May 23, 2025 • 47 mins
This podcast episode of Crunchy Stewardship features cousins Katie and Chrissy diving into the significant monetary and intangible costs associated with unhealthy lifestyles, drawing on research and personal experiences. They explore how chronic diseases burden individuals and the healthcare system financially, while also highlighting the impact on mental, emotional, and social well-being. The conversation then shifts to the cost benefits of embracing a healthier, more natural way of living, grounded in biblical principles, and offers practical, budget-friendly strategies like reducing alcohol and tobacco, incorporating free physical activity, and prioritizing whole, nutritious foods. Katie and Chrissy also share personal anecdotes and cost-saving tips such as making homemade laundry detergent and bread, and opting for reusable alternatives like cloth diapers, emphasizing that small, consistent changes can lead to significant long-term health and financial advantages.
Episode Takeaway:
Consider the things in your life that could be costing you your health. Find small, simple steps that you can implement today to begin taking those baby steps to benefit your health in the years to come.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship
00:44 The Cost of an Unhealthy Lifestyle
01:54 Monetary Costs of Chronic Illnesses
10:04 Intangible Costs of Poor Health
14:01 Preventing Chronic Diseases
16:30 Healthy Lifestyle Tips
29:00 Cost-Effective Healthy Living
45:23 Final Thoughts and Encouragement
Links mentioned:
- CDC website that shares health expenses https://www.cdc.gov/chronic-disease/data-research/facts-stats/index.html
- CDC Chronic disease burden https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2015/14_0388.htm#:~:text=Among%20adults%20with%20chronic%20conditions,annual%20total%20expenditures%20(%247%2C116).
- NIH Article https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10830426/
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FREE How to Afford Non-Toxic Living Workbook: https://crunchystewardship.com/how-to-afford-non-toxic-living
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Katie (00:00):
Hey, and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
(00:02):
My name is Katie.
Chrissy (00:03):
And my name is Chrissy.
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.
Katie (00:19):
In our podcast, we are taking a deep dive into what it
means to steward our lives asGod originally intended for us
with the resources that he hasgiven us.
We will look at topics likefood, medicine, finances, mental
health, and lots more through anatural lens and with a biblical
foundation.
So without further ado, let'sdive into today's episode,
(00:42):
Chrissy.
Chrissy (00:43):
Yeah, so today we are going to be talking about the
cost of an unhealthy lifestyle,and then the cost benefit of
living a healthy lifestyle.
So first off, Katie, I knowyou've done a lot more research
than I have about the cost ofliving a toxic lifestyle.
Do you wanna start off just bylike giving us a little outline
(01:05):
of the things that you havediscovered and learned as you've
been researching this topic?
Katie (01:11):
Yeah, we were just talking right before this
podcast that I stumbled upon aGoogle document that I had
started in my own free time.
This is the stuff I love is whenI, when I stumble upon something
that really hits me hard, Icollect a lot of the data that I
find.
So that way when I'm havingconversations with other people,
(01:32):
I'm like, wait, I know somethingabout this.
I can go back and look to seewhat it was that I had learned.
So the two main things that Ihave come to see as like the
cost of continuing a toxiclifestyle.
There's like two maincategories.
It's either monetary cost andthen there's intangible costs.
The thing that I collected a lotof information on were kind of
(01:55):
those monetary costs, likeincreased medical expenses.
You know, your health insurancewill will cost more.
You'll have more doctor visitsthat you need to go to, and
there's just a lot of actualimpact on our budget.
It's quite significant theamount that we as Americans
(02:19):
spend on quote unquote healthrelated expenses like healthcare
or health insurance.
As well as like on a worldlybasis.
So in general, individuals withchronic illnesses, so anybody
who has like an, autoimmunedisease or even cancers or deals
with things like allergies,eczema, you know, something that
(02:42):
is ongoing, they typically facesignificantly higher annual
medical costs compared to thosewithout chronic conditions.
According to current data, theestimated annual medical costs
for individuals with a chronicillness averages around$6,032 in
(03:04):
the United States, which issignificantly higher than the
cost for people without any kindof chronic condition.
So when I dove further intothis, I found out that the
majority of healthcare spendingin the United States is
attributed to chronic diseasesalone, which it reaches
(03:26):
somewhere around 90% of thetotal healthcare costs.
Now you can actually find this.
The link that I have saved hereis directly from the CDC
website.
So this is government data.
I'm not just like spewing somethings from some random news
channel.
No, this is directly from thegovernment website that is
telling us that we spend 90% ofour total healthcare costs on
(03:51):
chronic diseases alone, which isjust so insane to me.
Chrissy (03:56):
That is actually, yeah, that's mind boggling.
And it really makes me sad tosee because so many people
think, oh, I have this problem.
I'm gonna go to the doctor andget it fixed.
And think of like with your car,you know, if you have a problem
with your car, you go to themechanic to get it fixed.
(04:17):
Well, if you have to continuedoing something to keep that fix
in its fixed state every singleday, is it actually fixed or is
it still broken?
And you just have to continuallyjust keep the maintenance up to
make sure it keeps runningright.
So,
Katie (04:34):
It's like your car instead of actually like getting
it fixed
Chrissy (04:38):
right.
Katie (04:39):
It's like, I'm just gonna duct tape this thing here and
it'll be fine, and I
Chrissy (04:42):
Yeah.
Katie (04:43):
more duct tape when it starts to fall off
Chrissy (04:45):
I, I'll tape the bumper back on.
Yes, exactly.
And you know, when people go tothe doctor, they think a lot
like in that mindset, you know,if they say, the doctor says,
oh, you have high bloodpressure, you need to be on a
blood pressure medication.
Okay, great.
The patient's like, awesome.
I'm gonna get on this bloodpressure medication.
It'll lower my blood pressure.
(05:06):
Well, it does, but is your bloodpressure problem actually fixed?
No, the blood pressure pill ismerely just putting a bandaid
over the actual core problemthat is causing the blood
pressure.
And so that doctor has nowcreated for themselves a patient
for life.
(05:27):
How many patients go to thedoctor and the doctor tells them
you're gonna be on thismedication for the rest of your
life?
A baby aspirin, 81 milligrams.
Most adults who have any form ofheart disease are on a baby
aspirin.
If you've ever had a stroke or ablood clot or anything like
that, doctors automatically putpeople on a baby aspirin for
(05:49):
life in order to prevent thosethings from happening again.
But I think the real question weshould be asking is.
Why are these things happeningto begin with?
You know, like why do we have totake a bandaid pill every single
day to prevent furthercomplications from them, as
opposed to just fixing the rootcause of the problem to begin
(06:11):
with.
You know what I mean?
Katie (06:12):
Definitely So what I'm hearing from you, Chrissy, is,
okay, well, doctors and thepeople like the pharmaceutical
companies that are creatingthese drugs, kind of want you to
come back and keep paying forthese expenses.
It, and it goes directly withthis other statistic that I
learned because if we do gethealthy, we won't be paying all
(06:37):
this money into the medicalsystems, whether it's doctors or
the pharmaceutical companies oranything, and then they would
lose a bunch of money.
NIH literally published thisarticle that stated that the
estimated cost of chronicdiseases is expected to reach$47
(06:57):
trillion
Chrissy (06:59):
Oh my gosh.
Katie (07:01):
Worldwide by 2030.
So that's five years from now,$47 trillion.
So of course, like our doctors,and, and I don't mean to say
like an individual doctor, likebut I'm talking like big you
know, medical companies thinklike, when we, say the big C
church, like the church ingeneral or whatever, not like
(07:22):
your individual church, right?
It's that same thing of like bigmedical companies, big pharma
big agriculture, all these likebig companies, they don't want
us to get healthy because thenthat number wouldn't continue to
grow and they wouldn't continueto make tons and tons of money.
So of course, like of coursethey want us to stay sick.
(07:42):
It's just so silly.
But it costs us as consumers, aspatients, as individual,
wonderful people it costs uslots of money.
I mean,$6,000 alone on justchronic illnesses for
individuals in the UnitedStates.
That's a lot of money that wecould be doing much more with if
we stayed healthy.
Chrissy (08:02):
Yeah, actually true.
If I think of like, what could Iuse$6,000 for if I had an extra
$6,000 each year, what could Iuse it for?
There's a number of things thatyou could use it for.
That's like three years youcould put a down payment on a
house.
One year you could put a downpayment on a car, you know, it,
it's just amazing when youactually think about how much
money is wasted in managing acontinual problem rather than
(08:27):
fixing the problem at its core.
You know?
And I said it in one of theprevious podcasts.
I'm just gonna say it again'cause I think it's so funny
that.
Healthy people are, quoteunquote, really bad for the
economy because, you know, ifyou have a healthy person, they
ride their bike to work so theydon't have to pay for a car or
car insurance or carmaintenance.
(08:47):
So those are three, parts of theeconomy that don't get paid and
they don't have to buy gas.
So that's another part of theeconomy that gets paid.
And they're riding their bikeevery day.
So they have greatcardiovascular health, so they
really only go to the doctor fortheir annual checkup.
Every year and they look good.
So the doctor's really notmaking any money off of them.
And the only people that couldbe making money off of them is
(09:09):
like a bike maintenance guy or abike sales guy.
And let's be real, bicycles arenot expensive at all whatsoever
in the grand scheme of things.
And so I think it's really funnythat healthy people are quote
unquote bad for the economy.
But the reality is healthypeople have the benefit of being
(09:29):
able to manage their moneybetter because they have more
money to go around.
It's not tied up in the chainsthat are holding them in this
unhealthy state of being, youknow, the, the chains of not
being able to ride a bike, notbeing able to walk or run, the
chains of being addicted to fastfood and things like that, you
(09:50):
know, those are expensive andthey have really expensive
consequences, especially laterin life.
Not even just monetarily, buteven looking at the emotional
expense and the mental healthexpense of having a chronic
illness.
I mean, I see it time and timeagain in my line of work.
(10:11):
I work in orthopedics, right?
And so, we're not necessarilymanaging the heart disease and
things like that.
Like we have patients who comein with heart disease, but
they're well managed when theycome in.
For us, the chronic things thatwe see often is joint infections
and yeah.
(10:32):
So if a patient gets a hipreplacement or a knee
replacement and it getsinfected, it often turns into a
bone infection.
And bone infections take monthsto go away.
And so our patients come in,they have multiple surgeries to
take out the hardware, to put inantibiotics to stay in place, to
(10:53):
then take out the antibiotics,to then put in another spacer to
let the area surrounding thejoint heel and then take out the
spacer and then put in theactual hardware.
But then if the infection's notgone yet, then that new hardware
gets infected.
It is a hot mess.
And I've seen people in and outof the hospital for years in
(11:14):
regards to a joint infection,you know, and I just wonder like
how much does that tax theirmental health also, you know.
Of I have this problem.
I am in a ton of pain everysingle day.
Pain in and of itself isincredibly dangerous for mental
health and emotional healthbecause it saps you of energy to
(11:39):
go on a walk to, hang out withfriends, to enjoy a board game.
You're so focused on that painand trying to manage it, your
brain and your body don't havetime to think about anything
else.
And so that really does comewith the cost of anxiety,
depression, you know, a lot ofour patients come in in a super
depressive state because they'vebeen able to do nothing but lay
(12:02):
in bed for a year because ofthese infections, you know?
And, it's really, really hard tosee and I just, I want there to
be like.
Can we just get to the rootcause of these infections or
chronic illnesses in general?
Why are people constantly havingto deal with the exact same
problem year after year afteryear?
(12:25):
What can we do to make thatproblem not a thing that we have
to continuously work at, tryingto fix?
You know what I mean?
Katie (12:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
The intangible costs.
I, think sometimes outweigh themonetary costs in, in so many
ways because yes, you have theincrease of expenses for your
health insurance or doctor'svisits or treatments or
medications, but thoseintangible costs, like the
(12:55):
quality of life, um, a shorterlifespan.
And even you think about thecost to your loved ones.
I know, like I have some goodfriends right now who.
Have family members who are verysick, very ill, and the
emotional and mental tax that itweighs on them is also another
(13:16):
one of those intangible costs,right?
If we are unhealthy, it impactsour loved ones.
And even like as parents, ifwe're not healthy, our ability
to take care of our kids isimpacted.
And being a good spouse, being agood friend, like all of these.
Things can be weighed into thisidea of being healthy or not.
(13:39):
It's, it's really that qualityof life that it kind of comes
down to.
Chrissy (13:43):
Yeah, for sure.
So Katie, we've been talking alot about like the cost of
living an unhealthy lifestyleboth monetarily and intangibly,
emotionally, mentally, thingslike that.
So what are some of the thingsthat we can do to either avoid
those costs or even to, to havea cost benefit of living a
(14:07):
healthy lifestyle, what are,what are some of the things that
you do specifically for that?
Katie (14:12):
Yeah.
First I actually wanna mentionwhen I read that NIH article
that had that crazy statisticabout$47 trillion worldwide.
At the, end of the article, theyactually say that many, chronic
diseases can actually bepreventable by modifying and
(14:33):
addressing four major riskfactors, which are physical
inactivity, poor nutrition,tobacco use, and excessive
alcohol.
So, when I think about how do Iavoid the increased costs of
health?
It's like, well, if I, if I lookat these four areas of my life,
(14:54):
is there something that I canalso improve in order to avoid
that myself.
Now, I also recently learned ina podcast interview that was
with an integrative oncologistthat things like cancerous
tumors, they don't just show upovernight or even within a year
alone.
Instead, they actually startforming anywhere from eight to
(15:17):
10 years prior to it showing upon
Chrissy (15:22):
mm-hmm.
Katie (15:22):
a scan or before it's actually showing any evidence in
your life that that something'swrong.
Chrissy (15:27):
Right.
Yeah, I actually read a bookthat said the same thing about
diabetes, that, um, type twodiabetes actually starts 10, 15
years prior to the very firstdiagnosis of even being
pre-diabetic.
And so it's really interestingto see like if these things are
starting 10 years prior, likethere's gotta be ways to reverse
(15:48):
it until it's too late.
Katie (15:50):
Absolutely.
That's why it's so importantthat every choice that we make
today can actually make a hugedifference in your life 10 years
from now.
And we're talking about thosetwo costs, the intangible and
the monetary, right?
So if we
Chrissy (16:03):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (16:03):
want to avoid the emotional costs.
As well as the monetary, likeactually, how is it going to
impact your budget cost?
We need to start taking actiontoday.
And the funny thing is like,kind of like you were
mentioning, Chrissy, that a lotof these switches that we can
make in living a more non-toxiclifestyle, living healthier,
(16:28):
they actually end up saving usmoney here now and today because
a lot of people have this ideathat being really healthy means
spending lots of money right nowand, buying organic foods or
getting expensive air filtersfor your house or drinking
(16:49):
filtered water.
These are all important thingswhen you're going down this
route.
But at the same time, there areso many things that actually can
save you money right now.
One thing that I didn't considerbefore, but now reading this
line in the NIH article aboutthose four major risk factors
like physical, nutrition,tobacco use, and alcohol, is
(17:12):
that if you are someone who hasexcessive alcohol in your life,
simply cutting that out is goingto help you tremendously, but
also save you a lot of money.
Like alcoholic drinks are soexpensive, right?
Chrissy (17:29):
Yeah.
But even then, if somebody isstruggling with a alcoholic
addiction or tobacco addiction.
Not even just straight cuttingit out.
'cause going cold turkey canactually be quite dangerous.
Katie (17:40):
Yeah.
Chrissy (17:40):
slowly but surely decreasing the use of alcohol
and tobacco.
You know, those are the twobiggest culprits that pretty
much everybody in healthcare: conventional, eastern, western, (17:49):
undefined
whatever kind of healthcare,everybody pretty much agrees
that those are incrediblycarcinogenic and they do have a
huge cost and toll on yourhealth in general.
And so merely just working toslowly but surely decrease the
use of those, helpstremendously.
(18:13):
And then also in terms of thephysical activity, you know,
physical activity is free.
Like you don't actually need agym membership to go on a walk,
you know?
My husband and I implementedthis right when we got married
of daily walks after dinner.
And we did this even growing uptoo.
We lived on like a little pondarea and every single night we
(18:36):
would eat dinner, clean thekitchen and go on a walk and it
was great.
You know it puts you in a placewhere you're not having
distractions from your phone oranything like that.
'cause lemme tell you, it'sreally hard to walk on a bumpy,
curvy sidewalk while you'retrying to play checkers on your
phone.
Very difficult.
Katie (18:55):
Checkers
Chrissy (18:57):
I've seen it.
It actually was so sad.
I actually saw a couple, like amonth ago on a walk and the
husband was like, playingcheckers on his phone.
Katie (19:08):
who plays checkers of all games on their phone.
That is so funny to me.
Chrissy (19:13):
I don't, but this guy was.
Anyways, like going on a walk isfree, you know, doing a workout
in your living room is free.
You have carpeting?
Great.
Do some yoga, do some squats,some stretches, you know,
anything like that.
Any sort of physical activity,go to the park.
(19:33):
That is also free.
Often people live really closeto state parks or national
parks, you know, within an houror two drive.
Go to the park.
Or even just like local parks,you know, it's really easy to go
out and be active, and justincorporate it, implement it
into your lifestyle, you know?
Just little, little baby stepsat a time, one at a time.
(19:55):
Big change does not actuallyhappen overnight, even with
companies like new startupcompanies, they say, and
suddenly we are overnightsensation, 30 years in the
making.
It took 30 years to get there,30 years of one step at a time,
baby steps.
And then they look back and theysee all that they've
accomplished and it's abeautiful thing.
And so that's kind of how healthis also, you know.
(20:15):
One baby step at a time so thatwhen you're old and all of your
friends have these chronicillnesses, you can look back and
say, wow, all of those smallsteps that I took have impacted
me in such a great way.
You know?
So, then there's also the food.
What do you think about thefood, Katie?
Katie (20:34):
Yeah, we've kind of touched a little bit on this in
the past, but food, it's one ofthose things that I actually am
starting to believe is like oneof the most important changes in
your health journey to make thegreatest impact on it because
our body actually uses the foodto heal itself to make new
(20:58):
cells, to build up our immunesystems.
It turns into the cholesterolthat we need in order to fight
off infections.
and And so if we're not eatinggood, nutritious foods, then we
are actually doing ourselves adisservice.
Chrissy (21:17):
That's interesting that you mention that cholesterol
helps to fight off infections.
Back to my job, we have a lot ofolder patients come in and old
patients who have a little bitmore body fat on them actually
have a higher likelihood ofhealing from an injury.
(21:39):
And they heal much quickerbecause their body has those
energy stores to be able to usein order to heal.
Whereas, elderly patients whoare very frail and are like
literally skin and bone and haveno fat on them.
They are the ones that'll godown with a hip fracture.
People always say fat is thedevil.
You don't want to eat fat, butfat is good for you.
(22:00):
It is healthy for your body tohave a certain level of fat on
it.
Even as young women, you know.
Your body needs a certain levelof fat in order to menstruate
properly, to create estrogen andprogesterone, and to manage the
monthly cycle.
You know, those are all verymuch fueled by fat levels in the
(22:22):
body.
Katie (22:22):
I actually was reading last night about cholesterol,
and that's kind of why I broughtit up because I learned, kinda
like you said, we are, we'retaught that fat and cholesterol
are the enemy in, in our food,and that we need to have the
reduced fat and the lowcholesterol, low sodium, all
these things, but we're actuallydoing our bodies a disservice a
lot of times when we arereducing these things and.
(22:48):
You know when you go to thedoctor and you get your blood
drawn and you have highcholesterol, it's actually more
a sign that something else iswrong in your body and, and it's
like the policemen showing up tothe scene where there's a lot of
crime going on.
The policemen are not theproblem in the situation.
The crime itself is the problem.
The policemen are showing up inorder to reduce the crime that's
(23:11):
going on in that situation.
Same thing as the cholesterol iscoming to try to repair the
inside of your blood vesselsbecause your blood vessels have
damage.
And so when cholesterol isthere, it's actually, it's like
a good thing that they're there,but it is a sign that something
else is wrong.
Right?
You know, if police are showingup to the scene.
(23:32):
It's not to say like, oh, let'sget rid of them and allow
whatever's going on to happen.
No.
That would ultimately lead toworse problems.
And it's also why I learned thislast night, that this is like
one of the reasons that if youare vegetarian and don't have a
lot of cholesterol in your diet.
It ultimately might lead tosomething like leaky gut
(23:53):
syndrome because the cholesterolis needed in order to repair the
gut lining And so if you'regetting rid of all this
cholesterol from your diet andnot allowing it to come in and
repair, it's actually worse foryou.
And so when you have your blooddrawn and you have high
cholesterol, it's not to say youneed to get rid of the
cholesterol by reducing yourcholesterol intake.
(24:15):
It's more like you need tofigure out what the problem is
in order to heal that, and thenthe cholesterol will go away on
its own.
Right?
If there's less crime in a city,the police won't have to be, as,
you know, vigilant in trying toreduce the crime.
They can just kinda go back totheir donut shops or something.
Chrissy (24:32):
And that's the beauty of the human body.
You know, like God created thebody to heal itself.
We have so many self-healingmechanisms that occur.
You know, think of, if a personis bleeding, they form a scab,
right?
But, the scab will only form ifthere's damage to the blood
vessel wall.
(24:52):
If there's no damage to theblood vessel wall, you don't
want a scab forming that willcause big problems, especially
if the scab is inside the bloodvessel, you know?
Then you get blood clots andthen you get a stroke or a heart
attack or something like that.
And so these protectionmechanisms that the body creates
are very good things.
(25:14):
But when you have a chronicproblem, and your body is using
these protection mechanismsconsistently and constantly and
not having any reprieve fromthese protection mechanisms,
that's when you get worseningproblems.
So the body has it's, we'll goback to the scab, you know, your
(25:34):
body clots off blood on purposeto prevent you from bleeding out
from a paper cut.
That is God's design for thebody to heal itself.
But if there is constant damageand those blood clots form in
order to block a blood vesselfrom bleeding out, but they form
(25:54):
in a major artery or a majorblood vessel.
Because of a chronic problem.
That's where we get severeproblems that could have been
prevented and even reversedbefore, severe permanent damage
has occurred.
And so, yeah, it, it's reallyamazing to see, like God created
our body to heal its itself, andGod created food in order to
(26:17):
help our body and to give ourbody the nutrients in order to
heal itself.
So.
I think the biggest focus is,let's get back to the way God
created food as beautiful andperfect as it was to begin with.
You know, we see it time andtime again in the Bible, people
using food and essential oilsand things like that as
(26:38):
medicinal remedies, in order tomanage illnesses and so it's,
it's biblical guys.
Katie (26:45):
It's Biblical.
Yes.
I, I actually have a runningdocument going of all of the,
like, health related remediesthat are mentioned throughout
the Bible and or just that weregoing on in biblical times, and
so we'll have to chat more aboutthat in another episode.
I learned the other dayrandomly, so our 1-year-old son
(27:10):
struggles with constipation andwe've been trying to figure out
all the things to do to helphim, and I read that a lot of
children when they're young,they really need a lot of fat
and cholesterol for their bodiesto just develop properly,
especially their brains.
But the other good thing aboutsomething like butter, like a
(27:30):
fat or even tallow, is that itcan really help your gut in
having bowel movements.
And so this one woman was like,get your son some grass fed,
organic butter and let him justeat it.
And I was like, that sounds sostrange
Chrissy (27:46):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (27:46):
But then so many other people were like, yes, that that
helps.
That has helped my child.
Like go and do that.
And I'm like, that sounds somuch better than trying to do
some sort of medication or justsomething else.
But we've been trying to heal itin some kind of dietary way
'cause you know, he's a1-year-old and starting to do
Chrissy (28:06):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (28:06):
that obviously he is still learning how to process it
all and after doing justbreastmilk
Chrissy (28:13):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (28:13):
and everything.
So, yeah, it's hard.
Chrissy (28:15):
Even with adults, in terms of constipation, I've
actually learned that, uh,concoction I make frequently for
my patients of coffee prunejuice and butter actually works
very well and tastes better thanyou would think.
Katie (28:30):
I actually have heard that like coffee and butter
stuff before, but Yeah.
for some reason I'm a coffeedrinker.
I'm drinking my wonderfulorganic coffee right now, but,
I've never considered puttingbutter in it.
So Chrissy, we've obviouslytalked about that if we don't
take care of ourselves now, it'sgoing to lead towards lots of
(28:52):
these expenses later in life.
Chrissy (28:55):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (28:55):
Do you think that there are ways that we can start
saving money today in ourjourney to become healthier
people?
Right?
So if we're trying to avoid thecosts later, but also don't want
to have a big influx of expensesto today to be healthy, are
there things that you are doingthat you actually have found
(29:16):
have saved you money but also.
You know, helping you becomemore healthy.
Like, I mean, avoiding alcoholis a really easy one because
it's literally taking somethingaway that you're not gonna spend
money on, but even justsomething that you are just
choosing to spend your moneydifferently on.
Chrissy (29:32):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So the two biggest ones thatcome to mind are my laundry
detergent and my bread.
The laundry detergent I startedmaking as a means to save money
because I always felt like ourbudget was just completely
destroyed every time I had tobuy toilet paper, paper towels,
and laundry detergent all at thesame time.
And so I actually make itmyself.
(29:54):
It takes me about 15 minutes andI only have to do it once a
year.
Now mind you, this is for afamily of two.
So if there's more people inyour family, it'll probably not
last you a whole year, but itcosts me.
About$15 for the first batch,and then$5 additionally every
year thereafter.
Just'cause the boxes that youwould get with the ingredients
can last you multiple batches ofthis detergent.
(30:16):
And so.
Yeah.
Uh, that's my biggest one.
I've actually shared the recipefor my laundry detergent on our
Facebook group.
It's called Crunchy ChristianMamas on a Budget.
Sorry, men.
You are not invited.
You gotta be a mama or a mama tobe or a want to be mama.
Or something of the sort inorder to, be in this group.
(30:38):
But I've shared it on there and,also you can really just Google
any homemade laundry detergentrecipe and you'll find it.
But it makes a whole five gallonbucket, lasts me a whole year
and cost me$5 a year.
So that one is like the biggestone that has saved us a ton of
money in the past.
Only two years that we've beendoing it, and then our bread
(30:59):
making, you know, walkingthrough the bread aisle in the
grocery store.
If you wanna spend$2 to$3 on aloaf of bread, you can, but it's
not gonna be good for you.
And even if you try to get thehealthy bread, that's like$5,$6,
$7 a loaf, you get thegluten-free bread, that can be
(31:20):
like$12 a loaf for this teenytiny little cardboard thing.
Those still have preservativesin them and they still have
enrichment with, syntheticvitamins and minerals that your
body can't actually process.
So it's really still not allthat good for you.
And so that's another methodthat my husband and I have used
(31:41):
to both benefit and improve ourhealth and benefit our checkbook
is, making our own bread fromscratch, grinding our own wheat
in order to do it.
Now, both of these items, thebread and the laundry detergent.
Do have a little bit of a timecost to them, but ultimately
that time cost is worth theamount of money that we are
(32:01):
saving, by doing it.
And so, yeah, our loaf of breadnow costs about$3 and 50 cents a
loaf.
And, it, it's benefited usmentally, emotionally,
physically, especiallyphysically.
Man, I feel so good after I eatmy bread.
I've actually noticed, two weeksago we for some reason just
didn't have a loaf.
We were so busy, we didn't get achance to make any bread and, I
(32:24):
started feeling myself getanemic.
I was tired.
I was cold, I was moody.
And then we made a loaf.
I had breakfast of my eggs andtoast as I usually do.
And like suddenly all thosesymptoms of feeling anemic just
went away and it was like, wow.
I can actually see the emotionalchanges in myself from the
(32:45):
vitamin and the mineraldeficiencies that I develop from
not maintaining a good intake ofthose vitamins and minerals.
And I see it quick, and itresolves itself pretty quick as
soon as I reintroduce thosevitamins and minerals that I
have in the fresh ground wheatbread.
So those are the two biggestthings that my husband and I do.
(33:06):
But there's, there's a lotothers.
Katie, what are the biggestthings that you guys do?
Katie (33:12):
A lot of the things that have actually helped us save
money have had a little bit of acost upfront, like an investment
upfront, but the largerinvestment in the front has
actually ended up saving us moremoney over time.
And a really good example ofthat, are cloth diapers.
(33:34):
So we have chosen to do clothdiapers with our son and we
actually did with our fosterdaughter for a while as well.
And, yes, cloth diapers can bedecently expensive.
They can be anywhere from like$10 to$30 per diaper.
However, when you do theanalysis of how much it costs
(33:59):
for diapers over the span of afew years for a child, the cost
for diapers for a baby's firstyear alone can range from 500 to
$1,000 or more.
You know, it depends on whetheryou choose to do like the Costco
diapers or if you are trying todo something a little bit
(34:22):
healthier because diapers dohave a lot of chemicals in them
that unfortunately can beendocrine disrupting in babies
long term.
And so if you're trying to dothe more healthy, less chemical
ridden diapers, those are goingto be much more expensive for
you.
However, if you choose to clothdiaper, that will avoid the
(34:45):
chemicals in the diapers thatmake them absorbent but they
also end up saving you moneyover time as well as they save
the planet, right then you don'thave as many diapers in the
trash and in the landfills andeverything.
So, I would recommend if youactually are trying to go the
cloth diaper route to get themused.
(35:07):
I know it kind of sounds weird,but if people are taking really
good care of the cloth diapers,they really can last you like a
decade or so.
Like you can use them for all ofyour children and you can pass
them on to other people, butthey just need to be well cared
for, and it's really simple.
You can use Chrissy's laundrydetergent, like you can make
(35:29):
your own laundry detergent, orjust get something really good
with no fragrance and that'snon-toxic as well.
And you can do sun bleaching,which is super helpful for them
and keeps them really pristine.
And so just putting them out inthe sun for a long time.
But I think like, so we got allof our diapers used as well.
Some, some of them were totallyfree from a family member, but
(35:51):
then others that we did buyused, it ended up being
somewhere around like five to$10a diaper at the end of buying
them all.
And so I think all in for ourdiapers.
So including the ones that wegot for free, we got all of them
for like less than a hundreddollars.
So you think about a hundreddollars for diapers for now.
(36:12):
My son's childhood, like ofdiapers, right?
Instead of the a thousanddollars per year that we could
have been spending on diapers.
So again, just like Chrissysaid, it does, there's a little
bit of a learning curve and itdoes require a little bit more
time because then the washingand taking care of them, and
some people think it's kind ofjust weird and gross in general,
(36:33):
but we have really loved usingthem and it's saved us a lot of
money.
Um, yeah.
Chrissy (36:41):
Do you have a second one that you guys use?
Katie (36:44):
Yeah.
Chrissy (36:45):
talk about chicken math?
Katie (36:47):
That's another one of those things too, that chickens
we have chickens.
We love our chickens, and itdoes cost a little bit of money
up front to buy the chickens.
Actually buying baby chicks issuper cheap.
They're, I think they were$5when they were babies.
They were only like a week oldor so, and they're about$5 per
chick, and it does cost money toget a coop and to get the food
(37:12):
and all of those things.
But again, if you go on FacebookMarketplace, we got a really
awesome coop for like 50% of theactual cost of the coop, and it
was still in really great shapeand my husband did have to drive
all the way, like three hoursaway into the mountains to go
get it.
But it was so worth it becausethis coop has been awesome for
(37:33):
us so yes, there is that costupfront, but you know, I'd have
to do the math, but over time ithas started to save us money,
but it takes a few years inorder for it to really save you
money because of the largerupfront cost.
If you move into a house thatalready has a chicken coop, or
you inherit one for free, thenthe cost would significantly
(37:57):
decrease over time, and it wouldmake it more cost effective to
do it that way.
So, we did actually get rid ofpart of our chicken coop
recently for free.
We just put posted on a Facebookmarketplace and, I had so many
people ask me for it, eventhough I told them, it is kind
of a piece of junk and it'sgonna fall apart.
And they were like, yeah, I, Istill want it.
Because again, there's that costbenefit of just repairing it
(38:19):
versus getting something brandnew.
So, anyway, chickens arewonderful they're much easier
than having a dog, honestly.
And we have so many eggs.
We right now, unfortunately, abunch of our chickens were
attacked recently, and we onlyhave two left, and we still get
about a dozen eggs per week.
Chrissy (38:41):
And then also in addition to that, what about the
immune benefits that you getfrom having chickens around.
You know, I've seen that kidswho grow up on farms or like
around, animals a lot tend tohave higher immune systems
because their bodies areintroduced to all of those
microorganisms at such a youngage that they develop a super
(39:03):
strong immune system also.
Which then helps them in thefuture when they're older, to
combat any illnesses that theymight develop.
And their body can fight themoff much quicker and sometimes
without you even realizing it,you know?
So there's also that, which isreally beneficial, not just
monetarily, but that goes intothat, emotional and mental and
(39:23):
physical cost, benefit analysis.
Yeah,
Katie (39:27):
I think you've read that book.
I have not read it yet, but thatbook, called Eat Dirt by Dr.
Josh Axe.
Chrissy (39:33):
Oh yeah.
Katie (39:34):
And literally I mean, Yes, will be sitting outside and
just eating twigs off the groundand he's not physically like
swallowing them, but he's justmunching on them and chewing on
them.
And I'm like, yeah, buddy.
You just, you're just eat yourlittle twig there.
Have fun and build up thatimmune system and just get all
the little organisms in thereand yeah, and it's, it's been
(39:54):
really good.
We also, I mean thinking aboutlike outside and just being
outside, like gardening isanother one of those things that
has so many benefits.
Obviously there is the monetarybenefit of it saves you money
because you're literally growingyour own food.
There's again, a small cost upfront to get seeds and if you
don't already have a garden setup, you will need to either get
(40:17):
garden beds or get the toolsnecessary or set up a sprinkler
system.
There's, there can be a highcost barrier, um, when you get
into gardening.
But again, over time it willsave you hundreds of dollars in
just a season alone, if notthousands of dollars depending
(40:38):
on how much you grow and, andyour skills and, and gardening.
And so it saves you money inthat way.
But there, there's a lot ofresearch out there on the
benefit of gardening to yourhealth in general.
Like not just the food, butphysically being outside,
getting active, getting yourvitamin D, just the fresh air
and like the emotional boostthat you get from growing and,
(41:02):
you know, bringing something tolife like that.
I, have only started gardeningtwo years ago and it has been
such a game changer for mebecause it's an amazing hobby
that I have found so much likehappiness from, and just getting
back to again, that whole ideaof like how God designed and
(41:27):
made everything to work togetherso perfectly.
It is so cool to see how Goddesigned, taking just a tiny
little seed, putting it in theground, tending to it, and then
it grows this abundance of,fruits or veggies, something for
you to eat and then nourishyourself on.
And it also, I mean, when yougarden, especially if you're
(41:48):
doing it organically and notusing any kind of pesticides or,
chemical fertilizer, if you doit organically, your soil will
be so much better for it.
And the foods that you producefrom that soil will be much more
nutrient dense.
I read also when
Chrissy (42:09):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (42:09):
I was learning about that cholesterol stuff, that our
vegetables and even eggs fromchickens and our milk, when they
are raised on the conventionalagricultural system, they have
an imbalance of Omega-6 toOmega-3 fatty acids.
You need like a one-to-one ratiofor your body to produce the
(42:34):
proper cholesterol levels andeverything and when they are
depleted of the nutrientsthrough the conventional
agricultural system, we have animbalance of 19 times higher
Omega-6 fatty acids to Omega-3fatty acids.
(42:54):
And so our bodies have thisoverabundance of Omega-6.
When you have too much Omega-6,it actually blocks your body
from making prostaglandins,which is what you need in order
to fight off cancerous cells andto fight off infections and
viruses, and so the Omega-6fatty acids actually block the
(43:16):
prostaglandins from being foughtoff.
Anyway, I won't get into toomany more details.
I was super nerding out on itlast night and I was like, oh my
gosh, this is crazy.
And so, there's so much benefitto growing your own food or even
just switching to organic.
But if you're looking to doorganic foods, more cost
effectively, gardening is anamazing way to do that.
And there's so many benefitsbesides just the, like health
(43:39):
benefits and monetary benefits,
Chrissy (43:42):
That that's true.
And also for those of you whodon't have a yard or an
extensive space outside forgardening.
You can garden in pots.
We only have like a back deckpretty much in our neighborhood
that is our property.
The rest of the property ispublic property, and so we're
not allowed to grow things onthe lawns or anything like that.
(44:04):
But, my next door neighboractually has big pots on his
deck of all of his fruits andvegetables that he grows, and
he'll just like come over with awhole gallon sized bag of
Maters.
He calls'em maters.
They're not tomatoes.
They're maters.
He's like, here's some maters.
But they are so delicious.
Honestly, the best tomatoes I'veever had.
And so you don't need space.
(44:25):
All you need is a little bit oftime.
Katie (44:27):
Exactly.
Speaking of time,Chrissy, wehave been chatting for quite a
while, so don't we wrap it up
Chrissy (44:35):
Yes.
Katie (44:36):
Um, I think my last thoughts are just encourage
people that you know, overallYour time and your money in a
solution that's going to helpprevent you from incurring both,
you know, the financial and theintangible costs is absolutely
(45:00):
worth it.
And committing to improving yourdiet or your lifestyle now today
will impact your life and thelives of your family members and
those around you by stayinghealthy.
So I would just encourage youthat, if you don't have a budget
for these kinds of things yet,learn how to budget first and
(45:23):
plan for these expenses that youmight incur from making this
kind of change in yourlifestyle.
This is, honestly, you willthank yourself later.
And I'm, and I'm saying that aslike a 30-year-old, right?
I'm in my thirties, and.
I don't really know the costbenefit yet from growing old and
(45:45):
making this lifestyle change,but I have seen many individuals
who are twice my age who arestruggling with chronic illness
or lots of their friends now aregetting really sick and they're
dealing with the stress and thepain of chronic illnesses and I
(46:06):
know that I want to be healthyand vibrant and just have the
energy to live a long life formy son who's around, but also so
that way I can continue to dokingdom work long-term without
needing to spend lots of my timebattling chronic illnesses that
(46:29):
could have been prevented when Iwas in my thirties and things
like that.
So that's my inspiration isseeing the struggle and the pain
that other people have beendealing with and trying to work
hard now and learning all that Ican now to avoid that later.
So that's why we have reallyinvested both our time and our
financial resources topreventing these things in the
(46:51):
first place.
So I would just encourage peoplethat if you're not doing that,
start now wherever you're at,even if you are twice my age
Chrissy (46:58):
It is never too late to start.
All right, well, with that, wejust wanna let you guys know
that we pray over each of youguys and we hope that these
episodes can be helpful in yourjourney to becoming a better
steward of your body, your mind,your soul, your spirit, your
finances, and your families.
We are praying that this episodewas helpful for you and we will
(47:20):
see you next time.
Katie (47:21):
See you next time.
Hey, and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
(00:02):
My name is Katie.
Chrissy (00:03):
And my name is Chrissy.
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.
Katie (00:19):
In our podcast, we are taking a deep dive into what it
means to steward our lives asGod originally intended for us
with the resources that he hasgiven us.
We will look at topics likefood, medicine, finances, mental
health, and lots more through anatural lens and with a biblical
foundation.
So without further ado, let'sdive into today's episode,
(00:42):
Chrissy.
Chrissy (00:43):
Yeah, so today we are going to be talking about the
cost of an unhealthy lifestyle,and then the cost benefit of
living a healthy lifestyle.
So first off, Katie, I knowyou've done a lot more research
than I have about the cost ofliving a toxic lifestyle.
Do you wanna start off just bylike giving us a little outline
(01:05):
of the things that you havediscovered and learned as you've
been researching this topic?
Katie (01:11):
Yeah, we were just talking right before this
podcast that I stumbled upon aGoogle document that I had
started in my own free time.
This is the stuff I love is whenI, when I stumble upon something
that really hits me hard, Icollect a lot of the data that I
find.
So that way when I'm havingconversations with other people,
(01:32):
I'm like, wait, I know somethingabout this.
I can go back and look to seewhat it was that I had learned.
So the two main things that Ihave come to see as like the
cost of continuing a toxiclifestyle.
There's like two maincategories.
It's either monetary cost andthen there's intangible costs.
The thing that I collected a lotof information on were kind of
(01:55):
those monetary costs, likeincreased medical expenses.
You know, your health insurancewill will cost more.
You'll have more doctor visitsthat you need to go to, and
there's just a lot of actualimpact on our budget.
It's quite significant theamount that we as Americans
(02:19):
spend on quote unquote healthrelated expenses like healthcare
or health insurance.
As well as like on a worldlybasis.
So in general, individuals withchronic illnesses, so anybody
who has like an, autoimmunedisease or even cancers or deals
with things like allergies,eczema, you know, something that
(02:42):
is ongoing, they typically facesignificantly higher annual
medical costs compared to thosewithout chronic conditions.
According to current data, theestimated annual medical costs
for individuals with a chronicillness averages around$6,032 in
(03:04):
the United States, which issignificantly higher than the
cost for people without any kindof chronic condition.
So when I dove further intothis, I found out that the
majority of healthcare spendingin the United States is
attributed to chronic diseasesalone, which it reaches
(03:26):
somewhere around 90% of thetotal healthcare costs.
Now you can actually find this.
The link that I have saved hereis directly from the CDC
website.
So this is government data.
I'm not just like spewing somethings from some random news
channel.
No, this is directly from thegovernment website that is
telling us that we spend 90% ofour total healthcare costs on
(03:51):
chronic diseases alone, which isjust so insane to me.
Chrissy (03:56):
That is actually, yeah, that's mind boggling.
And it really makes me sad tosee because so many people
think, oh, I have this problem.
I'm gonna go to the doctor andget it fixed.
And think of like with your car,you know, if you have a problem
with your car, you go to themechanic to get it fixed.
(04:17):
Well, if you have to continuedoing something to keep that fix
in its fixed state every singleday, is it actually fixed or is
it still broken?
And you just have to continuallyjust keep the maintenance up to
make sure it keeps runningright.
So,
Katie (04:34):
It's like your car instead of actually like getting
it fixed
Chrissy (04:38):
right.
Katie (04:39):
It's like, I'm just gonna duct tape this thing here and
it'll be fine, and I
Chrissy (04:42):
Yeah.
Katie (04:43):
more duct tape when it starts to fall off
Chrissy (04:45):
I, I'll tape the bumper back on.
Yes, exactly.
And you know, when people go tothe doctor, they think a lot
like in that mindset, you know,if they say, the doctor says,
oh, you have high bloodpressure, you need to be on a
blood pressure medication.
Okay, great.
The patient's like, awesome.
I'm gonna get on this bloodpressure medication.
It'll lower my blood pressure.
(05:06):
Well, it does, but is your bloodpressure problem actually fixed?
No, the blood pressure pill ismerely just putting a bandaid
over the actual core problemthat is causing the blood
pressure.
And so that doctor has nowcreated for themselves a patient
for life.
(05:27):
How many patients go to thedoctor and the doctor tells them
you're gonna be on thismedication for the rest of your
life?
A baby aspirin, 81 milligrams.
Most adults who have any form ofheart disease are on a baby
aspirin.
If you've ever had a stroke or ablood clot or anything like
that, doctors automatically putpeople on a baby aspirin for
(05:49):
life in order to prevent thosethings from happening again.
But I think the real question weshould be asking is.
Why are these things happeningto begin with?
You know, like why do we have totake a bandaid pill every single
day to prevent furthercomplications from them, as
opposed to just fixing the rootcause of the problem to begin
(06:11):
with.
You know what I mean?
Katie (06:12):
Definitely So what I'm hearing from you, Chrissy, is,
okay, well, doctors and thepeople like the pharmaceutical
companies that are creatingthese drugs, kind of want you to
come back and keep paying forthese expenses.
It, and it goes directly withthis other statistic that I
learned because if we do gethealthy, we won't be paying all
(06:37):
this money into the medicalsystems, whether it's doctors or
the pharmaceutical companies oranything, and then they would
lose a bunch of money.
NIH literally published thisarticle that stated that the
estimated cost of chronicdiseases is expected to reach$47
(06:57):
trillion
Chrissy (06:59):
Oh my gosh.
Katie (07:01):
Worldwide by 2030.
So that's five years from now,$47 trillion.
So of course, like our doctors,and, and I don't mean to say
like an individual doctor, likebut I'm talking like big you
know, medical companies thinklike, when we, say the big C
church, like the church ingeneral or whatever, not like
(07:22):
your individual church, right?
It's that same thing of like bigmedical companies, big pharma
big agriculture, all these likebig companies, they don't want
us to get healthy because thenthat number wouldn't continue to
grow and they wouldn't continueto make tons and tons of money.
So of course, like of coursethey want us to stay sick.
(07:42):
It's just so silly.
But it costs us as consumers, aspatients, as individual,
wonderful people it costs uslots of money.
I mean,$6,000 alone on justchronic illnesses for
individuals in the UnitedStates.
That's a lot of money that wecould be doing much more with if
we stayed healthy.
Chrissy (08:02):
Yeah, actually true.
If I think of like, what could Iuse$6,000 for if I had an extra
$6,000 each year, what could Iuse it for?
There's a number of things thatyou could use it for.
That's like three years youcould put a down payment on a
house.
One year you could put a downpayment on a car, you know, it,
it's just amazing when youactually think about how much
money is wasted in managing acontinual problem rather than
(08:27):
fixing the problem at its core.
You know?
And I said it in one of theprevious podcasts.
I'm just gonna say it again'cause I think it's so funny
that.
Healthy people are, quoteunquote, really bad for the
economy because, you know, ifyou have a healthy person, they
ride their bike to work so theydon't have to pay for a car or
car insurance or carmaintenance.
(08:47):
So those are three, parts of theeconomy that don't get paid and
they don't have to buy gas.
So that's another part of theeconomy that gets paid.
And they're riding their bikeevery day.
So they have greatcardiovascular health, so they
really only go to the doctor fortheir annual checkup.
Every year and they look good.
So the doctor's really notmaking any money off of them.
And the only people that couldbe making money off of them is
(09:09):
like a bike maintenance guy or abike sales guy.
And let's be real, bicycles arenot expensive at all whatsoever
in the grand scheme of things.
And so I think it's really funnythat healthy people are quote
unquote bad for the economy.
But the reality is healthypeople have the benefit of being
(09:29):
able to manage their moneybetter because they have more
money to go around.
It's not tied up in the chainsthat are holding them in this
unhealthy state of being, youknow, the, the chains of not
being able to ride a bike, notbeing able to walk or run, the
chains of being addicted to fastfood and things like that, you
(09:50):
know, those are expensive andthey have really expensive
consequences, especially laterin life.
Not even just monetarily, buteven looking at the emotional
expense and the mental healthexpense of having a chronic
illness.
I mean, I see it time and timeagain in my line of work.
(10:11):
I work in orthopedics, right?
And so, we're not necessarilymanaging the heart disease and
things like that.
Like we have patients who comein with heart disease, but
they're well managed when theycome in.
For us, the chronic things thatwe see often is joint infections
and yeah.
(10:32):
So if a patient gets a hipreplacement or a knee
replacement and it getsinfected, it often turns into a
bone infection.
And bone infections take monthsto go away.
And so our patients come in,they have multiple surgeries to
take out the hardware, to put inantibiotics to stay in place, to
(10:53):
then take out the antibiotics,to then put in another spacer to
let the area surrounding thejoint heel and then take out the
spacer and then put in theactual hardware.
But then if the infection's notgone yet, then that new hardware
gets infected.
It is a hot mess.
And I've seen people in and outof the hospital for years in
(11:14):
regards to a joint infection,you know, and I just wonder like
how much does that tax theirmental health also, you know.
Of I have this problem.
I am in a ton of pain everysingle day.
Pain in and of itself isincredibly dangerous for mental
health and emotional healthbecause it saps you of energy to
(11:39):
go on a walk to, hang out withfriends, to enjoy a board game.
You're so focused on that painand trying to manage it, your
brain and your body don't havetime to think about anything
else.
And so that really does comewith the cost of anxiety,
depression, you know, a lot ofour patients come in in a super
depressive state because they'vebeen able to do nothing but lay
(12:02):
in bed for a year because ofthese infections, you know?
And, it's really, really hard tosee and I just, I want there to
be like.
Can we just get to the rootcause of these infections or
chronic illnesses in general?
Why are people constantly havingto deal with the exact same
problem year after year afteryear?
(12:25):
What can we do to make thatproblem not a thing that we have
to continuously work at, tryingto fix?
You know what I mean?
Katie (12:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
The intangible costs.
I, think sometimes outweigh themonetary costs in, in so many
ways because yes, you have theincrease of expenses for your
health insurance or doctor'svisits or treatments or
medications, but thoseintangible costs, like the
(12:55):
quality of life, um, a shorterlifespan.
And even you think about thecost to your loved ones.
I know, like I have some goodfriends right now who.
Have family members who are verysick, very ill, and the
emotional and mental tax that itweighs on them is also another
(13:16):
one of those intangible costs,right?
If we are unhealthy, it impactsour loved ones.
And even like as parents, ifwe're not healthy, our ability
to take care of our kids isimpacted.
And being a good spouse, being agood friend, like all of these.
Things can be weighed into thisidea of being healthy or not.
(13:39):
It's, it's really that qualityof life that it kind of comes
down to.
Chrissy (13:43):
Yeah, for sure.
So Katie, we've been talking alot about like the cost of
living an unhealthy lifestyleboth monetarily and intangibly,
emotionally, mentally, thingslike that.
So what are some of the thingsthat we can do to either avoid
those costs or even to, to havea cost benefit of living a
(14:07):
healthy lifestyle, what are,what are some of the things that
you do specifically for that?
Katie (14:12):
Yeah.
First I actually wanna mentionwhen I read that NIH article
that had that crazy statisticabout$47 trillion worldwide.
At the, end of the article, theyactually say that many, chronic
diseases can actually bepreventable by modifying and
(14:33):
addressing four major riskfactors, which are physical
inactivity, poor nutrition,tobacco use, and excessive
alcohol.
So, when I think about how do Iavoid the increased costs of
health?
It's like, well, if I, if I lookat these four areas of my life,
(14:54):
is there something that I canalso improve in order to avoid
that myself.
Now, I also recently learned ina podcast interview that was
with an integrative oncologistthat things like cancerous
tumors, they don't just show upovernight or even within a year
alone.
Instead, they actually startforming anywhere from eight to
(15:17):
10 years prior to it showing upon
Chrissy (15:22):
mm-hmm.
Katie (15:22):
a scan or before it's actually showing any evidence in
your life that that something'swrong.
Chrissy (15:27):
Right.
Yeah, I actually read a bookthat said the same thing about
diabetes, that, um, type twodiabetes actually starts 10, 15
years prior to the very firstdiagnosis of even being
pre-diabetic.
And so it's really interestingto see like if these things are
starting 10 years prior, likethere's gotta be ways to reverse
(15:48):
it until it's too late.
Katie (15:50):
Absolutely.
That's why it's so importantthat every choice that we make
today can actually make a hugedifference in your life 10 years
from now.
And we're talking about thosetwo costs, the intangible and
the monetary, right?
So if we
Chrissy (16:03):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (16:03):
want to avoid the emotional costs.
As well as the monetary, likeactually, how is it going to
impact your budget cost?
We need to start taking actiontoday.
And the funny thing is like,kind of like you were
mentioning, Chrissy, that a lotof these switches that we can
make in living a more non-toxiclifestyle, living healthier,
(16:28):
they actually end up saving usmoney here now and today because
a lot of people have this ideathat being really healthy means
spending lots of money right nowand, buying organic foods or
getting expensive air filtersfor your house or drinking
(16:49):
filtered water.
These are all important thingswhen you're going down this
route.
But at the same time, there areso many things that actually can
save you money right now.
One thing that I didn't considerbefore, but now reading this
line in the NIH article aboutthose four major risk factors
like physical, nutrition,tobacco use, and alcohol, is
(17:12):
that if you are someone who hasexcessive alcohol in your life,
simply cutting that out is goingto help you tremendously, but
also save you a lot of money.
Like alcoholic drinks are soexpensive, right?
Chrissy (17:29):
Yeah.
But even then, if somebody isstruggling with a alcoholic
addiction or tobacco addiction.
Not even just straight cuttingit out.
'cause going cold turkey canactually be quite dangerous.
Katie (17:40):
Yeah.
Chrissy (17:40):
slowly but surely decreasing the use of alcohol
and tobacco.
You know, those are the twobiggest culprits that pretty
much everybody in healthcare: conventional, eastern, western, (17:49):
undefined
whatever kind of healthcare,everybody pretty much agrees
that those are incrediblycarcinogenic and they do have a
huge cost and toll on yourhealth in general.
And so merely just working toslowly but surely decrease the
use of those, helpstremendously.
(18:13):
And then also in terms of thephysical activity, you know,
physical activity is free.
Like you don't actually need agym membership to go on a walk,
you know?
My husband and I implementedthis right when we got married
of daily walks after dinner.
And we did this even growing uptoo.
We lived on like a little pondarea and every single night we
(18:36):
would eat dinner, clean thekitchen and go on a walk and it
was great.
You know it puts you in a placewhere you're not having
distractions from your phone oranything like that.
'cause lemme tell you, it'sreally hard to walk on a bumpy,
curvy sidewalk while you'retrying to play checkers on your
phone.
Very difficult.
Katie (18:55):
Checkers
Chrissy (18:57):
I've seen it.
It actually was so sad.
I actually saw a couple, like amonth ago on a walk and the
husband was like, playingcheckers on his phone.
Katie (19:08):
who plays checkers of all games on their phone.
That is so funny to me.
Chrissy (19:13):
I don't, but this guy was.
Anyways, like going on a walk isfree, you know, doing a workout
in your living room is free.
You have carpeting?
Great.
Do some yoga, do some squats,some stretches, you know,
anything like that.
Any sort of physical activity,go to the park.
(19:33):
That is also free.
Often people live really closeto state parks or national
parks, you know, within an houror two drive.
Go to the park.
Or even just like local parks,you know, it's really easy to go
out and be active, and justincorporate it, implement it
into your lifestyle, you know?
Just little, little baby stepsat a time, one at a time.
(19:55):
Big change does not actuallyhappen overnight, even with
companies like new startupcompanies, they say, and
suddenly we are overnightsensation, 30 years in the
making.
It took 30 years to get there,30 years of one step at a time,
baby steps.
And then they look back and theysee all that they've
accomplished and it's abeautiful thing.
And so that's kind of how healthis also, you know.
(20:15):
One baby step at a time so thatwhen you're old and all of your
friends have these chronicillnesses, you can look back and
say, wow, all of those smallsteps that I took have impacted
me in such a great way.
You know?
So, then there's also the food.
What do you think about thefood, Katie?
Katie (20:34):
Yeah, we've kind of touched a little bit on this in
the past, but food, it's one ofthose things that I actually am
starting to believe is like oneof the most important changes in
your health journey to make thegreatest impact on it because
our body actually uses the foodto heal itself to make new
(20:58):
cells, to build up our immunesystems.
It turns into the cholesterolthat we need in order to fight
off infections.
and And so if we're not eatinggood, nutritious foods, then we
are actually doing ourselves adisservice.
Chrissy (21:17):
That's interesting that you mention that cholesterol
helps to fight off infections.
Back to my job, we have a lot ofolder patients come in and old
patients who have a little bitmore body fat on them actually
have a higher likelihood ofhealing from an injury.
(21:39):
And they heal much quickerbecause their body has those
energy stores to be able to usein order to heal.
Whereas, elderly patients whoare very frail and are like
literally skin and bone and haveno fat on them.
They are the ones that'll godown with a hip fracture.
People always say fat is thedevil.
You don't want to eat fat, butfat is good for you.
(22:00):
It is healthy for your body tohave a certain level of fat on
it.
Even as young women, you know.
Your body needs a certain levelof fat in order to menstruate
properly, to create estrogen andprogesterone, and to manage the
monthly cycle.
You know, those are all verymuch fueled by fat levels in the
(22:22):
body.
Katie (22:22):
I actually was reading last night about cholesterol,
and that's kind of why I broughtit up because I learned, kinda
like you said, we are, we'retaught that fat and cholesterol
are the enemy in, in our food,and that we need to have the
reduced fat and the lowcholesterol, low sodium, all
these things, but we're actuallydoing our bodies a disservice a
lot of times when we arereducing these things and.
(22:48):
You know when you go to thedoctor and you get your blood
drawn and you have highcholesterol, it's actually more
a sign that something else iswrong in your body and, and it's
like the policemen showing up tothe scene where there's a lot of
crime going on.
The policemen are not theproblem in the situation.
The crime itself is the problem.
The policemen are showing up inorder to reduce the crime that's
(23:11):
going on in that situation.
Same thing as the cholesterol iscoming to try to repair the
inside of your blood vesselsbecause your blood vessels have
damage.
And so when cholesterol isthere, it's actually, it's like
a good thing that they're there,but it is a sign that something
else is wrong.
Right?
You know, if police are showingup to the scene.
(23:32):
It's not to say like, oh, let'sget rid of them and allow
whatever's going on to happen.
No.
That would ultimately lead toworse problems.
And it's also why I learned thislast night, that this is like
one of the reasons that if youare vegetarian and don't have a
lot of cholesterol in your diet.
It ultimately might lead tosomething like leaky gut
(23:53):
syndrome because the cholesterolis needed in order to repair the
gut lining And so if you'regetting rid of all this
cholesterol from your diet andnot allowing it to come in and
repair, it's actually worse foryou.
And so when you have your blooddrawn and you have high
cholesterol, it's not to say youneed to get rid of the
cholesterol by reducing yourcholesterol intake.
(24:15):
It's more like you need tofigure out what the problem is
in order to heal that, and thenthe cholesterol will go away on
its own.
Right?
If there's less crime in a city,the police won't have to be, as,
you know, vigilant in trying toreduce the crime.
They can just kinda go back totheir donut shops or something.
Chrissy (24:32):
And that's the beauty of the human body.
You know, like God created thebody to heal itself.
We have so many self-healingmechanisms that occur.
You know, think of, if a personis bleeding, they form a scab,
right?
But, the scab will only form ifthere's damage to the blood
vessel wall.
(24:52):
If there's no damage to theblood vessel wall, you don't
want a scab forming that willcause big problems, especially
if the scab is inside the bloodvessel, you know?
Then you get blood clots andthen you get a stroke or a heart
attack or something like that.
And so these protectionmechanisms that the body creates
are very good things.
(25:14):
But when you have a chronicproblem, and your body is using
these protection mechanismsconsistently and constantly and
not having any reprieve fromthese protection mechanisms,
that's when you get worseningproblems.
So the body has it's, we'll goback to the scab, you know, your
(25:34):
body clots off blood on purposeto prevent you from bleeding out
from a paper cut.
That is God's design for thebody to heal itself.
But if there is constant damageand those blood clots form in
order to block a blood vesselfrom bleeding out, but they form
(25:54):
in a major artery or a majorblood vessel.
Because of a chronic problem.
That's where we get severeproblems that could have been
prevented and even reversedbefore, severe permanent damage
has occurred.
And so, yeah, it, it's reallyamazing to see, like God created
our body to heal its itself, andGod created food in order to
(26:17):
help our body and to give ourbody the nutrients in order to
heal itself.
So.
I think the biggest focus is,let's get back to the way God
created food as beautiful andperfect as it was to begin with.
You know, we see it time andtime again in the Bible, people
using food and essential oilsand things like that as
(26:38):
medicinal remedies, in order tomanage illnesses and so it's,
it's biblical guys.
Katie (26:45):
It's Biblical.
Yes.
I, I actually have a runningdocument going of all of the,
like, health related remediesthat are mentioned throughout
the Bible and or just that weregoing on in biblical times, and
so we'll have to chat more aboutthat in another episode.
I learned the other dayrandomly, so our 1-year-old son
(27:10):
struggles with constipation andwe've been trying to figure out
all the things to do to helphim, and I read that a lot of
children when they're young,they really need a lot of fat
and cholesterol for their bodiesto just develop properly,
especially their brains.
But the other good thing aboutsomething like butter, like a
(27:30):
fat or even tallow, is that itcan really help your gut in
having bowel movements.
And so this one woman was like,get your son some grass fed,
organic butter and let him justeat it.
And I was like, that sounds sostrange
Chrissy (27:46):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (27:46):
But then so many other people were like, yes, that that
helps.
That has helped my child.
Like go and do that.
And I'm like, that sounds somuch better than trying to do
some sort of medication or justsomething else.
But we've been trying to heal itin some kind of dietary way
'cause you know, he's a1-year-old and starting to do
Chrissy (28:06):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (28:06):
that obviously he is still learning how to process it
all and after doing justbreastmilk
Chrissy (28:13):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (28:13):
and everything.
So, yeah, it's hard.
Chrissy (28:15):
Even with adults, in terms of constipation, I've
actually learned that, uh,concoction I make frequently for
my patients of coffee prunejuice and butter actually works
very well and tastes better thanyou would think.
Katie (28:30):
I actually have heard that like coffee and butter
stuff before, but Yeah.
for some reason I'm a coffeedrinker.
I'm drinking my wonderfulorganic coffee right now, but,
I've never considered puttingbutter in it.
So Chrissy, we've obviouslytalked about that if we don't
take care of ourselves now, it'sgoing to lead towards lots of
(28:52):
these expenses later in life.
Chrissy (28:55):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (28:55):
Do you think that there are ways that we can start
saving money today in ourjourney to become healthier
people?
Right?
So if we're trying to avoid thecosts later, but also don't want
to have a big influx of expensesto today to be healthy, are
there things that you are doingthat you actually have found
(29:16):
have saved you money but also.
You know, helping you becomemore healthy.
Like, I mean, avoiding alcoholis a really easy one because
it's literally taking somethingaway that you're not gonna spend
money on, but even justsomething that you are just
choosing to spend your moneydifferently on.
Chrissy (29:32):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So the two biggest ones thatcome to mind are my laundry
detergent and my bread.
The laundry detergent I startedmaking as a means to save money
because I always felt like ourbudget was just completely
destroyed every time I had tobuy toilet paper, paper towels,
and laundry detergent all at thesame time.
And so I actually make itmyself.
(29:54):
It takes me about 15 minutes andI only have to do it once a
year.
Now mind you, this is for afamily of two.
So if there's more people inyour family, it'll probably not
last you a whole year, but itcosts me.
About$15 for the first batch,and then$5 additionally every
year thereafter.
Just'cause the boxes that youwould get with the ingredients
can last you multiple batches ofthis detergent.
(30:16):
And so.
Yeah.
Uh, that's my biggest one.
I've actually shared the recipefor my laundry detergent on our
Facebook group.
It's called Crunchy ChristianMamas on a Budget.
Sorry, men.
You are not invited.
You gotta be a mama or a mama tobe or a want to be mama.
Or something of the sort inorder to, be in this group.
(30:38):
But I've shared it on there and,also you can really just Google
any homemade laundry detergentrecipe and you'll find it.
But it makes a whole five gallonbucket, lasts me a whole year
and cost me$5 a year.
So that one is like the biggestone that has saved us a ton of
money in the past.
Only two years that we've beendoing it, and then our bread
(30:59):
making, you know, walkingthrough the bread aisle in the
grocery store.
If you wanna spend$2 to$3 on aloaf of bread, you can, but it's
not gonna be good for you.
And even if you try to get thehealthy bread, that's like$5,$6,
$7 a loaf, you get thegluten-free bread, that can be
(31:20):
like$12 a loaf for this teenytiny little cardboard thing.
Those still have preservativesin them and they still have
enrichment with, syntheticvitamins and minerals that your
body can't actually process.
So it's really still not allthat good for you.
And so that's another methodthat my husband and I have used
(31:41):
to both benefit and improve ourhealth and benefit our checkbook
is, making our own bread fromscratch, grinding our own wheat
in order to do it.
Now, both of these items, thebread and the laundry detergent.
Do have a little bit of a timecost to them, but ultimately
that time cost is worth theamount of money that we are
(32:01):
saving, by doing it.
And so, yeah, our loaf of breadnow costs about$3 and 50 cents a
loaf.
And, it, it's benefited usmentally, emotionally,
physically, especiallyphysically.
Man, I feel so good after I eatmy bread.
I've actually noticed, two weeksago we for some reason just
didn't have a loaf.
We were so busy, we didn't get achance to make any bread and, I
(32:24):
started feeling myself getanemic.
I was tired.
I was cold, I was moody.
And then we made a loaf.
I had breakfast of my eggs andtoast as I usually do.
And like suddenly all thosesymptoms of feeling anemic just
went away and it was like, wow.
I can actually see the emotionalchanges in myself from the
(32:45):
vitamin and the mineraldeficiencies that I develop from
not maintaining a good intake ofthose vitamins and minerals.
And I see it quick, and itresolves itself pretty quick as
soon as I reintroduce thosevitamins and minerals that I
have in the fresh ground wheatbread.
So those are the two biggestthings that my husband and I do.
(33:06):
But there's, there's a lotothers.
Katie, what are the biggestthings that you guys do?
Katie (33:12):
A lot of the things that have actually helped us save
money have had a little bit of acost upfront, like an investment
upfront, but the largerinvestment in the front has
actually ended up saving us moremoney over time.
And a really good example ofthat, are cloth diapers.
(33:34):
So we have chosen to do clothdiapers with our son and we
actually did with our fosterdaughter for a while as well.
And, yes, cloth diapers can bedecently expensive.
They can be anywhere from like$10 to$30 per diaper.
However, when you do theanalysis of how much it costs
(33:59):
for diapers over the span of afew years for a child, the cost
for diapers for a baby's firstyear alone can range from 500 to
$1,000 or more.
You know, it depends on whetheryou choose to do like the Costco
diapers or if you are trying todo something a little bit
(34:22):
healthier because diapers dohave a lot of chemicals in them
that unfortunately can beendocrine disrupting in babies
long term.
And so if you're trying to dothe more healthy, less chemical
ridden diapers, those are goingto be much more expensive for
you.
However, if you choose to clothdiaper, that will avoid the
(34:45):
chemicals in the diapers thatmake them absorbent but they
also end up saving you moneyover time as well as they save
the planet, right then you don'thave as many diapers in the
trash and in the landfills andeverything.
So, I would recommend if youactually are trying to go the
cloth diaper route to get themused.
(35:07):
I know it kind of sounds weird,but if people are taking really
good care of the cloth diapers,they really can last you like a
decade or so.
Like you can use them for all ofyour children and you can pass
them on to other people, butthey just need to be well cared
for, and it's really simple.
You can use Chrissy's laundrydetergent, like you can make
(35:29):
your own laundry detergent, orjust get something really good
with no fragrance and that'snon-toxic as well.
And you can do sun bleaching,which is super helpful for them
and keeps them really pristine.
And so just putting them out inthe sun for a long time.
But I think like, so we got allof our diapers used as well.
Some, some of them were totallyfree from a family member, but
(35:51):
then others that we did buyused, it ended up being
somewhere around like five to$10a diaper at the end of buying
them all.
And so I think all in for ourdiapers.
So including the ones that wegot for free, we got all of them
for like less than a hundreddollars.
So you think about a hundreddollars for diapers for now.
(36:12):
My son's childhood, like ofdiapers, right?
Instead of the a thousanddollars per year that we could
have been spending on diapers.
So again, just like Chrissysaid, it does, there's a little
bit of a learning curve and itdoes require a little bit more
time because then the washingand taking care of them, and
some people think it's kind ofjust weird and gross in general,
(36:33):
but we have really loved usingthem and it's saved us a lot of
money.
Um, yeah.
Chrissy (36:41):
Do you have a second one that you guys use?
Katie (36:44):
Yeah.
Chrissy (36:45):
talk about chicken math?
Katie (36:47):
That's another one of those things too, that chickens
we have chickens.
We love our chickens, and itdoes cost a little bit of money
up front to buy the chickens.
Actually buying baby chicks issuper cheap.
They're, I think they were$5when they were babies.
They were only like a week oldor so, and they're about$5 per
chick, and it does cost money toget a coop and to get the food
(37:12):
and all of those things.
But again, if you go on FacebookMarketplace, we got a really
awesome coop for like 50% of theactual cost of the coop, and it
was still in really great shapeand my husband did have to drive
all the way, like three hoursaway into the mountains to go
get it.
But it was so worth it becausethis coop has been awesome for
(37:33):
us so yes, there is that costupfront, but you know, I'd have
to do the math, but over time ithas started to save us money,
but it takes a few years inorder for it to really save you
money because of the largerupfront cost.
If you move into a house thatalready has a chicken coop, or
you inherit one for free, thenthe cost would significantly
(37:57):
decrease over time, and it wouldmake it more cost effective to
do it that way.
So, we did actually get rid ofpart of our chicken coop
recently for free.
We just put posted on a Facebookmarketplace and, I had so many
people ask me for it, eventhough I told them, it is kind
of a piece of junk and it'sgonna fall apart.
And they were like, yeah, I, Istill want it.
Because again, there's that costbenefit of just repairing it
(38:19):
versus getting something brandnew.
So, anyway, chickens arewonderful they're much easier
than having a dog, honestly.
And we have so many eggs.
We right now, unfortunately, abunch of our chickens were
attacked recently, and we onlyhave two left, and we still get
about a dozen eggs per week.
Chrissy (38:41):
And then also in addition to that, what about the
immune benefits that you getfrom having chickens around.
You know, I've seen that kidswho grow up on farms or like
around, animals a lot tend tohave higher immune systems
because their bodies areintroduced to all of those
microorganisms at such a youngage that they develop a super
(39:03):
strong immune system also.
Which then helps them in thefuture when they're older, to
combat any illnesses that theymight develop.
And their body can fight themoff much quicker and sometimes
without you even realizing it,you know?
So there's also that, which isreally beneficial, not just
monetarily, but that goes intothat, emotional and mental and
(39:23):
physical cost, benefit analysis.
Yeah,
Katie (39:27):
I think you've read that book.
I have not read it yet, but thatbook, called Eat Dirt by Dr.
Josh Axe.
Chrissy (39:33):
Oh yeah.
Katie (39:34):
And literally I mean, Yes, will be sitting outside and
just eating twigs off the groundand he's not physically like
swallowing them, but he's justmunching on them and chewing on
them.
And I'm like, yeah, buddy.
You just, you're just eat yourlittle twig there.
Have fun and build up thatimmune system and just get all
the little organisms in thereand yeah, and it's, it's been
(39:54):
really good.
We also, I mean thinking aboutlike outside and just being
outside, like gardening isanother one of those things that
has so many benefits.
Obviously there is the monetarybenefit of it saves you money
because you're literally growingyour own food.
There's again, a small cost upfront to get seeds and if you
don't already have a garden setup, you will need to either get
(40:17):
garden beds or get the toolsnecessary or set up a sprinkler
system.
There's, there can be a highcost barrier, um, when you get
into gardening.
But again, over time it willsave you hundreds of dollars in
just a season alone, if notthousands of dollars depending
(40:38):
on how much you grow and, andyour skills and, and gardening.
And so it saves you money inthat way.
But there, there's a lot ofresearch out there on the
benefit of gardening to yourhealth in general.
Like not just the food, butphysically being outside,
getting active, getting yourvitamin D, just the fresh air
and like the emotional boostthat you get from growing and,
(41:02):
you know, bringing something tolife like that.
I, have only started gardeningtwo years ago and it has been
such a game changer for mebecause it's an amazing hobby
that I have found so much likehappiness from, and just getting
back to again, that whole ideaof like how God designed and
(41:27):
made everything to work togetherso perfectly.
It is so cool to see how Goddesigned, taking just a tiny
little seed, putting it in theground, tending to it, and then
it grows this abundance of,fruits or veggies, something for
you to eat and then nourishyourself on.
And it also, I mean, when yougarden, especially if you're
(41:48):
doing it organically and notusing any kind of pesticides or,
chemical fertilizer, if you doit organically, your soil will
be so much better for it.
And the foods that you producefrom that soil will be much more
nutrient dense.
I read also when
Chrissy (42:09):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (42:09):
I was learning about that cholesterol stuff, that our
vegetables and even eggs fromchickens and our milk, when they
are raised on the conventionalagricultural system, they have
an imbalance of Omega-6 toOmega-3 fatty acids.
You need like a one-to-one ratiofor your body to produce the
(42:34):
proper cholesterol levels andeverything and when they are
depleted of the nutrientsthrough the conventional
agricultural system, we have animbalance of 19 times higher
Omega-6 fatty acids to Omega-3fatty acids.
(42:54):
And so our bodies have thisoverabundance of Omega-6.
When you have too much Omega-6,it actually blocks your body
from making prostaglandins,which is what you need in order
to fight off cancerous cells andto fight off infections and
viruses, and so the Omega-6fatty acids actually block the
(43:16):
prostaglandins from being foughtoff.
Anyway, I won't get into toomany more details.
I was super nerding out on itlast night and I was like, oh my
gosh, this is crazy.
And so, there's so much benefitto growing your own food or even
just switching to organic.
But if you're looking to doorganic foods, more cost
effectively, gardening is anamazing way to do that.
And there's so many benefitsbesides just the, like health
(43:39):
benefits and monetary benefits,
Chrissy (43:42):
That that's true.
And also for those of you whodon't have a yard or an
extensive space outside forgardening.
You can garden in pots.
We only have like a back deckpretty much in our neighborhood
that is our property.
The rest of the property ispublic property, and so we're
not allowed to grow things onthe lawns or anything like that.
(44:04):
But, my next door neighboractually has big pots on his
deck of all of his fruits andvegetables that he grows, and
he'll just like come over with awhole gallon sized bag of
Maters.
He calls'em maters.
They're not tomatoes.
They're maters.
He's like, here's some maters.
But they are so delicious.
Honestly, the best tomatoes I'veever had.
And so you don't need space.
(44:25):
All you need is a little bit oftime.
Katie (44:27):
Exactly.
Speaking of time,Chrissy, wehave been chatting for quite a
while, so don't we wrap it up
Chrissy (44:35):
Yes.
Katie (44:36):
Um, I think my last thoughts are just encourage
people that you know, overallYour time and your money in a
solution that's going to helpprevent you from incurring both,
you know, the financial and theintangible costs is absolutely
(45:00):
worth it.
And committing to improving yourdiet or your lifestyle now today
will impact your life and thelives of your family members and
those around you by stayinghealthy.
So I would just encourage youthat, if you don't have a budget
for these kinds of things yet,learn how to budget first and
(45:23):
plan for these expenses that youmight incur from making this
kind of change in yourlifestyle.
This is, honestly, you willthank yourself later.
And I'm, and I'm saying that aslike a 30-year-old, right?
I'm in my thirties, and.
I don't really know the costbenefit yet from growing old and
(45:45):
making this lifestyle change,but I have seen many individuals
who are twice my age who arestruggling with chronic illness
or lots of their friends now aregetting really sick and they're
dealing with the stress and thepain of chronic illnesses and I
(46:06):
know that I want to be healthyand vibrant and just have the
energy to live a long life formy son who's around, but also so
that way I can continue to dokingdom work long-term without
needing to spend lots of my timebattling chronic illnesses that
(46:29):
could have been prevented when Iwas in my thirties and things
like that.
So that's my inspiration isseeing the struggle and the pain
that other people have beendealing with and trying to work
hard now and learning all that Ican now to avoid that later.
So that's why we have reallyinvested both our time and our
financial resources topreventing these things in the
(46:51):
first place.
So I would just encourage peoplethat if you're not doing that,
start now wherever you're at,even if you are twice my age
Chrissy (46:58):
It is never too late to start.
All right, well, with that, wejust wanna let you guys know
that we pray over each of youguys and we hope that these
episodes can be helpful in yourjourney to becoming a better
steward of your body, your mind,your soul, your spirit, your
finances, and your families.
We are praying that this episodewas helpful for you and we will
(47:20):
see you next time.
Katie (47:21):
See you next time.
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