also reviews
restaurants and fast food placesand even grocery stores and
things like that.
So he'll go to like Costco andbe like, this is a Bobby
approved item.
And this is when it's likealmost Bobby approved and here's
(23:52):
why it's not.
But he goes around torestaurants and he'll say, what
things on the menu are the mostBobby approved?
'cause in most cases, none ofthe things are Bobby approved.
But the one place that heactually recommends, um, that's
like kind of the more, healthyend.
Is Chipotle, because Chipotle iskind of like what you're saying
(24:13):
with salads, it's like you cankind of pick and choose what you
want and.
From my understanding, I don'tthink Chipotle uses meat with
antibiotics in it, which is alsolike a big plus And so you
really wanna stay away frommeats that have antibiotics in
it, because then it makes you asa human more antibiotic
(24:34):
resistant.
And so it's just, it's better,it's healthier, it's better meat
for you.
Although with Chipotle, it isimportant to know that they do
use.
Ingredients that are similar toMSG.
They don't Oh, yeah.
Mentioned they don't put MSG intheir chicken.
Mm-hmm.
But they do have someingredients that have a similar
(24:55):
effect on our bodies as MSG.
Okay.
So pick and choose your battles.
I know.
Yeah.
Well, that's where we chose togo.
It was better than probablyPanera, since Panera has a.
Yeah, it's such a bummer.
I love Panera, and Panera isknown as one of those places
that's more like health food,you know, focused.
But it's one of the places that,again, like as you start
(25:18):
learning all this, it's kind oflike a bummer when you start
learning things and you're like.
Man, everything that I thoughtwas good view actually really
isn't.
And lemme tell though.
It makes me really sad.
'cause I love Panera.
A good Panera, Mac and cheeseand a bread bowl.
It's so good.
Sometimes it's just necessary.
It's not in the next six monthsfor me though.
Well, and I even really lovetheir tomato soup.
And I'm sure maybe their tomatosoup maybe isn't as bad, but
(25:41):
still it's like, I bet if I wentand looked at the actual
ingredients for it, it would notbe.
Not great.
Not great.
Chrissy (25:48):
All right.
So let's transition to talkingabout How, what are some
strategies that we can use interms of limiting the toxins
that we're exposed to in a hotelroom?
Mm-hmm.
Because there's a lot, if youthink about it, the bedsheets
are bleached, the towels arebleached, the water has chlorine
in it.
Mm-hmm.
Um, you can't really.
Unplug the TV or to reduce theEMFs.
(26:09):
Mm-hmm.
Things like that.
You got the AC blowing on youall night long that you can't
figure out how to turn it off orto turn it on.
And oftentimes hotel roomsgenerally have like a musty
smell to that.
You know when you walk into ahotel room and you're like, ah,
yes.
The smell of a hotel room.
Slightly musty, maybe a littlemildewy and always humid.
(26:31):
Well, I think that it, I, I wasactually, that's so funny you
said that I, I read somewherethat it's really good to open up
your windows at least once a dayfor 10 minutes to just get fresh
air circulating, becauseactually the air inside is
poorer quality than outside nomatter what, just because of the
airflow, because you think aboutall the dust and everything
(26:53):
that.
It gets trapped.
It's like it's just trapped inthis room, in your house even.
And so you want to open yourwindows to get that new fresh
air in or have an air purifier.
But in a hotel room, you usuallydon't have the option to open up
a window unless you have like apatio or something there.
But these windows here, I thinkare just solid windows.
(27:14):
There's no opening, and it's forsafety reasons.
I kind of understand it.
They don't want.
People throwing things out, orthey don't want people throwing
themselves out the window orsomething crazy, you know?
So I'm like, I, I understand,but at the same time I'm like, I
would love just fresh air comingin because it's been so
beautiful.
It'd be nice to get some justlike circulation through.
(27:34):
So that's that.
I was just thinking about thatlast night, so.
Mm-hmm.
It's probably why it's musty.
Yeah.
So some of the things that youcould do to limit the toxin
exposure in.
The, hotel room is obviouslybringing your own stuff, so
bringing your own bath towel isvery easy.
Did you do that?
I didn't this time because Maxand I tried.
(27:56):
We have you done that before?
Once in case?
I haven't yet.
I heard about it like.
Two weeks ago maybe, and the twotimes Max and I have traveled
since then, we fit into onecarry on suitcase.
Mm-hmm.
For the trip.
Mm-hmm.
And so it's pretty much a, Idon't want to use more
(28:17):
suitcases.
Yeah.
So, because we really only haveone good suitcase at this point.
I have heard of people bringingtheir own bedsheets.
Yep.
You can do that.
But I feel like a whole set ofbedsheets I know is a little
excessive.
So like bringing your ownpillow.
Mm-hmm.
You know, so at least your faceis on, not on like a bleached
surface, it's on a non leachsurface.
And then when you get home, youjust wash your pillowcase.
(28:39):
Yep.
Again, um, also bringing yourown shampoo and conditioner that
don't have phthalates or,parabens and things like that.
'cause those are all endocrinedistributors and hotel shampoo,
conditioner, body washer, justfull of that stuff.
So bringing your own, these areI,'cause I was thinking about
it.
I did not bring my own shampooand stuff.
I, I have recently been doingthat, but this time around I
(29:00):
just did not get to packing it.
A lot of times my big thing isthe fragrances in all of the
hotel stuff, but I actually feltlike these shampoos and stuff
didn't have a strong of.
Fragrances.
It was actually like very light,which doesn't mean that there's
no fragrances, but I was curiousto know what the ingredients
(29:21):
were on these ones.
I have actually looked up theingredients at hotels before.
I don't think it was a Marriott.
I think it was like a HolidayInn that I looked up the
ingredients for the shampoo andconditioner that they had, and I
wasn't disappointed.
Oh, that's good.
It like on the bottle even itsaid like all natural.
No phthalates, no parabens.
(29:42):
On the bottle in the, yeah.
Bathroom.
And I was like, oh, well that'snice.
And I looked it up and I thinkthe only thing that was in there
that I was concerned about wasfragrance.
Um, which in the grand scheme ofthings, if you only have one
ingredient, that's not great.
I'm like, you, you again have toweigh Yeah, okay.
The stress of trying to getsmall enough bottles to bring it
(30:03):
through TSA or.
To put it in your suitcase so itdoesn't explode, and then trying
to travel with it.
Oh, but don't forget it onceyou're at the hotel, because
that's an expensive thing toforget there, you know?
As opposed to just like usingwhat's there.
Using what's there.
So, you know, like we talkabout, health is encompassing of
everything.
It's your mental health, it'syour emotional health, it's your
physical health, it's yourspiritual and your financial.
(30:24):
And so, you know, with packingall your own pillow and towels
and shampoo and conditioner,you, yes.
You're avoiding those physical.
Components of the health, butyou have to take into mind like,
is this causing so much extrastress on me while I'm trying to
pack of like, oh, I worked thelast four days and now I have an
hour to pack everything for thenext week.
(30:47):
And I don't wanna forget this.
Oh, and I have this and wherewe're gonna be recording this
weekend, so I need to remembermy microphone.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, but we're going to awedding, so I need to make sure
I have the dress.
Oh, and the dress for therehearsal dinner and the dress
for the day the next day.
And do I have enough shoes?
What shoes do I wanna wear?
Oh, shoot.
Now I need to pack.
My pillowcase and my towels andmy shampoo and conditioner and
Oh, where did those bottles go?
That I was supposed to put allthese that I bought like a year
(31:09):
ago to put all these things in.
I don't even know where thosebottles are.
Oh, shoot, it's already been 59minutes and now I gotta go like
that.
That's usually how my packinggoes.
Oh, totally.
You know, and so if bringing allof these things is gonna cause
more stress, either packmultiple days in advance so it
doesn't.
And so you can pack like insections over time, or just
(31:35):
don't worry about it.
Yep.
You know, it's a, it's a mindsetthing too.
Like if your mindset isn'tthere, if these things are gonna
stress you out more, it's notgoing to be beneficial for your
health.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The stress on your body is goingto take a bigger toll than the
toxins would from your shampooshere, which we were told.
(31:56):
That we need to clarify thingsmore often.
So if you hear us explainingthings a little bit further when
we're talking about them, it'sbecause it was a tip that I
think your mother gave us as faras like explaining in detail.
Mm-hmm.
More like when you're, if, ifyou're tuning into an episode
and you're just hearing us forthe first time, talking about
(32:18):
fragrance, for example,fragrance you want to avoid in
your.
Everything, your shampoos andsoaps and, uh, what other things
have fragrance?
Everything, like all the, allthe pery stuff, perfumes,
deodorant, laundry, detergents,face wash.
You wanna avoid it chap stickbecause when it says fragrance
(32:39):
on the ingredient list, youdon't actually know what the
fragrance is, and it can besomewhere up to hundreds of
different chemicals that make upthat one.
Ingredient.
And it might be that they'relike made up of very minuscule
amounts of all these chemicals,but the issue is then you
literally have no idea what thatfragrance is made up of.
(33:03):
There can be times where acertain company will, will
explain what is in thefragrance.
Um, and like I know that there'sa laundry company out there that
does that, that I stumbled uponrecently, and they actually will
say fragrance and then it haslike a little.
Asterisk next to it or whatever,you know, and then it'll list
out what actually makes up theirfragrance.
(33:25):
But in most cases, that is notthe case and you can kind of
automatically assume that thefragrance is a bunch of
chemicals.
Same thing goes when you hear orsee natural flavors.
It might be natural, but itmight not be things that you
actually wanna be eating stuff.
So anyway, just look for thosekind of cues when you see things
(33:46):
in your ingredients.
So.
There you go.
Auntie Lolo.
We described things in detail.
That one's for you.
Now she has to actually listento this episode.
She said.
She told me that she listens toa lot of them.
She does.
At least that's what she saidwhen we were, I think your
parents are way, oh, the othernight.
Better at listening to all ofour episodes.
(34:07):
I don't actually know aboutthat.
Really?
That this'll be a test.
Mothers, if you're listening,let us know when you listen to
this.
And we'll see how long it was.
I don't know.
Both of your parents told methis weekend that they listened
to you every single episode.
I don't know if I believe that.
I guess we'll find out.
I don't remember my mom sayingthat to me.
(34:29):
She said she's got like an hourdrive every week to go to
somewhere.
Oh.
To to see Malachi To come to ourhouse.
Oh yeah, you're right.
So yeah.
An hour drive to come see you.
And she's been listening.
Aw.
During that.
Thanks, mom.
I guess I didn't know it wasevery single one.
Yeah.
Cute.
Your dad said every single onetoo.
(34:49):
Wow.
Yeah.
Thanks parents.
Love you.
They are a huge part of ouraudience.
50% of our audience.
Just kidding.
There's more of you out there.
And actually, um, I don't knowif you noticed, so this is
actually a quick shout out.
We've had a number of, um,people joining our Facebook
group recently, which has beenreally exciting and that's been
(35:12):
really cool just to.
See new faces that havediscovered our podcast, which is
awesome.
Um, I mean, people are able tofind us by other, by, by you
guys listening and sharing theseepisodes with friends.
But also when you leave a ratingor review for these podcasts, it
makes it more discoverable tonew people, which is super cool
(35:34):
because.
More people have been findingus, and they're people that I'm
like, I don't, I don't knowthese people.
And it's great.
And that's wonderful.
So we're excited to have youguys in our community and as
listeners, so give us a shoutout and say hey.
And, and if you wanna join us onour Facebook group, it is called
Crunchy Christian Mamas on aBudget.
(35:55):
Um, yeah.
Yeah.
Come join us.
Come say, Hey, we're not aslike, active on Facebook.
As we probably should be, but Ipromise that if you do post in
there we will see it and we willcomment.
'cause I do get notifications.
That's our little spiel aboutFacebook.
There we go.
So come over there.
Yeah.
It's back to being crunchy, uh,while we're traveling.
(36:17):
Ooh, beach.
Going to the beach.
Oh, yeah.
Tell me, because that's, that'srelevant right now since we are
literally planning to go to thebeach in like 20 minutes after
we, after we finish recording.
Done recording this.
Um, so going to the beachsunscreen mm-hmm.
Is a big one.
So I, I have to clarify becauseI got this feedback from my mom
again.
(36:38):
Um.
To clarify.
So in a previous episode when wewere talking about sunscreen, we
mentioned that sunscreens thathave a zinc oxide base are very
good for you and othersunscreens aren't.
I forgot what the other ones,the base is of the other ones
are, but essentially toxins.
They're not great.
You want to look for the zincoxide.
(36:59):
Now, on the flip side.
If you have zinc oxide as a foodingredient in your food, that is
Nobu.
No, you do not want that becauseit is a toxin.
The reason it's okay to have itin your sunscreen and not in
your food is because zinc oxide,specifically in sunscreen, is
(37:20):
too big to seep through yourskin.
They've done studies.
And comparing like zinc, oxidebased sunscreen versus, you
know, the sunscreens that yourub in and then it's like goes
on clear and can barely feel it.
Those sunscreens are designed tosoak into your skin and they get
(37:41):
into your bloodstream, whereasthe zinc oxide merely just stays
on top of your skin.
It does not go through it, andso it doesn't get into your
bloodstream.
So.
While zinc oxide is still atoxin, if it gets inside of you,
it is the best sunscreen optionbecause it's too thick to get
inside of you through your skin.
(38:01):
But they'd use it for like whitecoloring in food, so like
vanilla icing or um, whitefrosting, things like that will
have zinc oxide in it.
And so.
That, yeah, that's important oflike, okay, yes, it's good in
sunscreen, but not in foodbecause you don't want inside of
you, but it's okay to go on yourskin.
(38:23):
And you know, I think that's agood clarifying thing.
'cause my mom brought it up.
She's like, well why is zincoxide okay in sunscreen, but I
can't eat it.
And so she thought it wasimportant.
So yeah, if you're going to thebeach, zinc oxide based
sunscreen, um, I think even likeNeutrogena has one.
That's pretty good.
They're usually called likenatural or mineral based
(38:46):
mineral.
Mm-hmm.
Mineral based sunscreens.
Um, they're great.
Also, if you're going to thebeach, take your shoes off
mm-hmm.
Feel the sand.
Mm-hmm.
So walking on sand is so, sogood for you.
It encourages your body to usemuscles that it doesn't usually
use for walking.
Mm-hmm.
And so it can really helpstrengthen.
(39:07):
Your leg muscles, your ankles,your knees, your hips, um,
helps.
Im improve balance, reduce therisk of falls.
Um, and you're walking barefooton the ground.
Yeah.
And so you are getting thosegrounding benefits mm-hmm.
Of, um, reduce pain, reduceinflammation, um, less.
(39:28):
Free radicals in your bodybecause your body is quite
literally grounded to the groundbecause you are touching the
ground with your bare skin.
And so all of that energy fromyour body is going into the
earth and the Earth's energy isgoing into you.
And I sound like a crazy personright now talking about the
energies of the earth.
Wow.
But it's so true.
(39:48):
And it's a thing.
It's okay.
I I, a note on that, I.
When I first heard those thingsabout like grounding and the
energies and all this stuff, Iwas like, that's so woo woo.
But it is like there is likelegitimate science when it comes
to energy in like in the ground,in the plants and in everything.
(40:10):
And honestly, this is so silly,but I was listening to a book
the other day and they weretalking about like the whole
potato battery thing.
You know, when you like.
Plug in a light bulb and stuffand you plug it into a potato
and it, and it'll work.
I wonder if it's gonna work witha carrot too.
You should try that.
I don't know if it does.
I think it's, I think it's onlypotatoes.
But anyway, I don't know aboutthe SY things, but it just,
(40:31):
that's a reference from our lastepisode that we were talking
about how carrots explode in themicrowave.
Like a rock carrot will explodein the microwave, but.
A raw potato does not explode inthe microwave.
And so this is funny, you'retalking about like the mineral
content of potatoes versuscarrots.
So, so it probably wouldn'tconduct for the carrot if it, if
that, if the carrot explodes inthe microwave and potato
(40:52):
doesn't, I don't know.
I have no idea.
Someone who knows science tellus, but my point is that the
potato, like they have like a,like it can conduct electricity,
so obviously it has to be ableto like hold currents and the.
All, all that kind of stuff.
So it's just like, my point isthat the Earth obviously has to
(41:14):
have the same components of justlike the, the electricity
flowing through it andeverything.
And, yeah, even like water, likethere's so many benefits to
being near like waves and likethings like waterfalls because
the, the crashing water puts offnegative ions.
(41:34):
Into the air, which then helpsrelax your body and make you
more calm.
So if you ever are near waterand have that like calming
sensation of like, wow, you feelso relaxed, um, it's actually
there are negative ions that arecoming off of the water that you
are kind of like taking in.
And it does, it sounds so weirdand woowoo to be like taking the
(41:56):
energy from the, the waterabsorb the earth's energy.
It's like there's actualscience, like you can actually
go.
And look these things up.
And there is science on it.
And I'm not claiming to be anycrazy scientist myself or any
expert on it, but I'm like,there is science out there that
explains this and, but we doclaim to sound a little woowoo
(42:17):
sometimes.
Yeah, totally.
But that's just the nature ofthese things, you know, like
changing your lifestyle to bemore healthy kind of involves
being woo woo, being a woo woowoo Karen.
Oh gosh.
I mean, literally it's like youhave to make these choices where
it's like.
No, I do.
I am gonna bring my own oatmealand I'm gonna forfeit using the,
(42:38):
you know, coffee from the roomand I'm gonna bring my own
towel.
And it sounds so Karen like,although, and then although I
have to point out, you areeating your oatmeal with a
plastic spoon.
Oh my gosh.
I know.
We forgot our own spoons.
I was so sad.
Wes is the one who we, we got onthe airplane, we traveled
really, really early in themorning.
We had to get up at like five.
And so we packed.
Again, we did like overnightoats, so that way we could eat
(43:00):
the oatmeal like on the planeand everything.
And he's like, where are thespoons?
And I was like, I forgot thespoons.
And now we have to use plasticones.
But anyway.
Oh well, another reason to packmultiple days in advance if
you're gonna be going somewhereso that you can actually think
about these things and it's notgonna stress you out.
Have like a five day packinglist of like, all right, day
(43:21):
one, I'm gonna pack my.
I don't know, shirts and pantsthat I'm gonna wear that I don't
plan on wearing in the next fivedays.
Mm-hmm.
And then the next day, allright, I'm gonna pack my, the
overnight oats or breakfasts andthings that are dried and won't
go bad and things like that.
Maybe you don't need five daysto pack, but my point is packing
(43:43):
sections.
Yeah.
You wanna know what I wasthinking about while we were on
the airplane was all of the.
EMFs and radiation that we wereprobably taking in and
absorbing, and I was like, oh mygosh.
So there are EMF reducing veststhat you can buy.
(44:05):
I bet those are so expensive.
Oh, they probably are, but Ihave heard that that's a thing
that people will wear like an EMf vest.
Or jacket on an airplane inparticular to protect
themselves, at least protecttheir vital organs.
Mm-hmm.
From EMF radiation and thingslike that.
Yeah.
I don't know.
One thing that I actuallynoticed, so last weekend we were
(44:26):
in a hotel, so backstory Max andI have gotten really, really
good of creating like ananti-technology oasis in our
bedroom.
Oh, that's nice.
And so we, all of our phonechargers are in the kitchen.
Mm-hmm.
We have like an old fashionedalarm clock.
That it is still plugged intothe wall, but like, that's like
the only thing that's pluggedinto the wall.
(44:48):
And may, like our lamp isplugged in lamp.
Mm-hmm.
But, um, Max's office is in likea little cubby, in like a nook
in our bedroom because we livein a one bedroom apartment.
And so it was a sacrifice thatwe had to make to put Max's
office in our bedroom.
But overnight, his entire setupgets completely unplugged.
And so we unplug the desktop, weunplug the, um, computers, we
(45:14):
turn off the power strip andeverything like that, and we
unplug the printer.
And so we really do create likea anti-technology oasis in our
bedroom.
And last weekend in the hotelroom we were staying in, in
Dallas.
I could actually hear the EMFsfrom the tv.
Oh.
(45:34):
And because I've turned thosethings off in our bedroom, even
the nights that like I forget toturn them off, I will wake up at
two o'clock in the morning andbe like, oh, I forgot to turn it
off and get up, turn them off,and go back to sleep.
Because they'll wake me up atnight.
It's, I've become that sensitiveto them because we've been
turning them off.
Yeah.
And I literally told Max, I waslike, well, I can't.
(45:55):
Unplug the TV that's mounted tothe wall in the hotel room, you
know, but I could buy the$8earplugs that they had down in
the gift shop.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
They were$8.
Is that not crazy for earplugs,for ear?
One set of earplugs, but thelike, cheapy kind too, right?
Yes, yes.
Yeah, I had to sleep withearplugs at the last hotel
(46:17):
because I was not going to beable to fall asleep with hearing
the EMFs from the tv.
Yeah, which is crazy.
Like we've both kind ofidentified.
Katie, you were saying thatyou're no longer on city water.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Said yesterday.
Yeah.
This was crazy.
I, so we moved to a rural areain Michigan, and most of the
(46:39):
places out there, unless you'relike in the, the very tiny town,
um, everything else is on well,water versus city water, which,
when you're in the, in the cityor in a suburb or something, you
have.
Water that goes through a bigfiltration system, and one of
the ways they clean water iswith chlorine.
And so even though it's not poollike, you know, when you go to a
(47:02):
pool, you know you're in,you're, you know, you're getting
near a pool because you can allof a sudden smell the chlorine,
right?
Everybody's experienced that.
The chlorine in your drinkingwater is not as strong as a
pool, but there is chlorine init.
But what I actually noticed isthat we have no longer been on
city water because we're in thisrural area.
We have well water and wellwater has its own challenges
(47:25):
too.
But I took a shower here at thehotel and I could actually smell
the chlorine in the water.
And I don't know if it was belike the certain area or, or
what, like if it's really stronghere in general.
But it was just like a weirdsensation where I was like, it.
Smells very much like a lightpool water.
(47:48):
And I was like, I, I haven'texperienced it in a few months
now, and I'm like, yeah, there'schlorine in this water.
It was just very obvious to meat the, in that moment.
Yeah.
So all in all, as we're cuttingout these toxins, we are
becoming more sensitive to themand recognizing more and more
when we are exposed to them onaccident, so yeah.
(48:10):
Yeah, that's one of the pricesto pay for getting healthy is
you.
Can feel the unhealth aroundyou.
Or even like when people, likethere was someone in the airport
who was clearly wearing somelike Bath and Body Works product
or something very fake smelling,flowery kind of stuff.
And the fragrances to me arevery like triggering, like very
(48:37):
obnoxious.
Triggering is not necessarilythe right word, but it's just
very like.
Assaulting to my senses thesedays when somebody is using like
a fragrance or anything alongthose lines where I'm just like.
I'm so removed from it now inour own home that when I smell
it on someone else, I'm like,whew.
Like it's just a lot.
So the airport, that's hardbecause you're in such close
(49:00):
spaces with each other andthere's so many people and you
don't even know which person itis.
'cause you're like, there arelike 15 people that are within
like five feet of me at thisvery moment that I just don't
know which one of you is sostrongly scented that I can't
even like remove myself fromthis area.
So.
15 people in smelling distance.
Within smelling distance.
(49:21):
I can smell you.
That's funny.
All right, well we are nearingthe end of the podcast.
Do you have any last wordsbefore we sign off?
No.
I think just making the rightchoices like that for you,
right?
I mean, you don't have to go anddo all these silly things, but
maybe like the radiation thingfrom the airport is a big thing.
(49:41):
So find out how to like detoxfrom.
All the radiation at an airportand an airplane and all those
things.
Or if it's food for you, makethe right choices for food and,
and it's, it's gotta be rightfor you and your family.
Like if it's gonna stress therest of your family out too,
like just maybe forfeit certainthings and I don't know, it's
just taking little steps.
(50:02):
I mean, you say this all thetime, Chrissy, it's like you
don't have to go and doeverything all at once, but
figure out like what, whattrades trade offs you can make
at the, at that moment and.
Just make a decision, feel goodabout it and move forward.
And then just remember you'regonna get home soon and you can
get back to your regularroutines.
Mm-hmm.
(50:22):
And you can take a nice likeEpsom salt bath to help you just
detox all the stress andeverything from the trip if
there was a bunch.
So, yeah.
I don't know.
Do you have any last thoughtsyourself?
I think you hit it nicely of thebalance between Yeah.
The physical health and theemotional and the mental toll.
Some of this can take and tobalance it out, you know,
(50:44):
sometimes it requires taking abreak.
I even told Katie a few monthsago, she was like, Hey, let's do
an episode on how we areactually feeling about all this.
I said, you wanna know how I'mactually feeling about all this?
I'm not listening to any podcastthis week.
I'm not doing anything inregards to my health this week
because it's so overwhelmingright now, and I just can't
handle it.
Yeah.
And so that was a moment that Ijust had to take a break from
(51:05):
thinking about these things.
Mm-hmm.
And then the following week Iwas feeling better and I.
Picked it up again, you know,so, um, take it as you can, one
step at a time.
It, it's a process.
It's a journey.
It's not all gonna happen atonce.
And so, um, yeah, that's justhow I would encourage you guys.
Definitely.
(51:26):
Alright, well we are going tohead off to the beach ourselves,
but we just wanna remind you allthat.
We pray for you.
Um, we pray that these episodesreally are helpful in your
journey to becoming a bettersteward of your body, mind,
soul, um, all the things.
(51:46):
And yeah, if you have anyrecommendations or wanna
continue the conversation,please reach out to us over on
our Facebook group or by email.
We'd love to hear from you guys.
And with that, my name is Katie,and my name is Chrissy.
And thanks for listening toCrunchy Stewardship.
Bye.
Hey, and welcome to CrunchyStewardship.
My name is Katie Fiola Jones,and my name is Chrissy Rombach.
We are two cousins who arepassionate about learning and
sharing knowledge to equipothers to steward their
spiritual, mental, emotional,financial, and physical health
in order to honor God with everyaspect of their lives.
In our podcast, we take deepdives into what it means to
(00:21):
steward our lives as Godoriginally intended for us with
the resources that God has givenus.
We look at topics like food,medicine, finances, and mental
health, and lots more through anatural lens and with a biblical
foundation.
So now before we get started ontoday's episode, we are going to
(00:42):
do a random revelation for thisweek.
Katie, what is your randomrevelation?
Okay.
So if you tuned into last week'sepisode about, and where I
talked about all of ourrenovation stuff and how we're
doing research on all the thingsthat we're putting in our house,
(01:02):
uh, we were doing lots of.
Appliance research recentlylooking into like refrigerators
and dishwashers and microwavesand I guess honestly I'd say
microwaves, we're not actuallydoing a microwave.
Um, but we were looking at allthese other things and I was
reading some questions andreviews from people on one of
the refrigerators that I waslooking at, and somebody asked
(01:25):
in the questions for arefrigerator, is there a Sabbath
mode?
For the refrigerator.
And I thought, I like literallyread that question and I was
like, are they joking?
But then I read the likeresponse from the manufacturer
and they were like, yes, thisone does have a, um, Shabbat
(01:48):
mode is what it's liketechnically.
Called, I think is what theyofficially call it.
And I was like, what is this?
So I, I literally, I go andGoogle it and it's a legit thing
that they have a Sabbath mode.
And what a Sabbath mode is, is afeature on appliances like
ovens, refrigerators, um, anddishwashers that temporarily
(02:10):
disables functions such aslights, sounds, and digital
displays to comply with Jewishreligious laws for Shabbat,
which is the Sabbath, um, andother Jewish holidays.
It allows the appliance tocontinue operating without
violating these laws enabling.
Continuous function like apreset oven temperature.
(02:33):
Um, but it prevents users frominteracting with the control
panel or activating componentslike the ice maker, which would
be against Jewish laws.
And so I saw that and I waslike, I had no idea that that
was a thing, but then it got methinking that I wish.
There was a like quote unquoteSabbath mode just for like every
(02:55):
evening because then you canturn off the lights.
Yeah, because weren't we talkingabout that?
You go into the fridge rightbefore bed and you're like, oh
my gosh, it's so bright.
And then even just like thelittle like panel with the LED
lights on it and stuff.
It'd be nice for those to notalways be on, I think.
Yeah.
We talked about it last weekabout the LED lights, which we
(03:16):
don't have to get back intoagain.
But it's like, oh, it'd be nicefor all these LED lights to be
off if you don't want all theexposure, um, in the evenings to
the LED lights.
So I looked, and it seems likethere's some refrigerators and
things out there that have suchlike a component where you can
like change it and it'll dothat, but it is not common that
(03:41):
you can just like turn thepanels off on things and the
when you want, which.
I would love, but that's not athing at this point.
I do know there arerefrigerators that the panel
turns off when you're not usingit.
That's true.
You're right.
Yeah.
And then when you start usingit, it turns back on.
Yeah, that'd be, yeah.
The ones that we were lookingat, I don't think did that.
(04:02):
Oh, I don't remember.
I'd have to look at it again.
Kind of look at fancier ones.
Fancier one, I need to spendmore money now.
You're not spending enoughKatie.
Oh my gosh.
Money.
Ugh, this.
Oh, things cost a lot of money.
We actually learned this pastweek, well, I, I learned it a
little bit ago that our floorsare heated in our kitchen.
(04:23):
Did I tell you this yet?
No.
So it sounds really cool andfancy.
And it is, it's kind of neat.
They put heated floors in thekitchen and on the like front
door, like right where you walkin at the front door, and that's
where there was tile in thehouse.
And then everything else wascarpet.
So tile by the front door and inthe kitchen.
And then our contractor pointedout, Hey, look, you have heated
(04:45):
floors.
And we're like, well, that'sreally neat.
And then he proceeded to like,tell us that, yeah, it is really
cool, but make sure that you,you get flooring that can handle
the radiant floor heat becausetraditional hardwood and a lot
of, um, vinyl plank and laminateflooring, it'll warp.
If it gets heated.
(05:06):
And so you need to be reallycareful on what you put on it so
that it can handle thefluctuation.
So I've literally been goingthrough and reading warranties
for flooring.
That's why I had all those tabsopen for all the flooring.
'cause I'm like trying to findthe the right one.
And a lot of the ones that dohandle it are really expensive,
which we're learning.
But we actually found a few justyesterday that can handle the
(05:31):
heat.
It doesn't void their warranty,and they don't require me to
sell a kidney, so sell a kidney.
Yeah.
So anyway, that was, that was abig win.
That's awesome.
I love it.
Okay, so today's episode isgoing to be a little bit
different.
Um, this is the first episodethat Katie and I are actually
(05:53):
recording together, together inthe same room, in the same state
at the same time.
I guess if we're in the sameroom, you'd think that we were
in the same state.
Right.
I should say that back the otherway around.
In the same state?
In the same building, in thesame room.
Whoa.
Yeah.
This hasn't happened before.
All of our previous episodes,we've been recording long
(06:16):
distance.
I've been in North Carolina,she's been in either Colorado or
Michigan.
Mm-hmm.
And right now we are both inNorth Carolina for our cousin
Abigail's wedding.
The wedding happened last nightand it was so beautiful.
Such a fun time.
Yeah.
I'm so happy for them, and so wedecided to take this as an
opportunity to record an episodetogether for the first time.
(06:37):
I know, and maybe the only time.
Yeah, maybe sometime in thefuture.
We'll see.
I don't know.
We see each other probably liketwice a year.
Three times a year.
Yeah, maybe.
Yeah.
At least like once or twice.
You're right.
Yeah.
It's kind of hard.
We don't see each other inperson all that frequently, so.
(06:57):
Mm-hmm.
Um, yeah, these episodes aregoing to be very few and far
between, but we're doing ittoday, and because we are
traveling, we decided to talkabout crunchy travel of how do
we travel in a health consciousway, because, let's be honest,
(07:18):
when you're traveling, you'reeating out for every single
meal.
And you end up spending a buttton of money just on all the
things you're stuck with.
Hotel breakfasts and bedsheetsand towels and hotel shampoo and
conditioner.
Mm-hmm.
All of those things addedtogether can cause quite the
disruption in your hormones andyour endocrine system and
(07:41):
everything like that.
So we're just gonna talk aboutwhat are some things that we are
doing or would like to do.
In terms of travel to make it alittle bit healthier and less
disruptive to our bodies.
So Katie, you wanna start usoff?
What is one thing that you didthis trip in particular?
(08:01):
Mm-hmm.
To be quote unquote crunchy.
Yeah.
Well, this is actually somethingthat my parents taught us when
we were traveling as kids, wasbringing our own breakfasts as
much as possible.
Um, we, it was just one way thatwhen we were traveling as a
family, we could save money andthat was kind of the primary
(08:24):
thing was just, Hey, we won'thave to go out and spend extra
money on breakfast in themorning if we bring oatmeal or
if we pick up bagels at thegrocery store, or something like
that.
But it was by no means at thatpoint, any, in any way really
very healthy because it would bethose.
The Quakers, Quaker Oats, likesugar oatmeals.
(08:45):
And then it would just be, yeah,the bagels and cream cheese, you
know, the cheap stuff from thegrocery store that probably had
a lot of glyphosate andpreservatives and enriched
flowers and stuff.
So it wasn't necessarily at thatpoint in any way, like a health
move.
But now Wes and I have kind oftaken that a step further and
um, we actually really do.
(09:07):
Eat a lot of oatmeal ourselves.
In the mornings, I, I put a tonof like healthy, yummy, good
stuff in it, including likeprotein powders and flaxseed and
chia seeds and um, all sorts ofother stuff.
And so we, this time actuallybrought like a big mason jar of
just oats and then a smallermason jar.
(09:29):
And I mixed up all the stuff weusually put into.
Our oatmeal.
So I actually, I am sittinghere, I'm like staring at it
while we're talking and I havelike walnuts in it and the flax
seed.
Um, the one thing that Wes, wewere eating it and he's like,
it, I feel like it doesn't haveas much flavor as usual.
And the one thing that it doesnot have is maple syrup.
(09:51):
Mm-hmm.
Because I basically only mixtogether dry stuff and then just
forfeited.
Bringing any maple syrup or anykind of sweetener for it.
So it, it is not as yummy as itusually is, but it's still very
filling and very good.
And that's what I like.
I feel like flying with maplesyrup is like a game Yeah.
(10:12):
Of exactly.
Russian roulette sort of thing.
Like at what point do we trialflying with Naples syrup that
Yeah.
Hoping that it won't explode inthe suitcase.
Yeah.
So yesterday actually, when wewere sitting downstairs, he.
When I think, did you see thatwhen he went and got, um, some
like honey packets from the Ohno, I didn't.
Front desk and I, I super waslike holding my tongue because
(10:34):
he knows, like he, he hears megiving these like little spiels
about all the stuff and he knowsthat the honey that is from
those little packets, it's notlike real honey.
That stuff is basically justlike corn syrup and stuff and is
just, yeah, I mean, it's notgood for you.
But I let him have his honey inhis oatmeal.
(10:55):
Which was just kind of funny,but yeah, the most hotel rooms
have like a little coffee maker,and these ones are really nice
because they, the coffee makershere are basically just like
little hot water makers and youdon't even need the little like
pod, like pod thing in it.
And it, they're like the podpart, these removable, so it
(11:15):
doesn't have, you know, itdoesn't run through it like it
Keurig, your, your hot waterstill goes through where the
coffee would be sitting.
These little coffee makers, youcan actually pull out the tray
where the coffee would sit soyou don't get the coffee taste
in your water, which doesn'tbother me, but it bothers Wes
'cause he doesn't like coffee.
So it's perfect for makingthings like oatmeal as well as I
(11:37):
jimmy rigged these things tomake my own coffee.
'cause I also brought my owncoffee with us.
Oh.
'cause that's another thing thatI'm like.
I like using my own coffee whenI can that I actually, I did not
do that before because I did notcare too much about coffee.
I just was like, coffee iscoffee and I'm gonna drink
coffee no matter what.
But just as we've been goingdown this journey and learning
(11:59):
more, I'm like, coffee is one ofthose things that it's a staple
and I drink one or two cups ofit a day that I would prefer it
to be a good coffee.
Like good as in healthy, notjust like flavorful or whatever.
Um, so these systems were hardto figure out, and I went
(12:20):
through this whole thingyesterday morning trying to
figure it out, and Muss waslike, you are going through too
much.
And I was like, I want mycoffee.
And I literally opened up, haveyou seen these coffee packages?
I haven't even looked at them.
They're, it's like a little,they look like little tea bags
with coffee in them.
Oh, yeah.
And so I ripped one open anddumped out the grinds of like
(12:41):
that.
Coffee, the grounds of thecoffee.
And then I put my own coffeeinside of it.
But then I used another onebecause then I'm like, it's open
on one side.
I folded it over and put it inthis little tray thing, and then
I put another one that was emptyunderneath it, so it was like an
extra filter, whatever.
Anyway, it was this whole bigthing and West thought it was
(13:01):
hilarious.
And it worked though.
And I made another cup of coffeethis morning like that.
Great.
So I think if I tried to dothat, max would say, Chrissy,
you're done Just drank thecoffee.
And to be fair, I've had other,like, I did use one or two of
those like packets.
I didn't just dump out the one,the one dry one I did dump out
(13:23):
totally unused.
But then I have used, I havedrank the other ones.
Okay.
So I'm not super crazy, but onlylike half crazy.
I feel like it's a balance, youknow?
So with this new diet thing thatI'm doing to the gut reset, so
in case you guys haven'tlistened to our previous
episodes, I'm doing a full gutreset right now.
Um, it's a six month longprocess and essentially the
(13:46):
process is wean your diet downto just meat and vegetables,
detox, and then add back all thethings that you took out slowly
but surely, and.
Through that healing the gut,repairing the microbiome in the
gut to have the appropriatelevels of good bacteria and bad
(14:06):
bacteria, and ultimately fixingour hormone levels and our
stress and all the other thingsthat go along with it.
Um, and so One of the thingsthat they recommend in this
program is if you're going outto eat.
You wanna eat like a salad orsomething like that.
A lot of salad dressings arehuge culprits for sugar and seed
(14:29):
oils and everything like that.
And so they recommend justbringing your own salad
dressing, which in theory soundsfine, but I don't carry a purse.
Oh.
And so I'm like, what am Igonna, I didn't realize that.
Yeah, no.
I put my ID in Max's wallet andI have my phone in my back
pocket.
I didn't realize that about you.
(14:49):
Yes.
I hate carrying a purse.
That's so funny.
I will carry a purse to churchbecause I have my Bible and
that's it.
Ah.
But anyways.
Um huh.
Yeah, so I will not do that.
They, they say, bring your ownsalad dressing, and I'm like,
absolutely not.
That's such a Karen thing to do.
Just walking into therestaurant, a jar of salad
dressing, or even if it's likein a bag or like even a very
(15:13):
small Tupperware dish, you know?
Mm-hmm.
I just can't get myself to bethat person to be like, and can
I have no dressing on that?
Pulls my own dressing out andput it on my salad?
I just think that's such a Karenthing to do that at that point
I'm like, is it even worth thestress of bringing my own salad
dressing and trying to figureout how to hold it and not spill
(15:35):
it everywhere?
Yeah, really.
It would spill.
You could use, I, we use masonjars when we, um, make our own
salad dressings the smaller onesthan the, um, it's like the.
Half pint.
What are those ones?
Yeah, I know what you're talkingabout.
Anyway, they, that would fit, itwould fit in a purse.
So for me, I'm like, oh, I couldtotally do that.
I should do that.
That's such a good idea,Chrissy.
(15:56):
Um, I feel like these days itwouldn't be as weird because I
mean, hear me out, it's like alot of people have allergies.
True.
You know, and it's like for you,you know, a salad is going to
have no allergens'cause.
It's not cooked with otherthings, right?
It's just like, here, here'syour salad, here's your leaves
and ingredients and stuff.
It's not cooked in seed oils andstuff.
(16:18):
And then you would just, uh, ifyou were someone who has an
allergy, it's like, you knowthat you're bringing a salad
dressing that is, that has allthe ingredients that you can
have.
And I don't know, I feel like atrestaurants that wouldn't be as
big of a deal these days.
Probably not, but it still makesme feel weird.
Yeah, it is still weird.
(16:39):
It is still like, I just thinkI'd be such a Karen.
And yesterday we went to a tacoshop.
Mm-hmm.
And obviously I'm not eatingtacos right now because like
corn tortilla flour, tortillaeither way, that's corn and
gluten and so, and nope.
Um, and all of the other tacooptions that they had had like
(17:01):
sauces and other things that hadsugar in them.
And so I ended up going with thevegan.
Taco.
Oh, which had the highest amountof vegetables in it.
Yeah, it was like oh,cauliflower bell peppers and
onions was in this taco, andwhen I ordered I was like, yeah,
(17:21):
so can I have this?
But.
In a bowl, no rice and beans,just on a bed of lettuce.
And Can we add chicken andavocado please?
And my sister looked at me,she's like, what the heck?
She's like, since when do youbecome so picky with the things
that you're ordering?
Oh, I was like, yeah, I reallyjust created like my own meal
(17:43):
here.
Yeah.
Because there was nothing on themenu that I, and I, oh, and then
I also said, and the sauce onthe side, of course.
Oh, but then it was like a, thiswas actually really funny.
It was a cilantro lime sauce.
Mm-hmm.
And when it came to the table, Itasted it a little bit just to
see like, does it have sugar init?
Sweetened?
(18:03):
Yeah, it definitely did.
Oh, and I just put it to theside, not really thinking about
it.
Well, my mom thought it wasguacamole.
She took a chip and dunked thatthing and had like a huge chunk
of it and took a bite.
It was not.
Guacamole.
Oh, solo.
It was great though.
(18:23):
But overall, yeah.
Traveling, being crunchy.
Yeah.
I feel like sometimes requiresus to be a little care and like
Yeah.
Oh, totally.
With what we're eating.
Well, okay.
So a lot of the ideas that I'vebeen getting for traveling,
including the oatmeal thing,there's, there's a few more tips
that like, I would like to tryto implement, but the person
I've actually learned some of itfrom is, um, Vanni Hari, who
(18:46):
I've mentioned before.
She's considered the food babe.
Um, you can like look her up onInstagram and everything, but
she has some cookbooks and Yeah,I think it's, she has cookbooks
and then the book that weoriginally read and we, I mean,
Wes and I, we read, uh, lastyear kind of about this time.
(19:08):
It was maybe summer last year,so it's kind of crazy.
That was, that was kind of thebook that really kicked us off
into.
Our super crunchy era, likereally, like that was the one
that I'm like, I'm awake.
Um, it's called Feeding YouLies.
And I read that book and then Iproceeded to go and check out
her cookbooks.
(19:28):
And in her cookbooks, she has alot of just tips for different
things.
She has one for families andgives you lots of ideas for.
Kind of healthier eating withkids.
Um, and I don't remember if itwas with her kids one or her
just regular cookbook, but inone of them she actually has a
whole section of tips for, likeideas for when you're traveling.
(19:49):
And I very much remember a lotof them.
And, and one of the things shetalked about at restaurants was
when you go to a restaurant andthere's like nothing on the menu
that you really want to eat thatfeels healthy enough.
She said to, and, and it reallyonly works if they're like, kind
of higher end, not like, notsuper high end, but like able to
(20:09):
make, able to kind of, they,it's not just like a set, uh,
yeah.
Like you couldn't do it atsomething like probably Cracker
Barrel or, um, even theCheesecake Factory because, you
know, the Cheesecake Factorykind of does specific things.
Maybe they would do it, butbasically the tip is that.
You ask for veggies, just likesome sauteed veggies and like
(20:30):
saute them in butter and justlike be very simple.
Um, and then asking for justlike a chicken breast or
something, you know, just likevery meat and veggies, very
basic.
So nothing, none of their likeveggies that are in bunch of
like sauce creamy saucesoftentimes or whatever.
So it's just like, Hey, can Ihave some.
Green beans and butter withchicken, and sometimes they'll
(20:53):
be like, okay, that's superbasic.
And then they have to, the, theissue is then the pricing.
'cause it's obviously, if it'snot something on their menu,
they have to figure out how toprice it and stuff.
But I, I think that's a goodoption too, if you're like going
out with friends or something toa nicer restaurant and you're
like, I don't really want any ofthese, like pastas or mm-hmm.
(21:15):
Fried things or, you know, allthe stuff that's cooked in seed
oil or has.
Like glyphosate from the flourand stuff.
So, you know what I learned,what kind of restaurant I
learned is actually the easiestto eat super healthy is a
Mediterranean or Turkishrestaurant.
Oh.
Last weekend when we weretraveling to Dallas, um, our, we
(21:39):
went with a group of people andour group decided to go to a
Turkish restaurant, and it wasthe first restaurant that we had
been to the entire weekend.
That I could eat more than halfthe items on the menu.
Oh, that's, and remember, mydiet is limited to meat and
vegetables at this point.
And so it was very encouragingto me, like, wow, I can get like
a full salmon filet and likepickled cabbage and pickled
(22:03):
carrots and.
A cucumber, like all of thesethings on the side, and I know
they're gonna be good for me.
The pickling is also reallygreat.
Mm-hmm.
Because it gives you, um,probiotics that you're not gonna
get from regular vegetables thatyou're eating and things like
that.
Or you'll get more frompickling, pickled things mm-hmm.
(22:24):
Than regular.
Um, but yeah, that's one thing.
So if you're need to go to arestaurant, maybe look at like.
Mediterranean restaurants or um,salad places are often like
really great.
You can either avoid the saladdressings or just look up on
(22:44):
Google, like which saladdressings have seed oils, which
ones have sugar, you know, andavoid those ones because
oftentimes if a place is goingto like pride themselves on
being super healthy, they'regoing to actually have.
Healthy options and they're notgonna try to hide a bunch of
stuff in their salad dressings.
(23:05):
You know the place that, um,Bobby from Bobby approved, you
know that app, right?
We talked about that?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
So there's an app called Bobbyapproved that you can use to
scan food items that will tellyou.
What ingredients are in it thatwouldn't be healthy for you?
So they look out for differentthings like seed oils or um,
(23:27):
preservatives or any badadditives or sugar.
katie (23:31):
They look for sugar in a lot of things, and that's a big
red flag for the Bobby approvedapp.
But he has a, an Instagramaccount where he also reviews
restaurants and fast food placesand even grocery stores and
things like that.
So he'll go to like Costco andbe like, this is a Bobby
approved item.
And this is when it's likealmost Bobby approved and here's
(23:52):
why it's not.
But he goes around torestaurants and he'll say, what
things on the menu are the mostBobby approved?
'cause in most cases, none ofthe things are Bobby approved.
But the one place that heactually recommends, um, that's
like kind of the more, healthyend.
Is Chipotle, because Chipotle iskind of like what you're saying
(24:13):
with salads, it's like you cankind of pick and choose what you
want and.
From my understanding, I don'tthink Chipotle uses meat with
antibiotics in it, which is alsolike a big plus And so you
really wanna stay away frommeats that have antibiotics in
it, because then it makes you asa human more antibiotic
(24:34):
resistant.
And so it's just, it's better,it's healthier, it's better meat
for you.
Although with Chipotle, it isimportant to know that they do
use.
Ingredients that are similar toMSG.
They don't Oh, yeah.
Mentioned they don't put MSG intheir chicken.
Mm-hmm.
But they do have someingredients that have a similar
(24:55):
effect on our bodies as MSG.
Okay.
So pick and choose your battles.
I know.
Yeah.
Well, that's where we chose togo.
It was better than probablyPanera, since Panera has a.
Yeah, it's such a bummer.
I love Panera, and Panera isknown as one of those places
that's more like health food,you know, focused.
But it's one of the places that,again, like as you start
(25:18):
learning all this, it's kind oflike a bummer when you start
learning things and you're like.
Man, everything that I thoughtwas good view actually really
isn't.
And lemme tell though.
It makes me really sad.
'cause I love Panera.
A good Panera, Mac and cheeseand a bread bowl.
It's so good.
Sometimes it's just necessary.
It's not in the next six monthsfor me though.
Well, and I even really lovetheir tomato soup.
And I'm sure maybe their tomatosoup maybe isn't as bad, but
(25:41):
still it's like, I bet if I wentand looked at the actual
ingredients for it, it would notbe.
Not great.
Not great.
Chrissy (25:48):
All right.
So let's transition to talkingabout How, what are some
strategies that we can use interms of limiting the toxins
that we're exposed to in a hotelroom?
Mm-hmm.
Because there's a lot, if youthink about it, the bedsheets
are bleached, the towels arebleached, the water has chlorine
in it.
Mm-hmm.
Um, you can't really.
Unplug the TV or to reduce theEMFs.
(26:09):
Mm-hmm.
Things like that.
You got the AC blowing on youall night long that you can't
figure out how to turn it off orto turn it on.
And oftentimes hotel roomsgenerally have like a musty
smell to that.
You know when you walk into ahotel room and you're like, ah,
yes.
The smell of a hotel room.
Slightly musty, maybe a littlemildewy and always humid.
(26:31):
Well, I think that it, I, I wasactually, that's so funny you
said that I, I read somewherethat it's really good to open up
your windows at least once a dayfor 10 minutes to just get fresh
air circulating, becauseactually the air inside is
poorer quality than outside nomatter what, just because of the
airflow, because you think aboutall the dust and everything
(26:53):
that.
It gets trapped.
It's like it's just trapped inthis room, in your house even.
And so you want to open yourwindows to get that new fresh
air in or have an air purifier.
But in a hotel room, you usuallydon't have the option to open up
a window unless you have like apatio or something there.
But these windows here, I thinkare just solid windows.
(27:14):
There's no opening, and it's forsafety reasons.
I kind of understand it.
They don't want.
People throwing things out, orthey don't want people throwing
themselves out the window orsomething crazy, you know?
So I'm like, I, I understand,but at the same time I'm like, I
would love just fresh air comingin because it's been so
beautiful.
It'd be nice to get some justlike circulation through.
(27:34):
So that's that.
I was just thinking about thatlast night, so.
Mm-hmm.
It's probably why it's musty.
Yeah.
So some of the things that youcould do to limit the toxin
exposure in.
The, hotel room is obviouslybringing your own stuff, so
bringing your own bath towel isvery easy.
Did you do that?
I didn't this time because Maxand I tried.
(27:56):
We have you done that before?
Once in case?
I haven't yet.
I heard about it like.
Two weeks ago maybe, and the twotimes Max and I have traveled
since then, we fit into onecarry on suitcase.
Mm-hmm.
For the trip.
Mm-hmm.
And so it's pretty much a, Idon't want to use more
(28:17):
suitcases.
Yeah.
So, because we really only haveone good suitcase at this point.
I have heard of people bringingtheir own bedsheets.
Yep.
You can do that.
But I feel like a whole set ofbedsheets I know is a little
excessive.
So like bringing your ownpillow.
Mm-hmm.
You know, so at least your faceis on, not on like a bleached
surface, it's on a non leachsurface.
And then when you get home, youjust wash your pillowcase.
(28:39):
Yep.
Again, um, also bringing yourown shampoo and conditioner that
don't have phthalates or,parabens and things like that.
'cause those are all endocrinedistributors and hotel shampoo,
conditioner, body washer, justfull of that stuff.
So bringing your own, these areI,'cause I was thinking about
it.
I did not bring my own shampooand stuff.
I, I have recently been doingthat, but this time around I
(29:00):
just did not get to packing it.
A lot of times my big thing isthe fragrances in all of the
hotel stuff, but I actually feltlike these shampoos and stuff
didn't have a strong of.
Fragrances.
It was actually like very light,which doesn't mean that there's
no fragrances, but I was curiousto know what the ingredients
(29:21):
were on these ones.
I have actually looked up theingredients at hotels before.
I don't think it was a Marriott.
I think it was like a HolidayInn that I looked up the
ingredients for the shampoo andconditioner that they had, and I
wasn't disappointed.
Oh, that's good.
It like on the bottle even itsaid like all natural.
No phthalates, no parabens.
(29:42):
On the bottle in the, yeah.
Bathroom.
And I was like, oh, well that'snice.
And I looked it up and I thinkthe only thing that was in there
that I was concerned about wasfragrance.
Um, which in the grand scheme ofthings, if you only have one
ingredient, that's not great.
I'm like, you, you again have toweigh Yeah, okay.
The stress of trying to getsmall enough bottles to bring it
(30:03):
through TSA or.
To put it in your suitcase so itdoesn't explode, and then trying
to travel with it.
Oh, but don't forget it onceyou're at the hotel, because
that's an expensive thing toforget there, you know?
As opposed to just like usingwhat's there.
Using what's there.
So, you know, like we talkabout, health is encompassing of
everything.
It's your mental health, it'syour emotional health, it's your
physical health, it's yourspiritual and your financial.
(30:24):
And so, you know, with packingall your own pillow and towels
and shampoo and conditioner,you, yes.
You're avoiding those physical.
Components of the health, butyou have to take into mind like,
is this causing so much extrastress on me while I'm trying to
pack of like, oh, I worked thelast four days and now I have an
hour to pack everything for thenext week.
(30:47):
And I don't wanna forget this.
Oh, and I have this and wherewe're gonna be recording this
weekend, so I need to remembermy microphone.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, but we're going to awedding, so I need to make sure
I have the dress.
Oh, and the dress for therehearsal dinner and the dress
for the day the next day.
And do I have enough shoes?
What shoes do I wanna wear?
Oh, shoot.
Now I need to pack.
My pillowcase and my towels andmy shampoo and conditioner and
Oh, where did those bottles go?
That I was supposed to put allthese that I bought like a year
(31:09):
ago to put all these things in.
I don't even know where thosebottles are.
Oh, shoot, it's already been 59minutes and now I gotta go like
that.
That's usually how my packinggoes.
Oh, totally.
You know, and so if bringing allof these things is gonna cause
more stress, either packmultiple days in advance so it
doesn't.
And so you can pack like insections over time, or just
(31:35):
don't worry about it.
Yep.
You know, it's a, it's a mindsetthing too.
Like if your mindset isn'tthere, if these things are gonna
stress you out more, it's notgoing to be beneficial for your
health.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The stress on your body is goingto take a bigger toll than the
toxins would from your shampooshere, which we were told.
(31:56):
That we need to clarify thingsmore often.
So if you hear us explainingthings a little bit further when
we're talking about them, it'sbecause it was a tip that I
think your mother gave us as faras like explaining in detail.
Mm-hmm.
More like when you're, if, ifyou're tuning into an episode
and you're just hearing us forthe first time, talking about
(32:18):
fragrance, for example,fragrance you want to avoid in
your.
Everything, your shampoos andsoaps and, uh, what other things
have fragrance?
Everything, like all the, allthe pery stuff, perfumes,
deodorant, laundry, detergents,face wash.
You wanna avoid it chap stickbecause when it says fragrance
(32:39):
on the ingredient list, youdon't actually know what the
fragrance is, and it can besomewhere up to hundreds of
different chemicals that make upthat one.
Ingredient.
And it might be that they'relike made up of very minuscule
amounts of all these chemicals,but the issue is then you
literally have no idea what thatfragrance is made up of.
(33:03):
There can be times where acertain company will, will
explain what is in thefragrance.
Um, and like I know that there'sa laundry company out there that
does that, that I stumbled uponrecently, and they actually will
say fragrance and then it haslike a little.
Asterisk next to it or whatever,you know, and then it'll list
out what actually makes up theirfragrance.
(33:25):
But in most cases, that is notthe case and you can kind of
automatically assume that thefragrance is a bunch of
chemicals.
Same thing goes when you hear orsee natural flavors.
It might be natural, but itmight not be things that you
actually wanna be eating stuff.
So anyway, just look for thosekind of cues when you see things
(33:46):
in your ingredients.
So.
There you go.
Auntie Lolo.
We described things in detail.
That one's for you.
Now she has to actually listento this episode.
She said.
She told me that she listens toa lot of them.
She does.
At least that's what she saidwhen we were, I think your
parents are way, oh, the othernight.
Better at listening to all ofour episodes.
(34:07):
I don't actually know aboutthat.
Really?
That this'll be a test.
Mothers, if you're listening,let us know when you listen to
this.
And we'll see how long it was.
I don't know.
Both of your parents told methis weekend that they listened
to you every single episode.
I don't know if I believe that.
I guess we'll find out.
I don't remember my mom sayingthat to me.
(34:29):
She said she's got like an hourdrive every week to go to
somewhere.
Oh.
To to see Malachi To come to ourhouse.
Oh yeah, you're right.
So yeah.
An hour drive to come see you.
And she's been listening.
Aw.
During that.
Thanks, mom.
I guess I didn't know it wasevery single one.
Yeah.
Cute.
Your dad said every single onetoo.
(34:49):
Wow.
Yeah.
Thanks parents.
Love you.
They are a huge part of ouraudience.
50% of our audience.
Just kidding.
There's more of you out there.
And actually, um, I don't knowif you noticed, so this is
actually a quick shout out.
We've had a number of, um,people joining our Facebook
group recently, which has beenreally exciting and that's been
(35:12):
really cool just to.
See new faces that havediscovered our podcast, which is
awesome.
Um, I mean, people are able tofind us by other, by, by you
guys listening and sharing theseepisodes with friends.
But also when you leave a ratingor review for these podcasts, it
makes it more discoverable tonew people, which is super cool
(35:34):
because.
More people have been findingus, and they're people that I'm
like, I don't, I don't knowthese people.
And it's great.
And that's wonderful.
So we're excited to have youguys in our community and as
listeners, so give us a shoutout and say hey.
And, and if you wanna join us onour Facebook group, it is called
Crunchy Christian Mamas on aBudget.
(35:55):
Um, yeah.
Yeah.
Come join us.
Come say, Hey, we're not aslike, active on Facebook.
As we probably should be, but Ipromise that if you do post in
there we will see it and we willcomment.
'cause I do get notifications.
That's our little spiel aboutFacebook.
There we go.
So come over there.
Yeah.
It's back to being crunchy, uh,while we're traveling.
(36:17):
Ooh, beach.
Going to the beach.
Oh, yeah.
Tell me, because that's, that'srelevant right now since we are
literally planning to go to thebeach in like 20 minutes after
we, after we finish recording.
Done recording this.
Um, so going to the beachsunscreen mm-hmm.
Is a big one.
So I, I have to clarify becauseI got this feedback from my mom
again.
(36:38):
Um.
To clarify.
So in a previous episode when wewere talking about sunscreen, we
mentioned that sunscreens thathave a zinc oxide base are very
good for you and othersunscreens aren't.
I forgot what the other ones,the base is of the other ones
are, but essentially toxins.
They're not great.
You want to look for the zincoxide.
(36:59):
Now, on the flip side.
If you have zinc oxide as a foodingredient in your food, that is
Nobu.
No, you do not want that becauseit is a toxin.
The reason it's okay to have itin your sunscreen and not in
your food is because zinc oxide,specifically in sunscreen, is
(37:20):
too big to seep through yourskin.
They've done studies.
And comparing like zinc, oxidebased sunscreen versus, you
know, the sunscreens that yourub in and then it's like goes
on clear and can barely feel it.
Those sunscreens are designed tosoak into your skin and they get
(37:41):
into your bloodstream, whereasthe zinc oxide merely just stays
on top of your skin.
It does not go through it, andso it doesn't get into your
bloodstream.
So.
While zinc oxide is still atoxin, if it gets inside of you,
it is the best sunscreen optionbecause it's too thick to get
inside of you through your skin.
(38:01):
But they'd use it for like whitecoloring in food, so like
vanilla icing or um, whitefrosting, things like that will
have zinc oxide in it.
And so.
That, yeah, that's important oflike, okay, yes, it's good in
sunscreen, but not in foodbecause you don't want inside of
you, but it's okay to go on yourskin.
(38:23):
And you know, I think that's agood clarifying thing.
'cause my mom brought it up.
She's like, well why is zincoxide okay in sunscreen, but I
can't eat it.
And so she thought it wasimportant.
So yeah, if you're going to thebeach, zinc oxide based
sunscreen, um, I think even likeNeutrogena has one.
That's pretty good.
They're usually called likenatural or mineral based
(38:46):
mineral.
Mm-hmm.
Mineral based sunscreens.
Um, they're great.
Also, if you're going to thebeach, take your shoes off
mm-hmm.
Feel the sand.
Mm-hmm.
So walking on sand is so, sogood for you.
It encourages your body to usemuscles that it doesn't usually
use for walking.
Mm-hmm.
And so it can really helpstrengthen.
(39:07):
Your leg muscles, your ankles,your knees, your hips, um,
helps.
Im improve balance, reduce therisk of falls.
Um, and you're walking barefooton the ground.
Yeah.
And so you are getting thosegrounding benefits mm-hmm.
Of, um, reduce pain, reduceinflammation, um, less.
(39:28):
Free radicals in your bodybecause your body is quite
literally grounded to the groundbecause you are touching the
ground with your bare skin.
And so all of that energy fromyour body is going into the
earth and the Earth's energy isgoing into you.
And I sound like a crazy personright now talking about the
energies of the earth.
Wow.
But it's so true.
(39:48):
And it's a thing.
It's okay.
I I, a note on that, I.
When I first heard those thingsabout like grounding and the
energies and all this stuff, Iwas like, that's so woo woo.
But it is like there is likelegitimate science when it comes
to energy in like in the ground,in the plants and in everything.
(40:10):
And honestly, this is so silly,but I was listening to a book
the other day and they weretalking about like the whole
potato battery thing.
You know, when you like.
Plug in a light bulb and stuffand you plug it into a potato
and it, and it'll work.
I wonder if it's gonna work witha carrot too.
You should try that.
I don't know if it does.
I think it's, I think it's onlypotatoes.
But anyway, I don't know aboutthe SY things, but it just,
(40:31):
that's a reference from our lastepisode that we were talking
about how carrots explode in themicrowave.
Like a rock carrot will explodein the microwave, but.
A raw potato does not explode inthe microwave.
And so this is funny, you'retalking about like the mineral
content of potatoes versuscarrots.
So, so it probably wouldn'tconduct for the carrot if it, if
that, if the carrot explodes inthe microwave and potato
(40:52):
doesn't, I don't know.
I have no idea.
Someone who knows science tellus, but my point is that the
potato, like they have like a,like it can conduct electricity,
so obviously it has to be ableto like hold currents and the.
All, all that kind of stuff.
So it's just like, my point isthat the Earth obviously has to
(41:14):
have the same components of justlike the, the electricity
flowing through it andeverything.
And, yeah, even like water, likethere's so many benefits to
being near like waves and likethings like waterfalls because
the, the crashing water puts offnegative ions.
(41:34):
Into the air, which then helpsrelax your body and make you
more calm.
So if you ever are near waterand have that like calming
sensation of like, wow, you feelso relaxed, um, it's actually
there are negative ions that arecoming off of the water that you
are kind of like taking in.
And it does, it sounds so weirdand woowoo to be like taking the
(41:56):
energy from the, the waterabsorb the earth's energy.
It's like there's actualscience, like you can actually
go.
And look these things up.
And there is science on it.
And I'm not claiming to be anycrazy scientist myself or any
expert on it, but I'm like,there is science out there that
explains this and, but we doclaim to sound a little woowoo
(42:17):
sometimes.
Yeah, totally.
But that's just the nature ofthese things, you know, like
changing your lifestyle to bemore healthy kind of involves
being woo woo, being a woo woowoo Karen.
Oh gosh.
I mean, literally it's like youhave to make these choices where
it's like.
No, I do.
I am gonna bring my own oatmealand I'm gonna forfeit using the,
(42:38):
you know, coffee from the roomand I'm gonna bring my own
towel.
And it sounds so Karen like,although, and then although I
have to point out, you areeating your oatmeal with a
plastic spoon.
Oh my gosh.
I know.
We forgot our own spoons.
I was so sad.
Wes is the one who we, we got onthe airplane, we traveled
really, really early in themorning.
We had to get up at like five.
And so we packed.
Again, we did like overnightoats, so that way we could eat
(43:00):
the oatmeal like on the planeand everything.
And he's like, where are thespoons?
And I was like, I forgot thespoons.
And now we have to use plasticones.
But anyway.
Oh well, another reason to packmultiple days in advance if
you're gonna be going somewhereso that you can actually think
about these things and it's notgonna stress you out.
Have like a five day packinglist of like, all right, day
(43:21):
one, I'm gonna pack my.
I don't know, shirts and pantsthat I'm gonna wear that I don't
plan on wearing in the next fivedays.
Mm-hmm.
And then the next day, allright, I'm gonna pack my, the
overnight oats or breakfasts andthings that are dried and won't
go bad and things like that.
Maybe you don't need five daysto pack, but my point is packing
(43:43):
sections.
Yeah.
You wanna know what I wasthinking about while we were on
the airplane was all of the.
EMFs and radiation that we wereprobably taking in and
absorbing, and I was like, oh mygosh.
So there are EMF reducing veststhat you can buy.
(44:05):
I bet those are so expensive.
Oh, they probably are, but Ihave heard that that's a thing
that people will wear like an EMf vest.
Or jacket on an airplane inparticular to protect
themselves, at least protecttheir vital organs.
Mm-hmm.
From EMF radiation and thingslike that.
Yeah.
I don't know.
One thing that I actuallynoticed, so last weekend we were
(44:26):
in a hotel, so backstory Max andI have gotten really, really
good of creating like ananti-technology oasis in our
bedroom.
Oh, that's nice.
And so we, all of our phonechargers are in the kitchen.
Mm-hmm.
We have like an old fashionedalarm clock.
That it is still plugged intothe wall, but like, that's like
the only thing that's pluggedinto the wall.
(44:48):
And may, like our lamp isplugged in lamp.
Mm-hmm.
But, um, Max's office is in likea little cubby, in like a nook
in our bedroom because we livein a one bedroom apartment.
And so it was a sacrifice thatwe had to make to put Max's
office in our bedroom.
But overnight, his entire setupgets completely unplugged.
And so we unplug the desktop, weunplug the, um, computers, we
(45:14):
turn off the power strip andeverything like that, and we
unplug the printer.
And so we really do create likea anti-technology oasis in our
bedroom.
And last weekend in the hotelroom we were staying in, in
Dallas.
I could actually hear the EMFsfrom the tv.
Oh.
(45:34):
And because I've turned thosethings off in our bedroom, even
the nights that like I forget toturn them off, I will wake up at
two o'clock in the morning andbe like, oh, I forgot to turn it
off and get up, turn them off,and go back to sleep.
Because they'll wake me up atnight.
It's, I've become that sensitiveto them because we've been
turning them off.
Yeah.
And I literally told Max, I waslike, well, I can't.
(45:55):
Unplug the TV that's mounted tothe wall in the hotel room, you
know, but I could buy the$8earplugs that they had down in
the gift shop.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
They were$8.
Is that not crazy for earplugs,for ear?
One set of earplugs, but thelike, cheapy kind too, right?
Yes, yes.
Yeah, I had to sleep withearplugs at the last hotel
(46:17):
because I was not going to beable to fall asleep with hearing
the EMFs from the tv.
Yeah, which is crazy.
Like we've both kind ofidentified.
Katie, you were saying thatyou're no longer on city water.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Said yesterday.
Yeah.
This was crazy.
I, so we moved to a rural areain Michigan, and most of the
(46:39):
places out there, unless you'relike in the, the very tiny town,
um, everything else is on well,water versus city water, which,
when you're in the, in the cityor in a suburb or something, you
have.
Water that goes through a bigfiltration system, and one of
the ways they clean water iswith chlorine.
And so even though it's not poollike, you know, when you go to a
(47:02):
pool, you know you're in,you're, you know, you're getting
near a pool because you can allof a sudden smell the chlorine,
right?
Everybody's experienced that.
The chlorine in your drinkingwater is not as strong as a
pool, but there is chlorine init.
But what I actually noticed isthat we have no longer been on
city water because we're in thisrural area.
We have well water and wellwater has its own challenges
(47:25):
too.
But I took a shower here at thehotel and I could actually smell
the chlorine in the water.
And I don't know if it was belike the certain area or, or
what, like if it's really stronghere in general.
But it was just like a weirdsensation where I was like, it.
Smells very much like a lightpool water.
(47:48):
And I was like, I, I haven'texperienced it in a few months
now, and I'm like, yeah, there'schlorine in this water.
It was just very obvious to meat the, in that moment.
Yeah.
So all in all, as we're cuttingout these toxins, we are
becoming more sensitive to themand recognizing more and more
when we are exposed to them onaccident, so yeah.
(48:10):
Yeah, that's one of the pricesto pay for getting healthy is
you.
Can feel the unhealth aroundyou.
Or even like when people, likethere was someone in the airport
who was clearly wearing somelike Bath and Body Works product
or something very fake smelling,flowery kind of stuff.
And the fragrances to me arevery like triggering, like very
(48:37):
obnoxious.
Triggering is not necessarilythe right word, but it's just
very like.
Assaulting to my senses thesedays when somebody is using like
a fragrance or anything alongthose lines where I'm just like.
I'm so removed from it now inour own home that when I smell
it on someone else, I'm like,whew.
Like it's just a lot.
So the airport, that's hardbecause you're in such close
(49:00):
spaces with each other andthere's so many people and you
don't even know which person itis.
'cause you're like, there arelike 15 people that are within
like five feet of me at thisvery moment that I just don't
know which one of you is sostrongly scented that I can't
even like remove myself fromthis area.
So.
15 people in smelling distance.
Within smelling distance.
(49:21):
I can smell you.
That's funny.
All right, well we are nearingthe end of the podcast.
Do you have any last wordsbefore we sign off?
No.
I think just making the rightchoices like that for you,
right?
I mean, you don't have to go anddo all these silly things, but
maybe like the radiation thingfrom the airport is a big thing.
(49:41):
So find out how to like detoxfrom.
All the radiation at an airportand an airplane and all those
things.
Or if it's food for you, makethe right choices for food and,
and it's, it's gotta be rightfor you and your family.
Like if it's gonna stress therest of your family out too,
like just maybe forfeit certainthings and I don't know, it's
just taking little steps.
(50:02):
I mean, you say this all thetime, Chrissy, it's like you
don't have to go and doeverything all at once, but
figure out like what, whattrades trade offs you can make
at the, at that moment and.
Just make a decision, feel goodabout it and move forward.
And then just remember you'regonna get home soon and you can
get back to your regularroutines.
Mm-hmm.
(50:22):
And you can take a nice likeEpsom salt bath to help you just
detox all the stress andeverything from the trip if
there was a bunch.
So, yeah.
I don't know.
Do you have any last thoughtsyourself?
I think you hit it nicely of thebalance between Yeah.
The physical health and theemotional and the mental toll.
Some of this can take and tobalance it out, you know,
(50:44):
sometimes it requires taking abreak.
I even told Katie a few monthsago, she was like, Hey, let's do
an episode on how we areactually feeling about all this.
I said, you wanna know how I'mactually feeling about all this?
I'm not listening to any podcastthis week.
I'm not doing anything inregards to my health this week
because it's so overwhelmingright now, and I just can't
handle it.
Yeah.
And so that was a moment that Ijust had to take a break from
(51:05):
thinking about these things.
Mm-hmm.
And then the following week Iwas feeling better and I.
Picked it up again, you know,so, um, take it as you can, one
step at a time.
It, it's a process.
It's a journey.
It's not all gonna happen atonce.
And so, um, yeah, that's justhow I would encourage you guys.
Definitely.
(51:26):
Alright, well we are going tohead off to the beach ourselves,
but we just wanna remind you allthat.
We pray for you.
Um, we pray that these episodesreally are helpful in your
journey to becoming a bettersteward of your body, mind,
soul, um, all the things.
(51:46):
And yeah, if you have anyrecommendations or wanna
continue the conversation,please reach out to us over on
our Facebook group or by email.
We'd love to hear from you guys.
And with that, my name is Katie,and my name is Chrissy.
And thanks for listening toCrunchy Stewardship.
Bye.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.