August 15, 2025 • 53 mins
In this episode, we're switching things up and sharing how we're actually living out all the crunchy things we talk about! Katie's on a mission to find local goat cheese (spoiler: it's harder than finding goat milk), Chrissy discovers why cold plunges aren't for every body type (hello, exhaustion hangover), and we dive into some shocking truths about what's really in your tea bags. From quail eggs to red light therapy price tags, we're giving you the real, unfiltered update on our non-toxic journey - including all the wins, fails, and "wait, THAT'S what natural flavoring is made from?!" moments. Join us for our most candid conversation yet as we share what's actually working (and spectacularly failing) in our real-life crunchy journeys. Warning: contains shocking facts about beaver anatomy and mascara ingredients.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship
01:07 Reflecting on Past Episodes
01:40 The Hunt for Local Goat Cheese
03:49 Switching to Organic Foods
06:37 Exploring Local Farms and Produce
15:05 The Impact of Pesticides and Fertilizers
18:45 The Importance of Organic Foods for Children
20:27 Preparing for a Healthy Pregnancy
21:45 The Benefits of Dandelion
23:14 The Truth About Tea Bags
27:51 The Shocking Truth About Makeup Ingredients
29:03 Family Makeup Preferences and Recommendations
30:57 Exploring Biohacking: Cold Plunges and Red Light Therapy
36:22 The Benefits and Costs of Red Light Therapy
42:20 Affordable Non-Toxic Lifestyle Changes
Links mentioned in this episode:
Nourishing Traditions cookbook by Sally Fallon: https://amzn.to/3J6nuD2
The Feel Good Way cookbook: https://amzn.to/417Hhbd
Weston A Price Foundation: https://www.westonaprice.org/
Joovv red light therapy panels: https://joovv.com/
EMR Tech red light panels: https://emr-tek.com/
Primarily Pure skincare: https://primallypure.com/
A'DEL Natural Cosmetics: https://adelnaturalcosmetics.com/
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.
Chrissy (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
My name is Chrissy Rombach.
Katie (00:05):
And my name is Katie Fiola Jones.
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 in everyaspect of their lives.
Chrissy (00:21):
In our podcast, we take deep dives into what it means to
steward our lives as Godoriginally intended for us with
the resources that he hasalready given us.
We look at topics like food,medicine, finances, mental
health, and tons more through anatural lens and with a biblical
foundation.
Katie (00:41):
Before diving into this week's episode, if you've been
enjoying our podcast and haven'talready, be sure to go and
subscribe and leave us a fivestar rating.
It really does help other peoplefind our show in the future.
And if you aren't already signedup for our weekly newsletter,
you can take a moment right nowto go and do that by clicking
(01:02):
the link that we've provided foryou in our show notes.
In this week's episode, we'redoing something just a little
differently.
We wanted to just take a momentto talk about how we are living
out some of these things thatwe've been learning in our own
lives.
So in essence, we're just kindof pausing to reflect back on
(01:25):
several of our episodes, some ofthe things we've talked about
and wanna share with you whatwe're doing, like how we're
implementing some of theselessons into our day-to-day
living.
So, for example, right now I amon a hunt to find some.
Uh, locally produced goatcheese, it's actually pretty
(01:48):
easy to find goat milk, butright now I am, I'm on a, like a
scavenger hunt trying to findlocal goat cheese because goat
cheese in general, a lot ofother milks besides traditional
cow milk, um, has a lot morelike nutrients and proteins and
(02:09):
things like that.
And I also just really love goatcheese.
So if I can find a reallyawesome goat cheese provider
right here in our area, thatwould be the best thing in the
world.
So that's just a quick exampleof things we're gonna go through
and talk about and just stuffwe're like learning and doing
(02:30):
and giving you an update on someof the things that we've talked
about in the past on some of ourepisodes.
Chrissy (02:36):
You know, Katie, I think it's funny that you
started off by talking aboutcheese, because cheese is
honestly one of those groceryitems that I have just kind of
bypassed when it comes toshopping organic and looking for
local and things like that.
Because first off, fancy cheeseis expensive because.
(02:59):
It's really hard to convincemyself to spend$5 on an eight
ounce block of cheese when I canget it for two, you know?
Um, but also like even with thecheaper cheeses, unless it's
like craft American cheese,obviously we're not doing that,
but even with the cheapercheeses, looking at the
ingredients, they're not too,too bad.
(03:19):
You know, it's like culturedmilk and enzymes and that's
about it, you know?
And so that is, that's so funnythat you started off talking
about cheese because cheese wasone of those that I was like, I
don't really know if I actuallyhave, I probably do have to fix
it, but it's not one of thosethings that's like super high on
my list of food items that Iwant to change in our lives.
(03:42):
So that's really interesting.
Katie (03:44):
Yeah.
Cheese, so I've mentioned itbefore with products, especially
like eggs for example, but eggsand milk and even meats that are
conventionally grown.
So when they're not organic ornot grown in a regenerative way,
they have a much lower likenutrient density.
(04:07):
And so your store-bought eggs orstore-bought milks or cheeses or
meats.
They are all going to be lesslike nutrient valuable for you.
And so that's like one of thereasons we have been switching
over to more of those organicfoods.
Mostly because, and even Wesmentioned it recently, that when
(04:29):
you buy these more nutrientpacked foods, they actually keep
you fuller throughout the day,much longer.
And so Wes was like, yeah, Ihaven't really needed, I, I
actually mentioned to him, hepacked a pretty small lunch the
other day when he was going towork.
And I was like, are you sure youdon't need more than that?
(04:50):
And he had like some cookedveggies that we had from the
night before and like an apple.
And like something else.
And it, it just felt very smallto me for like the whole day.
And he's like, you know, no,I've just been feeling more
full.
Like I haven't needed like awhole big lunch.
And it's just, it, it just goesto show that as we've been
(05:10):
switching over to these betterproducts, it just like helps you
feel fuller longer becausethey're actually packed with
like, especially protein whenyou, when you switch your
proteins to better sourcedfoods.
Like actually the animals areraised better.
They just are better for you andyou can tell by the energy that
you have throughout the day.
So I just thought that wasreally interesting because I've
(05:33):
been feeling it too.
Um, but just the fact that hepacked such a small lunch, he
was like, I just don't reallyneed it.
So
Chrissy (05:40):
No,
Katie (05:40):
Yeah.
Chrissy (05:41):
that is so true.
Max has kind of expressed someof the same things, not
explicitly, but um, in terms oflike, he's a big snacker, I am
not a big snacker at allwhatsoever.
So when we got married, it kindof like was a little bit of a
whirlwind for me of like, wait aminute, you need to eat at all
hours of the day.
(06:01):
Like, I don't understand this.
Why do you snack so much?
And since we've been switchingover our, um, food also, like
Max's cut down his snacking tolike one or two snacks, not buy
me getting on him like, don'tsnack so much.
Although that does happensometimes.
Um.
It's a lot of like, no, he'sjust satisfied, you know, and
(06:23):
doesn't really need it all thatmuch.
Katie (06:25):
Yeah, it's so on my search.
So we, we had an episode comeout recently about finding local
farmers to help.
You fill your own pantries andyour own refrigerators and so
on.
My own hunt, that is one thingI'm still looking for is like
goat cheese.
I, I found someone who actuallyprovides goat milk, so I'm doing
(06:45):
that soon.
I actually haven't gotten thegoat milk yet.
I, I don't know that I'veactually tried goat milk itself
before, so that'll be new.
It's also raw goat milk and wehave switched to raw milk in
general, which is awesome.
I really love it.
Chrissy (07:00):
Every time I talk to Max about, Hey, can we get
chickens?
Hey, can we get a cow?
He says yes to chickens.
So he says no to a cow.
So my second option is, can weget a goat?
He still says no to that.
Katie (07:11):
You know,
Chrissy (07:12):
No goats.
No cows.
Katie (07:14):
being out in this rural area, I have actually learned
myself.
Goat keeping seems a lot easierthan cow keeping because cows
really need consistent milking,like two times a day at least.
Then that's a lot.
Chrissy (07:31):
Yeah, and goats are small enough.
Honestly, they, I feel likesometimes when they're young, I
don't know about like fullygrown goats, but at least young
goats can honestly be householdpets too, to an extent.
Like I've seen people with likepet goats before.
Katie (07:47):
Yeah.
So it just like, I've had somepeople who are like, yeah, I, I
was raised on a dairy farm andour schedule really revolved
around needing to get back tomilk the cows at, at all hours
of the day.
And I was like, you know, thatjust doesn't sound that great to
me.
I'd love to have an animal thatyou can kind of leave.
So I guess I, I can't say thatfor sure for goat.
(08:09):
Like a dairy goat.
Um, I don't really know whatmilking schedules.
I would assume you probably haveto milk them once, at least once
a day, so I don't really know.
I need to learn more about it,but I would be more interested
in goats.
I did actually find a friend outhere who did say that if we got
some land and got goats, thatshe would go in on them with me
(08:31):
and kinda like partner with meto do goats together.
So I'm like, that would be agreat way to do it is have a
buddy system where, yeah, if wego on vacation, my friend can
come over, take care of thegoats and then vice versa.
She goes, I'm still taking careof them.
So that I think would be a greatway to do it.
Chrissy (08:48):
Or like one person gets the morning shift, one person
gets the evening shift kind ofthing.
That way you're not tied down atboth ends of the day.
Katie (08:54):
Exactly.
Yeah, that's
Chrissy (08:56):
Yeah.
That's great.
Katie (08:57):
I have a friend back in Colorado who does that with
bees.
Like she has the beehives on herproperty, but there's another
lady who helps her tend to thebees.
And I was like, that is a reallygreat system.
And it also, I just liketeamwork in that sense.
Like I love going in on stufftogether.
I also would love the idea ofdoing almost like a community
(09:18):
style garden.
I think that that would bereally fun.
Like, okay, each person kind ofgets a section and depending on
where the land is, like maybeit's on our land, but it's like
a big plot and each person getsa, like a certain size of it or
whatever.
But I don't know, who knows?
We have no idea what house we'regonna be living in'cause we
still have not.
(09:38):
Uh, we don't have a house yet,so like, this is all just
fantasy.
I have no idea if we could evenhave goats on the land that we
eventually get out here.
So, but we are, the one thingthat I did get recently from
just a local farm stand, there'stons of them out here.
You just drive around and youcan find them almost on every
(09:59):
road.
And one of them was sellingquail eggs.
And so we actually got quaileggs recently, which I have
learned are like the proteinratio, even though the eggs are
so tiny, like go Google the sizeof a quail egg, they are itty
bitty, like super itty bitty.
But the protein density ratio inthe egg is much higher per egg
(10:24):
than they are for chicken eggs.
Um, same thing with duck eggs.
Duck eggs actually have like alot more nutrients and protein
or whatever.
So, the nutrient value is muchhigher per egg than a chicken
egg, which was reallyinteresting.
So I cooked up a couple, I fried'em up for Malakai the other day
and he loved them, which wasgreat.
(10:45):
And they were so cute and sotiny, but the eggs are like
speckled.
And I just, it was so fun.
And I was like, maybe we'll havequails one day.
That'd be, that would be funtoo.
Just do, do all the things
Chrissy (10:55):
Instead of, instead of chickens, you have quails.
It'd be funny, I'd be like,
Katie (10:59):
they're really
Chrissy (11:00):
I have quails.
Katie (11:01):
qua.
Chrissy (11:02):
I don't even think I know what a quail looks like.
Katie (11:04):
Now I have to Google it.
I don't know if I could pointout an actual quail to you
either.
Because actually now that Iremember I went, one of the
farms, I did tour her.
I thought that this woman hadguinea fowl and she was like, oh
no, those are actually quail.
And I was like, oh, I guess Ididn't, I thought guinea fowl
is, this is what it looked like,which also is another weird bird
(11:29):
that I've learned that a lot ofhomesteading people have,
because Guinea fowl tend to bereally good, like predator
protectors.
Like they, they fight offpredators and they're more
intense than chickens.
And so they'll like fight offlike a, a fox in the yard or
something.
So I'm like, a lot ofhomesteaders do Guinea foul
(11:49):
instead of having a roosterbecause they don't want the
rooster noise, so they getguinea fowl.
And I'm like, well, that's aninteresting way to do it too.
So I don't know.
Chrissy (11:58):
One thing I'm learning is there's always a way around.
The problems that is not, thetypical, traditional, like using
pesticides or putting up like afake rooster or a fake owl or
something like that.
Like there's always a naturalway to solve these problems that
(12:19):
our society now just like hastotally forgotten about.
Like, you know, they producecrops many, many years ago
before pesticides came into thepicture, before fertilizer came
into the picture.
So it's like, okay, let's goback to like, what did they use
to use as fertilizer andpesticides and how did it work,
(12:39):
you know?
Um, it's, it's so sad, honestly.
'cause, so Max and I, if you'vebeen listening to our previous
episodes, we moved into a smallone bedroom apartment and.
It, it's beautiful.
I love this apartment.
It's very nice.
It's up to date.
My walls don't come off when Iwipe them down with a washcloth.
(13:00):
It's phenomenal.
The floors are clean, it's wellkept.
There's not a hole forming inthe middle of my living room,
like in my house.
But at the same time, eventhough this place is lovely, I
have never seen so muchfertilizer before in my life.
(13:20):
I've lived here for three weeksand I've already seen them
fertilizing twice and I've seenthem cut the grass now I think
three or four times, which isreally impressive to me because
I think at our house, the grasswas cut like maybe once every
other week and it was neverfertilized Um, which mind you
makes for some beautiful grassaround here.
(13:41):
But it makes me very sad.
Also, at the same time, when Isee all the kids in the
apartment complex.
Playing outside, playing soccerin the field, barefoot.
And it just, I have such like a,a back and forth of like, this
is so beautiful.
And yet I recognize that becauseof all the fertilizer and the
pesticides that they're using onthe grass and the bushes around
(14:05):
here, like, I don't wanna walkoutside barefoot.
I don't even wanna wear my shoesinto my apartment, you know?
Um, and I, it just hurts my soulwhen I see, like, I love seeing
the kids out playing, but at thesame time, it hurts my soul when
I see it.
So I know that there are ways tohave beautiful grass and a
(14:25):
beautiful lawn and beautiful,gardens without using fertilizer
and pesticides.
We just have to figure out away.
And no, I have not figured outthat way other than manure but I
know there's a way.
Katie (14:38):
Yes.
Yeah, the pesticides andherbicide stuff right now for me
is one of those.
Things that I've kind of beenlearning more about and becoming
a little bit more like observantof, especially obviously moving
here to this rural area inMichigan, there's a lot of
(14:59):
pesticides and herbicides thatare used and there's non-organic
fertilizers that are used, andit, I, I've just become very
acutely aware of it, but even inthe sense of like just using
them on lawns and everything,I've been learning more about it
because of the area we're in andthey're sprayed a lot more, but
(15:22):
I've been more aware of it onthe lawns and so it's been used
on many of the lawns that wehave been around lately, and I
know that, you know, thesepesticides are linked to, um,
and the fertilizers and all thisstuff, they, they all have these
chemicals in it that are linkedto things like cancers or
(15:44):
Parkinson's disease or even justan increase in asthma or
allergies.
Just all this stuff, thesechronic problems that we all
face, a lot of it can be linkedback to the toxic exposure,
especially exposure over time.
So one of the things I learnedabout something like, um,
glyphosate is an easy one topick on, but another product
(16:08):
I've been learning about, Iactually just, stumbled upon it
the other day.
I think it's called Diquat.
It is used in a lot of stufflately, and it is also like just
as bad as glyphosate, butglyphosate has just been picked
on so much.
But, again, I don't know if I'mpronouncing it right, but Diquat
is in a lot of other fertilizersand products and things like
(16:29):
that these days.
And, um, it's all linked to allof these problems especially
when, so if you're eatingnon-organic food, these
chemicals are in these productsthat you're eating, especially
when they are things likewheats, oats, soy products, um,
or corns because a lot of ourproducts here in America are
(16:53):
genetically modified and they'regenetically modified to not die
when these herbicides andpesticides are sprayed on the
crops.
And so that these chemicals onlykill off the weeds in the area
and kill off the bugs in thearea, but they don't kill the
plants.
So the plants are doused in thisstuff.
And it's also used as a dryingagent, like glyphosate is used
(17:16):
as a drying agent for, um,grains.
And so after it's even cut, itgets sprayed all over these
plants.
So even after it's grown, nowit's drying with this chemical
on it.
And then they, that grain goesto make your cereals and your
breads and your granola barsand, and all the things that you
eat every single day.
(17:36):
And so you're exposed to it sooften.
And so for children who areexposed to it, even in utero, so
when they are a fetus in amother's body, if that mother is
eating this non-organic food,their baby is getting exposed to
it.
And so those babies who havebasically been exposed to it
since conception have higherrates of things like allergies,
(17:59):
especially, asthma.
And then it's linked to cancers,which I, I think we talked about
a little bit, um, in last week'sepisode.
But it's, it's one of thosethings that I'm like, wow, this
is so important.
Especially because I did notswitch to organic foods until
after Malakai was born.
And so that does mean that hewas exposed to all of that in
(18:22):
utero and when, you know, whenhe was in my belly.
And so I'm like, how can we dobetter now for him that he's a
baby and growing, um, when it'sprobably the most important for
them, like as a fetus and thenas an a infant baby and growing
and toddler and everything, it'sthe most important to have these
nutrient dense foods that arebetter for you, that are not
(18:44):
laden with chemicals becausetheir bodies are rapidly growing
and forming and all this stuffSo, so, so, so important.
Chrissy (18:51):
It's also super important, I think.
I mean, obviously at all stagesof life, it is very important to
make sure that you're givingyour body the best quality food
that you possibly can becauseultimately your body's going to
be using your food for energy.
And so I'm also thinking in likethe prenatal stage, you know,
when you're preparing your bodyto have a baby, you know, it's
(19:16):
like, think of it, you know,they say that carrying a baby to
term is like running a marathonevery day for 40 weeks.
Right?
And so if you're gonna.
I, I believe it.
I haven't been there, but Ibelieve it.
And so if somebody's going toprepare to run a marathon, they
don't just like up one morningand say, I'm gonna run a
(19:37):
marathon every single day for 40weeks.
No, you're crazy.
But if they're eating the properfoods and working out their body
properly to prepare for thismarathon, they're going to be
able to run this marathon somuch more effectively.
And without hurting themselvestoo.
Like so many women have so manyproblems during pregnancy a lot
of times because their bodywasn't prepared adequately to
(19:59):
have a baby.
And so women who are looking tobe pregnant someday, it's like,
Hey, take time.
You might be years before havinga baby, but take that as an
opportunity to maximize yourhealth so that when your body is
ready to carry a baby, that youdon't have to like struggle and
hurry and be like, oh my gosh, Igotta take all these prenatal
(20:20):
vitamins.
'cause otherwise my folic acidlevels won't be right.
And no.
Don't even worry about it.
Like your food should becovering that already in and of
itself, that the prenatalvitamin is just a little cherry
on top and it's not absolutelynecessary to carry a healthy
baby.
You know, your food and exerciseare the things that are
necessary to carry a healthybaby.
(20:41):
So that's just another thing.
Katie (20:44):
I mean, again, like you said before with like crops,
nobody had prenatal vitaminsbefore.
Prenatal vitamins were invented,and so you're like, like people
had healthy babies all the wayuntil now, and it's like, why
are people doing this now?
Like why do we need it nowinstead of back then?
Chrissy (21:04):
Now, mind you, at the same time, they probably did
have their potions and elixirsof, oh, you're pregnant.
You should drink this dandeliontea, which honestly, I've been
learning a lot that dandelionhas a lot of really crazy health
benefits.
Like I feel like every time Ilisten to a new health person on
a podcast, they are alwaysmentioning the benefits of
(21:26):
dandelion, and I'm just like,what is this miracle flower that
my dad hated when I was growingup and always wanted to spray
with the glyphosate to get ridof it?
Katie (21:35):
Yeah, dandelions are one of those things that are really
good.
I remember a few years ago,before I started my own crunchy
journey, I had a friend who Idon't even know if I would, uh,
I mean, she's definitely, nowthat I look back at it, she's
definitely on the crunchierside.
But I remember her mentioning tome, this is like four or five
years ago that she was makingdandelion tea from the, the
(21:55):
dandelions in her yard.
And I was like.
Okay, cool.
Like, I just thought that wasthe weirdest thing.
And I also thought it wouldprobably taste very weird and
she was kind of like, oh yeah,it's like, good for this and
that, and all these things, andI, it just like went over my
head.
But I still think about thatbecause same thing, like I hear
about it all the time, like howgreat dandelions are for you.
And the, the one thing though,kind of like you mentioned, you
(22:18):
have to make sure that you arepicking it from a yard that is
not sprayed with anything, likeeven fertilizers, nothing.
Because whatever is sprayed ontothat flower, onto the, whatever
the plant is that you'repicking, if you go and steep
that into a cup of hot water,it's going to leach into that
cup.
Which actually this is such agreat transition and I didn't,
(22:40):
we did not plan this, the thingthat I actually learned about
today that I wanted to talkabout here on, on this episode
was learning about teas and thefact that tea tea bags, the tea
bags that your tea comes in areso bad for you.
They're bleached, they're usedwith microplastics, like they're
infused in it.
(23:00):
So that way all this stuff isgetting into your tea.
And even one of my, um, favoritecompanies, they're, they've, as
I've been learning, I, I haven'treally bought any of their teas
in general, but they're out ofColorado.
It's Celestial Seasonings.
They're very, very widely known,very popular.
They have the Sleepy Time tea,which you've probably had
before, but their teas I learnedare like, so the tea bags that
(23:22):
you get from them, if you openup those tea bags, it typically
is just a powder inside of it.
And so what they actually dowhen they're making the teas is
they, they have all the leaves.
So take like spearmint forexample, you know, you get these
nice spearmint leaves, but thenyou put them into a container
somewhere.
They, they store them and all,like they, they eventually dry
(23:45):
and they kind of create powders.
Like some of them get crumpledand so they take the powder from
all these leaves and the plantsand things like that, and they
package those up into the teabags and they actually sell off
the tea leaves for a higherprice to another company.
Now, I don't know specificallyif Celestial Seasonings is doing
this, but on the podcast Ilisten to the woman was
(24:08):
basically saying that she thinksthat Celestial Seasonings does
do this.
She does know of other big teacompanies that do that, that
same thing.
If you open the tea bags, it'sjust powder.
You're not getting the actualleaves that have the better
medicinal, uh, properties inthem.
So you're basically getting likenothing, like, it's not that
(24:28):
valuable of tea, but theypackage it and sell it for high
prices.
And I was like, what?
Chrissy (24:34):
Yeah, I definitely believe that one, 100%.
I feel like looking at a Liptonteabag, you know, it is just
like a bunch of little specklesin there versus like when I get
my really high quality tea, it'slegit leaves and I can see the
different types of leaves andthings that are in it.
So I've actually gone down likea deep dive rabbit hole on
(24:57):
different teas that are good,um, that you can actually get in
a teabag form, because let metell you.
I had literally just bought acute little tea box and I had
all my little tea bags in it,and it was looking good.
I was feeling so proud ofmyself.
And then I found out about thebleaching and the microplastics
(25:18):
and tea bags.
And I was so sad because I justcreated this beautiful setup of
all my tea and they were all intea bags.
And so I did a little bit moreresearch into it.
And there are some brands thatdo sell microplastic free and
unbleached tea bags with tealeaves in them.
(25:39):
With that, it does take a lot ofsearching to do because even in
some brands, it's not consistentacross teas like I know, um, uh,
I think Bigelow, is that how yousay it?
Bigelow.
Bigelow.
T
Katie (25:55):
Bigelow big,
Chrissy (25:56):
Bigelow.
Katie (25:57):
exactly what you're talking
Chrissy (25:58):
That one, the one that starts with a B and ends with a
W.
Um.
Their tea bags are good.
Like I have had no problems withtheir tea bags, but their tea
specifically, some teas are madewith all natural ingredients and
some teas have extra ingredientslike artificial or natural
flavors in it and colors
Katie (26:16):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (26:17):
And so even on top of the tea bags and how those are
made, um, it's also important tolook at the tea itself and
recognize, okay, is there extracoloring in here?
Is there artificial flavors?
Is there natural flavors in it?
Because mind you, even thoughnatural flavors are, they say
they're natural.
They're natural because they'remade from natural gas.
(26:37):
And I don't know about you, butI don't drink gasoline.
So,
Katie (26:42):
Well,
Chrissy (26:42):
it's definitely,
Katie (26:43):
it's not just like gasoline, but they'll be like,
it's natural products and it'llbe like, literally, I heard the
other day that one of thenatural quote unquote natural
products is
Chrissy (26:53):
did you say beaver butt?
Yes.
Katie (26:55):
yeah.
Chrissy (26:55):
I think you said that on a previous episode.
Katie (26:57):
It's the most disgusting thing.
And they're like, well, it'sfound in nature, so obviously
it's natural.
And you're like, there's nothingnatural about eating a beaver's
butt.
No.
Thank you.
Chrissy (27:07):
You know, that's another thing that, a little
fact that I've always known thatshould have grossed me out a
long time ago, but didn't, wasthe fact that mascara is made
with bat guano.
Have you heard that?
Katie (27:20):
Yeah, I've, I, well, I've heard a lot of that and like
even like lipsticks were madewith like shark stuff and Yeah.
I
Chrissy (27:27):
Yeah.
Katie (27:28):
of like weird stuff that people did to make makeup, and
none of it is natural.
You're like, oh, gosh.
Chrissy (27:35):
My mascara is definitely on my list of things
to look into a better productonce I run out of the one that I
am currently using, which lowkey might be in six months,
because I wear mascaraapproximately once a week.
To church, and that's it.
So it takes me so long to gothrough my mascara that, of
course, I realized that it wasone of those things that I had
(27:57):
to replace, like right afterbuying a new mascara, because
that's how it goes around herewith this crunchy journey, is
you always find out a new thingafter you buy the product that
you've been using.
So then you have to wait untilyou finish that product, because
I'm not gonna throw it away,right?
I, I bought it.
Um, but yes, mascara is on mylist of things to change.
Katie (28:18):
Our mothers were together recently, actually, and you were
there too for one of our othercousins, uh, bridal showers.
And they told me that they wantus to do an episode on makeup.
And I was like, oh, yeah, that'sa, a good idea.
And then I was thinking about itand I was like, Chrissy and I
are probably the worst people todo an episode on makeup because
(28:40):
I think out of like all of ourcousins, a lot of our cousins
don't wear a lot of makeup ingeneral.
But you and I have just neverbeen makeup wearers and like my
sister wears makeup, but even atthat, like she's, she's pretty
modest with it.
She used to wear a lot more whenshe was younger, but even
nowadays, like a lot of us justdon't wear a lot of heavy
makeup.
(29:00):
But our mothers definitely lovetheir makeup and I know that
they want to wear good makeup.
My mom was like, I need to knowwhat's the best.
I was like, I do know somebrands in general that are
recommended in kind of thecrunchy space, but I don't know
enough because I just don'tlike, same thing, like the
mascara I have is I'm gonna beusing it for quite a while.
(29:23):
Same thing with eyeliner.
I wear it once a week to churchand maybe if I'm going out with
some girlfriends or something,but like not that often at all.
Chrissy (29:32):
I feel like with the makeup topic in general, I could
probably point people in thecorrect direction of finding
good makeup products.
For instance, Primarily Pure hasreally great makeup products
that are very clean and good foryour skin.
Adele Natural Cosmetics isanother one that I've heard
really great things about.
But I would not be able to say,yes, I've used this product and
(29:57):
yes, it feels good on my skin.
And yes, it prevented me frombreaking out.
And yes, I recommend it becauseI just don't have that kind of
experience with these products.
But I've heard a lot ofadvertisements and I've heard a
lot of other people like thesethings, so point'em that way.
Another thing that your momactually mentioned to me this
weekend while she was in townwas she wants us to do an
(30:19):
episode on biohacking IE, likered light therapy and cold
plunging and saunas.
And let me tell you, they mademe do a cold plunge this
weekend.
It zapped me, zapped my energy.
Like I, we did the cold plungeon Sunday afternoon and all day
(30:41):
Monday I could not focus.
I had, I was so tired.
I literally came home from workand just plopped on the bed.
Like I couldn't function at all.
My ability to form completesentences was.
As if I had just worked a nightshift kind of thing.
I was like, I don't know whatthis cold plunge is, but it is
not for me.
(31:02):
And I have heard a podcast inthe past that not every body
type is made for cold plunging.
And so essentially what I'velearned when it comes to like
cold plunging, specificallysaunas love, except if you're a
man trying to make a baby, don'tdo the saunas.
Gotta keep the swimmers at agood temperature.
But, um, and red light therapy,I think is fantastic, but cold
(31:25):
plunging, if you don't haveenough body fat on your body to
handle the cold plunge, you'renot gonna handle the cold plunge
very well.
I'm a person that my entire lifehad a, I've had a very low body
fat percentage just looking atme.
You can tell I don't have verymuch body fat on me.
And even when it's cold outside,like 60 degrees, I grab my
(31:45):
parka.
I cannot handle the cold.
And so cold plunging is not forme, whereas.
A 50, 60-year-old man, or evenmy husband for instance, you
know, they have a lot more bodyfat on them, and so they can
handle cold plunges a lotbetter.
(32:06):
Now, I do recognize that I justmade a generalized statement
that was not, that is notgenerally accurate because
generally women have more bodyfat than men on average.
Katie (32:17):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (32:18):
essentially what I'm trying to say here is if you
have more body fat, go for it.
If you don't, maybe hold off ortry it and see how exhausted you
are the next day, because Icouldn't handle it.
That's just my take.
Katie (32:31):
uh, I don't always love when you hear something like,
like about cold, the, the coldplunge, ice baths, whatever.
Uh, and people are like, this isthe way to lose weight and this
is the best way to do that, orwhatever.
And it's like, no, a lot ofthese things really are
dependent on our own body typesand, and yes, there are some
things that kind of across theboard are the same.
(32:53):
Nutrition is one of them.
Nutrition really is generallythe same.
Yes, certain foods might dobetter, like slight variations
of foods, but for the most partto be healthy, it is the same
kind of stuff.
But when it comes to like thesevery specific like.
Weird.
Like fasting is another one ofthose people will talk all day
(33:13):
about yeah, you have to do a 40hour fast to do this and, and
it's really good for yourmitochondria and all this stuff
and blah, blah blah.
And you're like, but actuallysome people it's actually, it
does the opposite effect.
And so you kind of have to testthings out to really decide if
they are good for you.
Sometimes you won't know.
But I think that episode you'retalking about that you
(33:34):
mentioned, um, where they saidice the ice baths and stuff
aren't good for everyone.
I think she also talked aboutfasting'cause I think I know
what episode you're talkingabout of that, of that podcast
because, um, she was taught, shebasically is really good at
figuring out your body type andwhat kind of specialized
biohacking stuff will be bestfor you.
(33:55):
And, and those were two of theexamples that typically get
thrown out there.
Chrissy (33:59):
Which I think is a really good reason why it's
called biohacking.
Like if you're gonna hack yourbiology, you kind of have to
have a certain kind of biologyto start off with.
Yes, we're all humans, but Ilook very different from my
sister.
We have completely differentbody types.
And from my other sister.
All three of us have completelydifferent body types and so to
say that the same thing willhelp each of us is completely
(34:24):
off.
And so, um, yeah, it's justeveryone has to test it out on
their own and see what worksbest for them.
Because what works really greatfor me is not going to be
realistic for my neighbor, isnot gonna be realistic for my
husband even.
That's another thing with,working out.
I've heard like some people, forinstance, me, I can work out
(34:45):
first thing in the morning, 5:00AM no problem at all whatsoever.
Love it.
It gives me so much energy forthe day.
I feel rejuvenated.
Like I just drank three cups ofcoffee.
It's the best thing in theworld.
My husband absolutely cannot dothat.
Like to get up and go workout atfive o'clock in the morning is
(35:07):
absolute torture for him.
It doesn't rejuvenate him atall.
It just makes him completelyexhausted for the rest of the
day.
He's much better working outlate morning to mid-afternoon,
which is great for his workschedule'cause he works from
home so he can, and that is howhe gets his energy boost from
working out.
So that's another thing, workingout time of day, it's not
consistent for everybody.
(35:28):
So.
Katie (35:29):
Yeah, no, that's a good point.
But back to your, like youmentioned red light therapy, um,
one of that is actually one ofthose things that I have been
trying to learn more aboutbecause I have heard a lot of
benefits about it.
My friend actually has a redlight panel at her house and,
speaks wonders about it.
And I've been hearing more andmore, um, about red light
(35:52):
therapy and that more healthprofessionals are recommending
them because of their, there'sso many benefits.
So red light, you typicallywould get red light from the
sun, but you can actually get itthrough like a red light panel
as well, and it, it just likeintensifies it or just gives you
like a, a stronger dose of it,um, than needing to go outside
(36:13):
at a specific time of day, whichI, I believe red light comes in
the early morning.
It's one of the first lights,like when the sun is rising.
And so not all of us are outthere at that time in order to
get the benefit of red light.
Um, so if you get a red lightpanel.
A lot of people, it sounds likethey kind of recommend using
them in the like early morningand then sometimes before bed
(36:35):
and, and they do things like redlight will help, collagen
production in inside your body.
So it helps a lot with likeskin.
Um, it helps like your textureand complexion of your skin, and
improve like the elasticity ofit.
I've heard, I, I've also heardpeople using it for muscle
recovery.
Like actually I mentioned redlight therapy to Wes a a little
(36:59):
while ago when I first heardabout it and he's like, oh yeah,
that's what, I don't evenremember which athlete it was.
Like it was something he watchedon Netflix, maybe it was LeBron
James or something.
And he's like, yeah, LeBronJames does that after his
workouts and he does like a redlight therapy thing.
And I'm like, see, you even knowabout it.
And like these athletes areusing it for like, it helps to
reduce inflammation after you'velike worked out and stuff like
(37:20):
that.
And so.
It helps people prevent gettinginjured, especially if you are a
major athlete.
But I've also heard that ithelps like your sleep quality.
'cause again, you and I actuallytalked a little bit about like
the benefit of, of getting up inthe morning with the first sun.
So maybe it is, maybe it is redlight that comes in the early
morning.
'cause I do know that it'ssupposed to help with your sleep
(37:44):
quality and your, circadianrhythm.
But the one thing I did read,uh, or learn recently was that
it also is recommended thatafter you give birth, like after
you've had a baby to use a redlight panel on your abdomen,
your stomach, you know, and sothat way it helps to heal your
(38:04):
body quicker after you havegiven birth.
So it's got like all thesebenefits and I'm trying to
convince my parents to get a redlight sauna so that way I can
just go use it at their housebecause they're expensive and I
don't wanna have to buy itmyself.
Chrissy (38:18):
Yeah, I literally just looked into red light panels,
um, like two days ago orsomething like that because I
obvi our moms were talking aboutthis red light therapy at this
fancy cold pl place.
And, so I looked it up and thebrand that I know is good is
called Joovv, J-O-O-V-V.
(38:39):
Unfortunately, their panelsstart at$500 and that$500 panel
is about the size of like a minibriefcase, maybe like a purse
that's allowed to go into afootball game.
So tiny.
It's very small.
So I do know also looking onAmazon, there are red light
therapies for$30 and so.
(39:01):
That is one that I think is veryimportant that unfortunately, I
think you do have to bite thebullet with the cost of the red
light therapy if you're gonnaget the actual benefit from it,
because someone can just throwred lights on something and call
it red light therapy.
But the real focus of red lighttherapy is getting that specific
wavelength of light that doeshelp with the collagen
(39:22):
production and healing and,mitochondrial health in your
skin.
And so it is gonna cost a littlebit more to get that exact
wavelength of light.
And so that's one thing I wouldcaution you.
If you find one that's supercheap.
Either you're a leprechaun andyou're really, really lucky, or
(39:43):
you're probably not getting theactual beneficial red light
therapy that we're talkingabout.
Katie (39:48):
Yeah, that's, that's a really good point.
I mentioned the same thing to mymom because as she asked me
about it on the phone and waslike, what do you think about
red light therapy?
And like, it's actually reallygood for you.
It's the, and I was like, that'sthat thing that I was telling
you and dad to buy.
Remember this was like monthsago now.
And she's like, oh yeah, I kindof remember.
And so then she goes on Googleor goes on Amazon and looks it
(40:10):
up and she's like, they're notthat expensive.
I was like, mom, don't get thoseones.
Don't waste your money on it.
You, you really want to get thebetter quality ones.
I do know of that Joovv brand.
I've heard it mentioned a lot.
The other one that my friend hasthat she really loves and trust
is EMR Tech.
So.
The letters.
EMR dash TEK.
(40:31):
Um, I do know, I, I don't thinkthe sale is going on, but she
texted us like a couple days agosaying that they had like a 40%
off deal going at that moment.
So I did click on it and I waslike, 40% off.
That's ridiculous.
So I go and look and still eventheir smaller panels were still
like a thousand dollars orwhatever.
So I'm like, uh, man, this issomething that it's, it's going
(40:52):
to be a while and we're gonnasave up, I think, for it.
Or maybe I'll just find someonewho has it and just use theirs.
Because my friend who has it isback in Colorado, so there's,
I'm not going over to her houseanytime soon right now.
Chrissy (41:03):
I've definitely looked a couple times on Facebook
Marketplace.
Nobody's selling them of course,and they're not selling them for
the price I wanna pay.
Um, so I have put it on the listof things that I wanna save up
for, but that list of things isgrowing way faster than I'm able
to get through it.
It's very sad.
But you know, there are somethings that we can easily change
(41:26):
in our lives that don't cost aton of money.
And so let's kind of talk abouta couple of those.
'cause we've kind of focused onlike the really expensive
things.
Katie (41:35):
I
Chrissy (41:35):
Let's kind of transition to the not so
expensive items.
Like what are some ways that wecan really quickly and easily
make changes in our homes forless than$50?
We're talking easy fixes.
You go to the store and or yougo on Amazon and you change it
immediately.
You wanna go first.
Katie (41:54):
Yeah.
I, I really think, I mean, my,my biggest thing is food in
general.
Um, I've actually been doing a,a deeper dive into the Weston A
Price Foundation, and they, soWeston A Price, uh, he was a
dentist and this is.
Decades ago, he was a dentistand he did these studies of,
(42:16):
people like cultures across theworld who were extremely
healthy.
So he would find these liketribes of people who had
impeccable teeth and like hewould bury, like he would get
bones, like skeletons of theirpassed away relatives and their
bone structures were impeccableand they, they were basically
(42:39):
really healthy people and hewanted to know why.
And so he studied these specificindigenous cultures all across
the world.
So it wasn't even like aspecific region or anything.
It was like literally indifferent continents and
everything.
And they all had very similarthings in common, which was.
Their food.
(43:00):
Like not, not necessarilyexactly what they ate, but the
ratio of things like protein tocarbs, to fats.
And so he developed this wholeconcept of nutrition based on
what he saw these people eating.
And so this all actually, soI've mentioned this book several
(43:21):
times, the Nourishing Traditionscookbook kind of book that I've
been reading is all kind ofbased on the Weston A Price
Foundation nutrient strategiesor something.
And so I really do believe,like, I mean that is decades of
data of people being so healthy.
And it's like they obviouslydidn't need all these fancy
(43:42):
things like red light panelsand, um, saunas and cold
plunges, well maybe they weredoing cold plunges.
One of the people, one of thecultures was actually like in
Antarctica or something likethat.
And so.
He basically, was like theirdiet, exactly what they ate,
kept them impeccably healthy,like to the point where they
literally did not have cavities.
(44:03):
And so it's like they were justso healthy that really, I do
believe that just by switchingyour food, it might actually, so
I guess this is kind of like aweird dichotomy, is just that
yes, going for the, like moreexpensive organic foods is going
to be a bit more expensive whenyou switch, but in the long run,
(44:24):
it's actually going to save youso much more money when you do
that and when you cook fromscratch and like your health
bills are gonna go down becauseyou won't be as sick and your
dental bills will go downbecause you won't have as many
dental issues and just alltogether.
Your health will be so muchbetter for it.
And so, yeah, I've been doing a,a really deep dive on the Weston
A Price Foundation.
So I think that my tip would benot very expensive, just go get
(44:49):
a book.
Either get his, like, I can'teven remember what his book is,
but if you look up Weston APrice, it probably will take you
to the website.
The person who runs thefoundation right now is Sally
Fallon.
She wrote the book that I'mreading, the Nourishing
Traditions one.
But, um, he wrote the book thattalks all about their health and
all the things he studied.
But if you just want the, like,what can I do now with this
(45:10):
information?
I would read Sally's book, theNourishing Traditions.
So I think I got it used onAmazon for maybe like 20 bucks.
So yeah, it's great.
Chrissy (45:19):
That book is definitely on my list of things I wanna buy
as soon as I have time to read.
But right now I don't have timeto read, so there's no point in
buying it at this point.
But I want to, because you havetalked about it so much that I'm
like, I need to get this book.
Katie (45:35):
I love it.
Chrissy (45:37):
Yeah, it sound and also like, okay, so Katie has shown
me a few of the pages of it,like it goes really deep into
all of the macronutrients,different types of cooking
techniques and differentimportant things that are
relevant for.
Different types of foods.
And so it's not only just like arecipe book, but also kind of a
(45:58):
textbook and just has a lot ofreally great information in
there, which I mean, I lovelearning, so that makes sense
why I would really like it.
Katie (46:09):
I actually I followed one of the recipes, the, it's
actually making whey, so you'veheard of whey protein, so I
actually made homemade whey andcream cheese from it.
So when you make cream cheeseand whey it happens at the same
time.
And so there it's like, okay,you can take your milk, you can
take a yogurt, you can take allthese things and you can
actually make your own creamcheese from it.
(46:29):
You can make your own whey fromit.
You can make keefer, you canmake all these things that are
really good for you.
You can make, um, cottagecheese, sour cream, and then
you're like saving money by justusing the things you already
have.
Yogurt is another one of thosefun ones that I just made
recently too, all from the samestuff and just from this recipe
book.
So yeah, it, it ultimately willsave you money if you start to
(46:51):
implement the things that aretaught inside of it.
So yeah, it's definitelybeneficial.
Chrissy (46:57):
And then it'll also challenge you of like, okay, so
how do I now use this whey in arecipe?
Because I don't just want itsitting in my fridge for six
months.
Like what do I do with it?
So then you get to kind ofexpand your horizons a little
bit on what kinds of foods areyou incorporating into your life
and.
Yeah, just trying out newrecipes and things like that.
(47:17):
Another cookbook that I haveheard about that's really great
that I have on my list of thingsto buy also that I haven't
bought yet, seems to be thetheme for me, um, is called the
Feel Good Way.
It is Simple Recipes for aBetter Life.
That cookbook specifically haslike a hundred some odd recipes
that are nutritionally balanced.
(47:38):
And what I mean by that is likeall of the macronutrients in the
meals are balancedappropriately.
So you have more protein thanyou do carbs, than you do fats
or whatever version, howeverit's supposed to be.
I don't know, I just put allthree together when I make
meals, but this person actuallydid do the research on like the
(48:00):
healthiest ratios of them andcreated a cookbook for it.
Katie (48:05):
So here's the fun fact.
So you can actually use yourhand so you're, when you open
your hand flat.
is how many carbohydrates youneed when you make it into a
fist.
Like this is about the amount ofprotein you need.
And then I think it's, yourthumb is about the amount of fat
that you need.
And so you can, you can get itin different ways.
(48:26):
So like your carbohydrates canbe fruits and vegetables, you
know, you want it to besomething healthy.
And then you want proteins,obviously a meat or something
along those lines.
And then your fats could eitherbe like the oil that it's cooked
in, if it's a good, you know,grass fed butter or tallow or
olive oil, or it could be likeyou had avocado or nuts or
(48:46):
something like that.
So that's generally the ratio.
That's not necessarily, you haveto like bow, like it has to be
the size of your hand, but it'sthe ratio of like hand, fist,
thumb.
Um, and so yeah, I'm like, okay,that's a really good way to
think of it.
'cause then you can kind of lookat your plate and do you have a
decent amount of carbohydratesand then proteins and then fats
(49:07):
and so yeah, those are the thethings that you kind of want.
Chrissy (49:10):
Yeah, that's great.
Additionally, so we've mentionedit in our cookware episode.
If you wanna go back and listento that, I highly recommend we
go through a bunch of differenthealthy cookware and unhealthy
cookware and things to look atwhen you're choosing cookware,
but.
One of the really quick and easyfixes that Max and I have done
(49:30):
in our kitchen in general is wegot rid of all of our plastic
cutting boards.
That one happened to be verysimple for us.
We didn't even have to actuallybuy any replacements because we
had so many cutting boardsgifted to us for our wedding.
Can I actually pro tip, ifyou're going to a wedding, don't
(49:51):
buy them a monogrammed cuttingboard.
It's cute, but they already got10 of'em and they don't need
another one.
Okay.
Alright, I'm done.
Um, but so we had so many woodcutting boards that just getting
rid of our plastic cuttingboards didn't actually change
our cutting board situation.
So that was one really quick,easy fix that we did.
(50:13):
Another one that we did when wemoved was we got rid of all of
our plastic cups, aside from ourTurvis Tumblers because I love
Turvis Tumblers.
But even then, you have to makesure you're caring for them
properly and washing them welland not in the dishwasher so
that the plastic doesn't breakdown.
We talked about that in aprevious episode too.
Maybe the water episode, Ithink, which was the second real
(50:35):
episode that we made.
So go listen to that one if youwanna hear all about
microplastics in your water.
But so we got rid of all of ourplastic cups and we changed them
to glass cups, which ended upbeing about a$35 investment for
12 cups, which is really, reallyquick and easy and not super
(50:57):
expensive at all whatsoever.
So those two fixes were reallyquick and easy for us.
Another quick, easy fix that isaround the$50 range is changing
out your cooking utensils.
So we also mentioned this inthat previous episode on our
cookware is cooking with likeplastic utensils, like the
(51:18):
plastic spatulas.
They break down like, I don'tknow if you've ever tried to
scrub a hot pan with a plasticspatula.
And then you look at the spatulaand you're like, where'd it go?
Yeah, that's'cause it melted andnow it's in your food.
So that's another one.
$50.
Easy fix.
You can go on Amazon and searchup non-toxic wooden cooking
utensils and you can findcooking utensils on Amazon.
(51:41):
Super easy.
The only thing with that is youwanna make sure that it is
coated with either a mineral oilor like a natural sort of
coating.
They could be coated withbeeswax even.
Um, you wanna stay away from thecooking utensils that are coated
with a lacquer because a lacqueris toxic and would completely
(52:05):
disregard the whole reason thatyou're trying to get non-toxic
cutlery anyways.
So, um, that is something thatthree things that we have done
slash are doing that are reallyquick and easy fixes that you
can do to, make your kitchenless toxic for you.
Katie (52:24):
Well, I really like all these ideas and yeah, share with
us in our Facebook group whatideas you have on things that
you have been doing to switch tojust a more healthy lifestyle.
Anyway, Chrissy, why don't yousign us off?
I am dealing with Mama businessright now as my son has woken up
(52:49):
early from his nap.
So we are going to, I mean,we've already been running.
We quite over, but Chrissy, whydon't you sign us off.
Chrissy (52:57):
For sure thank you everybody for tuning into our
conversation today.
I hope you learned a little bitof something from us and are
inspired to take those nextsteps that are quick and easy to
start the non-toxic transitionin your home.
And make sure you subscribe tothis podcast and join us over on
our Facebook group at CrunchyChristian Mamas on a Budget
(53:19):
where we are continuing thisconversation of non-toxic swaps
and how to maximize your healthusing the resources that God has
already given you that you canuse very easily.
Um, we'd love to hear from youon our Facebook page about what
resonated with you on thisepisode, what you wanna hear
about in the future.
(53:39):
So drop in over there and let usknow what you're thinking.
Until next time, this isChrissy.
Katie (53:46):
And this is Katie.
Chrissy (53:47):
And thanks for listening to Crunchy
Stewardship.
Hello and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
My name is Chrissy Rombach.
Katie (00:05):
And my name is Katie Fiola Jones.
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 in everyaspect of their lives.
Chrissy (00:21):
In our podcast, we take deep dives into what it means to
steward our lives as Godoriginally intended for us with
the resources that he hasalready given us.
We look at topics like food,medicine, finances, mental
health, and tons more through anatural lens and with a biblical
foundation.
Katie (00:41):
Before diving into this week's episode, if you've been
enjoying our podcast and haven'talready, be sure to go and
subscribe and leave us a fivestar rating.
It really does help other peoplefind our show in the future.
And if you aren't already signedup for our weekly newsletter,
you can take a moment right nowto go and do that by clicking
(01:02):
the link that we've provided foryou in our show notes.
In this week's episode, we'redoing something just a little
differently.
We wanted to just take a momentto talk about how we are living
out some of these things thatwe've been learning in our own
lives.
So in essence, we're just kindof pausing to reflect back on
(01:25):
several of our episodes, some ofthe things we've talked about
and wanna share with you whatwe're doing, like how we're
implementing some of theselessons into our day-to-day
living.
So, for example, right now I amon a hunt to find some.
Uh, locally produced goatcheese, it's actually pretty
(01:48):
easy to find goat milk, butright now I am, I'm on a, like a
scavenger hunt trying to findlocal goat cheese because goat
cheese in general, a lot ofother milks besides traditional
cow milk, um, has a lot morelike nutrients and proteins and
(02:09):
things like that.
And I also just really love goatcheese.
So if I can find a reallyawesome goat cheese provider
right here in our area, thatwould be the best thing in the
world.
So that's just a quick exampleof things we're gonna go through
and talk about and just stuffwe're like learning and doing
(02:30):
and giving you an update on someof the things that we've talked
about in the past on some of ourepisodes.
Chrissy (02:36):
You know, Katie, I think it's funny that you
started off by talking aboutcheese, because cheese is
honestly one of those groceryitems that I have just kind of
bypassed when it comes toshopping organic and looking for
local and things like that.
Because first off, fancy cheeseis expensive because.
(02:59):
It's really hard to convincemyself to spend$5 on an eight
ounce block of cheese when I canget it for two, you know?
Um, but also like even with thecheaper cheeses, unless it's
like craft American cheese,obviously we're not doing that,
but even with the cheapercheeses, looking at the
ingredients, they're not too,too bad.
(03:19):
You know, it's like culturedmilk and enzymes and that's
about it, you know?
And so that is, that's so funnythat you started off talking
about cheese because cheese wasone of those that I was like, I
don't really know if I actuallyhave, I probably do have to fix
it, but it's not one of thosethings that's like super high on
my list of food items that Iwant to change in our lives.
(03:42):
So that's really interesting.
Katie (03:44):
Yeah.
Cheese, so I've mentioned itbefore with products, especially
like eggs for example, but eggsand milk and even meats that are
conventionally grown.
So when they're not organic ornot grown in a regenerative way,
they have a much lower likenutrient density.
(04:07):
And so your store-bought eggs orstore-bought milks or cheeses or
meats.
They are all going to be lesslike nutrient valuable for you.
And so that's like one of thereasons we have been switching
over to more of those organicfoods.
Mostly because, and even Wesmentioned it recently, that when
(04:29):
you buy these more nutrientpacked foods, they actually keep
you fuller throughout the day,much longer.
And so Wes was like, yeah, Ihaven't really needed, I, I
actually mentioned to him, hepacked a pretty small lunch the
other day when he was going towork.
And I was like, are you sure youdon't need more than that?
(04:50):
And he had like some cookedveggies that we had from the
night before and like an apple.
And like something else.
And it, it just felt very smallto me for like the whole day.
And he's like, you know, no,I've just been feeling more
full.
Like I haven't needed like awhole big lunch.
And it's just, it, it just goesto show that as we've been
(05:10):
switching over to these betterproducts, it just like helps you
feel fuller longer becausethey're actually packed with
like, especially protein whenyou, when you switch your
proteins to better sourcedfoods.
Like actually the animals areraised better.
They just are better for you andyou can tell by the energy that
you have throughout the day.
So I just thought that wasreally interesting because I've
(05:33):
been feeling it too.
Um, but just the fact that hepacked such a small lunch, he
was like, I just don't reallyneed it.
So
Chrissy (05:40):
No,
Katie (05:40):
Yeah.
Chrissy (05:41):
that is so true.
Max has kind of expressed someof the same things, not
explicitly, but um, in terms oflike, he's a big snacker, I am
not a big snacker at allwhatsoever.
So when we got married, it kindof like was a little bit of a
whirlwind for me of like, wait aminute, you need to eat at all
hours of the day.
(06:01):
Like, I don't understand this.
Why do you snack so much?
And since we've been switchingover our, um, food also, like
Max's cut down his snacking tolike one or two snacks, not buy
me getting on him like, don'tsnack so much.
Although that does happensometimes.
Um.
It's a lot of like, no, he'sjust satisfied, you know, and
(06:23):
doesn't really need it all thatmuch.
Katie (06:25):
Yeah, it's so on my search.
So we, we had an episode comeout recently about finding local
farmers to help.
You fill your own pantries andyour own refrigerators and so
on.
My own hunt, that is one thingI'm still looking for is like
goat cheese.
I, I found someone who actuallyprovides goat milk, so I'm doing
(06:45):
that soon.
I actually haven't gotten thegoat milk yet.
I, I don't know that I'veactually tried goat milk itself
before, so that'll be new.
It's also raw goat milk and wehave switched to raw milk in
general, which is awesome.
I really love it.
Chrissy (07:00):
Every time I talk to Max about, Hey, can we get
chickens?
Hey, can we get a cow?
He says yes to chickens.
So he says no to a cow.
So my second option is, can weget a goat?
He still says no to that.
Katie (07:11):
You know,
Chrissy (07:12):
No goats.
No cows.
Katie (07:14):
being out in this rural area, I have actually learned
myself.
Goat keeping seems a lot easierthan cow keeping because cows
really need consistent milking,like two times a day at least.
Then that's a lot.
Chrissy (07:31):
Yeah, and goats are small enough.
Honestly, they, I feel likesometimes when they're young, I
don't know about like fullygrown goats, but at least young
goats can honestly be householdpets too, to an extent.
Like I've seen people with likepet goats before.
Katie (07:47):
Yeah.
So it just like, I've had somepeople who are like, yeah, I, I
was raised on a dairy farm andour schedule really revolved
around needing to get back tomilk the cows at, at all hours
of the day.
And I was like, you know, thatjust doesn't sound that great to
me.
I'd love to have an animal thatyou can kind of leave.
So I guess I, I can't say thatfor sure for goat.
(08:09):
Like a dairy goat.
Um, I don't really know whatmilking schedules.
I would assume you probably haveto milk them once, at least once
a day, so I don't really know.
I need to learn more about it,but I would be more interested
in goats.
I did actually find a friend outhere who did say that if we got
some land and got goats, thatshe would go in on them with me
(08:31):
and kinda like partner with meto do goats together.
So I'm like, that would be agreat way to do it is have a
buddy system where, yeah, if wego on vacation, my friend can
come over, take care of thegoats and then vice versa.
She goes, I'm still taking careof them.
So that I think would be a greatway to do it.
Chrissy (08:48):
Or like one person gets the morning shift, one person
gets the evening shift kind ofthing.
That way you're not tied down atboth ends of the day.
Katie (08:54):
Exactly.
Yeah, that's
Chrissy (08:56):
Yeah.
That's great.
Katie (08:57):
I have a friend back in Colorado who does that with
bees.
Like she has the beehives on herproperty, but there's another
lady who helps her tend to thebees.
And I was like, that is a reallygreat system.
And it also, I just liketeamwork in that sense.
Like I love going in on stufftogether.
I also would love the idea ofdoing almost like a community
(09:18):
style garden.
I think that that would bereally fun.
Like, okay, each person kind ofgets a section and depending on
where the land is, like maybeit's on our land, but it's like
a big plot and each person getsa, like a certain size of it or
whatever.
But I don't know, who knows?
We have no idea what house we'regonna be living in'cause we
still have not.
(09:38):
Uh, we don't have a house yet,so like, this is all just
fantasy.
I have no idea if we could evenhave goats on the land that we
eventually get out here.
So, but we are, the one thingthat I did get recently from
just a local farm stand, there'stons of them out here.
You just drive around and youcan find them almost on every
(09:59):
road.
And one of them was sellingquail eggs.
And so we actually got quaileggs recently, which I have
learned are like the proteinratio, even though the eggs are
so tiny, like go Google the sizeof a quail egg, they are itty
bitty, like super itty bitty.
But the protein density ratio inthe egg is much higher per egg
(10:24):
than they are for chicken eggs.
Um, same thing with duck eggs.
Duck eggs actually have like alot more nutrients and protein
or whatever.
So, the nutrient value is muchhigher per egg than a chicken
egg, which was reallyinteresting.
So I cooked up a couple, I fried'em up for Malakai the other day
and he loved them, which wasgreat.
(10:45):
And they were so cute and sotiny, but the eggs are like
speckled.
And I just, it was so fun.
And I was like, maybe we'll havequails one day.
That'd be, that would be funtoo.
Just do, do all the things
Chrissy (10:55):
Instead of, instead of chickens, you have quails.
It'd be funny, I'd be like,
Katie (10:59):
they're really
Chrissy (11:00):
I have quails.
Katie (11:01):
qua.
Chrissy (11:02):
I don't even think I know what a quail looks like.
Katie (11:04):
Now I have to Google it.
I don't know if I could pointout an actual quail to you
either.
Because actually now that Iremember I went, one of the
farms, I did tour her.
I thought that this woman hadguinea fowl and she was like, oh
no, those are actually quail.
And I was like, oh, I guess Ididn't, I thought guinea fowl
is, this is what it looked like,which also is another weird bird
(11:29):
that I've learned that a lot ofhomesteading people have,
because Guinea fowl tend to bereally good, like predator
protectors.
Like they, they fight offpredators and they're more
intense than chickens.
And so they'll like fight offlike a, a fox in the yard or
something.
So I'm like, a lot ofhomesteaders do Guinea foul
(11:49):
instead of having a roosterbecause they don't want the
rooster noise, so they getguinea fowl.
And I'm like, well, that's aninteresting way to do it too.
So I don't know.
Chrissy (11:58):
One thing I'm learning is there's always a way around.
The problems that is not, thetypical, traditional, like using
pesticides or putting up like afake rooster or a fake owl or
something like that.
Like there's always a naturalway to solve these problems that
(12:19):
our society now just like hastotally forgotten about.
Like, you know, they producecrops many, many years ago
before pesticides came into thepicture, before fertilizer came
into the picture.
So it's like, okay, let's goback to like, what did they use
to use as fertilizer andpesticides and how did it work,
(12:39):
you know?
Um, it's, it's so sad, honestly.
'cause, so Max and I, if you'vebeen listening to our previous
episodes, we moved into a smallone bedroom apartment and.
It, it's beautiful.
I love this apartment.
It's very nice.
It's up to date.
My walls don't come off when Iwipe them down with a washcloth.
(13:00):
It's phenomenal.
The floors are clean, it's wellkept.
There's not a hole forming inthe middle of my living room,
like in my house.
But at the same time, eventhough this place is lovely, I
have never seen so muchfertilizer before in my life.
(13:20):
I've lived here for three weeksand I've already seen them
fertilizing twice and I've seenthem cut the grass now I think
three or four times, which isreally impressive to me because
I think at our house, the grasswas cut like maybe once every
other week and it was neverfertilized Um, which mind you
makes for some beautiful grassaround here.
(13:41):
But it makes me very sad.
Also, at the same time, when Isee all the kids in the
apartment complex.
Playing outside, playing soccerin the field, barefoot.
And it just, I have such like a,a back and forth of like, this
is so beautiful.
And yet I recognize that becauseof all the fertilizer and the
pesticides that they're using onthe grass and the bushes around
(14:05):
here, like, I don't wanna walkoutside barefoot.
I don't even wanna wear my shoesinto my apartment, you know?
Um, and I, it just hurts my soulwhen I see, like, I love seeing
the kids out playing, but at thesame time, it hurts my soul when
I see it.
So I know that there are ways tohave beautiful grass and a
(14:25):
beautiful lawn and beautiful,gardens without using fertilizer
and pesticides.
We just have to figure out away.
And no, I have not figured outthat way other than manure but I
know there's a way.
Katie (14:38):
Yes.
Yeah, the pesticides andherbicide stuff right now for me
is one of those.
Things that I've kind of beenlearning more about and becoming
a little bit more like observantof, especially obviously moving
here to this rural area inMichigan, there's a lot of
(14:59):
pesticides and herbicides thatare used and there's non-organic
fertilizers that are used, andit, I, I've just become very
acutely aware of it, but even inthe sense of like just using
them on lawns and everything,I've been learning more about it
because of the area we're in andthey're sprayed a lot more, but
(15:22):
I've been more aware of it onthe lawns and so it's been used
on many of the lawns that wehave been around lately, and I
know that, you know, thesepesticides are linked to, um,
and the fertilizers and all thisstuff, they, they all have these
chemicals in it that are linkedto things like cancers or
(15:44):
Parkinson's disease or even justan increase in asthma or
allergies.
Just all this stuff, thesechronic problems that we all
face, a lot of it can be linkedback to the toxic exposure,
especially exposure over time.
So one of the things I learnedabout something like, um,
glyphosate is an easy one topick on, but another product
(16:08):
I've been learning about, Iactually just, stumbled upon it
the other day.
I think it's called Diquat.
It is used in a lot of stufflately, and it is also like just
as bad as glyphosate, butglyphosate has just been picked
on so much.
But, again, I don't know if I'mpronouncing it right, but Diquat
is in a lot of other fertilizersand products and things like
(16:29):
that these days.
And, um, it's all linked to allof these problems especially
when, so if you're eatingnon-organic food, these
chemicals are in these productsthat you're eating, especially
when they are things likewheats, oats, soy products, um,
or corns because a lot of ourproducts here in America are
(16:53):
genetically modified and they'regenetically modified to not die
when these herbicides andpesticides are sprayed on the
crops.
And so that these chemicals onlykill off the weeds in the area
and kill off the bugs in thearea, but they don't kill the
plants.
So the plants are doused in thisstuff.
And it's also used as a dryingagent, like glyphosate is used
(17:16):
as a drying agent for, um,grains.
And so after it's even cut, itgets sprayed all over these
plants.
So even after it's grown, nowit's drying with this chemical
on it.
And then they, that grain goesto make your cereals and your
breads and your granola barsand, and all the things that you
eat every single day.
(17:36):
And so you're exposed to it sooften.
And so for children who areexposed to it, even in utero, so
when they are a fetus in amother's body, if that mother is
eating this non-organic food,their baby is getting exposed to
it.
And so those babies who havebasically been exposed to it
since conception have higherrates of things like allergies,
(17:59):
especially, asthma.
And then it's linked to cancers,which I, I think we talked about
a little bit, um, in last week'sepisode.
But it's, it's one of thosethings that I'm like, wow, this
is so important.
Especially because I did notswitch to organic foods until
after Malakai was born.
And so that does mean that hewas exposed to all of that in
(18:22):
utero and when, you know, whenhe was in my belly.
And so I'm like, how can we dobetter now for him that he's a
baby and growing, um, when it'sprobably the most important for
them, like as a fetus and thenas an a infant baby and growing
and toddler and everything, it'sthe most important to have these
nutrient dense foods that arebetter for you, that are not
(18:44):
laden with chemicals becausetheir bodies are rapidly growing
and forming and all this stuffSo, so, so, so important.
Chrissy (18:51):
It's also super important, I think.
I mean, obviously at all stagesof life, it is very important to
make sure that you're givingyour body the best quality food
that you possibly can becauseultimately your body's going to
be using your food for energy.
And so I'm also thinking in likethe prenatal stage, you know,
when you're preparing your bodyto have a baby, you know, it's
(19:16):
like, think of it, you know,they say that carrying a baby to
term is like running a marathonevery day for 40 weeks.
Right?
And so if you're gonna.
I, I believe it.
I haven't been there, but Ibelieve it.
And so if somebody's going toprepare to run a marathon, they
don't just like up one morningand say, I'm gonna run a
(19:37):
marathon every single day for 40weeks.
No, you're crazy.
But if they're eating the properfoods and working out their body
properly to prepare for thismarathon, they're going to be
able to run this marathon somuch more effectively.
And without hurting themselvestoo.
Like so many women have so manyproblems during pregnancy a lot
of times because their bodywasn't prepared adequately to
(19:59):
have a baby.
And so women who are looking tobe pregnant someday, it's like,
Hey, take time.
You might be years before havinga baby, but take that as an
opportunity to maximize yourhealth so that when your body is
ready to carry a baby, that youdon't have to like struggle and
hurry and be like, oh my gosh, Igotta take all these prenatal
(20:20):
vitamins.
'cause otherwise my folic acidlevels won't be right.
And no.
Don't even worry about it.
Like your food should becovering that already in and of
itself, that the prenatalvitamin is just a little cherry
on top and it's not absolutelynecessary to carry a healthy
baby.
You know, your food and exerciseare the things that are
necessary to carry a healthybaby.
(20:41):
So that's just another thing.
Katie (20:44):
I mean, again, like you said before with like crops,
nobody had prenatal vitaminsbefore.
Prenatal vitamins were invented,and so you're like, like people
had healthy babies all the wayuntil now, and it's like, why
are people doing this now?
Like why do we need it nowinstead of back then?
Chrissy (21:04):
Now, mind you, at the same time, they probably did
have their potions and elixirsof, oh, you're pregnant.
You should drink this dandeliontea, which honestly, I've been
learning a lot that dandelionhas a lot of really crazy health
benefits.
Like I feel like every time Ilisten to a new health person on
a podcast, they are alwaysmentioning the benefits of
(21:26):
dandelion, and I'm just like,what is this miracle flower that
my dad hated when I was growingup and always wanted to spray
with the glyphosate to get ridof it?
Katie (21:35):
Yeah, dandelions are one of those things that are really
good.
I remember a few years ago,before I started my own crunchy
journey, I had a friend who Idon't even know if I would, uh,
I mean, she's definitely, nowthat I look back at it, she's
definitely on the crunchierside.
But I remember her mentioning tome, this is like four or five
years ago that she was makingdandelion tea from the, the
(21:55):
dandelions in her yard.
And I was like.
Okay, cool.
Like, I just thought that wasthe weirdest thing.
And I also thought it wouldprobably taste very weird and
she was kind of like, oh yeah,it's like, good for this and
that, and all these things, andI, it just like went over my
head.
But I still think about thatbecause same thing, like I hear
about it all the time, like howgreat dandelions are for you.
And the, the one thing though,kind of like you mentioned, you
(22:18):
have to make sure that you arepicking it from a yard that is
not sprayed with anything, likeeven fertilizers, nothing.
Because whatever is sprayed ontothat flower, onto the, whatever
the plant is that you'repicking, if you go and steep
that into a cup of hot water,it's going to leach into that
cup.
Which actually this is such agreat transition and I didn't,
(22:40):
we did not plan this, the thingthat I actually learned about
today that I wanted to talkabout here on, on this episode
was learning about teas and thefact that tea tea bags, the tea
bags that your tea comes in areso bad for you.
They're bleached, they're usedwith microplastics, like they're
infused in it.
(23:00):
So that way all this stuff isgetting into your tea.
And even one of my, um, favoritecompanies, they're, they've, as
I've been learning, I, I haven'treally bought any of their teas
in general, but they're out ofColorado.
It's Celestial Seasonings.
They're very, very widely known,very popular.
They have the Sleepy Time tea,which you've probably had
before, but their teas I learnedare like, so the tea bags that
(23:22):
you get from them, if you openup those tea bags, it typically
is just a powder inside of it.
And so what they actually dowhen they're making the teas is
they, they have all the leaves.
So take like spearmint forexample, you know, you get these
nice spearmint leaves, but thenyou put them into a container
somewhere.
They, they store them and all,like they, they eventually dry
(23:45):
and they kind of create powders.
Like some of them get crumpledand so they take the powder from
all these leaves and the plantsand things like that, and they
package those up into the teabags and they actually sell off
the tea leaves for a higherprice to another company.
Now, I don't know specificallyif Celestial Seasonings is doing
this, but on the podcast Ilisten to the woman was
(24:08):
basically saying that she thinksthat Celestial Seasonings does
do this.
She does know of other big teacompanies that do that, that
same thing.
If you open the tea bags, it'sjust powder.
You're not getting the actualleaves that have the better
medicinal, uh, properties inthem.
So you're basically getting likenothing, like, it's not that
(24:28):
valuable of tea, but theypackage it and sell it for high
prices.
And I was like, what?
Chrissy (24:34):
Yeah, I definitely believe that one, 100%.
I feel like looking at a Liptonteabag, you know, it is just
like a bunch of little specklesin there versus like when I get
my really high quality tea, it'slegit leaves and I can see the
different types of leaves andthings that are in it.
So I've actually gone down likea deep dive rabbit hole on
(24:57):
different teas that are good,um, that you can actually get in
a teabag form, because let metell you.
I had literally just bought acute little tea box and I had
all my little tea bags in it,and it was looking good.
I was feeling so proud ofmyself.
And then I found out about thebleaching and the microplastics
(25:18):
and tea bags.
And I was so sad because I justcreated this beautiful setup of
all my tea and they were all intea bags.
And so I did a little bit moreresearch into it.
And there are some brands thatdo sell microplastic free and
unbleached tea bags with tealeaves in them.
(25:39):
With that, it does take a lot ofsearching to do because even in
some brands, it's not consistentacross teas like I know, um, uh,
I think Bigelow, is that how yousay it?
Bigelow.
Bigelow.
T
Katie (25:55):
Bigelow big,
Chrissy (25:56):
Bigelow.
Katie (25:57):
exactly what you're talking
Chrissy (25:58):
That one, the one that starts with a B and ends with a
W.
Um.
Their tea bags are good.
Like I have had no problems withtheir tea bags, but their tea
specifically, some teas are madewith all natural ingredients and
some teas have extra ingredientslike artificial or natural
flavors in it and colors
Katie (26:16):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (26:17):
And so even on top of the tea bags and how those are
made, um, it's also important tolook at the tea itself and
recognize, okay, is there extracoloring in here?
Is there artificial flavors?
Is there natural flavors in it?
Because mind you, even thoughnatural flavors are, they say
they're natural.
They're natural because they'remade from natural gas.
(26:37):
And I don't know about you, butI don't drink gasoline.
So,
Katie (26:42):
Well,
Chrissy (26:42):
it's definitely,
Katie (26:43):
it's not just like gasoline, but they'll be like,
it's natural products and it'llbe like, literally, I heard the
other day that one of thenatural quote unquote natural
products is
Chrissy (26:53):
did you say beaver butt?
Yes.
Katie (26:55):
yeah.
Chrissy (26:55):
I think you said that on a previous episode.
Katie (26:57):
It's the most disgusting thing.
And they're like, well, it'sfound in nature, so obviously
it's natural.
And you're like, there's nothingnatural about eating a beaver's
butt.
No.
Thank you.
Chrissy (27:07):
You know, that's another thing that, a little
fact that I've always known thatshould have grossed me out a
long time ago, but didn't, wasthe fact that mascara is made
with bat guano.
Have you heard that?
Katie (27:20):
Yeah, I've, I, well, I've heard a lot of that and like
even like lipsticks were madewith like shark stuff and Yeah.
I
Chrissy (27:27):
Yeah.
Katie (27:28):
of like weird stuff that people did to make makeup, and
none of it is natural.
You're like, oh, gosh.
Chrissy (27:35):
My mascara is definitely on my list of things
to look into a better productonce I run out of the one that I
am currently using, which lowkey might be in six months,
because I wear mascaraapproximately once a week.
To church, and that's it.
So it takes me so long to gothrough my mascara that, of
course, I realized that it wasone of those things that I had
(27:57):
to replace, like right afterbuying a new mascara, because
that's how it goes around herewith this crunchy journey, is
you always find out a new thingafter you buy the product that
you've been using.
So then you have to wait untilyou finish that product, because
I'm not gonna throw it away,right?
I, I bought it.
Um, but yes, mascara is on mylist of things to change.
Katie (28:18):
Our mothers were together recently, actually, and you were
there too for one of our othercousins, uh, bridal showers.
And they told me that they wantus to do an episode on makeup.
And I was like, oh, yeah, that'sa, a good idea.
And then I was thinking about itand I was like, Chrissy and I
are probably the worst people todo an episode on makeup because
(28:40):
I think out of like all of ourcousins, a lot of our cousins
don't wear a lot of makeup ingeneral.
But you and I have just neverbeen makeup wearers and like my
sister wears makeup, but even atthat, like she's, she's pretty
modest with it.
She used to wear a lot more whenshe was younger, but even
nowadays, like a lot of us justdon't wear a lot of heavy
makeup.
(29:00):
But our mothers definitely lovetheir makeup and I know that
they want to wear good makeup.
My mom was like, I need to knowwhat's the best.
I was like, I do know somebrands in general that are
recommended in kind of thecrunchy space, but I don't know
enough because I just don'tlike, same thing, like the
mascara I have is I'm gonna beusing it for quite a while.
(29:23):
Same thing with eyeliner.
I wear it once a week to churchand maybe if I'm going out with
some girlfriends or something,but like not that often at all.
Chrissy (29:32):
I feel like with the makeup topic in general, I could
probably point people in thecorrect direction of finding
good makeup products.
For instance, Primarily Pure hasreally great makeup products
that are very clean and good foryour skin.
Adele Natural Cosmetics isanother one that I've heard
really great things about.
But I would not be able to say,yes, I've used this product and
(29:57):
yes, it feels good on my skin.
And yes, it prevented me frombreaking out.
And yes, I recommend it becauseI just don't have that kind of
experience with these products.
But I've heard a lot ofadvertisements and I've heard a
lot of other people like thesethings, so point'em that way.
Another thing that your momactually mentioned to me this
weekend while she was in townwas she wants us to do an
(30:19):
episode on biohacking IE, likered light therapy and cold
plunging and saunas.
And let me tell you, they mademe do a cold plunge this
weekend.
It zapped me, zapped my energy.
Like I, we did the cold plungeon Sunday afternoon and all day
(30:41):
Monday I could not focus.
I had, I was so tired.
I literally came home from workand just plopped on the bed.
Like I couldn't function at all.
My ability to form completesentences was.
As if I had just worked a nightshift kind of thing.
I was like, I don't know whatthis cold plunge is, but it is
not for me.
(31:02):
And I have heard a podcast inthe past that not every body
type is made for cold plunging.
And so essentially what I'velearned when it comes to like
cold plunging, specificallysaunas love, except if you're a
man trying to make a baby, don'tdo the saunas.
Gotta keep the swimmers at agood temperature.
But, um, and red light therapy,I think is fantastic, but cold
(31:25):
plunging, if you don't haveenough body fat on your body to
handle the cold plunge, you'renot gonna handle the cold plunge
very well.
I'm a person that my entire lifehad a, I've had a very low body
fat percentage just looking atme.
You can tell I don't have verymuch body fat on me.
And even when it's cold outside,like 60 degrees, I grab my
(31:45):
parka.
I cannot handle the cold.
And so cold plunging is not forme, whereas.
A 50, 60-year-old man, or evenmy husband for instance, you
know, they have a lot more bodyfat on them, and so they can
handle cold plunges a lotbetter.
(32:06):
Now, I do recognize that I justmade a generalized statement
that was not, that is notgenerally accurate because
generally women have more bodyfat than men on average.
Katie (32:17):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (32:18):
essentially what I'm trying to say here is if you
have more body fat, go for it.
If you don't, maybe hold off ortry it and see how exhausted you
are the next day, because Icouldn't handle it.
That's just my take.
Katie (32:31):
uh, I don't always love when you hear something like,
like about cold, the, the coldplunge, ice baths, whatever.
Uh, and people are like, this isthe way to lose weight and this
is the best way to do that, orwhatever.
And it's like, no, a lot ofthese things really are
dependent on our own body typesand, and yes, there are some
things that kind of across theboard are the same.
(32:53):
Nutrition is one of them.
Nutrition really is generallythe same.
Yes, certain foods might dobetter, like slight variations
of foods, but for the most partto be healthy, it is the same
kind of stuff.
But when it comes to like thesevery specific like.
Weird.
Like fasting is another one ofthose people will talk all day
(33:13):
about yeah, you have to do a 40hour fast to do this and, and
it's really good for yourmitochondria and all this stuff
and blah, blah blah.
And you're like, but actuallysome people it's actually, it
does the opposite effect.
And so you kind of have to testthings out to really decide if
they are good for you.
Sometimes you won't know.
But I think that episode you'retalking about that you
(33:34):
mentioned, um, where they saidice the ice baths and stuff
aren't good for everyone.
I think she also talked aboutfasting'cause I think I know
what episode you're talkingabout of that, of that podcast
because, um, she was taught, shebasically is really good at
figuring out your body type andwhat kind of specialized
biohacking stuff will be bestfor you.
(33:55):
And, and those were two of theexamples that typically get
thrown out there.
Chrissy (33:59):
Which I think is a really good reason why it's
called biohacking.
Like if you're gonna hack yourbiology, you kind of have to
have a certain kind of biologyto start off with.
Yes, we're all humans, but Ilook very different from my
sister.
We have completely differentbody types.
And from my other sister.
All three of us have completelydifferent body types and so to
say that the same thing willhelp each of us is completely
(34:24):
off.
And so, um, yeah, it's justeveryone has to test it out on
their own and see what worksbest for them.
Because what works really greatfor me is not going to be
realistic for my neighbor, isnot gonna be realistic for my
husband even.
That's another thing with,working out.
I've heard like some people, forinstance, me, I can work out
(34:45):
first thing in the morning, 5:00AM no problem at all whatsoever.
Love it.
It gives me so much energy forthe day.
I feel rejuvenated.
Like I just drank three cups ofcoffee.
It's the best thing in theworld.
My husband absolutely cannot dothat.
Like to get up and go workout atfive o'clock in the morning is
(35:07):
absolute torture for him.
It doesn't rejuvenate him atall.
It just makes him completelyexhausted for the rest of the
day.
He's much better working outlate morning to mid-afternoon,
which is great for his workschedule'cause he works from
home so he can, and that is howhe gets his energy boost from
working out.
So that's another thing, workingout time of day, it's not
consistent for everybody.
(35:28):
So.
Katie (35:29):
Yeah, no, that's a good point.
But back to your, like youmentioned red light therapy, um,
one of that is actually one ofthose things that I have been
trying to learn more aboutbecause I have heard a lot of
benefits about it.
My friend actually has a redlight panel at her house and,
speaks wonders about it.
And I've been hearing more andmore, um, about red light
(35:52):
therapy and that more healthprofessionals are recommending
them because of their, there'sso many benefits.
So red light, you typicallywould get red light from the
sun, but you can actually get itthrough like a red light panel
as well, and it, it just likeintensifies it or just gives you
like a, a stronger dose of it,um, than needing to go outside
(36:13):
at a specific time of day, whichI, I believe red light comes in
the early morning.
It's one of the first lights,like when the sun is rising.
And so not all of us are outthere at that time in order to
get the benefit of red light.
Um, so if you get a red lightpanel.
A lot of people, it sounds likethey kind of recommend using
them in the like early morningand then sometimes before bed
(36:35):
and, and they do things like redlight will help, collagen
production in inside your body.
So it helps a lot with likeskin.
Um, it helps like your textureand complexion of your skin, and
improve like the elasticity ofit.
I've heard, I, I've also heardpeople using it for muscle
recovery.
Like actually I mentioned redlight therapy to Wes a a little
(36:59):
while ago when I first heardabout it and he's like, oh yeah,
that's what, I don't evenremember which athlete it was.
Like it was something he watchedon Netflix, maybe it was LeBron
James or something.
And he's like, yeah, LeBronJames does that after his
workouts and he does like a redlight therapy thing.
And I'm like, see, you even knowabout it.
And like these athletes areusing it for like, it helps to
reduce inflammation after you'velike worked out and stuff like
(37:20):
that.
And so.
It helps people prevent gettinginjured, especially if you are a
major athlete.
But I've also heard that ithelps like your sleep quality.
'cause again, you and I actuallytalked a little bit about like
the benefit of, of getting up inthe morning with the first sun.
So maybe it is, maybe it is redlight that comes in the early
morning.
'cause I do know that it'ssupposed to help with your sleep
(37:44):
quality and your, circadianrhythm.
But the one thing I did read,uh, or learn recently was that
it also is recommended thatafter you give birth, like after
you've had a baby to use a redlight panel on your abdomen,
your stomach, you know, and sothat way it helps to heal your
(38:04):
body quicker after you havegiven birth.
So it's got like all thesebenefits and I'm trying to
convince my parents to get a redlight sauna so that way I can
just go use it at their housebecause they're expensive and I
don't wanna have to buy itmyself.
Chrissy (38:18):
Yeah, I literally just looked into red light panels,
um, like two days ago orsomething like that because I
obvi our moms were talking aboutthis red light therapy at this
fancy cold pl place.
And, so I looked it up and thebrand that I know is good is
called Joovv, J-O-O-V-V.
(38:39):
Unfortunately, their panelsstart at$500 and that$500 panel
is about the size of like a minibriefcase, maybe like a purse
that's allowed to go into afootball game.
So tiny.
It's very small.
So I do know also looking onAmazon, there are red light
therapies for$30 and so.
(39:01):
That is one that I think is veryimportant that unfortunately, I
think you do have to bite thebullet with the cost of the red
light therapy if you're gonnaget the actual benefit from it,
because someone can just throwred lights on something and call
it red light therapy.
But the real focus of red lighttherapy is getting that specific
wavelength of light that doeshelp with the collagen
(39:22):
production and healing and,mitochondrial health in your
skin.
And so it is gonna cost a littlebit more to get that exact
wavelength of light.
And so that's one thing I wouldcaution you.
If you find one that's supercheap.
Either you're a leprechaun andyou're really, really lucky, or
(39:43):
you're probably not getting theactual beneficial red light
therapy that we're talkingabout.
Katie (39:48):
Yeah, that's, that's a really good point.
I mentioned the same thing to mymom because as she asked me
about it on the phone and waslike, what do you think about
red light therapy?
And like, it's actually reallygood for you.
It's the, and I was like, that'sthat thing that I was telling
you and dad to buy.
Remember this was like monthsago now.
And she's like, oh yeah, I kindof remember.
And so then she goes on Googleor goes on Amazon and looks it
(40:10):
up and she's like, they're notthat expensive.
I was like, mom, don't get thoseones.
Don't waste your money on it.
You, you really want to get thebetter quality ones.
I do know of that Joovv brand.
I've heard it mentioned a lot.
The other one that my friend hasthat she really loves and trust
is EMR Tech.
So.
The letters.
EMR dash TEK.
(40:31):
Um, I do know, I, I don't thinkthe sale is going on, but she
texted us like a couple days agosaying that they had like a 40%
off deal going at that moment.
So I did click on it and I waslike, 40% off.
That's ridiculous.
So I go and look and still eventheir smaller panels were still
like a thousand dollars orwhatever.
So I'm like, uh, man, this issomething that it's, it's going
(40:52):
to be a while and we're gonnasave up, I think, for it.
Or maybe I'll just find someonewho has it and just use theirs.
Because my friend who has it isback in Colorado, so there's,
I'm not going over to her houseanytime soon right now.
Chrissy (41:03):
I've definitely looked a couple times on Facebook
Marketplace.
Nobody's selling them of course,and they're not selling them for
the price I wanna pay.
Um, so I have put it on the listof things that I wanna save up
for, but that list of things isgrowing way faster than I'm able
to get through it.
It's very sad.
But you know, there are somethings that we can easily change
(41:26):
in our lives that don't cost aton of money.
And so let's kind of talk abouta couple of those.
'cause we've kind of focused onlike the really expensive
things.
Katie (41:35):
I
Chrissy (41:35):
Let's kind of transition to the not so
expensive items.
Like what are some ways that wecan really quickly and easily
make changes in our homes forless than$50?
We're talking easy fixes.
You go to the store and or yougo on Amazon and you change it
immediately.
You wanna go first.
Katie (41:54):
Yeah.
I, I really think, I mean, my,my biggest thing is food in
general.
Um, I've actually been doing a,a deeper dive into the Weston A
Price Foundation, and they, soWeston A Price, uh, he was a
dentist and this is.
Decades ago, he was a dentistand he did these studies of,
(42:16):
people like cultures across theworld who were extremely
healthy.
So he would find these liketribes of people who had
impeccable teeth and like hewould bury, like he would get
bones, like skeletons of theirpassed away relatives and their
bone structures were impeccableand they, they were basically
(42:39):
really healthy people and hewanted to know why.
And so he studied these specificindigenous cultures all across
the world.
So it wasn't even like aspecific region or anything.
It was like literally indifferent continents and
everything.
And they all had very similarthings in common, which was.
Their food.
(43:00):
Like not, not necessarilyexactly what they ate, but the
ratio of things like protein tocarbs, to fats.
And so he developed this wholeconcept of nutrition based on
what he saw these people eating.
And so this all actually, soI've mentioned this book several
(43:21):
times, the Nourishing Traditionscookbook kind of book that I've
been reading is all kind ofbased on the Weston A Price
Foundation nutrient strategiesor something.
And so I really do believe,like, I mean that is decades of
data of people being so healthy.
And it's like they obviouslydidn't need all these fancy
(43:42):
things like red light panelsand, um, saunas and cold
plunges, well maybe they weredoing cold plunges.
One of the people, one of thecultures was actually like in
Antarctica or something likethat.
And so.
He basically, was like theirdiet, exactly what they ate,
kept them impeccably healthy,like to the point where they
literally did not have cavities.
(44:03):
And so it's like they were justso healthy that really, I do
believe that just by switchingyour food, it might actually, so
I guess this is kind of like aweird dichotomy, is just that
yes, going for the, like moreexpensive organic foods is going
to be a bit more expensive whenyou switch, but in the long run,
(44:24):
it's actually going to save youso much more money when you do
that and when you cook fromscratch and like your health
bills are gonna go down becauseyou won't be as sick and your
dental bills will go downbecause you won't have as many
dental issues and just alltogether.
Your health will be so muchbetter for it.
And so, yeah, I've been doing a,a really deep dive on the Weston
A Price Foundation.
So I think that my tip would benot very expensive, just go get
(44:49):
a book.
Either get his, like, I can'teven remember what his book is,
but if you look up Weston APrice, it probably will take you
to the website.
The person who runs thefoundation right now is Sally
Fallon.
She wrote the book that I'mreading, the Nourishing
Traditions one.
But, um, he wrote the book thattalks all about their health and
all the things he studied.
But if you just want the, like,what can I do now with this
(45:10):
information?
I would read Sally's book, theNourishing Traditions.
So I think I got it used onAmazon for maybe like 20 bucks.
So yeah, it's great.
Chrissy (45:19):
That book is definitely on my list of things I wanna buy
as soon as I have time to read.
But right now I don't have timeto read, so there's no point in
buying it at this point.
But I want to, because you havetalked about it so much that I'm
like, I need to get this book.
Katie (45:35):
I love it.
Chrissy (45:37):
Yeah, it sound and also like, okay, so Katie has shown
me a few of the pages of it,like it goes really deep into
all of the macronutrients,different types of cooking
techniques and differentimportant things that are
relevant for.
Different types of foods.
And so it's not only just like arecipe book, but also kind of a
(45:58):
textbook and just has a lot ofreally great information in
there, which I mean, I lovelearning, so that makes sense
why I would really like it.
Katie (46:09):
I actually I followed one of the recipes, the, it's
actually making whey, so you'veheard of whey protein, so I
actually made homemade whey andcream cheese from it.
So when you make cream cheeseand whey it happens at the same
time.
And so there it's like, okay,you can take your milk, you can
take a yogurt, you can take allthese things and you can
actually make your own creamcheese from it.
(46:29):
You can make your own whey fromit.
You can make keefer, you canmake all these things that are
really good for you.
You can make, um, cottagecheese, sour cream, and then
you're like saving money by justusing the things you already
have.
Yogurt is another one of thosefun ones that I just made
recently too, all from the samestuff and just from this recipe
book.
So yeah, it, it ultimately willsave you money if you start to
(46:51):
implement the things that aretaught inside of it.
So yeah, it's definitelybeneficial.
Chrissy (46:57):
And then it'll also challenge you of like, okay, so
how do I now use this whey in arecipe?
Because I don't just want itsitting in my fridge for six
months.
Like what do I do with it?
So then you get to kind ofexpand your horizons a little
bit on what kinds of foods areyou incorporating into your life
and.
Yeah, just trying out newrecipes and things like that.
(47:17):
Another cookbook that I haveheard about that's really great
that I have on my list of thingsto buy also that I haven't
bought yet, seems to be thetheme for me, um, is called the
Feel Good Way.
It is Simple Recipes for aBetter Life.
That cookbook specifically haslike a hundred some odd recipes
that are nutritionally balanced.
(47:38):
And what I mean by that is likeall of the macronutrients in the
meals are balancedappropriately.
So you have more protein thanyou do carbs, than you do fats
or whatever version, howeverit's supposed to be.
I don't know, I just put allthree together when I make
meals, but this person actuallydid do the research on like the
(48:00):
healthiest ratios of them andcreated a cookbook for it.
Katie (48:05):
So here's the fun fact.
So you can actually use yourhand so you're, when you open
your hand flat.
is how many carbohydrates youneed when you make it into a
fist.
Like this is about the amount ofprotein you need.
And then I think it's, yourthumb is about the amount of fat
that you need.
And so you can, you can get itin different ways.
(48:26):
So like your carbohydrates canbe fruits and vegetables, you
know, you want it to besomething healthy.
And then you want proteins,obviously a meat or something
along those lines.
And then your fats could eitherbe like the oil that it's cooked
in, if it's a good, you know,grass fed butter or tallow or
olive oil, or it could be likeyou had avocado or nuts or
(48:46):
something like that.
So that's generally the ratio.
That's not necessarily, you haveto like bow, like it has to be
the size of your hand, but it'sthe ratio of like hand, fist,
thumb.
Um, and so yeah, I'm like, okay,that's a really good way to
think of it.
'cause then you can kind of lookat your plate and do you have a
decent amount of carbohydratesand then proteins and then fats
(49:07):
and so yeah, those are the thethings that you kind of want.
Chrissy (49:10):
Yeah, that's great.
Additionally, so we've mentionedit in our cookware episode.
If you wanna go back and listento that, I highly recommend we
go through a bunch of differenthealthy cookware and unhealthy
cookware and things to look atwhen you're choosing cookware,
but.
One of the really quick and easyfixes that Max and I have done
(49:30):
in our kitchen in general is wegot rid of all of our plastic
cutting boards.
That one happened to be verysimple for us.
We didn't even have to actuallybuy any replacements because we
had so many cutting boardsgifted to us for our wedding.
Can I actually pro tip, ifyou're going to a wedding, don't
(49:51):
buy them a monogrammed cuttingboard.
It's cute, but they already got10 of'em and they don't need
another one.
Okay.
Alright, I'm done.
Um, but so we had so many woodcutting boards that just getting
rid of our plastic cuttingboards didn't actually change
our cutting board situation.
So that was one really quick,easy fix that we did.
(50:13):
Another one that we did when wemoved was we got rid of all of
our plastic cups, aside from ourTurvis Tumblers because I love
Turvis Tumblers.
But even then, you have to makesure you're caring for them
properly and washing them welland not in the dishwasher so
that the plastic doesn't breakdown.
We talked about that in aprevious episode too.
Maybe the water episode, Ithink, which was the second real
(50:35):
episode that we made.
So go listen to that one if youwanna hear all about
microplastics in your water.
But so we got rid of all of ourplastic cups and we changed them
to glass cups, which ended upbeing about a$35 investment for
12 cups, which is really, reallyquick and easy and not super
(50:57):
expensive at all whatsoever.
So those two fixes were reallyquick and easy for us.
Another quick, easy fix that isaround the$50 range is changing
out your cooking utensils.
So we also mentioned this inthat previous episode on our
cookware is cooking with likeplastic utensils, like the
(51:18):
plastic spatulas.
They break down like, I don'tknow if you've ever tried to
scrub a hot pan with a plasticspatula.
And then you look at the spatulaand you're like, where'd it go?
Yeah, that's'cause it melted andnow it's in your food.
So that's another one.
$50.
Easy fix.
You can go on Amazon and searchup non-toxic wooden cooking
utensils and you can findcooking utensils on Amazon.
(51:41):
Super easy.
The only thing with that is youwanna make sure that it is
coated with either a mineral oilor like a natural sort of
coating.
They could be coated withbeeswax even.
Um, you wanna stay away from thecooking utensils that are coated
with a lacquer because a lacqueris toxic and would completely
(52:05):
disregard the whole reason thatyou're trying to get non-toxic
cutlery anyways.
So, um, that is something thatthree things that we have done
slash are doing that are reallyquick and easy fixes that you
can do to, make your kitchenless toxic for you.
Katie (52:24):
Well, I really like all these ideas and yeah, share with
us in our Facebook group whatideas you have on things that
you have been doing to switch tojust a more healthy lifestyle.
Anyway, Chrissy, why don't yousign us off?
I am dealing with Mama businessright now as my son has woken up
(52:49):
early from his nap.
So we are going to, I mean,we've already been running.
We quite over, but Chrissy, whydon't you sign us off.
Chrissy (52:57):
For sure thank you everybody for tuning into our
conversation today.
I hope you learned a little bitof something from us and are
inspired to take those nextsteps that are quick and easy to
start the non-toxic transitionin your home.
And make sure you subscribe tothis podcast and join us over on
our Facebook group at CrunchyChristian Mamas on a Budget
(53:19):
where we are continuing thisconversation of non-toxic swaps
and how to maximize your healthusing the resources that God has
already given you that you canuse very easily.
Um, we'd love to hear from youon our Facebook page about what
resonated with you on thisepisode, what you wanna hear
about in the future.
(53:39):
So drop in over there and let usknow what you're thinking.
Until next time, this isChrissy.
Katie (53:46):
And this is Katie.
Chrissy (53:47):
And thanks for listening to Crunchy
Stewardship.
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