Realfoodology - Fertility Journey, Wellness Tips & Honeymoon Recap

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

265: This week is a bit different - in this special Q&A episode, I’m answering your questions about health, wellness and life in general. I’m also sharing some pretty big personal updates, and giving you the full recap of my honeymoon with Hector (it was a dream come true, y’all).  Topics Discussed:  → Leading a healthy lifestyle without living in a bubble  → The latest update on my fertility journey  → The link between stevia and fertility   → Best clean workout clothing brands  → How I improved my sleep hygiene after years on the road → Favorite spots from my honeymoon (and why Capri is underrated)  Sponsored By: → CURED Nutrition | Right now, CURED Nutrition is offering my listeners an exclusive 20% off Serenity Gummies with a monthly subscription at https://www.curednutrition.com/realfoodology. Use code REALFOODOLOGY at checkout. → Everyday Dose | Find Everyday Dose in Target stores across the country. Buy any two Everyday Dose products at a Target store near you, and they’ll pay you back for one. Details at https://www.everydaydose.com/REALFOODOLOGYBOGO. → Puori | Feel the difference for yourself, go to https://www.puori.com/REALFOODOLOGY and use the code REALFOODOLOGY at checkout for 20% off → Manukora | Go to https://www.Manukora.com/REALFOODOLOGY to get $25 off the Starter Kit, which comes with an MGO 850+ Manuka Honey jar, 5 honey travel sticks, a wooden spoon, and a guidebook! → Lineage Provisions | Try it for yourself at https://www.lineageprovisions.com and use the code REALFOODOLOGY for 10% off. → SEED | Go to https://www.Seed.com/Realfoodology and use code 25Realfoodology to get 25% off your first month. Timestamps:  → 00:00 - Introduction  → 04:15 - Live Well, But Not in a Bubble   → 13:07 - Fertility Journey  → 16:09 - How I Built My Social Media Career  → 21:21 - Clean Workout Clothes → 24:01 - Should We Avoid Gluten?  → 31:04 - Big Life Update!  → 32:03 - Non-Toxic Toilet Paper   → 34:24 - My Sleep Algorithm  → 38:35 - Stevia and Fertility  → 46:00 - Honeymoon Recap - Europe!   → 01:10:28 - Food & Lifestyle: Europe vs. US Show Links:→ Namarie Workout Wear  → Lights Out | Bedtime Gummies 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

Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology podcast. As always, I'm your host, Courtney Swan. In today's episode, you just have me. We're doing solo. I did a question box on my Instagram stories. Got a lot of amazing questions from y'all. I also have a really big life announcement. I'm going to talk a little bit about our honeymoon because I just got back two weeks ago from my amazing three-week honeymoon and so much more. So let's dive into it. There's a lot going on in the world right now, and it feels a little chaotic. So protecting your peace is not just important, but it's absolutely essential. That's where cured nutrition comes in.

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works on their already discounted subscriptions, giving you almost a third off the regular price. Don't wait, try creatine plus today, clean science-backed supplements that you can actually trust. So go to P-U-O-R-I dot com slash Real Foodology and use the code Real Foodology. I want to start out with this quote that I saw online the other day that just really hit me, and I think it's such a great reminder in life. Choose your hard. If you don't choose your hard, your hard will choose you. Being poor is hard. Getting rich is hard. Being overweight is hard. Getting fit is also really hard. Being married is hard, but being single is also really hard. Every choice in life is hard. Choose your hard or hard will choose you instead. I loved this so much. I think it's such a

great reminder to take this personal accountability and remember that by choosing to not do anything is just as equally as hard as choosing to do the hard things. Yes, showing up and going to the gym every day is super hard, but being overweight and being unhealthy is also really hard. So either path that you choose to go down is going to be hard in different ways. And for me personally, I would rather be driving the wheel of the car and deciding what's going to be hard for me and what's not because at the end of the day, it's all going to be hard, and it's all about your choices and taking accountability for yourself. Okay, I'm going to dive into some of your questions right now. I got this question this morning, and I really love it. What's your best advice for finding balance

and health, wellness, versus obsessing over it? This question could not be more timely. I actually went on a walk with a close girlfriend this morning, and we were talking about this very thing, because she brought up the fact that recently it came out that Mountain Valley water, the glass water bottles that we buy when we're traveling is really high in arsenic, and she just kind of put her hands up in air and she was like it just feels like nothing we can do is right and I said you know this is my this is my approach to it and she just put her hands up in the air and was like it just feels like everything we do is not enough and I told her you know my approach to this is we're kind of caught in the middle right where the more you know the more you know right and and we're trying to do the best

that we can and we're online to a lot more things that maybe some people in America are not awake to yet and it can be a blessing and a curse but we have to remind ourselves that we're doing the best we can and if we're paying attention to this kind of stuff and if we are in a rhythm where we're getting good night's sleep as much as possible we are staying hydrated we're really focusing on the foods that we're bringing into our home if we're cooking the majority of our food from scratch or at the very least just buying things from organic and buying clean prepared foods that we bring into our home we're much better off than a lot of this country that are not paying attention to this at all and we have to remember that, you know, we also have to live our lives. And our bodies are extremely resilient.

The problem is, is when people are not paying attention to this at all and their buckets are overflowing. I talked about this with Will Cole on the podcast when he came on. There's this concept of having a bucket. And when your bucket starts overflowing with all the different toxins that you're being exposed to is when we really start to get into trouble, right? But if we're maintaining that bucket and we're dumping it out as much as we can, if we're doing saunas, or if you don't have access to a sauna, going for a run and working up a sweat, or drawing a warm, borderline hot bath and putting Epsom salts in there that creates a sweating reaction so that you can get toxins out of your body.

Taking binders like charcoal can really help and taking things like milk thistle that support your liver and your body's detoxification pathways. Because look, personally, I refuse to live in a bubble. I also refuse to live in fear and I refuse to live in this mindset of constantly trying to control every little outcome. And this may surprise some people because I think the problem with Instagram and being online is that it's so hard to get all of the nuances out. It's why I love podcasting so much because I can explain in detail my personal thoughts about it. Yes, I do a lot to take care of my health. I only buy organic food. That's the only food that I allow to come into my

house. I try to cook as much from scratch as possible. I focus on eating whole real foods in their natural state as much as possible. Does that mean that I don't ever slip up? No. I go to dinner with my friends. I'll eat the chips and guac. I try not to worry about the canola oil that it's fried in. But it's all about consistency, not perfection. I'm not doing this all the time. And we do have to remember, I think sometimes in the health and wellness world, people forget that our bodies are also resilient. And we hear this all the time from, you know, the naysayers of the wellness movement. You have a liver for a reason. Absolutely. And I totally agree with that. But we do have to remember that our bodies are being so infiltrated and attacked from so many different areas. I mean,

we have fluoride and SSRIs and birth control and pesticides in our water, also chlorine. So I want to be on top of that and I filter my drinking water. I also filter my shower water. But then do I stress out about it and try to live in a bubble? No. And do I not travel and not use a shower in a hotel just because it's not filtered? No. My point is that we need to get to a point where we recognize that we're doing the absolute best that we can and then we just have to release and let the rest of it go. I think one thing that is a saving grace for me and many in the wellness space is really focusing on detoxing. I'm not talking about juice cleanses. I'm talking about just supporting the detoxification pathways because like I said earlier, if our buckets are overflowing, then that's when we're going to start seeing

diseases, chronic diseases, cancer, obesity, so many things showing up. So just making sure that you're supporting those detoxification pathways. For me personally, I get in the sauna at least four times a week, if not more. And I take a binder every time I get in the sauna. So I do a charcoal binder when I'm sweating in the sauna. And then I also take a supplement that supports my liver function. It has dandelion. It has turmeric and milk thistle. And these are herbs that we know that support the detoxification pathways and really help your liver to filter out the excess toxins. And I was telling my friend. I said, look, I refuse to live in a bubble. I'm doing the best that I can. I go above and beyond and try to make sure that I am sweating and detoxifying. And then I just, I pray and

let, I just live and let God. At that point, at a certain point, you just have to live and let God. This also reminds me of a comment that I got on a video that I posted yesterday. Some woman was trying to have a gotcha moment. I get this all the time with my Instagram where people go, oh, well, you know, you claim to be natural, but you dye your hair or, oh, you do your nails, which by the way, we can go into this. I have actually stopped doing my nails. I'm on a full fertility journey now, and I'll go into that. That was actually a question that I got, but let me finish this thought first.

So people try to have these gotcha moments with me, and they say, oh, well, you dye your hair, so, you know, you claim to be natural. Let me be very, very clear. I have always said this from day one. I believe in informed consent. there are so many people that are going about their day, not knowing about glyphosate in their food, and not knowing that these ultra-processed foods are driving the obesity epidemic. And there's so many things that people don't know about, that we should be filtering our tap water,

that tap water isn't actually not as clean as it claims to be, which, by the way, sidebar, you can go to eWG.org and type in your zip code to their tap water database, and you can actually see what exactly what chemicals are in your neighborhood. in your municipal's tap water supplies. So if you're curious to know about that, my take on this is very similar to what I was just saying about living a healthy lifestyle.

I do so much. I go above and beyond. I don't use toxic skin care. I don't use toxic body care. I filter my water. I filter my shower water. I mean, I could go on. It doesn't matter.

But I allow myself to get my hair done three times a year. And I also, I don't use bleach. I use a healthier alternative. Yes, it's still chemicals. but again I refuse to live in a bubble and for me personally this is something that gives me joy and I like to do it. I don't fill up my face with filler. No shade if you do, but I'm just saying that there are so many other choices that people are making and then they're pointing fingers at me

as if I'm supposed to be held up on this pedestal as this perfect person that doesn't do quote unquote anything wrong and I'm here to say that no, I pick and choose. I put all this information out there so that people can make best decisions for them. If somebody is eating organic and they're making everything from scratch, but then they decide that they want to have a diet Coke once a week. I'm also not here to judge anybody. I just believe in informed consent because the issue right now is that so many people do not understand all the ins and outs of all of this. And if you are just living your life and you have no idea that we're being poisoned on the level that we are, chances are that you are probably going to get sick. I say this all the time. If you do not make time

for wellness, you'll be forced to make time for your illness. And unfortunately, is just the reality of the day and age that we live in. So I am exercising my own informed consent to do things that I want to do knowing the risks. And that's all I really care about at the end of the day is I want people to make the best decisions for themselves and their families, knowing all the risks and weighing out the risks. Okay, let's get to another question. Somebody asked me where I'm at in my fertility journey. So Hector and I just got married on June 27th and then we went on our honeymoon and I have been sharing on my Instagram that I found out a couple months ago that I have really high levels of glyphosate, which was actually really shocking because when I lived in California and I got my

glyphosate levels tested, my doctor at the time had told me that it was some of the lowest levels of glyphosate she's ever seen in a patient. I was like, wow, okay, okay, we're doing something right. Something happened when I moved to Colorado. I don't know if it's because Hector golfs a lot and he's tracking in glyphosate to the house. I don't know if the pets are, when we go on our walks, if they're getting a lot of glyphsate on their paws and then they're tracking that into our home. I don't know if maybe there's more glyphsate in our drinking water and maybe our water filter is not filtering all of it out. But I have been on an extra intensive detox last couple months that I don't normally do.

But I found out that I have the high glyphosate levels. I also found out I have mold and I'm also dealing with Babesia, which is similar to Lyme disease, something that you get from ticks. and I have just been on a really intensive detox journey the last couple of months to get the mold out, get the glyphsate out, and address the babesia. I'm doing saunas. Honestly, I'm trying to do the sauna almost every single day. It's just kind of hard when you have to be on camera and wash your hair all the time because I'm normally washing my hair once a week type of girly. And lately with the sauna, I've been having to wash my hair more. So I'm kind of trying

to balance that right now. My girls get me with that. So I'm on a pretty intensive detox protocol right now. And essentially where I'm out with my fertility journey is I'm currently detoxing everything out. I stopped doing my nails. So the only quote unquote toxic thing that I'm still doing in my life is dyeing my hair. But that's a thing that we're actually going to address with my hairdresser when I get pregnant because I will not be doing that anymore either. But I only get my hair done three to four times a year. I let it grow out as long as I possibly can. Just because I I don't want to have exposure to those chemicals more than necessary. But as far as fertility journey, so focusing on getting all that stuff out, I'm going to get

some more testing done soon. I'm sending in a stool sample this week to see where we're at with some of that and see where my health is at. And then I'm going to readdress. But essentially, Hector and I are not trying. I just wanted while we were on our honeymoon, I wanted one more month of just like getting everything out. I was still doing my intensive herbals while we were on the honeymoon.

to just really try to get all this stuff out before I get pregnant. So we're going to do some testing and I'm just, you know, I'm kind of just giving this to God right now and not stressing about it. I really believe that my kiddos will come when they're meant to be here. And like I said, I'm not not trying. We're just not like actively forcing it at the moment because I would like a little bit more time to get stuff out of my body. But then it's go time. So I'll keep you guys updated with that. someone asked me, how long did it take before your Instagram was profitable? I really like this question. And I like answering this because I know so many people have just now started following me and just started listening to my podcast. So it's good to give kind of perspective. I started my

Instagram in 2011. And now granted, I was not actively trying to grow my Instagram or really doing much of it outside of just taking really crappy Instagram photos of the foods that I was making. If you guys remember when Instagram had those like filters, this was before we had stories, before we had videos and had those really shitty Instagram filters that everyone was using and all the photos looked like they were from the 1950s and like just terrible. So I was posting my food, recipes and just like day-to-day tips that I had. I was juicing every single day back then. I think in 2011, I think I was maybe just coming off of being vegetarian for five years. It was somewhere around then. Anyways, I did not start making money off of my Instagram until about six

or seven years later. One, because when I started my Instagram, it was the height of blogging and everybody was making money off of blogging. And I was in school. I was doing my prerequisites and then went into my master's program. And I was working at night, going to school during the day, and then coming home and blogging until like midnight. And I had started this website called, I think it was something like, I think it was like you are what you eat or like eat for health or something like that. And I was writing all these blog posts. It was blog posts on there. It was when I was really starting to learn about how corrupt our food system was. I was learning about GMOs, Monsanto, glyphosate, and how insidious, you know, big agrochemical companies were and how

much big pharma was playing a role and keeping us sick. And I just felt like I needed an outlet to get this information out to people because I felt like people did not know, largely did not know that this was happening. And so I'd started my blog. And that's what I was really focusing on. And then I think a couple years in, maybe in like 2015, 14, something like that, I had a girlfriend who actually she has an account called Doug the Pug. She has a very famous pug on Instagram called Doug. and she's one of my really close friends, and she basically told me, because at the time it was just Courtney Swan was my account. She said, I think you need to change the surreal foodology, and we need to start, not we, but she was like advising me on how to help my Instagram account

grow and then start to turn it into a business. So it wasn't until I think I hit 100,000 followers that I was able to start making money. Because back then, like I said, blogging was at the height of of everything. People were making a lot of money off their blogs, but Instagram was not really a thing yet where people were making money off of anything. And I was just going on there very organically and saying, I love these vital protein collagen peptides. I remember, I think Vital Proteins is one of the first brands that ever paid me actually. And it was just all organic. Like I would just go on Instagram and say, I love these collagen peptides. I love this protein powder. And the brands would reach out to me and say, hey, we'd love to pay you, you know, X amount to do another post. We love

the posts that you did and it just kind of started organically then but you know this was happening alongside when people were starting to actively grow their instagrams in order to make money so i kind of i just hit that sweet spot where i was just doing it for fun and i was incredibly passionate about it and i was just i was consistent not for money i was just consistent because i was so passionate about the information i just felt like it was spewing out of me and i was just doing multiple posts a day getting as much information out there as i possibly could and then i started realizing, oh, wow, when these brands were reaching out to me, okay, this brand wants to pay me to post about something that I'm already using and that I love, and then I'm doing this

organically already, so why wouldn't I? And I just got lucky because it was around that time when accounts started doing this as their full-time jobs. Now, at the time, I was also touring with bands. I was a tour manager for Third Eye Blind for a year, and then I went off to be an nutritionist for Tovlo for four years. And so simultaneously, while I was doing that, I was also posting about restaurants that I was finding on the road. I was posting recipes for things that I was making for third-day blind and making for Tovlo in our tour bus, which was very limited. I basically just had a Vitamix and was doing like assaibals and chia parfets and stuff like that.

And then I was posting about the meals that we were finding on the road that were organic, healthy, and real food-based. And so I was building my Instagram alongside while I was doing that. And then I left Tovlo in 2019. And I would say that was when I really was a, able to turn this into a full-time job. And then in 2020, when the pandemic hit, I was stuck in my house like so many of us, like so many of us were for so long, that I decided to start my podcast. And then it just turned into a full-time career starting then. I haven't getting so many

questions about this on my Instagram. So I want to address it on the podcast too. Someone asked, what are some clean leggings and bike shorts for working out? My go-to right now is Namaree. I don't know if I'm saying that correctly, but it's N-A-M-A-R-I-E. And I'll tell you why. So first and foremost, the fabric is made from, I'm going to totally butcher this, Sylvendell. I think it's a material that they've actually created. And it's 91% hemp and it's 9% bio-based elastane. So normally I avoid elastane, but this bio-based elastane is actually made from corn. They have no BPA, no P-FAS, which P-FAS is otherwise known as forever chemicals, no Azo. dyes and no fallates. Now that being said, I have tried other non-toxic brands and I just didn't

love the feel of them. This, the fabric is the softest fabric I have ever felt. It is amazing. It's shocking to me that this stuff is actually non-toxic. It's super soft, stretchy, but the shorts also kind of give you that like form on your butt. So it gives you that kind of little like contour form. I love this company. I love them. I have like, four pairs of their leggings, three pairs of their shorts, a couple bras. This is what I have been going to, and this has been my go-to for workout wear. I will say a lot of people like made the label, and I do too. I think they have really cute styles and colors.

The only thing is that I felt a little duped by them because all over their website, it says, you know, non-toxic materials, everything is non-toxic, and then you go and you actually read what's in the fabric. and yes, it's gots certified organic cotton, but then it's 8% spandex. So I don't know. I feel like there's such limited options right now that I find myself sometimes compromising where I'm like, okay, I mean, I guess if it's less than 10% spandex, then I'll do it because it's a lot better than polyester and a lot of these other companies that are using

recycled plastic water bottles for their workout wear. Like what? Like you're just working out in a plastic bag at that point. So I definitely think this is better in a step in the right direction, but I just don't love that I didn't realize this until I went and actually looked and read on their website in the small fine print that it actually has spandex in it. But I mean, it's hard to make just organic cotton workout wear that doesn't have some sort of stretch in there because cotton by itself is not going to have that stretch. Oh, I almost forgot. I'm pretty sure that code real foodology

still works for Nomoree. It's N-A-M-A-R-I-E. I don't make any money off. of this. I'm just sharing, so if you want to try it, I believe that that discount still works, and it will save you a little bit of money. I love this question. Somebody asked me, thoughts on eating gluten for non-celiacs slash non-sensitivities. I think that everyone is much healthier avoiding gluten-containing products for the most part in America, and here is why. Gary Breck and I actually talked about this on his podcast. I also talked about this with Dr. Ben Lynch. So if you want to go back and listen to the episode of the Real Foodology podcast with Dr. Ben Lynch. We go into this in full detail. But here's the skim of it. In America, we are spraying

our grains with something called folic acid, which is a synthetic form of vitamin B9, and it's used to fortify our grains. So all of our wheat bread, essentially all of our grains are being fortified with this folic acid, which is not good for us, especially considering that around 60% of women have an MTHFR gene mutation, and we cannot synthesize folic acid. We need. We need, to be getting folate, which is the natural form of vitamin B9 found in foods, but they're actually spraying our food and our grains with folic acid. And especially if you have the MTHFR gene and you're unable to synthesize that, it actually ends up being poisonous for us. So I think that's why a lot of people are having issues, even if they're not celiac. So for someone like me, for example,

I was diagnosed with a wheat allergy in 2011. So 14 years ago, I never got the celiac test done. And I highly recommend before you, if you suspect you have anything going on, we definitely suspected I had something going on. But at the time, my doctor did not advise me to take a celiac test. They just said, just go off wheat and see how you feel. And of course, I felt amazing. My debilitating stomach aches went away.

My headaches went away. And so I never got tested for celiac. then I found out later that in order to test for celiac, you have to be actively eating gluten because your body needs to be having those antibodies in there, and you need to do it for a bit of time in order to test for celiac, and I just never did. So I think a lot of people are having sensitivities because of this folic acid on our grains. We have hybridized our wheat so much in this country that it no longer looks like the wheat that our ancestors ate. And if you compare bread that we're eating here in America to bread like, let's say, Italy or France, you're going to

to see a huge difference because they're using more heirloom varieties of wheat. They're also not spraying their wheat with folic acid. And there is a lot of regulation around glyphosate. Now, that's becoming more lax. I know in France that they're using glyphosate, but I need to actually look up because I'm not sure what their rules around using it as a desicator. So in America, we're also using glyphosate as a desicator, meaning that we use it to dry out the wheat before, right after harvest, before they then throw it into the process to turn it into things like wheat bread and crackers, et cetera. And I know in some places in Europe, they've actually banned the use of glyphosate as a desicator, but I don't know specifically on the laws, you know,

for specific countries, I would have to look them up. But it's why a lot of people say that they can't really handle the wheat here in America, and then they go over to say, let's say France or Italy, and they can eat all the bread they want. and they feel great, and they don't get the bloating, they don't get the digestive upset, and they don't have the same symptoms that they have when they're eating it at home. I recently found out after doing some routine testing that I have mold, and we don't really know where it came from. We were going to test my house, but I'm moving,

and so we didn't want to go through paying and doing all of that just to move out of the house anyways. And my doctor mentioned that one of the ways that I could be getting mold is through my coffee. coffee beans unfortunately are notoriously moldy and so if you are not drinking coffee where you know that they're actively testing for mold there is a high chance that your coffee has mold trust me i know i heard this for years and i rolled my eyes and i just didn't want to deal with it because i love my coffee but i started taking it very seriously when i found out that i had mold so i started drinking everyday dose i love it everyday dose is a functional coffee that

undergoes third-party testing to ensure purity and potency, free from mold, and they are rich and active compounds. I love how functional it is. You get coffee plus a bunch of supplements, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, and it's so easy to make. It takes literally 30 seconds, maybe a minute if you want to count in the fact that you have to wait for your water to boil. But I use a kettle. I boil the water. It's instant, ready to go. It's so easy to travel with. And then you get everything in one go. It has collagen peptides in there. So you're getting amino acids. It also has Lthianine, which is really great for calming down the nervous system and make sure that your coffee doesn't leave you jittery. It just actually leaves you

super calm. And then they have 100% fruiting body mushroom extracts. There's chaga in there and Lions mane, which are lions mane is great for cognitive function. They have two different varieties. They have the mild roast, which has 45 milligrams of caffeine. So also if you are on a journey where you're doing less caffeine, this would be a great option for you because it's 45 milligrams. And then they also have the medium roast, which is 90 milligrams of caffeine. And I have very exciting news. You can now find Everyday Dose in Target stores across the country. You can celebrate with a Buy One Get One Free Deal.

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Before we get into more questions, I said that I had a really exciting life announcement to make. Hector and I are officially moving to Austin. I am so excited, y'all. We decided that it just felt better to go back to my home route. So I grew up in between Colorado and Texas. My parents spend some of their time in Texas and then the rest of their time in Colorado. And when I'm here in Denver, I'm very far away from where my parents are in Colorado. But in Austin, we would be very very, very close and just, you know, thinking about having babies, bringing our babies into this world. We just wanted to be closer to family. And also, Austin has become such a hub for health and wellness and podcasting specifically. So I just could not be more excited. I'm very excited

to get out of Denver for many reasons. I'm going to miss the mountains. I'm definitely going to miss the ability to just go skiing on a weekend and go for really epic, amazing hikes. But there's so many things about Austin that I'm looking forward to and I just cannot wait. We're so excited. okay let's get back to a couple more questions somebody asked me what's the deal with toilet paper is it toxic so conventional toilet paper is bleached they use chlorine bleach to whiten it which contains dioxins which are toxic and linked to hormone disruption and also carry a cancer risk also a lot of conventional toilet paper has formaldehyde in there it's sometimes added to improve wet strength and this is an irritant and a also probable human carcinogen also if you get the fragranced toilet paper and a lot of toilet paper is dyed. So they'll have dyes in the toilet paper or if you buy the fragranced toilet paper, please God, please do not buy fragranced toilet paper. The dyes and the fragrances can have thallates in them, which we know are connected to endocrine disruption and cancer. And then also to recycled toilet paper

can contain biphenols, which is BPA, BPS, which are also linked to hormone disruption. So to wrap it all up, conventional toilet paper, if they are not being conscious of not bleaching it, not using formaldehyde, not using fragrances, BPA, BPS, they can contain these harmful ingredients that are linked to cancer and hormone disruption, which is also otherwise known as endocrine disruption, which can also lead to cancer and thyroid issues, autoimmune disorders, birth defects. There's so many concerning health links, health effects to these chemicals. There's a ton of options now. There's a company called plant paper,

and they boast themselves being the softest bamboo toilet paper that you can find. It's pretty great. I have used it, and they have figured out how to make it entirely without trees. There's zero chlorine or formaldehyde. There's also a brand that I end up ordering a lot off Amazon called No Trees, but it's in O-O-Trees. There's also the brand Caboo, which is C-A-B-O. Also, the Skinny Confidential just came out with her own. non-toxic toilet paper and the branding is pretty cute on that not that it matters about

toilet paper branding but um also there's another company that i have not tried yet called seek bamboo that uses organic bamboo and then another company called repurpose so there's a ton of options you can also just go on amazon or google organic bamboo toilet paper and there's a ton of amazing brands that come up somebody here asked me for sleep advice and i will tell you that i am definitely not the expert on this, but I have been working really, really hard on my sleep hygiene the last couple of years. So I'll share what has really truly worked for me. So to give you a little background, I mentioned this earlier in the podcast. I came from the band world. I worked for bands for 10 years before I ultimately ended that career and I went full time with real

foodology. I went back and got my master's of science in nutrition. But as a result of working on that, in that industry for so long going on tour, my sleeping algorithm, my sleeping algorithm, my circadian rhythm, but we'll just call it my sleep algorithm because it's funny and catchy, my circadian rhythm was really messed up because I never had a set schedule of when I could go to sleep because the shows would sometimes end at 10 p.m. They'd sometimes end by 1 a.m. So I had really trained my body to get sleep when I could. So if I went to bed at 1 a.m., I would sleep in until, nine or 10 to make sure that I could get eight hours of sleep. And as a result, when I finally stopped touring, had a really, really messed up relationship with sleep. In fact, for a long time,

I struggled with going to sleep before 1, 2 a.m. And it was horrible. I never woke up feeling rested. It was not great for me. And I always felt fatigued. And so over the years, I slowly started working that back. And I've found a couple things that have really helped me. One, really staying consistent with when you go to bed. I've also found, too, that if I just, if I start getting ready for bed any later than 9 p.m., then I won't be asleep in bed until like 11 because I do my skin care and it takes a minute for me to unwind. I like to read before I fall asleep.

So starting to get ready and go upstairs, turn off the TV, turn off my phone. I like to plug my phone in the other room. In fact, I actually have this app called Opel that I use. and it's set to block me out of all my social media starting at 8 p.m. So that I can just start kind of unwinding. It forces me to not be on my phone and doom scrolling. It keeps me out of my social media accounts. And so what I've started doing is reading my book or doing my skincare and just doing other

things to keep me off my phone. Because one of the things that really hampers our sleep is being exposed to that blue light. So being on your computer, watching TV. being on your phone. Also, fluorescent lights. So in our house at night, we turn off all the overhead lights, and I have orange lights in our bedroom. And then I also have these little salt lamps that we plugged into our bathroom that are like little mini night lights that are salt lamps. And so it emits that warm, orangy color that doesn't mess with your melatonin production. So instead of having these bright lights, we have the warm lights that help to promote melatonin production. And then also

about 30 minutes to an hour before I go to sleep, I take these sleep gummies from Flav City. They're called Lights Out. I have a code if you want to get them. Use code Real Foodology. I do not make any money off of this. It just saves you money. And I'm a huge fan of these. These in fact really helped me because while I was trying to slowly move back the time that I would go to sleep, I was really struggling to fall asleep before 1, 2 a.m. So taking knees consistently every night really helps me to relax, get out of my head, and actually helps me to get sleepy and then fall asleep. So I think staying on that schedule, not doing blue light before you go to bed, and if you need to, take something that will help you get drowsy and sleepy. And reading has actually really helped me a lot too. I have a

Kindle and I got a new Kindle just for the fact that I could change the light on it. You can do a really warm light on the Kindle. And I changed that to a super warm light. And so I'll read on my Kindle for 20 or 30 minutes. And then I get so sleepy. I can't even keep my eyes open. And I think it's a combination of doing everything I just mentioned. And that Flav City Gumme really helps a lot. Oh, this is a really good one. Somebody just asked me, what is the lowdown on Stevia? I mentioned this on my Instagram the other day that there was a couple products that I was using. And I love that they're not using stevia. And I actually meant to say this earlier when I was talking about my fertility. journey. So I have been hearing this for a little while now, but if I'm being honest, I just personally

did not really look into it much just because I had a lot going on the last couple of months between my honeymoon and my wedding. And I was traveling nonstop. I actually meant to mention this earlier when I was talking about what I'm doing for my fertility journey. So I have decided to cut stevia out, which is pretty tough. I have been a huge proponent for stevia for a long time because it really helped me get over my sugar addiction. I started swapping out my, a lot of my products when I first started getting into health about 14 years ago, I started using stevia. I started buying, you know, plain yogurt and adding stevia and sweetening it myself, and I was adding it to my coffee. And so I've been on the stevia train for a long time, but I think

we've gotten to a point where there's so many products now that contain stevia that as I'm becoming more heightened and aware of it, it's becoming harder to avoid it, which I find really frustrating because it's just in freaking everything. I have started to learn that stevia may have a birth control effect. In fact, apparently in some cultures back in the day, they used to use stevia as a contraceptive. So it turns out that it was used by natives in South America for centuries as a natural anti-fertility medication. In fact, I have a girlfriend who, when she was pregnant, she vomited for an entire day after accidentally consuming stevia.

And there are some studies out there. There's one called contraceptive properties of stevia. It's a PMID 17744732, if you want to look it up and read it yourself. But essentially, what they found was that stevia reduces fertility in adult female rats. And apparently it continues to decrease fertility for at least 50 to 60 days after intake stopped. So I'm going to stop consuming stevia for a while. Now, here's the thing. I just want to do everything that I possibly can in order to have an amazing viable pregnancy. I will say, as with all these things, there's nuance, there's people that have different experiences. I have a girlfriend that

consumed stevia while getting pregnant, had a successful pregnancy, continue to consume it while she was pregnant and was totally fine. I just, when I learn these things, I want to see what's going to work best for me. And I've also heard a lot of stories of women who were consuming stevia regularly were having a hard time getting pregnant. And then once they cut it out, they had no issues getting pregnant. And in fact, there were some other studies that I do want to reference. There was a 2016 in vitro study found that steveol glycosides disrupted human progesterine receptor function and reduced sperm fertilization capacity. And then there was a 2010 study in male rats that reported reduced testosterone levels,

decreased testicular weight, and structural changes in reproductive tissues following chronic exposure to stevia extract. There's also some other studies on PubMed that observed decreased fertility and smaller litters in female rats after prolonged stevia intake. So I'm going to err on the side of caution, which is something that, that I generally like to do, and I'm going to avoid stevia for a while. This is actually really fascinating, and I just learned this recently. The FDA has never approved whole leaf stevia or crude stevia extracts for use in food.

It was actually granted gross, which is generally recognized as safe status, to isolated compounds like, I don't know how to pronounce this. The technical term for stevia, which is rabiduicide A, I've never known how to pronounce that word but I see it often on labels and I know that that means stevia so essentially it was granted under gross which is something that has been largely a part of the maha conversation and something that we would like to fix and get rid of gross because a lot of these things are skating under the radar as generally recognized as safe so it would be interesting to see as we start addressing gross if fda is still going to have or i'm sorry if stevia is still going to have fda

approval once we get rid of gross. So that is why I'm stopping stevia and what I'm doing instead is monk fruit. The only time I really use monk fruit is in my coffee in the morning and then if I'm doing a protein shake, which I don't do every day, but if I do a protein powder, I just make sure that it does not have stevia and I look for monk fruit as a sweetener instead. One of my absolute favorite cooking fats is beef tallow and the one that I trust is from lineage provisions. Their is wet rendered at low temperatures, which keeps all the good stuff intact. And it has a clean, buttery flavor that's nothing like the burnt or waxy stuff in most store-bought versions. We use it constantly, roasted potatoes, fried eggs, sauteed veggies, steak, even salmon. It's seriously

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It's the best possible life for the animal and it creates the best possible fat for your body. Go to lineage provisions.com and use the code real foodology for 10% off. I can't wait for you guys to become hooked like I am. Use code real foodology for 10% off. You know that moment when something works so well? Like you immediately start texting your friends about it. That was me with Seeds DS01 Daily Symbiotic. I recommended it to my entire family, everyone I know, because once I felt the difference in my

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seed.com slash real foodology, code 25 real foodology. All right, as promised, I said that I was going to talk a little bit about my honeymoon, where we went, what we loved, what we thought about all the places we went. We went to, we flew to Paris. We stayed there for a couple days and then we went over to Lucerne, Switzerland, and then we went from there to Capri in Italy, and then a Malfi Coast in Italy, and then we ended in Marbella, Spain. And then we just flew back to Paris and stayed there for a night before we headed home. Our least favorite part of the trip was actually Paris, which was such a downer for me, because I have been going to Paris since I I was 16 years old, and I absolutely love Paris.

I've been there probably 10 times now. And I really, really love Paris. This time around was a little bit different. We had a great time going to the Louvre. Actually, in fact, we had one of my favorite days on our honeymoon going to the Louvre. We just had an absolute blast. Hector had never been to Paris before, which is why we ended up staying there for a couple days. It just was not the same romantic Paris that I was wanting for our honeymoon.

And I think there was kind of a multitude of reasons for that. One of the reasons was we did not stay in a great area, which I really, I really regret. We were staying in kind of a not-so-great area. I loved our hotel, but the second we walked outside, it just was not what you want from the Parisian experience. And this time around in my personal experience, it felt very overrun to the point where I know people get annoying. They're like, well, yeah, don't go to a touristy place. and then complain that it was touristy. I get that.

And I totally agree. I think it's annoying when people do that. But there was just something about this trip where the places that we went, it just felt like Paris was extra dirty. There were parts of it that felt like third world country status and it just bummed me out. And when we try to go around the Eiffel Tower,

which normally when I go to Paris now, which I think is maybe why I've liked Paris, I kind of usually avoid the super touristy spots like the Eiffel Tower and that kind of stuff. It just was really depressing because it felt it was trashy and dirty and just didn't have that romantic feel that I'm used to feeling in Paris. That being said, I'm definitely going to take your back at some point and hopefully we'll have a different experience there.

I think we just need to stay in a different area and maybe just go to different places than when we went last time. I think also too, just in comparison to all the other places we went, it was just not our favorite. Lucerne, Switzerland was amazing. I will say next time, I just want to take a trip specifically to go to Switzerland and go to a bunch of different places around Switzerland, because when we were there, we kept hearing, oh, my God, you need to go to St. Moritz, and oh, you need to go here, and you need to do this hike. And we just felt like we didn't have enough time to really travel around in Switzerland and experience all that it had to offer. And it rained about half the time

that we were there. So we didn't get to do any of the hikes that we really wanted to do. do. Hector and I are big outdoors and hikers, big outdoorsy people, and we were pretty bummed that we didn't really get to do that. But Switzerland was stunning. It was gorgeous. So highly recommend we stayed at the Mandarin Oriental. It was unreal. I've never experienced service like that before, and I definitely want to go back there. We had amazing views of the lake. The food was fantastic, super walkable city. We walked around. Oh, our favorite day in Lucerne, we took a gondola. It's called Mount Pilates. We took a gondola up Mount Pilates and our initial plan was we were going to hike up it and then you can go to this halfway point. There's different points in the mountain where you can take the

gondola or you can take the, I'm forgetting what the name of it is, but essentially it's a, I think it's a train. There's many different modes of transportation. You can take the train up. You can take the train up to a certain point and then get out and like hike up the rest or like hike down. You can also take the gondola up to a certain point and then hike and then take the train down. What we decided to do, so initially what we wanted to do was we wanted to hike up to a certain point, then take the gondola up and then we were either going to walk partially down or like take the train down, but it ended up raining, it was raining so much that we ended up just taking the gondola from the bottom to the top because we just, we were told it was going to be too.

muddy. It ended up being so much fun. So we took the gondola to a certain point and we got out and we walked around and there was a fun little outdoor like ropes experience. I'm forgetting of what you call that right now. But essentially there was all this different fun stuff that you could do. You could do like tightrope walking. There was a zip line. There was a little portion where you could walk through this like netted part like through the trees. And we debated doing that. but then we found out that there was a bobsled there. Not a bobsled. What is that thing called?

Toboggin. They called a toboggan. And it was so much fun. And it actually ended up working on our favor because since it had been raining so much that not a lot of people were up there then because it was still kind of like foggy and misty. And we were told later that the line for this toboggan is up to like two hours. And we waited 10 minutes and wrote it. And it was so much fun.

It was so much fun. It took you through the mountain and you went through the super grassy area. You could go as fast as you wanted or as slow as you wanted. You had full control. There was cows in the pastures that we were riding past, which was super fun. If you don't know anything about Switzerland and their cows, so the cows are famous for having these bells around them. And I actually looked it up because I was like,

why do all of the cows here have bells on them? And it's for, it turns out for pretty practical reason. So it helps farmers locate their cows. when they're in vast pastures or super mountainous areas, especially when there's like poor visibility. The sound of the bells helps the farmers to track the herd's location, even if they can't see them.

I guess also too, they serve as a warning to hikers and other people, so just alerting them that there's cows there. And then I also read too that it's just become a part of their tradition. So it's just ingrained in their culture now, which I think is really cute. There is a part of me that Hector and I were thinking, man, I wonder if that sucks for the cows, because if you've ever seen these cows or if you Google

videos of them, they're just their cows are bringing like the whole time, basically, all day. And I was a little worried that maybe that bothers them, but maybe they just get used to it and they don't even notice it anymore. Anyways, so we rode the toboggan, got to see those cows, which was a really cool, fun experience. And then we get back on the gondola and kept going up to the very top. You get to the top and they have a restaurant up there. If you want to eat, they have the most amazing, beautiful views from the mountains. It was absolutely stunning. You can hike up just like a little bit more, which we did. And then right when we got up there, a storm started again, it started raining and lightning. And so we kind of rushed back down. But yeah, they have a

whole, they had a bar up there. So if you wanted to like stay up there and have drinks, we kind of just like explored around a little bit. There was like a cave that you could go into that we went halfway into and then decided to turn around. And then we rode the train back down. And so we took the train back down. Oh, and there's another part of this travel that is really fun and cool too. You can actually take it to, when you get to the bottom, you can actually get onto a boat and then you take a boat tour back to wherever the mainland is or wherever your hotel is, which is, there was a stop there for our hotel. We ended up not doing the boat because we kind of poorly planned our time down. we missed the first train.

So we weren't able to do the boat because we actually had dinner reservations that night. But it ended up working out totally fine. So we took the train down the mountain and then we just took like another train back into town and made it for our dinner reservations. Highly, highly recommend it. I would like to go back and actually do the hike there. And I would love to do more hikes in Lucerne. There's also another spa hotel there called Bergenstock.

Not to be confused with Birkenstocks. the first time my girlfriend was telling us about Bergenstock, I thought, I was like, are you, you're telling me to go to the shoe store? She was like, no, no, no, no, Bergenstock is a really famous spa there up on the top of the mountain with beautiful views and apparently has the most amazing spa. So we want to go back and go stay there and use their spa. And apparently there's some really epic hikes around there that you can just hike back to the hotel. So huge fan of Lucerne. Biggest takeaway was we wish that we had had more time there to explore, but we loved the time that we had there. Then we went on to Capri.

We took a flight into Naples and then got a ferry over to Capri. I will say this was an interesting one because we had a lot of people that actually tried to talk us out of going to Capri, which after spending time there, we were blown away as to why anyone would ever try to keep anyone from going to Capri. We kept hearing that it was loaded with tourists, was hard to get around was like not that great, not as fun as the other places. And for me and Hector personally, we had actually the exact opposite experience. We stayed up in Anna Capri, which I think was our only criticism and what we will do differently next time we go to Capri. But we loved Capri. We absolutely fell in love with it. We stayed in the most amazing hotel that had a pool and just a

great experience. They gave us a free massage because it was our honeymoon, which was so sweet. We stayed at the Jumariah in the Capri Palace is what it's called. Now, the only reason why I say I wouldn't want to stay there again is because next time we would prefer to stay in town because the only downfall was either you're paying $25 every single time, or 25 euro, so almost 30 bucks every single time you wanted to go down into the city because it's just, it was not really possible to walk. It would be probably over an hour walk and you would have buses, cars, cars, mopeds, everyone's zipping by you. And if you've ever been to Italy, driving in that place is

so chaotic on those hills, but I would never want to walk. And it just wasn't realistic. If we're in heels, we're going to a nice dinner, like we were having to just take taxis up and down the hill, sometimes multiple times a day. And if you didn't want to pay 25 euro every time you went up or down, you could go wait in line for a bus. But then the bus was super chaotic and hectic. There were a couple times where we were, there was huge lines for the taxis. So then we ended up walking a little bit, trying to find like another area to pick up a taxi. And so it just was the logistical side of it was kind of a nightmare. And it added up and got pretty expensive really, really fast. So next time we would prefer to stay just actually down in Capri. We loved

the town of Capri. It was definitely pretty full of people, but it was, wasn't to the point where people say, at least in our experience, or where you see on Instagram where you see these videos and people are like, Instagram versus reality and the reality is everyone's, you know, shoulder to shoulder. That was actually our experience when we went over to Positano and also in Amalfi. So it was kind of the opposite for us. We also really liked that there was some really nice high-end shops in Capri. So there was amazing shopping in Capri. They had a Prada store. They had a Jacques Bouste. store that I went into a couple times. Mew, Seline, I was so excited. I loved it. We had amazing

dinners there that we loved. We also went on a boat tour, the amazing Capri boat tour. And we loved our boat guide. He had lived in Capri, born and raised, lived in Capri's whole life, drove us around the island for a couple of hours. He stopped at a couple places for us to jump in and go swimming and he just was so much fun we had great conversation with him we just had great time with him and then at the end he dropped us off at la fontalina beach club and then we just had the most amazing afternoon there uh we found law fontalina through our travel agent and then turns out it's a really pop and spot where everybody goes all the instagramers go there which i don't really care about that kind of stuff but it just was beautiful the food was amazing um the umbrellas

were really cute. They were like blue and white striped and we just had a great day laying out by the sea, getting in the water, getting sun, had an amazing meal and we had a great time. And it was so fun because the boat dropped us off right there, which was a really cool experience. So if you have never been to Italy or even if you have it and you don't know about the beach club, the beach clubs, everybody is about the beach clubs in Italy. And this is actually a newer phenomenon to me, but they're really big in Italy. So you can resort. of a chair ahead of time. You usually want to make a reservation, especially for a place like La Fontalina, because it gets pretty booked up pretty quickly. There was another one we went to

that was in conjunction with our hotel. And that one was called Il Riccio. If you follow me on Instagram, I posted a lot about it. I was having fun. Hector has no idea what Christian Dior is, but we showed up and it was a Christian Dior pop-up beach club. So this is what a lot of the Italian and beach clubs do is these really famous designers like Jacques Moose, for example, has a beach club. And I'm not sure I can't remember if it's in Italy or the south of France, but you can look it up. So these designers will do these pop-up beach clubs. And it was cool. It was super fun. I'm admittedly even not a huge Christian Dior girly. Don't come after me. I'm just more of a Miu-Mu-Salene. I love Louis Vuitton. That's just more of my kind of vibe. But I thought this was so

cool. All the umbrellas there at the beach club were all Dior printed and they had beach chairs that had Dior print on it. The bathroom doors were all printed with it and there was this really, really cute little two-person boat that they would take you out to ride the boat just for free, just for being a guest at the beach club. And the boat looked like a little mini cooper, but it was a boat and it had these Ratatan beach chairs and it was the whole thing was so chic. It was so cool. Everything was branded Christian Dior. It was very cool. It was just a fun, fun experience. And again, we got to lay out and, you know, under an umbrella with the crashing waves of the sea next to us. And it just was such a fun experience. And the beach clubs are a phenomenon in Italy and France

because they're, it's just part of that, that slower culture, right? The slower life. you go and you get a beach chair, they bring you bottles of water, you can get wine if you drink, if you want wine, and you lay out by the sea, you can do a dip in the sea, and then you can get sun, and it's just, you lay there all day, essentially, and just have like a nice slow day, like Hector and I were reading our books and just having the most amazing day, and it just was super fun. You lay out and read and relax and rest, a dip in the sea a couple times, and then you go home and you go get ready for dinner and then you go have a nice dinner and it just was it was a really fun part of our honeymoon there was so much relaxing by the sea which is exactly what he

and i both wanted so we really enjoyed our time and capri was our favorite and so was marvell of spain but i'll get into that um after capri we went to a malfee coast and we stayed at this hotel called the miramalfi i have been wanting to stay there for years actually my girlfriend and her husband have been there a bunch of times because her husband, Carrie Wheeler, is an amazing photographer. And he's been invited to this hotel to take photos for them. And it was cool to see. So a bunch of my friends have gone out there because a lot of them are models in L.A. And so they all went out there for a week and stayed at the Miramalfi. And my friend's husband, Carrie, took the photos. And so all the photos of the models are hanging in the hallways,

which was really cool. I got to see all my friends and photos in the hallway. And this hotel was epic it was built it's built like into the into the cliff and the side of the cliffs right on the sea and the amalfi coast it has the most amazing pool and you walk down these this huge set of stairs you can also take an elevator and you end up like you essentially they just have all these beautiful beach chairs and umbrellas that are laid out right on the sea so same kind of thing that I was just describing you go lay out on a lawn chair, you read your book, they bring you food. We were ordering food every day and we were jumping in the ocean, getting our swim on. And it just was, oh, it was so relaxing, you guys. It was amazing. Our experience in Amalfi was,

I wish we had gotten maybe a little bit more direction on things to do in the city. We kind of like to do half and a half where we planned stuff. We had some dinner reservations. But then we also like to leave room for, you know, showing up and seeing what the locals are doing and maybe meeting people at dinner and asking, you know, what we should do and what they had fun doing. And so, um, we went up to a Ravello one day, which was really cool. It was a really beautiful city. Went up to the top there, got to explore some museums and stuff. And then one day we went up to Ravello, which was really pretty. We explored some museums. We were, we loved the little shops and stuff up there. I actually ended up buying some like really nice olive oil and some gifts for my friend's babies.

But we were kind of underwhelmed by Revello and I don't know if maybe we just did it wrong. But everybody was telling us we had to go up there. And so we did and we experienced it. And then we, oh, actually, we had one of the most amazing dinners I've ever had Michelin five-star amazing meal in Amalfi. I'm actually looking at my calendar right now. because I'm trying to figure out the name of it because I don't want to leave you hanging. Okay, the restaurant is called S-E-N-S-I. It's S-E-N-S-I. It was unreal. This meal blew our minds.

Like, it was so good. So we had amazing meals in Amalfi. We just felt like there was more to do in Capri. We just had a little bit more fun in Capri. We also ended up randomly running into a couple in Capri that we had a great time hanging out with. And so that was super fun. And we went to this really fun nightclub one night, but not your typical, like, ratchet nightclub. This was, they were playing Italian music. They had a live band, and it was so much fun. Everybody was standing on top of their chairs, singing along.

And majority of the songs were Italian songs. They sang the song from Stepbrothers, which is like a very traditional, famous Italian song, and we had a blast. So we enjoyed our time. I'm more in Capri. I'm so glad that we went to Amalfi because we still had a great time. And one day, we took a ferry over to Positano, had dinner over there. And there was a nightclub that was, that's famous for playing EDM, which we love. We love house music, electronic music. And it was called Music on the Rocks. So we went over to Positano early, had dinner. And we were kind of

just like biding our time before we went over there. We, it was okay. They ended up not playing the music that we really wanted to, but it was cool to see because this place was built into a cave, basically. It was built in the side of a rock, which was fun. But we were kind of underwhelmed by the music and we only ended up staying for like an hour. And everybody was just like, you know, as you do in clubs, like raging and binge drinking and getting bottle service. And we were just like not on that vibe. We just like wanted to dance and hear good music. And the music was not what we had hoped. My dream is to see like Fisher and Rufus. in Italy and maybe throw lane aid in there too because I think that'd be super fun. Okay, now we're getting

to the end of our honeymoon. We went to Marbeia, Spain, and we absolutely loved it. The hotel that we stayed at ended up being a resort, and we did not know this until we showed up. We just thought we were booking a nice five-star hotel. It's called Nobu Hotel in Marbella. And it's funny because we actually had our eyes set on a different hotel, but it was just so astronomically, expensive, that we were like, okay, we're going to do the second best. And it ended up being our favorite part of the whole trip. And we ended up walking through the other hotel that we had wanted to stay at. And we were so happy that we ended up at the place we were at. So it turns out that where we were saying was a five-star resort. And there were multiple restaurants on the grounds.

In fact, I think there was something like 12 restaurants. And a lot of them were organic. So our breakfast every morning was a restaurant right on the ocean. I mean, you could literally, like, see the waves crashing. And everything was included. The whole menu was organic. They had a ton of gluten-free options. They had turmeric shots. They had juices.

I mean, it was awesome. I miss it so much. And then we could walk, you know, we'd walk like five minutes from our room and we'd be on the beach. There were three different pools, I think. So they had kind of like their own version of a beach club. some of them you had to reserve ahead of time there was some so the resort overall was kid friendly which i loved there was so many kids so many families and and kids there they had a tennis court on site they had two different separate locations with saunas i mean this place was

like a dream and they had different areas that were designated for families specifically and then for adults so if you were traveling just as a couple and you just wanted to be you two then you could go to a pool where there were no kids allowed and then there was also sections where if you want to kids back, which Hector and I were like, we absolutely want to come back with their kids. And then we go to the other pools where there's kids allowed and there was kids floating around and their floaties and jumping in the pool and just having it the best time. And it was great. We spent majority of the time actually on that property, but we would go for walks in the morning

and we would walk along the beach and we went one direction one day and we ended up in the middle in the heart of the city. And then we walked another direction the other day and just got to see kind of what I think everything like Marbella had to Marbeia, sorry, had to offer. We also found this really epic organic restaurant. There was like a five minute Uber ride from our hotel or like 20 minute walks. We would just walk over there. We walked over there a couple times and got really amazing food. It was all organic, super clean. They had smoothies and bowls and everything you could possibly imagine. They also had a Lueve store right there, which I loved. I love a little shopping and

organic food, you know. And it was just a great experience. We ate really healthy. We did a lot of going to the beach, swimming in the ocean, swimming in the pool. We were going to do tennis one day and we ended up not doing it. And I just, I want to go back and spend more time there. We were also able to sauna every day. And it just, our whole prerogative was to relax as much as possible. We've had a really, really intense year and just coming off of, you know, planning. for the wedding and everything going on with my work and I've been traveling nonstop. It was really nice to just kind of lay low and not really have anything on the books and just relax and read and swim in the ocean and it was amazing. We loved it. And then we spent our last day

in Paris and we walked up to the, I'm going to butcher how you pronounce this, but Montemart stairs and we walked up to the church and we got to see the views of Paris and we actually really enjoyed that and had a great nice little dinner around there. And then we flew home. And I was actually very happy to be heading home. Hector was very depressed. I was, after three weeks, I was really, really missing our doggies. I was missing my babies. And I was ready to do some laundry. I just was tired of wearing dirty clothes and was very excited to get home and just kind of get back to the routine of everything. But now I'm ready to go back to Europe. So we'd love to plan another trip. And I hope that we have the means and ability to go to Europe every summer. I just love being able to spend time

over there. And the food over there is just so much cleaner. And I will say it's interesting. So I started touring Europe when, after I had been diagnosed with my allergy, well, I started going to Europe when I was 16 with my parents. And then when I was working for these bands, I spent a lot of time in Europe with Tove. And I used to talk a lot on my Instagram about the difference, the crazy difference that I would feel. So I would spend like two months over there in Europe and then I would come home and just feel like I could really not have to watch so much what I was eating in Europe and then come home and just feel like the air was making me, you know, having digestive issues

and bloat and just not feel that great. I will say a lot of people while I was over there were asking me about the food quality. And you know what's interesting. I've had a lot of experiences in Europe over the years because when I was working for Tov, she's Swedish. And so we spent a lot of time touring Europe. We spent a lot of time in Sweden. And I noticed that, so when I was doing that,

so I started working for Tov in 2015, and I worked for her until 2019. And I had been diagnosed in my wheat allergy previous to that. And I noticed when I would go over there, that I could eat the bread, I could eat the pasta, and I really didn't have much of a reaction. This time around, when I was in Italy, I ate some pasta one night, and I got a horrible, horrible headache, which is one of the side effects that I used to get when I, before I figured out that I was gluten-free when I was living here, obviously.

And I just had a little bit of a different experience this time around. I will say everywhere we went had gluten-free. I also have an autoimmune reaction to gluten. So I'm not one of those people that if I eat really good, organic, freshly milled, sourdough, that it doesn't affect me. If I eat gluten on a consistent basis, checking off all those boxes, here in America at least, I get my eczema back. I used to have this eczema in the back of my scalp and I get it under my eyes too. and it fully went away when I went gluten-free. And when I tried to do that here in the U.S. a couple of years ago,

it came back full force, even after being gluten-free for like over 10-plus years at that point is when I tested it out. I was, I'm always trepidious going over to Europe and just having a free-for-all, so I don't. And the few times that I did when I was over there, I just got kind of bloated. I didn't feel that great. And that was not always my experience. So maybe just where we were eating was not as fresh as we thought it was.

And, I mean, in general, in general, I will say that I just think the Italian way of living their food and their desire for high quality food is very different than it is here in the United States. They do still have ultra-processed foods. Sometimes when they were bringing me gluten-free stuff, it would come in a package, which I was not stoked about and not really wanting to eat that. I do think that there is something to be said about the practices in European countries, but it also does depend on where you go in Europe. And more specifically, places like, let's say,

in the UK, I think they're coming up pretty close to us as far as how many additives and stuff that they have in their food. But places like Italy or notoriously, they have much higher standards for their food, I would say, in France as well. But overall, in my experience, I still was just eating gluten-free. And we noticed a difference in the freshness, but sometimes in eating, because you know, you hear this all the time on Instagram, people are like, oh, I ate pizza and bread every day and I felt great and I lost weight and all this stuff. We did not have this experience this time around. I've had that experience before, but I don't know if that just means that that Europe is slowly catching up to American standards and they are creating more

convenience foods and they're starting to add more additives in there. I don't know. but it did feel like it was a little bit different this time around where I just felt like I couldn't have such a free-for-all like I used to back in the day with traveling because when I would go back, when I would go to Europe with Tov and we would spend two months there, I specifically remember when I would come back after spending a month or two in Europe.

And in Europe, you know, I mean, we were on tour and we were eating as healthy as possible and I never really changed my diet depending on where I am. I'm always seeking out healthier organic food. it still felt like when I came back to America that I was going back to being super strict like really gluten-free and really organic and all this stuff that I just didn't feel as good eating here as I did in Europe. And I'm seeing less and less of a difference of that now. But that could have just been my experience this time around. I'm curious to see what it

feels like when I go back. So I'm also curious to know if your experiences are the same when you go to Europe. If you feel like you go there and you can just have a free-for-all and you eat everything and you feel great and you lose weight and you don't feel bloated. Have you noticed that or have you had a similar experience that I had when I went? So very curious to know. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I know this was kind of long and I really appreciate you listening to the podcast. If you are loving these, let me know, write me on Instagram. Let me know I can do more of them. I like to do these periodically. I like to, you know, switch it up. My producer is always asking me to share more about my life and my story.

I try to do that, but I also feel like you guys are here for health and nutrition, so I'm trying to balance that. I don't know that you care so much about my life, but I figured I would share about the honeymoon. I know that I was sharing about it on Instagram, and I was getting a lot of questions and people wanted to know my thoughts. So those are my thoughts. Thanks so much for listening. Until next time. Thanks, guys. Thank you so much for listening to the Real Foodology podcast. This is a Wellness Loud production produced by Drake Peterson and mixed by Mike Fry. 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.