Simple, FREE Steps to Reduce Toxins in Your Home

In this SOLO episode, Katie shares practical, free ways to reduce your toxin load and support your body's natural detoxification pathways. Building on last week's Toxin Bucket Theory discussion, she dives into actionable steps you can take today—without spending a dime—to live a healthier, less toxic lifestyle.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What iatrogenesis is and how it relates to our health journeys
• Free ways to reduce toxin inflow in your home (VOCs, cleaning products, EMFs, and more)
• How to support your body's natural detox pathways through sleep, stress management, and movement
• When it's worth investing money in your non-toxic journey

Resources mentioned:

• Book: Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up by Abigail Shrier - https://amzn.to/4qLyMxL
• Book: The Anxious Generation - https://amzn.to/4qI4hsB
• Book: The Body Keeps the Score - https://amzn.to/47DlFHz
• Katie's YouTube Channel: Faith & Finances - https://www.youtube.com/@KatieFiolaJones 
• EMF Protection: Defender Shield - https://amzn.to/47JrnGC
• EMF Protection: Safe Sleeve - https://amzn.to/4ooWgXL
• Previous Episode: Introduction to the Toxin Bucket Theory - https://open.spotify.com/episode/01kKmputcsWUDf43y8die6?si=kKOvxig-TU2TvVDCqaikYg 
• Previous Episode: Minerals in Water - https://open.spotify.com/episode/3mHAIW8Nzkg1rio6P13WZn?si=6SrmyZH2SdKqpAqk5yAy-g 
• Katie's Free Budgeting Resources - https://kingdomimpactworkshops.com/budget-planner-optin

Chapters: 

00:00 Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship
00:44 Podcast Updates and Chrissy's Mission Trip
02:47 Listener Engagement and Feedback
05:01 Random Revelation: Iatrogenesis 
15:50 Understanding the Toxin Bucket Theory
29:26 Hidden Dangers on Your Shoes
31:07 Importance of Dust Removal
32:35 Reducing EMF Exposure
42:38 The Impact of Blue Light
44:06 Supporting Detoxification Pathways
44:32 The Role of Sleep in Detoxification
45:38 Managing Stress for Better Health
48:17 The Power of Hydration and Movement
51:03 Investing in a Non-Toxic Lifestyle
53:28 Budgeting for Healthier Choices

Remember, stewarding our health is an act of worship. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and taking care of them honors God!

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

Transcript

0:03

Hey, and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship. My name is Katie Fiola Jones. Chrissy and I have this podcast where we are very 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. Here 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 given us. We look at a myriad of topics like food, medicine, finances, mental health, and tons more through a natural lens and with a biblical foundation. Today I am actually here by myself. This is Katie. As I said, Chrissy is actually, um, getting ready to go on a mission trip so you could be praying for her. She actually leaves. Tomorrow as I'm recording this, I realize. And so, yeah, she's heading over to the Middle East, so be praying for her. She's gonna be gone for about a week. Um, and we realized that it just wasn't possible for the two of us to sit down to record another podcast before she leaves. We also realized that for our next week's episode, uh, I'm either going to be doing another solo one or I'll figure something out while she's gone because, um, usually we have a bunch of these like prerecorded and then put them out. But, um, with Chrissy's new job and with me moving and my schedule kind of being all crazy and. Me having Malachi around, it's just been hard for us to sit down and do these episodes as regularly as we would like to. So hang in there with us. We do plan to continue to put these out. If you've been listening to our show regularly, you may have realized that like a couple weeks ago there was a Friday where we just didn't have an episode. Um, that was actually partially my fault. I forgot to schedule the episode in time and then I realized like. At like in the evening on Friday, and I was like, oh my gosh, I didn't schedule it and I wasn't going to be able to do it until like Saturday night. And then we decided to just wait until the next week because we didn't have another one recorded yet, and we were like, well, we, as we already missed this Friday, so we might as well just wait until the next Friday. So anyway, bear with us as we're trying to figure this all out. We will also likely be taking a kind of Christmas break starting in December, um, and then come back in the new year with some episodes. It'll give us a chance to. Rest from needing to get these out as soon, but we also plan to like prerecord a handful of them to then be able to put them out regularly for you guys. We really love doing this podcast. We, you know, aren't making any money from this. It's honestly just a hobby. And we've heard from so many of you that you have been enjoying the things that we have been putting out on our podcast. You've learned a lot. We honestly, guys, we love hearing from you. So if you haven't. Said hi before, um, we'd love if you were to leave us, um, a message on Spotify. If you listen there, uh, you can rate, uh, the podcast on Spotify. You can rate and review it on Apple. Um, we'd love if you joined us over on Facebook, crunchy Christian Mamas on a budget. Um, we aren't as active on there as we like to be, but we do see the things that go in there. So if you're joining us, And you, you're like, well, they don't even really post that much in there. Well, we don't spend a lot of our time on social media, but I do go on there whenever someone posts things as I get like a notification. So you can always reach us there. But also feel free to email us if you are on our newsletter list. You get, uh, emails on a weekly basis from us when we put out new episodes. So hit reply. We see those. Um, actually, I don't know if I mentioned this. We did have an issue with our email, like. For a couple months that we did not realize. Um, I don't actually even remember if I mentioned this to Chrissy. So if Chrissy, if you're listening to this, uh, we had an issue with, with our email system. It was, um, sending you guys emails. However, if you ever hit reply. Some, it kind of got lost in the void because of the like reply to setting that the emails were set to. Anyway, we do have that fixed. Um, I don't know how long that had been happening for. So if you have sent us an email in the last couple of months maybe and you never heard back from us, um, yeah. Your email got lost in the. Void of internet land. So feel free to email us again. We really do love hearing from you and we will reply if we actually see the email. So it's working now. So please say hey. Um, yeah, we've just been enjoying getting to hang out with you guys like this. So today I am solo and um, I guess I'll first start off with my random revelation of the week. It comes. At us from a book that I am currently listening to, called Bad Therapy. The book is, written by Abigail Schreyer, and it's all about why kids aren't growing up. It's actually, it's very fascinating. I can't remember exactly how I stumbled upon this book. Probably my guess is it was maybe mentioned in another book I listened to called an The Anxious Generation. There's a chance that it was, um, otherwise I may have just heard this woman. On a podcast or something. But all I remember is that it was on my want to read list and I kept coming across it and I was like, this one actually sounds really fascinating because I have noticed, um, my husband is a youth pastor, um, or a next generation pastor. He works with youth a lot. And I have noticed this trend in our younger generations of kids who, um, don't seem maybe as resilient. As maybe generations in the past. And I'll give you a quick example'cause I actually use this example in the book and I've actually heard of it, um, from different students that my husband worked with. But there's kind of this trend right now that a lot of teens. Aren't really wanting to get their driver's licenses, uh, because of the fear of driving. They don't think that it's, they're like up for the task. Um, whatever it might be. It fascinates me because I can remember when I was at age, I wanted to get my driver's license. As quickly as I could, and I remember signing up for driver's education right when I could, um, and getting my driver's license like immediately when I turned 16. Actually, it was technically the day after, but. My point is that it's, it baffles me that there are kiddos these days that um, don't wanna do things like that, or they don't wanna do things that like, where they have to take a risk, um, and put themselves out there. Granted, this is not every student I know plenty of really awesome teenagers who are, get'em kind of kids and, um, yeah, just are thriving. However, there is this kind of growing. Population of students who are kind of fearful and feel like they don't have the ability to do things and to kind of grow and to put themselves at risk and to expand and, and to put them in a place where they would fail, I think is, is really what it comes down to. So anyway, this book is really fascinating. And it has honestly been challenging a lot. Of the things that I have originally been taught, about, raising kids about trauma and how it impacts, uh, students or kids in general, um, as well as something like therapy. And obviously the title of this book is called Bad Therapy. And so, okay. I'll just jump to. Where my random revelation is, or what my random revelation is, it's about this word that I learned from this book. It's iatrogenesis. It took me a long time to be able to pronounce it. It's the name of like, I think the first chapter in the book, iatrogenesis and um, an iatrogenic injury is. Basically harm that results from a medical treatment or some kind of medical procedure, such as like a surgical error or um, like an infection that came from a surgery that you had, or you acquired it in the hospital or you had some sort of side effect from a medication. So basically it's any kind of harm or side effect from a medical procedure. Um, some other examples are even like, uh, side effects from chemotherapy, like hair loss or, um, allergic reactions to medication or becoming dependent on painkillers from a prescribed medication. So it's, it's some sort of injury that is done to a patient, um, just as a result of a medical intervention. And so. This woman then kind of goes on to describe in her book how many times there is this iatrogenic injury from therapy where kiddos are getting therapy and not even necessarily kids, but adults, anyone can get therapy and it's almost like they have this, um, injury, quote unquote injury from their therapy that actually. Doesn't necessarily help them with whatever they've gone to therapy for, but actually maybe makes the situation worse. Um, a, a really great example that she had, and it's, it's just fascinating to me being a foster parent and having experienced kids with trauma, but she, she talks a lot about trauma and how there's a lot of. Trauma based education these days in the schools. And, um, anyone who works with kids is getting trauma based education now so that they can like, recognize, uh, kiddos who have experienced trauma and how they can help them, what the author is saying, what Schreyer is saying in her book is that it actually tends to harm kids maybe more than it's helping them by labeling them with trauma, like with a trauma. And, and it can be as small as, um. Gosh, I'm, I'm like blanking on some of the examples, but it can basically be like really big traumas, like physical or even like sexual abuse. Um, but even down to, you know, my, my mom was just really tough on me and like more of a, an authoritative parent and stuff. But anyway, there's like this scale of quote unquote trauma and she's saying that now we're just labeling kids. With even the most minute traumas as just a trauma student. And so therefore they get into this mindset of, oh, I've had trauma and now I can't like thrive past where I'm at because this trauma has impacted me and I am going to be impacted for the rest of my life. And so it's almost like giving, um, what did I say to Wes the other day? It was like a, it's. The self-fulfilling prophecy kind of concept of if you tell someone they're a failure or if you tell yourself that you're a failure, then you're automatically going to fail because you're not gonna try or you're not gonna like do anything about whatever you're trying to accomplish. So, you know when, when we label kids with, or that they have had this trauma or, um, yeah. Anyway, maybe I'm kind of talking in circles now, but it's this, the iatrogenic injury of therapy is that maybe we're doing more harm for our kids when we get them in therapy early on, um, versus actually helping them past the trauma and like we're focusing too much on trauma and talking about it, that they kind of don't grow up and grow up past that trauma. And so anyway, I, I've actually. Kind of seen it in a, a very small sense, um, and have been hearing at it, hearing about it on a grander scale as well, just across the country. So yeah, give that book a listen, um, or a read. It's called Bad Therapy by Abigail Schreyer. I'll add a link to it in our show notes so you can check it out. Um, and yeah, there's a lot of things in there that I've just been, uh. Really challenged by, they've actually named a handful of books by name that I have read in the past and have really enjoyed, but she's challenging a lot of the things that they teach in them. Um, one of the books is. Um, the body keeps the score. It's all about trauma and how your body remembers trauma and how it does impact you for a lifetime. And so she's saying how this book is kind of one, a part of the problem. And so that was just really fascinating to me. Um, I don't know how much I agree with all of the things that she's saying, but it really does give me, um, just a moment of pause as to the things that I have been taught and how much I should. Believe with other people because now I am kind of seeing the things that she is talking about is, are those like iatrogenic um, harms that have been done through the over therapized generation that we have? So anyway, sorry that was longer than I meant to talk about that word, but. I am here by myself, and so I am just talking. It does seem a little weird for me to do a podcast totally by myself. But, um, if, I mean, you may or may not know I actually have a YouTube channel and it is just myself on my YouTube channel. So I'm actually pretty, uh, I'm pretty used to just talking. To myself or by myself at a screen or into a microphone. Um, because I've made a lot of YouTube videos where I'm just kind of talking, usually with my YouTube videos, they are slightly more scripted and planned and thought through this podcast I have, I definitely have thoughts. I have some notes written down, so don't worry. I'm not just going to be rambling. I do have a plan for today, but it's not as probably scripted and, uh. Formal as my YouTube channel. If you are curious, my YouTube channel is all about, um, faith and finances. You can find me over on YouTube. Uh, just looking at my name, Katie Fiola Jones. I'll link to it if you're curious on checking it out. I talk a lot about budgeting, um, personal finance, um, from a biblical perspective and yeah, um, if you're looking for ideas on saving money and things. You can go check it out. Which actually kind of brings me to today's topic because I do wanna talk a little bit about money and finances, um, and how we can start saving money when trying to live this non-toxic life. So that's kind of a, a cue into getting into today's topic. So in today's episode, I actually want to kind of expand on last week's episode, which was actually an introduction to the Toxin bucket theory. Um, it's basically kind of this analogy. Used within functional and holistic medicine to try to explain how a person's body can gradually accumulate toxins and other stressors until it reaches a saturation point, which then leads to the onset of chronic symptoms or even disease. So imagine you have a bucket and that represents your body's total capacity to handle your toxic load. Everybody has, you know, a different. Bucket size, and this is kind of due to your genetic variation, your genetic makeup, um, your detoxification pathways. Um, in some situations you may or may not have more or less efficiency at removing toxins. Um, and so you may have a smaller bucket or a larger bucket. Um, and so some people who have. Large toxin buckets can take in lots and lots of different toxins from different areas of their life, and it may seem like they're never detoxing a lot of it, but then they never actually end up getting sick. However, somebody else might be exposed to small levels of toxins and then become very chronically ill pretty quickly from some, from stuff that doesn't make other people. As sick. And so, you know, we kind of have different bucket sizes. We all have like our detoxification system, which would be considered the drain of the bucket. Um, and sometimes, you're able to drain out and detoxify the toxins quicker than other people. Our primary makeup. Of organs that create the detoxification system or like your liver, your kidney. Christine, I talked about like your skin and how it actually helps to, uh, expel out a lot of toxins through like your sweat. Your bowels are also a part of that system as well. Um, and your drain is basically trying to flush out as much of the toxins as possible. Our body is supposed to, it's designed to withstand a certain level of toxins, but it needs to be draining properly so that it doesn't overload. Your toxin load is made up of environmental toxins, which are kind of the easiest things to point out. So environmental toxins are made up of pollutants in the air and our water, as well as exposure to pesticides, heavy metals. Chemicals in our household and personal care products. Um, we also are exposed to things like mold or even, uh, bad bacterias and yeasts, um, that create kind of in and imbalance inside of our gut primarily. But our toxins don't just come from. The exterior from our environment. They're also, uh, internal and they're also just the choices that we make every day on, our lifestyle. So you think about, you know, your, uh. Lack of sleep, even like exposure to certain stresses, um, whether it's emotional or something else. Um, so if we have lots of stressors, lack of movement, So our toxin bucket is kind of made up of things that we can and we cannot control. Um, however, we want to try to reduce our toxin exposure so that way it doesn't lead to, uh, a very of, you know, various amount of things. Think about like chronic fatigue or even brain fog, um, aches and pains that are unexplained throughout our body, skin issues, um, like. Rashes, um, or breakouts. You could have hormonal imbalances even from the toxin inflow, which then can lead to infertility, which is a, a major, uh, issue that we're seeing across the world. Um, it's something that I have even been challenged with when we were trying to get pregnant with Malachi. It took us a, a very, very long time. And who knows what kind of toxins I had or Wes had been exposed to, that kind of led to. Um, that kind of chronic condition. Um, it, the toxin bucket when you are overflowed with all these things can also lead to sensitivities to different foods and chemicals. So if you have allergies or even things like asthma, um, however, the biggest things that. Your toxin bucket can eventually lead to our, um, major chronic diseases, autoimmune diseases, cancers, um, heart problems, all, all the major stuff. It typically comes from an overload of toxins in your life. Now, the best way to. Overcome and to fight off all of the toxins. You know, there's two ways that you can kind of empty this bucket, and that's really by reducing the inflow, so limiting your actual exposure to the toxins that you have control over. And then your option number two is just draining the bucket. So it's making sure that your detoxification pathways are actually working. So I wanna go over some free easy ways you could do both of these things to reduce the inflow and to kind of support your body's natural detoxification pathways, like the actual detoxification process. Um. So you have to consider what are the things that you have the most control over? And, and do those things, and especially if they're free, right? I mean, if there's something that's free that can help you reduce your chances of getting some sort of chronic, uh, health issue, chronic illness, why would you not be doing it? Right? So, some of the easiest things that we can do. Um, have to do with, um, our food as well as our natural, uh, like our, our personal care products, um, and the way that we are kind of reducing stress, um, and even just helping our detoxification in general. Okay, so let's talk about some free ways to reduce the toxin inflow. So you think about like slowing down the flow of water into our bucket so that it doesn't overflow as it is draining out. Um, these strategies really are focusing on creating a healthier environment inside and outside of our bodies, without. Needing to buy lots of expensive new things. Yes, there might be a time and a place to go and buy extra things, but start with the things that are the easiest and that are super duper free. So. Think about your home, like I mentioned this last week, but your home is full of pollutants in the air, so you want to, um, reduce the number of VOCs, which stands for volatile. Organic compounds. So these come, it's like offgassing, basically it comes from new items, especially when you bring new things into your home. So if you've ever like purchased something from Amazon, like a shirt, and you open it up and it has like this really weird smell to it, that is the, the piece of clothing literally like Offgassing. And that typically happens with. Items that have some sort of like plastic byproduct, um, in it. So any kind of synthetic material, um, that can come from our clothing, our furniture. Things like our mattresses often, um, have very high VOCs, but it also can be within, um, our walls. Um. I mean, things like children's cribs and stuff, they, they have a lot of VOCs because, um, they're often sprayed with, uh, things that make them water resistant as well as like flame resistant, which sound like good things, but it's because there's a lot of chemicals in them that they are resistant to all these other stuff. So. In order to kind of get all these VOCs out of our air, we need to sort of cleanse the air. So a very easy free way to do that is to, allow your home to like, filter out the air by simply just opening all the windows for 10 to 15 minutes a day. Um, also if you do, or when you do bring new products into the home, like new clothes or furniture, um. Keep them outside or in your garage or on your porch for a few days before bringing them inside. You can actually nowadays like Google or use like an AI engine to figure out how long certain products will off gas their VOCs, and so you can find out how long you should keep something outside in order for it to kind of lose. The majority of the, the chemicals into off gas as much as possible. So that's a great easy way, um, to help reduce the inflow of these VOCs into your air, which then get into your lungs and into your cells, um, that create. Havoc. So another really easy, simple way, we've, Christy and I have talked about, um, reducing our chemical exposure from our cleaning products and personal care products, um, and even the scents that we use in our home. So honestly, one of the first things you can do is. Stop buying anything that is made with fragrances, um, synthetic or quote unquote natural fragrances. You really want to look for stuff that is made with the actual real item. So like actual lemons instead of lemon fragrance, when you see the word fragrance, it often, or it always means made with chemicals and so. You want to stop buying those kinds of things, stop buying like the scented wall plugins. Um, candles can be really bad because now they're releasing like a gas into the air when they're made with a lot of synthetic stuff. So if you're gonna choose to do candles, try and do the bees wax natural stuff, they actually, it cleanses your air when you use, uh, beeswax candles, they can be pretty expensive. So. You just need to be aware of that, but you could just like stop buying the things that are made with fragrance. Um, stop buying Fre, that'll actually save you money. Okay, so another really easy, practically free way to clean everything in your home. From counters to windows to floors. To your bathrooms is simply with just plain vinegar and water. Um, making a, a really simple solution, putting it in a spray bottle, spraying it around and using like a microfiber cloth to clean everything. Literally. That is all you need to clean your house. Um, obviously if you. Lots and lots of nerdiness. Um, there's some other added things you can be doing, but this is the easiest and most cost effective way to clean your home. You don't need to go and buy the expensive cleaners from the store that have lots and lots of chemicals to. Destroy every piece of bacteria in your home. In fact, Christy and I actually talked about this on a podcast episode where this is actually harming your health more than it is helping. Um, because you wanna keep that bacteria around because your body starts to develop, um, and build your immune system around it. And so if you're killing everything, you are not allowing your. Immune system to kind of do its proper job and build up slowly with, um, small, you know, micro exposures to different bacterias, um, because you're just killing every, every little last living thing that is in your home. Um, so yeah, so easy, simple way. You don't need to use any of the harsh stuff. Another really. Simple way to make your home, um, more clean and less toxic is simply by just taking your shoes off before you walk around your shoes. Have more fecal bacteria on them than your toilet seat does. Guys, like this is no joke. I mean, you go Google it right now and you will find out the truth about your shoes. But not only are there, you know. Fecal bacterias on your shoes. You also, um, likely have pesticide residue. You could have chemicals from like the roads, like think about all the chemicals that they spray on your road onto your shoes. I've also learned that lead is often on the. Bottom of shoes. Um, even, I mean, just the, the dirt and dust from outside and whatever that holds, all comes inside. And so even if it's not, like, even if your shoes are kind of dry, dirty, you know what I mean, it's not like wet. So you're not like leaving wet marks everywhere, but just simply like leaving the particles of different things around your house. May be fine if you don't have kids in your home, like you may, or you may be thinking it is fine because you don't have little kiddos running around and you're like, oh, well there's nobody licking the floors or eating things off of our floors, so it's fine. But really. If you think about all the chemicals and different things that you are tracking into your home, and then later in the day you end up taking your shoes off and walking around bare feet, um, with bare feet. Your feet are now taking in and absorbing anything that you tracked into your home. Not only that, but then if you do bring in something like the pesticides into your home, it does get into your air quality, when you just start moving around and things get shifted and stuff. And so it's. It just, it's a very easy way to live. A little less toxic is just simply by taking your shoes off before you walk around the house, and even if you have the opportunity, leave your shoes like in the garage or on your front porch or something like that, so that you're just not bringing them into the home at all. So another thing with your floors, um, and your house removing the dust is super, super important. So as I mentioned, like your shoes are bringing lots of stuff into the home. Well, then you start looking around the edges of the rooms and in places where you're not going as often, but you'll notice that. There's just that fine layer of dust and it's oftentimes like all of that junk that you are bringing into your home. Um, also things like those flame retardants, that are in a lot of our clothing and, um, our blankets and towels and and so you wanna be dusting and cleaning that regularly if you have air ducts like a, a duct system. So if you have a forced air gas furnace you want to be cleaning those out, uh, once a year because all that stuff then also gets into the air ducts. And then every time you turn it on, whether it's for your AC or for your heat, it just blows throughout your home. So you wanna clean that out. And the best way to even just keep your air ducts clean is just by, um, vacuuming your house regularly, cleaning up the dust. And so that way it doesn't. Just continue to track into, uh, the duct system of your home. So that is super important. I do think that it's recommended that you use like a wet, uh, like, or just slightly damp cloth when you're dusting'cause it really does like track or like capture as much of the, um, nasty stuff as possible. Now I wanna talk about EMF exposure. I have been going on a journey learning more and more about. The radiation that we are exposed to and how it, um, honestly could potentially be like the stem of a lot of the long-term chronic illnesses that many of us face these days, um, including things like cancer. I'm not gonna even go into. The details of all the impacts that EMFs can have on our bodies. Um, we'll save that for another episode. But if you are already kind of aware of that or you are just simply wanting to look for easy ways to reduce your EMF exposure, there are a lot of really. Super easy, free things that you can start doing today. Like you don't need to go buy anything, go, don't need to go do anything crazy, but simply just some options or some things that you can be doing, new habits that you can build for yourself. One is instead of using your cell phone up against your head, um, where the EMF exposure is then going directly into, you know, into your skull, into your brain. Talk on your phone with speakerphone as much as you can. I mean, obviously there's certain cer, certain situations where you're not just gonna like pop on your speakerphone and let everybody hear your personal conversations, but if it is possible, use speakerphone as much as you can. Um, try as best as you can, not to put phones into your pockets, especially your front pocket. There have been a lot of studies now that have been showing that the EMF exposure from your cell phone, especially in your front pocket, can impact your fertility. And so for men, it kills. Sperm. Um, and for women it, it diminishes egg quality. And so if you can, um, just choose not to put it in your pocket, ladies, put your phone in your purse and, and try and keep your purse away from you if you do need to put it in your pocket. The thing that I have actually been doing is turning my phone into airplane mode when I know that it's going to be in my pocket. And, and if I don't need to be getting, if I, if I know I'm not gonna be getting any calls for a little bit and I don't need my. Um, cell phone on at that moment. I just simply put it into airplane mode. And then I put it in my pocket. I do this often when I'm going in and out of my house to the car because I'm like, okay, it's just gonna be a few minutes. It makes it easier'cause I'm carrying Malachi. Um. And so I often do that. And then even with that, as often as you can or as often as you think about it, put your phone in airplane mode. If you're just not using it, like if you're just hanging out, um, and it's around, just turn it off no matter where it's located, whether it's close to you or not, It's extremely important overnight. So if you keep your phone, um, in your room, or I would even highly recommend not keeping it in your room overnight or don't keep any electronics in your room overnight, especially your laptop. Um, and especially plugged in, uh, devices because when your devices are charging and they're also. Connected to the wifi or connected to Bluetooth Um, it magnifies the EMF radiation coming off of it. And so it's best when you're using it not to have it plugged in. So, uh. If you can charge it and then use it without it being plugged in the whole time. Same thing with your phone. If you're going to use your phone, don't be using it while it's on the charger. The radiation that's coming off of it is much higher when it is plugged in. There are EMF blocking phone cases. There's, there's a couple brands called Defender Shield and Safe Sleeve, if you're curious in checking those out. Christmas is around the corner. It could be a good thing to add to your Christmas list this year. But again, if you're looking just for easy freeways, do those things. Um, same thing with like, if you're going to use your laptop, don't use it directly on your lap. Again, it's the same thing as putting your phone into your front pocket. You, it does impact the fertility of both men and women, and so. Just be aware of that. When it comes to, so I mentioned Bluetooth very briefly. When it comes to Bluetooth, you really want to stop using as many of the Bluetooth devices as you can. We've actually, I, uh, it's, it's such a pain. I actually really love smart home devices. They. Make life easier. They're wonderful. You can control everything from your phone, which is so cool.'cause then you can see like who's at your front door. You can change the, the temperature of your house before you get there. You can make sure that lights are off in rooms if you left. Anyway, I was on this like journey of changing everything to smart home devices because I just, I loved the convenience of them. Um, but then I started learning about all this. All the impact of the radiation on your body and how the toxic load can really just be overwhelmed. Like your buck, your toxin bucket can be super overwhelmed with all the radiation that we're exposed to because. You think about it, you're at, you're in your home, you have wifi going all day. Usually if you're going to work or you're going to school or you're going to the library, you're going to the grocery store. Everything now has, um, 5G and has wifi and there's Bluetooth going and, and all the things. So we are exposed to so many chances to get like that EMF radiation and so. You can limit it as much as possible, that is the, the best route to go. So if you can stop using as many of these Bluetooth devices in your home, that is going to be the less toxic route. And so yes, I have decided that we are going to, um, you know, when we move into our new home, we're not going to be using these smart home devices anymore. And I'm like. Still really bummed about it, but you know, our health is so much more important to me than being able to see who is at my front door when they ring the doorbell, or that I can change the thermostat from my phone when we're not home or whatever. And, uh, my gosh, this, these days, it's so crazy to me. Everything that has Bluetooth now, I mean, we're shopping for, um. Appliances for our home, and literally every appliance that you can buy for your kitchen these days now can connect to wifi and you can control them from your phone. And I'm like, in what situation do I need to connect to my oven from my phone? I mean, there are maybe so few instances where I'm like, oh, that sounds like it could be convenient, but I'm not gonna be turning my oven on. Away from my home.'cause that just sounds like so dangerous to have this thing going that could, I don't know. Anyway, to me that sounds crazy. And so that's an easy, like, okay, we don't need these devices. But now it's crazy because almost all of the new. Appliances out there come with wifi connectivity. In fact, I learned the other day that the um, oven that we have here at our temporary house has wifi connectivity. Um, and we learned that, that it is connected to something because it, when the time changed, uh, just here in early November, um, you know, with daylight savings, it automatically changed. On its own. Like we didn't go and program it to do that. And so, um, then we realized that it is connected to something and then sure enough, like really teeny tiny, there's the little wifi symbol on it. And I was like, holy cow. That is so crazy. So yeah, it's unfortunate. There's a lot of things that I'm like, man, this is, there are so many little conveniences with having things connected. But again, my theory or my, my own personal belief is that. Our health, our long-term health is, um, so much more important than the convenience of having everything connected to our phone. So. We are going to be getting rid of all of our devices that I love so much. Um, but again, it is much healthier. I've even heard of the fact that like a lot of these, the wifi, radiation and um, Bluetooth connectivity and, and all this stuff, like if you have them close to your bedroom, it really impacts your sleep quality. And so, um, you know, if, if you do have. Wifi router, right? Which most of us have. You can turn it off at night, which is the, the safest. Way to go, um, is just totally, completely having it off. Um, but at a bare minimum, make sure it is not close to your bedroom or it doesn't hang out in a room that you spend like a lot of, lot of time in. So for example, if you work from home and you spend eight hours a day in your office, you really don't want to have the wifi router sitting directly next to you while you are working. So those are some really simple first steps that you can get started with to reduce your. Um, toxin inflow from EMFs. There are a lot of other ways nowadays that you can go overboard. Almost. I mean, I wouldn't say overboard is the right word, but you can dive much deeper into, um, like limiting your EMF exposure. If you are curious, just go and, um, Google things, but. Those are some easy ways to get started. We'll probably do an episode about EMFs, um, in the future. Blue Light is another one of those, um, ones that is similar to EMF, but Blue Light really does impact your hormones. Um, it impacts your melatonin production. It, it impacts your sleep quality in general. So with Blue Light, you really want to get in the habit of. You know, stop using devices one to two hours before you go to bed. Um, it helps your hormones regulate before going to sleep. Um, if you have the opportunity, you know, just stop using your laptop as often as you can during the day. I know many of us work using screens, so that's quite difficult. Um, you could go out and buy some blue light glasses if that is a concern of yours, but. Limiting it as much as possible, but then in order to kind of like reverse the effects of blue light, it's really important to just simply go outside and get natural light on your eyes, frequently throughout the day. So if you can go and take like a, a break, maybe once an hour or every other hour and just soak in some, um, natural light from outside from the sun, that is going to help. Um, kind of like detox your system. So that's kind of like on the opposite side. It's not necessarily like limiting your toxin exposure, but it's gonna help on the opposite side to kind of regulate your body. So that is, um, a super easy, free way to, to do that. So on the other end, so I kind of went through and talked a little bit about reducing the inflow of toxins, but now if we want to examine what it looks like to support your detoxification pathways, um, there's a lot of great ways. To do that, that are easy and free. Um, the first one is simply just getting good quality sleep. We all know that while we sleep, that is your body's chance to sort of reset itself. There are different systems in your brain that are highly active during sleep that help with. Kind of flushing out any metabolic waste that has been accumulated during the day. So it's important to be getting seven to nine hours of good sleep every single night. Try to block out as much of the lights. In your room is possible. Again, the the blue light exposure, even in the smallest amount. So you think like your alarm clock or even even the teeny tiny light that comes from your smoke detector in your bedroom, those are all impacting the quality of your sleep. So the more light that you're exposed to overnight, the worst quality of sleep that you will have. So, um, as much as possible you wanna try and get rid of those lights. So that way you sleep really well. Um, and, Another really good way to kind of help your. Detoxification pathway is to reduce stress. Now, what's interesting about stress is that it is also a source of toxins, basically. Um, but it also can help your, um, detoxification process work properly when, uh, stress is reduced. So it's important to practice stress management So when we are stressed out, when we feel anxiety, our body produces cortisol and having high cortisol levels really burdens your body and slows down different bodily functions and processes, including your liver. Function, which the liver is kind of like the powerhouse of your t detoxification, uh, system. And so if your liver isn't working properly, then you aren't going to be able to detoxify the toxins in your body as thoroughly and properly as needed. And so there are so many great, easy ways to practice. Stress management, um, simply just doing deep breathing, that's free and that's a tool that you have at your disposable disposal at any moment. And so deep breathing is a great way to kind of help lower your heart rate, um, and reduce the cortisol levels in your blood. Getting good sunlight also helps relieve stress. It, it helps your detoxification, um, system kind of kick in by getting really good sunlight, um, putting your feet in the grass. Christy and I have mentioned this before. It always sounds very woo woo, but if you go outside. With bare feet. I know as I'm talking about this, it's, we're getting into the chilly season, so it's not going to be as possible, um, for some of us who live in snowy areas, but as, as often as you can, or if you can once a day for like 10 minutes, go put your feet in the grass because your body actually absorbs some of the energy that is coming from the Earth and it helps your body to relax and kind of get back into sink. And so. That is a really simple, easy way that you can kind of help your detoxification pathways open up, um, as well as it can help relieve some of the stress that you might be feeling throughout the day. Water is probably one of the most important. Uh, things for detoxing. If you're not drinking water, your body has no way of actually flushing out the toxins. So your toxins exposed through obviously going to the bathroom, um, but also through sweating and so. If you don't have enough water to do either of those things, then the toxins are going to pool up in your system. Um, and then they end up creating inflammation and then potentially even long-term chronic illnesses. So water's very, very important. Chrisy and I actually had an episode where we talked about, uh, good water. Meaning mineral based water that actually helps to hydrate your body instead of just kind of going through your body and not actually hydrating it. So check out that episode where we talk about minerals in our water, but simply just increasing your water intake is probably going to be a good bet for anybody. It is also really important to be. Moving daily. So I've kind of heard that it is important to be sweating at least once a day. So that means actually like breaking a sweat so that your body actually can expel those toxins. Again, hydration is first, but then once you are hydrated, you wanna start getting those fluids moving. Your lymphatic system really relies on muscle contraction in order to move. The fluids, um, in like within the lymphatic system, the, the lymph fluid, which is where your toxins are being carried. So it doesn't have any other pump system, like this is the pump system. You are the pump system By moving your muscles, breaking a sweat, um, just simply going on a 30 minute more brisk walk is one of the easiest. And freest ways to get your. Lymphatic system moving. Um, so you just need to be promoting sweat. If you have kiddos, that can sometimes be easy, just like have a little dance party at home, you know, 30 minutes just jumping around and, and doing things. Even just like vacuuming often can break sweat if you're, you know, if you have a big enough home. So just think about those little things in your day to kind of start getting the limp lymphatic system going so that you can actually detoxify your system. Okay, so I wanted to give you a few of those easy, quick ways to start to live a less toxic lifestyle for free. Um, but again, I mentioned that there is definitely a time and a place. For us to be spending extra money on living a less toxic lifestyle. And so you really have to ask yourself at, at a certain point, you know, once you've kind of reached a limit of, of doing all the free things, what is that next best step that I can take in order to continue to live this non-toxic lifestyle? And really what it comes down to is how important is your health to you and. What does it mean for you to stay healthy long term? And I heard it said really well. Um, I, it was on some podcast that, you know, as believers we, we know that our body is a temple. Our body is. A place where the Holy Spirit dwells. Um, and we need our bodies to be working properly in order to continue the good work, um, of sharing the gospel with others. And so not only is taking care of your body about your own health and your own comforts, like long term, like staying healthy, um, it's not about just looking good and feeling your best, but it really is a way that we can be honoring. Our father who gave us these bodies in the first place, they are not our own. They are on loan from God. And we want to take as best possible care as we can of these bodies. And so I really do see all of this as an act of worship and there are definitely points in, there have been points in our journey where we have decided that yes, this thing is worth. Spending a little extra money on because we want to glorify God in this way. And so it's important for you to kind of have that conversation, um, with a spouse if you're married, but also just with the Lord deciding, you know, between you and God. Like what is that next step that I can take in order to continue to live a less toxic lifestyle? And um, sometimes that might mean spending a little extra money here or there, and. That's okay. So we, the, the next step that I just want to encourage you with, um, when, when you get to that point is simply to create a solid budget that will help you prioritize making these decisions. And so setting aside money to. Put towards, um, a, a larger grocery budget. If that means increasing your grocery budget to buy higher quality foods, um, it might mean saving money for an air filtration system or a water filtration system. It could mean saving money to buy organic. Cotton clothing or organic cotton sheets. Um, a new mattress that isn't riddled with, uh, fire retardant materials and waterproof materials sprayed into it. There are a lot of things that you can be spending your money on in this journey, and I'm not here to tell you which thing that you need to go and spend money on, but the important thing is to consider. What area you think will make the biggest impact for your health, um, that God might be calling you to make a change with and start setting aside money for that if you've never budgeted before and need help. Figuring out what that looks like. Um, I'll send, I'll, I'll link to a few of the resources that I've created. Um, I've mentioned a few times before and, and today that I am a certified Christian financial counselor and I actually like, do this, like, help people with budgets for, um, a job. Like that's, that's my job. And so I have tons of free resources that you can kind of get started with and, and check that out. Um. Because it really is important, the way that we spend our money is also an act of worship. Um, many of us have had that conversation at church where, um, we know like the way we spend money can glorify God or it can be glorifying ourselves. So it's really important to consider the way that we are spending our money and, um, how we can glorify the Lord with it and how we can give thanks to him through the way that we spend it, um, and how we treat our bodies. So with that, I will leave us. There, I honestly could just continue talking because I love talking about all this. And, um, but now I feel weird because it has been a long conversation and, um, I've gotta get back to doing mom things and uh, house things. And we'll see. Stay tuned for next week's episode if there is one. If there's not, I'm sorry. Um. But if there is, it might just be myself again. Okay. Well, with that, thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode. Christy and I really do pray over you guys and pray that these. Uh, conversations that we have or these solo episodes that we have, um, resonate with you and that they're helpful on your journey to living a less toxic lifestyle and glorifying God with your body and your health. Um, and yeah. Until next time, this is Katie and thanks for listening to Crunchy Stewardship. See you.