Ep 810 ｜ Detoxifying Your Life： Birth Control, Cleaning Chemicals & Fake Food ｜ Guest： Shawna Holman
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Summary
Shawna Holman is a wife, mom, and author. She runs an Instagram account called A Little Less Toxic, and she also wrote a book called Healthier Home, the room-by-room guide to make any space a little less toxic. She s going to tell us about her incredible health journey today, why she started to make her own life less toxic, and how we can do it in a way that is balanced, and doable, for all of us.
Transcript
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How can we make our lives healthier and less toxic, but in a way that doesn't feel totally
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My guest today, Shauna Holman, is going to tell us how.
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She runs an Instagram account called A Little Less Toxic.
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She also wrote a book called Healthier Home, the room-by-room guide to make any space a
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She's going to tell us about her incredible health journey today, why she started to make
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In a way that is balanced, in a way that is doable for all of us, and also in a way that
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helps us maintain our mental and spiritual health as well.
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You are going to love this encouraging and educating conversation with Shauna.
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It's brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
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Can you tell everyone a little bit about who you are and what you do?
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I am Shauna, and I am a wife, and I'm a mom, and I was a classroom teacher, but I came home
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when we had our firstborn and thought I would go back in the classroom, but I'm not going
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I don't really know how to describe what I am, who I am, but I am recently an author.
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I have been on like a 10-year journey of trying to make my life healthier.
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I had like, I don't know, do you want to get in like crazy backstory already?
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Well, I grew up like very conventionally, like most people that grew up in the 80s
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And yeah, very conventionally, my parents were like young and not like prepared to have
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us, and my mom ended up raising us by herself and did the best she could with what she knew
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at the time, but it was a lot of like mac and cheese and SpaghettiOs and all of those
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kinds of things and the conventional products and never had a problem with any of it until
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And I started having chronic pain that we think was either migraines or sinus infections.
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You didn't, as far as you can remember, you didn't have any.
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Health problems growing up, even with those, you know, conventional products, you felt
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I think I would just, didn't really have any health concerns until maybe like, there
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are a few things looking back in like maybe my late teens or early twenties where I'm like,
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oh, this is some random joint pain or things like that, but just kind of brushed it off
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until it was something that I couldn't really avoid.
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So like in college, getting these sinus infections, I thought.
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So treating it conventionally, I just go to the health center there and you get antibiotics
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And it got better and then it came back and then did the same thing and it got better
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Then they started getting more and more frequent, more like close together and sometimes worse.
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Just the frequency, the duration, the intensity was all just getting worse over time until
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it just got kind of debilitating at some points where it was really impacting my life.
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And then of that five years, the last year of it, I was in pain 24 hours a day, every
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And I was still, I didn't want to keep taking these medications.
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So I had seen like every different, um, a lot of like the ENTs and allergy specialists
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Cause so every time you were having these headaches, even as they were getting more frequent,
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So they were pretty sure, or at least they thought they were pretty sure that it was a
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Like it must have felt like sinus pressure then.
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It's, I still get it when I have reactions, but yeah, sinus pressure.
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So I tried migraine medication that made me like dizzy laying on the floor.
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I would do, I think the last few years of it too.
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I was almost daily taking like a combination of like Sudafed, Excedrin and, um, and, uh,
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And you just thought that's what you had to do to like function.
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I was going to these doctors like begging, you know, I don't want to keep doing these
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things, but they really had no other answers for me.
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And so I would not take the antibiotics every time.
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Cause I, I didn't really have a good understanding of them, but I knew like,
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And then at the end of that last year of those five years, I was on antibiotics for
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this migraine sinus infection thing at the time.
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And I had a little hangnail and I was washing a dog dish.
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And then, uh, right afterward I felt it felt like it was infected.
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You know, when you, you felt that probably before, which this feels like it might be a
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And my husband and I went to bed when I woke up in the morning, he asked how it was and
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And, um, later that day I was showering and I noticed there's a little tender spot on
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And it kind of set off an alarm in my head that it was like pain, pain, pain.
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So let me just, let me just pause for a second and try to, I just want to make sure I know
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So you said in your twenties, there were these like five years of pain, the sinus pain.
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So this was towards like the end of those five years.
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Was this before you said those last five years you had pain like all the time, basically.
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Was this within that time or before that time when you started that time?
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So this is like almost five full years of living like this.
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And so the alarm bells kind of start to go off.
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So I called my mom when, when I realized like, Hey, I think this infection spreading, she
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So I go into urgent care and they say, Oh yeah, you have an infection at the same time
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I had like kind of like a little scab or something around my nose.
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They're like, Oh yeah, it's like a staph infection.
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So they gave me, I'm on antibiotics and I have an infection.
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So then they gave me a shot of a stronger antibiotic and he's like, so this should take
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care of it, but I'm going to give you a prescription for something topical for what's going on around
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And when he's going out to get the prescription, he comes back and now there's a line on my arm
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So I have like the spot here, the spot here, and now a red line that's sticking out like
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And then the thing on your face, but was that already there before you started feeling the
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So then he comes in and I'm kind of freaked out like, Hey, I think it's spreading.
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And he's like, well, the thing I just gave you should take care of it.
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I think that's what I would say in that situation.
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And of course, they're not going to be like, well, now that you say that, now that you
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So your only option at that point is to go home.
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And I've been living at the doctor's offices for five years.
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They're pretty much like take the pill and the end, you know?
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So you had been basically at this point, almost continuously on antibiotics.
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And that's not even necessarily a super strong one.
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So they didn't even try to change it up and say, I wonder if there's a reason that you're
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And for that last solid year, it wasn't like I was in there like, hey, I still have pain
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because I didn't want to keep doing the same thing.
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It wasn't working, you know, but it would get so bad that I would relent and go in there
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Before we even get into how the like infection story ended up, how much was this affecting
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I mean, I had to learn how to function around it because I had to live, you know, whether
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I was finishing college or going to work and just living.
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But it was it was very much impacting my day to day life.
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It was making it hard to function where it was like, you know, there were like people
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laying hands, praying on me because it was really it was awful.
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I mean, because you you said that you were in college, you graduated from college.
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I'm like just thinking about all those life things like your honeymoon and all that.
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That you had to endure when you just felt so chronically terrible.
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And it just was like I said, it was just part of my life.
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Which I feel like is very symbolic of a lot of things that we do with this stuff.
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But yeah, it was there were points where I was just like, I can't really need.
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You probably didn't even like remember what it was like to not live with pain.
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But OK, so then so at urgent care, the doctor says, yep, you're good to go.
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Well, I went to the pharmacy to go get my little prescription filled and I'm texting my mom
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So and I think I was like, you know, it's like 10 years ago.
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I probably had a really crappy little blackberry or something.
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And so I was telling her like, OK, they said this and I'm sending her pictures and she's
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And there's at this point, I have a little line here, a little line here, a little line
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And then I'm texting her and she said, the doctor said, if that gets anywhere, you need
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And I look down from the text and I have one solid red line all the way up my arm.
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You're either like turning into Spider-Man or something.
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And by the time I got there, I had sepsis and it was a resistant strain of staph.
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Like, you know, you get to the emergency room and it's like totally crowded and there's
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And after they took my vitals, they called me right back and there were still people
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So they put me on IV of like the strongest antibiotics and I had to take those for a week.
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And like all these my same doctors, new doctors, I'm begging all of them.
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So I started reading and looking at other ways I can help my body because I clearly
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the what they were doing for me or what I was taking was wearing me down so that a hangnail
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That's really what started the staph infection?
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So at this point of entry allowed it to kind of just go into your bloodstream.
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It's almost I don't know if it's a blessing or not, but it's like almost a blessing that
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And such a blessing that your mom was like accessible like that.
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And so that you immediately knew, OK, something's wrong.
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So it's almost better that it went as quickly as it did.
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Because, yeah, if I would have gone to sleep, I really we don't know.
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But I I didn't read for years about that particular like staph and MRSA because I just didn't think
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So you said you started reading about how to help your body.
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And like, was there anything that made you think there's got to be something more than what
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Like, had you heard about other people who had healed themselves naturally or anything like that?
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Or was it just like a thought you had and you decided to Google it?
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Yeah, it wasn't really my my lifestyle at all at the time.
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I had started to think about ingredients a tiny bit because my husband works in oncology.
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And so cancer is kind of like our second language.
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But really didn't I knew nothing about any of this stuff.
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And my mom saw a nutritionist on like a PBS special talking about inflammation.
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And she told me, hey, I think you should check out this lady's work.
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And so I read her book and it was about an elimination diet and how these different foods
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can contribute to inflammation for people when your body is out of balance.
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Like they can be really healthy foods for some people, but not when you're out of balance.
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And so you pull them all out, let your body kind of reset and then reintroduce them and
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So I finished my antibiotics and then I did the elimination diet pretty much right away.
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And then within days of eliminating these foods, I was pain free for the first time in over a year.
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So it was undeniable and it just kind of opened up my eyes to this whole world of reading ingredients,
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basically, because I couldn't eat any of the things in my pantry or going out to eat was
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kind of impossible because these ingredients are in most things.
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And I had never really looked at ingredients before.
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I would turn the package over to look at the nutrition facts or just read the package cover
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I was very much like I had Taco Bell on my wedding day.
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Like I was very much like lived that lifestyle.
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Honestly, right now, when you said Taco Bell, I'm like, oh, yeah, that sounds awesome.
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That's the last time I really wanted to Taco Bell.
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OK, I think that a lot of us can relate to that, especially growing up, like even you talking
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about eating, you know, Chef Boyardee and things like that.
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But I mean, also, we ate what a lot of 90s kids did, which was OK, like Reese's Puffs
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I would have Rice Krispies and I would put like me.
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But in my mind, I'm thinking like it was like a cup of sugar and just like white sugar.
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And I would love when it would like get to the bottom.
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When I got home from school, I would get Oreos and I would, you know, like let them get
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I'm like, oh, my gosh, some of the things that we ate without even thinking about it,
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then it's wild that like any of us are even functioning at all.
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And I think it probably does affect a lot more of us than we realize.
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But we just consider that, you know, the other things I had before it was so extreme.
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Like, oh, everyone gets headaches or everyone gets joint pain.
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And so what were some of those in that elimination diet?
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Like, what were some of those things that you had to give up that you said were ingredients
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that were in most of the things in your pantry?
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Gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, corn, artificial sweeteners.
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But yeah, so some really common things that like eggs are so healthy unless you're out
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Very much like when you're introducing foods to a baby.
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So reintroduce one at a time to see if I would react.
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Well, some of them you don't really reintroduce.
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And but like gluten, let me try the best bread I can find because I really want to be able
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to have bread and just know within a day my headache was back.
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So over time, if you heal your body, then you should be able to reintroduce some of
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It's like you like gluten, but it's unrequited.
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So that was really step one of your healing journey.
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Tell me like what the other steps were, because that's just one part of the process.
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But obviously now you talk about a lot of different things in your home, not just the
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So tell me about how you kind of did an overhaul on your life.
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Yeah, I think, well, and I can't remember what came first, if it was the, if I was already
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making my cleaning products or if it was the food, but it was around the same time where
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that's where I learned to start reading ingredients and was just kind of alarmed by the things
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But I didn't ever let myself become overwhelmed.
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We'd just gone through all these kinds of like health crises and stuff.
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So I was really taking it kind of like baby steps, but it's what I still do today.
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It's as something runs low or wears out, I would start to look for a replacement that
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And then I've just done that all along the way.
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So at first, like with the cleaning products, I made all of my own because I was overwhelmed
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by the options at the store, just the amount of ingredients.
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And so you just kind of looked up how to do it.
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So that's when I started finding like Pinterest or blogs or things where people were like,
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oh, you know, you can use this or that or kind of making my own concoctions and seeing
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And yeah, I found it fun and it saved us money and it worked and I was feeling better.
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And were you already exercising when you were like feeling all this pain?
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And was that part of your everyday life that changed once you started kind of eliminating
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So it was mostly the things you were putting in your body that you were putting around
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And I love that you came up with this name a little less toxic because I think it can be
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so overwhelming for people, even those who have health scares.
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But for those of us who haven't, like, I don't necessarily have one thing that I can look
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at in my life or some kind of, you know, adverse health event that I can say, oh my gosh,
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And yet I see the benefit in it, but I'm like, oh my gosh, it just seems like so much.
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But you're saying it's not necessarily something that you have to do overnight.
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So talk about that balance because I think it can be really intimidating.
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And I think it depends, too, on the person's health, right?
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If you're in an absolute crisis, you might need to do more of an extreme overhaul than
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somebody who's not experiencing severe health issues, right?
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But I think in either case, if we take on more than we can sustain, it's not going to
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It's always just been what's the next step that I can take that's reasonable within my budget
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and it makes sense for my lifestyle and all of the things.
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And there's almost always a choice that is less toxic than what we had.
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And in the crunchy world, you know, it gets crazy.
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Like the thing I laugh about and I don't know, I wouldn't call myself crunchy.
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You know, I started following your account a while ago and then other accounts.
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And there are things that I do and have done over time.
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I think I got crunchier actually during COVID, much crunchier than I was before.
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Like a lot of people did because you're like, oh, I don't think I can trust the medical establishment
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But I'm like, I think that I need to make sure that I'm taking charge of these things so
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I don't have to completely rely on them for all of my health and all of my health answers.
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But I'm still not even close to being all the way, all the way there.
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But so I say that to say, I don't have any like animosity towards the crunchy community.
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But sometimes, as you said, it's like nothing is good enough.
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And it's like all these things that people, it's like, oh, we just have to go back to the
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If cavemen didn't do it, then we can't do it today.
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And I'm like, dude, cavemen also lived for like five years total.
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Like, I think that we can adapt just a little bit.
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How I mean, talk a little bit more about how you strike the balance.
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You talk about this a lot, like your alt approach, A-L-L-T.
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I mean, well, since sharing online too, I feel, yeah, I call them the crunch police because
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We're never going to live this completely pristine, non-toxic life.
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If I'm posting a picture of like, oh my gosh, these Sour Patch watermelons are so good.
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I promise I do not want you to message me and tell me that they're bad for me.
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I'm not posting them because I think that they're real watermelons.
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And, you know, I think that the stress that we can induce on ourselves trying to live this
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perfect lifestyle is more toxic most times than any of the ingredients we're trying to
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So the alt approach, a little less toxic, um, a is for assess.
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So you take inventory and consider what you actually use.
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Take inventory and consider what you actually use.
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Cause you ever look around your bathroom and there are, you know, hundreds of products,
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but some of them have been sitting in your cupboard probably a year or two and you haven't
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Clearing up space is going to eliminate dust, but you're also taking out potentially harmful
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chemicals that are in your cupboard that are off gassing into your air.
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So by just eliminating things you don't actually need is going to immediately make your home
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Which is hard because you invested money in these things, but you know what?
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It's just sitting in a cupboard or it's not really something that you need.
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We have so many products and we can really minimize it and make our life simpler and use
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And then eventually we'll be spending less money too because we're not buying as many products,
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Even just like for the sake of minimalism and organization at the beginning of the year,
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I went through our, like one of our cabinets in our bathroom.
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And then also we put like our medicine and our vitamins on a shelf in our pantry.
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And I realized when I went through them, oh my gosh, like there are things in here that
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we have had since before we moved into this house that expired in like 2017.
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So I went through them and I just threw them all away.
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And it, even though, you know, it's expired, it's still kind of painful to throw away like a
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full bottle of medicine or vitamins or something like that.
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But like you said, okay, is it just going to keep sitting on the shelf?
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You're not going to feel comfortable, but actually, oh my gosh, that cupboard and that
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part of our pantry looks so much better just because I didn't even buy anything.
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I just threw things away, which is actually kind of fun.
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Doesn't it bring peace to like your nervous system too, when you've got like a clearer
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So assess, take inventory and consider what you actually use.
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Like you don't want to end up being on an episode of Hoarders on TLC because you're collecting
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When something runs low or wears out or it's time to replace it, look for something that's
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Something that's within your budget and that makes sense for your lifestyle, but is a little
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better than the thing you're replacing, whether it be ketchup or shampoo or rug, whatever it
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The process takes time to be patient and watch how quickly things add up.
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I don't live in this perfectly non-toxic house.
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I don't live a perfectly non-toxic life and I don't really strive to.
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I think perfectionism can be quite toxic too, right?
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And that way I get to try other products and see if they work better for me or if maybe
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one's a little more budget friendly or whatever it might be.
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And if people are wondering like, well, what specifically rather than going through all
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Like I encourage everyone to get your book, A Healthier Home, but then also you can follow
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You're always posting things like, oh, instead of this, you can use this, which is really
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And like you said, I don't have to go out and get it right then.
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I can use the rest of what I have if I want to, or maybe not, depending on like the threat
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And then I can go out and get the thing that's a little better.
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You don't have to make your own acetaminophen or whatever it is.
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Like there's some things that you can just get from the store.
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It's just a little better, but it's still better.
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So what is maybe like the most controversial swap, if you can think of, that you have suggested?
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Because I think I have it on the list and we can talk about it.
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But is there anything that you've posted like, oh, you shouldn't be using this, that you've
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gotten a lot of pushback about or that you think is controversial?
00:26:49.800
You know, the internet, people get riled up about all sorts of things.
00:26:55.780
The thing that I'm thinking of, I'll just go ahead and tell you so you don't have to
00:27:02.100
I mean, I don't think that's controversial because I too have been talking about that for
00:27:06.980
a while, but talk a little bit more about that.
00:27:10.100
Why should women, in your estimation, not be taking the birth control pill?
00:27:14.600
Well, there are a lot of studies or a lot of research that shows how it can contribute to
00:27:19.220
You know, I don't, I never really sat right with me.
00:27:22.580
I started it for acne and like, oh, yeah, sweating, right?
00:27:29.320
You know, I think it's because the doctors assumed that their patients are really having
00:27:33.400
sex, even though I was not like, I can't speak for all teen girls, obviously, but I
00:27:39.200
I was just told, oh, your period was two weeks late one time when you were 16.
00:27:46.700
I mean, even after my last baby, the doctor was really trying to push it on me and I, I
00:27:51.700
like know better, but she really was trying to be convincing, you know, like, oh, it's
00:27:58.520
But I just never really sat right with me, even though I used them for years, but it did.
00:28:03.340
I don't know what kind of, but I mean, it can mess with a lot of things with, you know,
00:28:06.960
your bone health, your hormonal health, fertility.
00:28:09.800
And, um, I don't know all the scientific specifics right now off the top of my head, but it just
00:28:16.760
And I knew that there could be another approach, but I didn't really trust myself to do it
00:28:20.960
Like I know people do, uh, you take your temperature and then you chart it and you chart like your
00:28:27.040
And I just didn't trust myself to do all the things, but I found a little device that helps
00:28:30.740
me to do that because it has an algorithm in it.
00:28:33.140
So I just take my temperature every morning and pay attention to my body and it's been
00:28:39.080
I mean, there are other ways to, there are non-hormonal birth control options.
00:28:43.040
There's a barrier method if we want to use that euphemism.
00:28:46.160
And so there, I mean, there are ways, there are ways to not take hormonal birth control.
00:28:53.160
And then there's also ethical questions about it because it doesn't necessarily stop the fertilization
00:29:00.720
Not everyone knows that it's supposed to, but it doesn't necessarily.
00:29:04.960
And so you could still fertilize an egg and then like an IUD, whether it's copper or hormonal
00:29:10.860
or whether it's a hormonal pill that you're taking, it can simply make your uterus inhospitable.
00:29:18.840
So if you believe as I do that life starts at fertilization, then okay, there are ethical
00:29:25.920
And I'm not trying to shame because, you know, we, not everyone knew, not everyone
00:29:30.680
knows that, but there are questions that we're never even told when we're sitting in a doctor's
00:29:35.740
We are never even told about any of that, which is wild to me.
00:29:45.220
And even like, even the process of stopping a period, because that's what you don't have
00:29:50.220
a period when you're on the birth control pill, as you know, because it's stopping ovulation,
00:29:56.240
So it's like, well, if women are supposed to have a period and birth control stops us having
00:30:04.260
And the doctors will, that's what mine was like.
00:30:06.360
Women for all of the time were either like pregnant or nursing.
00:30:09.980
And so they didn't have periods, but that's very different from inducing it with artificial
00:30:28.380
So you're not, I mean, you still see a doctor sometimes.
00:30:32.000
Like we were just talking beforehand, you gave birth to both of your kids in a hospital
00:30:36.200
and that was after kind of even this health journey.
00:30:42.000
So talk a little bit more about that, because I know that you probably are a little bit skeptical
00:30:46.180
though, after being told years and years, just get on more antibiotics and you almost
00:30:58.440
So I have to really, I have, it's both, both, both things can be.
00:31:02.000
That we are probably over-prescribing, over-using a lot of conventional medication and the care
00:31:07.980
is probably outdated or just not really tracking with science.
00:31:16.500
And so I don't, I don't think that we have to live in either camp.
00:31:20.200
Both things are true and I respect both and value both.
00:31:23.780
And I want to just do the best I can with what I know to steward this body.
00:31:27.860
During COVID, I remember the phrase doing your own research became something that was
00:31:33.920
I don't know why it's political, but it just happened to be that a lot of people on the
00:31:36.920
left side of the political aisle would mock that.
00:31:41.180
You have no idea what you're talking about, blah, blah, blah.
00:31:46.280
Because if you had never done your own research, you wouldn't have gotten better.
00:31:50.040
You would probably still be on antibiotics constantly and maybe in constant pain.
00:31:54.900
Maybe you wouldn't have even had your kids because you were so miserable.
00:31:58.440
So I would love for those people to tell me like, what is the better alternative then?
00:32:03.800
Because apparently a lot of doctors aren't trained in medical school to even look at what
00:32:11.320
I can't remember the amount of hours is just really non-existent in their training.
00:32:15.880
So it's not that I have great respect for medical professionals.
00:32:20.060
I have many in my family and I value them very much.
00:32:29.680
So it's okay for me to look at other things, consider alternatives, and then weigh them,
00:32:35.040
you know, with discernment, with judgment, with science and make a better informed decision
00:32:46.260
I mean, every situation I think is different, but you are capable as an individual.
00:32:55.580
And I know people want to intimidate, you know, I think especially women out of that.
00:33:00.120
Like we had a pediatrician that was just so bullying about everything.
00:33:06.200
He only had this attitude of like talking over me.
00:33:08.940
And if I would ask a question or ask, hey, can we do something this way?
00:33:14.720
You know, you're the parent, but I just want you to know there's no logical or scientific
00:33:19.600
And like, instead of explaining it to me, he would just make me feel small.
00:33:22.780
But he would not do that if my husband was there.
00:33:27.560
And I'm like, I'm not some like wilting flower.
00:33:30.040
But when you have someone in front of you who has those credentials, who I know he knows
00:33:36.120
more than me about medicine and things like that, but still what he's saying, it's like,
00:33:42.700
And I know that I care about my child more than you do.
00:33:49.020
So I think a lot of what you do is also empowering people to ask questions and not feel
00:33:57.860
Yeah, I hope so, because I think that we can get a lot of good info from asking good
00:34:03.900
And I think that our questions should be welcome.
00:34:09.020
And where do you go to like ask these questions?
00:34:11.560
Because Google is filled with all kinds of information.
00:34:17.600
I got good at researching like peer-reviewed articles and looking into those.
00:34:22.460
And, you know, there are people that you trust more.
00:34:24.420
But I even so you were asking earlier about like product recognition.
00:34:29.120
I don't even like to be like, this is the exact product because things change.
00:34:32.780
And I don't want anyone going to me and saying like, oh, she said this.
00:34:37.200
You know, I want everyone to be able to just read information on their own and make informed
00:34:50.540
So I don't really know the good answer to that because I don't know really who we trust
00:35:03.460
I can't like tell you one specific place or person, but I think that it's a collective
00:35:09.540
of different reliable information and your own God-given discernment and instinct.
00:35:16.760
Like when people were, I mean, common sense kind of told us that widespread like cloth masking
00:35:23.080
probably wasn't going to deter a virus just based on what we know about the flu and how
00:35:35.620
And like you didn't actually need peer-reviewed articles to tell you that.
00:35:41.700
I couldn't tell someone like the one source that I go to to look at political news and
00:35:46.800
It is a lot of, well, based on what I know is true and based on what makes sense to me,
00:36:02.400
And like, I mean, you just have to have a kind of, I think, a questioning, not critical
00:36:06.500
necessarily, but a questioning spirit in every source that you look through, not necessarily
00:36:11.300
looking for something that confirms your assumptions, but looking at things that are
00:36:15.400
consistent with the logic that you already have.
00:36:19.160
And I mean, that's a complicated way to put it, but it's kind of hard to say,
00:36:22.980
well, this is exactly, you know, the only source that you should be looking at.
00:36:27.140
And I think with any topic too, you can find an argument on either side and the health
00:36:31.000
world, especially you see that all the time too.
00:36:32.880
Like this, you know, spinach is terrible for you because of oxalates or you really need
00:36:38.260
Like there's, there's no, it's so hard ever one definitive answer on these things.
00:36:51.860
And, um, yeah, I, I think also be willing to change our minds because I've been presented
00:36:58.440
with new information over time that, I mean, it changed my life 10 years ago, but it continues
00:37:02.080
to, because I, you know, I, I don't live the same way I did 10 years ago, not just because
00:37:06.260
of product swaps, but because I learned new things.
00:37:08.420
So, you know, I avoided dairy for a really long time because I reacted to it, but then
00:37:15.120
But then I learned more information about, you know, like raw milk or whatever, and started
00:37:18.820
introducing that and just saw how much better it made me feel, you know, just being willing
00:37:22.540
to change my mind and continuing to keep an open mind and also ask good questions.
00:37:29.800
Is there anything else that has been more of a recent swap or recent change for you that you've
00:37:35.500
learned more about, or maybe that you've changed your mind on?
00:37:39.420
I've been learning more about like mold, but that's an overwhelming topic, but that's
00:37:44.180
something I just was really ignorant to until I got sick again.
00:37:50.460
So there's just new stuff I'm trying to learn more about all the time, but not overwhelm myself
00:37:54.380
with, I can't think of anything of a newer swap.
00:37:58.620
I've, one of the things I've really only started thinking about recently is like water filtration
00:38:07.560
And so we have that, but now I'm thinking about all the other water that we put on our
00:38:14.640
I know that's something that you talk about is like shower filters, but I actually looked
00:38:18.880
at my shower head the other day, not even to mention the stuff that's in the pipes that,
00:38:24.160
you know, brings my water to me, or it was the sink, the, the sink faucet.
00:38:34.480
That looks like a bunch of gunk that I am cleaning my dishes with and all that stuff.
00:38:40.460
That's something I've been thinking about, which is also a little bit overwhelming.
00:38:43.560
Cause I'm like, I don't, you know, I don't know what else to do.
00:38:53.900
So I guess that's just, you just do what you can.
00:38:59.580
And as it makes sense for you, because everyone's situation is different.
00:39:03.360
And so I can't tell you like, this is what you need to do.
00:39:06.480
I share what I do in case there's something there that's like a little bit of a nugget
00:39:10.060
of something you can apply to your own life, or maybe it's inspiring or even just entertaining.
00:39:17.540
I think a lot of people are kind of waking up to this recently.
00:39:34.100
I mean, there's been a lot of talk and I don't even know why it's like a conservative
00:39:38.420
thing, but it seems like it is recently about seed oils and being like anti-seed oil.
00:39:43.820
I mean, honestly, it was, I think the first time I heard about even what seed oils were
00:39:51.420
She had someone on talking about like the hateful eight.
00:39:54.020
And I was like, whoa, I never heard about that.
00:39:56.000
And what I realized is that it's in a lot of organic food.
00:39:59.960
It's typically sunflower oil, like even these organic vitamins.
00:40:03.260
And if I said the brand name, people would know exactly what I'm talking about, but they've
00:40:08.520
They've got sunflower oil and some of their organic, all natural vitamins.
00:40:12.640
And, and I'm, again, that's one of those things that I'm like, okay, you know, I try
00:40:19.960
Sometimes it's not avoidable, but it is interesting, which is once you start looking into this
00:40:25.020
stuff, how much of it is even in health foods, which is why you really, really have to pay
00:40:33.420
Well, we went yesterday and got some soup and it had canola, you know?
00:40:40.520
I guess it's cheaper than avocado oil and that's just what it is.
00:40:47.160
So we would just keep using it because it's cheap.
00:40:49.860
Which I know because I still buy some stuff that has, that has that.
00:40:54.340
I try not to, but I really appreciate accounts like yours.
00:40:57.960
And I follow some other accounts that will like take people through the grocery store
00:41:01.980
and say, you know, this is what you're buying, but this is what you should buy.
00:41:05.060
Like just the practical stuff that doesn't overwhelm me and make me feel like I need to
00:41:10.700
overhaul my entire life overnight or else I'm not a good mom.
00:41:19.020
You're about the balance because it's not just about external cleansing.
00:41:27.680
Like we can't ignore our nervous system and just fry our brains freaking out about everything
00:41:33.380
and expect to be healthy because if we're in a constant state of stress, you're never
00:41:38.680
Or a constant state of thinking about how can I present this toxic free lifestyle to people
00:41:44.620
online too, because that will just wear you down and fill you with anxiety, which can
00:41:55.500
It's about your mental health as much as it is your physical health too.
00:41:59.960
And there's a whole like, there's a whole spiritual aspect to this as well.
00:42:05.260
I feel like as someone who believes that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, I should
00:42:11.840
And I cannot serve well, live well, or do anything really well when my abilities are limited due
00:42:21.580
So when I was living in all that pain for all that time, I wasn't able to fulfill, you
00:42:26.680
know, I, and this is kind of like, I don't think that God can't use me when I'm sick,
00:42:32.360
but I know that if I'm standing in the way of me feeling my best and living my best, then
00:42:37.180
I'm limiting myself from being able to serve in the way that I'm probably designed to.
00:42:41.620
So, you know, I kind of liken it to what back when we were all single and, you know, people
00:42:46.480
were talking about dating and, um, when I think it was in a book, but one of my girlfriends
00:42:51.580
got the advice that, like, you know, if you want to find a guy, he's not going to come
00:42:57.500
Like you have to like actually go out into the world, you know, and I feel like it's the
00:43:03.400
But with our health that we can't just sit here and expect like, Oh, God's going to heal
00:43:12.400
When there are things that I could be doing to improve my health or not stand in the way
00:43:19.060
And when I am limiting myself that way, I'm limiting my capacity to serve.
00:43:24.200
And so I think that we have a duty and a responsibility as believers to take care of
00:43:34.880
Well, also recognizing that, you know, we are all going to die.
00:43:39.780
And so there is joy found in some pleasures that might also include canola oil sometimes.
00:43:49.900
So it's good stewardship while also realizing that things are fleeting and life is certainly
00:43:56.300
too short to be weighed down by shame and guilt over things.
00:44:02.040
We're not going to have a completely toxic free life until we're in heaven.
00:44:09.180
When we are in the new heavens and the new earth, then we will be truly toxic free.
00:44:15.340
And so until then, we just do the best that we can, just like anything else.
00:44:21.460
I'm not going to let non-toxic living be my God.
00:44:25.420
But doing the best we can to be responsible and to steward our bodies and our families
00:44:30.300
Is there any last bit of encouragement or anything else you would like the audience to
00:44:36.160
Not that I can think of, but yeah, I feel like everyone can do this.
00:44:40.060
Everyone can apply these things to their life and just keep going.
00:44:44.740
And I mean, just reference again, her amazing story of how you literally got rid of pain,
00:44:51.420
chronic pain that you had been dealing with for years by just cleansing your body and your
00:44:58.060
So it can really be a game changer and you and your family's life.
00:45:02.420
So I just encourage everyone to go out, get a healthier home.
00:45:06.320
It's the room by room guide to make any space a little less toxic.
00:45:13.940
So a cleansing follow to cleanse your timeline of all the toxicity that might be on there.
00:45:20.520
And so make sure that you follow her and buy her book.