Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 810 | Detoxifying Your Life: Birth Control, Cleaning Chemicals & Fake Food | Guest: Shawna Holman

Episode Date: May 23, 2023

Today we're joined by Shawna Holman, founder of A Little Less Toxic, to discuss her story of learning to build a less toxic life and share tips on how we can take steps in the same direction. Shawna shares her story of struggling through illness and endless antibiotic treatments, only to find that lifestyle changes would ultimately help heal her body. We discuss Shawna's approach to both simplifying your life and also making your home less toxic, even if it starts with eliminating just one toxic cleaning product. We talk about the "crunchy" movement and why the "all or nothing" mentality can overwhelm rather than help. We also discuss the balance of modern medicine – while we're overprescribing and overmedicating, modern medicine is saving lives. How do we find a good balance and correct answers to our health questions? Then, how toxic is birth control, and which methods are safer than others? You can get Shawna's book here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-healthier-home-the-room-by-room-guide-to-make-any-space-a-little-less-toxic-shawna-holman/18486893 Memorial Day Merch Sale: use code 'REMEMBER' for 20% off the entire shop at alliemerch.com. --- Timecodes: (01:44) Shawna's illness story (13:30) Making lifestyle changes (16:45) Elimination diet (18:30) Balance & lifestyle changes (25:20) ALLT approach (29:20) Contraceptives (33:01) Modern medicine (37:42) How to find good answers to health questions (41:06) Recent changes (44:10) Seed oils --- Today's Sponsors: Cozy Earth — go to CozyEarth.com/ALLIE and use promo code 'ALLIE' at checkout to save 35% off your order! EdenPURE — when you buy one Thunderstorm you get one FREE, this week only! Go to EdenPureDeals.com, use promo code 'ALLIE'! Patriot Mobile — go to PatriotMobile.com/ALLIE or call 878-PATRIOT and use promo code 'ALLIE' to get free activation! CrowdHealth — get your first 6 months for just $99/month. Use promo code 'ALLIE' when you sign up at JoinCrowdHealth.com. --- Relevant Episodes: Ep 741 | How to Realistically Live Toxin-Free | Guest: Taylor Dukes bit.ly/43likaP --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. How can we make our lives healthier and less toxic, but in a way that doesn't feel totally overwhelming. My guest today, Shauna Holman, is going to tell us how. She runs an Instagram account called A Little Less Toxic. She also wrote a book called Healthyer Home, The Room by Room Guide, to make any special. a little less toxic. She's going to tell us about her incredible health journey today,

why she started to make her own life less toxic and how we can do it in a way that is balanced, in a way that is doable for all of us, and also in a way that helps us maintain our mental and spiritual health as well. You are going to love this encouraging and educating conversation with Shauna. It's brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Use promo code Alley at checkout. That's good ranchers.com code Alley. Shana, thanks so much for joining us. Can you tell everyone a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Yeah. So thank you for having me. Yes. I am Shauna and I am a wife and I'm a mom. And I was a classroom teacher, but I came home when we had our first born. And I thought I would go back in the classroom, but I have not going to be doing that. Things changed. I don't really know how to describe what I am, who I am.

But I am recently an author. I just wrote a book. Yes. I have been on like a 10-year journey of trying to make my life healthier. Yes. How the healthier home. Yeah. I had like, I don't know.

Do you want to get in like crazy backstory already? Yeah, let's get into the crazy backstory. Let's just dive in. Go for it. Well, I grew up like very conventionally like most people that grew up in the 80s and 90s. Did you grow up in California? I did. Yeah.

California born and raised. I know. Yeah. People guess I'm from lots of places. But yes. California girl. And yeah, very conventionally, my parents were like young and not like prepared to have us. And my mom ended up raising us by herself and did the best she could with what she knew at the time. And, you know, but it was a lot of like mac and cheese and spaghettios and all of

those kinds of things and the conventional products and never had a problem with any of it until I did. And I started having chronic pain that we think was either migraines or sinus infections. we treated it like both for five years. And when, how old were you with this time? Oh, how old was I? So that started in like 2013. I was around, how old am I now? Who knows? You know, it was like my, my mid-20s.

I started just getting. So this is adulthood. As far as you can remember, you didn't have any health problems growing up. Even with those, you know, conventional products, you felt fine. Totally. Yeah. I think I just didn't really have any health concerns until maybe like there are a few things looking back in like maybe my late teens or early 20s where I'm like, oh, this is some

random joint pain or things like that, but just kind of brushed it off until it was something that I couldn't really avoid. So, like, in college, getting these sinus infections, I thought. So treating it conventionally, just go to the health center there and you get antibiotics and steroids, right? And it got better. And then it came back. And then did the same thing. And it got better. And then it came back. And at first, it was kind of spread out. Then they started getting more and more frequent, more close together and sometimes worse, just the frequency, the duration, the intensity was all just getting worse over time until it just got kind of debilitating at some points where it was really impacting my life. And then of that five years, the last year of it,

I was in pain 24 hours a day every day for a whole year. And I was still, I didn't want to keep taking these medications. So I had seen like every different, a lot of like the ENTs and allergy specialist and the brain people, what's the name? I like a neurologist. Yeah, them, those who? Yeah. So I had a cat scan. I had like my septum corrected.

But they thought it was sinuses, obviously, because so every time you were having these headaches, even as they were getting more frequent, were they always prescribing you antibiotics? Yes. So they were pretty sure, or at least they thought they were pretty sure that it was a sinus infection and nothing else. Like it must have felt like sinus pressure then. I still get it when I have reactions. But yeah, sinus pressure.

Sometimes it was diagnosed as a migraine, so I tried migraine medication that made me like dizzy laying on the floor. Yeah. Just nothing was really working. I would do, I think the last few years of it, too, I was almost daily taking like a combination of like pseudafed, accedrin and, um, and Benadryl. And you just thought that's what you had to do to like function. Yeah. I had no other options. I was going to these doctors like begging.

You know, I don't want to keep doing these things, but they really had no other answers for me. And so I would not take the antibiotics ever. time because I didn't really have a good understanding of them, but I knew like, that's probably not good to take all the time. All the time, yeah. So I was trying to avoid them. And then at the end of that last year of those five years, I was on antibiotics for this migraine sinus infection thing at the time.

And I had a little hang nail. And I was washing a dog dish. And then right afterward, I felt it felt like it was infected. So I like clean it up really good. You know, when you felt that probably before, which this feels like it might be a little infected. So I cleaned it up really good. It started throbbing.

Oh, gosh. That's really weird. And so, you know, put as much as I could do. And my husband and I went to bed when I woke up in the morning, he asked how it was. And it didn't really hurt anymore. But I noticed I had pain in my underarm. My gosh. And thought that was kind of weird.

And my mom's an RN. So I let her know. And later that day, I was showering. And I noticed there's a little tender spot on my arm right here. And it kind of set off an alarm in my head that it was like, pain, pain. That's aligned to my heart. So let me just pause for a second and try to, I just want to make sure I know where you are in your journey. So you said in your 20s there were these like five years of pain, the sinus pain.

So this was towards like the end of those five years. Was this before you said those last five years you had pain like all the time basically. Was this within that time or before that time when you started? Within that time. Okay. Yeah. So this is like almost five full years of living like this. So you're like not feeling good anyway.

And then you get this. And so the alarm bells kind of start. start to go off. Yeah. Yeah. So I called my mom when I realized like, hey, I think this infection spreading, she says, you need to go to urgent care. You know, so I go into urgent care. And they say, oh, yeah, you have an infection. At the same time, too, I had like kind of like a little scab or something around my nose. They're like, oh, yeah, it's like a staff infection. So they gave me, I'm on antibiotics and I have an infection. So then they gave me a shot of a stronger antibiotic. And he's like, so this should take care of it, but I'm going to give you a prescription for something topical

for what's going on around your nose. And when he's going out to get the prescription, he comes back and now there's a line on my arm like this. So I have like the spot here, the spot here and now a red line that's sticking out like my vein on my arm and the underarm. Like, hey, it's spreading. And then that thing on your face, but was that already there before you started feeling the pain in your hanged now? Okay. But I didn't really know what that was. Yeah, you didn't connect it.

Exactly. Okay. Yeah. So then he comes in. And I'm kind of freaked out like, hey, I think it's spreading. And he's like, well, the thing I just gave you should take care of it. And if not, then you're like, come back, you know. Yeah.

What are you supposed to do? You don't know. Okay. Yeah. I mean, all you can say is, are you sure? I think that's what I would say in that situation, are you sure? Yeah. And, of course, they're not going to be like, well, now that you say that.

Now that you ask, no. Never that. Okay. So your only option at that point is to go home. And I've been living at the doctor's offices for five years. You know, I know how this goes. They're pretty much like take the pill. the end, you know.

So you had been basically at this point almost continuously on antibiotics. Yes. Yeah. At this point. And no doctor ever was like, huh. So were you taking basically the same kind? Like were they always giving you amoxicillin? Maxisillin and steroids.

Every time. And that's not even necessarily a super strong one. No. So they didn't even try to change it up and say, I wonder if there's a reason that you're not kicking these sinus infections. Right. And for that last solid year, it wasn't like I was in there like, hey, I still have pain because I didn't want to keep doing the same thing.

It wasn't working, you know, but it would get so bad, then I would relent and go in there and say, I need help. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality.

We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever. they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Before we even get into how the infection story ended up, how much was this affecting your day-to-day life, this pain? How debilitating was it? I mean, I had to learn how to function around it because I had to live, you know, whether I was finishing college or going to work and just living.

Yeah. But it was very much impacting my day-to-day life. It was making it hard to function where it was like, you know, there were like people laying hands praying on me because it was really. It was awful. It was, yeah. I mean, because you, you said that you were in college. You graduated from college. I'm guessing you started to work.

You got married during this time. I'm like just thinking about all those life things like your honeymoon and all that. that you had to endure when you just felt so chronically terrible. Yeah. Yeah. And it just was, like I said, it was just part of my life. I had to learn how to function around it. Yeah.

Which I feel like is very symbolic of a lot of things that we do with this stuff. Yeah. But yeah, it was there were points where I was just like, I can't really need to work. You probably didn't even like remember what it was like to not live with pain at a certain point. No. It was very much my normal. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So then. So at urgent care, the doctor says, yep, you're good to go. then you go home with this pain. Yeah. Well, I went to the pharmacy to go get my little prescription filled. And I'm texting my mom and she's an RN.

So, and I think I was like, you know, it's like 10 years ago. I probably had a really crappy little Blackberry or something of a picture quality, you know. And so I was telling her like, okay, they said this. And I'm sending her pictures and she's showing the doctor that she works with. And at this point, I have a little line here, a little line here, a little line here. And I still sore in my underarm. and then I'm texting her and she said the doctor said if that gets anywhere so you need to go the emergency room right away and I look down from the text and I have one solid red line all the

way up my arm right I'm like no call her yeah I'm going in you're either like turning in a spider man or something's wrong yeah so my husband and my mom took me to the ER and by the time I got there I had sepsis and it was a resistant strain of staff so I was on IV antibiotics for a I mean, I had like tachycardia. It was, I was not in good shape. No. I didn't know, like, you know, you get to the emergency room and it's like totally crowded. And there's all these people as a lady like bleeding out.

And after they took my vitals, they called me right back. And there are still people waiting. And so I knew it was pretty bad. So they put me on IV of like the strongest antibiotics. And I had to take those for a week. Oh, my gosh. Followed by a month of more antibiotics. Oh, my gosh.

Your poor body. Desperate. Like, I cannot do this anymore. I'm seeing infectious disease now. Like all these, my same doctors, new doctors, I'm begging all of them. Like, I cannot keep doing this. And they had no answers for me at all. So I'm just desperate.

So I started reading and looking at other ways I can help my body because I clearly, what they were doing for me or what I was taking was wearing me down so that a hang nail almost killed me. So I didn't want to do that anymore. So is that what they determined? That's really what started the staff infection. So the thing on your face, did I even have any connection? Right? So, but this point of entry allowed it to kind of just take over. Go into your bloodstream.

Wow. It's almost a, I don't know if it's a blessing or not, but it's like almost a blessing that it happened as quickly as it did. And such a blessing that your mom was like accessible like that. And so that you immediately knew, okay, something's wrong. It's not like, like, you just don't know. What if it got worse overnight? You fell asleep.

You thought everything was fine. Who knows what would have happened. So it's almost better. that it went as quickly as it did. Absolutely. Because, yeah, if I would have gone to sleep, I really, we don't know. But I didn't read for years about that particular, like, staff and Mercer because I just didn't think I wanted to know how scary it was.

But it was really not good. So you said you started reading about how to help your body, but where did you start? And like, was there anything that made you think there's got to be something more than what the doctors are telling me? like had you heard about other people who had healed themselves naturally or anything like that? Or was it just like a thought you had and you decided to Google it? Yeah, it wasn't really my lifestyle at all the time. I had started to think about ingredients a tiny bit because my husband works in oncology.

And so cancer is kind of like our second language. But really didn't. I knew nothing about any of this stuff. And my mom saw a nutritionist on like a PBS special talking about, inflammation and she told me, hey, I think you should check out this lady's work. And so I read her book and it was about an elimination diet and how these different foods can contribute to inflammation for people when your body's out of balance. Like they can be really healthy foods for some people, but not when you're out of balance. And so you pull them all out, let your body kind of reset and then reintroduce them and see

how you tolerate them. So I'm like, I'll try it. You know, so I finished my antibiotics and then I did the elimination diet pretty much right away. And then within days of eliminating these foods, I was pain free for the first time in over a year. Oh my gosh. It was really fast. So it was undeniable. And it just kind of opened up my eyes to this whole world of reading ingredients, basically, because I couldn't eat any of the things in my pantry or going out to eat was kind of impossible because these ingredients are in most things. And I had never really looked at ingredients before. I would turn the package over to look at the nutrition facts or just read the package cover like, oh, it's a hundred calorie pack.

It must be healthy. Right. Right. That's how I lived, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I was very much like, I had Taco Bell on my wedding day. Like, I was very much like lived that lifestyle.

I thought that fast food made me feel great. And I would say, I love chemicals. It does feel great in the moment. Honestly, right now when you said Taco Bell, I'm like, oh, yeah, that sounds awesome. Pregnancy. That's the last time I really wanted to Taco Bell. Yes. Yes.

Okay. I think that a lot of us can relate to that, especially growing up, like even you talking about eating, you know, chef boy or D and things like that. Now, my parents, like my mom is a great cook. My grandmother lived with us. And so we did have a lot of home cooked meals. But I mean, also, we ate what a lot of 90s kids did, which was, okay, like Reese's puffs in the morning. I would have rice Krispies. And I would put like, I mean, it probably wasn't. But in my mind, I'm thinking, like, it was like a cup of sugar. And just like, White sugar.

Just put it in there and I would love when it would like get to the bottom. When I got home from school, I would get Oreos and I would, you know, like let them get mushy in the milk. I'm like, oh my gosh, some of the things that we ate without even thinking about it then. It's wild that like any of us are even functioning at all. Yeah, yeah. And I think it probably does affect a lot more of us than we realize. But we just consider that, you know, the other things I had before it was so extreme. It was just kind of my normal.

You know, like, oh, everyone gets headaches or everyone gets joint pain at 20 years old. Right. And so what were some of those in that elimination diet? What does that entail? Like, what were some of those things that you had to give up that you said were ingredients that were in most of the things in your pantry? Yeah. So I always forget what all the seven words. Gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, corn, artificial sweeteners.

And I left one out gluten. I'm so sure. There's one more. But yeah, so some really common things that like eggs are so healthy unless you're out of balance and inflamed, they might not be. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah, pulled all those out and it's for 21 days and then you reintroduce them one at a time, very much like when you're introducing foods to a baby, right? So reintroduce one at a time to see if I would react.

And I reacted to all of them. Well, some of them you don't really reintroduce. It's like we don't want artificial sweeteners. We're not going to put those back in. But like gluten, let me try the best bread I can find because I really want to be able to have. have bread and just no, within a day, my headache was back. Yeah. So have you kept eliminating those? Like, do you eat any of those things today? I do. Yeah. So over time, if you heal your body, then you should be able to reintroduce some of these things or maybe all of them over time. But yeah,

I have eggs now. I have dairy. I can have soy on occasion. Gluten still does not like me. Right. It's like you like gluten, but it's unrequited. It doesn't like you back very much. So that was really step one of your healing journey. And that was, you said, was that still 2013? It was 2013. 2013. So 10 years, 10 years now. Tell me like what the other steps were because that's just one part of the process.

But obviously now you talk about a lot of different things in your home, not just the things that you consume. So tell me about how you kind of did an overhaul on your life. Yeah. I think, well, and I can't remember what came first if it was the, if I was already making. my cleaning products or if it was the food, but it was around the same time where that's where I learned to start reading ingredients and was just kind of alarmed by the things I had in my home, but I didn't ever let myself become overwhelmed. I was not working much at the time. We're on one income, newly married, we'd just gone through all these kinds of like health crises and stuff.

So I was really taking it kind of like baby steps, but it's what I still do today. As something runs low or wears out, I would start to look for a replacement that was a little less toxic. and then I've just done that all along the way. So at first, like with the cleaning products, I made all of my own because I was overwhelmed by the options at the store, just the amount of ingredients. I don't know what all these chemicals are. So I just started making my own.

So you just kind of looked up how to do it? Yeah. Yeah. So that's when I started finding, like, Pinterest or blogs or things where people were like, oh, you know, you can use this or that or kind of making my own concoctions and seeing what worked and what didn't. Okay.

Yeah, I found it fun and it saved us money and it worked. I was feeling better. I just found it empowering. Yeah. And were you already exercising when you were like feeling all this pain? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

I wasn't always able to. But yeah, some. And was that part of your everyday life that changed once you started kind of eliminating things and getting healthier? Not really. Not really. I didn't change much. It's always been around the same.

Yeah. So it was mostly the things you were putting in your body that you were putting around your home. And I love that you came up with this name a little less. toxic because I think it can be so overwhelming for people, even those who have health scares, but for those of us who haven't, like I don't necessarily have one thing that I can look at in my life or some kind of, you know, adverse health event that I can say, oh my gosh, I just got to do an overhaul. And yet I see the benefit in it. But I'm like, oh my gosh, it just seems like so

much. How do I eliminate all of these things? But you're saying it's not necessarily something that you have to do overnight. So talk about that balance because I think it can be really intimidating. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think it depends too on the person's health. Right. If you're in an absolute crisis, you might need to do more of an extreme overhaul than somebody who's not experiencing severe health issues, right? But I think in either case, if we take on more than we can sustain, it's not going to last. So that's just never been my approach. That's never how I suggest anyone does it. It's always just been what's the next step that I can take this reasonable? It's within my budget.

And it makes sense for my lifestyle and all of the things. And there's almost always a choice that is less toxic than what we had. And it might not be perfect. And in the crunchy world, you know, it gets crazy. It's never good enough. Like the thing I laugh about, and I don't know, I wouldn't call myself crunchy. I follow a lot of crunchy accounts. You know, I started following your account a while ago and then other accounts.

And there are things that I do and have done over time. I'm definitely over the past couple of years. I think I got crunchier actually during COVID, much crunchier than I was before. Like a lot of people did because you're like, oh, I don't think I can trust the medical establishment completely. I'm not anti-doctor or anti-modern medicine, neither are you. But I'm like, I think that I need to make sure that I'm taking charge of these things so I don't have to completely rely on them for all of my health and all of my health answers. But I'm still not even close to being all the way there. But so I say that to say, I don't have any like intimacy towards the crunchy community.

I respect them a lot. But sometimes, as you said, it's like nothing is good enough. And it's like all these things that people, it's like, oh, we just have to go back to the 1800s on everything. If cavemen didn't do it, then we can't do it today. And I'm like, dude, cavemen also lived for like five years total. Like, I think that we can adapt just a little bit. And so sometimes it's just too much for me. How, I mean, talk a little bit more about how you strike the balance.

You talk about this a lot, like your alt approach, A-L-L-T. Yeah. So just talk a little bit more about that. Yeah. I mean, well, since sharing online, too, I feel, yeah, I call them the crunch police. Because I'm like, it's never good enough. I have not arrived. None of us ever are going to arrive.

We're never going to live this completely pristine, non-toxic life. I don't care how much you try. And not everyone wants to. If I'm posting a picture of like, oh my gosh, these sour patch watermelons are so good, I promise. I do not want you to message me and tell me that they're bad for me. I'm not posting them because I think that they're real watermelons. Trust me. So yeah, crunch police.

I'm going to start using it. Crunch police. Yeah. And, you know, I think that the stress that we can induce on ourselves trying to live this perfect lifestyle is more toxic most times than any of the ingredients we're trying to avoid. So true. it's just not my approach. I feel like that's, it's toxic. Yeah. So the alt approach, a little less toxic. A is for assess. So you take inventory and consider what you actually use. So let's just break these down. Take inventory and consider what you actually use and then what? Yeah. Yeah. Because

do you ever look around your bathroom and there are, you know, hundreds of products? But some of them have been sitting in your cupboard probably a year or two and you haven't touched it. At least. Yeah. Do you really need all these things. If not, and just get rid of it. Clearing up space is going to eliminate dust, but you're also taking out potentially harmful chemicals that are in your cupboard that are off-gassing into your air. Right. So by just eliminating things you don't actually need is going to immediately make your home less toxic. Yeah. And then there's L let go. And I'm guessing that's what you just said. Yeah, which is hard because you invested money in these things. But you know what? You already spent the money. You're not getting it back. It's just sitting in a cupboard or it's not really something.

that you need. We have so many products and we can really minimize it and make our life simpler and use less things. And then eventually we'll be spending less money too. We can not buying as many products. But yeah, let it go. Yeah. Even just like for the sake of minimalism and organization at the beginning of the year, I went through our like one of our cabinets in our bathroom. And then also we put like our medicine and our vitamins on a shelf in our pantry. And I realized when I went through them, oh my gosh, like there are things in here that we have had since before we moved into this house that expired in like 2017. So I went through and I just threw them all away. And it even though you know it's expired, it's still kind of painful to throw away like a full bottle of medicine or

vitamins or something like that. But like you said, okay, is it just going to keep sitting on the shelf? You're never going to use it. You're not going to feel comfortable. But actually, oh my gosh, that cupboard and that part of our pantry looks so much better just because I didn't even buy anything. It costs no money at all. I just threw things away, which is actually kind of fun. Yeah. Doesn't it bring peace to like your nervous system too when you've got like a clearer space? And that's another way to live less toxic too. Yes, definitely. So assess, take inventory and consider what you actually use. L let go. Like you don't want to end up being on an episode of hoarders on TLC because you're collecting expired cleaning items. And then L level up. So what does this mean?

So that's what I was talking about earlier when something runs low or where is it. out or it's time to replace it, look for something that's a little less toxic. It doesn't have to be perfect, something that's within your budget and that makes sense for your lifestyle, but is a little better than the thing you're replacing, whether it be ketchup or shampoo or a rug, whatever it might be. Yeah. And then T, transform over time. The process takes time to be patient and watch how quickly things add up. Yeah, just keep going. Like I said, you never arrive. So I'm 10 years into this. I don't live in this perfectly non-toxic house. I don't live a perfectly non-toxic life. and I don't really strive to.

I don't want to, I think perfectionism can be quite toxic too, right? But it's just keep going. So I still do the same things today. And that way I get to try other products and see if they work better for me or if maybe one's a little more budget friendly or whatever it might be. Yeah. And if people aren't wondering like, well, what specifically rather than going through all those things?

Because that could take hours. Like I encourage everyone to get your book, a healthier home. But then also you can follow her on Instagram a little less toxic. You're always posting things like, oh, instead of this, you can. use this, which is really helpful. Like, that's really easy. And like you said, I don't have to go out and get it right then. I can use the rest of what I have if I want to or maybe not, depending on, like, the threat to my health or my kids' health. And then I can go out and get the thing that's a little better. And it can just be a little better, right? It doesn't have to be. You don't have to

make your own acetaminophen or whatever it is. Like there's some things that you can just get from the store. It's just a little better, but it's still better. Yeah, it's better. Yeah. Yeah. So what is maybe like the most controversial swap, if you can think of, that you have suggested? Because I think I have it on the list and we can talk about it. But is there anything that you've posted like, oh, you shouldn't be using this that you've gotten a lot of pushback about or that you think it's controversial? You know the internet. People get riled up about all sorts of things. I don't know.

The thing that I'm thinking of, I'll just go ahead and tell you. so you don't have to guess, is that like hormonal contraceptics. Oh, yeah. I mean, I don't think that's controversial because I, too, I've been talking about that for a while. But talk a little bit more about that. Why? Yeah. Why should women, in your estimation, not be taking the birth control pill?

Yeah, well, there are a lot of studies or a lot of research that shows how it can contribute to poor health outcomes. You know, it's, I don't, I never really sat right with me. I started it for acne and like abusive sweating. Right? What is that? Yeah, I know. In high school. For no reason. You know, I think it's because the doctors assumed that their patients are really having sex.

Even though I was not, like I can't speak for all teen girls, obviously, but I was totally not. I was just told, oh, your period was two weeks late one time when you were 16. Let's just get you on birth control. Yeah, yeah. Even after my last baby, the doctor was really trying to push it on me. And I like know better, but she really was trying to be convincing, you know, like, oh, it's normal to, you know, just all the things, but I just never really sat right with me, even though I used them for years, but it did, I don't know what kind of, but I mean, it can mess with a lot of things with, you know, your bone health, your hormonal health, fertility. And I don't know all the like

scientific specifics right now off the top of my head, but it just didn't really sit right with me. And I knew that there could be another approach, but I didn't really trust myself to do it fully. Like I know people do, you take your temperature and then you chart it and you chart like your cervical mucus and all this stuff. And I just didn't trust myself. to do all the things, but I found a little device that helps me to do that because it has an algorithm in it. So I just take my temperature every morning and pay attention to my body and it's been working well so far. And you have to be committed. I mean, there are other ways too that are non-hormonal birth control options. There's a barrier method if we want to use that euphemism.

And so there, I mean, there are ways. There are ways to not take hormonal birth control. It's the same thing with the IUD. And then there's also ethical questions about it because it doesn't necessarily stop the fertilization of the egg. Not everyone knows that it's supposed to, but it doesn't necessarily. And so you could still fertilize an egg and then like an IUD, whether it's copper or hormonal or whether it's a hormonal pill that you're taking, it can simply make your uterus in hospitable. So it can kill the egg after it's fertilized. So if you believe, as I do, that life starts at fertilization, then, okay, there are ethical questions about

that and I'm not trying to shame because, you know, we, not everyone knew. Not everyone knows that. But there are questions that we're never even told when we're sitting in a doctor's office. We are never even told about any of that, which is wild to me. Yeah. Yeah. It's nuts. Yeah. No one ever told me that I found that out on my own too. Yeah. It's an abortifiquant. I had no idea. Right. And even like even the process of stopping a period because that's what you, you don't have a period when you're on the birth control pill, as you know, because it's stopping ovulation. It's just withdrawal bleeding. So it's like, well, if women are supposed to have a period and birth control stops us having a period, is that good? Right. I don't know. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And the doctors will

convince that's what mine was like women for all of the time were either like pregnant or nursing. And so they didn't have periods, but that's very different from inducing it with artificial hormones. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So you're not, I mean, you still see a doctor sometimes. Like we were just talking beforehand. You gave birth to both of your kids in a hospital. And that was after kind of even this health journey. So it's not like your anti-modern medicine. No. I'm the same way.

So talk a little bit more about that because I know that you probably are a little bit skeptical, though, after being told years and years, just get on more antibiotics. And you almost die. Right. Because you didn't get to the root cause. Right. I mean, how do we balance that? Well, and then antibiotics saved my life.

So I have to really, I have, it's both. Both things can be true that we are probably over prescribing, overusing a lot of conventional medication and the care is probably outdated or just not really tracking with science, but also modern medicine is life-saving. And so I don't think that we have to live in either camp that both things are true. And I respect both and value both. And I want to just do the best I can with what I know to steward this body I have. During COVID, I remember the phrase doing your own research became something that was mocked. I don't know why it's political, but it just happened to be that a lot of people on the left side of the political aisle would mock that. You shouldn't be doing

your own research. You have no idea what you're talking about, blah, blah, blah, but it's, okay, but what's your other option? Because if you had never done your own research, you wouldn't have gotten better. You would probably still be on antibiotics constantly and maybe in constant pain. Maybe you wouldn't have even had your kids because you were so miserable. So I would love for those people to tell me, like, what is the better alternative then? Because apparently a lot of doctors aren't trained in medical school to even look at what the root problem could be. No, no. Or like just nutrition in general. I can't remember the amount of hours is just really non-existent in their training. So it's not that I have great respect for medical professionals.

I have many in my family and I value them very much. And I think they don't know all the things. So it's okay. I know my body better than anyone else does. I'm the one living in it. So it's okay for me to look at other things, consider alternatives and then weigh them, you know, with discernment, with judgment, with science, and make a better informed decision for my needs. Yeah. I think so too. And it can be difficult to know. I mean, every situation I think is different. Yeah. But you are capable as an individual. God has given you the capacity to read. And I know people want to intimidate, you know, I think especially women out of that. Like we had a pediatrician that was just so bullying about everything.

And it was only like that. He only had this attitude of like talking over me. And if I would ask a question or ask, hey, can we do something this way? He would say, well, sure, we can. You know, you're the parent. But I just want you to know there's no logical or scientific backing behind like what you're suggesting. And like, instead of explaining it to me, he would just make me feel small. But he would not do that if my husband was there.

It was only when I was by myself. And I'm like, I'm not some like will team flower. But when you have someone in front of you who has those credentials, who I know he knows more than me about medicine and things like that, but still what he's saying, it's like, that doesn't sound right. And I know that I care about my child more than you do. So can I just ask these questions? But sometimes you're just scared to even ask. So I think a lot of what you do is also empowering people to ask questions and not feel silly about it because they know their stuff. Yeah.

Yeah, I hope so. because I think that we can get a lot of good info from asking good questions. And I think that our questions should be welcome. Yeah. Especially from professionals. And where do you go to like ask these questions? Because Google is filled with all kinds of information. Yeah.

So how do you sift through it? Yeah. I don't know. That's tough too. I got good at researching like peer reviewed articles and looking into those. And, you know, there are people that you trust more. But I even so you were asking earlier about like product recommendations or that. I don't even like to be like this is the exact product because things change and I don't want

anyone going to me and saying like, oh, she said this. You know, I want everyone to be able to just read information on their own and make informed decisions for themselves. But yeah, where do you go? There's a lot of information. It's very overwhelming and what do you trust. And it's always changing. You know, the benchmarks always moving.

So I don't really know the good answer to that because I don't know really who we trust God. But yeah, I think that, I don't know, I don't have a good answer for that. I can't like tell you one specific place or person, but I think that it's a collective of different reliable information and your own God-given discernment and instinct. Yeah. And some of it is common sense. Like when people were, I mean, common sense kind of told us that widespread like cloth masking probably wasn't going to deter a virus. Just based on what we know about the flu. and how cold spread and like how thin the mask was. It's like, well, it probably just won't.

And like you didn't actually need peer reviewed articles to tell you that. But that's, you know, it's the same thing. I couldn't tell someone like the one source that I go to to look at political news and things like that. It is a lot of, well, based on what I know is true and based on what makes sense to me, sometimes I will go to the New York Times. Sometimes it will be Fox News. Sometimes it's the Wall Street Journal. Sometimes it's like a medical study.

And like, I mean, you just have to have kind of, I think, a questioning, not critical necessarily, but a questioning spirit. Yeah. In every source that you look through, not necessarily looking for something that confirms your assumptions, but looking at things that are consistent with the logic that you already have. And I mean, that's a complicated way to put it, but it's kind of hard to say, well, this is exactly, you know, the only source that you should be looking at. Right. And I think with any topic, too, you can find an argument on either side in the health world, especially. You see that all the time too. Like this, you know, spinach is terrible for you because of oxalids or you really need to eat more leafy greens. Like there's no ever one definitive answer on these things. So you really have to weigh it.

Right. You need a like a meat-based, animal-based diet. Right. Right. Yeah. So, yeah, we have to use our own judgment. And yeah, I think also be willing to change our minds. because I've been presented with new information over time. I mean, it changed my life 10 years ago, but it continues too because I, you know, I don't live the same way I did 10 years ago, not just because of product swaps, but because I learned new things.

So, you know, I avoided dairy for a really long time because I reacted to it. But then I also thought, oh, it's bad for me. But then I learned more information about, you know, like raw milk or whatever and started introducing that and just saw how much better it made me feel, you know, just being willing to change my mind and continuing to keep an open mind and also ask good questions. Yeah. Is there anything recent? I know you just said, Derry, is there anything else that has been more of a recent swap or recent change for you that you've learned more about? Or maybe that you've changed your mind on? I've been learning more about like mold, but that's an overwhelming

topic. But that's something I just was really ignorant to until I got sick again. And so learning about, I don't know. So there's just new stuff I'm trying to learn more about all the time, but not overwhelm myself with. Yeah. I can't think of any. of a newer swap, maybe you remember one. The thing I've, one of the things I've really only started thinking about recently is like water filtration. And we did get a Berkey water filter. And so we have that.

But now I'm thinking about all the other water that we put on our body is like the bath water, the shower water. I know that's something that you talk about is like shower filters, but I actually looked at my shower head the other day, not even to mention the stuff that's in the pipes that, you know, brings my water to me. Or it was the sink, the sink faucet, the head of that. And I was like, that doesn't look good. That does not look good.

That looks like a bunch of gunk that I am cleaning my dishes with and all that stuff. That's something I've been thinking about, which is also a little bit overwhelming. Yeah. Because I'm like, I don't, you know, I don't know what else to do. Yeah, yeah. Some of it's out of our control, right? I can't control the city pipes. Yeah.

I can control the end a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I guess that's just you just do what you can. I say do what you can with what you're able and as it makes sense for you. Because everyone's situation's different. And so I can't tell you like this is what you need to do. I share what I do in case there's something there that's like a little bit of a nugget of something you can apply to your own life or maybe it's inspiring or even just entertaining. I don't care. I just want to share in case it's helpful. Do what you can. I think a lot of people are kind of waking up to this recently. I mean, there's been a lot of talk, I don't even know why it's like a conservative thing, but it seems like it is recently about seed oils and being like anti-seed oil. I mean, honestly, it was I think the first time I heard about even what seed oils were or are. It was on Megan Kelly's show. She had someone on talking about like the hateful eight. And I was like, whoa, I never heard about that. And what I

realized is that it's in a lot of organic food. It's typically sunflower oil. Like even these organic vitamins. And if I said the brand name, people would. know exactly what I'm talking about. But they've got some seed oils. They've got some flower oil and some of their organic, all natural vitamins. And I'm, again, that's one of those things. And I'm like, okay, you know, I try to avoid as much as possible. Sometimes it's not avoidable. But it is interesting, which is once you start looking into this stuff, how much of it is even in health foods, which is why you really, really have to pay attention. Yeah, Whole Foods is kind of going under fire. I see, well, we went yesterday and got some soup and it had canola, you know?

Yeah. At Whole Foods and organic everything. Which is unnecessary, though. It's unnecessary. I guess it's cheaper than avocado oil. Yeah. And that's just what it is. Yeah.

And then no one was making a stink about it. So we would just keep using it because it's cheap. Yeah. Which I know because I still buy some stuff that has that. I try not to. Yep. But I really appreciate accounts like yours. And I follow some other accounts that will like take people through the grocery store and say,

you know, this is what you're buying, but this is what you should buy. Like, just the practical stuff that doesn't overwhelm me and make me feel like I need to overhaul my entire life overnight or else I'm not a good mom. Like, yeah, that's what I want. I want the incremental stuff. And that's what you're about. You're about the balance because it's not just about external cleansing. It's also about your internal state as well, right?

Absolutely. Yeah, it's a whole holistic approach. Like, we can't ignore our nervous system and just fry our brains freaking out. out about everything and expect to be healthy. Because if we're in a constant state of stress, you're never going to feel well. Yeah. Or a constant state of thinking about how can I present this toxic free lifestyle to people online too, because that will just wear you down and fill you with anxiety, which can

lead to a whole host of health problems, right? Yeah. So it's all about balance, people. It's about your mental health as much as it is your physical health, too. And there's a whole, like, there's a whole spiritual. aspect to this as well, the balance of it, right? I feel like as someone who believes that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, I should take good care of it. And I cannot serve well, live well, or do anything really well when my abilities are limited due to illness, right? So when I was living

in all that pain for all that time, I wasn't able to fulfill, you know, I, and this is kind of like I don't think that God can't use me when I'm sick, but I know that if I'm standing in the way of me feeling my best and living my best, then I'm limiting myself from being able to serve in the way that I'm probably designed to. So, you know, I kind of liken it to what back when we're all single and, you know, people were talking about dating. And when, I think it was in a book, but one of my girlfriends got the advice that, you know, if you want to find a guy, he's not going to come to your door, be a pizza delivery guy.

like you have to like actually go out into the world, you know, and I feel like it's the same way. That's so stupid. But with our health that we can't just sit here and expect like, oh, God's going to heal me or, you know, like this is just how it is. This is what like God has for me in my life. When there are things that I could be doing to improve my health or not stand in the way of the balanced body that he designed me with. And when I am limiting myself that way, I'm limiting my capacity to serve.

And so I think that we have a duty and a responsibility. as believers to take care of these bodies we've been given. So there's the balance there as well. Yes, it's just being a good steward. Yep. Well, also recognizing that, you know, we are all going to die. And so there is joy found in some pleasures that might also include canola oil sometimes. Not always, but, you know, there is.

So it's good stewardship while also realizing that things are fleeting. And life is certainly too short to. be weighed down by shame and guilt over things not. You know what? We're not going to have a completely toxic free life until we're in heaven. That's it. That's when toxicity will die. When we are in the new heavens and the new earth, then we will be truly toxic free. That's it. Yeah. And so until then, we just do the best that we can, just like anything else. Yeah. Yeah. Without letting it control my life. I'm not going to let non-toxic living be my God. Yes. Yes. But doing the best we can to be responsible. and to steward our bodies and our families well.

Yes. Is there any last bit of encouragement or anything else who would like the audience to know before we go? Not that I can think of. But yeah, I feel like everyone can do this. Everyone can apply these things to their life and just keep going. Yeah. And I mean, just reference again her amazing story of how you literally got rid of pain, chronic pain that you had been dealing with for years by just cleansing your body and your

environment so it can really be a game changer and you and your family's life so i just encourage everyone to go out get a healthier home it's the room by room guide to make any space a little less toxic also follow shana on instagram she's a fun follow um a cleansing follow to cleanse your timeline of all the toxicity that might be on there and so make sure that you follow her and buy her book well shana thanks so much it's great to meet you in person thanks for joining us thank you So fun. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political.

They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.