Crunchy Stewardship

Crunchy Travel Hacks: Hotels, Restaurants & Airports

• Katie Jones • Episode 26

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Join Katie and Chrissy as they record together in person for the first time! In this episode, we share practical tips for maintaining your health while traveling—from bringing your own breakfast to navigating restaurant menus and minimizing toxin exposure in hotel rooms.

Got a trip coming up or love to travel? This episode is for you!

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Bringing your own food while traveling (oatmeal, coffee, and more)
  • How to order healthy meals at restaurants when nothing on the menu works
  • The best types of restaurants for clean eating (Mediterranean, salad spots, and Chipotle)
  • Minimizing toxin exposure in hotel rooms (bedsheets, towels, shampoo, EMFs)
  • Beach tips: zinc oxide sunscreen and the benefits of grounding
  • Katie's discovery of Sabbath mode on appliances
  • Dealing with chlorine in hotel water and fragrance sensitivities
  • Balancing health consciousness with travel stress


Chapters: 

00:00 Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship

00:38 Random Revelation: Sabbath Mode on Appliances

05:45 Recording Together for the First Time

06:58 Crunchy Travel Tips

27:55 Packing Essentials for a Healthier Hotel Stay

32:05 The Importance of Avoiding Fragrances

36:23 Beach Day Tips: Sunscreen and Grounding

43:53 Balancing Health and Stress While Traveling


Helpful Resources Mentioned:

Remember: You don't have to do everything at once! Pick the tips that work for you and your family, and don't let the pursuit of health create more stress than it relieves.

We pray these episodes are helpful in your journey to becoming a better steward of your body, mind, and soul!

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

Hey, and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship. My name is Katie Fiola Jones, and my name is Chrissy Rombach. 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 with every aspect of their lives. 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 God has given us. We look at topics like food, medicine, finances, and mental health, and lots more through a natural lens and with a biblical foundation. So now before we get started on today's episode, we are going to do a random revelation for this week. Katie, what is your random revelation? Okay. So if you tuned into last week's episode about, and where I talked about all of our renovation stuff and how we're doing research on all the things that we're putting in our house, uh, we were doing lots of. Appliance research recently looking into like refrigerators and dishwashers and microwaves and I guess honestly I'd say microwaves, we're not actually doing a microwave. Um, but we were looking at all these other things and I was reading some questions and reviews from people on one of the refrigerators that I was looking at, and somebody asked in the questions for a refrigerator, is there a Sabbath mode? For the refrigerator. And I thought, I like literally read that question and I was like, are they joking? But then I read the like response from the manufacturer and they were like, yes, this one does have a, um, Shabbat mode is what it's like technically. Called, I think is what they officially call it. And I was like, what is this? So I, I literally, I go and Google it and it's a legit thing that they have a Sabbath mode. And what a Sabbath mode is, is a feature on appliances like ovens, refrigerators, um, and dishwashers that temporarily disables functions such as lights, sounds, and digital displays to comply with Jewish religious laws for Shabbat, which is the Sabbath, um, and other Jewish holidays. It allows the appliance to continue operating without violating these laws enabling. Continuous function like a preset oven temperature. Um, but it prevents users from interacting with the control panel or activating components like the ice maker, which would be against Jewish laws. And so I saw that and I was like, I had no idea that that was a thing, but then it got me thinking that I wish. There was a like quote unquote Sabbath mode just for like every evening because then you can turn off the lights. Yeah, because weren't we talking about that? You go into the fridge right before bed and you're like, oh my gosh, it's so bright. And then even just like the little like panel with the LED lights on it and stuff. It'd be nice for those to not always be on, I think. Yeah. We talked about it last week about the LED lights, which we don't have to get back into again. But it's like, oh, it'd be nice for all these LED lights to be off if you don't want all the exposure, um, in the evenings to the LED lights. So I looked, and it seems like there's some refrigerators and things out there that have such like a component where you can like change it and it'll do that, but it is not common that you can just like turn the panels off on things and the when you want, which. I would love, but that's not a thing at this point. I do know there are refrigerators that the panel turns off when you're not using it. That's true. You're right. Yeah. And then when you start using it, it turns back on. Yeah, that'd be, yeah. The ones that we were looking at, I don't think did that. Oh, I don't remember. I'd have to look at it again. Kind of look at fancier ones. Fancier one, I need to spend more money now. You're not spending enough Katie. Oh my gosh. Money. Ugh, this. Oh, things cost a lot of money. We actually learned this past week, well, I, I learned it a little bit ago that our floors are heated in our kitchen. Did I tell you this yet? No. So it sounds really cool and fancy. And it is, it's kind of neat. They put heated floors in the kitchen and on the like front door, like right where you walk in at the front door, and that's where there was tile in the house. And then everything else was carpet. So tile by the front door and in the kitchen. And then our contractor pointed out, Hey, look, you have heated floors. And we're like, well, that's really neat. And then he proceeded to like, tell us that, yeah, it is really cool, but make sure that you, you get flooring that can handle the radiant floor heat because traditional hardwood and a lot of, um, vinyl plank and laminate flooring, it'll warp. If it gets heated. And so you need to be really careful on what you put on it so that it can handle the fluctuation. So I've literally been going through and reading warranties for flooring. That's why I had all those tabs open for all the flooring.'cause I'm like trying to find the the right one. And a lot of the ones that do handle it are really expensive, which we're learning. But we actually found a few just yesterday that can handle the heat. It doesn't void their warranty, and they don't require me to sell a kidney, so sell a kidney. Yeah. So anyway, that was, that was a big win. That's awesome. I love it. Okay, so today's episode is going to be a little bit different. Um, this is the first episode that Katie and I are actually recording together, together in the same room, in the same state at the same time. I guess if we're in the same room, you'd think that we were in the same state. Right. I should say that back the other way around. In the same state? In the same building, in the same room. Whoa. Yeah. This hasn't happened before. All of our previous episodes, we've been recording long distance. I've been in North Carolina, she's been in either Colorado or Michigan. Mm-hmm. And right now we are both in North Carolina for our cousin Abigail's wedding. The wedding happened last night and it was so beautiful. Such a fun time. Yeah. I'm so happy for them, and so we decided to take this as an opportunity to record an episode together for the first time. I know, and maybe the only time. Yeah, maybe sometime in the future. We'll see. I don't know. We see each other probably like twice a year. Three times a year. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. At least like once or twice. You're right. Yeah. It's kind of hard. We don't see each other in person all that frequently, so. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, these episodes are going to be very few and far between, but we're doing it today, and because we are traveling, we decided to talk about crunchy travel of how do we travel in a health conscious way, because, let's be honest, when you're traveling, you're eating out for every single meal. And you end up spending a butt ton of money just on all the things you're stuck with. Hotel breakfasts and bedsheets and towels and hotel shampoo and conditioner. Mm-hmm. All of those things added together can cause quite the disruption in your hormones and your endocrine system and everything like that. So we're just gonna talk about what are some things that we are doing or would like to do. In terms of travel to make it a little bit healthier and less disruptive to our bodies. So Katie, you wanna start us off? What is one thing that you did this trip in particular? Mm-hmm. To be quote unquote crunchy. Yeah. Well, this is actually something that my parents taught us when we were traveling as kids, was bringing our own breakfasts as much as possible. Um, we, it was just one way that when we were traveling as a family, we could save money and that was kind of the primary thing was just, Hey, we won't have to go out and spend extra money on breakfast in the morning if we bring oatmeal or if we pick up bagels at the grocery store, or something like that. But it was by no means at that point, any, in any way really very healthy because it would be those. The Quakers, Quaker Oats, like sugar oatmeals. And then it would just be, yeah, the bagels and cream cheese, you know, the cheap stuff from the grocery store that probably had a lot of glyphosate and preservatives and enriched flowers and stuff. So it wasn't necessarily at that point in any way, like a health move. But now Wes and I have kind of taken that a step further and um, we actually really do. Eat a lot of oatmeal ourselves. In the mornings, I, I put a ton of like healthy, yummy, good stuff in it, including like protein powders and flaxseed and chia seeds and um, all sorts of other stuff. And so we, this time actually brought like a big mason jar of just oats and then a smaller mason jar. And I mixed up all the stuff we usually put into. Our oatmeal. So I actually, I am sitting here, I'm like staring at it while we're talking and I have like walnuts in it and the flax seed. Um, the one thing that Wes, we were eating it and he's like, it, I feel like it doesn't have as much flavor as usual. And the one thing that it does not have is maple syrup. Mm-hmm. Because I basically only mix together dry stuff and then just forfeited. Bringing any maple syrup or any kind of sweetener for it. So it, it is not as yummy as it usually is, but it's still very filling and very good. And that's what I like. I feel like flying with maple syrup is like a game Yeah. Of exactly. Russian roulette sort of thing. Like at what point do we trial flying with Naples syrup that Yeah. Hoping that it won't explode in the suitcase. Yeah. So yesterday actually, when we were sitting downstairs, he. When I think, did you see that when he went and got, um, some like honey packets from the Oh no, I didn't. Front desk and I, I super was like holding my tongue because he knows, like he, he hears me giving these like little spiels about all the stuff and he knows that the honey that is from those little packets, it's not like real honey. That stuff is basically just like corn syrup and stuff and is just, yeah, I mean, it's not good for you. But I let him have his honey in his oatmeal. Which was just kind of funny, but yeah, the most hotel rooms have like a little coffee maker, and these ones are really nice because they, the coffee makers here are basically just like little hot water makers and you don't even need the little like pod, like pod thing in it. And it, they're like the pod part, these removable, so it doesn't have, you know, it doesn't run through it like it Keurig, your, your hot water still goes through where the coffee would be sitting. These little coffee makers, you can actually pull out the tray where the coffee would sit so you don't get the coffee taste in your water, which doesn't bother me, but it bothers Wes'cause he doesn't like coffee. So it's perfect for making things like oatmeal as well as I jimmy rigged these things to make my own coffee.'cause I also brought my own coffee with us. Oh.'cause that's another thing that I'm like. I like using my own coffee when I can that I actually, I did not do that before because I did not care too much about coffee. I just was like, coffee is coffee and I'm gonna drink coffee no matter what. But just as we've been going down this journey and learning more, I'm like, coffee is one of those things that it's a staple and I drink one or two cups of it a day that I would prefer it to be a good coffee. Like good as in healthy, not just like flavorful or whatever. Um, so these systems were hard to figure out, and I went through this whole thing yesterday morning trying to figure it out, and Muss was like, you are going through too much. And I was like, I want my coffee. And I literally opened up, have you seen these coffee packages? I haven't even looked at them. They're, it's like a little, they look like little tea bags with coffee in them. Oh, yeah. And so I ripped one open and dumped out the grinds of like that. Coffee, the grounds of the coffee. And then I put my own coffee inside of it. But then I used another one because then I'm like, it's open on one side. I folded it over and put it in this little tray thing, and then I put another one that was empty underneath it, so it was like an extra filter, whatever. Anyway, it was this whole big thing and West thought it was hilarious. And it worked though. And I made another cup of coffee this morning like that. Great. So I think if I tried to do that, max would say, Chrissy, you're done Just drank the coffee. And to be fair, I've had other, like, I did use one or two of those like packets. I didn't just dump out the one, the one dry one I did dump out totally unused. But then I have used, I have drank the other ones. Okay. So I'm not super crazy, but only like half crazy. I feel like it's a balance, you know? So with this new diet thing that I'm doing to the gut reset, so in case you guys haven't listened to our previous episodes, I'm doing a full gut reset right now. Um, it's a six month long process and essentially the process is wean your diet down to just meat and vegetables, detox, and then add back all the things that you took out slowly but surely, and. Through that healing the gut, repairing the microbiome in the gut to have the appropriate levels of good bacteria and bad bacteria, and ultimately fixing our hormone levels and our stress and all the other things that go along with it. Um, and so One of the things that they recommend in this program is if you're going out to eat. You wanna eat like a salad or something like that. A lot of salad dressings are huge culprits for sugar and seed oils and everything like that. And so they recommend just bringing your own salad dressing, which in theory sounds fine, but I don't carry a purse. Oh. And so I'm like, what am I gonna, I didn't realize that. Yeah, no. I put my ID in Max's wallet and I have my phone in my back pocket. I didn't realize that about you. Yes. I hate carrying a purse. That's so funny. I will carry a purse to church because I have my Bible and that's it. Ah. But anyways. Um huh. Yeah, so I will not do that. They, they say, bring your own salad dressing, and I'm like, absolutely not. That's such a Karen thing to do. Just walking into the restaurant, a jar of salad dressing, or even if it's like in a bag or like even a very small Tupperware dish, you know? Mm-hmm. I just can't get myself to be that person to be like, and can I have no dressing on that? Pulls my own dressing out and put it on my salad? I just think that's such a Karen thing to do that at that point I'm like, is it even worth the stress of bringing my own salad dressing and trying to figure out how to hold it and not spill it everywhere? Yeah, really. It would spill. You could use, I, we use mason jars when we, um, make our own salad dressings the smaller ones than the, um, it's like the. Half pint. What are those ones? Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Anyway, they, that would fit, it would fit in a purse. So for me, I'm like, oh, I could totally do that. I should do that. That's such a good idea, Chrissy. Um, I feel like these days it wouldn't be as weird because I mean, hear me out, it's like a lot of people have allergies. True. You know, and it's like for you, you know, a salad is going to have no allergens'cause. It's not cooked with other things, right? It's just like, here, here's your salad, here's your leaves and ingredients and stuff. It's not cooked in seed oils and stuff. And then you would just, uh, if you were someone who has an allergy, it's like, you know that you're bringing a salad dressing that is, that has all the ingredients that you can have. And I don't know, I feel like at restaurants that wouldn't be as big of a deal these days. Probably not, but it still makes me feel weird. Yeah, it is still weird. It is still like, I just think I'd be such a Karen. And yesterday we went to a taco shop. Mm-hmm. And obviously I'm not eating tacos right now because like corn tortilla flour, tortilla either way, that's corn and gluten and so, and nope. Um, and all of the other taco options that they had had like sauces and other things that had sugar in them. And so I ended up going with the vegan. Taco. Oh, which had the highest amount of vegetables in it. Yeah, it was like oh, cauliflower bell peppers and onions was in this taco, and when I ordered I was like, yeah, so can I have this? But. In a bowl, no rice and beans, just on a bed of lettuce. And Can we add chicken and avocado please? And my sister looked at me, she's like, what the heck? She's like, since when do you become so picky with the things that you're ordering? Oh, I was like, yeah, I really just created like my own meal here. Yeah. Because there was nothing on the menu that I, and I, oh, and then I also said, and the sauce on the side, of course. Oh, but then it was like a, this was actually really funny. It was a cilantro lime sauce. Mm-hmm. And when it came to the table, I tasted it a little bit just to see like, does it have sugar in it? Sweetened? Yeah, it definitely did. Oh, and I just put it to the side, not really thinking about it. Well, my mom thought it was guacamole. She took a chip and dunked that thing and had like a huge chunk of it and took a bite. It was not. Guacamole. Oh, solo. It was great though. But overall, yeah. Traveling, being crunchy. Yeah. I feel like sometimes requires us to be a little care and like Yeah. Oh, totally. With what we're eating. Well, okay. So a lot of the ideas that I've been getting for traveling, including the oatmeal thing, there's, there's a few more tips that like, I would like to try to implement, but the person I've actually learned some of it from is, um, Vanni Hari, who I've mentioned before. She's considered the food babe. Um, you can like look her up on Instagram and everything, but she has some cookbooks and Yeah, I think it's, she has cookbooks and then the book that we originally read and we, I mean, Wes and I, we read, uh, last year kind of about this time. It was maybe summer last year, so it's kind of crazy. That was, that was kind of the book that really kicked us off into. Our super crunchy era, like really, like that was the one that I'm like, I'm awake. Um, it's called Feeding You Lies. And I read that book and then I proceeded to go and check out her cookbooks. And in her cookbooks, she has a lot of just tips for different things. She has one for families and gives you lots of ideas for. Kind of healthier eating with kids. Um, and I don't remember if it was with her kids one or her just regular cookbook, but in one of them she actually has a whole section of tips for, like ideas for when you're traveling. And I very much remember a lot of them. And, and one of the things she talked about at restaurants was when you go to a restaurant and there's like nothing on the menu that you really want to eat that feels healthy enough. She said to, and, and it really only works if they're like, kind of higher end, not like, not super high end, but like able to make, able to kind of, they, it's not just like a set, uh, yeah. Like you couldn't do it at something like probably Cracker Barrel or, um, even the Cheesecake Factory because, you know, the Cheesecake Factory kind of does specific things. Maybe they would do it, but basically the tip is that. You ask for veggies, just like some sauteed veggies and like saute them in butter and just like be very simple. Um, and then asking for just like a chicken breast or something, you know, just like very meat and veggies, very basic. So nothing, none of their like veggies that are in bunch of like sauce creamy sauces oftentimes or whatever. So it's just like, Hey, can I have some. Green beans and butter with chicken, and sometimes they'll be like, okay, that's super basic. And then they have to, the, the issue is then the pricing.'cause it's obviously, if it's not something on their menu, they have to figure out how to price it and stuff. But I, I think that's a good option too, if you're like going out with friends or something to a nicer restaurant and you're like, I don't really want any of these, like pastas or mm-hmm. Fried things or, you know, all the stuff that's cooked in seed oil or has. Like glyphosate from the flour and stuff. So, you know what I learned, what kind of restaurant I learned is actually the easiest to eat super healthy is a Mediterranean or Turkish restaurant. Oh. Last weekend when we were traveling to Dallas, um, our, we went with a group of people and our group decided to go to a Turkish restaurant, and it was the first restaurant that we had been to the entire weekend. That I could eat more than half the items on the menu. Oh, that's, and remember, my diet is limited to meat and vegetables at this point. And so it was very encouraging to me, like, wow, I can get like a full salmon filet and like pickled cabbage and pickled carrots and. A cucumber, like all of these things on the side, and I know they're gonna be good for me. The pickling is also really great. Mm-hmm. Because it gives you, um, probiotics that you're not gonna get from regular vegetables that you're eating and things like that. Or you'll get more from pickling, pickled things mm-hmm. Than regular. Um, but yeah, that's one thing. So if you're need to go to a restaurant, maybe look at like. Mediterranean restaurants or um, salad places are often like really great. You can either avoid the salad dressings or just look up on Google, like which salad dressings have seed oils, which ones have sugar, you know, and avoid those ones because oftentimes if a place is going to like pride themselves on being super healthy, they're going to actually have. Healthy options and they're not gonna try to hide a bunch of stuff in their salad dressings. You know the place that, um, Bobby from Bobby approved, you know that app, right? We talked about that? Mm-hmm. Okay. So there's an app called Bobby approved that you can use to scan food items that will tell you. What ingredients are in it that wouldn't be healthy for you? So they look out for different things like seed oils or um, preservatives or any bad additives or sugar.

katie:

They look for sugar in a lot of things, and that's a big red flag for the Bobby approved app. But he has a, an Instagram account where he also reviews restaurants and fast food places and even grocery stores and things like that. So he'll go to like Costco and be like, this is a Bobby approved item. And this is when it's like almost Bobby approved and here's why it's not. But he goes around to restaurants and he'll say, what things on the menu are the most Bobby approved?'cause in most cases, none of the things are Bobby approved. But the one place that he actually recommends, um, that's like kind of the more, healthy end. Is Chipotle, because Chipotle is kind of like what you're saying with salads, it's like you can kind of pick and choose what you want and. From my understanding, I don't think Chipotle uses meat with antibiotics in it, which is also like a big plus And so you really wanna stay away from meats that have antibiotics in it, because then it makes you as a human more antibiotic resistant. And so it's just, it's better, it's healthier, it's better meat for you. Although with Chipotle, it is important to know that they do use. Ingredients that are similar to MSG. They don't Oh, yeah. Mentioned they don't put MSG in their chicken. Mm-hmm. But they do have some ingredients that have a similar effect on our bodies as MSG. Okay. So pick and choose your battles. I know. Yeah. Well, that's where we chose to go. It was better than probably Panera, since Panera has a. Yeah, it's such a bummer. I love Panera, and Panera is known as one of those places that's more like health food, you know, focused. But it's one of the places that, again, like as you start learning all this, it's kind of like a bummer when you start learning things and you're like. Man, everything that I thought was good view actually really isn't. And lemme tell though. It makes me really sad.'cause I love Panera. A good Panera, Mac and cheese and a bread bowl. It's so good. Sometimes it's just necessary. It's not in the next six months for me though. Well, and I even really love their tomato soup. And I'm sure maybe their tomato soup maybe isn't as bad, but still it's like, I bet if I went and looked at the actual ingredients for it, it would not be. Not great. Not great.

Chrissy:

All right. So let's transition to talking about How, what are some strategies that we can use in terms of limiting the toxins that we're exposed to in a hotel room? Mm-hmm. Because there's a lot, if you think about it, the bedsheets are bleached, the towels are bleached, the water has chlorine in it. Mm-hmm. Um, you can't really. Unplug the TV or to reduce the EMFs. Mm-hmm. Things like that. You got the AC blowing on you all night long that you can't figure out how to turn it off or to turn it on. And oftentimes hotel rooms generally have like a musty smell to that. You know when you walk into a hotel room and you're like, ah, yes. The smell of a hotel room. Slightly musty, maybe a little mildewy and always humid. Well, I think that it, I, I was actually, that's so funny you said that I, I read somewhere that it's really good to open up your windows at least once a day for 10 minutes to just get fresh air circulating, because actually the air inside is poorer quality than outside no matter what, just because of the airflow, because you think about all the dust and everything that. It gets trapped. It's like it's just trapped in this room, in your house even. And so you want to open your windows to get that new fresh air in or have an air purifier. But in a hotel room, you usually don't have the option to open up a window unless you have like a patio or something there. But these windows here, I think are just solid windows. There's no opening, and it's for safety reasons. I kind of understand it. They don't want. People throwing things out, or they don't want people throwing themselves out the window or something crazy, you know? So I'm like, I, I understand, but at the same time I'm like, I would love just fresh air coming in because it's been so beautiful. It'd be nice to get some just like circulation through. So that's that. I was just thinking about that last night, so. Mm-hmm. It's probably why it's musty. Yeah. So some of the things that you could do to limit the toxin exposure in. The, hotel room is obviously bringing your own stuff, so bringing your own bath towel is very easy. Did you do that? I didn't this time because Max and I tried. We have you done that before? Once in case? I haven't yet. I heard about it like. Two weeks ago maybe, and the two times Max and I have traveled since then, we fit into one carry on suitcase. Mm-hmm. For the trip. Mm-hmm. And so it's pretty much a, I don't want to use more suitcases. Yeah. So, because we really only have one good suitcase at this point. I have heard of people bringing their own bedsheets. Yep. You can do that. But I feel like a whole set of bedsheets I know is a little excessive. So like bringing your own pillow. Mm-hmm. You know, so at least your face is on, not on like a bleached surface, it's on a non leach surface. And then when you get home, you just wash your pillowcase. Yep. Again, um, also bringing your own shampoo and conditioner that don't have phthalates or, parabens and things like that.'cause those are all endocrine distributors and hotel shampoo, conditioner, body washer, just full of that stuff. So bringing your own, these are I,'cause I was thinking about it. I did not bring my own shampoo and stuff. I, I have recently been doing that, but this time around I just did not get to packing it. A lot of times my big thing is the fragrances in all of the hotel stuff, but I actually felt like these shampoos and stuff didn't have a strong of. Fragrances. It was actually like very light, which doesn't mean that there's no fragrances, but I was curious to know what the ingredients were on these ones. I have actually looked up the ingredients at hotels before. I don't think it was a Marriott. I think it was like a Holiday Inn that I looked up the ingredients for the shampoo and conditioner that they had, and I wasn't disappointed. Oh, that's good. It like on the bottle even it said like all natural. No phthalates, no parabens. On the bottle in the, yeah. Bathroom. And I was like, oh, well that's nice. And I looked it up and I think the only thing that was in there that I was concerned about was fragrance. Um, which in the grand scheme of things, if you only have one ingredient, that's not great. I'm like, you, you again have to weigh Yeah, okay. The stress of trying to get small enough bottles to bring it through TSA or. To put it in your suitcase so it doesn't explode, and then trying to travel with it. Oh, but don't forget it once you're at the hotel, because that's an expensive thing to forget there, you know? As opposed to just like using what's there. Using what's there. So, you know, like we talk about, health is encompassing of everything. It's your mental health, it's your emotional health, it's your physical health, it's your spiritual and your financial. And so, you know, with packing all your own pillow and towels and shampoo and conditioner, you, yes. You're avoiding those physical. Components of the health, but you have to take into mind like, is this causing so much extra stress on me while I'm trying to pack of like, oh, I worked the last four days and now I have an hour to pack everything for the next week. And I don't wanna forget this. Oh, and I have this and where we're gonna be recording this weekend, so I need to remember my microphone. Mm-hmm. Oh, but we're going to a wedding, so I need to make sure I have the dress. Oh, and the dress for the rehearsal dinner and the dress for the day the next day. And do I have enough shoes? What shoes do I wanna wear? Oh, shoot. Now I need to pack. My pillowcase and my towels and my shampoo and conditioner and Oh, where did those bottles go? That I was supposed to put all these that I bought like a year ago to put all these things in. I don't even know where those bottles are. Oh, shoot, it's already been 59 minutes and now I gotta go like that. That's usually how my packing goes. Oh, totally. You know, and so if bringing all of these things is gonna cause more stress, either pack multiple days in advance so it doesn't. And so you can pack like in sections over time, or just don't worry about it. Yep. You know, it's a, it's a mindset thing too. Like if your mindset isn't there, if these things are gonna stress you out more, it's not going to be beneficial for your health. Yeah. Yeah. The stress on your body is going to take a bigger toll than the toxins would from your shampoos here, which we were told. That we need to clarify things more often. So if you hear us explaining things a little bit further when we're talking about them, it's because it was a tip that I think your mother gave us as far as like explaining in detail. Mm-hmm. More like when you're, if, if you're tuning into an episode and you're just hearing us for the first time, talking about fragrance, for example, fragrance you want to avoid in your. Everything, your shampoos and soaps and, uh, what other things have fragrance? Everything, like all the, all the pery stuff, perfumes, deodorant, laundry, detergents, face wash. You wanna avoid it chap stick because when it says fragrance on the ingredient list, you don't actually know what the fragrance is, and it can be somewhere up to hundreds of different chemicals that make up that one. Ingredient. And it might be that they're like made up of very minuscule amounts of all these chemicals, but the issue is then you literally have no idea what that fragrance is made up of. There can be times where a certain company will, will explain what is in the fragrance. Um, and like I know that there's a laundry company out there that does that, that I stumbled upon recently, and they actually will say fragrance and then it has like a little. Asterisk next to it or whatever, you know, and then it'll list out what actually makes up their fragrance. But in most cases, that is not the case and you can kind of automatically assume that the fragrance is a bunch of chemicals. Same thing goes when you hear or see natural flavors. It might be natural, but it might not be things that you actually wanna be eating stuff. So anyway, just look for those kind of cues when you see things in your ingredients. So. There you go. Auntie Lolo. We described things in detail. That one's for you. Now she has to actually listen to this episode. She said. She told me that she listens to a lot of them. She does. At least that's what she said when we were, I think your parents are way, oh, the other night. Better at listening to all of our episodes. I don't actually know about that. Really? That this'll be a test. Mothers, if you're listening, let us know when you listen to this. And we'll see how long it was. I don't know. Both of your parents told me this weekend that they listened to you every single episode. I don't know if I believe that. I guess we'll find out. I don't remember my mom saying that to me. She said she's got like an hour drive every week to go to somewhere. Oh. To to see Malachi To come to our house. Oh yeah, you're right. So yeah. An hour drive to come see you. And she's been listening. Aw. During that. Thanks, mom. I guess I didn't know it was every single one. Yeah. Cute. Your dad said every single one too. Wow. Yeah. Thanks parents. Love you. They are a huge part of our audience. 50% of our audience. Just kidding. There's more of you out there. And actually, um, I don't know if you noticed, so this is actually a quick shout out. We've had a number of, um, people joining our Facebook group recently, which has been really exciting and that's been really cool just to. See new faces that have discovered our podcast, which is awesome. Um, I mean, people are able to find us by other, by, by you guys listening and sharing these episodes with friends. But also when you leave a rating or review for these podcasts, it makes it more discoverable to new people, which is super cool because. More people have been finding us, and they're people that I'm like, I don't, I don't know these people. And it's great. And that's wonderful. So we're excited to have you guys in our community and as listeners, so give us a shout out and say hey. And, and if you wanna join us on our Facebook group, it is called Crunchy Christian Mamas on a Budget. Um, yeah. Yeah. Come join us. Come say, Hey, we're not as like, active on Facebook. As we probably should be, but I promise that if you do post in there we will see it and we will comment.'cause I do get notifications. That's our little spiel about Facebook. There we go. So come over there. Yeah. It's back to being crunchy, uh, while we're traveling. Ooh, beach. Going to the beach. Oh, yeah. Tell me, because that's, that's relevant right now since we are literally planning to go to the beach in like 20 minutes after we, after we finish recording. Done recording this. Um, so going to the beach sunscreen mm-hmm. Is a big one. So I, I have to clarify because I got this feedback from my mom again. Um. To clarify. So in a previous episode when we were talking about sunscreen, we mentioned that sunscreens that have a zinc oxide base are very good for you and other sunscreens aren't. I forgot what the other ones, the base is of the other ones are, but essentially toxins. They're not great. You want to look for the zinc oxide. Now, on the flip side. If you have zinc oxide as a food ingredient in your food, that is Nobu. No, you do not want that because it is a toxin. The reason it's okay to have it in your sunscreen and not in your food is because zinc oxide, specifically in sunscreen, is too big to seep through your skin. They've done studies. And comparing like zinc, oxide based sunscreen versus, you know, the sunscreens that you rub in and then it's like goes on clear and can barely feel it. Those sunscreens are designed to soak into your skin and they get into your bloodstream, whereas the zinc oxide merely just stays on top of your skin. It does not go through it, and so it doesn't get into your bloodstream. So. While zinc oxide is still a toxin, if it gets inside of you, it is the best sunscreen option because it's too thick to get inside of you through your skin. But they'd use it for like white coloring in food, so like vanilla icing or um, white frosting, things like that will have zinc oxide in it. And so. That, yeah, that's important of like, okay, yes, it's good in sunscreen, but not in food because you don't want inside of you, but it's okay to go on your skin. And you know, I think that's a good clarifying thing.'cause my mom brought it up. She's like, well why is zinc oxide okay in sunscreen, but I can't eat it. And so she thought it was important. So yeah, if you're going to the beach, zinc oxide based sunscreen, um, I think even like Neutrogena has one. That's pretty good. They're usually called like natural or mineral based mineral. Mm-hmm. Mineral based sunscreens. Um, they're great. Also, if you're going to the beach, take your shoes off mm-hmm. Feel the sand. Mm-hmm. So walking on sand is so, so good for you. It encourages your body to use muscles that it doesn't usually use for walking. Mm-hmm. And so it can really help strengthen. Your leg muscles, your ankles, your knees, your hips, um, helps. Im improve balance, reduce the risk of falls. Um, and you're walking barefoot on the ground. Yeah. And so you are getting those grounding benefits mm-hmm. Of, um, reduce pain, reduce inflammation, um, less. Free radicals in your body because your body is quite literally grounded to the ground because you are touching the ground with your bare skin. And so all of that energy from your body is going into the earth and the Earth's energy is going into you. And I sound like a crazy person right now talking about the energies of the earth. Wow. But it's so true. And it's a thing. It's okay. I I, a note on that, I. When I first heard those things about like grounding and the energies and all this stuff, I was like, that's so woo woo. But it is like there is like legitimate science when it comes to energy in like in the ground, in the plants and in everything. And honestly, this is so silly, but I was listening to a book the other day and they were talking about like the whole potato battery thing. You know, when you like. Plug in a light bulb and stuff and you plug it into a potato and it, and it'll work. I wonder if it's gonna work with a carrot too. You should try that. I don't know if it does. I think it's, I think it's only potatoes. But anyway, I don't know about the SY things, but it just, that's a reference from our last episode that we were talking about how carrots explode in the microwave. Like a rock carrot will explode in the microwave, but. A raw potato does not explode in the microwave. And so this is funny, you're talking about like the mineral content of potatoes versus carrots. So, so it probably wouldn't conduct for the carrot if it, if that, if the carrot explodes in the microwave and potato doesn't, I don't know. I have no idea. Someone who knows science tell us, but my point is that the potato, like they have like a, like it can conduct electricity, so obviously it has to be able to like hold currents and the. All, all that kind of stuff. So it's just like, my point is that the Earth obviously has to have the same components of just like the, the electricity flowing through it and everything. And, yeah, even like water, like there's so many benefits to being near like waves and like things like waterfalls because the, the crashing water puts off negative ions. Into the air, which then helps relax your body and make you more calm. So if you ever are near water and have that like calming sensation of like, wow, you feel so relaxed, um, it's actually there are negative ions that are coming off of the water that you are kind of like taking in. And it does, it sounds so weird and woowoo to be like taking the energy from the, the water absorb the earth's energy. It's like there's actual science, like you can actually go. And look these things up. And there is science on it. And I'm not claiming to be any crazy scientist myself or any expert on it, but I'm like, there is science out there that explains this and, but we do claim to sound a little woowoo sometimes. Yeah, totally. But that's just the nature of these things, you know, like changing your lifestyle to be more healthy kind of involves being woo woo, being a woo woo woo Karen. Oh gosh. I mean, literally it's like you have to make these choices where it's like. No, I do. I am gonna bring my own oatmeal and I'm gonna forfeit using the, you know, coffee from the room and I'm gonna bring my own towel. And it sounds so Karen like, although, and then although I have to point out, you are eating your oatmeal with a plastic spoon. Oh my gosh. I know. We forgot our own spoons. I was so sad. Wes is the one who we, we got on the airplane, we traveled really, really early in the morning. We had to get up at like five. And so we packed. Again, we did like overnight oats, so that way we could eat the oatmeal like on the plane and everything. And he's like, where are the spoons? And I was like, I forgot the spoons. And now we have to use plastic ones. But anyway. Oh well, another reason to pack multiple days in advance if you're gonna be going somewhere so that you can actually think about these things and it's not gonna stress you out. Have like a five day packing list of like, all right, day one, I'm gonna pack my. I don't know, shirts and pants that I'm gonna wear that I don't plan on wearing in the next five days. Mm-hmm. And then the next day, all right, I'm gonna pack my, the overnight oats or breakfasts and things that are dried and won't go bad and things like that. Maybe you don't need five days to pack, but my point is packing sections. Yeah. You wanna know what I was thinking about while we were on the airplane was all of the. EMFs and radiation that we were probably taking in and absorbing, and I was like, oh my gosh. So there are EMF reducing vests that you can buy. I bet those are so expensive. Oh, they probably are, but I have heard that that's a thing that people will wear like an EM f vest. Or jacket on an airplane in particular to protect themselves, at least protect their vital organs. Mm-hmm. From EMF radiation and things like that. Yeah. I don't know. One thing that I actually noticed, so last weekend we were in a hotel, so backstory Max and I have gotten really, really good of creating like an anti-technology oasis in our bedroom. Oh, that's nice. And so we, all of our phone chargers are in the kitchen. Mm-hmm. We have like an old fashioned alarm clock. That it is still plugged into the wall, but like, that's like the only thing that's plugged into the wall. And may, like our lamp is plugged in lamp. Mm-hmm. But, um, Max's office is in like a little cubby, in like a nook in our bedroom because we live in a one bedroom apartment. And so it was a sacrifice that we had to make to put Max's office in our bedroom. But overnight, his entire setup gets completely unplugged. And so we unplug the desktop, we unplug the, um, computers, we turn off the power strip and everything like that, and we unplug the printer. And so we really do create like a anti-technology oasis in our bedroom. And last weekend in the hotel room we were staying in, in Dallas. I could actually hear the EMFs from the tv. Oh. And because I've turned those things off in our bedroom, even the nights that like I forget to turn them off, I will wake up at two o'clock in the morning and be like, oh, I forgot to turn it off and get up, turn them off, and go back to sleep. Because they'll wake me up at night. It's, I've become that sensitive to them because we've been turning them off. Yeah. And I literally told Max, I was like, well, I can't. Unplug the TV that's mounted to the wall in the hotel room, you know, but I could buy the$8 earplugs that they had down in the gift shop. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. They were$8. Is that not crazy for earplugs, for ear? One set of earplugs, but the like, cheapy kind too, right? Yes, yes. Yeah, I had to sleep with earplugs at the last hotel because I was not going to be able to fall asleep with hearing the EMFs from the tv. Yeah, which is crazy. Like we've both kind of identified. Katie, you were saying that you're no longer on city water. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Said yesterday. Yeah. This was crazy. I, so we moved to a rural area in Michigan, and most of the places out there, unless you're like in the, the very tiny town, um, everything else is on well, water versus city water, which, when you're in the, in the city or in a suburb or something, you have. Water that goes through a big filtration system, and one of the ways they clean water is with chlorine. And so even though it's not pool like, you know, when you go to a pool, you know you're in, you're, you know, you're getting near a pool because you can all of a sudden smell the chlorine, right? Everybody's experienced that. The chlorine in your drinking water is not as strong as a pool, but there is chlorine in it. But what I actually noticed is that we have no longer been on city water because we're in this rural area. We have well water and well water has its own challenges too. But I took a shower here at the hotel and I could actually smell the chlorine in the water. And I don't know if it was be like the certain area or, or what, like if it's really strong here in general. But it was just like a weird sensation where I was like, it. Smells very much like a light pool water. And I was like, I, I haven't experienced it in a few months now, and I'm like, yeah, there's chlorine in this water. It was just very obvious to me at the, in that moment. Yeah. So all in all, as we're cutting out these toxins, we are becoming more sensitive to them and recognizing more and more when we are exposed to them on accident, so yeah. Yeah, that's one of the prices to pay for getting healthy is you. Can feel the unhealth around you. Or even like when people, like there was someone in the airport who was clearly wearing some like Bath and Body Works product or something very fake smelling, flowery kind of stuff. And the fragrances to me are very like triggering, like very obnoxious. Triggering is not necessarily the right word, but it's just very like. Assaulting to my senses these days when somebody is using like a fragrance or anything along those lines where I'm just like. I'm so removed from it now in our own home that when I smell it on someone else, I'm like, whew. Like it's just a lot. So the airport, that's hard because you're in such close spaces with each other and there's so many people and you don't even know which person it is.'cause you're like, there are like 15 people that are within like five feet of me at this very moment that I just don't know which one of you is so strongly scented that I can't even like remove myself from this area. So. 15 people in smelling distance. Within smelling distance. I can smell you. That's funny. All right, well we are nearing the end of the podcast. Do you have any last words before we sign off? No. I think just making the right choices like that for you, right? I mean, you don't have to go and do all these silly things, but maybe like the radiation thing from the airport is a big thing. So find out how to like detox from. All the radiation at an airport and an airplane and all those things. Or if it's food for you, make the right choices for food and, and it's, it's gotta be right for you and your family. Like if it's gonna stress the rest of your family out too, like just maybe forfeit certain things and I don't know, it's just taking little steps. I mean, you say this all the time, Chrissy, it's like you don't have to go and do everything all at once, but figure out like what, what trades trade offs you can make at the, at that moment and. Just make a decision, feel good about it and move forward. And then just remember you're gonna get home soon and you can get back to your regular routines. Mm-hmm. And you can take a nice like Epsom salt bath to help you just detox all the stress and everything from the trip if there was a bunch. So, yeah. I don't know. Do you have any last thoughts yourself? I think you hit it nicely of the balance between Yeah. The physical health and the emotional and the mental toll. Some of this can take and to balance it out, you know, sometimes it requires taking a break. I even told Katie a few months ago, she was like, Hey, let's do an episode on how we are actually feeling about all this. I said, you wanna know how I'm actually feeling about all this? I'm not listening to any podcast this week. I'm not doing anything in regards to my health this week because it's so overwhelming right now, and I just can't handle it. Yeah. And so that was a moment that I just had to take a break from thinking about these things. Mm-hmm. And then the following week I was feeling better and I. Picked it up again, you know, so, um, take it as you can, one step at a time. It, it's a process. It's a journey. It's not all gonna happen at once. And so, um, yeah, that's just how I would encourage you guys. Definitely. Alright, well we are going to head off to the beach ourselves, but we just wanna remind you all that. We pray for you. Um, we pray that these episodes really are helpful in your journey to becoming a better steward of your body, mind, soul, um, all the things. And yeah, if you have any recommendations or wanna continue the conversation, please reach out to us over on our Facebook group or by email. We'd love to hear from you guys. And with that, my name is Katie, and my name is Chrissy. And thanks for listening to Crunchy Stewardship. Bye.