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Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.
This podcast is brought to you by NativePath. And I love this company. I actually get a lot of things from them, but today I wanna specifically talk about their collagen. You might know that collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies. And it’s essential for the health of our bones, our skin, our hair, our nails, joints, digestion, and more. I know there’s been a lot of talk about the benefits of collagen, which I’m so happy to see, but specifically the benefits of collagen are that they support the growth and repair of cartilage tissue. Collagen can help relieve joint inflammation and pain, can lead to more youthful looking skin, healthier nails, and noticeably thicker hair. I’ve noticed that myself. It can lead to improved gut health and decreased digestive discomfort, as well as easier weight loss and more appetite control. I love NativePath because their collagen has 10 grams of collagen per scoop, and it’s easy to add to almost anything. My go-to daily habit is to add this to coffee or tea in the morning or a smoothie if I make one.
But another thing that is important to note here is that they use type 1 and type 3 collagen. So there are actually 28 different types of collagen, but you only will find type 1 and type 3 in NativePath. And this is because these two types make up over 90% of the collagen found in our bodies. So it’s crucial to maintain levels of those two in particular. I also love that theirs is certified grass-fed to make sure that it’s from happy, healthy pasture-raised cows. And when you consume grass-fed beef as opposed to grain-fed beef, you’re getting the best nutritional profile that is also free of growth hormones. And so I love that their collagen is a single ingredient from grass-fed cows, flawless sourcing, and is also flavorless, odorless, and tasteless, so it mixes into anything. NativePath is offering a BOGO of free collagen jars on every option, plus a free gift and free shipping to our listeners. Check them out at wellnessmama.com/go/nativepath/ and try out their collagen.
This podcast is sponsored by Hiya Health. It’s a company that I love for my younger kids because typical children’s vitamins are basically candy and disguised. They’re filled with up to two teaspoons of sugar, unhealthy chemicals, or other gummy junk that I personally don’t want my kids to ever eat. And that’s why Hiya was created. It’s a pediatrician approved superpower chewable vitamin. Now, while most children’s vitamins contain sugar and they contribute to a variety of health issues, Hiya is made with zero sugar, zero gummy junk, doesn’t have the artificial colors, flavors, additives that we don’t know where they came from, but it tastes great and it’s perfect even for picky eaters.
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Katie: Hello and welcome to the 900th episode of the Wellness Mama podcast. It is still mind-blowing to me that I have gotten to do this podcast since 2014 and now have 900 episodes. It has been such an incredible ride of getting to talk to some incredible experts and guests and delve into so many different topics within health and wellness and now more recently even mindset and inner work and mental and emotional health as well. And I’m excited for what the next 900 episodes and beyond have in store.
I’m going to answer some reader questions today in this episode, ones that were submitted via email and on social media. And before I jump into those, I would be curious to hear from you if you would like more of these solo episodes that either dive deep on a single topic and where I present my understanding on that topic and/or answer reader questions. Or if you prefer the interview format with guests and or a mixture of both. I do read every single comment and review related to the podcast. So feel free to leave feedback there or direct message me on Instagram. And I see all of those as well. But I would love your feedback. I would love for us to get to keep growing together in this podcast. And I always love to hear from you.
So for this episode, I’m going to just kind of rapid fire answer some reader questions that have come up. And that also sort of speak to commonly asked questions that I get a lot. I can also go deeper on any of these topics in the form of a future podcast or blog post, if you would prefer that. So just let me know.
To start off, Nat asked, what has been the best form of healing for you or your favorite? I love this question. I typically have trouble with favorite questions because I feel like there are often so many good answers, but this one I feel like was a really fun one to delve into. In general, I would say actually for me, it has been a subtraction, not an addition when it comes to what’s been most effective for healing. So it wasn’t adding in more modalities or supplements or practices. It was actually simplification and rest. And actually things like for me personally, fasting, lots of sleep, clearing my schedule, getting less busy, and allowing space for nervous system healing and entrainment. Especially during the intense part of my healing.
I think that’s also valuable to think about for any of us in any capacity is like, in what areas can I remove things that are either obstacles or slowing my healing process or my body’s ability to move to its optimal state rather than add things in. Even if we do end up adding in therapies or supplements later on, it’s helpful, I feel like, to sort of audit and simplify first to really focus on the foundational things and then to build from there, which lets those other kind of supplemental therapies become more effective.
And I will delve actually into some specifics on those things in another question that I’ll answer a little later on. But I would say also to sum up what’s been most effective, it was learning to focus on the nervous system and to listen and calm that. And that also comes from that subtraction from finding and creating the space for quiet and also programs like the RISE program that I did with some of you. I’ll link to that in the show notes, but that was a program that focused on nervous system, really auditing nervous system health and providing tools to create a better environment for the nervous system to allow for healing.
I think kind of hand in hand with that is also curating mindset and our inner language to be conducive to healing. So I’ve spoken about this before, but that was very much something I had to learn and sort of cultivate throughout my healing journey was starting to audit and pay attention to the way that I was speaking to myself internally. We hear in from books like the Biology of Belief and The Body Keeps the Score, but just how much our body listens to our inner language and often doesn’t know the difference between just our thoughts and what’s happening in the external physical world.
And so I had to take responsibility for that and learn to audit it and start to curate the way that I was speaking to myself internally and to sort of shift into a perspective of curiosity rather than judgment, especially with my inner landscape.
As examples I’ve given before, things like even when I was working through autoimmunity, instead of saying that my body was attacking itself, which is a common thing people can feel with autoimmunity, but to say that my body was healing. My body was working in my best interest in every moment, whatever it would be. And like sort of learning to befriend myself in my inner language and my inner landscape.
So I know that’s a somewhat vague and not super concrete answer, but I think the pursuit of that and that journey was actually most helpful in my healing journey and also, made the other things I did that were helpful a lot more effective.
Nat also asks, all of my habit stacks and or best routine for sauna, coffee enemas, PEMF, red light, et cetera. I love this question as well. I’ve done an episode on habit stacking before, and I will link to that in the show notes so you guys can go deep on that. But I’ll kind of do a high-level overview here and kind of some of the combinations that I most often do.
Before I do that, I will say I do not do all of these things every day. I’m well aware that in the health and wellness world, there are now so many incredible tools, but that they can start to build up and feel like an overwhelming to-do list. And if all of us did all of the things that can be done in the name of health and wellness every single day, we would have no time for anything else. So I do not think that is necessary or even helpful and beneficial. And I certainly do not do all of these things that I have written about every single day. I try to pick a couple high ROI, which is return on investment, things that I can do every single day and sort of stack them to kind of put them in as small of time blocks as possible while getting the highest benefit.
I will also say, and I’ve talked about this a lot on this podcast, that I think the quality of our relationships and our community is one of the biggest factors in health. And so that is something I prioritize ruthlessly in my schedule is time with family and friends. And I think that’s one of the biggest factors in health.
I also prioritize nature as one of the highest priorities. I’ve had many guests on this podcast talking about how a lot of the things we’re seeing today, humans are suffering from essentially what can be called nature deficit disorder. And yes, we can talk about how we’re not being optimally nourished through our food supply, how there are things in our food supply that we don’t want to consume, how we’re not getting the same amount of nutrients that we used to get simply from the food that we eat every single day. And I think that’s obviously an important factor as well.
But I think hand in hand with this is that we were meant, as humans, to live very much in alignment with nature and harmony with nature, interacting daily 24-7 with nature. And in the modern world, we have the ability not to do that. We can very easily completely divorce ourselves from any experience of nature or alignment with nature and the way that our bodies were meant to exist in that.
And so for me, returning to nature, sort of resolving that nature deficit disorder is one of the highest priorities, thankfully also the lowest barrier to entry, least expensive, no fancy equipment required because it really just means even if it’s a microdose amount, getting more exposure to nature.
I’ve also done a whole podcast on sunlight and morning light and the importance of those. But just to briefly restate that here, there are a tremendous amount of data about how simply going outside for 10 minutes as soon as possible after either waking up or after the sun comes up can really support nervous system health, circadian health, sleep later on. This starts the clock for our melatonin production at night. This really sets us up for better hormones and better sleep later on.
And we are, like I said, meant to live in harmony and in symphony with these light cues from nature. So that is a completely free one. We can all hopefully go outside, not through a window, not through glasses or contacts. Ideally, you want your bare eyes just outdoors. You don’t have to stare at the sun, but getting that light on your eyeballs as soon as possible after waking up.
In the same way, getting even microdoses of bright light throughout the day by going outside, not through a window, not with glasses or contacts on, helps reinforce those cues. And of course, we know there are benefits from the sunlight for vitamin D, but it goes so far beyond that as well. Because, UV and vitamin D, that’s actually only a very small portion of the benefits that we get from sunlight. There’s a much broader spectrum of light that we’re exposed to when we get light from the sun. And that’s a very helpful cue that we can use to reinforce our circadian health and our nervous system health. Think of it as sort of like a safety signal to your nervous system, like kind of a hug from the sun. And so even just little bouts of 10 minutes of bright light throughout the day can really be nervous system supporting.
In the same way, I try very hard to avoid bright artificial light after sunset for the same reason. That is a confusing cue to the body. We wouldn’t have encountered bright lights in nature after the sun went down. We would have encountered campfires or sunset, like lower reddish hues of light. So I try to mimic that in my house by creating like lamps with amber bulbs or red bulbs, lower level, lower down so that they’re like below eye level in my house and letting that sort of reinforce to my body that it’s, the sun has gone down. It’s time to start creating melatonin. And I find that creates more calm, both internally for me and also in my household as well.
In a sense you can also, these are some of the best times to habit stack. So in the morning sunlight, I can use that time to hydrate with minerals, to get some gentle movement in, whether it be a walk or just some movement flows or jumping on a rebounder. I can also, depending on the day, if I’m getting enough light, I can eat a protein breakfast out in the light. And same thing with when it gets darker at night, that’s a great time to do red light, to put my feet up, to do PEMF, to do the calming nervous system, gentle things, and to sort of do them in the same time period so I’m not spending excess time.
Beyond community and nature, sauna is probably my most regular habit of the rest. I do sauna most days now, and I actually just built a sauna from scratch in my yard. So let me know if you want post on how I did that and all of the things I learned in that process. But I absolutely love sauna. And I’ve said before that if sauna were a pill, I think we would all take it because of the pretty astounding benefits that it has for reduction of all-cause mortality and death from especially cardiovascular disease.
But across the board, there are studies out of Finland that really looked at this. I have written about these before, and you can find those on wellnessmama.com. But even just a few sauna sessions a week can have a pretty significant benefit for all-cause mortality and a lot of the sort of big killers in chronic disease.
Sauna is an exercise mimetic. So not that I think it needs to replace exercise. I’m very much in favor of a both and here. But you get a lot of the same benefits from sweating, from your body temperature increasing, from your VO2 and your heart rate changing in a sauna that you do from exercise. You just don’t get the muscle stimulation and the strength gains. But from a cardio perspective, sauna is an exercise mimetic. So it can be really helpful.
So in order, like if I’m going to implement a lot of those things, I like to make sure I’m hydrated early in the day. I get sunlight. If I’m going to work out, I prefer to work out pre-sauna. There’s some data on that, that sauna post-exercise makes sort of compounds the benefits of the exercise. Whereas if you’ve ever saunas before working out, it makes working out a lot harder because you’re already pretty tired. And then I tend to do relaxation and detox things after sauna. So that would be like PEMF, coffee enema, et cetera.
Joy asks, any wellness trends I regret? And this is a fun question. I had not considered this, and it was fun to think of this for answering. The only one that could really come to mind was that early on, when I was having a lot of autoimmune symptoms, my diet got more and more restrictive. And I was researching so much about the benefits of saturated fats versus vegetable oils and polyunsaturated fats that are too prevalent in our diet.
And I sort of over-focused on coconut oil. Not that I think coconut oil is problematic. For me, in that time where I was having symptoms of autoimmunity, I consumed way too much coconut oil. And I made myself mildly intolerant to it. That has since I’m resolved and it’s fine, although I still don’t prefer the taste of coconut oil. But it taught me sort of too much of anything, even a good thing, can make it become a little problematic. So maybe just my overfocus on coconut oil.
Beyond that, I’ve actually had so much fun trying all of the trends over the years and getting to be a guinea pig. Certainly some have been more obscure and there are some I still have not tried. Urine therapy as a category, for instance, I have not ever tried. But of the ones I’ve tried, I’ve enjoyed it. I
f anything, I mostly would say I just regret trying to do too much at once or trying to be too perfectionist about it and letting that be actually become a source of stress. As I spent more time researching and learned of all these things that could be helpful, I had at one point developed quite the to-do list of healing modalities that took a whole lot of time. And then I was feeling stressed if I didn’t do all of those things every single day. And I think in that instance, the stress of not feeling like I needed to do all those things outweighed the benefits I was getting from any of those things. I think that was a great teacher of balance.
And sort of back to the other question, of the best forms of healing and the habits stacks and not doing all of them every day and making sure we give ourselves grace, focusing on a couple high ROI things that we have time for that don’t cut into our time with family or our time in relationship. And trying to, from there, exist in a state of gratitude for those things versus obligation to do those things.
Amanda asks, if you could go back to your early young adult years, what would you change? And I appreciate this question so much because from a practical standpoint, certainly there are things that if I could go back and tell my younger self, probably my learning curve of healing would have been much shorter, might have saved myself a lot of discomfort and headache over the years. And I don’t think I would change anything because there’s also the factor of if I changed anything in the past that might change how things are now.
And I’m reminded of podcast guest Peter Crone, who said, what happened happened and couldn’t have happened any other way because it didn’t. And I love that quote. Because it’s really a reminder of like, there’s no need to sort of dwell in the past of what could have been different because it happened as it happened and it couldn’t have been different because it wasn’t.
That said, I know that wasn’t the intent of the question. I’m not trying to dodge the question, but I have learned and really feel like I’ve found peace lately in not changing any of the things, even the things I would have labeled as hard or bad in the past or that have happened to me or that I’ve chosen because even those difficult things, and especially actually those difficult things led to some of the most profoundly wonderful things in my life. And I can now see that pattern that the difficult and hard things led to some of the most beautiful things.
And I’m working, it’s one of my journeys right now, to sort of shorten that curve of not needing to see the proof of the good and what will happen, the beneficial things in the future, to find gratitude in the moment of the hard things. Certainly, I’m not there yet, but that’s one of my experiments right now.
So I guess if I had to change something, I would say I would go back and sort of gift my younger self some of the mindset and inner language cues that were part of the healing journey for me, but more importantly, that have hopefully let me access more kindness toward others and kindness toward myself and less judgment. I find that I am both the happiest and the most peaceful when I am in that state versus a state of judgment. And so that probably would be the only thing that I would shift. I don’t think I would take away any of the health lessons or the hard lessons learned over the years. I also very much believe and learn from my friend Tina at Just Thrive that everything works out perfectly for me. And so it happened exactly as it was meant to happen.
Lindsay asked one thing that has made the most positive difference in your life. There are a lot of ways that this question could be answered. I would say from the physical health side, as I mentioned in a previous question, I think one of the highest ROI things besides that, what I would consider foundational basics like community and nature would be sauna use has been physically extremely beneficial. I would say on a higher level, what’s actually been the most positive has been learning my voice and the interplay of boundaries and kindness. This has been a slow learning for me, but a very important one.
And that if anything, these internal shifts have been the most profound and made the biggest positive difference, even though they’ve been very subtle and internal, they’ve actually led to external and physical changes as well. But sort of centering around the idea of curiosity. And I find that the more I can remain curious and present around life, around others, around myself, replacing judgment with curiosity and just staying anchored in the present moment, then the less stressed and worried I am, I feel like stress and worry don’t live in the present moment. So the more present I am, the more positive things I feel in general.
I think of the quote to be here now. And I have to remind myself that often. But I think that shift, however slow and subtle it was, has made the most drastic difference in my life because it also changes how I approach health and healing. That changes how I approach parenting. That changes how I approach relationships. And I think that to the degree, at least speaking for myself, that I can stay both curious and present, my nervous system responds differently. My body responds differently. My relationships reflect that. I feel like that is a remedy for so many things. I know that’s also not, perhaps the answer you were looking for, if you were looking for something like sauna or red light therapy or exercise or eating more protein. I think all of those things are also very helpful. And ironically, I discovered many of those things through a state of curiosity.
Alison asks, a day in the life, and I’ll go through this very quickly. I’ve done podcasts on this before as well, so I’ll link to those. There’s a lot of habit stacking involved here, and none of my days are exactly the same. I also find I got questions about work-life balance and mom-life balance. And I can touch on those in this question as well, because in general, my days are much less busy than you would expect. And especially over the last few years, I’ve created much more capacity for downtime and rest and non-structured activity than you would expect. Thankfully, there’s an incredible team at Wellness Mama that lets this be possible. And my kids have gotten older and are quite self-sufficient, which also helps a lot.
So no two days look exactly the same for me. But I’ll share some of the commonalities that often occur in my days. And happy to do videos on this. If you guys are interested, let me know. And I’ll share some behind the scenes of what my days look like with the caveat that my house is certainly not always clean or perfect. So that will be in those videos.
In general, a lot of days, most days, I will wake up and immediately hydrate with mineral water. I keep that on my nightstand. So it’s the first thing that I do when I wake up. And I also keep certain supplements on my nightstand that I take. I sort of cycle everything, but I might take pectosol or enzymes like mastzymes or magnesium in the morning. I know most people take magnesium at night. I take it in the morning only because I inversely modulate that. And if I take it at night, I will be up all night. If I take it in the morning, I sleep great.
I often then go, or I always get morning sunlight, often drink salt water. So like continuing the hydration, I think front-loading hydration is really helpful. And that we lose some fluid while sleeping. And so the more that we can rehydrate early on, that also if we get our hydration earlier in the day, keeps us from having to wake up and use the restroom at night. So I try to get that mineral water and salt water pretty soon after waking up.
I love to drink salt water while I’m barefoot outside in the sun as soon as possible after waking up. And then depending on what my morning’s like, I will also eat a high protein breakfast within 30 or 45 minutes of waking up and or make breakfast for the kids during that time. I love to also eat outside if possible, if the weather allows. And sometimes before, sometimes after this breakfast, I will go for a walk outside. So again, with the natural light, this is definitely a theme. Sometimes with a weighted vest, if I wanna get more benefit from walking. But I do try to be gentle with my nervous system in the morning.
In the morning, typically, I will get the kids started on school and be available for questions and work on work stuff for me while they’re doing school and or handle any projects that are on my list. And then other things sort of compartmentalize and fit in at other times of the day, including working out, often lifting. I try to do that three or four times a week, doing sprints a couple times a week.
I will work in small blocks and batch and or meal prep. I tend to do house projects of cleaning in batches throughout the week as well. And then many days will often also work in a sauna session, more time outside and or evening meal often cooked with my kids and spending time with them.
From a bedtime routine perspective, I feel best when I get in bed by 9:30 or 10. That certainly doesn’t happen every night. But in the evenings, I love to switch to low light when the sun sets, which right now where I live is like 4:30, which is a little extreme. But I like to put my feet up on the wall while sitting on a PEMF mat or with red light. Sometimes I’ll do some lymphatic or facial massage while I’m there. If I take any nighttime supplements, I’ll take those in the evening and or something like Organifi gold drink at night. I love that for sleep. And then sometimes journal and breathwork. Or if I’m reading a book or anything, all that will happen before bed.
And then depending on the day, I take supplement some days, not every day. And I do think those are so individualized. So I won’t share exactly which ones I take, but I like to mix it up and have been experimenting with amino acids, enzymes, magnesium is one of my most consistent supplements. Choline cofactors have been very important for me. And then depending on my current goals, I’ll rotate other ones as well.
Kelly asks, where would you go if chaos comes to the world? And where would I live if I could live anywhere? If I could live anywhere, I think I would stay exactly where I am as at least a home base and maybe travel more from there. But my kids are rooted and happy right now. And so I don’t think I would change anything about that.
If chaos hits, that’s a tougher question, and I can’t imagine a scenario where there would be a place in the world that was unaffected if chaos hit again. I mean, certainly with a few years ago, we saw that happen where seemingly the whole world was affected when the pandemic hit. I could see going somewhere more rural, but with infrastructure like Costa Rica, and I have a lot of friends who live in Costa Rica now.
But I also think if chaos were to hit, that community would become extra important. And so it would actually be more a matter of who would not where. And so to me, and this is a current focus for me as well, is really building and nurturing and developing a strong community. Because I think if there are any kind of chaotic times ahead of which the likelihood is high just because of the way history works, that community becomes extra important.
Kelly also asked, and I love this question, do you believe we can detox and stay healthy by our state of mind rather than by things outside? And I took this to mean, like, do you think that sort of our mindset alone can be just as and more beneficial than external factors when it comes to staying healthy.
And I would say in general, yes, to a large degree and with important caveats. I think this is not just about our mindset, though. That is a big part of it, but also about our energy and our beliefs and the inner language that we’re using when we speak to ourselves. And I feel like German new medicine and Chinese medicine are better about considering these as important factors when it comes to health. Both of those seem to look more at the emotional and mental aspects in conjunction with the physical aspects, whereas I feel like the Western methods, we tend to focus more on the physical first and or in symptoms in isolation. Not always, but in general.
But, as some examples, when I read things like, The Body Keeps the Score and The Biology of Belief, it really opened curiosity in me and research in the interplay between our mindset and our energy and our physical health.
And we actually see this play out, there are a lot of documented cases of for instance, people who are told they have cancer and only a certain amount of time left to live, and they pass away when they were sort of told that they were going to, and then it’s discovered they didn’t actually have the cancer. It was a false diagnosis, but because they believed they were going to die, they did. Conversely, we also see cases of spontaneous remission of supposedly incurable diseases when someone drastically changes their emotions and their mindset and or often seemingly there’s an element of surrender there and then the body sort of catches up to that.
Obviously those are very unique cases and very individual but I do feel like it speaks to sort of the pursuit and the understanding and the journey of mindset and our state of mind and emotion and how that interplays with our physical body.
I do think another thing to think about here is I’ve seen cases where people are sort of, and I did this too, trying to do everything perfect by the checklist, by the spreadsheet, physically taking all the supplements, doing all the practices. And doing that from a state of anxiety and fear and not getting the results that they want or that we want, in my case until addressing the inner landscape. And then when the inner side of the mindset and the emotions are addressed, all of these things can help sort of create a much more positive feedback loop and change happens more quickly.
I also think I’ve seen this play out and I was this way as well as we could be eating the most perfect diet in the world, the cleanest food, and if we’re eating it in a state of fear and stress, it’s going to, at the very least, be not as nourishing as it could be because we’re in that sympathetic nervous system state and have trouble digesting as effectively. Or it could actually be harmful. Like if we could be eating on paper, perfect diet, but if we believe it’s harming us, it likely actually will.
And conversely, someone could be eating a non quote unquote perfect diet, be eating things that many of us would consider not as healthy and if they’re doing that in a state of gratitude and feeling like it’s going to be good for them, it might be incredibly nourishing. So I don’t think that mindset and the emotional side are the only factors by any means, but I do feel like they are very important. And for me, they were ones that I ignored for a long time and that were very, very helpful when I learned to actually address them.
I will actually probably be delving more into this topic in the future and the topic related to the last question in this episode, which I’ll get to in a minute but I think because that part was so important for me and because I get so many questions related to that, I’m excited to delve deeper on that in the future. But I would love to hear what you would love to hear related to this as well.
I also got the question in several forms, if on a very limited budget, what are the things you would do for your health? And I love this question because I actually have come more and more to realize that the most beneficial things we can do are incredibly inexpensive or free. And sort of going back to that first question, are often subtractive more than additive.
So the good news here is I do not actually believe we need expensive equipment or hundreds of dollars worth of supplements or anything along those lines to be optimally healthy. I think that those things can be additionally supportive, certainly. But that the foundational things that can be the most impactful are largely free or extremely inexpensive.
So at the risk of sounding like a broken record. I would say the first is simply getting morning sunlight. This is free. This is accessible to all of us. It does not have to be bright and sunny to get these benefits. There is still infinitely more light outside than indoors, even on a cloudy day. And this is truly as simple as going outside for 10 minutes in the morning before putting on glasses or contacts if you wear them, not looking through a window, and just getting that light cue. That really does set the tone for your whole day. I know Huberman has done a whole podcast on this as well. I have too. Extremely, extremely beneficial thing we can all do that is entirely free.
Same thing with walking, outdoors if possible, inside if it’s not. You can add a weighted vest if you want to get more benefit for the same amount of time. Again, do it outside if you want to get more benefit from the light and from the fresh air. But just simply walking. There’s evidence of this. You’ve heard probably the 10,000 steps thing, which has also been somewhat debunked. But we do know that the more we walk up to a certain point, I think it was around either 13,000 or 18,000 steps per day, the benefits just keep increasing. I think humans were meant to move, and we don’t do that enough in the modern world. So you can sort of stack the benefits by walking outside, getting the natural light, wearing a weighted vest if you want to build more muscle while you do it, largely inexpensive or entirely free if you’re not wearing a weighted vest.
Same thing with earlier, I talked about sunlight. I think the more sunlight, the better to a certain point, and obviously without ever sunburn, but that we were meant to exist in nature and in harmony with light. Light is free. And the more time we can spend outside, even if it’s just a few minutes at a time, the better.
Beyond that, hydration is super important and statistically something a lot of us do not really get optimized. So simply drinking more water and or water with natural salt in it a few times a day, very, very inexpensive, very high ROI, and can be done even on a small budget.
I also think we all are going to eat anyway without adding any additional expense, we can play with our food timing. And there’s a lot of data on this as well. I’ve had guests on this podcast talking about time-restricted feeding and intermittent fasting. You don’t even have to do those versions. But if you do some small shifts to the food you’re already going to eat anyway, you can see a big change from that.
So for instance, eating higher protein in the morning, getting that protein at least 30 grams as soon as possible after waking is a nervous system safety cue. It helps your body know that resources are abundant, that you are not starving. It helps start your metabolism and begin the muscle protein synthesis process and sort of sets your day up for success. You’re going to be eating anyway, so just getting protein more in the morning can be really helpful.
Similarly, if you don’t want anything complicated or hard, think of just trying to eat when the sun is out. And if the sun is not up, try not to eat. That alone can really help enforce the circadian cues related to light. Light and food are both big signaling mechanisms for our body. And if we just eat when the sun is out, that helps support the way our circadian rhythm was meant to be in alignment with nature.
I also think making sleep a top priority doesn’t have to cost anything else and can have potentially one of the highest ROIs of any other health changes you can make. In 900 podcast episodes, not once ever has a single guest said that sleep was not important. This is a definitely recurring common theme. We know that sleep is vital. We know that even a couple nights of impaired sleep can have really big impacts on our physical health. And we also know that statistically, many of us are not sort of getting any plus when it comes to sleep.
I love Mollie Eastman for this. If you want to follow her, her work is called Sleep Is a Skill. She has a great Instagram account as well. But to whatever degree possible, I think making sleep a top priority, having a consistent sleep and wake time, and really learning the things we can do individually that help our own sleep quality to increase.
This was something that I did during my healing journey. I really prioritized sleep. I did not do any intense workouts for over a year. I was very gentle with myself. And I often slept over 10 hours a night while I was healing. And I really think that was one of the biggest factors because the body is wired to heal. It is wired to function optimally. And it’s simply about getting out of our own way and giving it the time and capacity to do that. And for me, more time sleeping meant more time for healing.
Also, if on a budget, to the degree possible, I’d say focus on simply consuming real food that are ingredients, not that have ingredients, but in whole food form as much as possible and prioritizing protein. We have to eat food anyway. If we can make shifts, especially budget-friendly shifts within that, that prioritize real food and protein, I think we see a high ROI from this. This could be inexpensive forms of protein like eggs, sardines, ground beef. It does not have to be fancy. It does not have to be expensive. And that’s something that I’ve also done throughout the years and noticed a benefit from.
For me personally, and I think for many people, we have access to food 24-7 and we eat more often and more food than we have throughout a lot of history. So I enjoy doing occasional 24-hour or longer fast to let my body access autophagy and deeper states of fat burning. And just do some cellular cleanup. This is, of course, very individualized. I’m not recommending that for everybody. Check with your doctor, certainly, if you are considering fasting or if you have any health conditions. But for me personally, that was something that was very helpful. And it’s actually better than free because you’re saving money when you’re fasting.
And I would also say inexpensive or free things would be to avoid bright light after sunset. Lay with your feet up against a wall at 90 degree angle at night and do some 4-7-8 breathing, which is inhaling for four, holding for a count of seven, and then slowly exhaling for a count of eight. Also completely free and very supportive of the nervous system.
And I would say after those things and only after those things would I ever consider adding in supplements or any sort of paid modalities. Because when those factors are dialed in, then anything we sort of bolt on above that is going to be more effective. But I have also been on a limited budget at various times throughout my life. I can understand and still I’m very budget conscious when it comes to these things. And I’m very grateful that in general, the backstrings are inexpensive or free.
And then lastly, I got a lot of questions related to spirituality. And I realize this is not the common focus of Wellness Mama, and certainly not something that I consider myself an expert on, but it is something that I have been, I’ve had a lot of curiosity about the last few years. And I got enough requests for this that I want to just speak a little bit high level to sort of kind of where I am right now with no intention of trying to sway anyone to have any interest in any of the same path I did, but just since it seems like an area of curiosity for some people. I will just sort of like lightly touch on this at the end.
Over the last few years, I’ve spent a lot of time reading different books and texts from various traditions around the world. I was raised Catholic, so raised in a Christian house. I was very familiar with those texts, but I was not as familiar with other texts from other traditions around the world and really enjoyed getting to read and delve into them and still am sort of very much in that pursuit.
What really stuck out to me, though, was how similar all of those texts were and how resonant the common messages were. I really feel like if all the avatars, gurus, and enlightened beings, if they were all in a room, they would likely get along really, really well. And it seems like there’s a human tendency to hyper-focus on the small things that we might look at differently and to sort of argue about those or feel the need to convince others to believe the same. And I can understand this because there’s a safety in when other people believe the same thing, we feel that sort of like reinforces our belief in that and likely means that we’re on the right path.
And I certainly on this topic, I don’t have any or all of the answers and I’m still very much learning. So the best I can do is describe my own feelings on this and where I currently am with the caveat that I’m very much on a journey with this and it is constantly changing. But I feel like there’s kind of a corollary here.
You’ve probably heard me talk a lot about on the physical health side that there are so many paths to health, that it’s very individualized, and that there’s experimentation for each of us, like the N of one study. And I’ve said this before, but that, when anyone finds sort of their, what works for them when it comes to health, there’s sort of the temptation to turn it into a program or a course to sell it and to replicate it. And while I do think there are things that are universally beneficial to humans, I also feel like often when any of us, including me, find what worked for us, we have found simply what works best for us. And that exact same blueprint applied to a different person will have slightly different results. Not that there’s not tremendous benefit to that, I think actually we can learn so much from the framework, from the journey, from the curiosity with everybody on their own path. But that’s what’s beneficial, the framework, not the checklist. And that that can help be a resource for each of us in finding our own path to health.
You know, in the health world, we often hear the request for double-blind placebo-controlled studies. And I understand the benefit of those as well. However, I feel like the most beneficial study we could ever do is actually the study of our own body and our own, our N of one study of self, and that that’s where the most beneficial results come from. So it’s easy to fall in the tendency of wanting to be able to follow another person’s path directly and get the same result. I just find it doesn’t always work that way when it comes to physical health.
In the same way, I feel like what has shown up for me over and over in the last few years is that the same sort of concept perhaps exists in the realm of spiritual pursuit in that there are, I would say, infinite paths leading to the same place. And while we can try to, like, it can be easy to fall into and argue over the very specifics of each path, we’re thinking that everybody needs to follow step for step the exact same path, that what the real benefit is about finding our own path and common ground, whatever our own infinite path is, that leads to the same place. That for me right now, I would consider that common ground that shows up across the board in a lot of these traditions of unconditional love, oneness, and peace.
So I know that’s a very vague answer. Again, this is a place of curiosity for me and pursuit. I certainly don’t have any or all of the answers. I certainly only have lots more questions, but I very much enjoying the process of curiosity around that. And I would actually love to hear from you if there have been things that you have read or resources that you found especially helpful on your own journey of that and that you would recommend to others as well.
So actually in relation to any of these questions that I’ve answered today, I would love to hear your feedback, your answer, what’s helped you. And I would love if you would leave that in the comments of this blog post so that I could read them and learn from you as well.
But for now, I will put a pin in it for today and end by saying that I am so deeply grateful to you for being here, for asking questions, for listening, for being on this journey with me. I am so grateful that I get to be part of this incredible community and to learn from you as well.
And I’m so grateful for your time, for you, for listening, for you being here, for you sharing truly your most valuable resources with me every time you choose to listen to this podcast. So thank you so much. I’m deeply grateful for you. And I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the Wellness Mama podcast.
If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.
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