Realfoodology - Everything We Changed To Create A Non-Toxic Home

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

303: In today’s episode, Hector and I share everything we’ve learned about creating a healthier home after discovering toxic mold in our rental property. We discuss the inspections, testing, and home upgrades that helped us feel more confident in our new space, along with our approach to air quality, water filtration, non-toxic mattresses, bedding, baby products, and more. We also explore why modern homes may be more prone to mold, the building materials we're paying attention to, and how to make healthier choices at home without becoming overwhelmed by wellness trends. Topics Discussed: → How can mold impact your health? → What are the biggest hidden toxins in the home? → How do you improve indoor air and water quality? → Which healthy home upgrades are actually worth it? → Why are modern homes more prone to mold and moisture issues? → What should you know about non-toxic baby products? → What building materials create a healthier home? Sponsored By: → Kettle & Fire | For a limited-time, my listeners can head to https://kettleandfire.com/REALFOODOLOGY and use code REALFOODOLOGY for 25% off site-wide. The discount applies to all of Kettle & Fire’s products including their beef tallow. → Timeline | Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now more accessible. Mitopure starts at $99, and listeners can get 20% off at: https://timeline.com/REALFOODOLOGY → PaleoValley | Head to https://paleovalley.com/realfoodology for 15% off your first purchase. → Our Place | Stop cooking with toxic cookware, and upgrade to Our Place today. Visit https://fromourplace.com/REALFOODOLOGY and use code REALFOODOLOGY for 10% off sitewide. With a hundred-day risk-free trial, free shipping and returns, you can experience this game-changing cookware with zero risk. → Manukora | Head to https://manukora.com/REALFOODOLOGY to save up to 31% plus $25 worth of free gifts with the Starter Kit, which comes with an MGO 850+ Manuka Honey jar, 5 honey travel sticks, a wooden spoon, and a guidebook! → Cowboy Colostrum | Get 25% Off Cowboy Colostrum with code REALFOODOLOGY at https://cowboycolostrum.com/realfoodology Timestamps:  → 00:00:00 - Introduction → 00:01:50 - Finding Toxic Mold In Their Rental Home → 00:04:09 - Mold Inspections + Using A Mold Dog → 00:06:15 - HVAC Systems, Humidity + Mold Prevention → 00:08:24 - Why Modern Homes Are Prone To Mold → 00:13:02 - Whole Home Water Filtration Systems → 00:16:48 - What's Really In Your Tap Water? → 00:20:17 - Choosing A Non-Toxic Mattress → 00:25:16 - Air Purifiers + Indoor Air Quality → 00:30:02 - Non-Toxic Bedding, Comforters + Dog Beds → 00:33:28 - Healthy Home Essentials + Towels → 00:33:30 - Heavenly Heat Sauna → 00:38:52 - Sauna Benefits + Detoxification → 00:39:46 - Cold Plunges, Recovery + Muscle Growth → 00:40:51 - Wellness Overwhelm + Finding Balance → 00:44:20 - Non-Toxic Furniture + Baby Products → 00:45:35 - Plastic-Free Diapers + Sustainable Parenting → 00:49:04 - Why Modern Homes Are Prone To Mold → 00:50:45 - Rammed Earth Construction → 00:52:11 - AAC Homes + The Future Of Healthy Building Check Out Courtney:  →  LEAVE US A VOICE MESSAGE →  Check Out My new FREE Grocery Guide! →  @realfoodology →  www.realfoodology.com →  My Immune Supplement by 2x4 →  Air Dr Air Purifier →  AquaTru Water Filter →  EWG Tap Water Database Produced By: Drake Peterson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We had to buy a house because it was really the only way to ensure that we were living in a safe home that didn't have mold in it. Wellness has gone so far in the other direction that now I want to start smoking cigarettes because I'm over at all. Homes are basically just built like a sandwich. The drywall with paper backing, mold loves to eat that. Insulation, wood framing, OSB, plastic vapor barriers. It's literally the perfect combo for mold to grow. In January, we found toxic black mold in our rental. And it was all up in the walls behind the shower.

It was in the HVax. It was being blown around the whole house. Every water system that goes through our home now is all filtered. I could tell the difference in the shower after we had the whole water filtration system at the house. I was like, Courtney, why does my skin feel so good right now? My face felt so soft. I love it. Okay, we're recording.

We're live. We're on air. Been alive. We're alive. Hello, friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology podcast. Today, my guest is my husband. Hector.

Hello. Hello. We're back, round two. We figured that we would do a healthy homes edition since he and I just bought a house, my first home I've ever owned. And it feels very special and fun, especially after the year we've had. It really, we finally got a win, finally, after everything we've been through. And we figured, because I've been getting a lot of questions, and we have been doing a lot of work

in and around the house just to make. sure that it is a healthy, safe home, non-toxic as much as we can control. So we figured we'd do an episode about it, all the things that we did. Because I'm getting a lot of questions specifically about the mold stuff too. So I figured we'll just dive into that first. So one of the reasons that we decided to buy a home was because if you missed it, in January, we found toxic black mold in our rental. And it was all up in the walls behind the shower. It was in the H-Vax was being blown around the whole house. And it sent Hector and I down a rabbit hole of learning about mold

and just how bad mold is here in Texas too. And a lot of people are finding it in their homes. And so when we were looking for a new place, you know, I was already very pregnant at this point. And we were like, we don't want to buy a house. This is going to be too close to the baby being born. We just want to find another rental. And we found another place.

But then Hector was having some symptoms. And we felt like there might have been mold in that place too. We were kind of unsure. It basically just sent us to a place where we kind of felt like we had to buy a house because it was really the only way to ensure that we were living in a safe home that didn't have mold in it. Right. And so. God, we lived in five different places after we found it at that rental.

And it just wasn't a little bit of mold. It was everywhere. It was an insane amount. I mean, I think you showed the pictures on social media. I've never seen anything like this, right? I flipped houses. I was in real estate. I don't think I've ever seen so much mold in some property before.

So it was absolutely chaotic. Five rentals between two friends' houses, an Airbnb. So, yeah, I'm just so happy we bought this house. I feel so much safer in it. Rentals are great. They're a great soft landing pad. If you need to go to a new city, you want to check it out. You like it.

You like the neighborhood. You know, get a feel for like the new city that you're living. in, but ultimately buying a house just felt it's just so much nicer because you can customize it. It's your own. You can paint the walls easier. You can hang things up. You can do a full inspection, right? So yeah, that was the big thing for us. The inspection, the peace of mind. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, you really can't put words into it about how much more safe and peaceful you feel once you've been able to buy it and do all the inspections. And we did a ton of inspections, right? So do you remember all the things we did at this house to make sure we're finding like an actual

healthy safe home that's not completely covered in mold? Yeah. So we found a company that we really trust in Austin called Texas Mold Inspectors. And we, they found the mold in our last house. And so we were like, if we're going to buy a house, we got to get you in our house first before we buy this and make sure that it's clean. And so we got him in there and he was getting in the HVAC and everywhere. like got all up in the guts of that house to make sure that we didn't have any mold. And he okayed us. And then he also, his company,

he and his wife, own a mold dog. And they offered to let us also utilize the mold dog. So we also had a mold dog walk the house, which was a really cool process to watch, actually. These dogs are trained specifically, similar to, you know, like at the airport, they're trained to sniff for bombs. These dogs are specifically trained to smell for mold.

And so they go around your house and they smelled for mold. And if there's mold growing in your walls or, you know, anywhere in the house, they're going to find it. And so they walked around and they marked a couple places that might have had mold. And at the end of that whole process, after getting in the HVAC and having the mold dog come through,

they were like, we found a, you know, a few, like little things that we feel like you guys need to fix, like something with the HVAC, which I'll let you speak to because I didn't, I don't fully understand what we did there. But otherwise, they okayed us and they green lighted us. They were like, you're good. There's not any crazy mold infestation. We, okay, so we did the regular standard house inspection that you do, you know, with your inspector that gets set up.

We did a roof inspection because I didn't want any sort of like roof leaks or anything like that. The previous rental that we're in, I think had a roof leak. And so there was some water that I got in, trickling from the top and the roof. And it just maybe went into the walls perhaps. And maybe that's why there's so much mold in the walls. We did, you know, obviously the pool inspection, the other house. inspection, the roof, and then we did the separate mold inspection, and then the mold dog that came in and took a look at as well. So, yeah, I felt so much safer after we got all those people in there.

Every penny spending on the correct heating, ventilation, cooling system, the HVAC is just so important for the house, right? If the unit is too big, too small for the property, you're going to have a bunch of issues. If there is any sort of air intake into the system, it's going to cause some precipitation and you're going to have some issues within the property as well. There can be some mold developing within the ducts of the house as well. So that was some of the things that the mold guy tested for us as well. He did like a little smoke tests, if you were like the little smoke test. He let us like a little smoke fog machine at the house to see if there was any air intake. So they fixed that. We have a UV light in the ducks as well.

And we have a dehumidifier as well. So you don't want any humidity at the property. You want to lower the humidity as much as you possibly can. Keep it nice and cool. You know, in a perfect dream world, if we had all the money in the world, we would have loved to have just built from the ground up. Because unfortunately, we talked about this with our mold lawyer, and we're doing more episodes about this.

Just as we're learning about the construction practices, a lot of construction companies are just not even paying attention to this kind of stuff. And it's to no fault of their own. Many of them don't know any better. Because, I mean, we're just now learning about this. A lot of the materials can be ripe for mold. If you don't build correctly, to your point, what you just said about the HVAC,

if the HVAC doesn't fit, it can cause condensation, which then also causes mold growth. If they don't, you know, put the proper necessary things on the outside of the house, which I think is what happened at our old rental as well. They didn't have, I forgot what it's called, but they didn't have these little things along the side of the house

and along the roof that are apparently supposed to help keep the water from going in. I can't remember what they were called, though. I don't remember what it's called. I know they had stucco siding on the exterior and some of the humidity was going underneath the stucco as well. So if we were to rip that layer off of stucco around the property, there was most likely going to be a ton of mold on their property as well. Stucco in hot human places like Texas, Florida. I just, I'm not a fan of after what I've learned, it's just like, again, like a warm blanket over your property. So I really don't like that.

Modern homes are basically just built like a sandwich. The drywall with paper backing, mold loves to eat that. Insulation, wood framing, OSB, plastic, vapor barriers. It's literally the perfect combo for mold to grow in the thrive. There has to be some greater conspiracy of why we're building. with lumber material. If you're driving around Austin, you see these homes that are like half built or they're in the process of being constructed and they just have the wood on the exterior and it's getting all wet. I have a meltdown every time I see those now because I'm just like,

how are you, how are you okay with this wood getting wet? And then you're going to seal it. And you're going to seal it. And then it's going to be really hot outside and it's just going to be ripe for humidity and mold. So yeah, we've become very, we've become very passionate about this. But there's only so much you can do. So I also want to remind the listener, there's only so much you can do. And if you can't afford to buy a house or you can't afford to build from scratch, we can't afford to build from scratch. I saved for a long, long time. I've been saving forever since like my 20s to buy a house. And I'm very grateful that I finally was able to. But I also want to recognize that not everybody can. So we're going to share some of the other things that we did

that we also think really just help with a healthy home. And we just wanted to share everything that we've done. And I just, I always like to be really conscious of, you know, different budgets and different accessibility for everybody. And we're going to try our best to give alternatives and other options as well. Because I know some of these, if you're renting in an apartment, which was me forever, I mean, I was renting in L.A. A little apartment for, you know, eight years.

And I was unable to do a lot of this stuff. So I just want to recognize that there's also other things. that you can do. It's not the end-all be-all. But I just, I know personally for me, I love listening to this kind of stuff, what people do so that I know what is available out there for when I'm able to do it too. And then I just kind of add it to my list of like, okay, when I can afford it. I want to do that. Let's talk about cooking oils. I made this one really simple swap and I started using kettle and fire beef tallow. It's now become one of the main things that I cook with. It's one ingredient, 100% grass-fed and finished beef tallow. There's no additives. There's

no preservatives. It's just a simple traditional cooking fat. What I noticed right away is how much better the food cooks so that vegetables get crispier, potatoes actually brown the way you want them to. And when you're making steak or burgers, you get that really great crust and flavor. It also has a high smoke point, so it holds up really well for roasting, sauteing, grilling, all the things. And I love that it simplified my kitchen. I'm not standing there wondering which oil to use for what I just reach for one jar. And for a limited time, my listeners can head to kettle and fire.com slash real foodology and use code real foodology for 25% off sitewide. The discount applies to all of Kettle and Fires products, including their beef tallow.

It's an exclusive limited time offer, so definitely take advantage. That's Kettle and Fire.com slash real foodology. You can also pick up their beef tallow at select sprouts, whole foods, and Kroger locations nationwide, or just go to Kettleandfire.com slash real foodology and use my code. Something that my mom got me on a long time ago, probably about 10 years ago, was taking colostrum. So I think it's so funny that colostrum is trendy now because I have always known colostrum as the supplement that my mom would put me on when I felt like I was getting sick because it's really known for its immune modulating properties. Now there's a huge difference between

something that's just trending and something that's actually nutrient dense and high quality. And this is why I really like cowboy colostrum. What makes it different is that it's true first day whole colostrum sourced from 100% American grass-fed cows. So it's naturally raised. in things like immunoglobulins and growth factors. And they only collect the surplus after the calves have had what they need, which I really appreciate. I've mostly been using the vanilla flavor in smoothies and coffee. And it's become such an easy way to support my gut health, energy, skin, and overall recovery without adding a bunch of extra steps to my routine. I also love that they have a strawberry flavor. It's really good. And they have macha, unflavored, and chocolate,

too. And honestly, when your gut feels supported, you really notice the difference in everything else too, like bloating, energy, stability, even skin clarity. For limited time, our listeners get up to 25% off their entire order. Just head to cowboy colostrum.com slash real foodology and use code real foodology at checkout. That's 25% off when you use code real foodology at cowboy colostrum.com slash real foodology. The first one that I am so excited about, I have literally wanted to do this for like 20 years. Like talk about having it on a list in the back of my mind of like, okay, when I'm can finally afford this and I move into a home that I own, I want to do a whole water filtration

system. And this is what we just installed. And we actually just did an episode with the founder of the company. So definitely go check that out because we go full into detail about the whole process and exactly what they filter out and just why we chose these water filters actually. But the reason you want to do a whole water filtration system if you can is because it treats the water at the source in the house. So it means that every shower, every bath, every sink, our washer and dry, like our washer water is now filtered. Now that you need it, but I'm just saying, just painting the picture of every water system that goes through our home now is all filtered. And then to make it better for drinking water, we also have a separate little filtration system through the same

company under the sink with a little spigot that pours out highly filtered water that we add minerals back into, we don't add minerals, but the machine does. And so we're filtering out chlorine and fluoride in our showers and our bath. I've always wanted to do this, especially now with a baby coming. I'm like, yes, now I know his bathwater is not going to be full of chlorine and fluoride. It is filtering out pesticides like glyphosate and atrazine, also filtering out heavy metals and filtering out. In pharmaceuticals. Yep, pharmaceutical residues, microplastic. all the things that you don't want in your water.

Now, if you're unable to do a whole water filtration system, I wasn't for a long time. You can also just buy the under-the-sink one through this company, which I think is another really great option. You can also just buy the shower filters and the tub filters, which is what I've used for the last 15 years, so you have other options. But we got ours from the Good For company,

and I chose them because of their standard of quality and just the morals and values of the company too. She's very, very transparent about everything that they do and what they're able to do versus what they're not able to do. It's an amazing filtration system that filters out all of these things that I just mentioned. O Phaas too, it also filters out forever chemicals, which is another really big one.

They do testing that they can also send you so they can prove that they actually do this as well. And the owners is very, very knowledgeable and she's super passionate about it too. So we chose this company specifically. We also really loved that they add the minerals back in at the end. And they also structure the water too. If you care about that, again, we talk about it on the episode that I do with her.

So if you want to go back and listen about why you'd want to structure it, but it adds in all of those amazing health benefiting minerals that you lose, typically in the filtration process, it adds the minerals back in. So very, very excited about that. I noticedly could tell the difference in the shower the first time after we had the whole water filtration system at the house. I was kind of freaking out in the shower. I was like, Cordy, what does my skin feel so good right now?

My face felt so soft. I love it. It was bizarre. I really couldn't believe how incredible it felt in the shower. It did. It felt way cleaner. When she told us we were going to notice the difference, I was like, okay, maybe I'll believe you, maybe I won't.

I took that for a shower. It was insane. I could really tell the difference. Yeah, it was cool. He was like, oh my God, this is crazy. Game changer for the whole house filtration system. Absolutely crazy. She was just telling us about that link,

ewg.org.org forward slash tap water, where you can see how insane your tap water is in specific zip code. I have it pulled up right now. Do you want to tell me a zip code? Do you want to search LA or do you? or Austin and see how bad it is. Yeah, I'm trying to remember what my old LA zip code was. 9-026, I think.

Contaminants detected, arsenic, 572 times EWG's health guidance. What? Wow. Bromate 28X, chromium 12X. How do you know what's H-A-A-AS, halocetic acids? 362 times. Wow. Okay. And you know, we hear all the time,

remember New York had this whole campaign. Our tap water is the healthiest clean as tap water. Actually, you should plug in New York just to see. Because New York always boasts about having the cleanest tap water. And basically the point of all this is that tap water is unfortunately not as clean as we would hope it to be. I think they're trying their best in the facilities, but unfortunately we have things like pharmaceutical residues

that are showing up in our drinking water. because people are peeing them out and it's not all getting properly filtered out. Same with glyphosate, heavy metals. They're adding chlorine to clean the water. They're also adding fluoride to the water. So there's just things that are ending up in tap water that we don't want to consume. And I just looked up 9-026 was when I was living on the east side.

On the east side. Yeah. Okay. Anyways. Okay. Yeah, I've got New York City pulled up here. This is, I mean, it's crazy. Chloriform, 86 times the amount.

Clorform? Yeah, chromium, two times dichloratic acid 70x, halocetic acids, 382 times. This is bizarre. This is your public drinking water. And it'll tell you, too, we don't have to spend a lot of time on this, but it'll tell you what those are most linked to. So it'll say like commonly connected to cancer. Yeah, every single one on New York's is potential.

effect, cancer, cancer, cancer. There's eight different things on here that says potential effect cancer. Ooh. So I will say this. Water is one of those things that you want to be conscious of very beginning, early stages of your health journey. And I feel like all of you all listening, y'all, y'all are in the know. Y'all are already filtering your water and drinking out of glass.

But just a reminder maybe as you're helping your friends and family navigate this, because one of the questions I get a lot is, oh my gosh, there's so much to do. Where do I start? I always tell people, start with the things that you are being exposed to and consuming the most. And I think about with water, you're consuming that multiple times a day. You're bathing in it. You're showering in it. So if you can't get the filtration system, just, you know, get a shower filter. You can buy one on Amazon. I also really like the brand Aquatrue and they're not crazy expensive and you can get a good shower filter head on your shower and get a good water filter for your house because that's something that you're consuming every single day. And that's something that's really important

because you're getting exposed to it multiple times a day. The second one I have on our list here that I've been keeping track of is so we had to throw away all of our mattresses at the previous place. Literally grabbed a bin. They were all in there. We had no more, basically we had no more furniture. We had to furnish this entire new place. We had to start all. from scratch. We got new mattresses and we decided to go with the ultimate snooze. Yeah. So I was looking into all the different non-toxic mattresses. I also did ask me anything on my Instagram and asked everybody what their favorite mattresses were. And this one was the one that kept coming up time and time again. And so I looked into it. And it actually was co-founded

by one of our dear friends, Gary Breka, which also really made me pay attention. because I was like, oh, I love everything that Gary does. He's very intentional about the products that he aligns himself with, really full of integrity, and just a really good guy. He genuinely cares about people's health. And so when I saw that he was connected to this company, I was like, okay, I got to check this out. And we are so happy. I have to tell you, I'm not going to name names of the other mattresses that we had,

but it was kind of a point of contingency with Hector and I, because we had this one non-toxic mattress in our old home. So it was kind of a blessing in disguise that we had to get rid of them. And we had to get rid of them, by the way, because of the mold, we were told by several mold experts, you have to throw away anything that's porous. So like our couch, our mattresses, our bedding, things that the mold spores could attach onto.

And you think about with a mattress, it's very hard to clean the mold spores off that. You can't just like throw it in the washing machine. So we were advised to throw them away. And one of the non-toxic mattresses that we had, Hector would always in the morning be like, oh, I don't like this mattress. It's not very comfortable. And I remember like back then, you know, before we found the mold or anything, I was like,

should we get rid of it? Yeah. I was like, God, I was like, this is like a really nice, expensive, non-toxic mattress and not an expense that I want to be having to do right now. So I guess blessing in disguise that we had to throw away, although it was devastating because we lost a lot of, a lot of money. Anyways, so we found the ultimate snooze.

We're very happy with it. I was a little bit nervous just because Hector, because of the last one. I feel like I'm very picky with my mattresses. The other one was a little bit too soft. Yeah. So when it's a little bit too soft, I sleep on my stomach a lot and I put my leg up.

And I will wake up sometimes. Yeah. Like a flamingo. Yeah. And my back would just kill me if it's a little bit too soft. I like a little bit of like padding and cushion, you know, a little bit of a squish, but not too much. And I am crazy about the ultimate snooze. Good job, Gary.

Thank you very much. Yeah. You nailed it. Nailed it. It's the corny was calling it the Goldilocks of mattresses because it's not too firm and not too, not too soft. Did you know that there are about 10 billion mitochondria in your body right now, tiny systems powering basically everything that you do? And while people call mitochondria the powerhouses of the cell, they're really more like little life machines.

They help support your energy, your muscles, recovery, and overall resilience. But as we age, mitochondrial function naturally becomes less efficient, which can show up as lower energy and slower recovery over time. That's why I've been really interested in mitochondria from timeline. Mito peer contains urolithin A, which supports a process called mitophagy, helping your body clear out damaged mitochondria and support healthier cellular energy. production. And I love this approach because it's not about pushing harder. It's about supporting the foundation underneath how your body already works. Timeline's clinically proven formula is now more

accessible. Mitopure starts at $99 and listeners can get 20% off at timeline.com slash real foodology. Again, that's timeline.com slash real foodology. You know what's really wild. You can buy a quote unquote healthy meat stick and it still contains a bunch of unnecessary ingredients and preservatives and a lot of them have a lot of sugar too. if you haven't noticed. That's one reason I've been loving Paleo Valley's 100% grass-fed beef sticks. Unlike most meat sticks, they ferment there's the old school way. Instead of using encapsulated citric acid and the ingredients are actually super clean. 100% grass-fed and finished beef, organic spices, no added sugar and no weird fillers.

They're also sourced from American farms using regenerative practices, which I really appreciate. Honestly, these have become one of my favorite high-protein snacks when I'm traveling, running between meetings, or just need something easy in my bag that actually keeps me full. The garlic summer sausage flavor is my personal favorite. It's so good. And I love their keto and paleo-friendly too. It's one of those products that makes healthy eating feel way less complicated. Go to paleo-valley.com slash real foodology or use code real foodology at checkout for 15% off on all Paleo Valley products.

Yeah, really, we're so, so happy. We got the one with the pillow top on it. And it's made with all organic materials, nothing that off. gases. You think about you spend a third of your life sleeping. And so you want to make sure that what you're sleeping on and what you're sleeping in doesn't have a bunch of VOCs and other chemicals that are going to off gas into your home and your lungs. And you're going to be exposed to those things nightly for a third of your life. So you want to make sure that you're buying good non-toxic stuff that doesn't have all these toxic materials. So we're very happy with our ultimate snooze mattresses.

Yeah. It's organic material. So do you know what the mattresses actually made out of? It's wool, latex, and cotton, I believe. But you may want to double check that. I think it's wool, cotton, latex. And we have two of them. So if you're coming in seen at our house, you're going to have the ultimate snooze. I love that. Okay. Okay, next is air filters. Yeah. So I actually had the founder of Jasper Air Filter on my podcast twice. He's such a great guest. I would definitely go back and listen to those episodes. If you care more to hear about why the quality of your air matters in your home. And actually, I will tell you all this.

So we had our jaspers in our home in the moldy rental. And we were told that it was a good thing we had it in there because we could have been even more poisoned. Just seeing how much, essentially when we got that mold testing company in there, and they were horrified by the numbers that they were seeing and in the air samples and everything. We were actually told they were like, well, it was a good thing that you had this. So it's actually an air scrubber is what they call the jasper. Unfortunately, Hector and I were still having symptoms. So I'm not saying that it's like going to absolve you from completely getting poisoned.

And like if you find mold in your home, you're not just going to be able to put a jasper in there and like put a band-aid over it. But what I'm saying is that if there are contaminants in your home that you don't know about yet, it could be adding a layer of protection. So when we first, we first close on the house, we have now, we had our contractor go in basically that same afternoon and started doing work on the property. And one of the first things that we did was remove that gross wallpaper. Yeah. And then we painted everything again.

And then we put a bunch of jasper's in there like immediately. And we put a bunch of air scrubbers in there, left them basically full strength overnight for a few days. Oh, we're looking for like a week. For like a week. Yeah. Yeah. And it changed.

I mean, I remember Dom came back to the house. And he goes, whoa. it actually smells way better in here. Usually lingers for a lot longer. He could tell the difference, I could tell a difference. The air quality inside that house got much better. Yeah. Yeah.

So we're big fans of Jaspers. They are a bit of an investment. Those are my favorite ones. If they are out of your budget, I also like Air Doctor too, which I can leave a link for. I just, I like the Jaspers because they perform better

and they're actually industrial, air scrubbers. The founder was actually doing mold remediation in homes before he created Jasper. And he was using these big industrial air scrubbers that were like huge and not for residential use. And he thought, huh, I kind of want to make an industrial like air scrubber, but be able to put it into residential homes. And so that's what he did.

And so for me, just knowing the backstory and knowing what went into actually creating these air filters, to me they just, they feel a little bit more, you know, like a higher quality. But I think air doctor is also a great option too. And I can leave a link to that as well. Because I always like to give people different options and meet people where they are with their budgets. But yeah, I think it's incredibly important

to have an air filter in your bedroom, in your children's bedrooms and in high traffic areas like downstairs, you know, in your living room. I also remember we forgot to change the filter one time in the Jasper. Oh, yeah. And then one of the, who came over? It wasn't Mike, was it with Jasper.

No, it was. Wes. Yeah, Wes came over. He goes, have you guys changed your air filters yet? And your Jasford? We're like, oh, shit, we totally forgot. He pulls out the air filter. It was all the dog for all of like the stuff.

We're like, whoops, we forgot. Yeah, he goes. Don't forget to change your air filters as well. It is really humbling experience when you go to change those air filters. Because you also think about when you see what's in those filters and you look at that and you go, wow, that would otherwise be in my lungs. Just food for thought. That's crazy to think about it. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Okay. All right. So we got the mattresses. We probably should have talked about this after the mattress. But what about the bedding?

Yeah, so unfortunately we also had to toss away all of our bedding. So I had to buy new bedding for our house. I always go for organic cotton because you want it to be breathable or linen too. You just want it to be made from natural materials. So when I was looking for bedding, I was reading the ingredient labels. It's so funny because I just read ingredient labels for literally everything now. My clothing, my mattresses, my bedding. And yes, you can look up the ingredient labels for your bedding. And I was looking and I was finding and I was finding. I was finding. And I was finding. a lot of them were polyester blends. And polyester, just a reminder, is made from plastic. And then it's often treated with a lot of dyes and harsh chemicals. And again, it's plastic. So you're spending a third of your life sleeping and you want to make sure that you're not exposing your body to these harsh chemicals and to things like plastics

and unnatural materials. So for my betting, it is a non-negotiable. It always needs to be cotton or linen. Blankets wool is great. I landed on parachute because I just feel like parachute is so beautiful and they use a lot of organic cotton. They are a little bit more expensive

so you can also go on quince. Quince is another great option as far as like pretty affordable cotton bedding and then Brook Lennon as well. And then same for comforters. I got 100% down comforters with a cotton outside shell. Again, a lot of them are being filled with

do not fall for the alternative down. Everyone's like, oh, alternative down. It's like great for the animals. It's actually not. You want to utilize every part of the animal. And also you want it to be real natural materials. Alternative down is often just, it means that they're stuffing it with plastic, with polyester. And so I got a downcomforter from the company store.

And then I got another downcomfitor from Naturepeedic, which is also another great brand, if you want to look into them as well. I love NaturePedic. We also bought our dog beds from NaturePedic. And our dogs really like them. We had the Molly Muts one, we still have one of those. But Butters doesn't really seem to like that one as much, because I don't think it's as, like, thick and comfortable.

I love Molly Muts because I love the materials. It's a cotton shell and then a wool interior. But our dogs don't seem to love them as much as the naturopedic. Our dogs love the naturopedic one. It's really thick, made with cotton, and I believe they're filled with wool as well. So if you're looking for non-toxic dog bed, naturopedic is the way to go. they also have bedding and they have mattresses and they also have comforters and pillows and stuff too

and then towels okay it's so funny to break all this down I just again I like to hear this stuff from other people where they're buying their stuff and so I wanted to kind of give you an all comprehensive we just made a list of everything that we were doing for our home yeah I found my favorite towels ever

on brook linen they are the 100% cotton Turkish plush towels. And we're tall. And so I ordered the towel sheets actually. So they're a little bit longer than just a normal towel. It's kind of like, I think of like a beach towel where it's significantly longer.

They are so freaking cozy. I feel like I'm in a spa every time I get out of the shower. And this is not an ad for them. We bought all this, by the way. Like this is not an ad. I'm just sharing what I like. And I like that it's 100% cotton. So Brooklyn and for the towels,

those are my favorite. Let's see, what else? Oh, let's talk about the sauna. Yeah, the heavenly heat sauna. Yeah. So this is another one of those ones that I've had on my list that I've wanted for a really, really long time. Really, really long time. And now that I have a home, finally have the ability to have a sauna, we landed on the heavenly heat sauna. And by the way, I have not been using it. Well, first of all, we haven't had this set up because we basically set it up and then we found mold like a week later in our house. So that was the whole thing. I have not. I would have used the sauna throughout my pregnancy on very low heat for like 10 to 15 minutes

because I look to the Scandinavian culture and they all sauna throughout their entire pregnancies, Finnish Swedes, Norwegians. It's the whole, it's part of their culture. What temperature would you go in? I think my doctor said around 100 degrees. Okay. It was like, keep it around 100. Don't go in for longer than like 10 minutes. Listen to your body. Definitely don't stay in there until you feel like you're going to pass out. Now, by the way, this is not medical advice.

I am just sharing what I do. I am not giving anybody advice on what they should do. Everyone needs to listen to their own bodies, talk to their doctor. But we weren't able to have this set up. So unfortunately, I have not been sanaing most of my pregnancy. But I have. Hector's been going to the gym every day to sauna. I have.

If there's one thing that if someone were to take away from me and that thing would be the sauna, I would freak out. I am obsessed with the sauna. it is my favorite thing to do. It helps detox. You feel so much better. It gives you more energy. You sweat out all the bad shit. All the bad stuff goes away.

Your skin feels better. You feel more clear, more clear-headed. God, I love the sauna. Seriously, it's my favorite. Everyone should be sanna. Yeah. It seems like sanas are getting a lot more popular lately too, right? Yeah, I think so too.

So I think as people are learning that it's a great way to detox and get rid of all the chemicals and stuff that we're being exposed to, environmental toxins. And this one has basically no toxins, right? It's like super low EMF, all organic material that they use to source it from. No VOCs. They don't use the chemical glues. They don't use plywood. It's all real wood. Yeah. And so that's why we really liked the heavenly sauna.

And that's what, or sorry, heavenly heat sauna. That's why we landed on that one. But yeah, I think SANA is definitely becoming more popular because everybody's like, yeah, I feel so good. I mean, same to you. The guy that runs our studio was like, I didn't start feeling better. He also unfortunately got exposed to mold.

It's a thing here in Austin. It's really bad. And he was like the only thing that made me feel better was consistently saunaing every day. Yeah. Yeah, so it's a big deal. Again, accessibility-wise, I understand not everybody has the ability to buy a sauna.

I didn't for a long time either. A lot of gyms have them now. That's what Hector's been doing is going to the gym. I wasn't going to a gym using it just because I can't control the heat on that because everyone's all sharing it together. And I didn't want to go into like 170 degrees sauna. I don't think that's safe for being pregnant right now. But you can go to a gym and do it.

You can also class pass. Yeah. Yeah, there's a bunch of different companies now. Yeah, perspire is great. I used to go to them a lot in L.A. And when we were in Denver, too. You all know that I'm super mindful about what goes in and around my food, and that includes the cookware that I use every single day. Most nonstick cookware still contains forever chemicals like Phaas, which can leach into your food and home.

And honestly, once I learned that, I knew I had to make the switch. If you don't know anything about Pfas and nonstick cookware, I highly recommend watching the film Dark Waters. It's so good. And it really explains why this is such a big deal for our health. And this is also why I love R Place cookware. Their cookware is completely toxin-free, but it still performs amazingly well. I've been especially loving the Alwayspan and the Wonder Oven Pro that I have in my home. I love it.

It's so good. They make cooking so much easier and cleanup is a breeze. Plus, everything is beautiful and multifunctional, so my kitchen feels less cluttered. If you're ready to upgrade your kitchen, go to from our place.com slash real foodology and use code real foodology for 10% off sitewide. They also offer a 100-day risk-free trial plus free shipping and return. turns. If you love honey, you are going to love manicora honey. I've been using it in my lattes every morning and it tastes so good. Sometimes I'll do a spoonful in the morning, especially if I have

an itchy, scratchy throat and feel like maybe I have something coming on or add it to my tea, sometimes it drizzle it on my yogurt. This is not your average honey. Manacora is rich, creamy, and seriously delicious. It comes from remote forests in New Zealand where bees collect nectar from the manuka tea tree. That's what gives it all these amazing bio-actors. antioxidants, prebiotics, and naturally occurring MGO, which is a rare antibacterial compound that makes Manuka honey so unique. I also love that it supports gut health naturally because so much of your immune system starts in the gut. Now it's easier than ever to try Manacora honey. Head to Manacora.com slash Real Foodology to save up to 31% plus $25 worth of free gifts with the starter kit,

which comes with an MGO 850 plus Manuka Honey Jar, five honey travel sticks, a wooden spoon, and a guidebook. That's M-A-N-U-K-O-I-I-I-R-E-R. a.com slash real foodology to save 31% plus $25 worth of free gifts. Also another option, look, remember at the end of the day, the sauna, all it's really doing is heating your body up and encouraging you to sweat. So if you don't have the ability to get into a sauna, another great way to do this is running every day, working up a sweat, getting hot enough to where you actually physically sweat, or you can also draw an Epsom salt bath and get it pretty hot, hot enough to where, you know, if you've sat in the tub for 15 minutes and you start sweating,

that is also a great option to get toxins out and it's pretty cheap. I think most people have tubs and Epsom salts are pretty cheap to buy. And so there's another great option too. And then we went with the outdoor combo sauna, right? So we have, what are the two heat sources for that again? It's the traditional sauna with the rocks on it, the traditional heater with the rocks. And the infrared? And then it also has an infrared heater. Yeah. Because we wanted to be able to to do both. Yeah. I was also reading that if you sauna after you work out, it helps with with muscle growth as well. Have you seen anything about that? Yeah. So there's some people that are talking about studies that have been coming out showing that if you are on a muscle building

journey, that there's a certain, I thought wasn't it for cold plunging? I thought this might have been for cold plunging. I think cold plunging is the opposite. If you cold plunge after you work out, I think it actually does the opposite of muscle growth. It does. Yeah. So if you're trying to do, if you're trying to build muscle, you want to cold plunge first and then work out and then sauna after? I think ideally the perfect day would be cold plunge in the morning,

like first thing, kind of wake up a little bit and then work out and then sauna after. But who cares? I mean, at that point, look, I just get in there when you can. I know. Sometimes with this stuff I'm like. people get a little too aggressive and too crazy with this. Just go in when you can. Yeah.

But I think that's what I've heard is like the ideal setup. Yeah. It's funny. You say that I just, I'm going to go off in this tiny little tangent because I saw this video the other day and I was laughing because I'm like, yeah, I feel this way too. This girl was like, do you just feel like,

she goes, I'm just starting to feel like wellness has gone so far in the other direction that now I just like, I want to start smoking cigarettes because I'm over at all. I start ripping darts and who cares. And it made me laugh because I do share that sentiment, but I think everyone is feeling so fatigued from all of this advice online that's like, okay, you have to cold plunge when you get up in the morning and then do your vibration plate

and do your red light and then do your gym and then sauna and then make your smoothie. And then you have to be on your Zoom by 9 a.m. And it's like, bro, what? Like we're not like we're not going to be doing all of that. It's way too much. And I also feel that way too. So if you're feeling that way, I think it's very normal. And I share the sentiment.

For me, it's why I never got really into all of these different modalities because I've always felt the same, which is you have to be able to, you have to find a healthy lifestyle that fits in your lifestyle. This has to be a lifestyle. It has to be something that you want to do, that you will do consistently. because if you don't want to do it, you will not stay consistent with it. So do the things that make you feel really good and the things that you actually have the budget for and then you have the time for it. Because honestly, at the end of the day, all we really truly need is good clean water, real food, access to outside, movement of our bodies.

None of that costs money except for the cost of buying the food. So try to remember that if you're feeling overwhelmed and you just want to throw your hands up in the air and rip a dart and get a fridge cigarette, a Diet Coke, try to connect back with why am I actually doing this and what can I do to make this easier on me, not harder on me? I'm doing this because I want to live a long healthy life. I want to be there for our son as long as I possibly can. I want to have energy to show up for my husband, for my career, for my kids. I want to feel good.

I want to feel good at my body. They want to have energy. Yes. And I want to live a life that I really love. I don't want to feel chained to all these modalities that I have to do all the time every day. So if that looks like I'm drinking clean filtered water, I'm getting enough protein every day. I'm eating real food. I'm getting sunlight.

I'm grounding my feet in the grass. Great. That is, I think, what we should all be striving for. And everything else, if you have the budget, if you have the time for it and it makes you feel good, great, do it. Like no one's saying don't do it, but I'm just saying, you know, find the things. that really work for you that make you feel good and don't try to, don't go crazy, stressing. Yeah. I do have to say the cold plunge does feel great.

It sucks when you're in it. It hurts. I'm such a little baby, but. It does feel good. It helps a lot with, like my inflammation. Yeah. It helps a lot with it. And then like muscle fatigue as well.

It helps quite a bit. Get my soreness out. I hurt my hamstring sprinting. and I got in the coal blanche and it helped a lot. Yeah. For stuff like that, I think. I mean, there's a reason why athletes do those ice baths. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. I'll leave a link in the show notes if you're just curious to know all this stuff. I mean, we'll leave links for all this stuff if you're curious about buying them. And then I'm going to leave another link where it shows specifically what pieces of furniture, like what couch we bought. We got a six penny non-toxic couch, which I'm very happy. I really love it. It's so beautiful. Oh my gosh. It has a linen cover. It's so pretty and it's so

comfortable. All that kind of stuff. I'll link and then I'll also link, I've linked this a bunch on my Instagram, what I have been buying for baby and it has everything in there. I mean, it's everything from like diapers to burp cloths to what non-toxic mattress we got for his crib, what crib we bought, just everything is in there. So if you're curious about that as well, it's also, I think, a great resource just to scroll through if you have a friend that's having a baby, and be like, oh, like this looks like a good little present to get for somebody, like the primally pure baby kit. I love everything that Primely Pure does. And they have this little baby kit. And actually, one of my dear friends, Alex Clark actually, Alex Clark just gifted me the

baby kit from Primely Pure. And I was like, oh, thanks, Alex. Yes. I was like, I really wanted this. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. So. Are we using special, diapers? Yeah, we're going to go with, wait. Our normal ones, plastic. Was it kudos? Yes, most of them are made with plastic. There is one diaper that is 100% plastic free. Sick. Yep, it's called kudos. So we are going to buy kudos diapers. And I know people are probably going to roll their eyes and some people are, people love to judge about the baby stuff. Oh yeah. And I'm going to probably get some messages that are, I can't believe you're not using cloth diapers. What are cloth diapers?

It's just like a little cloth diaper. So instead of doing a diaper that you throw away that ends up in a landmine, which, or landmine, she's in landfill. Landmine. I mean, they are little landmines. Use reusable cloth diapers. And I love that people do that. I was just going to say, I just moved.

five times. I just had the most traumatic nine months in my entire life. My mom just died. I'm sorry. I'm not going to start doing cloth diapers right now because I just don't have the capacity to do that. Seems like a lot of work. Maybe in the future. There is something that I want to look into, which I haven't even talked to you about yet, which is called baby lead weaning, which is essentially like you try to potty train your baby from newborn on because apparently they give you cues about when they need to go to the bathroom. And there are some research. sources around like just literally putting your newborn over the toilet and like teaching them how to go to the bathroom at that little, which I'm very intrigued by. And that I'm more interested

in doing TBD if we end up doing that just because of the chaos of our lives lately. But yeah, so we'll be using the kudos plastic-free diapers and plastic-free wipes and maybe down the line. I'm not going to say never that I won't, but I just clothed diapers. So you just, you have to keep up with the washing of them all the time. you have to go send them to like a cleaning service and have them clean, or you clean them yourself in your washer and dryer, and it's just a whole thing, and I've heard it's a lot to maintain and keep up with. So for right now, we're going to go with the plastic-free diapers.

Oh, but I will say this, because this is something that I am concerned about. The diapers in the landfills, the landmines, is a big problem. And I actually have a friend who created a company called Hero diapers, or H-I-R-O, which I'm also going to. to buy some too. I just wish that they were plastic free. But these diapers are so freaking cool. My friend Tara, who you met. Oh yeah. Halloween. Yes, exactly. Who also created For Sigma. Just created these diapers that have these mushrooms in the liner of the diaper. And these mushrooms actually eat plastic. So they eat the entirety of the diaper. And then they continue to eat everything

in the landfill. So if you think about you throw these diapers away in the landfill that have these mushrooms in there. And then the mushrooms start eating away at all the landfill, which is really freaking cool. So I'm going to be buying some of those too because I love that. I don't even want to call it technology because it's a plant. It's mushrooms. But mushrooms in the diaper.

And then they eat the landfill. Isn't that cool? Yeah. So I'll be buying some of those two. You start to start hallucinating. That's funny. That's fun. Let's see.

What else? I think that's it. Right? We kind of went through. That's the big list that we've had. Look, I feel very, I feel safe, much safer in this home than I did in the previous properties again because all the inspections that we did. I highly recommend if you're looking to purchase a property, it doesn't, you don't even

need humidity. Phoenix has some of the worst homes for mold as well. Someone was telling me about a property in Boulder that had insane mold as well. So look, it's not just the humid areas, but. Yeah. Energy efficient properties that are being built these days is, is just right for mold. It's just right for mold. It's airtight design keeps humidity above 55 to 70 percent. It's basically trapping the humidity within the walls. So the drywall swells and ruins, wood grows mold. Even new builds have mold grown up before they're fully constructed. So, it's terrible. They're just like a chemical soup of off gassing, glues, resistance. And it's going to lead to

chronic symptoms, illness, fatigue. It's really just not the way that we really should be building. My friend Kyle, he's known as the Wellness Daddy on YouTube. I admittedly haven't had time to really do a deep dive on all this, but he's made some awesome content, awesome videos. He's on a fight against. against mold right now as well. Again, wellness daddy on YouTube. And he did a few videos on construction practices that he believe is going to be the future and the way we should be pivoting our construction.

And one of them is called rammed earth. Oh, yeah. And it's a solid mass walls made only of sand, clay, and minerals. So there's zero paper, zero wood, zero drywall, right? No food for mold. So mold has nothing to eat. There's no wall cavities. So hidden mold is impossible. Any moisture shows up on the surface and dries naturally. The walls actively regulate humidity. So they suck up extra moisture when it's humid and release it when the air dries. Keeping indoor levels

perfectly stable, which you want about 35 to 50 percent of humidity without needing dehumidifiers or heavy HVAC. So there's almost zero VOCs, zero off gassing, no paints or ceilence are really needed and it has that cool like Spanish Adobe kind of look to it as well. So rammed earth, I would love to build a house with that. The only thing that sucks with rammed earths is once you have your floor design and you build it, you can't really change it up. So you have to lock in the architecture plans. You can't say, hey, I want to knock out this wall down the road. Once you've built it, it's set in stone. Literally.

Literally. There's another one called AAC, so autoclaved, aerated concrete. It's amazing and so much healthier than what we have right now. It's a mineral maced blocks, cement, lime, sand, water, and air pockets that create solid mass walls with zero cavities. So it basically removes the whole hidden mold problem right at the same. the source. There's no paperback drywall or wood in the walls. Again, nothing for mold to eat. So if we build a house down the road, we're doing it with most likely AAC, potentially with

the BAMDearth. And if you're about to move, maybe you have some time before you have to get into the new property. Maybe you can build. I would 100% recommend you look into AAC or Ramd Earth. Okay, cool. Yeah, that's super helpful. I know more people are starting to pay attention to this. We said kind of in the beginning that a lot of the construction materials that we're using are just starting to understand that they're ripe for mold. And we need to start paying attention to the way that we're building our homes. I think in the next 10 years this is going to be a big thing that people are starting to pay attention to.

And look, again, it's not one of those things that, I mean, we can only control so much, right? So it's not something where you freak out and feel like you have to move all of a sudden now. it's something Hector and I are just talking about and thinking about for down the line when we hopefully have the means to build our own home. We're going to start looking into these types of materials to make a healthier home when we're able to build. And if you're working on building a home right now, something we'll look into. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's all I had for us, court. Cool. Okay, well, I hope you all enjoy this episode. I hope that it was helpful. We're going to leave all the links in the show notes for you. So if there was anything that we mentioned that you were interested in, it should be linked in the show notes, hopefully. Yeah.

So thanks for listening. And until next time, we'll see you soon, guys. Bye. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to the Real Foodology podcast. This is a Wellness Loud production produced by Drake Peterson. The theme song is by Georgie. You can watch the full video version of this podcast inside the Spotify app or on YouTube.

As always, you can leave us a voicemail by clicking the link in our bio. and if you like this episode, please rate and review on your podcast app. For more shows by my team, go to wellnessloud.com. See you next time. 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. If you struggle with bloating, gas, constipation, digestive issues, yeast overgrowth, Well, you may already know about Digest This. It's the podcast hosted by me, Bethany Cameron, also known as Little Sipper on Instagram. I dive into gut health, nutrition, the food industry, and drawing from my own experience. I break down what's good, what's bad, and what's the best for your gut, your skin, and so much more. I even offer gut-friendly recipes. New episodes every Monday and Wednesday produced by Wellness Loud.