October 17, 2025 • 57 mins
Join Chrissy and Katie for a very real life update episode! In this candid conversation, the cousins dive into what's really happening behind the scenes of their crunchy journeys.
Chrissy shares her intensive 6-month gut reset program with a naturopathic doctor—complete with dramatic sugar withdrawals, surprising food discoveries (yes, even sushi has sugar!), and the emotional rollercoaster of preparing her body for pregnancy naturally. Meanwhile, Katie opens up about the chaos and decision fatigue of renovating their new 2.5-acre homestead, from researching non-toxic paints to learning that LED lights might be affecting more than just your circadian rhythm (spoiler: it gets wacky...)
You'll also hear about DIY cough drop experiments, balcony garden planning, the great almond butter debate, why carrots are flammable, and how God's grace covers even our crunchy failures.
Plus: The cousins need YOUR help naming these special life update episodes—drop your ideas in the comments or Facebook group!
Topics covered: gut health protocols, sugar addiction, healthy home renovations, non-toxic building materials, balcony gardening, DIY health remedies, and finding peace in overwhelming seasons.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chrissy (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
(00:02):
My name is Chrissy Rombach.
Katie (00:04):
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 (00:20):
In our podcast, we take deep dives into what it means to
steward our lives as Godoriginally intended for us with
the resource that he has alreadygiven us.
We look at topics like food,medicine, finances, mental
health, and tons more through anatural lens and with a biblical
foundation.
Katie (00:37):
Now we are going to dive into today's episode, and we're
actually going to do a kind oflife update episode.
We did one, I think about like10 episodes or so ago.
I can't remember what we decidedthat we're gonna do these every
like 10 or so episodes just tokind.
Give you guys an update of likewhat we're doing in our lives,
(01:00):
what we're learning specificallyin the moment.
Not just like,'cause everyepisode we have, we're, we're
teaching you about what we'relearning, but every episode
typically is focused on onetopic, where these kind of life
update behind the scenes what'sgoing on, of episodes are just
(01:21):
like a random hodgepodge of allof our random revelations.
And so because of that, we aregoing to actually skip over our
segment called RandomRevelations, um, and just kind
of dive into what's going on inlife.
And actually this is a, this isa shout out or a, call for
(01:41):
action or assistance help, ifyou may, um, that we need help
these episodes where likethey're kind of.
Behind the scenes of our lives.
I'd like to come up with somefun, catchy phrase or name for
it, because I don't know, I, Ihave another podcast that I
(02:03):
listen to and they have the,their episodes like this are
called Behind the Mic, and Ithink that's so cool.
So like whenever you see ontheir episodes, they have like a
Behind the Mic episode.
I really like those ones becauseyou're like, oh, it's just
totally about what they're doingand their lives and they're just
kind of chitchatting andwhatever.
anyway, I obviously don't wannasteal the name of their
(02:26):
episodes, so if you have an ideaof what to call these specific
episodes where it's just usgabbing about life and what is
going on.
Let us know we could use helpbecause we have not come up with
anything yet.
Um, this is only the secondepisode like this, so it's not
like we have a ton of them, butwe'll do them every 10 ish
(02:47):
episodes, uh, from here on out.
And yeah, it just kind of givesus a chance to let you guys know
what's going on in life.
Now before we actually dive intothis and share all of our life's
details, if you've been enjoyingour podcast, please be sure that
you are subscribed to it andleave us a rating and review to
(03:08):
let others know that you areenjoying it.
It does help people find thispodcast, and feel free to share
these episodes with a friendthat you feel like would enjoy
joining along on this journeythat we are going on to just,
yeah, learn more about honoringGod with our lives and with our
(03:28):
health and, and all thingscrunchiness.
So yeah, be sure to share itaround.
So without further ado, we will.
I don't know.
We're just kind of diving rightin and it's kind of like, I
don't even know where we'regoing with this episode because
these episodes we literallydon't plan anything except for
kind of coming to it with like,oh yeah, maybe I could share
about this, and I'm doing thisin life.
(03:50):
So, why don't you kick us offand just share with us what is
going on.
We know last time you kind ofshared with us that you got a
new job and I don't know, tellus what's going on, girl.
Chrissy (04:04):
Yeah, so new job life is going well.
It's still quite the transitionof figuring out how to switch my
mindset from three 12 hourshifts a week to five shifts a
week for eight hours a day.
Um, but you know, it's working,it's going.
Um, I'm enjoying my new job.
(04:25):
The stress levels are way lowerthan working in the hospital, so
that's a plus for those of youwho don't know.
I'm now working in home health.
So I essentially, um, am goingto a bunch of patients who have
chronic illnesses, who are newlydiagnosed with chronic illnesses
or if they have chronic wounds.
And I'm essentially justteaching them how to manage
(04:46):
their illnesses and also helpingthem heal their wounds.
Um, and so it's an environmentwhere I personally have a lot of
freedom.
To share recommendations andthings like that.
And so, um, it's one of the fewplaces in healthcare where
nurses can suggest things andpatients can do it without
(05:08):
really needing a doctor'sorders.
So I don't need a doctor'sorders to tell my patients to
drink bone broth, to heal theirwounds or to drink beet juice to
heal their wounds or to decreasetheir carbohydrate intake for
their diabetes, which mostdiabetics already know that
they're just very, very bad atactually decreasing their
carbohydrate intake.
(05:29):
But that is honestly a strugglefor all of us.
Um, so in addition to this newjob that's going well, my
husband Max and I have started anew, um.
I guess I would call it a gutreset program.
Uh, we are working with anaturopath doctor, because as
(05:52):
many of you know, we've beentrying to get pregnant for a
while and it has not beenworking as of yet.
And so we didn't really want togo to a fertility clinic'cause I
wasn't loving the idea ofinjecting myself with synthetic
hormones to force a pregnancy ona body that's just not ready for
(06:12):
it.
And I was like, okay, how can Icreate a body that is truly
ready for a baby?
Because ultimately I wanna bringa baby into a healthy world, a
good place to be.
And that starts with my bodybeing at its peak health.
And so, and you know, max is 50%of the equation and so he's
doing it with me.
And, um, so we're doing a sixmonth program with a
(06:37):
naturopathic doctor right now.
Um.
And essentially the programstarts off with weaning down our
diets to just meat andvegetables.
And then after we've taken amonth to wean down, we stay at
that place for about a month ofeating just meat and vegetables.
(06:57):
And it's like a full detoxduring the second month.
And then during month threethrough six, we slowly but
surely add different food itemsback in.
And let me tell you guys, I didnot know how addicted I was to
sugar.
I thought I wasn't addicted tosugar.
Honestly, I'm very quick to.
(07:19):
Not eat the dessert.
And if I do eat the dessert,it's not like a, oh my gosh, I
need it right now.
It's more of like a, oh, that'lltaste kind of nice to have after
dinner.
And so I'll have a bite or so,like I'm not a multiple servings
of dessert kind of person whenI'm going for a snack in the
afternoon.
It's like a piece of fruit orsome Turkey and cheese, like not
(07:42):
super high in sugar.
Things that I thought.
But then they told us to takeout sugar.
And let me tell you, when I sawthat sugar was in legitimately
everything.
Bacon has sugar in it.
Sausage has sugar in it.
(08:03):
The sushi you get at the grocerystore has sugar in it.
Don't ask me why the sushi hassugar in it.
I don't know.
Couldn't figure that one out.
But it does.
So literally everything hassugar in it.
Both Max and I experienced quitesignificant mood swings coming
off of the sugar.
Um, and then of course the weekafter they took out sugar, then
(08:27):
they took out caffeine.
And so, um, needless to say,
Katie (08:33):
I didn't realize you were doing caffeine too.
Chrissy (08:35):
oh my goodness, Katie, I'll go through the whole, the,
the process of weaning down.
It's quite intense.
But yeah, so I'm off of sugarnow.
I'm off of caffeine andsurprisingly enough, I actually
feel incredibly better and Ihave way more energy now than I
(08:59):
did before taking even justthose two things outta my diet.
So the sugar was the first weekand then the second week they
took out gluten, caffeine, andcorn.
Corn is also very inflammatoryand has a pretty high glycemic
index.
Um, so that was the second week,this third week we are in right
(09:22):
now.
So we're still working onweaning things down.
We're really not even at themeat and vegetable.
Well, no, at this point we'repractically at the meat and
vegetables diet, but there's afew more things that they're
taking out next week.
But this week they took out soydairy of all forms.
Um, they took out grains of allforms, including even like brown
(09:45):
rice and quinoa, which aregenerally good for you, but when
you're healing your gut, theycan be inflammatory.
what else did they take out thisweek?
oh.
They took out white potatoes,which white potatoes have a very
high glycemic index also.
And they took out alcohol, whichhonestly was kind of already.
Scratch with the sugar part,'cause alcohol has a lot of
(10:08):
sugar in it.
But those were the steps forthis week and next week they
take out tomatoes.
I know that for sure.
Katie (10:17):
Really?
Chrissy (10:18):
told yes tomatoes because I guess they're really
acidic and can cause irritationI don't know.
But I guess we're making chilithis week because, um, we we're
trying to figure out ways tocook and.
We already cooked prettyhealthy, but it often ended up
being like, um, meat, rice, andvegetable or meat, potato,
(10:41):
vegetable.
And now it's kind of becoming,okay, meat, vegetable,
vegetable, or let's make a fullsoup.
We made a minoni soup the othernight that didn't have any pasta
in it, but it was mostly justlike the vegetables and the meat
of regular.
And we actually does regularminoni soup have meat in it?
(11:03):
I don't think so, but we addedthe chicken, and it was
delicious.
Let me tell you, that was likeone of the most filling meals I
had had in a very, very longtime.
Another thing that I've noticedwith this is even within like
one week of taking out sugar.
(11:24):
I have realized that mysensitivity to sweet things has
grown dramatically.
So for instance, I have thesebrownies that I make.
They're no baked brownies.
They're fantastic.
I love them to death.
They are made of dates, cocoapowder, vanilla, and walnuts,
and that's it.
(11:45):
But when I was eating a lot moresugar in my diet, they were
rather bitter, and I didn'treally like them being so
bitter.
And so I would even likesprinkle some monk fruit on top
or some honey over top of it tomake it a little bit sweeter.
But now, after taking sugar outof my diet completely, these
(12:05):
brownies are like the sweetestthings on the planet.
I take a bite and I'm like, holymoly.
It's like a whole new world.
And then berries are almost liketoo sweet to me right now
because.
Like I, I'm not eating anythingelse that's sweet except for a
little bit of fruit.
(12:26):
And so like every time I take abite of fruit, I'm like, oh, it
kind of punches me in the facewith how sweet they are.
So that's the biggest updateswith what Max and I are doing in
our lives.
And let me tell you, it's been awhirlwind the last few weeks.
Katie (12:41):
Yeah, it's, it is kind of crazy when you start to realize
like how much sugar is ineverything.
I found that a lot of condimentshad sugar, especially like salad
dressings.
So we've actually.
We've basically stopped buyingsalad dressings at all, and we
(13:01):
just make all of our own.
Um, and so, you know, then thatit doesn't have sugar and it
doesn't have seed oils, whichare the two culprits in so many,
uh, different salad dressings.
So that was a big one for uswhen we stopped doing lots of
sugar.
We, I still really enjoy naturalsweeteners, and I think that you
(13:22):
told me off podcasts that youcan't do any natural sweeteners
either, but maple syrup is likeone of my and I love maple syrup
on lots of things.
Um, especially on my oatmeal.
I love that flavor in myoatmeal, so I'm like, that would
be, so that would be hard.
Chrissy (13:39):
Growing up, did you eat the little Quakers packets of
maple and brown sugar oatmeal?
Katie (13:44):
oh my gosh, Chrissy eat, I ate one of those again
recently and then not superrecently, it was like a few
months ago, and this is after Istopped.
eating a lot of the sweet stuff.
That stuff is so nasty to me nowbecause it is like
Chrissy (13:58):
Really?
Katie (13:59):
sugary.
Like it is
Chrissy (14:01):
You know,
Katie (14:02):
eating
Chrissy (14:02):
I was, it pretty much is, but I was very surprised at
the ingredients in it.
I was expecting high fructosecorn syrup and xantham gum and
like all of these preservativesand things like that.
The ingredients, aside fromsugar are decently clean,
honestly, with that oatmeal.
But I agree.
(14:23):
When I was a kid, I'd be able toeat like the whole box in a day
in one sitting.
I would just go at it and nowit's like, no, definitely not.
Katie (14:33):
same thing with a, a lot of cereals.
We grew up, um, eating a lot ofhoney bunches of oats, which we
always called almond cerealgrowing up, and now that cereal
is very sweet to me.
I, I actually don't know if itofficially, it probably has
sugar.
It's, it's pretty sweet.
(14:54):
Uh, but yeah, we, I, we'vereally been trying to not eat
cereal like at all because it isno, even if it has really clean
ingredients, it's still heavilyprocessed in general to get
those flaky bits that you havein cereal.
We've, it, that's been one ofthe hardest things for us
(15:15):
because both Wes and I cereal alot, and so we've done a really
good job.
Like whittling that down in ourown diets.
But I'd say still like a coupletimes a week we'll have cereal
for breakfast or for like asnack or something like that,
that that's been hard.
And we have a couple brands fromCostco that are decently clean.
(15:40):
It's actually, this is the, thisis the challenge that we have
found.
You can either get like theorganic brand, but it has seed
oils in it, even though they'relike organic seed oils.
Or you can get the non-organicbrand, but it doesn't have seed
oils in it.
And so you're kind of like, ugh.
Because when it comes to cereal,there's a lot of like, whether
(16:04):
it's processed corn or wheat oroats or something like that, and
those crops are very heavilysprayed and they're very
heavily, oftentimes geneticallymodified.
And so you know that if it's notorganic.
you are basically eatingglyphosate for breakfast.
(16:24):
And so it's like, which, whichtrade off do you make?
Do you eat the non-organic onethat has lots of pesticides and
might be genetically modified?
Or do you eat the one that isorganic but has lots of seed
oils in it?
And it's like seed oil sometimeswill be like the second
ingredient or something andyou're like, why does this have
(16:45):
so much vegetable oil in it?
Or canola oil or flaxseed or
Chrissy (16:49):
So I have to ask you, what has been your go-to
breakfast thing then, sinceyou've gotten cereal out or have
weaned down on the cereal?
Katie (16:58):
oatmeal?
I really like oatmeal.
I like it too because I can makeit pretty
Chrissy (17:05):
Uh.
Katie (17:05):
anything.
So we, we get a big thing oforganic oatmeal from Azure
Standard, uh, and.
It, it's like something like 10pounds of oatmeal.
It's a lot, it's a lot ofoatmeal.
And I, I add a lot of differentstuff into it.
I love adding some kind ofprotein powder to it.
(17:26):
Wes likes a chocolate proteinpowder.
I just like a vanilla one sothat the other flavors of other
things come out.
'cause I then I'll add likecinnamon and, uh, flax seed and
chia seed.
And I have some like bee pollenthat I add in a little bit of,
and of course I add some maplesyrup.
(17:46):
Oftentimes after I cook it, I'lladd a splash of my raw milk.
Um, and then typically a fruit,whether it's, we, we get a lot
of, uh, frozen fruit from AzureStandard too.
So we get like five pound bagsof organic fruits.
And keep those frozen.
So we'll add like blueberries orstrawberries, or sometimes I'll
mash in a banana and put it inthere and then sprinkle on some
(18:11):
kind of nut on top.
Typically walnuts is my go-to,so that's like my go-to
breakfast.
Uh, otherwise I have been tryingto do more eggs just to get more
protein in the morning.
Um, I definitely have a sweettooth even though we, we've been
doing pretty well, staying awayfrom sugar, like the white cane
(18:32):
sugar kind of stuff, it's hardfor me to get away from just
sweet stuff in general.
So something like maple syrup oreven fruit, I, I definitely tend
to lean towards wanting thatkind of stuff for breakfast
versus a more savory breakfastlike.
Uh, sausage and eggs andpotatoes I do.
(18:54):
I actually crave that kind ofbreakfast food for lunch, and
that's actually what I had forlunch today, now that I think
about it.
I had an egg some potatoes andsome zucchini and just all
cooked it in one pan basically,and that's what I had for lunch.
That's like my favorite kind oflunch right now, is that kind of
stuff, which is just kind offunny.
Chrissy (19:16):
That's great.
I love it.
Since, um, taking ev literallyeverything outta my diet.
Another thing that they'veencouraged us to do that's like
part of the program is having,two servings of cooked
vegetables with every meal andto have 50% of our calories
coming from good fats.
I think I mentioned the wholelist of good fats in the last
(19:39):
episode and beef tallow wasn'tincluded in there, but I think
I'm including beef tallow in mygood fats list.
But yeah, so I've been havingfrittatas for breakfast and they
are so good.
I'm just talking like two eggsand some red pepper, spinach,
onion, boom.
(19:59):
Done so good with a littleavocado on the side.
Sometimes I'll have a handfulof.
Raw cashews.
Those have actually, so withthis whole like taking sugar
out, we've definitely had a lotof sugar cravings and one thing
they recommended was to, if youneed to snack, they, they don't
recommend snacking at all, butif you need to snack, they
(20:22):
recommend snacking on raw nuts,specifically raw cashews,
because they have a really highfat content and a really low
sugar content.
And so the fat content gives youthat long-term energy and it
doesn't give you the quickburst, and then you're quickly
hungry again.
So it actually, I've evennoticed, like it's kept me
(20:44):
pretty satisfied for quite awhile, so that's been good.
Katie (20:48):
That's my go-to snack.
We get, that's another thingthat we get from Azure Standard
or like these big five poundbags of organic nuts.
And so actually make like ahomemade, uh, trail mix and so
put all the nuts in there.
I put some, uh.
I was like, what are thosethings called?
(21:09):
It's not raisins.
I don't like raisins.
I do like cranberries though.
Put some cranberries in there.
I do have chocolate chips in it,which they're not any healthy
brand of chocolate chip.
Man.
My goodness.
If anybody has a good chocolatechip recommendation of something
more healthy, that is so hard.
(21:31):
They, the ones that I've seenare so expensive and it is just
not worth it for me.
Sometimes like the organic, thebetter stuff is like slightly
more expensive and I'm like,that's okay.
But the chocolate chips are likemore than double and it is like,
oh my gosh,
Chrissy (21:48):
Your own.
Katie (21:49):
chocolate chips.
Chrissy (21:51):
Yeah,
Katie (21:52):
How?
Chrissy (21:53):
melt.
Um, I think it's, don't quote meon this, I think it's either
coconut oil or butter.
Cocoa powder, and then some formof sweetener, which I think you
can pretty much use anysweetener That would be good.
And you just like melt it in apan and they sell like these,
(22:16):
um, silicone molds essentially,and you just like pour it into
the silicone mold.
And then once they're dry andcooled off, you have like
chocolate chips.
Katie (22:28):
Chrisy.
Chrissy (22:28):
Don't quote me on the recipe, but I'm pretty sure
that's, I've seen it done onInstagram, which means it has to
be true.
Katie (22:34):
good idea.
I actually never, I've never, I,like I am usually a person who's
like, I can make that in, infact, I really wanna make these,
I don't know if anyone's seenthem.
They're like the, uh.
Quinoa, chocolate, like snacks.
They're really good.
Um, and I was like, I couldtotally make those and you have
(22:56):
to like, like make your quinoapuffed and stuff.
So you have to like cook it acertain way.
All this stuff.
And, and I've looked up somerecipes and I like, it's on my
list of things to do to make,because I really like that and I
wanna use like a good chocolateto do it.
I never, for a, like, for asecond even considered making
chocolate
Chrissy (23:14):
Chocolate chip.
Yeah, it was probably cheaperthan even regular chocolate
chips too, with the amount thatyou can get from it.
I think your biggest cost therewould be the cocoa powder.
Katie (23:24):
I was thinking about when you were explaining your recipe
for making the chocolate chips,that you could do kind of the
same thing and melt it all down,but instead of getting like a
mold for all the chip chocolatechips, you could hypothetically,
I don't know if this will work,you could put it in like a
baking sheet.
(23:44):
Like even just the one that haslike the half an inch lip or
whatever, so it doesn't spillover the sides and then chill
it, so freeze it or something.
And then, you know, in my mind,this would work out.
I don't know how it would dumpit out and then break it down.
Kind of like how you would make,uh.
Uh, what's it called?
Peppermint bark.
You know, when you like, you putit in the sheet pan kind of
(24:06):
thing, and then you just breakit up into the chunks that you
like, the sizes that you want.
Well, hyper like hypothetically.
Again, I don't know if this willwork, you could just break it
down into smaller bits whereit's more like chocolate flex,
so they wouldn't be a uniformsize or anything.
And then you'll get some thatare bigger or smaller or
something, but that could beanother way that you can make
your own like chocolate chippy,like things without necessarily
(24:28):
needing a mold.
I should try that.
I don't know why I've neverthought of that.
Hmm.
Chrissy (24:33):
That's your new job this week.
Let us know on the next podcast.
Katie (24:36):
Also, melted chocolate is just so good.
Like literally if you like meltchocolate and butter and just
eat it together, this the like
Chrissy (24:43):
Okay.
Can I tell you the thing that Ihave been eating by the spoonful
lately?
Almond butter.
Literally, like I, I learnedthat celery dipped in almond
butter is like the best thingsince sliced bread because
sliced bread is illegal for meright now.
Um, and yeah, celery, my husbandcame home and he was like, Hey
(25:06):
babe, I'm really feeling somecelery and almond butter.
Do you?
Where did that head of celerygo?
That we bought yesterday?
And I was like, oh, um, it'sgone.
I ate it.
It's completely in my tummy.
Katie (25:22):
Oh my gosh.
I, I like almond butter, but Ialso sometimes don't like almond
butter.
It has like a slightly differentconsistency than peanut butter,
it's almost like I want it tohave the same consistency as
peanut butter, but slightlytastes different.
so sometimes I just don't reallylike it.
What brand of almond butter doyou use?
(25:43):
Do you know?
Chrissy (25:45):
I currently have two brands in the pantry because I
have this tendency to notrealize when we have enough
peanut butter or almond butteror any kind of those
Katie (25:57):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (25:57):
nut butters.
I just don't realize when wehave enough and I'm going to the
grocery store and I'm like, oh,we need more of that.
And so I just throw it in thecart.
And so we end up with like fivejars.
And it also is different jarsdepending on which grocery store
I'm at.
So when I went to Sprouts, I gotthe Sprouts brand.
Very good.
Love it.
Then I went to Whole Foods anddid my whole, oh, I don't think
(26:20):
I bought almond butter.
I'm gonna buy some, forgettingthat I already bought almond
butter, and so I put theJustin's brand in the cart.
Um, I haven't actually triedthat one yet, but I can try it
right now if you want me to.
I'm kidding.
I won't do that.
Um, but yeah,
Katie (26:40):
that
Chrissy (26:40):
the, the Sprouts one is pretty decent.
The one thing that I've realizedthough, is important to stay
away from with any of thesebutters.
Peanut butter, almond butter,cashew butter, whatever you're
looking at, the nut butters ismake sure you don't get the no
stir, because the ones that areno stir actually have additional
(27:01):
seed oils added to them, andthat's what makes the
consistency that you don't needto stir it.
So I.
You know, unfortunately, it isnecessary to stir the nut butter
because if you're not needing tostir it, then they've added more
things into it to make it thatway, which is quite unfortunate
(27:23):
in my opinion.
But it is the reality of eatingnatural.
You know, like God didn't createour food to be convenient.
He created our food to bedelicious and nourishing, and
it's often a tossup of you haveto make a choice.
Do you want convenience or doyou want delicious and
nourishing?
And it's up to you to make thatchoice.
Katie (27:42):
Yeah.
Hard choices sometimes.
I actually, my favorite place tohave almond butter is in a
smoothie.
I mix it in with smoothies, andI like that.
I like the flavor, like thecompliment to the fruit more
than I do peanut butter in mysmoothies.
So, I don't know, just kind of arandom, A random thing.
Chrissy (28:03):
Another thing that I've actually done my, my first round
was kind of a fail, but I have astrategy in place on how to make
it not a fail, is I made my owncough drops.
So when Max goes on work trips,he is talking a ton.
He will literally go to theseconferences and be talking all
(28:25):
afternoon and his voice is justcompletely shot by the end of
the time.
And so he usually, when he goesto his work trips, is eating
cough drops left and right totry to keep his voice up.
this year I decided, you knowwhat?
I'm gonna try to make our owncough drops for you so that that
way when you go, you know, youdon't have to worry about eating
so much sugar with your coughdrops.
(28:47):
Because that's one of thebiggest problems with cough
drops is like you're getting aton of sugar, like artificial
colors, artificial flavors, andthen menthol, which like can be
every now and then one drop ofmenthol is not, not a problem,
but you know when your voice is,you have a sore throat or you
have a cold or something likethat, you're kind of popping
cough, cough drops left andright.
(29:07):
And so.
That can cause some problems.
And so I made these, um, they'remore like, uh, jelly consistency
of cough drops.
And the ingredients were, if Iremember correctly, honey, lemon
juice, ginger and agar agarpowder, which essentially is a
(29:29):
plant-based gelatin.
Um, it's derived from redseaweed, which apparently has a
lot of really great healthbenefits to it.
I dunno, whenever I did theresearch, that's what I got.
Some of my jelly drops turnedout fine.
Some of them never reallysolidified and just stayed
(29:49):
melty.
So I think my problem was Ididn't actually like melt it
down long enough.
You know, with like gelatin ingeneral, you kind of need to
like stir it on the pot for awhile on low heat for it to
actually jello, jello wisebecome jello.
Katie (30:09):
Jello eyes.
I like that word.
Chrissy (30:11):
Yeah.
Become a jelly-like thing.
Um, and I think I was justimpatient and didn't stir it for
long enough on the stove, butyeah, so they tasted really
good.
And next time we need coughdrops.
I fully intend on making thembecause unfortunately they're, I
mean, they're natural just likeeverything else.
And so they actually have anexpiration date, and their
(30:34):
expiration date is not threeyears down the road.
It's actually like a week or twodown the road.
So it's one of those things thatyou like, make it when you need
it, keep the ingredients on handand you know when you need it,
you make it.
And honestly, lemon juice ispretty easy to always have on
hand.
Ginger, it's very cheap from thegrocery store.
Easy to get if you don't keep iton hand.
(30:56):
So, um, yeah, I've tried that.
It was a fail the first time Iplan on trying it again, and I'm
looking forward to it actuallyworking the second time.
But that's how a lot of thesethings are.
You know, you try new things,trying a new recipe, trying a
new, um, like medicinal thing,uh, with herbs and things like
(31:16):
that, you know.
We're going to mess up and we'regoing to fail a few times, but
that's the beauty of this isit's all just a lot of practice
and it really is just changingour lifestyle.
And so yeah, when you'rechanging your lifestyle in terms
of anything, you're going tomess up a little bit and that's
okay.
We just laugh about it and thentry again.
Katie (31:39):
Exactly.
That's why God's grace is sogood because we don't have to
have it all perfect the firsttime.
think that's one of those likebeautiful things that even
though we sin continuously,because like we're just sinful,
we're like our nature is just todefault to sin, which is just
(32:02):
the unfortunate reality of ourlives and it's just so good that
we have a God who just continuesto reign on us with His grace
every time we mess up becausewe're not going to get it
perfectly.
I know that that.
Messing up on your cough dropsis not a sin, but I just thought
(32:25):
there was a beautifulillustration there of God's
grace.
Chrissy (32:28):
You never know.
Katie (32:30):
It's kind of forcing it,
Chrissy (32:31):
Actually, it could become a sin depending on my
reaction.
Katie (32:35):
ah,
Chrissy (32:36):
The, the reaction to the cough drop mistake could be
sinful.
I don't think mine was becausewe really just laughed about it
and moved on.
But, um, yeah.
Another thing that I'm actuallylooking forward to doing is, um,
so in the spring I plan oncreating a garden.
(32:57):
Crazy enough, I, when we wereliving in our house, we had like
actual grass in the backyard andI kept making all these excuses
on why we couldn't have a gardenbecause, oh, we're in a rental
and blah, blah, blah.
And now I'm in a one bedroomapartment on the second floor
and I'm like, I'm gonna have agarden because that just makes
(33:17):
more sense.
So.
My plan is in January to createthis garden because, you know,
most things grow in the springand so I thought that was a good
starting time.
Um, we have approximately aboutlike 10 square feet on our
balcony where I can create, likeput a raised bed in and I've
(33:40):
been strategizing which produceoptions I can grow.
'cause I really, with thatlimited square footage, I'm kind
of limited to like three or fourdifferent veggies if that, if I
can get that many in there.
And so I'm doing a lot ofresearch right now to try to
figure out a, which ones weactually use quite frequently.
(34:04):
I'm like, okay, we use tomatoesand red peppers a lot more than
we use like sugar snap peas andlike love green beans.
But don't those, those require avine, kind of like a trellis
thing.
And I don't have a trellis so Ican't do that.
Garlic is great and onions aregreat, but do I really need that
many kind of thing?
Um, so I'm like analyzing whichones will go really well next to
(34:27):
each other, which ones we canhold off on.
And also like the financialcomponent of it, because there's
always a financial component ofwhich ones are gonna be most
beneficial towards our savingmoney.
You know, like can I get theseseeds from the organic produce
that I buy at the grocery storeand start my vegetable garden
(34:49):
from the seeds, from vegetablesthat I already bought.
So I'm strategizing and learningand planning and I've got about
a month and a half to figure itout until January comes.
No, two and a half months.
Katie (35:01):
like,
Chrissy (35:01):
Two and a half months.
Katie (35:02):
I was like, what month are you living in?
Chrissy (35:03):
I dunno.
My patients today didn't know,but I guess I don't know either.
Katie (35:08):
That's funny.
Uh, I'd suggest if you guys cookwith herbs, that's potentially a
good one because herbs can be.
and yet super easy to grow.
yeah, if you're looking forrecommendations to add, but
tomatoes are a really good one.
Chrissy (35:28):
I'm very bad at herbs.
I've done it.
I had a little, a tiny littleherb garden, and maybe my
problem was that I didn't givemy herbs enough space to grow,
but my basal leaves were veryskinny and kinda shrive even
when I was really good atwatering them.
And my oregano just likecompletely died very quickly.
(35:52):
It just went kaput.
I don't know what I did wrongthere, but I'll try it again
this year.
I mean, buying the full thing ofbasil and rosemary and things
like, it's like$20 for four of'em.
So.
buying the plant is not thesuper expensive part.
It,
Katie (36:09):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (36:10):
the harder part is actually figuring out how to
maintain them because I did notinherit my mother's green thumb.
Katie (36:18):
Mm.
Chrissy (36:19):
Unfortunately.
She actually, my mom has thebeautiful vegetable garden in
their new house.
It's like on the side of theirhouse.
You can't really see it veryoften until she like brings you
out and shows you her vegetablegarden.
They're growing like cucumbersand tomatoes and zucchinis and
like all these things.
I'm like, since when and I needto learn.
Katie (36:41):
gardening is a lot of fun.
I am really excited to to have agarden, hopefully this next
since we just bought a house.
And that's kind of where all myupdates come from is just all
house stuff, really.
And it is.
A lot of work right now.
(37:02):
So we closed on our house rightaround my birthday in September,
the end of September.
And we basically like a what?
The day after?
Yeah, we closed on Thursday andthen so Friday we started
ripping the kitchen out.
Like we just hit the groundrunning, started pulling things
out.
(37:22):
And now at this point it's beentwo-ish weeks and the whole
kitchen is out and we're justworking on the next things we
did.
So we did all the demo ourselvesto save money.
Um, you save like thousands ofdollars by not having
contractors come and do the workand throw out all the stuff for
(37:43):
you and all and and all thethings.
So we have been doing that andso now my.
Like the, it's reallyinteresting, like now going
through and thinking about allof the things now we want to put
into the house as far ascabinets go and appliances go.
And then you have to think aboutlight fixtures and trim and
(38:08):
flooring and even the paint onyour walls.
And from a crunchy, healthyperspective, all of these
materials and things that youcan put in your home have
chemicals in them, especiallythings like flooring and paint.
(38:29):
Like they often have metals ordifferent toxins in them to make
them stick better or make them,uh, flame resistant.
And so.
When you put anything in yourhome, especially when it is
brand new, whether it'sfurniture or the building
materials, they have anoffgassing period where they
(38:51):
literally like off gas thechemicals from them that them
what they are.
Especially like mattresses are abig one because they're often,
uh, sprayed with or made withflame resistant materials, and
those tend to be like the worst.
Any, anything that's likeresistant of something, whether
(39:12):
it's stain resistant or flameresistant or uh, stick
resistant, like we talked aboutTeflon pans a while ago in an
episode.
All of these, like things thatare resistant to nature often
have really toxic chemicals inthem.
So I've been doing a lot ofresearch on.
(39:35):
What kind of things to beputting in my home.
In fact, actually today myfriend and I were talking about
the lights in our homes becauseLED lights are also really bad
for your health.
We had a really funnyconversation, my friend and I, a
little bit ago.
She sent us this article abouthow, uh, this is so, it sounds
(39:56):
so silly coming out of my mouththat I'm about to say, but I, I
do kind of believe there mightbe some truth to it.
I, but again, this is just, Idon't know, apparently all of
the LED lights our lives, so youthink about like in our homes
and from our computers and fromour phones and even like the
little tiny lights on yourrefrigerator and your microwave
(40:20):
and all these things, have thisimpact on your body that
actually changes your.
Sexual orientation.
So basically, long story short,LED lights are making you gay
and, and it was just like, wewere laughing so hard about it
when we were like reading thisarticle and she was sharing this
(40:40):
information,
Chrissy (40:41):
I was fully expecting you to finish that sentence by
saying they impact your body bymaking your circadian rhythm
messed up, or it messes withyour hormones, which I guess
could have an influence onmaking you gay.
They're all connected.
I'm learning.
Katie (41:01):
Exactly.
Chrissy (41:01):
are all connected when, so one of the things that they
did with this naturopath thatI'm going to is they drew our
labs also and they looked atlike over 40 biomarkers and they
looked at over 180 foodsensitivities also.
And.
When we were looking at ourlabs, both Max and I had insulin
(41:22):
resistance, and we had, um, mystress levels were super, super
high and crazy enough also getthis, my testosterone was really
high, which did not make anysense to me,
Katie (41:36):
Ah,
Chrissy (41:36):
but you know, that's besides the point.
And the doctor looked at me, hegoes, so how's your sleep?
And I was like, huh?
Like, he's like, yeah, so thattestosterone level that's
probably related to your sleep.
And I was like, no way.
So, um, yeah, it's all related.
So I could see, I think it'sprobably a bit of a stretch to
(42:00):
say that LED lights make yougay, but I don't think it's too
big of a stretch to say LEDlights impact your sleep, which
then
Katie (42:11):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (42:12):
your hormones.
Of all forms, like your hungryhormones, your satiation
hormones, your sex hormones,like all of them.
There's over 300 hormones inyour body, I think.
Katie (42:26):
Whoa.
Chrissy (42:27):
And yeah, they are all connected and a lot of them
really go back to sleep.
So I could see it.
I think it's a stretch to saythat LED lights make you gay
though.
Katie (42:38):
Yeah, I, just keep joking about it.
Now when I am looking atanything that has to do with
lighting and I'm, and I'll ask'em, I'll be like, I can't have
these in my home.
They'll make us gay, but it'sjust, it's hilarious.
Anyway, so lighting, we weretalking about lighting and what
the best ones are for yourhealth, but primarily your
(43:00):
circadian rhythm and all thathas to with that.
I mean, you and I talked abouteyesight and how LED lights
actually are making our eyesightworse, and so that's another
factor when it comes tolighting.
There's a lot of interestingthings that I've just now been.
(43:21):
Learning like all these likedeep intricate things about the
light and that like Jesus is thelight of the world and don't
know, I, it's just such a, thatthat keeps coming to mind when
I'm like thinking about lightingand stuff and I'm like, Jesus, I
just need Jesus as my light.
(43:41):
Let's have no lights in ourhouse and just use Jesus as our
lighting.
It's like, okay,
Chrissy (43:46):
You could, you could go back to, you could go back to
oil flames.
Katie (43:51):
That
Chrissy (43:52):
could get whale blubber
Katie (43:53):
great.
Chrissy (43:54):
and burn the whale.
Blubber in the, the oil lamp.
Katie (43:59):
I think Wes would really appreciate that.
I think he
Chrissy (44:02):
You would.
Katie (44:03):
be on board.
He was super
Chrissy (44:05):
I've heard
Katie (44:06):
told him, we're not getting a microwave.
Chrissy (44:08):
really,
Katie (44:09):
Yeah, we're not gonna
Chrissy (44:10):
I actually, personal opinion, I love not having a
microwave.
In our last house, we didn'thave a microwave and we have a
toaster oven.
It works just the same, justtakes a little bit longer.
And now moving to thisapartment, we do have a
microwave, but it functions as aclock.
Katie (44:28):
Ah.
Chrissy (44:29):
And that's about it.
It doesn't function as anythingelse.
And okay, you know what I didrealize Katie though, is the
coffee mugs that you gave maximifor our wedding, the, the ones
that say Mr.
And Mrs.
And like cute little goldsplated.
Yeah, they spark like nobody'sbusiness in the microwave.
(44:49):
I think I, like one of them hada full flame on it and now
there's like a burn mark on theside of the mug where it caught
on fire in the microwave.
So, um, if you do still usemicrowaves, don't, but if you're
going to anyways, just don't putlike metal plated or like gold
plated things in there.
Also, another fun fact that'scrazy is carrots are flammable.
(45:15):
Raw carrots.
Yes.
I learned that the hard waybecause when I was in college, I
really wanted cooked carrots forsome reason.
I don't know, I just wanted likesoft cooked carrots, but I
didn't have time to make thembecause they take a long time to
actually get that way right?
And so I was like, oh, I'll justthrow'em in the microwave.
It'll be great.
No, they freaking caught on firein that thing I learned.
(45:41):
It's because, you know, carrotsare grown in the ground and so
they have very high mineralcontent from the soil if they're
grown in good quality soil.
And so those really high mineralcontent in the carrots, like the
high zinc and magnesium and allthose like are what make them
flammable in the microwave.
Fun fact.
Katie (46:02):
That is super weird because, I mean, growing up we
did like quote unquote bakedpotatoes in the microwave.
Often we would just like stabthe potato with a bunch of holes
to like let it let the steamcome out, you know, so they
wouldn't explode we would popthem in there and that's how we
would cook potatoes often.
And if we didn't have a lot oftime to like put them in the
(46:24):
oven to bake
Chrissy (46:26):
Oh yeah, we do that with potatoes just fine.
Katie (46:29):
Yeah.
Chrissy (46:30):
You would think.
But I guess carrots have ahigher metal content than
potatoes.
I don't know.
Katie (46:38):
Well,
Chrissy (46:39):
Yeah, don't put raw carrots in the microwave.
Katie (46:42):
So I'm actually really excited when we were looking at
appliances, they make a lot ofovens these days with an air
fryer option, so that's like areally awesome alternative to
microwaves is using the airfryer.
And so I'm like, we won't evenneed to get new appliance.
(47:03):
We don't have an air fryercurrently, but if we have an air
fryer option, I did research allof the technology about it.
'cause I was like, is this stillsome kind of like radiation to
it or whatever?
But it's, no, it's like atraditional air fryer where it's
just using the heat a specificway and, and fanning it around.
And so it's like a no preheatair frying option.
(47:24):
And a lot of the ranges that Iwas looking at have that feature
now and I was like, that isreally cool.
I've never actually experiencedthat yet.
So I, we definitely will begetting one that has the air
fryer option so that way.
We have that available to us.
But we have been using the, myparents gave us a little toaster
(47:48):
oven thing that is now on ourcounter, and we've been trying
to use that a lot more often.
But I recently learned a podcastepisode that if you have
something that doesn't need tonecessarily be crispy, but you
want it to kind of havemoisture, like you almost wanna
steam it back to life.
You know, microwaves typicallykeep things kind of steamy when
(48:10):
you, you know, when you putsomething in the microwave and
it comes out soggy almost.
So
Chrissy (48:15):
Like rice.
Katie (48:16):
yeah, exactly.
So if, if you're looking for aquick way to heat something back
up, that was more on the steamyside.
So especially like vegetables,like if you have cooked
vegetables and you're trying toreheat them, I can't, I don't
even remember who recommendedthis on a podcast episode, but I
thought it was brilliant usingyour.
Uh, pressure cooker.
(48:36):
So an, like an Instapot and justputting it in there for, I don't
even remember what the settingwas, but she just puts it in
there for like a few minutes andit reheats it and it keeps it
nice and like moist versus likecrispy.
And so I was like, that's areally good alternative too.
Chrissy (48:54):
I just put a wet paper towel over my vegetables in the
toast oven.
Katie (48:58):
Oh, that's a great option.
I never thought about that.
Chrissy (49:01):
Mm-hmm.
Keeps some the moisture in andthen, I mean, some of the water
from the paper towel willevaporate.
That's kind of inevitable.
But yeah, it works well for me.
Katie (49:13):
Yeah, that's cool.
I did find a paint brand that isno toxins.
Um.
remember the name of it off thetop of my head, but I actually
saw it recommended.
This was like, it was perfecttiming.
Chrissy.
I was on Instagram and one ofour favorite podcasters, um,
(49:37):
Alex Clark on her stories.
I was watching it the other dayand she had a recommendation for
a no toxin paint brand.
So I don't actually, I haven'tlooked too thoroughly into it,
so I, I don't know how expensivethey are.
They could be ridiculouslyexpensive and it could just be
not worth it.
Or maybe, maybe I'll do like abedroom or two with it versus
(49:59):
like the whole house.
So
Chrissy (50:01):
Like the baby's bedroom.
Katie (50:03):
yeah.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
So yeah, I've been looking intolots of like materials, even,
even things like drywall.
I was reading about drywall theother day and like how toxic it
is and.
Especially, uh, like, uh, well Idon't even remember.
There's like a material in itthat is just really not good
(50:26):
when you are like breathing itin.
And so they make drywall that islike no also.
But when I looked at those,those were like so expensive.
And so we do have a decentamount of drywalling primarily
in the kitchen.
Um, and so I, I don't know ifwe'll end up getting any of
(50:47):
those because it was soexpensive, but we'll see.
We haven't gotten to the pointyet where I have to like make
official decisions on thematerials, but I have like no
joke, been experiencing decisionfatigue for sure, because when
you are going through andrenovating a house, there are so
(51:07):
many like teeny little decisionsthat you have to make every step
of the way.
And so.
other night I was just feelingso stressed out about it.
And yeah, Wes, Wes was doing agood job, just kinda like
helping me recenter myself andlike just, yeah, we prayed
through it and, uh, it's been,it's been exhausting.
(51:31):
I am really looking forward tothe day when, when we get to
just move in, but it probablywon't be for a couple more
months.
It'll be going on for a bit.
but I'm excited.
I'm, I'm excited.
Especially right now we'refocusing all on the inside and
then once we kind of do that andthen get settled, know, it'll be
(51:52):
new Year's will kind of pass,and then we'll get to start
thinking more about like theexterior projects.
So like thinking about thechicken coop and building a
chicken coop and putting in thegarden and.
bought a property with two and ahalf acres, so it's really
large, but it's very wooded.
And so we have to take out ahandful of trees to like get in
(52:15):
a good sized garden and get thelight coming in, um, to be able
to on the garden and make ourplants grow.
So we have to kind of thinkthrough and do all that.
we've been super thankful forall of the help that we have had
from our new church communityout here.
It's been
Honestly, such a blessing.
(52:36):
I mean, I, I can't even begin todescribe how grateful we are for
all of the people who havestepped up and who have helped.
And I mean, we only moved herejust a few months ago, and so
people have come alongside usand have guided us.
Um, we have one friend fromchurch who is a retired.
(53:01):
Contractor.
Um, he used to do like projectmanagement for, a construction
company out here.
And he has basically justdecided that he's going to be
our project manager.
And I could not be more thankfulbecause there are so many
moments, or they have, therehave been so many moments so far
where we have.
(53:22):
Literally hit a wall, no punintended, in trying to figure
out what to do next.
And he has stepped up to belike, okay, here's what you need
to do.
This is what we're going to dotogether and here's what I'm
going to do.
And, and he's just like, takingcharge.
And I am very thankful becausewe kind of went into this
project thinking like, yeah,we've got this.
I've, I've watched lots of DIYstuff, and, both Wes and I have
(53:45):
a decent understanding of how todo some things, but.
Not to this extent.
And so anyway, I have been verythankful, uh, for all the people
who have just helped us.
Chrissy (53:58):
That's awesome.
I love it.
Well, we are nearing the end ofthis episode.
So Katie, before we sign off, doyou have any closing comments
that you'd like to make?
Katie (54:12):
Oh yeah.
I think because this season hasbeen very busy and very
exhausting.
Trying to think of like theright word.
Like what word?
What word really captures it.
A lot of peace.
I think, from my time in theword, have been much more
(54:32):
diligent at getting up earlier,on prayer walks, reading my
Bible, spending time just likemeditating on the word.
And even like choosing morefocused listening activities,
like just things to listen tofrom my phone during the day
(54:53):
have really been helping meright now.
stay.
Like I, like, I've just beenfinding a lot of peace in that
because have been feeling veryexhausted and overwhelmed with
all the things that we havegoing on with the house projects
and with Wes' job, you know, hehas this new job and he just
(55:17):
started seminary and I alsostarted a new job, kind of, I
mean, I did not kind of, Ididn't kind of start a job.
I did start a new job at anonprofit here in town, just 10
hours a week.
But there's just been a lot ofchange and a lot of stuff going
on, and I'm a part of like a fewdifferent moms groups and stuff,
(55:40):
and I've just been feeling veryoverwhelmed by a lot of it.
But it hasn't overtaken me.
Like the, the craziness hasn'tlike just completely overtaken
me I feel very filled up by mytime with the Lord.
So.
Where I'm going at with this isjust encouragement for whatever
(56:03):
you may be facing right now,that it's so important to stay
connected to Jesus and rooted inJesus.
Um, and yeah, really using himas your source of energy and
strength it's so easy for us tothink about just getting that
(56:26):
strength from ourselves, but wereally need to be doing that
with Jesus.
Anyway, I, yeah, I've beenfinding a lot of peace in that.
Chrissy (56:35):
That's awesome.
I love it.
Well, thank you everybody fortuning into our conversation
today.
Make sure you subscribe to ourchannel and go join us over on
our Facebook group, crunchyChristian Mamas on a budget
where we are continuing thisconversation.
We would love to hear on therewhat resonated with you, what
(56:55):
thoughts you have, and somethoughts and ideas about what we
should name these episodes so itcan be consistent for you guys,
for you to, um, go back andlisten to them.
Until next time, my name isChrissy
Katie (57:09):
And my name is Katie.
Chrissy (57:10):
and thanks for listening to Crunchy
Stewardship.
Bye.
Hello and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
(00:02):
My name is Chrissy Rombach.
Katie (00:04):
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 (00:20):
In our podcast, we take deep dives into what it means to
steward our lives as Godoriginally intended for us with
the resource that he has alreadygiven us.
We look at topics like food,medicine, finances, mental
health, and tons more through anatural lens and with a biblical
foundation.
Katie (00:37):
Now we are going to dive into today's episode, and we're
actually going to do a kind oflife update episode.
We did one, I think about like10 episodes or so ago.
I can't remember what we decidedthat we're gonna do these every
like 10 or so episodes just tokind.
Give you guys an update of likewhat we're doing in our lives,
(01:00):
what we're learning specificallyin the moment.
Not just like,'cause everyepisode we have, we're, we're
teaching you about what we'relearning, but every episode
typically is focused on onetopic, where these kind of life
update behind the scenes what'sgoing on, of episodes are just
(01:21):
like a random hodgepodge of allof our random revelations.
And so because of that, we aregoing to actually skip over our
segment called RandomRevelations, um, and just kind
of dive into what's going on inlife.
And actually this is a, this isa shout out or a, call for
(01:41):
action or assistance help, ifyou may, um, that we need help
these episodes where likethey're kind of.
Behind the scenes of our lives.
I'd like to come up with somefun, catchy phrase or name for
it, because I don't know, I, Ihave another podcast that I
(02:03):
listen to and they have the,their episodes like this are
called Behind the Mic, and Ithink that's so cool.
So like whenever you see ontheir episodes, they have like a
Behind the Mic episode.
I really like those ones becauseyou're like, oh, it's just
totally about what they're doingand their lives and they're just
kind of chitchatting andwhatever.
anyway, I obviously don't wannasteal the name of their
(02:26):
episodes, so if you have an ideaof what to call these specific
episodes where it's just usgabbing about life and what is
going on.
Let us know we could use helpbecause we have not come up with
anything yet.
Um, this is only the secondepisode like this, so it's not
like we have a ton of them, butwe'll do them every 10 ish
(02:47):
episodes, uh, from here on out.
And yeah, it just kind of givesus a chance to let you guys know
what's going on in life.
Now before we actually dive intothis and share all of our life's
details, if you've been enjoyingour podcast, please be sure that
you are subscribed to it andleave us a rating and review to
(03:08):
let others know that you areenjoying it.
It does help people find thispodcast, and feel free to share
these episodes with a friendthat you feel like would enjoy
joining along on this journeythat we are going on to just,
yeah, learn more about honoringGod with our lives and with our
(03:28):
health and, and all thingscrunchiness.
So yeah, be sure to share itaround.
So without further ado, we will.
I don't know.
We're just kind of diving rightin and it's kind of like, I
don't even know where we'regoing with this episode because
these episodes we literallydon't plan anything except for
kind of coming to it with like,oh yeah, maybe I could share
about this, and I'm doing thisin life.
(03:50):
So, why don't you kick us offand just share with us what is
going on.
We know last time you kind ofshared with us that you got a
new job and I don't know, tellus what's going on, girl.
Chrissy (04:04):
Yeah, so new job life is going well.
It's still quite the transitionof figuring out how to switch my
mindset from three 12 hourshifts a week to five shifts a
week for eight hours a day.
Um, but you know, it's working,it's going.
Um, I'm enjoying my new job.
(04:25):
The stress levels are way lowerthan working in the hospital, so
that's a plus for those of youwho don't know.
I'm now working in home health.
So I essentially, um, am goingto a bunch of patients who have
chronic illnesses, who are newlydiagnosed with chronic illnesses
or if they have chronic wounds.
And I'm essentially justteaching them how to manage
(04:46):
their illnesses and also helpingthem heal their wounds.
Um, and so it's an environmentwhere I personally have a lot of
freedom.
To share recommendations andthings like that.
And so, um, it's one of the fewplaces in healthcare where
nurses can suggest things andpatients can do it without
(05:08):
really needing a doctor'sorders.
So I don't need a doctor'sorders to tell my patients to
drink bone broth, to heal theirwounds or to drink beet juice to
heal their wounds or to decreasetheir carbohydrate intake for
their diabetes, which mostdiabetics already know that
they're just very, very bad atactually decreasing their
carbohydrate intake.
(05:29):
But that is honestly a strugglefor all of us.
Um, so in addition to this newjob that's going well, my
husband Max and I have started anew, um.
I guess I would call it a gutreset program.
Uh, we are working with anaturopath doctor, because as
(05:52):
many of you know, we've beentrying to get pregnant for a
while and it has not beenworking as of yet.
And so we didn't really want togo to a fertility clinic'cause I
wasn't loving the idea ofinjecting myself with synthetic
hormones to force a pregnancy ona body that's just not ready for
(06:12):
it.
And I was like, okay, how can Icreate a body that is truly
ready for a baby?
Because ultimately I wanna bringa baby into a healthy world, a
good place to be.
And that starts with my bodybeing at its peak health.
And so, and you know, max is 50%of the equation and so he's
doing it with me.
And, um, so we're doing a sixmonth program with a
(06:37):
naturopathic doctor right now.
Um.
And essentially the programstarts off with weaning down our
diets to just meat andvegetables.
And then after we've taken amonth to wean down, we stay at
that place for about a month ofeating just meat and vegetables.
(06:57):
And it's like a full detoxduring the second month.
And then during month threethrough six, we slowly but
surely add different food itemsback in.
And let me tell you guys, I didnot know how addicted I was to
sugar.
I thought I wasn't addicted tosugar.
Honestly, I'm very quick to.
(07:19):
Not eat the dessert.
And if I do eat the dessert,it's not like a, oh my gosh, I
need it right now.
It's more of like a, oh, that'lltaste kind of nice to have after
dinner.
And so I'll have a bite or so,like I'm not a multiple servings
of dessert kind of person whenI'm going for a snack in the
afternoon.
It's like a piece of fruit orsome Turkey and cheese, like not
(07:42):
super high in sugar.
Things that I thought.
But then they told us to takeout sugar.
And let me tell you, when I sawthat sugar was in legitimately
everything.
Bacon has sugar in it.
Sausage has sugar in it.
(08:03):
The sushi you get at the grocerystore has sugar in it.
Don't ask me why the sushi hassugar in it.
I don't know.
Couldn't figure that one out.
But it does.
So literally everything hassugar in it.
Both Max and I experienced quitesignificant mood swings coming
off of the sugar.
Um, and then of course the weekafter they took out sugar, then
(08:27):
they took out caffeine.
And so, um, needless to say,
Katie (08:33):
I didn't realize you were doing caffeine too.
Chrissy (08:35):
oh my goodness, Katie, I'll go through the whole, the,
the process of weaning down.
It's quite intense.
But yeah, so I'm off of sugarnow.
I'm off of caffeine andsurprisingly enough, I actually
feel incredibly better and Ihave way more energy now than I
(08:59):
did before taking even justthose two things outta my diet.
So the sugar was the first weekand then the second week they
took out gluten, caffeine, andcorn.
Corn is also very inflammatoryand has a pretty high glycemic
index.
Um, so that was the second week,this third week we are in right
(09:22):
now.
So we're still working onweaning things down.
We're really not even at themeat and vegetable.
Well, no, at this point we'repractically at the meat and
vegetables diet, but there's afew more things that they're
taking out next week.
But this week they took out soydairy of all forms.
Um, they took out grains of allforms, including even like brown
(09:45):
rice and quinoa, which aregenerally good for you, but when
you're healing your gut, theycan be inflammatory.
what else did they take out thisweek?
oh.
They took out white potatoes,which white potatoes have a very
high glycemic index also.
And they took out alcohol, whichhonestly was kind of already.
Scratch with the sugar part,'cause alcohol has a lot of
(10:08):
sugar in it.
But those were the steps forthis week and next week they
take out tomatoes.
I know that for sure.
Katie (10:17):
Really?
Chrissy (10:18):
told yes tomatoes because I guess they're really
acidic and can cause irritationI don't know.
But I guess we're making chilithis week because, um, we we're
trying to figure out ways tocook and.
We already cooked prettyhealthy, but it often ended up
being like, um, meat, rice, andvegetable or meat, potato,
(10:41):
vegetable.
And now it's kind of becoming,okay, meat, vegetable,
vegetable, or let's make a fullsoup.
We made a minoni soup the othernight that didn't have any pasta
in it, but it was mostly justlike the vegetables and the meat
of regular.
And we actually does regularminoni soup have meat in it?
(11:03):
I don't think so, but we addedthe chicken, and it was
delicious.
Let me tell you, that was likeone of the most filling meals I
had had in a very, very longtime.
Another thing that I've noticedwith this is even within like
one week of taking out sugar.
(11:24):
I have realized that mysensitivity to sweet things has
grown dramatically.
So for instance, I have thesebrownies that I make.
They're no baked brownies.
They're fantastic.
I love them to death.
They are made of dates, cocoapowder, vanilla, and walnuts,
and that's it.
(11:45):
But when I was eating a lot moresugar in my diet, they were
rather bitter, and I didn'treally like them being so
bitter.
And so I would even likesprinkle some monk fruit on top
or some honey over top of it tomake it a little bit sweeter.
But now, after taking sugar outof my diet completely, these
(12:05):
brownies are like the sweetestthings on the planet.
I take a bite and I'm like, holymoly.
It's like a whole new world.
And then berries are almost liketoo sweet to me right now
because.
Like I, I'm not eating anythingelse that's sweet except for a
little bit of fruit.
(12:26):
And so like every time I take abite of fruit, I'm like, oh, it
kind of punches me in the facewith how sweet they are.
So that's the biggest updateswith what Max and I are doing in
our lives.
And let me tell you, it's been awhirlwind the last few weeks.
Katie (12:41):
Yeah, it's, it is kind of crazy when you start to realize
like how much sugar is ineverything.
I found that a lot of condimentshad sugar, especially like salad
dressings.
So we've actually.
We've basically stopped buyingsalad dressings at all, and we
(13:01):
just make all of our own.
Um, and so, you know, then thatit doesn't have sugar and it
doesn't have seed oils, whichare the two culprits in so many,
uh, different salad dressings.
So that was a big one for uswhen we stopped doing lots of
sugar.
We, I still really enjoy naturalsweeteners, and I think that you
(13:22):
told me off podcasts that youcan't do any natural sweeteners
either, but maple syrup is likeone of my and I love maple syrup
on lots of things.
Um, especially on my oatmeal.
I love that flavor in myoatmeal, so I'm like, that would
be, so that would be hard.
Chrissy (13:39):
Growing up, did you eat the little Quakers packets of
maple and brown sugar oatmeal?
Katie (13:44):
oh my gosh, Chrissy eat, I ate one of those again
recently and then not superrecently, it was like a few
months ago, and this is after Istopped.
eating a lot of the sweet stuff.
That stuff is so nasty to me nowbecause it is like
Chrissy (13:58):
Really?
Katie (13:59):
sugary.
Like it is
Chrissy (14:01):
You know,
Katie (14:02):
eating
Chrissy (14:02):
I was, it pretty much is, but I was very surprised at
the ingredients in it.
I was expecting high fructosecorn syrup and xantham gum and
like all of these preservativesand things like that.
The ingredients, aside fromsugar are decently clean,
honestly, with that oatmeal.
But I agree.
(14:23):
When I was a kid, I'd be able toeat like the whole box in a day
in one sitting.
I would just go at it and nowit's like, no, definitely not.
Katie (14:33):
same thing with a, a lot of cereals.
We grew up, um, eating a lot ofhoney bunches of oats, which we
always called almond cerealgrowing up, and now that cereal
is very sweet to me.
I, I actually don't know if itofficially, it probably has
sugar.
It's, it's pretty sweet.
(14:54):
Uh, but yeah, we, I, we'vereally been trying to not eat
cereal like at all because it isno, even if it has really clean
ingredients, it's still heavilyprocessed in general to get
those flaky bits that you havein cereal.
We've, it, that's been one ofthe hardest things for us
(15:15):
because both Wes and I cereal alot, and so we've done a really
good job.
Like whittling that down in ourown diets.
But I'd say still like a coupletimes a week we'll have cereal
for breakfast or for like asnack or something like that,
that that's been hard.
And we have a couple brands fromCostco that are decently clean.
(15:40):
It's actually, this is the, thisis the challenge that we have
found.
You can either get like theorganic brand, but it has seed
oils in it, even though they'relike organic seed oils.
Or you can get the non-organicbrand, but it doesn't have seed
oils in it.
And so you're kind of like, ugh.
Because when it comes to cereal,there's a lot of like, whether
(16:04):
it's processed corn or wheat oroats or something like that, and
those crops are very heavilysprayed and they're very
heavily, oftentimes geneticallymodified.
And so you know that if it's notorganic.
you are basically eatingglyphosate for breakfast.
(16:24):
And so it's like, which, whichtrade off do you make?
Do you eat the non-organic onethat has lots of pesticides and
might be genetically modified?
Or do you eat the one that isorganic but has lots of seed
oils in it?
And it's like seed oil sometimeswill be like the second
ingredient or something andyou're like, why does this have
(16:45):
so much vegetable oil in it?
Or canola oil or flaxseed or
Chrissy (16:49):
So I have to ask you, what has been your go-to
breakfast thing then, sinceyou've gotten cereal out or have
weaned down on the cereal?
Katie (16:58):
oatmeal?
I really like oatmeal.
I like it too because I can makeit pretty
Chrissy (17:05):
Uh.
Katie (17:05):
anything.
So we, we get a big thing oforganic oatmeal from Azure
Standard, uh, and.
It, it's like something like 10pounds of oatmeal.
It's a lot, it's a lot ofoatmeal.
And I, I add a lot of differentstuff into it.
I love adding some kind ofprotein powder to it.
(17:26):
Wes likes a chocolate proteinpowder.
I just like a vanilla one sothat the other flavors of other
things come out.
'cause I then I'll add likecinnamon and, uh, flax seed and
chia seed.
And I have some like bee pollenthat I add in a little bit of,
and of course I add some maplesyrup.
(17:46):
Oftentimes after I cook it, I'lladd a splash of my raw milk.
Um, and then typically a fruit,whether it's, we, we get a lot
of, uh, frozen fruit from AzureStandard too.
So we get like five pound bagsof organic fruits.
And keep those frozen.
So we'll add like blueberries orstrawberries, or sometimes I'll
mash in a banana and put it inthere and then sprinkle on some
(18:11):
kind of nut on top.
Typically walnuts is my go-to,so that's like my go-to
breakfast.
Uh, otherwise I have been tryingto do more eggs just to get more
protein in the morning.
Um, I definitely have a sweettooth even though we, we've been
doing pretty well, staying awayfrom sugar, like the white cane
(18:32):
sugar kind of stuff, it's hardfor me to get away from just
sweet stuff in general.
So something like maple syrup oreven fruit, I, I definitely tend
to lean towards wanting thatkind of stuff for breakfast
versus a more savory breakfastlike.
Uh, sausage and eggs andpotatoes I do.
(18:54):
I actually crave that kind ofbreakfast food for lunch, and
that's actually what I had forlunch today, now that I think
about it.
I had an egg some potatoes andsome zucchini and just all
cooked it in one pan basically,and that's what I had for lunch.
That's like my favorite kind oflunch right now, is that kind of
stuff, which is just kind offunny.
Chrissy (19:16):
That's great.
I love it.
Since, um, taking ev literallyeverything outta my diet.
Another thing that they'veencouraged us to do that's like
part of the program is having,two servings of cooked
vegetables with every meal andto have 50% of our calories
coming from good fats.
I think I mentioned the wholelist of good fats in the last
(19:39):
episode and beef tallow wasn'tincluded in there, but I think
I'm including beef tallow in mygood fats list.
But yeah, so I've been havingfrittatas for breakfast and they
are so good.
I'm just talking like two eggsand some red pepper, spinach,
onion, boom.
(19:59):
Done so good with a littleavocado on the side.
Sometimes I'll have a handfulof.
Raw cashews.
Those have actually, so withthis whole like taking sugar
out, we've definitely had a lotof sugar cravings and one thing
they recommended was to, if youneed to snack, they, they don't
recommend snacking at all, butif you need to snack, they
(20:22):
recommend snacking on raw nuts,specifically raw cashews,
because they have a really highfat content and a really low
sugar content.
And so the fat content gives youthat long-term energy and it
doesn't give you the quickburst, and then you're quickly
hungry again.
So it actually, I've evennoticed, like it's kept me
(20:44):
pretty satisfied for quite awhile, so that's been good.
Katie (20:48):
That's my go-to snack.
We get, that's another thingthat we get from Azure Standard
or like these big five poundbags of organic nuts.
And so actually make like ahomemade, uh, trail mix and so
put all the nuts in there.
I put some, uh.
I was like, what are thosethings called?
(21:09):
It's not raisins.
I don't like raisins.
I do like cranberries though.
Put some cranberries in there.
I do have chocolate chips in it,which they're not any healthy
brand of chocolate chip.
Man.
My goodness.
If anybody has a good chocolatechip recommendation of something
more healthy, that is so hard.
(21:31):
They, the ones that I've seenare so expensive and it is just
not worth it for me.
Sometimes like the organic, thebetter stuff is like slightly
more expensive and I'm like,that's okay.
But the chocolate chips are likemore than double and it is like,
oh my gosh,
Chrissy (21:48):
Your own.
Katie (21:49):
chocolate chips.
Chrissy (21:51):
Yeah,
Katie (21:52):
How?
Chrissy (21:53):
melt.
Um, I think it's, don't quote meon this, I think it's either
coconut oil or butter.
Cocoa powder, and then some formof sweetener, which I think you
can pretty much use anysweetener That would be good.
And you just like melt it in apan and they sell like these,
(22:16):
um, silicone molds essentially,and you just like pour it into
the silicone mold.
And then once they're dry andcooled off, you have like
chocolate chips.
Katie (22:28):
Chrisy.
Chrissy (22:28):
Don't quote me on the recipe, but I'm pretty sure
that's, I've seen it done onInstagram, which means it has to
be true.
Katie (22:34):
good idea.
I actually never, I've never, I,like I am usually a person who's
like, I can make that in, infact, I really wanna make these,
I don't know if anyone's seenthem.
They're like the, uh.
Quinoa, chocolate, like snacks.
They're really good.
Um, and I was like, I couldtotally make those and you have
(22:56):
to like, like make your quinoapuffed and stuff.
So you have to like cook it acertain way.
All this stuff.
And, and I've looked up somerecipes and I like, it's on my
list of things to do to make,because I really like that and I
wanna use like a good chocolateto do it.
I never, for a, like, for asecond even considered making
chocolate
Chrissy (23:14):
Chocolate chip.
Yeah, it was probably cheaperthan even regular chocolate
chips too, with the amount thatyou can get from it.
I think your biggest cost therewould be the cocoa powder.
Katie (23:24):
I was thinking about when you were explaining your recipe
for making the chocolate chips,that you could do kind of the
same thing and melt it all down,but instead of getting like a
mold for all the chip chocolatechips, you could hypothetically,
I don't know if this will work,you could put it in like a
baking sheet.
(23:44):
Like even just the one that haslike the half an inch lip or
whatever, so it doesn't spillover the sides and then chill
it, so freeze it or something.
And then, you know, in my mind,this would work out.
I don't know how it would dumpit out and then break it down.
Kind of like how you would make,uh.
Uh, what's it called?
Peppermint bark.
You know, when you like, you putit in the sheet pan kind of
(24:06):
thing, and then you just breakit up into the chunks that you
like, the sizes that you want.
Well, hyper like hypothetically.
Again, I don't know if this willwork, you could just break it
down into smaller bits whereit's more like chocolate flex,
so they wouldn't be a uniformsize or anything.
And then you'll get some thatare bigger or smaller or
something, but that could beanother way that you can make
your own like chocolate chippy,like things without necessarily
(24:28):
needing a mold.
I should try that.
I don't know why I've neverthought of that.
Hmm.
Chrissy (24:33):
That's your new job this week.
Let us know on the next podcast.
Katie (24:36):
Also, melted chocolate is just so good.
Like literally if you like meltchocolate and butter and just
eat it together, this the like
Chrissy (24:43):
Okay.
Can I tell you the thing that Ihave been eating by the spoonful
lately?
Almond butter.
Literally, like I, I learnedthat celery dipped in almond
butter is like the best thingsince sliced bread because
sliced bread is illegal for meright now.
Um, and yeah, celery, my husbandcame home and he was like, Hey
(25:06):
babe, I'm really feeling somecelery and almond butter.
Do you?
Where did that head of celerygo?
That we bought yesterday?
And I was like, oh, um, it'sgone.
I ate it.
It's completely in my tummy.
Katie (25:22):
Oh my gosh.
I, I like almond butter, but Ialso sometimes don't like almond
butter.
It has like a slightly differentconsistency than peanut butter,
it's almost like I want it tohave the same consistency as
peanut butter, but slightlytastes different.
so sometimes I just don't reallylike it.
What brand of almond butter doyou use?
(25:43):
Do you know?
Chrissy (25:45):
I currently have two brands in the pantry because I
have this tendency to notrealize when we have enough
peanut butter or almond butteror any kind of those
Katie (25:57):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (25:57):
nut butters.
I just don't realize when wehave enough and I'm going to the
grocery store and I'm like, oh,we need more of that.
And so I just throw it in thecart.
And so we end up with like fivejars.
And it also is different jarsdepending on which grocery store
I'm at.
So when I went to Sprouts, I gotthe Sprouts brand.
Very good.
Love it.
Then I went to Whole Foods anddid my whole, oh, I don't think
(26:20):
I bought almond butter.
I'm gonna buy some, forgettingthat I already bought almond
butter, and so I put theJustin's brand in the cart.
Um, I haven't actually triedthat one yet, but I can try it
right now if you want me to.
I'm kidding.
I won't do that.
Um, but yeah,
Katie (26:40):
that
Chrissy (26:40):
the, the Sprouts one is pretty decent.
The one thing that I've realizedthough, is important to stay
away from with any of thesebutters.
Peanut butter, almond butter,cashew butter, whatever you're
looking at, the nut butters ismake sure you don't get the no
stir, because the ones that areno stir actually have additional
(27:01):
seed oils added to them, andthat's what makes the
consistency that you don't needto stir it.
So I.
You know, unfortunately, it isnecessary to stir the nut butter
because if you're not needing tostir it, then they've added more
things into it to make it thatway, which is quite unfortunate
(27:23):
in my opinion.
But it is the reality of eatingnatural.
You know, like God didn't createour food to be convenient.
He created our food to bedelicious and nourishing, and
it's often a tossup of you haveto make a choice.
Do you want convenience or doyou want delicious and
nourishing?
And it's up to you to make thatchoice.
Katie (27:42):
Yeah.
Hard choices sometimes.
I actually, my favorite place tohave almond butter is in a
smoothie.
I mix it in with smoothies, andI like that.
I like the flavor, like thecompliment to the fruit more
than I do peanut butter in mysmoothies.
So, I don't know, just kind of arandom, A random thing.
Chrissy (28:03):
Another thing that I've actually done my, my first round
was kind of a fail, but I have astrategy in place on how to make
it not a fail, is I made my owncough drops.
So when Max goes on work trips,he is talking a ton.
He will literally go to theseconferences and be talking all
(28:25):
afternoon and his voice is justcompletely shot by the end of
the time.
And so he usually, when he goesto his work trips, is eating
cough drops left and right totry to keep his voice up.
this year I decided, you knowwhat?
I'm gonna try to make our owncough drops for you so that that
way when you go, you know, youdon't have to worry about eating
so much sugar with your coughdrops.
(28:47):
Because that's one of thebiggest problems with cough
drops is like you're getting aton of sugar, like artificial
colors, artificial flavors, andthen menthol, which like can be
every now and then one drop ofmenthol is not, not a problem,
but you know when your voice is,you have a sore throat or you
have a cold or something likethat, you're kind of popping
cough, cough drops left andright.
(29:07):
And so.
That can cause some problems.
And so I made these, um, they'remore like, uh, jelly consistency
of cough drops.
And the ingredients were, if Iremember correctly, honey, lemon
juice, ginger and agar agarpowder, which essentially is a
(29:29):
plant-based gelatin.
Um, it's derived from redseaweed, which apparently has a
lot of really great healthbenefits to it.
I dunno, whenever I did theresearch, that's what I got.
Some of my jelly drops turnedout fine.
Some of them never reallysolidified and just stayed
(29:49):
melty.
So I think my problem was Ididn't actually like melt it
down long enough.
You know, with like gelatin ingeneral, you kind of need to
like stir it on the pot for awhile on low heat for it to
actually jello, jello wisebecome jello.
Katie (30:09):
Jello eyes.
I like that word.
Chrissy (30:11):
Yeah.
Become a jelly-like thing.
Um, and I think I was justimpatient and didn't stir it for
long enough on the stove, butyeah, so they tasted really
good.
And next time we need coughdrops.
I fully intend on making thembecause unfortunately they're, I
mean, they're natural just likeeverything else.
And so they actually have anexpiration date, and their
(30:34):
expiration date is not threeyears down the road.
It's actually like a week or twodown the road.
So it's one of those things thatyou like, make it when you need
it, keep the ingredients on handand you know when you need it,
you make it.
And honestly, lemon juice ispretty easy to always have on
hand.
Ginger, it's very cheap from thegrocery store.
Easy to get if you don't keep iton hand.
(30:56):
So, um, yeah, I've tried that.
It was a fail the first time Iplan on trying it again, and I'm
looking forward to it actuallyworking the second time.
But that's how a lot of thesethings are.
You know, you try new things,trying a new recipe, trying a
new, um, like medicinal thing,uh, with herbs and things like
(31:16):
that, you know.
We're going to mess up and we'regoing to fail a few times, but
that's the beauty of this isit's all just a lot of practice
and it really is just changingour lifestyle.
And so yeah, when you'rechanging your lifestyle in terms
of anything, you're going tomess up a little bit and that's
okay.
We just laugh about it and thentry again.
Katie (31:39):
Exactly.
That's why God's grace is sogood because we don't have to
have it all perfect the firsttime.
think that's one of those likebeautiful things that even
though we sin continuously,because like we're just sinful,
we're like our nature is just todefault to sin, which is just
(32:02):
the unfortunate reality of ourlives and it's just so good that
we have a God who just continuesto reign on us with His grace
every time we mess up becausewe're not going to get it
perfectly.
I know that that.
Messing up on your cough dropsis not a sin, but I just thought
(32:25):
there was a beautifulillustration there of God's
grace.
Chrissy (32:28):
You never know.
Katie (32:30):
It's kind of forcing it,
Chrissy (32:31):
Actually, it could become a sin depending on my
reaction.
Katie (32:35):
ah,
Chrissy (32:36):
The, the reaction to the cough drop mistake could be
sinful.
I don't think mine was becausewe really just laughed about it
and moved on.
But, um, yeah.
Another thing that I'm actuallylooking forward to doing is, um,
so in the spring I plan oncreating a garden.
(32:57):
Crazy enough, I, when we wereliving in our house, we had like
actual grass in the backyard andI kept making all these excuses
on why we couldn't have a gardenbecause, oh, we're in a rental
and blah, blah, blah.
And now I'm in a one bedroomapartment on the second floor
and I'm like, I'm gonna have agarden because that just makes
(33:17):
more sense.
So.
My plan is in January to createthis garden because, you know,
most things grow in the springand so I thought that was a good
starting time.
Um, we have approximately aboutlike 10 square feet on our
balcony where I can create, likeput a raised bed in and I've
(33:40):
been strategizing which produceoptions I can grow.
'cause I really, with thatlimited square footage, I'm kind
of limited to like three or fourdifferent veggies if that, if I
can get that many in there.
And so I'm doing a lot ofresearch right now to try to
figure out a, which ones weactually use quite frequently.
(34:04):
I'm like, okay, we use tomatoesand red peppers a lot more than
we use like sugar snap peas andlike love green beans.
But don't those, those require avine, kind of like a trellis
thing.
And I don't have a trellis so Ican't do that.
Garlic is great and onions aregreat, but do I really need that
many kind of thing?
Um, so I'm like analyzing whichones will go really well next to
(34:27):
each other, which ones we canhold off on.
And also like the financialcomponent of it, because there's
always a financial component ofwhich ones are gonna be most
beneficial towards our savingmoney.
You know, like can I get theseseeds from the organic produce
that I buy at the grocery storeand start my vegetable garden
(34:49):
from the seeds, from vegetablesthat I already bought.
So I'm strategizing and learningand planning and I've got about
a month and a half to figure itout until January comes.
No, two and a half months.
Katie (35:01):
like,
Chrissy (35:01):
Two and a half months.
Katie (35:02):
I was like, what month are you living in?
Chrissy (35:03):
I dunno.
My patients today didn't know,but I guess I don't know either.
Katie (35:08):
That's funny.
Uh, I'd suggest if you guys cookwith herbs, that's potentially a
good one because herbs can be.
and yet super easy to grow.
yeah, if you're looking forrecommendations to add, but
tomatoes are a really good one.
Chrissy (35:28):
I'm very bad at herbs.
I've done it.
I had a little, a tiny littleherb garden, and maybe my
problem was that I didn't givemy herbs enough space to grow,
but my basal leaves were veryskinny and kinda shrive even
when I was really good atwatering them.
And my oregano just likecompletely died very quickly.
(35:52):
It just went kaput.
I don't know what I did wrongthere, but I'll try it again
this year.
I mean, buying the full thing ofbasil and rosemary and things
like, it's like$20 for four of'em.
So.
buying the plant is not thesuper expensive part.
It,
Katie (36:09):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (36:10):
the harder part is actually figuring out how to
maintain them because I did notinherit my mother's green thumb.
Katie (36:18):
Mm.
Chrissy (36:19):
Unfortunately.
She actually, my mom has thebeautiful vegetable garden in
their new house.
It's like on the side of theirhouse.
You can't really see it veryoften until she like brings you
out and shows you her vegetablegarden.
They're growing like cucumbersand tomatoes and zucchinis and
like all these things.
I'm like, since when and I needto learn.
Katie (36:41):
gardening is a lot of fun.
I am really excited to to have agarden, hopefully this next
since we just bought a house.
And that's kind of where all myupdates come from is just all
house stuff, really.
And it is.
A lot of work right now.
(37:02):
So we closed on our house rightaround my birthday in September,
the end of September.
And we basically like a what?
The day after?
Yeah, we closed on Thursday andthen so Friday we started
ripping the kitchen out.
Like we just hit the groundrunning, started pulling things
out.
(37:22):
And now at this point it's beentwo-ish weeks and the whole
kitchen is out and we're justworking on the next things we
did.
So we did all the demo ourselvesto save money.
Um, you save like thousands ofdollars by not having
contractors come and do the workand throw out all the stuff for
(37:43):
you and all and and all thethings.
So we have been doing that andso now my.
Like the, it's reallyinteresting, like now going
through and thinking about allof the things now we want to put
into the house as far ascabinets go and appliances go.
And then you have to think aboutlight fixtures and trim and
(38:08):
flooring and even the paint onyour walls.
And from a crunchy, healthyperspective, all of these
materials and things that youcan put in your home have
chemicals in them, especiallythings like flooring and paint.
(38:29):
Like they often have metals ordifferent toxins in them to make
them stick better or make them,uh, flame resistant.
And so.
When you put anything in yourhome, especially when it is
brand new, whether it'sfurniture or the building
materials, they have anoffgassing period where they
(38:51):
literally like off gas thechemicals from them that them
what they are.
Especially like mattresses are abig one because they're often,
uh, sprayed with or made withflame resistant materials, and
those tend to be like the worst.
Any, anything that's likeresistant of something, whether
(39:12):
it's stain resistant or flameresistant or uh, stick
resistant, like we talked aboutTeflon pans a while ago in an
episode.
All of these, like things thatare resistant to nature often
have really toxic chemicals inthem.
So I've been doing a lot ofresearch on.
(39:35):
What kind of things to beputting in my home.
In fact, actually today myfriend and I were talking about
the lights in our homes becauseLED lights are also really bad
for your health.
We had a really funnyconversation, my friend and I, a
little bit ago.
She sent us this article abouthow, uh, this is so, it sounds
(39:56):
so silly coming out of my mouththat I'm about to say, but I, I
do kind of believe there mightbe some truth to it.
I, but again, this is just, Idon't know, apparently all of
the LED lights our lives, so youthink about like in our homes
and from our computers and fromour phones and even like the
little tiny lights on yourrefrigerator and your microwave
(40:20):
and all these things, have thisimpact on your body that
actually changes your.
Sexual orientation.
So basically, long story short,LED lights are making you gay
and, and it was just like, wewere laughing so hard about it
when we were like reading thisarticle and she was sharing this
(40:40):
information,
Chrissy (40:41):
I was fully expecting you to finish that sentence by
saying they impact your body bymaking your circadian rhythm
messed up, or it messes withyour hormones, which I guess
could have an influence onmaking you gay.
They're all connected.
I'm learning.
Katie (41:01):
Exactly.
Chrissy (41:01):
are all connected when, so one of the things that they
did with this naturopath thatI'm going to is they drew our
labs also and they looked atlike over 40 biomarkers and they
looked at over 180 foodsensitivities also.
And.
When we were looking at ourlabs, both Max and I had insulin
(41:22):
resistance, and we had, um, mystress levels were super, super
high and crazy enough also getthis, my testosterone was really
high, which did not make anysense to me,
Katie (41:36):
Ah,
Chrissy (41:36):
but you know, that's besides the point.
And the doctor looked at me, hegoes, so how's your sleep?
And I was like, huh?
Like, he's like, yeah, so thattestosterone level that's
probably related to your sleep.
And I was like, no way.
So, um, yeah, it's all related.
So I could see, I think it'sprobably a bit of a stretch to
(42:00):
say that LED lights make yougay, but I don't think it's too
big of a stretch to say LEDlights impact your sleep, which
then
Katie (42:11):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (42:12):
your hormones.
Of all forms, like your hungryhormones, your satiation
hormones, your sex hormones,like all of them.
There's over 300 hormones inyour body, I think.
Katie (42:26):
Whoa.
Chrissy (42:27):
And yeah, they are all connected and a lot of them
really go back to sleep.
So I could see it.
I think it's a stretch to saythat LED lights make you gay
though.
Katie (42:38):
Yeah, I, just keep joking about it.
Now when I am looking atanything that has to do with
lighting and I'm, and I'll ask'em, I'll be like, I can't have
these in my home.
They'll make us gay, but it'sjust, it's hilarious.
Anyway, so lighting, we weretalking about lighting and what
the best ones are for yourhealth, but primarily your
(43:00):
circadian rhythm and all thathas to with that.
I mean, you and I talked abouteyesight and how LED lights
actually are making our eyesightworse, and so that's another
factor when it comes tolighting.
There's a lot of interestingthings that I've just now been.
(43:21):
Learning like all these likedeep intricate things about the
light and that like Jesus is thelight of the world and don't
know, I, it's just such a, thatthat keeps coming to mind when
I'm like thinking about lightingand stuff and I'm like, Jesus, I
just need Jesus as my light.
(43:41):
Let's have no lights in ourhouse and just use Jesus as our
lighting.
It's like, okay,
Chrissy (43:46):
You could, you could go back to, you could go back to
oil flames.
Katie (43:51):
That
Chrissy (43:52):
could get whale blubber
Katie (43:53):
great.
Chrissy (43:54):
and burn the whale.
Blubber in the, the oil lamp.
Katie (43:59):
I think Wes would really appreciate that.
I think he
Chrissy (44:02):
You would.
Katie (44:03):
be on board.
He was super
Chrissy (44:05):
I've heard
Katie (44:06):
told him, we're not getting a microwave.
Chrissy (44:08):
really,
Katie (44:09):
Yeah, we're not gonna
Chrissy (44:10):
I actually, personal opinion, I love not having a
microwave.
In our last house, we didn'thave a microwave and we have a
toaster oven.
It works just the same, justtakes a little bit longer.
And now moving to thisapartment, we do have a
microwave, but it functions as aclock.
Katie (44:28):
Ah.
Chrissy (44:29):
And that's about it.
It doesn't function as anythingelse.
And okay, you know what I didrealize Katie though, is the
coffee mugs that you gave maximifor our wedding, the, the ones
that say Mr.
And Mrs.
And like cute little goldsplated.
Yeah, they spark like nobody'sbusiness in the microwave.
(44:49):
I think I, like one of them hada full flame on it and now
there's like a burn mark on theside of the mug where it caught
on fire in the microwave.
So, um, if you do still usemicrowaves, don't, but if you're
going to anyways, just don't putlike metal plated or like gold
plated things in there.
Also, another fun fact that'scrazy is carrots are flammable.
(45:15):
Raw carrots.
Yes.
I learned that the hard waybecause when I was in college, I
really wanted cooked carrots forsome reason.
I don't know, I just wanted likesoft cooked carrots, but I
didn't have time to make thembecause they take a long time to
actually get that way right?
And so I was like, oh, I'll justthrow'em in the microwave.
It'll be great.
No, they freaking caught on firein that thing I learned.
(45:41):
It's because, you know, carrotsare grown in the ground and so
they have very high mineralcontent from the soil if they're
grown in good quality soil.
And so those really high mineralcontent in the carrots, like the
high zinc and magnesium and allthose like are what make them
flammable in the microwave.
Fun fact.
Katie (46:02):
That is super weird because, I mean, growing up we
did like quote unquote bakedpotatoes in the microwave.
Often we would just like stabthe potato with a bunch of holes
to like let it let the steamcome out, you know, so they
wouldn't explode we would popthem in there and that's how we
would cook potatoes often.
And if we didn't have a lot oftime to like put them in the
(46:24):
oven to bake
Chrissy (46:26):
Oh yeah, we do that with potatoes just fine.
Katie (46:29):
Yeah.
Chrissy (46:30):
You would think.
But I guess carrots have ahigher metal content than
potatoes.
I don't know.
Katie (46:38):
Well,
Chrissy (46:39):
Yeah, don't put raw carrots in the microwave.
Katie (46:42):
So I'm actually really excited when we were looking at
appliances, they make a lot ofovens these days with an air
fryer option, so that's like areally awesome alternative to
microwaves is using the airfryer.
And so I'm like, we won't evenneed to get new appliance.
(47:03):
We don't have an air fryercurrently, but if we have an air
fryer option, I did research allof the technology about it.
'cause I was like, is this stillsome kind of like radiation to
it or whatever?
But it's, no, it's like atraditional air fryer where it's
just using the heat a specificway and, and fanning it around.
And so it's like a no preheatair frying option.
(47:24):
And a lot of the ranges that Iwas looking at have that feature
now and I was like, that isreally cool.
I've never actually experiencedthat yet.
So I, we definitely will begetting one that has the air
fryer option so that way.
We have that available to us.
But we have been using the, myparents gave us a little toaster
(47:48):
oven thing that is now on ourcounter, and we've been trying
to use that a lot more often.
But I recently learned a podcastepisode that if you have
something that doesn't need tonecessarily be crispy, but you
want it to kind of havemoisture, like you almost wanna
steam it back to life.
You know, microwaves typicallykeep things kind of steamy when
(48:10):
you, you know, when you putsomething in the microwave and
it comes out soggy almost.
So
Chrissy (48:15):
Like rice.
Katie (48:16):
yeah, exactly.
So if, if you're looking for aquick way to heat something back
up, that was more on the steamyside.
So especially like vegetables,like if you have cooked
vegetables and you're trying toreheat them, I can't, I don't
even remember who recommendedthis on a podcast episode, but I
thought it was brilliant usingyour.
Uh, pressure cooker.
(48:36):
So an, like an Instapot and justputting it in there for, I don't
even remember what the settingwas, but she just puts it in
there for like a few minutes andit reheats it and it keeps it
nice and like moist versus likecrispy.
And so I was like, that's areally good alternative too.
Chrissy (48:54):
I just put a wet paper towel over my vegetables in the
toast oven.
Katie (48:58):
Oh, that's a great option.
I never thought about that.
Chrissy (49:01):
Mm-hmm.
Keeps some the moisture in andthen, I mean, some of the water
from the paper towel willevaporate.
That's kind of inevitable.
But yeah, it works well for me.
Katie (49:13):
Yeah, that's cool.
I did find a paint brand that isno toxins.
Um.
remember the name of it off thetop of my head, but I actually
saw it recommended.
This was like, it was perfecttiming.
Chrissy.
I was on Instagram and one ofour favorite podcasters, um,
(49:37):
Alex Clark on her stories.
I was watching it the other dayand she had a recommendation for
a no toxin paint brand.
So I don't actually, I haven'tlooked too thoroughly into it,
so I, I don't know how expensivethey are.
They could be ridiculouslyexpensive and it could just be
not worth it.
Or maybe, maybe I'll do like abedroom or two with it versus
(49:59):
like the whole house.
So
Chrissy (50:01):
Like the baby's bedroom.
Katie (50:03):
yeah.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
So yeah, I've been looking intolots of like materials, even,
even things like drywall.
I was reading about drywall theother day and like how toxic it
is and.
Especially, uh, like, uh, well Idon't even remember.
There's like a material in itthat is just really not good
(50:26):
when you are like breathing itin.
And so they make drywall that islike no also.
But when I looked at those,those were like so expensive.
And so we do have a decentamount of drywalling primarily
in the kitchen.
Um, and so I, I don't know ifwe'll end up getting any of
(50:47):
those because it was soexpensive, but we'll see.
We haven't gotten to the pointyet where I have to like make
official decisions on thematerials, but I have like no
joke, been experiencing decisionfatigue for sure, because when
you are going through andrenovating a house, there are so
(51:07):
many like teeny little decisionsthat you have to make every step
of the way.
And so.
other night I was just feelingso stressed out about it.
And yeah, Wes, Wes was doing agood job, just kinda like
helping me recenter myself andlike just, yeah, we prayed
through it and, uh, it's been,it's been exhausting.
(51:31):
I am really looking forward tothe day when, when we get to
just move in, but it probablywon't be for a couple more
months.
It'll be going on for a bit.
but I'm excited.
I'm, I'm excited.
Especially right now we'refocusing all on the inside and
then once we kind of do that andthen get settled, know, it'll be
(51:52):
new Year's will kind of pass,and then we'll get to start
thinking more about like theexterior projects.
So like thinking about thechicken coop and building a
chicken coop and putting in thegarden and.
bought a property with two and ahalf acres, so it's really
large, but it's very wooded.
And so we have to take out ahandful of trees to like get in
(52:15):
a good sized garden and get thelight coming in, um, to be able
to on the garden and make ourplants grow.
So we have to kind of thinkthrough and do all that.
we've been super thankful forall of the help that we have had
from our new church communityout here.
It's been
Honestly, such a blessing.
(52:36):
I mean, I, I can't even begin todescribe how grateful we are for
all of the people who havestepped up and who have helped.
And I mean, we only moved herejust a few months ago, and so
people have come alongside usand have guided us.
Um, we have one friend fromchurch who is a retired.
(53:01):
Contractor.
Um, he used to do like projectmanagement for, a construction
company out here.
And he has basically justdecided that he's going to be
our project manager.
And I could not be more thankfulbecause there are so many
moments, or they have, therehave been so many moments so far
where we have.
(53:22):
Literally hit a wall, no punintended, in trying to figure
out what to do next.
And he has stepped up to belike, okay, here's what you need
to do.
This is what we're going to dotogether and here's what I'm
going to do.
And, and he's just like, takingcharge.
And I am very thankful becausewe kind of went into this
project thinking like, yeah,we've got this.
I've, I've watched lots of DIYstuff, and, both Wes and I have
(53:45):
a decent understanding of how todo some things, but.
Not to this extent.
And so anyway, I have been verythankful, uh, for all the people
who have just helped us.
Chrissy (53:58):
That's awesome.
I love it.
Well, we are nearing the end ofthis episode.
So Katie, before we sign off, doyou have any closing comments
that you'd like to make?
Katie (54:12):
Oh yeah.
I think because this season hasbeen very busy and very
exhausting.
Trying to think of like theright word.
Like what word?
What word really captures it.
A lot of peace.
I think, from my time in theword, have been much more
(54:32):
diligent at getting up earlier,on prayer walks, reading my
Bible, spending time just likemeditating on the word.
And even like choosing morefocused listening activities,
like just things to listen tofrom my phone during the day
(54:53):
have really been helping meright now.
stay.
Like I, like, I've just beenfinding a lot of peace in that
because have been feeling veryexhausted and overwhelmed with
all the things that we havegoing on with the house projects
and with Wes' job, you know, hehas this new job and he just
(55:17):
started seminary and I alsostarted a new job, kind of, I
mean, I did not kind of, Ididn't kind of start a job.
I did start a new job at anonprofit here in town, just 10
hours a week.
But there's just been a lot ofchange and a lot of stuff going
on, and I'm a part of like a fewdifferent moms groups and stuff,
(55:40):
and I've just been feeling veryoverwhelmed by a lot of it.
But it hasn't overtaken me.
Like the, the craziness hasn'tlike just completely overtaken
me I feel very filled up by mytime with the Lord.
So.
Where I'm going at with this isjust encouragement for whatever
(56:03):
you may be facing right now,that it's so important to stay
connected to Jesus and rooted inJesus.
Um, and yeah, really using himas your source of energy and
strength it's so easy for us tothink about just getting that
(56:26):
strength from ourselves, but wereally need to be doing that
with Jesus.
Anyway, I, yeah, I've beenfinding a lot of peace in that.
Chrissy (56:35):
That's awesome.
I love it.
Well, thank you everybody fortuning into our conversation
today.
Make sure you subscribe to ourchannel and go join us over on
our Facebook group, crunchyChristian Mamas on a budget
where we are continuing thisconversation.
We would love to hear on therewhat resonated with you, what
(56:55):
thoughts you have, and somethoughts and ideas about what we
should name these episodes so itcan be consistent for you guys,
for you to, um, go back andlisten to them.
Until next time, my name isChrissy
Katie (57:09):
And my name is Katie.
Chrissy (57:10):
and thanks for listening to Crunchy
Stewardship.
Bye.
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