The Hidden Toxins Impacting Our Energy + Health: A Conversation with Rebecca Glick

Ever wondered why you're feeling constantly fatigued despite seemingly doing everything right? The answer might be hiding in your kitchen cabinets, bathroom shelves, or even that scented candle you love so much. In this eye-opening conversation with functional medicine health coach Rebecca Glick, we pull back the curtain on the often misunderstood world of environmental toxins.

Rebecca breaks down what toxins really are—not just buzzwords on wellness blogs, but genuine health disruptors lurking in our everyday environments. These substances accumulate over time, creating what experts call a "toxic burden" that can manifest as inflammation, hormone imbalances, energy crashes, cognitive fog, and even stubborn weight issues. The revelation here isn't to inspire panic but awareness: our bodies are incredible detoxification machines when properly supported.

What makes this episode particularly valuable is Rebecca's balanced, realistic approach. She doesn't advocate throwing away everything you own or living in isolation. Instead, she guides us through making strategic, meaningful changes starting with the foods we eat ("if your grandmother can't pronounce it, you probably shouldn't be eating it"), the cookware we use, and the cleaning products that touch our homes. From shopping the perimeter of grocery stores to swapping toxic pans for safer alternatives like cast iron and stainless steel, these practical tips can be implemented gradually without overwhelming your life or budget.

Perhaps most empowering is Rebecca's emphasis on supporting our bodies' innate detoxification abilities through proper nutrition, movement, quality sleep, and stress management. This isn't about buying expensive cleanses or following restrictive protocols—it's about consistent, mindful choices that compound over time to create profound health shifts.

Ready to take control of your environmental wellness without losing your mind in the process? Join us for this conversation that strikes the perfect balance between eye-opening education and practical, actionable advice. Your future self—with more energy, clearer thinking, and balanced hormones—will thank you for listening.

Find out more about Rebecca & her offerings in the MZC Practitioner Collective & connect with Rebecca on Instagram

Check out the other episodes in the Miniseries - 

EP. 63: Reclaim Your Health: The Power of Elimination Diets with Rebecca Glick

EP. 71: The Truth About Sleep & How to Improve It Holistically w/Rebecca Glick

Transcript

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Welcome to Modern Zen Collective

Speaker 1 0:13

Hi , I'm Lizzie and I'm Nikki . Have you ever felt that your life was missing purpose , joy or deep connection ? Welcome to the Modern Zen Collective podcast , where we embrace holistic living for a joyful , purpose-driven life .

Speaker 3 0:29

In this podcast , we'll explore holistic practices , consciousness expansion and spiritual alignment . We will dive into personal development practices that connect mind , body , spirit and share secrets that ancient cultures have known for centuries . Together , we aim to guide , educate and connect individuals eager to transform their lives .

Speaker 1 0:49

Join us weekly on the Modern Zen Collective podcast and elevate your mind , body and spirit . And now on to today's episode .

Introducing Rebecca Glick

Speaker 3 1:10

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Modern Zen Collective podcast . I am Nikki and I'm here with Rebecca Glick , one of our practitioners for Modern Zen Collective . Rebecca is a certified functional medicine health coach and a past season executive coach that pivoted into wellness in this wellness world and that's how her and I got connected , which has been lovely , and she prioritizes working with midlife moms , women wanting renewed energy , and we're going to talk today about toxins and what they mean , what the buzzword is , everything that goes along with it . But Rebecca and I met in the North Shore yoga community , so we have the same similar interests , obviously , in wellness , holistic living , and when we started talking about everything in terms of toxins and everything else for our bodily alignment , we quickly realized that we should talk about this on the podcast and share the info . So thank you , rebecca , for being here , so excited to chat with you about toxins today .

Speaker 2 2:10

Thank you , nikki , I'm excited to be here .

Speaker 3 2:14

Ah , so let's like , first off , I know that there's such a buzzword in and around everything whether you're reading a magazine or you're on social or anything like that about toxins , and can you just explain to us a little bit about what that means , just so we have an idea and a foundation

Understanding Toxins and Their Impact

Speaker 3 2:31

to start ?

Speaker 2 2:31

Sure , yeah , happy to it certainly is everywhere . You can't really turn to much . You know kind of information that we consume about this is toxic , or this isn't good for you , or don't do this or don't do that , and it can be very confusing and very overwhelming . Toxins , you know , by definition , are really anything that interferes with good health , right . So anything that is , you know , getting in the way of you feeling your best , that you know often really is defined as something that is poisonous to life , right , that's , you know , kind of a more technical definition of a toxin .

Speaker 2 3:10

So , and that's a lot of things around us that you know can be in our food supply , in our cookware , in our cooking methods , in personal care products , in the air , the water , I mean , lawn care , furniture , clothing , I mean it's really everywhere . And so it can be pretty overwhelming . And you know people can say , well , gosh , what do we do ? Do we live in a bubble ? Because you're telling me , like I can't step outside and not breathe in something , right , and while , while , yes , you know that's certainly one way to go , that is certainly not , I think , realistic and how most people want to live their life . And so you know , I work with a lot of my clients on really better understanding what they can do and how they can become , you know , more discerning consumers and become more educated in a lot of those different areas that I touched on .

Speaker 3 4:11

Yeah , yeah , because you know you can go crazy with what's going on , what's , you know ? What's in the air , what's in the water , how can I filter , what can I eat , all of these things ? So when someone comes to you and wants to , you know , adjust and decide , you know , to not have as many toxins , or start to peel the layer back and do the big ones . What would you say are the ones that you would recommend ? If you know someone was coming to you Like the top , that you would say let's start to look at ways that you can remove these from . You know , your everyday life , sure , ways that you can remove these from you know your everyday life .

Speaker 2 4:45

Sure , before I answer that , I may just say you know , maybe let's back up a minute and talk a little bit about sort of like

Cleaning Up Your Kitchen

Speaker 2 4:57

why does that matter ? Because you can kind of hear , like all these things . But people often and I found this for myself too , as I've done my own learning and my own research over many years of why does this really matter ? Because it , you know it sounds good or like , oh , you shouldn't do that , but I think there's so much data about health concerns and challenges that people have that are directly linked to having too many of these things sort of in our environment and in our food and around us . So you know there's a lot of data that connects toxins to increase inflammation in our food and around us .

Speaker 2 5:25

So you know there's a lot of data that connects toxins to increased inflammation in our body , which you know can cause all kinds of chronic conditions that you know are less desirable from , you know , ongoing digestive things to .

Speaker 2 5:39

You know other conditions to blood sugar being sort of off balance from toxins , hormonal disruption , stress , and so people can end up feeling tired and fatigued .

Speaker 2 5:53

You know headaches , their mental health may be a little bit off in terms of just feeling more irritable , and toxins also play a big role in weight management challenges . So often , you know , people feel like they've done everything to try to manage their health , manage their weight , but it's not coming off and some of these things that are sneaking in that you may not even realize can be part of it . So I just wanted to say that in terms of sort of like the why , because it can start to sound like a laundry list of all these things to change , like a laundry list of all these things to change and without understanding the impact that that has , it can come a lot harder for people to be willing to say I want to make these changes in my life . So I just think that's important to start . So maybe , going back to I think your question was around like maybe where to start or what are some of the yeah , yeah , yeah , where to start ?

Speaker 3 6:42

Because yeah , with the foundation of yeah , yeah , where to start ? Because , yeah , with the foundation of knowing you know this could create inflammation , it can create excess weight , it could create fatigue , headaches . You know these different things , starting to peel it apart and you know , releasing , eliminating , whatever it might be , what your suggestions would be , or is it individual for every person ?

Speaker 2 7:03

Well , that's also a great point . It's certainly maybe and in my approach , you know , with coaching individuals , it is a very customized , personalized approach into what is sort of their needs , their concerns on how that might look . I do think that there are some maybe blanket items that apply to everyone in terms of how you might want to think about reducing your toxic burden . So toxic burden is something that we look at . Toxins not just sort of , oh , like I ate something that maybe had red dye , number , whatever that . You know a lot of that is now being eliminated . It's the cumulative effect . So it's over time how these things build up in our bodies and that's what we're sort of trying to help people take down a bit . I mean , there's no way to eliminate every toxin and everything that is not meant to be exposed into your system and live life out in our world . But there are ways to certainly start to minimize it and take it down and I'm a big believer and I think there's a lot of data that shows that , you know , little changes can have a big impact , especially cumulatively over time . So one area that I , you know , talk quite a bit about is around kind of cleaning up in the kitchen . So , you know , not with kind of like the sponge and the cleaning supplies , but really cleaning up things that are not great that we're ingesting , that happen to be in the kitchen .

Speaker 2 8:34

So that's , you know , maybe first and foremost , looking at our food and our ingredients and really looking at , you know , helping people understand how to read labels and what is something that is probably not great to be eating and putting into your body . And you know , there's a saying that sort of like if your grandmother can't pronounce it , then it's probably not something you should be eating , right ? So like da-da-da-da-da-da , monodiglyceroid , maltodextrin , like red number seven , you know , and if that's not something that is like a staple , that is already in your pantry , that you can just pull off the shelf because no one is probably pulling off , you know , monodiglyceroids in a little jar and pouring them into their cookies , then you probably shouldn't be eating it . Yeah , and you know , and I , you know I drive my husband crazy and he goes to the grocery store and he's like I can't buy anything , because you've kind of taught me what to look for .

Speaker 2 9:34

But anyways , there are certainly ways to just become a little more educated and discerning about where your food is coming from , what is it made of , especially when things are more processed ? I mean , an easy way to also sort of look at that is start with your refrigerator . So fruits , vegetables produce healthy proteins that you know maybe are a little less ingredient focused and just they are what they are , and so you know that that's certainly a route . You know choosing things like organic foods where it makes sense . So , looking at , you know , if you're familiar with the Environmental Working Group , the EWG , they have a list of the dirty dozen of the fruits and vegetables that tend to be most kind of covered , based on how they're grown or produced with more pesticides that you know , maybe you'd rather not ingest .

Speaker 2 10:30

And so there's ways to sort of pick and choose based on your budget , based on you know what you're putting into your household , and sort of choosing organic and or grass-fed beef and other things that maybe are produced in a cleaner way that is not bringing so much of those you know extra chemicals into your food supply .

Speaker 3 10:52

I think , yeah , I love that . Your grandma can't pronounce it , you couldn't eat it . I just love that part , yeah , because you know you can buy something . And I remember

Non-Toxic Cleaning Alternatives

Speaker 3 11:03

when I was first going on my journey , learning that the outside of the grocery store is the healthiest because the inside , all of the shelving , is what has to be shelf stable . It has to have all of the things in it to not . You know , they don't want to waste it , so they want to have it to be able to be there so someone can buy it in 6 , 10 , 12 , 15 months . So they produced it 6 , 10 , 12 , 15 months ago .

Speaker 3 11:26

So having that going around the parameter of the grocery store was something that I started just to know , like before I started to become aware of the different ingredients , so that you know great point on having that be the first part in your kitchen we're ingesting it , so it's something that we should be really aware of and seeing and you know it's funny that your husband says that because I hear that a lot too just in general , I have some food intolerances and allergies , so there's things that I can't eat and I have people saying she can't eat anything . But you quickly realize I can eat so much . It's just not the mainstream things that are easy . You could just , yeah , pick up and buy and the cookies or whatever . I can make my own pancakes at home or bread at home or whatever , and it might take a little longer , but it's with the ingredients that I can eat Exactly .

Speaker 2 12:18

I mean , it's all about you know where you want to sort of invest your time and your effort , and some things take a little more planning and some things can be really ingrained habits that people are just used to .

Speaker 2 12:31

But this is , you know , the brand that my kids love , or this is what I always buy , and it's not about like changing , you know , going into your pantry or going into your kitchen and throwing everything out that doesn't sort of fit that bill . You know , I really think it's . You know , people are most successful with making change when it's gradual , when it's small , when it's starting with one thing and kind of experimenting and trying it out and saying , oh , actually you know what this tastes great . And now that I'm kind of in the habit of making , as you said , like pancakes or something from scratch , I actually like these better and I can make a big batch and eat it over a few days and it isn't such a burden to make that shift . But I am a big believer in sort of starting small , you know , going at your own pace , seeing what works , versus trying to overhaul everything , because then it can be overwhelming .

Speaker 3 13:21

For sure , for sure , for your nervous system , for sure . So what else in the kitchen , like once you go through the food , or figure that out .

Speaker 2 13:31

That's a great question . So the other area that I've , you know , learned quite about is , you know our cooking methods and our cooking materials also can play a big role into , you know , what's kind of sneaking inadvertently into our food . So you know there's tons of things that you can see on the internet about . You know avoiding nonstick or Teflon or things that are going to have certain chemicals floating in there . You know heating like you know heating plastics , right , so putting things in the microwave , whether you use a microwave or not , you know sometimes that's unavoidable . You know avoiding , like , storing a lot of foods , especially heated in plastics . There's , you know , chemicals like BPA . That that's , you know , been floating out there for years and those are real studied things in terms of the disruption they can have in your hormones and just overall in terms of how you're feeling .

Speaker 2 14:30

So you know , just again , like taking taking a look at , like , how you are storing your food , what kinds of pots and pans are you using ? You know I would say that you know typically trying to minimize aluminum , aluminum foil , plastic things that maybe are lead-based or lead paint that can produce endocrine disruptors are kind of best to avoid , and trying to focus on stainless steel glass . I cook with a lot of cast iron pans but like some of that , I've changed out over time when you know something was just not usable anymore or you know so again . It's not about like taking every pot and pan out in your kitchen and saying , oh no , I can't use this , but maybe if you're in the market for something new , you know , factor in well , I'm going to you know kind of see what kind of criteria or do a little bit of reading about .

Speaker 2 15:24

you know how this is made , because what happens is , you know especially this how this is made Because what happens is you know especially when you're using heat , things can be released into your food that you probably don't want to be eating just like the foods , and you know that are ingredients in more processed foods .

Speaker 2 15:40

So and and also how you cook the food also matters . So you know , steaming and less super high heat can be better in terms of you know what you're sort of releasing into your foods using filtered water when you're boiling water , like things that you know you may or may not think about can make you know a big difference in kind of what you're preparing .

Speaker 3 16:10

Yeah , and setting the foundation from the start , and you know this . These things are things like you might feel it immediately , but it's more a gradual process because you've been using , possibly , plastic for a while , or your mom's old Teflon pan she gave you in the 80s , or something like that . But it definitely helps to , you know , clean and purify and get you into the right place . I've also , like , heard you know about , you know , using copper to store water and that has a lot of , like minerals in it . Hel helps to help with your water after you filter it . So you know all these different processes . But once they become a habit , they're not a process anymore , but with yeah , so the food , obviously , and then the way you're cooking . What about cleaning ? Because I , you know I grow up where we're from . You know , in that same era of it was all about kill all the germs and chlorophyll everything and use all of this stuff that smells up the house .

Speaker 3 17:15

You knew your mom was cleaning , you know , and how do you feel about you know , if you're cleaning the counter in the kitchen or just you're cleaning your house in general ? Those things could be , you know , disruptive to our whole system ?

Speaker 2 17:28

Yeah , that's a great question too , and I think you know people probably have lots of different schools of thought on this , and I'm not like a , you know , cleaning expert when it comes to some of these things , but I , you know , I try to use a mix of things , right ? So maybe this is like an 80-20 rule , like there's some products that you probably , you know , want to clean your bathroom in a way that you know is disinfected and clean , and maybe that is a more Cloroxy type product that you use , you know , sparingly , or whatnot .

Speaker 2 17:59

But I also try to go back to basics and like I use a lot of like vinegar and water and like essential oils vinegar and water and like essential oils . There's a great , there's a great company that I dabbled in a little bit called Branch Basics and you , they give you kind of formulas , they give you a whole kit and they give you formulas to . Basically it's like water and vinegar and like essential oils , and they have all kinds of kind of formulas of like what you use for like stains or a glass cleaner or counters or the stove , and it's pretty easy to follow . Um , so I've used that a bit and that's also , too , that's something I've changed over time .

Speaker 2 18:38

I'm I'm someone that is super sensitive to smell and fragrance and so um and if you know , if it's something that has that very , you know , kind of ammonia-y smell , it's probably not great , it probably has a synthetic fragrance , which you know is also , you know we could get into skincare and cosmetics is often in that too , but that is definitely , you know , synthetic fragrances or endocrine disruptors which are going to wreak havoc on your hormones . And so I just try to avoid things that are smelly even at a minimum , so like no fragrance or fragrance-free or no synthetic fragrances , and I think , yeah , like I said , it's a balance right Of like anything that you want , things that quote-unquote , work and clean , but maybe not that you're exactly that , your kids , that your pets , that you're ingesting , um , things that are are , you know , maybe more toxic than others .

Speaker 3 19:33

So

Small Changes for Big Impact

Speaker 3 19:34

yeah for sure . When I learned about the fragrance with endocrine disruptors , I thought immediately you know Clorox and Lysol and different things like that . I didn't exactly pinpoint it to perfume and that was a journey of mine to start not wearing perfume , because the perfume , unless it's organic which Credo Beauty , they Credo has a lot of really beautiful organic , yeah , and the thing with , or that it doesn't last that long , which is great because you know it's not synthetic .

Speaker 3 20:06

So you have it on for a little bit and then it releases an hour or two later . But that was also a journey . I remember watching some studies of you know the testing of how toxic a perfume is . You're putting directly on your largest organ , your skin , and wearing it , and then also going around other people and they're ingesting it . So that was part of the journey for releasing the toxins . For me was the perfume part of it too .

Speaker 2 20:33

That's a big part of it , right . It's like you know you don't smell better . Yeah , I mean better . Yeah , yeah , I mean it's everything .

Speaker 2 20:41

It's everything in like moderation , right , because I think people have to think about , like , what works for them and if someone really loves a certain perfume and that's like their identity and who like , maybe that's something that's lower on their list to , you know , take off their sort of maybe more quote unquote toxic list , or they use a little bit , or they use it for a special occasion , and I mean that's . I think that , you know , applying like an all or nothing mentality to any of these topics that we talked about can actually then have the opposite effect of someone doing nothing right and then just becoming forget it . I'm not doing this because you're , you know , suggesting . I change 10 hundred things around me every day and now I'm very sad .

Speaker 3 21:24

Yeah , exactly , you don't want to be you don't want to be sad and down in the dumps and not having joy anymore because you eliminated all the things that you enjoyed in life . Having the small , bite-sized pieces is huge . It's a work in progress . Exactly , it's a work in progress and I know when we first talked , we were talking about this . I told you about my journey and how I started looking into functional and learning about different things that were creating inflammation or my body was rejecting , and I started to do you know different ways of looking at my foods and I started to just eliminate these toxins and it really was game changing to me . It was really . I could feel the night and day difference once I started to kind of release and adjust things accordingly .

Speaker 3 22:22

And I remember hearing a quote which stayed with me it's because you know , like you're saying , moderation is fantastic , and the quote that I heard was a little bit of poison is a lot of poison . So if you have like the little bit of something every single day , yeah , it's a lot in your body , but if you have it , you know , a little bit every week , then it's your body's going to be able to have . That's what our bodies are designed for to combat , to fight to get over it , et cetera . But if you don't give it time to reprieve , to heal itself , a little bit of poison is a lot of poison . For sure , for sure .

Speaker 2 23:00

Yeah , that's what I was talking about earlier , like that cumulative effect over time . But you raise another point too , nikki , that I just want to mention . As you were talking about , you know what our bodies are designed to do and that's like a really , really important piece and that we're talking about all these things oh hey , don't eat this , don't eat that , don't cook this , never leave your house . But our bodies are designed , if we're sort of , feeding them in the right way and caring for them in the right way , to detoxify , because you know , nature is that you're going to come into contact with things that you're , you know , not supposed to be ingesting or not supposed to be processing , have an amazing way to detoxify and eliminate . You know the things that shouldn't be there if we are caring for them in the right ways in terms of , you know , proper nutrition and really nutrients that you know aim to kind of speed up detoxification and sleep , and you know , minimizing stress .

Speaker 2 23:58

You know movement , movement , doing things that make you sweat , that like get you know things out and eliminate , and so there is there is that sort of offensive strategy that we can put up and say , okay , we're going to kind of do the best that we can to maybe keep some of the things at bay or , you know , this is my priority for food or kitchen or personal care , whatever wherever someone wants to prioritize but also knowing that taking care of themselves will sort of turn the system on the way that it's supposed to work and help detoxify . So our bodies really are amazing and that they can be a part of this process with us if we're caring for them in the right way .

Speaker 3 24:38

Yeah , so intuitive . Our bodies can really help us out If we're caring for them in the right way . Yeah , so intuitive . Our bodies can really help us out . If we're helping our body out , it can help us out . Yeah , full circle .

Speaker 3 24:46

Give it the movement , give it a little sweat , a little detox , a sign that I noticed when I was going through realizing what I had in my body and eliminating , or even whenever I eat something that is something that I feel inflamed on . You know how the liver does all of its work . While you're sleeping , I would wake up like I was in a pressure cooker , just like sweat , because my liver was working overtime trying to process everything that wasn't aligned for me , and that was part of my journey where I realized , oh , when I eat this , every single time when I fall asleep , I feel this pressure cooker inside of me at 4 am , whenever it was that it started happening . Yeah , beautiful . Well , this has been amazing .

Speaker 3 25:37

We're going to have more with Rebecca , where we're going to talk about other subjects that we touched on just a little bit today , but I think you know the broad overview understanding toxins . I love your mentality of it's not all or nothing , just looking at different ways you can start to make little adjustments and then keep the things that bring you joy , you know , but you still have those in your life . But know that there are ways that you could introduce adjustments and changes for you , your family , your loved ones , everything . So I love your wisdom and knowledge and all that you've done to help others . And how can anyone that's listening contact you or get to know you or learn a little bit about you ? We'll have everything in the show notes for your Modern Zen Collective page , but how can they find you other than that ?

Speaker 2 26:23

Yeah

Wrapping Up and Contact Information

Speaker 2 26:24

, Thanks , nikki . So I'm , you know , at nefeshliving on Instagram or people can reach out to Rebecca at nefeshlivingcom is my email and happy to chat , answer more questions and , you know , help people kind of create a journey to wellness .

Speaker 3 26:44

Love it . Love it All right . Wonderful . Thanks for being here . Thanks everyone for listening . We will connect with you soon . Have a great day , thanks everyone . Thanks Rebecca , thanks Nikki .

Speaker 1 27:04

Don't miss out on our journey to living an authentic , purposeful and joyful life . Join our membership and subscribe now to the Modern Zen Collective podcast on all major platforms and take the first steps towards elevating your mind , body and spirit . For all resources mentioned in this episode and to connect with us and our conscious community , check out the episode show notes for all links and our current offerings . See y'all next time .