Crunchy Stewardship
In this podcast we are taking a deep dive into what it means to steward our lives as God originally intended for us with the resources that God has given us. We will look at topics like food, medicine, finances, mental health and lots more through a natural lens with a biblical foundation.
Crunchy Stewardship
Goat Cheese Hunt, Cold Plunge Fail, and Beaver Butt Tea
In this episode, we're switching things up and sharing how we're actually living out all the crunchy things we talk about! Katie's on a mission to find local goat cheese (spoiler: it's harder than finding goat milk), Chrissy discovers why cold plunges aren't for every body type (hello, exhaustion hangover), and we dive into some shocking truths about what's really in your tea bags. From quail eggs to red light therapy price tags, we're giving you the real, unfiltered update on our non-toxic journey - including all the wins, fails, and "wait, THAT'S what natural flavoring is made from?!" moments. Join us for our most candid conversation yet as we share what's actually working (and spectacularly failing) in our real-life crunchy journeys. Warning: contains shocking facts about beaver anatomy and mascara ingredients.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship
01:07 Reflecting on Past Episodes
01:40 The Hunt for Local Goat Cheese
03:49 Switching to Organic Foods
06:37 Exploring Local Farms and Produce
15:05 The Impact of Pesticides and Fertilizers
18:45 The Importance of Organic Foods for Children
20:27 Preparing for a Healthy Pregnancy
21:45 The Benefits of Dandelion
23:14 The Truth About Tea Bags
27:51 The Shocking Truth About Makeup Ingredients
29:03 Family Makeup Preferences and Recommendations
30:57 Exploring Biohacking: Cold Plunges and Red Light Therapy
36:22 The Benefits and Costs of Red Light Therapy
42:20 Affordable Non-Toxic Lifestyle Changes
Links mentioned in this episode:
Nourishing Traditions cookbook by Sally Fallon: https://amzn.to/3J6nuD2
The Feel Good Way cookbook: https://amzn.to/417Hhbd
Weston A Price Foundation: https://www.westonaprice.org/
Joovv red light therapy panels: https://joovv.com/
EMR Tech red light panels: https://emr-tek.com/
Primarily Pure skincare: https://primallypure.com/
A'DEL Natural Cosmetics: https://adelnaturalcosmetics.com/
Connect With Us:
Join Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crunchychristianmama
Follow us on Instagram @crunchystewardship
FREE How to Afford Non-Toxic Living Workbook: https://crunchystewardship.com/how-to-afford-non-toxic-living
Hello and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship. My name is Chrissy Rombach.
Katie:And my name is Katie Fiola Jones. We are two cousins who are passionate about learning and sharing knowledge to equip others to steward their spiritual mental, emotional, financial, and physical health in order to honor God in every aspect of their lives.
Chrissy:In our podcast, we take deep dives into what it means to steward our lives as God originally intended for us with the resources that he has already given us. We look at topics like food, medicine, finances, mental health, and tons more through a natural lens and with a biblical foundation.
Katie:Before diving into this week's episode, if you've been enjoying our podcast and haven't already, be sure to go and subscribe and leave us a five star rating. It really does help other people find our show in the future. And if you aren't already signed up for our weekly newsletter, you can take a moment right now to go and do that by clicking the link that we've provided for you in our show notes. In this week's episode, we're doing something just a little differently. We wanted to just take a moment to talk about how we are living out some of these things that we've been learning in our own lives. So in essence, we're just kind of pausing to reflect back on several of our episodes, some of the things we've talked about and wanna share with you what we're doing, like how we're implementing some of these lessons into our day-to-day living. So, for example, right now I am on a hunt to find some. Uh, locally produced goat cheese, it's actually pretty easy to find goat milk, but right now I am, I'm on a, like a scavenger hunt trying to find local goat cheese because goat cheese in general, a lot of other milks besides traditional cow milk, um, has a lot more like nutrients and proteins and things like that. And I also just really love goat cheese. So if I can find a really awesome goat cheese provider right here in our area, that would be the best thing in the world. So that's just a quick example of things we're gonna go through and talk about and just stuff we're like learning and doing and giving you an update on some of the things that we've talked about in the past on some of our episodes.
Chrissy:You know, Katie, I think it's funny that you started off by talking about cheese, because cheese is honestly one of those grocery items that I have just kind of bypassed when it comes to shopping organic and looking for local and things like that. Because first off, fancy cheese is expensive because. It's really hard to convince myself to spend$5 on an eight ounce block of cheese when I can get it for two, you know? Um, but also like even with the cheaper cheeses, unless it's like craft American cheese, obviously we're not doing that, but even with the cheaper cheeses, looking at the ingredients, they're not too, too bad. You know, it's like cultured milk and enzymes and that's about it, you know? And so that is, that's so funny that you started off talking about cheese because cheese was one of those that I was like, I don't really know if I actually have, I probably do have to fix it, but it's not one of those things that's like super high on my list of food items that I want to change in our lives. So that's really interesting.
Katie:Yeah. Cheese, so I've mentioned it before with products, especially like eggs for example, but eggs and milk and even meats that are conventionally grown. So when they're not organic or not grown in a regenerative way, they have a much lower like nutrient density. And so your store-bought eggs or store-bought milks or cheeses or meats. They are all going to be less like nutrient valuable for you. And so that's like one of the reasons we have been switching over to more of those organic foods. Mostly because, and even Wes mentioned it recently, that when you buy these more nutrient packed foods, they actually keep you fuller throughout the day, much longer. And so Wes was like, yeah, I haven't really needed, I, I actually mentioned to him, he packed a pretty small lunch the other day when he was going to work. And I was like, are you sure you don't need more than that? And he had like some cooked veggies that we had from the night before and like an apple. And like something else. And it, it just felt very small to me for like the whole day. And he's like, you know, no, I've just been feeling more full. Like I haven't needed like a whole big lunch. And it's just, it, it just goes to show that as we've been switching over to these better products, it just like helps you feel fuller longer because they're actually packed with like, especially protein when you, when you switch your proteins to better sourced foods. Like actually the animals are raised better. They just are better for you and you can tell by the energy that you have throughout the day. So I just thought that was really interesting because I've been feeling it too. Um, but just the fact that he packed such a small lunch, he was like, I just don't really need it. So
Chrissy:No,
Katie:Yeah.
Chrissy:that is so true. Max has kind of expressed some of the same things, not explicitly, but um, in terms of like, he's a big snacker, I am not a big snacker at all whatsoever. So when we got married, it kind of like was a little bit of a whirlwind for me of like, wait a minute, you need to eat at all hours of the day. Like, I don't understand this. Why do you snack so much? And since we've been switching over our, um, food also, like Max's cut down his snacking to like one or two snacks, not buy me getting on him like, don't snack so much. Although that does happen sometimes. Um. It's a lot of like, no, he's just satisfied, you know, and doesn't really need it all that much.
Katie:Yeah, it's so on my search. So we, we had an episode come out recently about finding local farmers to help. You fill your own pantries and your own refrigerators and so on. My own hunt, that is one thing I'm still looking for is like goat cheese. I, I found someone who actually provides goat milk, so I'm doing that soon. I actually haven't gotten the goat milk yet. I, I don't know that I've actually tried goat milk itself before, so that'll be new. It's also raw goat milk and we have switched to raw milk in general, which is awesome. I really love it.
Chrissy:Every time I talk to Max about, Hey, can we get chickens? Hey, can we get a cow? He says yes to chickens. So he says no to a cow. So my second option is, can we get a goat? He still says no to that.
Katie:You know,
Chrissy:No goats. No cows.
Katie:being out in this rural area, I have actually learned myself. Goat keeping seems a lot easier than cow keeping because cows really need consistent milking, like two times a day at least. Then that's a lot.
Chrissy:Yeah, and goats are small enough. Honestly, they, I feel like sometimes when they're young, I don't know about like fully grown goats, but at least young goats can honestly be household pets too, to an extent. Like I've seen people with like pet goats before.
Katie:Yeah. So it just like, I've had some people who are like, yeah, I, I was raised on a dairy farm and our schedule really revolved around needing to get back to milk the cows at, at all hours of the day. And I was like, you know, that just doesn't sound that great to me. I'd love to have an animal that you can kind of leave. So I guess I, I can't say that for sure for goat. Like a dairy goat. Um, I don't really know what milking schedules. I would assume you probably have to milk them once, at least once a day, so I don't really know. I need to learn more about it, but I would be more interested in goats. I did actually find a friend out here who did say that if we got some land and got goats, that she would go in on them with me and kinda like partner with me to do goats together. So I'm like, that would be a great way to do it is have a buddy system where, yeah, if we go on vacation, my friend can come over, take care of the goats and then vice versa. She goes, I'm still taking care of them. So that I think would be a great way to do it.
Chrissy:Or like one person gets the morning shift, one person gets the evening shift kind of thing. That way you're not tied down at both ends of the day.
Katie:Exactly. Yeah, that's
Chrissy:Yeah. That's great.
Katie:I have a friend back in Colorado who does that with bees. Like she has the beehives on her property, but there's another lady who helps her tend to the bees. And I was like, that is a really great system. And it also, I just like teamwork in that sense. Like I love going in on stuff together. I also would love the idea of doing almost like a community style garden. I think that that would be really fun. Like, okay, each person kind of gets a section and depending on where the land is, like maybe it's on our land, but it's like a big plot and each person gets a, like a certain size of it or whatever. But I don't know, who knows? We have no idea what house we're gonna be living in'cause we still have not. Uh, we don't have a house yet, so like, this is all just fantasy. I have no idea if we could even have goats on the land that we eventually get out here. So, but we are, the one thing that I did get recently from just a local farm stand, there's tons of them out here. You just drive around and you can find them almost on every road. And one of them was selling quail eggs. And so we actually got quail eggs recently, which I have learned are like the protein ratio, even though the eggs are so tiny, like go Google the size of a quail egg, they are itty bitty, like super itty bitty. But the protein density ratio in the egg is much higher per egg than they are for chicken eggs. Um, same thing with duck eggs. Duck eggs actually have like a lot more nutrients and protein or whatever. So, the nutrient value is much higher per egg than a chicken egg, which was really interesting. So I cooked up a couple, I fried'em up for Malakai the other day and he loved them, which was great. And they were so cute and so tiny, but the eggs are like speckled. And I just, it was so fun. And I was like, maybe we'll have quails one day. That'd be, that would be fun too. Just do, do all the things
Chrissy:Instead of, instead of chickens, you have quails. It'd be funny, I'd be like,
Katie:they're really
Chrissy:I have quails.
Katie:qua.
Chrissy:I don't even think I know what a quail looks like.
Katie:Now I have to Google it. I don't know if I could point out an actual quail to you either. Because actually now that I remember I went, one of the farms, I did tour her. I thought that this woman had guinea fowl and she was like, oh no, those are actually quail. And I was like, oh, I guess I didn't, I thought guinea fowl is, this is what it looked like, which also is another weird bird that I've learned that a lot of homesteading people have, because Guinea fowl tend to be really good, like predator protectors. Like they, they fight off predators and they're more intense than chickens. And so they'll like fight off like a, a fox in the yard or something. So I'm like, a lot of homesteaders do Guinea foul instead of having a rooster because they don't want the rooster noise, so they get guinea fowl. And I'm like, well, that's an interesting way to do it too. So I don't know.
Chrissy:One thing I'm learning is there's always a way around. The problems that is not, the typical, traditional, like using pesticides or putting up like a fake rooster or a fake owl or something like that. Like there's always a natural way to solve these problems that our society now just like has totally forgotten about. Like, you know, they produce crops many, many years ago before pesticides came into the picture, before fertilizer came into the picture. So it's like, okay, let's go back to like, what did they use to use as fertilizer and pesticides and how did it work, you know? Um, it's, it's so sad, honestly.'cause, so Max and I, if you've been listening to our previous episodes, we moved into a small one bedroom apartment and. It, it's beautiful. I love this apartment. It's very nice. It's up to date. My walls don't come off when I wipe them down with a washcloth. It's phenomenal. The floors are clean, it's well kept. There's not a hole forming in the middle of my living room, like in my house. But at the same time, even though this place is lovely, I have never seen so much fertilizer before in my life. I've lived here for three weeks and I've already seen them fertilizing twice and I've seen them cut the grass now I think three or four times, which is really impressive to me because I think at our house, the grass was cut like maybe once every other week and it was never fertilized Um, which mind you makes for some beautiful grass around here. But it makes me very sad. Also, at the same time, when I see all the kids in the apartment complex. Playing outside, playing soccer in the field, barefoot. And it just, I have such like a, a back and forth of like, this is so beautiful. And yet I recognize that because of all the fertilizer and the pesticides that they're using on the grass and the bushes around here, like, I don't wanna walk outside barefoot. I don't even wanna wear my shoes into my apartment, you know? Um, and I, it just hurts my soul when I see, like, I love seeing the kids out playing, but at the same time, it hurts my soul when I see it. So I know that there are ways to have beautiful grass and a beautiful lawn and beautiful, gardens without using fertilizer and pesticides. We just have to figure out a way. And no, I have not figured out that way other than manure but I know there's a way.
Katie:Yes. Yeah, the pesticides and herbicide stuff right now for me is one of those. Things that I've kind of been learning more about and becoming a little bit more like observant of, especially obviously moving here to this rural area in Michigan, there's a lot of pesticides and herbicides that are used and there's non-organic fertilizers that are used, and it, I, I've just become very acutely aware of it, but even in the sense of like just using them on lawns and everything, I've been learning more about it because of the area we're in and they're sprayed a lot more, but I've been more aware of it on the lawns and so it's been used on many of the lawns that we have been around lately, and I know that, you know, these pesticides are linked to, um, and the fertilizers and all this stuff, they, they all have these chemicals in it that are linked to things like cancers or Parkinson's disease or even just an increase in asthma or allergies. Just all this stuff, these chronic problems that we all face, a lot of it can be linked back to the toxic exposure, especially exposure over time. So one of the things I learned about something like, um, glyphosate is an easy one to pick on, but another product I've been learning about, I actually just, stumbled upon it the other day. I think it's called Diquat. It is used in a lot of stuff lately, and it is also like just as bad as glyphosate, but glyphosate has just been picked on so much. But, again, I don't know if I'm pronouncing it right, but Diquat is in a lot of other fertilizers and products and things like that these days. And, um, it's all linked to all of these problems especially when, so if you're eating non-organic food, these chemicals are in these products that you're eating, especially when they are things like wheats, oats, soy products, um, or corns because a lot of our products here in America are genetically modified and they're genetically modified to not die when these herbicides and pesticides are sprayed on the crops. And so that these chemicals only kill off the weeds in the area and kill off the bugs in the area, but they don't kill the plants. So the plants are doused in this stuff. And it's also used as a drying agent, like glyphosate is used as a drying agent for, um, grains. And so after it's even cut, it gets sprayed all over these plants. So even after it's grown, now it's drying with this chemical on it. And then they, that grain goes to make your cereals and your breads and your granola bars and, and all the things that you eat every single day. And so you're exposed to it so often. And so for children who are exposed to it, even in utero, so when they are a fetus in a mother's body, if that mother is eating this non-organic food, their baby is getting exposed to it. And so those babies who have basically been exposed to it since conception have higher rates of things like allergies, especially, asthma. And then it's linked to cancers, which I, I think we talked about a little bit, um, in last week's episode. But it's, it's one of those things that I'm like, wow, this is so important. Especially because I did not switch to organic foods until after Malakai was born. And so that does mean that he was exposed to all of that in utero and when, you know, when he was in my belly. And so I'm like, how can we do better now for him that he's a baby and growing, um, when it's probably the most important for them, like as a fetus and then as an a infant baby and growing and toddler and everything, it's the most important to have these nutrient dense foods that are better for you, that are not laden with chemicals because their bodies are rapidly growing and forming and all this stuff So, so, so, so important.
Chrissy:It's also super important, I think. I mean, obviously at all stages of life, it is very important to make sure that you're giving your body the best quality food that you possibly can because ultimately your body's going to be using your food for energy. And so I'm also thinking in like the prenatal stage, you know, when you're preparing your body to have a baby, you know, it's like, think of it, you know, they say that carrying a baby to term is like running a marathon every day for 40 weeks. Right? And so if you're gonna. I, I believe it. I haven't been there, but I believe it. And so if somebody's going to prepare to run a marathon, they don't just like up one morning and say, I'm gonna run a marathon every single day for 40 weeks. No, you're crazy. But if they're eating the proper foods and working out their body properly to prepare for this marathon, they're going to be able to run this marathon so much more effectively. And without hurting themselves too. Like so many women have so many problems during pregnancy a lot of times because their body wasn't prepared adequately to have a baby. And so women who are looking to be pregnant someday, it's like, Hey, take time. You might be years before having a baby, but take that as an opportunity to maximize your health so that when your body is ready to carry a baby, that you don't have to like struggle and hurry and be like, oh my gosh, I gotta take all these prenatal vitamins.'cause otherwise my folic acid levels won't be right. And no. Don't even worry about it. Like your food should be covering that already in and of itself, that the prenatal vitamin is just a little cherry on top and it's not absolutely necessary to carry a healthy baby. You know, your food and exercise are the things that are necessary to carry a healthy baby. So that's just another thing.
Katie:I mean, again, like you said before with like crops, nobody had prenatal vitamins before. Prenatal vitamins were invented, and so you're like, like people had healthy babies all the way until now, and it's like, why are people doing this now? Like why do we need it now instead of back then?
Chrissy:Now, mind you, at the same time, they probably did have their potions and elixirs of, oh, you're pregnant. You should drink this dandelion tea, which honestly, I've been learning a lot that dandelion has a lot of really crazy health benefits. Like I feel like every time I listen to a new health person on a podcast, they are always mentioning the benefits of dandelion, and I'm just like, what is this miracle flower that my dad hated when I was growing up and always wanted to spray with the glyphosate to get rid of it?
Katie:Yeah, dandelions are one of those things that are really good. I remember a few years ago, before I started my own crunchy journey, I had a friend who I don't even know if I would, uh, I mean, she's definitely, now that I look back at it, she's definitely on the crunchier side. But I remember her mentioning to me, this is like four or five years ago that she was making dandelion tea from the, the dandelions in her yard. And I was like. Okay, cool. Like, I just thought that was the weirdest thing. And I also thought it would probably taste very weird and she was kind of like, oh yeah, it's like, good for this and that, and all these things, and I, it just like went over my head. But I still think about that because same thing, like I hear about it all the time, like how great dandelions are for you. And the, the one thing though, kind of like you mentioned, you have to make sure that you are picking it from a yard that is not sprayed with anything, like even fertilizers, nothing. Because whatever is sprayed onto that flower, onto the, whatever the plant is that you're picking, if you go and steep that into a cup of hot water, it's going to leach into that cup. Which actually this is such a great transition and I didn't, we did not plan this, the thing that I actually learned about today that I wanted to talk about here on, on this episode was learning about teas and the fact that tea tea bags, the tea bags that your tea comes in are so bad for you. They're bleached, they're used with microplastics, like they're infused in it. So that way all this stuff is getting into your tea. And even one of my, um, favorite companies, they're, they've, as I've been learning, I, I haven't really bought any of their teas in general, but they're out of Colorado. It's Celestial Seasonings. They're very, very widely known, very popular. They have the Sleepy Time tea, which you've probably had before, but their teas I learned are like, so the tea bags that you get from them, if you open up those tea bags, it typically is just a powder inside of it. And so what they actually do when they're making the teas is they, they have all the leaves. So take like spearmint for example, you know, you get these nice spearmint leaves, but then you put them into a container somewhere. They, they store them and all, like they, they eventually dry and they kind of create powders. Like some of them get crumpled and so they take the powder from all these leaves and the plants and things like that, and they package those up into the tea bags and they actually sell off the tea leaves for a higher price to another company. Now, I don't know specifically if Celestial Seasonings is doing this, but on the podcast I listen to the woman was basically saying that she thinks that Celestial Seasonings does do this. She does know of other big tea companies that do that, that same thing. If you open the tea bags, it's just powder. You're not getting the actual leaves that have the better medicinal, uh, properties in them. So you're basically getting like nothing, like, it's not that valuable of tea, but they package it and sell it for high prices. And I was like, what?
Chrissy:Yeah, I definitely believe that one, 100%. I feel like looking at a Lipton teabag, you know, it is just like a bunch of little speckles in there versus like when I get my really high quality tea, it's legit leaves and I can see the different types of leaves and things that are in it. So I've actually gone down like a deep dive rabbit hole on different teas that are good, um, that you can actually get in a teabag form, because let me tell you. I had literally just bought a cute little tea box and I had all my little tea bags in it, and it was looking good. I was feeling so proud of myself. And then I found out about the bleaching and the microplastics and tea bags. And I was so sad because I just created this beautiful setup of all my tea and they were all in tea bags. And so I did a little bit more research into it. And there are some brands that do sell microplastic free and unbleached tea bags with tea leaves in them. With that, it does take a lot of searching to do because even in some brands, it's not consistent across teas like I know, um, uh, I think Bigelow, is that how you say it? Bigelow. Bigelow. T
Katie:Bigelow big,
Chrissy:Bigelow.
Katie:exactly what you're talking
Chrissy:That one, the one that starts with a B and ends with a W. Um. Their tea bags are good. Like I have had no problems with their tea bags, but their tea specifically, some teas are made with all natural ingredients and some teas have extra ingredients like artificial or natural flavors in it and colors
Katie:Mm-hmm.
Chrissy:And so even on top of the tea bags and how those are made, um, it's also important to look at the tea itself and recognize, okay, is there extra coloring in here? Is there artificial flavors? Is there natural flavors in it? Because mind you, even though natural flavors are, they say they're natural. They're natural because they're made from natural gas. And I don't know about you, but I don't drink gasoline. So,
Katie:Well,
Chrissy:it's definitely,
Katie:it's not just like gasoline, but they'll be like, it's natural products and it'll be like, literally, I heard the other day that one of the natural quote unquote natural products is
Chrissy:did you say beaver butt? Yes.
Katie:yeah.
Chrissy:I think you said that on a previous episode.
Katie:It's the most disgusting thing. And they're like, well, it's found in nature, so obviously it's natural. And you're like, there's nothing natural about eating a beaver's butt. No. Thank you.
Chrissy:You know, that's another thing that, a little fact that I've always known that should have grossed me out a long time ago, but didn't, was the fact that mascara is made with bat guano. Have you heard that?
Katie:Yeah, I've, I, well, I've heard a lot of that and like even like lipsticks were made with like shark stuff and Yeah. I
Chrissy:Yeah.
Katie:of like weird stuff that people did to make makeup, and none of it is natural. You're like, oh, gosh.
Chrissy:My mascara is definitely on my list of things to look into a better product once I run out of the one that I am currently using, which low key might be in six months, because I wear mascara approximately once a week. To church, and that's it. So it takes me so long to go through my mascara that, of course, I realized that it was one of those things that I had to replace, like right after buying a new mascara, because that's how it goes around here with this crunchy journey, is you always find out a new thing after you buy the product that you've been using. So then you have to wait until you finish that product, because I'm not gonna throw it away, right? I, I bought it. Um, but yes, mascara is on my list of things to change.
Katie:Our mothers were together recently, actually, and you were there too for one of our other cousins, uh, bridal showers. And they told me that they want us to do an episode on makeup. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's a, a good idea. And then I was thinking about it and I was like, Chrissy and I are probably the worst people to do an episode on makeup because I think out of like all of our cousins, a lot of our cousins don't wear a lot of makeup in general. But you and I have just never been makeup wearers and like my sister wears makeup, but even at that, like she's, she's pretty modest with it. She used to wear a lot more when she was younger, but even nowadays, like a lot of us just don't wear a lot of heavy makeup. But our mothers definitely love their makeup and I know that they want to wear good makeup. My mom was like, I need to know what's the best. I was like, I do know some brands in general that are recommended in kind of the crunchy space, but I don't know enough because I just don't like, same thing, like the mascara I have is I'm gonna be using it for quite a while. Same thing with eyeliner. I wear it once a week to church and maybe if I'm going out with some girlfriends or something, but like not that often at all.
Chrissy:I feel like with the makeup topic in general, I could probably point people in the correct direction of finding good makeup products. For instance, Primarily Pure has really great makeup products that are very clean and good for your skin. Adele Natural Cosmetics is another one that I've heard really great things about. But I would not be able to say, yes, I've used this product and yes, it feels good on my skin. And yes, it prevented me from breaking out. And yes, I recommend it because I just don't have that kind of experience with these products. But I've heard a lot of advertisements and I've heard a lot of other people like these things, so point'em that way. Another thing that your mom actually mentioned to me this weekend while she was in town was she wants us to do an episode on biohacking IE, like red light therapy and cold plunging and saunas. And let me tell you, they made me do a cold plunge this weekend. It zapped me, zapped my energy. Like I, we did the cold plunge on Sunday afternoon and all day Monday I could not focus. I had, I was so tired. I literally came home from work and just plopped on the bed. Like I couldn't function at all. My ability to form complete sentences was. As if I had just worked a night shift kind of thing. I was like, I don't know what this cold plunge is, but it is not for me. And I have heard a podcast in the past that not every body type is made for cold plunging. And so essentially what I've learned when it comes to like cold plunging, specifically saunas love, except if you're a man trying to make a baby, don't do the saunas. Gotta keep the swimmers at a good temperature. But, um, and red light therapy, I think is fantastic, but cold plunging, if you don't have enough body fat on your body to handle the cold plunge, you're not gonna handle the cold plunge very well. I'm a person that my entire life had a, I've had a very low body fat percentage just looking at me. You can tell I don't have very much body fat on me. And even when it's cold outside, like 60 degrees, I grab my parka. I cannot handle the cold. And so cold plunging is not for me, whereas. A 50, 60-year-old man, or even my husband for instance, you know, they have a lot more body fat on them, and so they can handle cold plunges a lot better. Now, I do recognize that I just made a generalized statement that was not, that is not generally accurate because generally women have more body fat than men on average.
Katie:Mm-hmm.
Chrissy:essentially what I'm trying to say here is if you have more body fat, go for it. If you don't, maybe hold off or try it and see how exhausted you are the next day, because I couldn't handle it. That's just my take.
Katie:uh, I don't always love when you hear something like, like about cold, the, the cold plunge, ice baths, whatever. Uh, and people are like, this is the way to lose weight and this is the best way to do that, or whatever. And it's like, no, a lot of these things really are dependent on our own body types and, and yes, there are some things that kind of across the board are the same. Nutrition is one of them. Nutrition really is generally the same. Yes, certain foods might do better, like slight variations of foods, but for the most part to be healthy, it is the same kind of stuff. But when it comes to like these very specific like. Weird. Like fasting is another one of those people will talk all day about yeah, you have to do a 40 hour fast to do this and, and it's really good for your mitochondria and all this stuff and blah, blah blah. And you're like, but actually some people it's actually, it does the opposite effect. And so you kind of have to test things out to really decide if they are good for you. Sometimes you won't know. But I think that episode you're talking about that you mentioned, um, where they said ice the ice baths and stuff aren't good for everyone. I think she also talked about fasting'cause I think I know what episode you're talking about of that, of that podcast because, um, she was taught, she basically is really good at figuring out your body type and what kind of specialized biohacking stuff will be best for you. And, and those were two of the examples that typically get thrown out there.
Chrissy:Which I think is a really good reason why it's called biohacking. Like if you're gonna hack your biology, you kind of have to have a certain kind of biology to start off with. Yes, we're all humans, but I look very different from my sister. We have completely different body types. And from my other sister. All three of us have completely different body types and so to say that the same thing will help each of us is completely off. And so, um, yeah, it's just everyone has to test it out on their own and see what works best for them. Because what works really great for me is not going to be realistic for my neighbor, is not gonna be realistic for my husband even. That's another thing with, working out. I've heard like some people, for instance, me, I can work out first thing in the morning, 5:00 AM no problem at all whatsoever. Love it. It gives me so much energy for the day. I feel rejuvenated. Like I just drank three cups of coffee. It's the best thing in the world. My husband absolutely cannot do that. Like to get up and go workout at five o'clock in the morning is absolute torture for him. It doesn't rejuvenate him at all. It just makes him completely exhausted for the rest of the day. He's much better working out late morning to mid-afternoon, which is great for his work schedule'cause he works from home so he can, and that is how he gets his energy boost from working out. So that's another thing, working out time of day, it's not consistent for everybody. So.
Katie:Yeah, no, that's a good point. But back to your, like you mentioned red light therapy, um, one of that is actually one of those things that I have been trying to learn more about because I have heard a lot of benefits about it. My friend actually has a red light panel at her house and, speaks wonders about it. And I've been hearing more and more, um, about red light therapy and that more health professionals are recommending them because of their, there's so many benefits. So red light, you typically would get red light from the sun, but you can actually get it through like a red light panel as well, and it, it just like intensifies it or just gives you like a, a stronger dose of it, um, than needing to go outside at a specific time of day, which I, I believe red light comes in the early morning. It's one of the first lights, like when the sun is rising. And so not all of us are out there at that time in order to get the benefit of red light. Um, so if you get a red light panel. A lot of people, it sounds like they kind of recommend using them in the like early morning and then sometimes before bed and, and they do things like red light will help, collagen production in inside your body. So it helps a lot with like skin. Um, it helps like your texture and complexion of your skin, and improve like the elasticity of it. I've heard, I, I've also heard people using it for muscle recovery. Like actually I mentioned red light therapy to Wes a a little while ago when I first heard about it and he's like, oh yeah, that's what, I don't even remember which athlete it was. Like it was something he watched on Netflix, maybe it was LeBron James or something. And he's like, yeah, LeBron James does that after his workouts and he does like a red light therapy thing. And I'm like, see, you even know about it. And like these athletes are using it for like, it helps to reduce inflammation after you've like worked out and stuff like that. And so. It helps people prevent getting injured, especially if you are a major athlete. But I've also heard that it helps like your sleep quality.'cause again, you and I actually talked a little bit about like the benefit of, of getting up in the morning with the first sun. So maybe it is, maybe it is red light that comes in the early morning.'cause I do know that it's supposed to help with your sleep quality and your, circadian rhythm. But the one thing I did read, uh, or learn recently was that it also is recommended that after you give birth, like after you've had a baby to use a red light panel on your abdomen, your stomach, you know, and so that way it helps to heal your body quicker after you have given birth. So it's got like all these benefits and I'm trying to convince my parents to get a red light sauna so that way I can just go use it at their house because they're expensive and I don't wanna have to buy it myself.
Chrissy:Yeah, I literally just looked into red light panels, um, like two days ago or something like that because I obvi our moms were talking about this red light therapy at this fancy cold pl place. And, so I looked it up and the brand that I know is good is called Joovv, J-O-O-V-V. Unfortunately, their panels start at$500 and that$500 panel is about the size of like a mini briefcase, maybe like a purse that's allowed to go into a football game. So tiny. It's very small. So I do know also looking on Amazon, there are red light therapies for$30 and so. That is one that I think is very important that unfortunately, I think you do have to bite the bullet with the cost of the red light therapy if you're gonna get the actual benefit from it, because someone can just throw red lights on something and call it red light therapy. But the real focus of red light therapy is getting that specific wavelength of light that does help with the collagen production and healing and, mitochondrial health in your skin. And so it is gonna cost a little bit more to get that exact wavelength of light. And so that's one thing I would caution you. If you find one that's super cheap. Either you're a leprechaun and you're really, really lucky, or you're probably not getting the actual beneficial red light therapy that we're talking about.
Katie:Yeah, that's, that's a really good point. I mentioned the same thing to my mom because as she asked me about it on the phone and was like, what do you think about red light therapy? And like, it's actually really good for you. It's the, and I was like, that's that thing that I was telling you and dad to buy. Remember this was like months ago now. And she's like, oh yeah, I kind of remember. And so then she goes on Google or goes on Amazon and looks it up and she's like, they're not that expensive. I was like, mom, don't get those ones. Don't waste your money on it. You, you really want to get the better quality ones. I do know of that Joovv brand. I've heard it mentioned a lot. The other one that my friend has that she really loves and trust is EMR Tech. So. The letters. EMR dash TEK. Um, I do know, I, I don't think the sale is going on, but she texted us like a couple days ago saying that they had like a 40% off deal going at that moment. So I did click on it and I was like, 40% off. That's ridiculous. So I go and look and still even their smaller panels were still like a thousand dollars or whatever. So I'm like, uh, man, this is something that it's, it's going to be a while and we're gonna save up, I think, for it. Or maybe I'll just find someone who has it and just use theirs. Because my friend who has it is back in Colorado, so there's, I'm not going over to her house anytime soon right now.
Chrissy:I've definitely looked a couple times on Facebook Marketplace. Nobody's selling them of course, and they're not selling them for the price I wanna pay. Um, so I have put it on the list of things that I wanna save up for, but that list of things is growing way faster than I'm able to get through it. It's very sad. But you know, there are some things that we can easily change in our lives that don't cost a ton of money. And so let's kind of talk about a couple of those.'cause we've kind of focused on like the really expensive things.
Katie:I
Chrissy:Let's kind of transition to the not so expensive items. Like what are some ways that we can really quickly and easily make changes in our homes for less than$50? We're talking easy fixes. You go to the store and or you go on Amazon and you change it immediately. You wanna go first.
Katie:Yeah. I, I really think, I mean, my, my biggest thing is food in general. Um, I've actually been doing a, a deeper dive into the Weston A Price Foundation, and they, so Weston A Price, uh, he was a dentist and this is. Decades ago, he was a dentist and he did these studies of, people like cultures across the world who were extremely healthy. So he would find these like tribes of people who had impeccable teeth and like he would bury, like he would get bones, like skeletons of their passed away relatives and their bone structures were impeccable and they, they were basically really healthy people and he wanted to know why. And so he studied these specific indigenous cultures all across the world. So it wasn't even like a specific region or anything. It was like literally in different continents and everything. And they all had very similar things in common, which was. Their food. Like not, not necessarily exactly what they ate, but the ratio of things like protein to carbs, to fats. And so he developed this whole concept of nutrition based on what he saw these people eating. And so this all actually, so I've mentioned this book several times, the Nourishing Traditions cookbook kind of book that I've been reading is all kind of based on the Weston A Price Foundation nutrient strategies or something. And so I really do believe, like, I mean that is decades of data of people being so healthy. And it's like they obviously didn't need all these fancy things like red light panels and, um, saunas and cold plunges, well maybe they were doing cold plunges. One of the people, one of the cultures was actually like in Antarctica or something like that. And so. He basically, was like their diet, exactly what they ate, kept them impeccably healthy, like to the point where they literally did not have cavities. And so it's like they were just so healthy that really, I do believe that just by switching your food, it might actually, so I guess this is kind of like a weird dichotomy, is just that yes, going for the, like more expensive organic foods is going to be a bit more expensive when you switch, but in the long run, it's actually going to save you so much more money when you do that and when you cook from scratch and like your health bills are gonna go down because you won't be as sick and your dental bills will go down because you won't have as many dental issues and just all together. Your health will be so much better for it. And so, yeah, I've been doing a, a really deep dive on the Weston A Price Foundation. So I think that my tip would be not very expensive, just go get a book. Either get his, like, I can't even remember what his book is, but if you look up Weston A Price, it probably will take you to the website. The person who runs the foundation right now is Sally Fallon. She wrote the book that I'm reading, the Nourishing Traditions one. But, um, he wrote the book that talks all about their health and all the things he studied. But if you just want the, like, what can I do now with this information? I would read Sally's book, the Nourishing Traditions. So I think I got it used on Amazon for maybe like 20 bucks. So yeah, it's great.
Chrissy:That book is definitely on my list of things I wanna buy as soon as I have time to read. But right now I don't have time to read, so there's no point in buying it at this point. But I want to, because you have talked about it so much that I'm like, I need to get this book.
Katie:I love it.
Chrissy:Yeah, it sound and also like, okay, so Katie has shown me a few of the pages of it, like it goes really deep into all of the macronutrients, different types of cooking techniques and different important things that are relevant for. Different types of foods. And so it's not only just like a recipe book, but also kind of a textbook and just has a lot of really great information in there, which I mean, I love learning, so that makes sense why I would really like it.
Katie:I actually I followed one of the recipes, the, it's actually making whey, so you've heard of whey protein, so I actually made homemade whey and cream cheese from it. So when you make cream cheese and whey it happens at the same time. And so there it's like, okay, you can take your milk, you can take a yogurt, you can take all these things and you can actually make your own cream cheese from it. You can make your own whey from it. You can make keefer, you can make all these things that are really good for you. You can make, um, cottage cheese, sour cream, and then you're like saving money by just using the things you already have. Yogurt is another one of those fun ones that I just made recently too, all from the same stuff and just from this recipe book. So yeah, it, it ultimately will save you money if you start to implement the things that are taught inside of it. So yeah, it's definitely beneficial.
Chrissy:And then it'll also challenge you of like, okay, so how do I now use this whey in a recipe? Because I don't just want it sitting in my fridge for six months. Like what do I do with it? So then you get to kind of expand your horizons a little bit on what kinds of foods are you incorporating into your life and. Yeah, just trying out new recipes and things like that. Another cookbook that I have heard about that's really great that I have on my list of things to buy also that I haven't bought yet, seems to be the theme for me, um, is called the Feel Good Way. It is Simple Recipes for a Better Life. That cookbook specifically has like a hundred some odd recipes that are nutritionally balanced. And what I mean by that is like all of the macronutrients in the meals are balanced appropriately. So you have more protein than you do carbs, than you do fats or whatever version, however it's supposed to be. I don't know, I just put all three together when I make meals, but this person actually did do the research on like the healthiest ratios of them and created a cookbook for it.
Katie:So here's the fun fact. So you can actually use your hand so you're, when you open your hand flat. is how many carbohydrates you need when you make it into a fist. Like this is about the amount of protein you need. And then I think it's, your thumb is about the amount of fat that you need. And so you can, you can get it in different ways. So like your carbohydrates can be fruits and vegetables, you know, you want it to be something healthy. And then you want proteins, obviously a meat or something along those lines. And then your fats could either be like the oil that it's cooked in, if it's a good, you know, grass fed butter or tallow or olive oil, or it could be like you had avocado or nuts or something like that. So that's generally the ratio. That's not necessarily, you have to like bow, like it has to be the size of your hand, but it's the ratio of like hand, fist, thumb. Um, and so yeah, I'm like, okay, that's a really good way to think of it.'cause then you can kind of look at your plate and do you have a decent amount of carbohydrates and then proteins and then fats and so yeah, those are the the things that you kind of want.
Chrissy:Yeah, that's great. Additionally, so we've mentioned it in our cookware episode. If you wanna go back and listen to that, I highly recommend we go through a bunch of different healthy cookware and unhealthy cookware and things to look at when you're choosing cookware, but. One of the really quick and easy fixes that Max and I have done in our kitchen in general is we got rid of all of our plastic cutting boards. That one happened to be very simple for us. We didn't even have to actually buy any replacements because we had so many cutting boards gifted to us for our wedding. Can I actually pro tip, if you're going to a wedding, don't buy them a monogrammed cutting board. It's cute, but they already got 10 of'em and they don't need another one. Okay. Alright, I'm done. Um, but so we had so many wood cutting boards that just getting rid of our plastic cutting boards didn't actually change our cutting board situation. So that was one really quick, easy fix that we did. Another one that we did when we moved was we got rid of all of our plastic cups, aside from our Turvis Tumblers because I love Turvis Tumblers. But even then, you have to make sure you're caring for them properly and washing them well and not in the dishwasher so that the plastic doesn't break down. We talked about that in a previous episode too. Maybe the water episode, I think, which was the second real episode that we made. So go listen to that one if you wanna hear all about microplastics in your water. But so we got rid of all of our plastic cups and we changed them to glass cups, which ended up being about a$35 investment for 12 cups, which is really, really quick and easy and not super expensive at all whatsoever. So those two fixes were really quick and easy for us. Another quick, easy fix that is around the$50 range is changing out your cooking utensils. So we also mentioned this in that previous episode on our cookware is cooking with like plastic utensils, like the plastic spatulas. They break down like, I don't know if you've ever tried to scrub a hot pan with a plastic spatula. And then you look at the spatula and you're like, where'd it go? Yeah, that's'cause it melted and now it's in your food. So that's another one.$50. Easy fix. You can go on Amazon and search up non-toxic wooden cooking utensils and you can find cooking utensils on Amazon. Super easy. The only thing with that is you wanna make sure that it is coated with either a mineral oil or like a natural sort of coating. They could be coated with beeswax even. Um, you wanna stay away from the cooking utensils that are coated with a lacquer because a lacquer is toxic and would completely disregard the whole reason that you're trying to get non-toxic cutlery anyways. So, um, that is something that three things that we have done slash are doing that are really quick and easy fixes that you can do to, make your kitchen less toxic for you.
Katie:Well, I really like all these ideas and yeah, share with us in our Facebook group what ideas you have on things that you have been doing to switch to just a more healthy lifestyle. Anyway, Chrissy, why don't you sign us off? I am dealing with Mama business right now as my son has woken up early from his nap. So we are going to, I mean, we've already been running. We quite over, but Chrissy, why don't you sign us off.
Chrissy:For sure thank you everybody for tuning into our conversation today. I hope you learned a little bit of something from us and are inspired to take those next steps that are quick and easy to start the non-toxic transition in your home. And make sure you subscribe to this podcast and join us over on our Facebook group at Crunchy Christian Mamas on a Budget where we are continuing this conversation of non-toxic swaps and how to maximize your health using the resources that God has already given you that you can use very easily. Um, we'd love to hear from you on our Facebook page about what resonated with you on this episode, what you wanna hear about in the future. So drop in over there and let us know what you're thinking. Until next time, this is Chrissy.
Katie:And this is Katie.
Chrissy:And thanks for listening to Crunchy Stewardship.