Realfoodology - Become Your Own Health Detective with Wellness Mama, Katie Wells

Episode Date: June 8, 2022

97: You most likely know Katie Wells as the wellness mama. She is a pioneer in the wellness world and created this amazing online resource that I have referenced tons over the years! We speak about her own health journey, trauma-healing work, how to navigate everyone’s online opinions and all about greenwashing- what it is and why it’s important to make the switch to non-toxic products. If you are a fan of this show, please don't forget to rate, review and share with your friends and family! Check Out Katie: Katie's Instagram: @wellnessmama Katie's WebsiteWellnesse Check Out Courtney: Courtney's Instagram: @realfoodology www.realfoodology.com Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter EWG Tap Water Database Further Listening Achieving True Health and Vitality with Dr. Tyler Jean Breast is Best with Emily Wilder

On today's episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. We each have to become our own sort of health detective and also primary health care provider. And that when we step into that role and really take ownership for all of the daily decisions that actually create our health, not just the fancy supplements or the biohacking devices, but those daily habits, that's one of the things that will shift things in the long run. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology podcast. I am an integrative nutritionist with my master's of science in nutrition and integrative health. I'm also the creator behind Real Foodology, which is an education-based

Instagram and also this podcast. Today's guest is Katie Wells. You may know her as the wellness mama. She's a pioneer in the wellness world and has created this amazing online resource that I personally have referenced a ton over the years. She's so well-researched and really knows her stuff. And what I love is you can go to her website. If you are exploring a multitude of different topics in the health and wellness world, you can go and look up something on her site and it's very well cited. She gives the science behind it. She provides the studies and it is such a great resource. I really enjoyed this conversation. We talk all about her own health journey. We also dive into trauma healing work, which was a big portion of the conversation.

And I actually really didn't expect it to go this way, but I really resonated with her story. If you've been a longtime listener of this podcast, you know about the traumatic event that I went through as a kid. And it wasn't only until these last couple of years that I really started unraveling and unpacking all of that trauma. She and I have a similar experience in that we both really went into the physical side of things, cleaning up our diet, focusing on nutrition, of course, and exercise while completely ignoring this portion of our story that really was a big piece overall.

Because I think in general, we really don't talk enough about what a role the mind-body connection really plays in our overall health. So this conversation was really helpful for me. I hope that it resonates with you, even if you don't have a trauma that you've been through, we talk about so many other things like how to navigate everyone's online opinions. We also dive into greenwashing, what it is and why it's important to make the switch to non-toxic products and so much more really enjoyed this episode. And I hope you guys love it. And if you are loving this podcast, if I could ask a huge favor of you to leave a rating and a review, it would help me so much.

And your support means the world to me. Thank you. This is really exciting. Organifi now has kid stuff. They just released two kid products. One is called Easy Greens and it's a refreshing green apple juice where kids will never know that it's packed with veggies. And the other one is called Protect.

It's a delicious wild berry punch like the Kool-Aid that we used to have as a kid, but without any sugar. This is really exciting. And if you've listened to the podcast for a while, you know that I'm a huge fan of Organifi and most specifically because every single product that they make is glyphosate residue free. So you know that you're going to be able to give these powders to your kids and know that they will be able to consume them safely without any glyphosate in it. So let's break down each one. The Easy Greens is a nourishing and delicious blend of superfoods and veggies that provides essential nutrients, probiotics, and digestive enzymes to bring balance to kids' growing bodies without fillers, additives, or junk. It helps to fill in nutritional gaps, aids in growth and

development, supports digestive health, has a rich micronutrient profile and includes digestive enzymes this would be a great way to sneak in greens for your little one without them actually knowing that it's healthy for them and the second one which is the wild berry punch similar to kool-aid is called protect and it is to support your child's daily immune health with food derived nutrients that work to strengthen their body's first line of defense i know just through girlfriends of mine that have children that when your kids are going to school, going to daycare, they're coming home sick a lot more often just because they're getting exposed to different kids and different viruses when they're out in the world playing with kids.

So this would be a great way to help to support your little one's immune health. It's organic and it's also made with real whole food ingredients. It has a delicious berry taste and it's low sugar and it's gentle enough for kids to take every single day. And I really love the ingredients in this one. It's orange and acerol cherry, which is a powerful source of vitamin C and antioxidants, astragalus, elderberry, and propolis. These are all really great for overall immune health. If you want to try the products that I talked about today or any of the Organifi products, go to Organifi.com slash realfoodology and use code realfoodology for 20% off. Again, that's Organifi. It's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com slash realfoodology. Do you want to hear the biggest discovery of our time for promoting healthy aging? Of course you do, because all of us are concerned

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It's vegan, it's gluten-free and the ingredients are meant to compliment one another factoring in the combined effect of all the ingredients together. If for some reason you don't like the product, you're not feeling the effects of it. It also has a 100 day money back guarantee. If you want to resist aging at the cellular level, try qualia senolytic, go to neurohacker.com slash real foodology for up to a hundred dollars off and make sure to use code real foodology at checkout for an additional 15% off. That's neurohacker, N E U R O H A C K E R.com slash real foodology for an extra 15% off your purchase. Thanks to neuro hacker for sponsoring today's episode. All right. Well, Katie, thank you so much for coming on

today. You are such a pioneer in the wellness world and have created this amazing online resource that I've referenced tons over the years. I've really looked up to you and all the work that you've done. And I wanted to kind of know what started you on this health journey. Yeah, I think like many of us, we get into it searching for our own answers. And I've heard it said, you know, people go into psychiatry to help fix themselves. I think a lot of us do that with health as well. And that was certainly the case for me, because my background was actually research journalism. And I had thought it would be more going into pre-law, potentially international law of some sort, and ended up not being the path that I took and ended up starting a family pretty young at 19. And my first pregnancy kind of catapulted me into what I later found out was

Hashimoto's. But at the time, I just knew I had symptoms and I wasn't getting answers from doctors. And around the same time, actually my oldest was six weeks old, I read in Time magazine that for the first time in centuries, his generation would have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. And that was just so shocking to me as a new mom and looking at this perfect tiny baby and reading about the rise and all of these problems while simultaneously going through my own health struggles and trying to find answers. And 15 years ago when I started, there wasn't the same amount of information. Thankfully, now, so much of this is mainstream, and there are answers at our fingertips. But when I was first starting out, there wasn't a lot of this information widely available. And it looks, it's funny to go back and think, but even small stuff, like realizing

that our food affects us more than just calories, which is what is taught in, you know, college health classes, and starting to unpack some of the chemistry behind that and not just that it's not a bank account. It's a chemistry lab and there's so much more that goes into it than just calories. And that seems like now it seems like such a simple thing, but then it was kind of mind blowing to me in the beginning and basically turned to my background in research journalism to find my own health answers and started going down these paths of metabolic health, mitochondrial health, hormone health, trying to understand what was going on with me. And very fortunately led on this path that now has this amazing community that I'm still

just incredibly grateful to be part of and also connected me with resources that have led to now I'm completely in remission and no longer have Hashimoto's and have resolved other health struggles as well. But in hindsight, I'm extremely grateful for the journey because I wouldn't have learned so much or been able to connect with all these amazing people without it. But in the moment, it was definitely an intense journey. Yeah, that's amazing. I felt very similarly to you as when I started opening my eyes to all of this, I was mind blown that we had not been taught any of this in school

or in our, you know, traditional medical system. It really goes against everything, what you and I really preach and what we've learned. And I've just found it so interesting to unravel all of this. And it's really helped me in my own health journey as well. So what are things that you have found that are most useful for your own health? Like biohacking tips or? It's been quite the progression. I think early on, it was simple things about choosing anti-inflammatory foods and the importance of sleep. And then learning about how we are such light dependent beings and how light, especially,

I feel like this is one that isn't talked about more now, but still underutilized, especially the sunlight, which is a tool we all have access to. I tell people often, one of the most profound things you can do for your sleep and your metabolic health is to go outside in the morning as soon as possible after you wake up. And it's free and it doesn't cost anything. And I think often we discount it because it isn't some fancy biohacking technique, but that sets the clock for your whole circadian rhythm for the whole day and also starts the clock for your sleep cycle that night. And so light is a really important signaling mechanism that we can use much more effectively than we have been. And then for, I think everybody's, I've learned more and more the longer I've been in this, that everybody's

path is so personalized and individualized. And I used to be much more prescriptive as I was finding things out. And I had all this indignation about all these problems in our food supply. And I wrote a lot about those. And what I've learned over time is certainly there are some objective things. Like I would argue that nobody needs processed vegetable oils. Nobody needs processed and refined foods. But short of those, there's so much individualization that comes into play that we each have to become our own sort of health detective and also primary health care provider. And that when we step into that role and really take ownership for all of the daily decisions that actually create our health, not just the fancy supplements or the biohacking devices, but those daily habits. That's one of the things that will shift things in the long run the most. And then I, so I think

it's everyone's experimentation there. I think we can learn from every resource out there, from every person, from every conversation, from every method, but at the end of the day, and this applies to me too, each of us who have figured out our health answers have figured out that. We have figured out our own health answers. And we can look at someone else's as a blueprint or to get ideas. But at the end of the day, each of us has to figure out the specifics of what our own path will look like. And then beyond that, I've gotten to go on a really fun journey the last few years in one of what I think is potentially the biggest piece that's often overlooked still in the health world, which is that mental, emotional, subconscious component of health. Because it's, and I did this for a decade, you can do all the physical things and you can be running your supplements on a spreadsheet and have tested your genes and be running labs and eating a quote-unquote perfect diet. And if your body is not in a state of safety, and if you're in constantly sympathetic nervous system because of stress or because of trauma or because of any number of things,

your body's not going to be able to heal, and you're not going to be in rest and digest, and your sleep's not going to be optimized. So that's when I've been personally invested in the last few years and also now talking more about publicly, as well as the fitness side. I grew up with the idea that I wasn't an athlete because my family was very academic focused. And so the last few years, I've gotten to really go on a fun journey of becoming an athlete, even after having six kids.

Wow, that's amazing. You said so many amazing things and all of that. I love that you talked about that personal responsibility that we should all have. No one is coming to save you. And I like to remind people all the time that no one is ever going to care as much about your health as yourself. And we should find that empowering. We shouldn't take that as like, um, you know, a bad thing. Like I, I find that very empowering in the doctor's office to know that like, I'm in charge of all of this. I should come in also well-researched so that I can work with my doctor because it should be the symbiotic relationship with our doctor. So you also touched on something else that I really am excited to dive into. This notion of healing our emotional health. And this is something that's really resonates with me because I had a very similar experience and story. I experienced something very traumatic

when I was a kid. Um, and I did not address it until I was in my thirties. And I very similarly to you, I S I was on this path for a decade or so of chasing all the wellness things, which obviously served me very well. And it was a very important component of my healing journey and also taking care of my health. But it was,. But it wasn't until I started addressing the elephant in the room, I call it, which was this very traumatic experience that I went through as a child, that I really started to see all of the healing come full circle because I was focused so much on fitness and food and the cleaning products and the skincare and all that stuff that I was not addressing the emotional side of it. So if you're okay with talking about it, I would love to dive

into that a little bit and kind of hear how did you first figure out that this was really, I guess, like holding you back from your healing journey? And then what did you do in order to find healing and all that? Yeah. Well, I think also something you just said is really important too. I think all the physical health stuff and the wellness stuff is really important. And you had, you and I both had built a solid foundation and those things are great not to discount them at all. They probably made the progression once we dealt with the inner side much faster than it could have been because we already had all those pieces in place, but they are all pieces that have to work together. And I think if you don't address

the inner side, you're, you're missing a huge piece that connects so many others. And also just briefly to your point, I agree with you entirely. I don't ever want to talk bad about doctors. I've worked with many amazing ones. And I think every doctor I've met has a huge heart and they really want to help people. And they also don't have the amount of data we have about our own health. And the best outcomes happen when you have, like you said, an informed patient who is willing to do the work and take ownership with a doctor who's willing to listen. And I think we're seeing that more and more. But on the internal side, it was a thing I didn't actually realize was a piece until it was kind of right in front of my face. Only in that I still had like weight issues that wouldn't resolve and Hashimoto's that wouldn't resolve. But I thought I had dealt with the trauma. So I had

a pretty intense sexual trauma in high school. That was actually pretty resolve. But I thought I had dealt with the trauma. So I had a pretty intense sexual trauma in high school. Um, that was actually pretty violent, but I, I think I had like emotionally separated from it. And because of that, I thought I had dealt with it because I wasn't having day-to-day emotions or so I thought related to it. It wasn't a thing I was having flashbacks to, or that was taking a lot of my mental energy. What was taking a lot of my mental energy was this kind of like self-judgment, self-hate, like anger at my body for not being what I wanted it to be or looking how I wanted it to look. And the amount of mental energy I was spending kind of judging myself and being so hard on myself. But I'd never in the past connected it to maybe it has a root in trauma. And what I've learned is it was definitely that particular trauma, but also

many smaller ones through childhood that I hadn't connected as even being necessarily trauma. And what I've learned is it was definitely that particular trauma, but also many smaller ones through childhood that I hadn't connected as even being necessarily trauma. And I think that's an important thing because when we have the trauma conversation, there's like big T trauma, little T trauma. And I think sometimes those smaller ones get discounted, but especially when they happen in childhood, they can have such a profound effect. And so I don't, I don't want everyone to like discount the importance of this work if they don't have an identified, you know, like big quote-unquote horrible trauma, because I think small childhood experiences can have a similarly profound impact depending on how they happened. But I just thought I had like weight issues and thyroid issues, and I was trying to fix those,

and ended up having an experience with a body worker that ended up being somatic healing. But I didn't know that at the time. I think it's that idea that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. And when people ask like, what specifically did you do? I tell them, I think at that point for me, any number of things could have worked. This is the one that happened to be the one that was there and that worked. But I wish there was a prescriptive thing I could say, just do this particular therapy or this particular method and it would work for everybody. I think even more so than the physical health side, this part is incredibly individualized. But I was just trying to figure out the weight struggles. And I had this somewhat simplistic experience with the somatic body worker

where I was actually picked up off the ground and I didn't, I had definitely had trust issues and I didn't want to do it. And he was like, you're going to be OK. And he picked me up anyway. And I had this full, like freak out, reliving of the trauma that I thought I had totally dealt with and completely freaked out. I was a foot off the ground. I was in no way in physical danger, but it re-triggered those emotions and that physical state of when I had been helpless and out of control and in a situation that I didn't like. And when he put me down, I had basically, I've read the book, The Body Keeps the Score. And what I realize now is I had stored this trauma physically in my body as a safety response. And when he put me down, I shook for hours. It was similar to if you see an

animal on TV that almost gets killed and then they survive. Animals have great built-in somatic coping mechanisms because animals aren't walking around with PTSD. They have near-death experiences. They're not sitting in trauma all the time. And part of the reason is they're able to process that through their body somatically and then get their nervous systems back to a state of balance. And I hadn't done that. I had instead shut down my nervous system and shut down my emotions to the point that even with having six kids, I didn't ever yell at my kids. I didn't cry for 16 years. I had just shut down the emotions. And that one experience with that body worker re-triggered all the emotions. And after I

finished shaking, I think that was the actual somatic release of some of those emotions. And by the next day, I had lost eight pounds and another 80 pounds fell off with literally no effort. And I actually was eating more and I was, I didn't even exercise during that phase. I just let my body rest and recover and rebuild. Um, but I wish there was, you know, like I said, I wish there was a prescriptive thing. I could just say, everybody should do this one particular thing. Um, I think I had finally gotten to a point where I was willing and I remember the moment

I didn't realize what it was connected to, but I remember looking in the mirror at myself one day and my daughter was there with me. And I noticed it register in her eyes how I was looking at myself. And I realized it was probably the first time she had ever thought to look at her own body critically because she saw me do it. And that was, I think, the moment that made me willing to change whatever that meant because because I didn't want to pass on that kind of mental hell to my daughters, especially. Yeah. Well, first of all, I'm sorry that you went through that. But I'm so glad that you found this path to healing. So much of what you just said resonated with me so much.

It's wild. So I'm not going to go into the details because I've talked about this a lot on my podcast, but my little sister was hit by a car and killed when I was eight. And I was the first person on the scene. And so, and for me, like I had not very similarly to you, I had completely disconnected from that. I realized looking back that I had never, I'd cried a little bit, but I had not really, really released it. So for me, I was carrying this massive amount of grief, almost like a, like a backpack or

something just on my chest. And it wasn't until I started diving into all these different modalities of healing and really addressing head on. It was like, I had a friend tell me one time, she goes, what I noticed is every time you tell this story to people, you tell it as though it happened to someone else and not to you. And that's how disconnected I was from the story. So what you just said really resonated with me. And I also love too, that you said that you wish that you could kind of just give everyone a prescription. But I think this, I think what really helps people is hearing others talk about their experiences because then they can kind of start figuring

out what resonates with them. Cause I know like for me, that's really what helped me is I just started kind of diving into this and getting really curious about all the different modalities. I would read books, I listened to podcasts, um, and just kind of started following kind of what resonated with me and kind of piqued my interest. And I started from there. Also, therapy really helped me a lot. And another thing was doing a really mega dose of psilocybin helped me move through all of the emotions of all of that. And I'm very intrigued by this book that you read, though. What is it called again? The body stores, the body keeps the score, keeps the score. Imagine having a metabolic coach in your pocket that you could access at any point, any time in the day, whenever you want. That's what Lumen is. Lumen is the world's first

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have a really traumatic experience that your body stores it. And I've been looking into different body work that I can do that will similarly to what you do, or that can literally help me release it out of my body. Yeah, I think the body keeps the score is a great starting place, especially if you are aware of trauma, it really helps you at least logically connect how that might be expressing in your body. And then of course, the journey through it is a whole another process. And I think there's a lot of modalities that can come into play there. I think for me having it sounds like maybe you as well, having shut down the emotions and never actually been through the experience of the

emotions that would have been normal and important to process. One of the things I did that I, I, it was one of the harder things I did was actually rage therapy because I had not experienced emotion in that time period. And I had a therapist who was like, you need to pitch a temper tantrum. And I was like, no, absolutely not. And she kept pushing on it. And she was like, I want you to scream. And I was like, rah, like it wouldn't work. And when all the emotions finally broke open, I was able to cry and yell and process those feelings that I had probably been avoiding since that particular moment. And I think there's many modalities to your point as well that can come into play with

this. I also had experiences with psilocybin and also now with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, which I'm really excited. These are now in clinical trials, and I think there's a lot of really huge possibility here. I do also think, and it's important to say out loud anytime I mention these in conversation, is just they are extremely powerful tools, and they can also be extremely scary tools if you're not used to them or ready for them. And many times people have experiences come up that they fully repressed, that then they have to try to reconcile, did this actually happen or did it not? And why am I remembering this? And why didn't I remember this for so long? And I think anytime we're talking about any kind of assisted psychotherapy

with any substance, it's also really important to make sure we have the conversation around integration afterwards, and that it should always be a thing that goes hand in hand with some kind of therapy with someone who's trauma-informed to help process and integrate after because they're wonderful at stirring things up and letting you look at them and get past your ego barrier and talk to your subconscious. But there's a lot of then integration that needs to happen after that for the healing to actually continue. And I think often people jump into them and they can be so helpful and they, but they can bubble up so much. You just want to be very aware of that and have a plan going forward to make sure that you're integrating and not just going back to the

same old patterns or potentially making things worse. If you stir up a lot of stuff, you didn't even know was there. Yeah, that's a really great point. And I'm glad that you brought that up. There's a lot of therapists now. Well, it depends on where people live. I live in California and I'm very fortunate that I know of all these different modalities that you can seek out either a therapist, therapy assisted psilocybin trip, also therapy assisted MDMA. I have friends that have done ketamine assistance and the ketamine one is really interesting and cool.

There's a lot of treatment centers that are popping up now where they have a therapist on staff. And then what they do is they put you on a very high dose of ketamine, let whatever comes up, come up. And then at the end, you have a therapy session with this therapist. And I think that's such an amazing way for people to find healing in a very safe place? Because I think what you brought up is really important is that you need to have a support system around you and make sure that you're doing it in a way that feels safe and productive. Exactly. I think there's so many, these compounds are so unique and cool because they do things like stimulate oxytocin, they help with neuroplasticity, and they also, they think now create a mechanism of safety

signaling within the body, which is potentially one of the reasons they're so helpful in processing trauma because they let you at least temporarily be in a place where your nervous system feels safe. And if you can use that time to go back and work through particular memories or particular things that you know are a problem or often the things that it will show you that you maybe didn't know were a problem, it can be really helpful. But you want to have a plan for being able to stay in that state of safety afterward and to repattern that in a good way. Yeah. I will also say too, talk therapy has really helped me.

And I don't think I could have ever gotten to this place of healing that I'm in now, had I not first started with talk therapy, because that's really ultimately what helped me come to all of this in the first place that I really needed to find healing in all of it. And it's a great safe place to find support and have someone help you kind of unpack and unravel whatever it is that you're dealing with. Absolutely. Yeah. And I would say also to add on, if this is something in any kind of trauma recovery or therapy, I would also encourage people to add in a daily practice of meditation and gratitude. Because also as you're repatterning your subconscious, so many of us are sending negative vibes to our subconscious all the time.

And our questions and inner dialogue can be very negative. And I found both of those are very helpful for repatterning your inner talk toward the positive. And also just becoming aware of the inner questions we ask ourselves. Like I remember looking back, I was in that place of going, why can't I lose weight? Why is this so hard? And the questions we give our subconscious, it will answer. So I was getting constant affirmation back of, oh, well, it's because you have thyroid disease, or it's because you've had six kids, or it's because of all this, because that's

the question I was asking. And when I learned to have a more positive relationship with my inner dialogue, that also really helped repattern. Yeah. Ooh, that's really helpful for people as well. Is there anything else that we haven't mentioned that you think, um, for someone listening, maybe that's on the very beginning stages of this journey, maybe things that they could explore, look into books or, you know, anything they could read.

I think there's so many now, and this is becoming thankfully like much more widespread as well. Like 15 years ago, there weren't the resources for a lot of this. I would say start with The Body Keeps the Score is a great one. Also, I believe Joe Dispenza's How to Change Your Mind is great for the inner dialogue side. I also personally found the book Letting Go by David Hawkins really helpful because it kind of walks you through the logical progression of acceptance and letting go of things. And often our turmoil is self-created, at least this has been very true for me, and what we resist, resist. And I was putting so much of my mental energy towards the thing I was actually trying to avoid. You know, I've heard it said that anxiety is basically like painting the picture you don't want to happen, but so much,

it's easy to do that as humans. So those were great starting points for me, but I think also it's creating time and space to take time away. I know people like me and probably like you as well, being very research driven and focused, it's easy to want to like find more information and find more things and read more things and do more things. And often the quiet can be our best teacher. And so, especially if, at least for me, this was very true. If you're running away from a trauma, busyness is a great tool to keep running away. And in the quiet is where you get to face those things and start to listen to that inner voice and start to find answers. There's a quote that many of man's problems come from his inability to sit quietly

in a room with himself alone. And I think, especially in today's world, we don't just have natural opportunities for that quiet and that unstructured time as much. And so I think if you're in that place of trying to heal, that's a great thing to build in. Wow. I'm so glad that you brought that component of it up. 2020, I don't want to invalidate how horrible of a time that was for a lot of people. And it was a very intense, um, last two years that we had, but 2020 was also very beautiful for me, for me in the way that it was the first time in my life that I sat with myself in quietness. And I think it's really what propelled me into all of the healing that I've done in

the last two years, because I had spent so much of my life. I was constantly running. I was so busy. I was keeping myself constantly entertained, busy, on the go. I never had a moment just to sit with myself and be quiet. And it wasn't until 2020 literally brought my life to a halt that I was forced to sit with myself. And now, um, I do find time in my day for that, even if it means, um means that I'm just going on a hike and I don't put in headphones or anything. I'm just alone with my thoughts and out in nature. And that has really helped me a lot as well. But I think that's a really important thing for people to understand that we are constantly being berated with left, right, and center.

It's like we're on our phones. We're scrolling. We don't even sit with ourselves anymore. The second we get bored, we're just scrolling on our phone. And I'm trying to be really intentional and mindful of that now of allowing myself space to just sit with myself and my thoughts and not constantly be distracted. Yeah, I think 2020 was certainly, like you said, hard for many people, but maybe partly because of that many of us didn't have to face the quiet before that. And I think if we look at it like anything in a subconscious way, look at it in a positive way, there were so many good things and lessons that have come out of this. And I'm sure everybody

can find their own examples, whether it be more time for family dinners that happened as a result, or less travel, some more time with our kids and with our families. I know one thing I faced during COVID, the first few weeks of actual lockdown, I was angry all the time and I could not figure out why. Like I would wake up and like want to punch a wall and I've never been a person who was angry and I couldn't figure it out for a while. And then I realized it was because part of my trauma, it wasn't the actual physical trauma that was the hard part. It was the feeling of helplessness that I had basically vowed to myself I would never feel again. And so I had made all these elaborate constructs so that I would always be in control and I had systems for everything. And then this global thing happened that I had

no control over and it was re-triggering all those feelings of helplessness. And so like energetically and metaphorically, I was like coming off the ground swinging every morning because of that feeling. And it was a beautiful thing I got to face because of it that perhaps I would have been able to avoid my whole life had it not happened. So I think there were lessons for all of us. We're probably all still continuing to learn from 2020, but I think there's a lot of positives there. I have a little focus and productivity hack. Are you guys ready for it? It's really simple and it takes about two seconds to take back. Not only does it help with my focus and productivity, but it also helps with my stress, which is almost unheard of, especially if you are a caffeine drinker like myself and then end up in a jittery panic attack after drinking too much of it. Okay. My hack is called magic mind. And all

it is, is a little matcha shot that also has adaptogens and nootropics in it that are scientifically backed to help with cognitive function and focus. The matcha also gives you a little bit of caffeine. It has L-theanine in there, which helps to reduce stress and anxiety. The adaptogenic mushrooms help to turn on your brain so you're more focused and your neurons are firing. And there's other things in there like choline, which help oxygenate the brain. I refer to this little bottle as my natural Adderall and I truly could not get through my day without it. They have given me a code to share with you guys for 20% off. If you go to magicmind.co and use code realfoodology, you're going to save

20%. I hope you guys love it. Okay. So I kind of want to go in a little bit of a different direction because I know this is something that you are also, um, very passionate about. I want everyone to understand what is greenwashing and why should we care about this when it comes to, um, cleaning products, beauty products, food across the board. Yeah, this is such a fascinating topic. And it happens in all of those areas that you mentioned, I think a little bit less so in food, just because there are some specific label requirements, at least food is required to disclose the ingredients and the nutrition information.

And of course, there's still some creative ways that manufacturers can get around that. But there's at least labeling requirements. When we're talking about anything like alcohol, cleaning products, personal care products, that same burden of proof is not there. And a lot of your listeners probably have heard there are 80,000 plus chemicals that are used in these different types of products. Very few of them have been actually studied for safety, but many of them, there's no labeling requirement. Short of something that has an actual identified specific negative outcome, they aren't required to label if there's any potential danger or really to label much beyond the basic ingredients. And in some products, not even the ingredients. And so there's a lot of what you said, greenwashing that goes on where manufacturers can label

something or position it to look natural and organic. Even I've seen brands put that in their brand name with creative spellings to make it appear that it's more natural than it is. And there are now resources like EWG has a database where you can put your products in and it will tell you kind of the relative safety of that product if there's any identified problems with reproductive toxicity or hormone toxicity. But there's still a lot more that goes into it beyond just that. And the majority of what goes on our body can enter our body in various ways, especially the skin, which is the body's largest organ. And so while I feel like a lot of people are much more aware of this when it comes to food now, thankfully, because of resources like you and all the people who are talking about this,

the same thing is happening in everything we're putting on our skin and especially in our household. And one example I love to use is laundry detergent, for instance. Most people don't even think of it because it's not something they're directly interacting with. We're not putting it on our bodies, but many of them have things called SBOCs, which are volatile organic compounds, but a very small level one. And especially in those scents that you smell in laundry detergent. And when you wash your clothes in that, you put it on your body, you're actually getting two types of low-level exposure all day, which is inhalation from the smell of it and also skin contact.

So while you may not think it's a thing that's actually interacting with your body, it's all the time, for many people, even when we're sleeping, we're interacting with either our sheets or our clothes. So we're 24 hours a day getting exposure on a low level to these compounds. And we know now they can build up in fat tissue. These compounds can build up in our body. Even babies are now being born with hundreds of chemicals in their cord blood and the placenta filters out the vast majority of things. So these are just the ones that can get through. So this is

a widespread problem. We also know about, for instance, plastic becoming a huge widespread problem and now being identified under many feet of ice in the Antarctic. It has now fully saturated our planet. The good news is, I think, like I know I went down this path with ice in the Antarctic. It has now fully saturated our planet. The good news is, I think, like, I know I went down this path with food in the beginning. It's like, you can get to a point where you think everything is bad and you can become a little scared of everything. And the good news is, especially when it comes to our exposure in environmental areas like personal care and cleaning, you can very much 80-20 this. And there are some simple things you can do that reduce your exposure a whole lot that don't make your life any harder.

So there's great products. I love Branch Basics that is a one-stop cleaner that can replace laundry detergent and all your household cleaners and that has none of those toxicity problems. Same thing in personal care. One soapbox I get on is I think women in general tend to use too many products we don't actually need because we've been over-marketed to for a long time. But in the products you choose, if you can choose similar to laundry detergent, like the hair care products that are the most natural, because that's on your body,

you're smelling your hair, it's touching your skin, it's touching your scalp. Same thing with oral care. The mouth especially has such a unique way of interacting with our body. It's directly connected to so many parts of the body, to our gut, to our hearts. This is the reason if you have a heart condition and you have dental work, they'll often give you antibiotics because that relationship is so connected. And we can give people drugs under their tongue that are often more effective than even them swallowing them. But yet many of us are putting toxic chemicals in our kids' mouths and in their toothpaste. So I feel like if you can make some just gentle switches there, you really can 80-20 it and not spend any more money than you would be is the other big thing. Because I think cost can be a big barrier when we're talking about natural living. And for me personally, this is actually

the reason I created Wellness, which is my personal care brand, because I realized I had friends who eat organic and who avoid a lot of these big offenders that were still using name brand hair care and shampoo and deodorant and toothpaste because they worked. And I realized, especially as women, we don't want to sacrifice something working well. We don't want our hair to look bad or our teeth to be yellow just for the sake of being natural. And so I realized we need natural products that outperform the conventional alternatives that people are going to make the switch. And I'm so excited to see companies like we're trying to do that with wellness, but branch basics being another great example.

It's like you don't improve by marginally improving the existing products. You make a better product that makes the old products obsolete. Yeah. I mean, what you brought up is such a great point is that we no longer have to compromise our health for these products. Cause I remember, you know, I started getting, getting into this 15 years ago. Um, I feel very grateful that I had a girlfriend at the time that was giving me all these books and, you know, telling started getting into this 15 years ago. Um, I feel very grateful that I had a girlfriend at the time that was giving me all these books and, you know, telling me all this

stuff. So I made the switch so long ago that I remember a time when the beauty products were not really performing as well. I felt like the skincare wasn't working as well. Um, and on top of that, the packaging was really like, I remember just being like, I don't know, I'm, this may not resonate with everyone, but I love a beautiful aesthetic. And I felt like back then all of the products that I was buying too, I was like, Oh, I mean this, you know, I want to like hide this under my cabinet. And now there's all these amazing products that are not only really effective and I think work more like work better than some of the name brand stuff that people have been using for years, but there's But they're making beautiful packaging.

I want to display it on my kitchen counter and on my bathroom counter, et cetera. Not everyone will resonate with that. But what is so cool about this is that we really are in an amazing place that people are finally waking up. Companies are really starting to create products that actually work and that do not provide any sort of toxicity to us. Another really important thing that I had never thought about for the longest time is when you're, whatever you're using, cleaning in your house, not only do your lungs inhale all of that,

but on top of that, if you're spraying it on the floor and you have babies crawling, or you have pets on the floor, they're also getting exposed to that as well. So it's not just you, you have to worry about. It's also your kids, your pets, everyone living in your house. And like you said, these are really easy switches that we can make because these are all products that people are already using anyways. So why not take that added step and switch over? Branch Basics is one that I love as well. Yeah. And to your point, indoor air, you probably mentioned this before, but it's often much more polluted than outdoor air, even in homes that you wouldn't think had any kind of toxic chemicals. Even people who think that they're living pretty naturally, there's still usually some kind of big

offenders that are causing indoor air quality to be really poor. And this is because we're breathing more than we're drinking or eating. This is the biggest single input we have in our health. Making changes that improve that indoor air quality and what you're interacting with 24 hours a day make a big difference over time. Yeah, absolutely. Well, you have to think about it. We're spending so much time in our houses and then we're sleeping, you know, eight hours a night. If we're not using a good laundry detergent, like you said, we're breathing all that in. And then we're just breathing, you know, everything that's in our house for long periods of time. I

really like air filters. I use an air doctor. I have one in my living room and one in my bedroom. And I think that's a really important thing for people to understand as well. If they can afford an air filter, that's really important because it will help pick up any of those toxins that are coming off of your furniture and stuff, if you haven't even thought about that. Yeah, absolutely. I'm an air doctor fan as well. And I think step one is get the bad stuff out. And then step. I'm an air doctor fan as well. And I think step one is get the bad stuff out. And then step two is have an air filter, open your windows when you can, let the fresh air in. And if I know when I started learning all this, I had already had a long

history of exposure to all these things as well as to unhealthy food at various times in my life. And the good news is there is the body's natural state is healing. So even if you are aware of these things and you realize or realizing you have exposure, the body wants to move to a state of healing. And often when you remove that kind of offenders, your body will very quickly on its own detoxify. I'm not a big fan of doing like really harsh cleanses to help the body detoxify. I think the body does a great job on its own. And if you want to help it work with the body's natural pathways, make sure you're hydrating really well, make sure that you are sweating every day. Um, you know, make sure that you have all your normal detoxification and digestion functioning optimally and your body

will kind of handle the rest. Although we'll say I'm a big fan. I think for me, it was really helpful to have a sauna, which again is not necessarily in everybody's budget, but, um, you asked about big health impact. This is, I think the thing, if it was a pill, everybody would take it based on the data we have. Sauna can be amazing and it reduces all cause mortality. It reduces cardiovascular risks. It's an exercise memetic. It of course creates sweat, which is a great for detox. And I think that's one, if it's available to you, sauna can be an excellent tool for helping speed up that process. And I want to add onto that for people listening that don't have in their budget, the ability to get a sauna, just take a really hot bath with Epsom salts, like

hot to the point where, you know, you can still get in and it's not scalding you, but hot enough that will induce sweating. That's a great alternative if you can't afford a sauna. Exactly. And get some exercise every day that leads to sweat. Yes, exactly. That's such a great point. So I feel like, you know, hearing all this might be super overwhelming for some people. How quickly can someone turn around these or how long before maybe they start implementing all this? Will they see a change or is it too late? I just want to offer people a little bit of hope around this. Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up. The good thing is I don't think it's ever too late. I think, like I said, the body wants to move to a state of health and that's its natural state. And I've seen people make these changes overnight when they realize, especially if they had an acute health issue. But I think for most people, a more manageable way is just as you start running out of things, just replace them with natural ones and just be conscious of trying to increase your natural detoxification-based activities like sweating, like hydration, like better sleep. But I think the cool part of this

is it's really dramatic. Just like when you switch to real food, you may, within a couple of days, start noticing a big difference. The same thing is true with environmental exposure to these low level toxins. It might take a little longer depending on how long they've been in your system, but usually within a couple of weeks, people start to at least feel changes and see changes in their skin, or just start to notice little things happening, which is also to me very motivating when you actually start seeing changes, you're more willing to keep sticking with it. Yeah, yeah, that's great. So outside of the really big ones that are really obvious in the ways these cleaning products, etc, could be affecting our health. I love to point out some of the things that people may not even realize that they can

attribute to these. What are some things like some health issues that people may not right away make the connection to using these toxic products that could be causing these issues? Yeah, great question. And so there's a reason some of these issues we see more in women than men. And one of the reasons is women tend to use and be exposed to more of these products than men do. Ones that people I don't feel like often connect, things like hair loss can be a big one or any kind of skin irritation. And I feel like those are pretty easy to connect because it's often a skin exposure. One that people often don't realize is hormonal issues and or difficulty losing weight, or especially weight gain around the midsection

because the body is always trying to protect itself. And when we're having exposure to these things, the body is going to try to keep them from harming the really important parts of our body, like our organs. And so often the body will use, they'll store in fat. So the body will kind of hold on to fat to keep these chemicals isolated. So this is when I've seen quite a bit with people is when they start removing excess toxin exposure in their lives, they'll see natural weight loss happen because their body isn't needing to use it as a protective mechanism. Also for kids, we definitely see things like eczema is a big one with kids, sleep disturbances. The sleep one especially, I've heard from so many parents who have noticed that change when they had already cleaned up their

kids' diets, they had a good sleep routine, they had a consistent nighttime schedule. And when they got rid of these excess chemicals, especially in the bedroom, their kids started sleeping better. And it makes sense because kids are more sensitive. And so if they have this constant exposure and there's low level inflammation, that's definitely a thing that can interfere with sleep. Yeah. And another one about kids that I want to add on to, because one of the founders of Branch Basics, this was her story. A lot of times you'll see cognitive issues in kids. And once you take out those cleaning products, it drastically improves their cognitive function. Absolutely. And we also now, I mean, the statistics are pretty staggering about,

we're seeing a lot of precocious puberty in kids and this is happening earlier and earlier. And a lot of the chemicals you'll find, especially in some cleaning products and some of these like highly scented products, as well as in plastics are kind of estrogen mimicking. And so they think this is a potential piece in why kids are going through puberty earlier and having more problems related to hormones at an earlier age. Yeah. Oh, God, it's so heartbreaking. This is why it's so important to have these conversations, you know, and again, like I like to remind people that, um, it may seem overwhelming and super daunting when you're first learning all of this, but take like one issue a month that you're going to tackle and tackle it really well. And then go on to the next,

because I find that if you try to make all these changes overnight, it can be really overwhelming and stressful. And the last thing we want to do is cause more stress because that's also going to have an effect on your health. So just know that you're doing the best you can and you've done the best you can with the information that you've had, you know, up until now. And then once we know better, we do better and we can make those changes slowly over time. Exactly. And to loop back to the point of, you know, that positive interaction in our internal dialogue is this is the more we learn, it's a beautiful opportunity to continue, like you said, to do better and to move toward more positive results. And also to still honor and be grateful for the experiences we have had. Like, it sounds like both you and I had experiences that we wouldn't have necessarily chosen, but that have been great teachers in our lives. And so whether it's just stuff like this as we learn about health or deeper stuff about ourselves, it's important to keep that focus of the positive within all of it and the lesson within all of it.

Yeah, absolutely. So I want to ask you one more question about, so obviously you, motherhood is a big part of your life. And I have found, so I'm not a mom yet. I hope to be one day. I have found that when I talk about certain things that have anything hope to be one day. I have found that when I talk about certain things that have anything to do with motherhood, um, I get a ton of backlash online and it feels as though, and I've heard, I have a lot of friends that are moms and it feels as though, um, there's a lot of shaming that's involved online. When you talk about anything about

motherhood, what, how do you handle the backlash? Cause I'm, I'm assuming that you get it. And how can we maybe get to a place where we can start lifting up women instead of feeling like everyone's just shaming each other for each other's choices? Oh, such an important topic. And you're right. I think it extends beyond even just moms. We see it more with women, typically, at least online than with guys. And I feel like it's gotten intense, especially after the last couple of years, even more so. And the sad part of this is when we all step back, we're all coming as moms from a place of love for our kids. And I think the reason the emotions can get so heightened is because there's also some fear may be attached to that, that what

if we're doing it wrong or what if, and so we feel the need to like hold on tight to the things we believe because we want to make sure we're doing the best for our kids. But at the end of the day, we're all coming from a place of love. And that hopefully is true for all of us, mom or not, anybody existing with another human, hopefully we're coming from a place of love. But certainly when it is about our kids, I think we're in a very unique time with social media, especially like there's been a lot of studies about the online world and how we interact differently when there's kind of the veil of secrecy of the internet than we would in real life. And I feel like, um, for me personally, I keep top of mind that people

wouldn't necessarily say those things to me in real life. And also they're not saying them to me as a person. It's easy to want to internalize them as the person who's hearing them, but they're saying them, their online personality is saying that to my online personality. And so I've had to kind of develop some mental boundaries for myself over the years, things like what other people think of me is none of my business. And also just keeping a focus on the mission. And I think if our mission is strong, like, of course there will be naysayers or so many quotes along the lines of like, if you don't want to offend anyone, cool, don't ever do anything. Especially in today's world, everything we do will offend someone, but making sure that I'm coming from a place of mission and love and wanting to actually serve these moms. And then also trying

to remind them that as women and moms, we have probably 93.5% of things in common. And it's ironically that small percentage that we disagree on that we spend the most time talking about. But like we talked earlier, what you give your attention to is what grows and what you resist is what resists back. And so if we're only focusing on the negative in those relationships, we're missing an opportunity for growth. And if COVID has taught us one thing, it's also that social connection and interaction is so important.

In fact, I've said before, I think this is actually the core thing in Blue Zones that helps with longevity. It's not the diet. It's not the whether they drink half a glass of wine a night or not, or if they're eating fish or beans or whatever. It's that they have really strong social connections and relationships, and they prioritize them. And I think maybe the last couple of years of that being taken away for a lot of people,

hopefully, has made us realize how important it is. But I think if we can keep the focus there, it lets us come at those interactions from a more positive place. And then personally, I also just, when the online comments get really, really hurtful, I just remind myself that hurt people hurt people. And I've also been a hurt person in the past, and I've also acted in anger in the past, and I can understand those reactions. And so I try to just recenter that and come to a place of love. Because I know in those moments, I needed gentleness and love, not anger back. And maybe the person who's having that experience can't at the moment give love, but maybe they can receive it.

But it is it's a very important conversation, I think. And I think also as moms, we have a beautiful and unique opportunity to at least model for our kids what healthy relationships look like and what healthy interactions and boundaries. And hopefully over time by doing that, we can start to kind of blaze that trail because it is new in the online world. And our kids are going to be the first who grew up their entire lives with the internet being so much a part of our lives. And so I think it's new territory that we're all getting to learn to navigate together. And also that doesn't take away from how hurtful some of those comments can be sometimes. Yeah, absolutely. Wow. I love the way that you just put all that.

I have found that to be very true in my experience as well. And also I have to remind myself that oftentimes these people that are lashing out, like you said, they're hurting. And it's almost always a reflection of how they're feeling inside and not. I've realized it really has nothing to do with me, you know, like 99% of the time. And also I think too, it's good to remind people that by someone sharing their truth or something that they've found, if it contradicts what you know to be true or that you do or

have done in the past, it doesn't mean that they are shaming you or saying that something's wrong with you. I like to say this all the time. I said it earlier in the podcast. It's, you know, we do the best that we can with the knowledge that we have until we learn more and then we do better. We don't look in the past, shame ourselves for decisions and things that we've done beforehand. We just have to recognize and have peace with that we were doing the best that we could then. And then as we learn more, we do better. And it's really simple as that. Exactly. Yeah. And you're right. It's often has nothing to do with us. And I do, but I do believe also there are chance those are those interactions are a chance to show love. And also there comes a point where those also are a chance

to have a boundary. But I think often, like kindness and love can diffuse a whole lot of that. Absolutely. I love that. So I love to ask all my guests this question before we go, what are your health non-negotiables? These are things, no matter how busy and crazy your day is, you do these for your health and you prioritize them because you know that they're, they're important to your daily routine. Yeah. Um, I would say hydration is a big one. I'm not perfect on it every day, but the real ones that I think make the biggest difference are time with people that you love. I think that social impact is very underestimated in today's world. So time with my kids is a big one every single day for me. The morning sunlight, I can't overstate how much of a difference that can make in your hormones over time if you do it consistently. And beyond that, I actually don't do

anything every day. That's actually one of my other health non-negotiables is adaptability. And so I don't take any supplement every single day. I don't eat any particular food every single day. I don't even eat food every single day. Sometimes I fast. I think it's helpful to our bodies to be adaptable. And often if we get too consistent, the body will adapt to that consistency and then have more trouble if any of those pieces change. And so I'm very aware of trying to make sure my body stays continually more adaptable. And so beyond those kind of basic, extremely core things, I don't do anything every single day. Wow. What you just said was so profound for me. I have always been resistant of routines my whole life, but I've also had this internal struggle of,

you know, I've heard that routines are really good for you. You should do them, try to do a routine. It does not come naturally and it never has felt good for me to do routines. And I feel, I feel like you just gave me permission to just lean into that. Absolutely. Like I'm a big fan of take the weekend off supplements or, you know, take a mental health day off of any of the routines if you need to, because like we said in the beginning, kind of to come full circle, that inner peace is so big. And while all of these tools are great and we should absolutely use these tools, if they become too regimented and become rules, they can often be counterproductive to what we're

actually trying to do. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Well, this has been such an amazing conversation. Where can everyone find you? I'm pretty much wellness mama everywhere online. So I have a podcast, the wellness mama podcast, wellnessmama.com is the hub for everything. And then on social media, I'm wellness mama as well. Yeah. And then also where can they find your wellness products? So wellness.com that's wellness with an E on the end. And right now we have hair food, non-toxic hair care, and a lot of oral care products, and we'll soon be releasing deodorant as well. Amazing. Thank you so much for today.

Thank you for having me. Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. If you liked this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app to let me know. This is a resident media production produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Chris McCone. The theme song is called heaven by the amazing singer Georgie spelled with a J. Love you guys so much. See you next week. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always,

talk to your doctor or your health team first. you