081: Living a Green Life with Sophie Uliano

Namaste. It's Sahara Rose. And welcome back to the Highest Self podcast, a place where we discuss what makes you your soul's highest evolvement. I just came back from Sophie Uliano's house and just had the most amazing afternoon talking to her, getting to know her better, and I'm so, so excited to share it with you. For those of you who don't know Sophie, Sophie Uliano is a New York Times Best selling author of Gorgeously Green. She's written three additional books on healthy living and has been featured on Oprah and has really made health, wellness and green living accessible to average American people who may not know anything about this holistic way of living. And she really makes it personable and super fun. So in this episode we talk about all sorts of things from holistic hormonal balance to adrenal fatigue to the essential things you need in your house to keep your house very healthy. All kinds of things that you're just going to love. If you're into wellness, mind, body, spirit, you're going to love this episode. And a lot of you have been asking me saying that you're interested in studying nutrition and learning about different ways to eat right for your body, but you don't know where to get started. So I have two, two suggestions for you, both of which I attended. The first one is Institute for Integrative Nutrition. It is the world's largest online nutrition school. It contains dietary theories from all walks, all paths, which I love because it gives you the ability to pick what works for you and what works for your clients. So it's not about all people following one specific type of diet, which we talk about in this episode, but learning about all different types of eating and then seeing what resonates best for you and knowing that that changes and that food is really just kind of scratching the surface. But the reason why we eat unhealthy food is often because of emotional issues, environmental issues, relationships, etc and that's what IIN Institute for Integrative Nutrition is all about. So if you're interested in learning more, head over to my website, iamsaharose.com I am offering a 1500 dollars off discount for anyone that applies. Plus I am bonus webinar and in that webinar I am going to discuss how to have a thriving business. As a health coach. I'm going to be sharing all my tips and tricks for growing your social media following securing your first client, what is your elevator pitch, finding your niche, all sorts of things. So that's going to be also available to you and I'm creating a private Facebook group while I'll be answering any of your questions regarding health coaching for the entire program. So if you're interested, head over to my website, iamsaharose.com you'll see it says Become a health Coach. Click there. You'll also be able to download a free sample class, a curriculum guide and get to know more about the program. When you sign up, just mention Sahara. And the other suggestion I have for you is to become an Ayurvedic practitioner. As you know, I'm an Ayurveda practitioner. I wrote the Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda. Have a new book coming out. Eat, Feel fresh and I love Ayurveda because it's very holistic. It looks at the mind, body and spirit and you're able to see the body in terms of the doshas, the energy types or the arc types. So if you're interested in Ayurveda, you love my book, you love all the Ayurveda episodes, then become an Ayurveda practitioner and I'm able to offer you a thousand dollar off discount for Joyful Belly, which is the best Ayurveda program. Why? Because it is modernized. It focuses on the digestion, it doesn't just teach you things without explaining them, which is the case for a lot of Ayurveda programs I've done. But the founder, John Imill, who I've also interviewed for Highest Self Podcast, really makes Ayurveda understandable from a scient. And he has two programs, one which is a one year program on Masters of Ayurvedic Digestion and the other is a two year program about becoming an Ayurvedic counselor. So you can also check those out on my website, iamsaharose.com youm'll see it says Become an Ayurvedic practitioner. Click on that link, let him know that Sahara referred you and you will also receive my bonus webinar which is going to be talking about the business process for an Ayurveda practitioner. So with an Ayurvedic practitioner it's a little different because most people don't know what Ayurveda Ayurveda is. So in this bonus webinar I'm going to be answering your questions, explaining to you how to let people know what you're doing, what Ayurveda is, how to get clients, how to determine people's doshas and make it really practical and accessible for you. And I'm also Going to have a separate private Facebook coaching group for everyone that signs up for Joyful Belly. So these are my two offerings for you. If you love this episode, you love all the wellness related content, then the world needs you. We need more people sharing this information. You know, like, you don't need certain criteria. None of these programs have any prerequisites. You don't need to have even gone to college. All you need is a true passion and desire to help people. Because being a warrior, being a wellness warrior is not something that you can study for a test. It's something that comes from within. So if you have that passion, you have that drive, you know that helping people become healthier lights you up, up, then you are chosen, my friend. You were chosen. And all we need is for you to say yes. So without further ado, let's get started with this week's episode. Sophie Uliano, best selling author of Gorgeously Green. Let's do it. Well, welcome, Sophie, to the Highest Self podcast. It's so great to have you here.

Thank you very much. It's so good to be here.

The first question that I would love to ask you is, what makes you your highest self?

What makes me my highest self is becoming still, becoming calm, becoming so still that I can hear the voice of my higher self. Because I need to find those moments in solitude and in quiet and in stillness when I can actually hear what she has to say to me and be guided from that place. So my higher self infuses the rest of me to sort of be my best self.

And you are a very busy person.

Yes, you.

You do so much. You've been on the Hallmark Channel and have a New York Times bestselling book and have your upcoming event, which we're going to talk about. So first I'd love to know, how do you find these moments of stillness between doing all of these things? I think a lot of us, we feel like if we take a moment to be still, will fall behind.

Yes, that's so true. You know, I do it with great intention because if I just let life happen, you know, my life can get very, very. It's very chaotic. And so I make time and I have discipline and I have structure. Words that don't seem sort of very cozy or spiritual, but that. It's the glue that holds everything together for me. And through that structure and that discipline, I find freedom. So. So what I do on a practical level is the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning. It's like cleaning my teeth. It's actually, it's become as habitual as cleaning my teeth. As I get up, I do brush my teeth, and then I sit down and either sit on a meditation cushion or I sit in a chair. I sit somewhere quiet, depending on whether I'm at home or somewhere else. And I either do Transcendental meditation, which is what I've been practicing for many, many, many years, or I do a guided meditation. Sometimes I listen if I'm feeling chaotic or if I have a very particular intention of a place that I want to get to within myself, an answer that I want to find something that I'm struggling with, then I might do a guided meditation from an app such as the Insight Timer. But no matter what I do, I take the time and I do that no matter what. And the other morning, actually just yesterday morning, I got ready to do it, and just for some reason, my husband, who normally gets up much later than me, he had to get up early to do something. So he's walking through the room. I had three dogs running through the room. I have my daughter calling at me and everything. And I've got my earpods in listening to this guided meditation. And as I was in it and doing it, I thought, it doesn't matter. I was kind of aware of all that going on around me. And it doesn't matter because I find that stillness through intention and that guides the rest of my day.

That's so beautiful. And I think it's important for people to see that, especially with your level of success, you don't get too busy for it. In fact, it becomes more and more important and vital to your success 150%.

It really, really does. And I think the biggest mistake, and I have made this mistake over the last 10 years because my first book launched 10 years ago. I definitely have made the mistake just periodically where I've let things kind of take over and busyness and life and everything so important, and it never ends well with deep within myself. It's never a good ending to that story because I never want to lose sight of what's most important, which is really, you know, coming from this place of, you know, intention of living with an open heart, of coming from love, of really having those kind of revelations and those epiphanies that I have every time I get quiet. So I've been down the road of not making it a priority, and it doesn't work. And so as I get older and wiser, it just, just. It has to be the number one thing in my life.

Yes, absolutely. And I've recorded an episode about this, but like, adrenal fatigue and burnout and how so many people have dealt with it and then how it affects our hormones and makes us gain weight. So can you speak more about this?

That is so true. And I think that it's such a great segue into that topic of hormonal balance and adrenal fatigue. And, you know, it's interesting because there's. At my upcoming wellness weekend, I wanted. The first educator that I wanted at the weekend is somebody called Candice Birch, and she's a hormone educator. And she speaks really eloquently about adrenal fatigue and such. And I wanted her so much because I felt that it was the missing part of the puzzle so often in a quote, unquote, wellness journey that, you know, we can be doing. I'm doing the meditation. I'm doing the green smoothies. I'm doing this, that the other. But I'm still. There's something not right. I'm exhausted. I'm burned out. I can't shift the weight. I've got. There's something not right. And I kn. And I know from my own experience that it is very, very much connected to hormonal imbalance. So she's amazing. And actually she tests. One of the first things she tests with women is their adrenal function. And she was explaining to me how there's a very definite, if you looked at it on a kind of graph of paper, of how it's meant to exactly go through the day. Luckily, with mine. And I 100% put this down to the meditation. Cause she said extraordinarily. She said, I've rarely seen somebody who's as busy as adrenal function is literally perfect. And I said, oh, I'm so happy. I didn't think it would be. And I said, I can. And she said, how? What are you doing? And I said, I don't know. I said, I eat really well. But I said, I do think it is to do with the fact that I give myself this time every morning. And I'm very connected to my kind of biorhythms during the day. So I get up quite early. I do that meditation. I have a lot of energy in the morning. And then as the day goes on, I sort of. I don't ever have a crash, but I just lessen. I do all my creative work in the morning and then do sort of more easy stuff in the afternoon. And then I go to bed almost at the same time every single night, really disciplined. About that.

And what time do you sleep?

I go to bed at 10 o' clock and I sleep by 10:30, unless there's something, you know, there's a party or I'm out and about. But generally that's my sweet spot. And I get a good eight and a half hours sleep. Eight, eight and a half hours sleep. So I think all those things really tie into adrenal health. And of course, we now know that adrenal burnout is not a fun place to be. And she said that it's so prevalent with girls from. She's seeing it younger and younger now, you know, as young as, like 25 years old to women going into early perimenopause as a result of all of this being out of whack. And I think we just take on too much, particularly women.

Yes.

And.

And that's actually what happened to me when I was 21. I went into paramedical.

Oh, my gosh. I didn't know that.

Yes. And that's what brought me into, like, discovery. Yeah. And especially with Ayurveda and, you know, a lot of it is the intense exercise. Like we are told, like, work out as hard as possible. So you wake up, you didn't fully sleep, and then you're at this like, drill sergeant, like, screaming at you and.

Boot camp kind of thing.

Exactly. And then, you know, then you're still kind of tired. And then at nighttime, like, I would be like, oh, I'm so creative at night, so I'm gonna stay up to like 2 in the morning. That causes all of the hormonal issues, weight gain. So it's amazing to see how interconnected they are.

Oh, gosh, I'm so. I mean, looking at you right now with this beautiful shining skin and beautiful eyes and you look so calm and everything that it's just you're such an inspiration and a testament to the importance of just living this way that we just don't. And really, it's kind of unimportant at the end of the day, isn't it, to, you know, everything else kind of just can sort of fall away when the only thing that becomes important is ultimately your health and your inner balance.

Absolutely. And I'd love to ask you about what are other common hormonal imbalances you see and different lifestyle causes that may have attributed to it?

Well, I think with the toxicity of the environment that we live in now more than ever, we can't get away from the fact that we are surrounded by xenoestrogens. These xenoestrogens which are these man made synthetic chemicals in our environment. That preaching to the choir here. I'm sure you've talked about this a lot that sort of pose as estrogens and fit into the estrogen receptors and as a result your body gets very, very confused and it doesn't know really what's going on. And so that in itself creates a cascade of events that tied in with the adrenal dysfunction. Everything starts sort of getting out of whack. And so I think that's almost one of the first things that I would address would be those two things would be first just look at the way that you're pacing yourself through your day and that you're getting enough rest and nourishment and self care because that is going to take care of your adrenals. Because the thing is with the adrenals and they affect your cortisol and your sugar levels in your blood. But if you keep on pushing yourself without stopping, it's almost like the pool will always be empty. The swimming pool will always, always be empty. And you'll fill it up and it'll drain, it'll just like having a crack in it all the time. And so we have to keep that full. And then once we have this beautiful pool of water, let's call it a beautiful saline swimming pool that we can enjoy and be in, we then have to make sure that that water is as non toxic as possible. And that's when we start getting rid of the xenoestrogens, which is a sort of multi effort effort at affair if you like, because it's in every area of our life and I don't like to scaremonger or get people freaked out thinking oh my gosh, I've got to sort of get rid of all plastics and pesticides and because they're everywh. I mean you walk into a shopping mall, they're in a shop, they've been pumped.

So what are some of the most common things that we can find them in?

Well, I think one of the first places I would start is pesticides. Let's look at pesticides because a lot of people don't necessarily correlate that to xenoestrogens, but they very much are. So, so pesticides in or around the home for me are an absolute no. I have three small dogs, they do not wear flea collars, you know, traditional flea collars. I use essential oils, I make essential oil sprays, I make flea repellent, dry shampoos for them, et cetera. I don't use for all. And here in Southern California we have a lot of infestations of ants and all sorts of insects and whatever, but I just kind of manage those completely naturally by way of essential oils and cayenne pepper and peppermint and bay leaves and things like that in my yard. I have a yard and I've never used any pesticides. I'm also very careful about pesticides on the food that I eat and I make, you know, really advise everybody who I work with to be very careful about that. So that's one area. A second area would definitely be. And these are good because these are areas that are really easy to change. Because I think sometimes we feel a little overwhelmed because you think, wow, there's so much I've got to do and there's a lot that I can't do. But actually there's a lot that you can do to minimize your exposure and to create a beautiful, healthy home that's a sacred place and it's your sanctuary and you're cleaning up that air and whatnot. So we've talked about what you're eating, what you put on your skin is very important. So I've been researching and reviewing and loving green skin care products, non toxic skin care products, for 10 years now. I think I first brought the issue up in my very first book, gorgeously green, and was. People were horrified. They were like, what? There's, you know, whatever it is in my toothpaste or my deodorant or whatever it was, it was not common knowledge at the time. Luckily now it's common knowledge. But again, I try to be really smart and I really try to look at the worst offenders rather than getting freaked out about everything. There's a lot of misconceptions in the blogosphere about what actually can really harm you. And we start getting into the sort of what into the carcinogen territory. I think we have to be a little bit careful with that. Teasing that apart and really going, okay, you know, let's, let's look at what's an endocrine disruptor. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah. Because then the other side argues, well, everything causes cancer, so I might as well.

Yes.

When you like overuse it. Because I guess everything in a certain dose could cause cancer. You know, just like a bad mood can.

Exactly. You're so right. And actually that's such an important point is it's the dose that makes the poison.

Yeah.

In every respect, even a bad mood. Because we've got to be allowed to Be angry every now and again. And if you tap that down, then, you know.

Right, yeah. And sometimes, you know, I see people, they're so afraid of everything that they, like, kind of like leave society because they feel like, oh, my God, just breathing the air here is so toxic. But, you know, then if every. All the good people leave, then who's gonna stay here to, like, help the planet?

And also, something about that is, you know, there's this wonderful. I don't know whether you've ever come across her, but she's this wonderful writer and speaker called Anita Moorjani.

I think I've heard of her. Yeah.

And she wrote a book called. Her first book is called Dying to Be Me. But she had an after death experience. I've heard of her.

Yes.

And one of the reason I'm bringing that up is that we both have the same publisher, Hay House. And we were at a conference together and we were chatting and I was telling her what I do and everything, and she said, oh, she said, I am completely unafraid of everything now. I pretty much eat what I want to eat, drink what I want to drink. I'm just completely unafraid because she believes that the fear is what actually made her ill. She died of cancer and came back. And then she came back and she was in complete remission. It's an extraordinary story, but very interesting that her take on it is that living with the fear will, that abject fear that she lived with and constant anxiety will do more harm to the. The fabric of your being and your cell makeup than any xenoestrogen or, you know, pesticide crossing your plate. And I think she's got a. She's got a good point.

Yeah, absolutely. I think everything is in moderation. And then one could argue the other side of that, saying, well, look at all the happy people eating McDonald's. And then they get sick. So I think it's like there is.

Medium in between full balance, isn't there?

Yeah.

I mean, you know what my philosophy is that I always say, look, stack the cards in your favor and do it with love, intention and love. And stacking the cards in your favor is eating a diet. Because what you eat for three meals a day obviously significantly affects your health outcome for the next 20, 60, 80 years of your life. That's just a fact. You know, how you exercise and how you live your life, and it's a beautiful, beautiful thing that if you take care of that and you're conscious and you learn and you live in that way with intention, then no, you can't stop happening. What's going to happen to you and the difficulties that befall all of us. But boy, oh boy, then you stack your cards in such a strong favor that when something does happen, you're either armed to deal with it or you can. You're so much more able to enjoy your life.

Absolutely. And when you're eating out of love, honestly, you're not going to want to eat the foods that are bad for you. Because when you understand truly and you're connected with your body, you know how it makes you feel and you know your vibration decreases when you eat these, like, processed foods and stuff like that. So that just. I don't know what Anita eats, but I feel like when you love what you, your body and you love yourself, you don't want to eat bad food anymore.

I'm sure she eats extremely well.

Yes. And I'd love to also talk about speaking of hormones. Just the hormones in meat products.

Yes.

Because this is the first thing I tell guys who are like, oh, I need my beef, I need my protein. I'm like, do you realize how much estrogen is in your burger? So can you talk a little bit about. Yeah, the antibiotics, the hormones.

As you know, you know, I advocate a whole food plant based diet and I'm a nutritionist and I've been studying nutrition and science for the last five years. And I'm pretty passionate about this because, you know, one of the quickest and easiest ways to eliminate contaminants, pollutants, xenoestrogens and hormones and antibiotics is to stop eating animal products because they are so prevalent in these foods and it's actually, you know, pretty frightening. So for me, whether or not somebody debates whether they, you know, it's better to eat animal products for protein or whatever it is, or they prefer to, or they think it's going to help them lose weight or whatever the reason is that somebody wants to eat animal foods. I think the one thing that you can't argue is the fact that the pollutants that are now present in our environment, where they live, where they are stored is in the lipophilic tissue of animal products. They store themselves in fat because they're fat soluble and they're not water soluble. So whether you're talking about a fire retardant, a dioxin, and these dioxins are carcinogens, that's where they live. So to eat lower down the food chain, you're giving yourself the best possible chance of eating food that is not going to be Contaminated. And of course, when you eat plants, you don't need to be eating any hormones or antibiotics. Now even when we talk about, people sometimes say, well, I eat hormone free or food meat raised without the use, but it's not entirely true. And there's so much greenwashing or meat washing, whatever you want to call it, that when you really pull back the curtain in that industry and you, you really understand. You know, I used to believe, wanted to believe for years that Marigold the cow, I was raised by a meat eating English family and that I wanted to believe that, you know, the meat comes from Marigold the cow in the pasture chomping away. And back in the day in England, a cow actually really was grass fed. It did actually spend its entire life before its terrible, unhappy demise on a grass pasture. Now that, that is such a rarity that if you think, if you even go to healthy markets now and some of the big, huge healthy food chains, without mentioning any names, I mean, just look at the size. A good example is look at the size of a chicken breast. Number one, just look at the size of it. And this is an organic pasture raised, all the right labels on it, but it is massive when you compare it to the size of a chicken breast like even 50 years ago or 100 years ago. And you've gotta ask yourself the question, why? What is in that? What has that chicken been fed and how does that chicken get around with those massive chicken breasts? Well, it kind of doesn't, or with great difficulty. And then of course it's pumped full of all these antibiotics and whatnot because of the diseases and the problems that it has. Interestingly, very interesting to me is the more recent knowledge that chicken breast now, or chicken in general actually now has as much if not more saturated fat than beef in it because of the ways that the chickens are raised and what they're fed. It also has an incredibly high amount of sodium in it. So what used to be a quote unquote healthy choice was like a skinless chicken breast is now really not. And then when we're talking about the hormones and the dairy products and the meat and how it affects, you know, puts our hormones out of whack. It's, it's not a great situation. So eat plants and then you don't have to worry about any of this. Just eat beautiful plants.

Yes, I totally agree. And what I have found, kind of that people ask me about, which I'd love to ask you because it's kind of your expertise pieces, they say, well, I can't lose weight on a plant based diet. They feel like they need the eggs, the chicken breast to have that level of protein, otherwise they're eating too many carbs and they can't lose weight. So what are your tips for plant based weight loss?

Oh, that's a great question. So first off, I think that carbs have got such a bad rap. And look, there are three macronutrients, carbohydrates, and I'm talking very much from a scientific, you know, clinical nutritionist point of view. But call it, we've got to say as it is, there's carbohydrates, there's proteins and there's fats. And generally speaking, your diet really needs to be. And historically, when we look at the data, the epidemiological data, you know, the diet really does need to be made up of 60% carbs. And when we look at all the healthiest, longest living populations, all the blue zones. All the blue zones, it's is 60% carbs. Now obviously we're not talking about pastries and muffins and French bread, we're talking about grains. That's why actually I'm not a huge subscriber for the most part to a grain free diet, because I think grains can play a really important part. Obviously, unless you're celiac in your diet, healthy grains, ancient grains and whatnot, because they feed your microbiome and they're a prebiotic. So I think if somebody was to suddenly go grain free, I'd be a little concerned because what do you think of just quinoa?

I know a lot of people are like grain, except quinoa, because it's a seed.

I think again, you're missing out on a big nutritional component, a huge nutritional component, because also quinoa isn't necessarily for everybody. To a certain extent. We also, I think there's something to be said for eating some of the foods that our ancestors ate, which I come from the northern hemisphere where there wasn't quinoa. So migraines would be ancient whole wheats and einkorn sourdough. And sourdough. And actually those grains work very well for me and for my digestion. So I encourage everybody who I work with and is from my own experience is to really listen to your body rather than trying to go with the prevailing wisdom, which is often really not wisdom at all. And you have to be very, very careful where you get your information from because there's a lot of kind of misinformation out there and really make sure that the people and the experts you listen to really sort of look at all the different studies and data and everything that there is out there to sort of come to their conclusion. But more than anything, our bodies are very wise. They're really, it goes back to becoming quiet and you kind of know what you can tolerate, know what you can eat. So don't just think because somebody goes, oh, gluten free, everybody's gotta be gluten. Or everyone blows up on grains and gluten. No, they don't actually, actually a very, very small percentage of people do. And they won't make you gain weight. Actually the opposite because if you're filling your plate with these really healthy carbs, now that might be grains, it might be starches, it might be sweet potatoes. And again, looking at all the blue zones, they have different carbs. Like in, you know, Okinawa it's purple, purple potatoes. And you know, obviously in Japan it's rice, rice. And in, you know, the Mediterranean, Costa Rica. Costa Rica, it's plantains and corn and whatever. So find, find your carb, your starch that works for you and enjoy it my friends, because it's satiating, it's delicious. And we can only, I mean so many people who go on these grain free things and they think, you know, and it's deceiving as well because when, if you were to go on a high protein grain free diet, initially, initially you might lose weight but it's very short sighted because a, it's very hard to sustain because it's not a love diet, it's not where it's not food that you're just loving, it's not so satiating. But also what I really worry about with again my nutritionist hat on is long term health down the road really understanding, you know, the foundation of our health is our microbiome and you know, if you're eating a very high protein diet, particularly from animal products, then you're causing a huge inflammation spike in your body every single day. And that in turn is the underlying cause of almost all of the major diseases that you're not going to have to necessarily worry about in your 20s and 30s. But we're seeing them coming down the line and appear earlier in people in their 40s and 50s now. So let's always think about long term health and beauty and feeling good rather than those short term quick gains of I'm going to do this and lose weight, but I just want to just answer your question. So first off, don't be afraid that by incorporating grains that are right for you and carbs that are right for you that you're going to gain weight because you will not. Also the same with healthy fats, which in my opinion, again my opinion based on of all other the data that I study is healthy fats would be as whole as you could make. So it would be your seeds, it would be your nuts, it would be your avocados and it would be a little bit of a cold pressed olive oil or whatever. And then your proteins, which of course most people, not everybody, if you have a severely compromised digestive system, autoimmune whatever, then we may need to do a little bit more work and focus on how you're going to get your protein needs fully met. But I would say for most people, even very active people, you can get a tremendous amount of really, really cle beautiful protein from plants.

And what do you think about like legumes, like beans, lentils, et cetera?

Oh, I'm a huge fan. I'm a massive fan. And you know, again, looking at all the studies, all the research, all the centenarians, you know, the one commonality, almost the top commonality actually when we're looking at diet is beans. Every single one of these populations has a bean in their diet. And beans and legumes are associated with so many health, health benefits. Almost the most important one is bringing down the inflammation in your blood. And that inflammation, you know, the IGF one is an absolute indicator of risk for cancer. And so let's bring that inflammation down. And we do that by eating our legumes. And I just want to just quickly throw in there that a lot of people say, oh Sophie, I knew you were going to say that. But I can't, you know, being make me bloated or you know, have gas or whatever. And here's what I would say is just start really slowly with everything because the moment, if you're anything like me, the moment you really understand something to be this is absolutely for me what I need to eat every day, I'll like be, it's almost like more is better and then you can eat a ton of beans and then get a little bloated. But just half a cup of hummus a day is that could be your bean intake for the day. And most people can easily tolerate half a cup of hummus or you know, I just made yesterday some fava bean hummus. It was so delicious. So I think beans are beautiful thing and just find every which way you can get them into your diet.

Yeah, I'm a huge fan of Legumes myself. And in my cookbook I talk about how a lot of it is people don't know how to prepare it.

Yes.

You know, they're buying canned beans which are just like flash heated, not never been soaked. They don't have any kombu or cumin or anything that makes it easier to digest. So they've never actually experienced like properly prepared beans before. And that's why if you go to any culture on the world, you'll always see on the kitchen table there's a bowl of water with some sort of legume in it and someone soaking it.

Yes, so true. Yeah, it is so true. I was raised on that sort of food even, you know, in England. And everything was from my mother's garden. She grew everything. So that's such a good point. I think there's very few canned beans that I would subscribe to too.

And I think it's better like, you know, canned beans, if you're like last minute you need something, it's okay, like just you might get bloated, you might not. But for someone who's like, oh my God, I absolutely can't do beans. Don't start with the canned beans. Start by soaking them and yeah. Getting your body used to it.

And I think. And also it doesn't have to be a huge great preparation deal. Sometimes people, I think, get really scared when they hear of soaking and cooking for hours and everything. But soaking is basically pouring. Pouring water on the beans in a bowl.

Yes. And then leaving.

Just let them do their own thing and then they're done. And then you just throw them in a pan and cook them with a bit of kombu, which is wonderful because you get all the iodine from that for your thyroid. So I mean it's all. Everything just works synergistically and beautiful together.

Absolutely. So. And that's the other thing I'd love to talk to you about because you're a green home living expert and you know so much about just ways to make our home safer. So can you talk about some like really necessary changes that people should make in their home to make it a more eco friendly and healthy environment for their whole family?

Sure. Well, let's start in the bedroom. So in the bedroom, I think one of the most important things if you're living, particularly if you're living in a city, is to have clean air. And I cannot stress that more because now some studies, actually some recent studies have just come out linking poor air quality to inflammation in the body as well. And then inflammation Leading to all the diseases and depression. It's just amazing how all of this kind of works together. So the first thing I would do is invest in a very, very good home air filter. And if you have it in one room in your house, only have it in your bedroom.

And what type of filter is it? Like a cool or.

Well, there's one. Am I allowed to kind of measure around? There's one brand which is actually the only. I found this and now I'm completely obsessed. It's. It's called Intellipure. And they are. It is actually better. I used to think the HEPA or HEPA filter was the gold standard, and it used to be the gold standard. But this brand, Intellipure, this machine takes it to a whole new level. And they, I think, I believe they're the only. I'm not very good at the technology, but they're the only air purifier that takes out the very, very small particulate matter out of the air, which is, which is exactly what we're talking about when it comes to inflammation. And I have one in my bedroom. And I have to say, the air smells completely different when I walk into that room. It's almost like, you know, the smell of the air when you've just. You're in the countryside and there's just been a thunderstorm and it smells super, super clean. It smells like that. It's unbelievable. So that would be one of the first things I would do. The second thing I would make sure, and this goes for every room in your home, is that you don't use any kind of synthetic fragrance. That would almost be the number one offender. If I was walking through somebody's house, you knew nothing about green living or detoxification. I'd go, right, we're going to look for air freshener sprays. They're going in the trash can. Any plugins, perfumes that you have put on your skin, go through all your skin care supplies. And the ones that, like, first ones that I would weed out, you might think it would be parabens, but almost before parabens, because there's such a huge cocktail in synthetic fragrance and perfume, I would get rid of everything. Now I am obsessed with essential oils. That is how I sent my. I've been playing. I sort of am a kind of closet aromatherapist, or it's a hobby. And I've been messing with essential oils since I was like 18 years old. I love them. So I make all my own blends and I have diffusers, cold air Nebulizers in every single room of my home.

And that's which diffuser. Do you recommend a nebulizer or just a water based one?

Oh, definitely a nebulizer because I think for me I sometimes will go with the water one. But I like the nebulizer because I think it keeps the integrity of the oil. And if you're using, if you're investing in a really good quality organic, pure essential oil, then you really want to have every drop of that with all of the compounds being sort of diffused perfectly into your air. And also the water sometimes gets really gunky, it's difficult to clean, it runs out.

Right.

So a nebulizer is really easy because you just put the drops in and you're good to go. There's one that I have in every room in my house which is by a brand and I gotta try and get this right, is organic aromas. And they're beautiful, they're hand blown glass and it's really pretty and they're lovely, really lovely.

So I've heard that the type of essential oil you need is the one that smells good to you. And if it's not smelling good to you at that time, your body doesn't need it. Then I've heard the opposite, that the ones that don't smell good two are the ones you need. Do you have any say on this?

Oh, that's such an interesting thought. I gosh, I'm not sure because I think it's almost like I probably, if I'm tapping into a kind of collective wisdom, I'd almost want to go with go. What feels good to you at that moment in time. Just as much as eat the food that feels. Tastes good to you, go for the smell. Because we're so guided by smell and our smell tells us what we need to avoid. So it would then follow logically that you would go for what you.

Right.

What you love.

Yeah. Because one smell could smell amazing to you one day and not good to you another day or in the morning or at night.

100%. Like sometimes I just love the smell of peppermint and I just. And when I need to focus because it's so good for focus. Peppermint. So sometimes that's. And yet at night when I'm just chilling, I don't want peppermint coming out of my diffuser. I want something really sort of sultry and flower. I want sandalwood or geranium or rose or something that's really mellow and earthy. So that would be all the more reason to have a lot of different. Invest in your air purifier and your nebulizers, I would say.

Absolutely. And I've also heard maybe it's with a nebulizer, too, that the diffusers emit more vapor when your home is more polluted. Oh, have you heard of this?

No, I have not. I've not heard of that. But I guess the way to sort that out would be to blast your room with the air purifier.

Right.

And actually, funnily, that you say that, because that's exactly what I do. It's almost, like, instinctive that I'm like, before I go to bed, I put it on really high, the air purifier, so I get that clean air scent, then I turn it off. And then I put in my. My oils to soothe me before I go to sleep. So I'll maybe pump out some lavender, some neroli, some vetiver or something like that. But I know I don't do them at the same time because I don't want that. My husband's like, we'll put them on at the same time. No, because you're gonna. The air purifier is gonna draw in all those oils, and I don't want to ruin it. It was really expensive. So I'm like, no. So we have a whole system now.

Totally.

And so let's just think. So other things to get rid of, to detox. The home mattress is obviously very important. I know it's such a huge investment for people, but just remember, it's such an important one, because.

Do you think it's because of the flame retardants?

It's the flame retardants and the chemicals. And now there are two or three brands. Off the top of my head, I could give you three. There is Brentwood Homes does beautiful mattresses. Essencia does beautiful mattresses. There's quite a few that. There's some.

I have an avocado mattress.

Avocado. Amazing.

Yes.

And they're so intentional, these companies.

Yeah.

And that's what I love, honestly. And that's why, in the event that's coming up, my weekend wellness event, every single brand and person that I've invited to come has its pure intention for good behind every single thing that they make and they do, whether it's a skincare product, whether it is a mattress, whether it is a person who's there helping people. It's all about intention. And intention doesn't always come cheap. That's why I think a Greener way of living sometimes involves a little bit more of an upfront cost. But I always say to everybody, you pay now or you pay later. And you know, and also I have learned over the years to really prioritize and go, okay, I will go without this, this and that, this, which really aren't going to enhance my life that much in the long run. So that I can have a beautiful mattress, so that I have really good air purifier, so that I can afford, you know, pure essential oils instead of those cheap ones that are diluted with, you know, junk and. And so on.

Exactly. And it helps you manifest better too. You know, when you're in a beautiful home space and you feel comfortable, you're able to think more clearly and you attract more abundance to you.

You do. And I think on, on an energetic level that is so true. Because what we're talking about here is self care. What we're talking about here is really feeling that you deserve to have the best and that you deserve to have a beautiful home and you deserve to have these things. So I think it's. Everything is a kind of knock on effect. But if you can really come to that place of stillness and understand that it's your birthright to have, you know, these beautiful things in your life that are going to enhance your health and the health of your family and you're so right, then you walk through life differently with a different energetic vibration. And I absolutely believe as you do that then you attract like always attracts like absolutely.

So tell us a little bit about your wellness weekend that you have coming up. I'm so excited for it.

Well, you're coming, so I'm excited. So it is something that I've been planning for about six months now. It's turned into a great labor of love. But like anything that's worth it, it has a lot of intention and work put into it to make it. And I want it to be an absolutely unforgettable experience for every single woman that attends. It's women only. It's at the Line Hotel, which is a beautiful hotel in Los Angeles. It's June 9th and 10 10th. It's over the weekend, but you can have a one day pass if you can't make the whole weekend. Although honestly. Jump in, girls, just jump in. Because once you're there, I know if anybody's got a one day pass, they're gonna go, oh, I wanna sign on for the second day. And my intention is that I'm taking you on a journey, a wellness journey. So you're gonna arrive, we're gonna do some deep, beautiful inner work through yoga, through meditation, through some of the best teachers being here in LA that I've found along my path who are gonna take you to that place of really sort of getting in touch with your beautiful higher self. Then we're doing a lot of, there's a lot of information, there's a lot of learning. So there's going to be a big nutritional presentation, there's going to be a hormonal balance, big seminar with Candice Birch, who I was mentioning earlier. And she's not only going to be teaching everybody, but she's also going to be doing private consultations. And then there's going to be home detox, there's going to be vegan fashion shows. There's lots of fun as well. There's big huge green beauty panels. We have do you know, Natch Beaut is a podcast. She's coming to moderate one of the beauty panels. I have the beautiful Kim Douglas, who is the Ellen's beauty expert who's moderating one of the other panels. So all I can say is I just want you to go at the end of the weekend with having the gift of having press the pause button on your life just for a bit because you're worth it and finding something so deep within yourself that is going to really inform how you live the next year of your life. It's going to be deep, there's going to be laughter, there's going to be tears, but there's also going to be so much fun and you get to walk away with a swag bag, a goodie bag valued at $1,000 worth of non toxic green beauty and wellness goodies.

Oh, perfect. So when they throw away all their beauty products, they'll walk out with the new ones.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Absolutely. I love it. So where can people learn more about the event and connect with you?

They can go to Sophie juliano.com forward/g4g.com so it's just the letter G number 4G. So Sophie, you and I'll link to.

That in the show.

G4G.

Perfect. Yay. Well, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us, for informing us, for making us all healthier, happier and feeling just more light and bright. I love you have like a fairy like energy. I don't know if anyone's ever told you that you're such a fairy and you just bring joy everywhere. And that's what we all need more of. We need, you know, sometimes this, like, space can be really, like fear, daunting and scary and, you know, it doesn't have to be, you know, letting go of the old can be a really beautiful process.

Oh, it's a beautiful process. And it just. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to sit with somebody. Like, I could say all the same to you and to just sit here and look into your eyes, which are sitting across the table from one another and just, just, you know, from me to you, from you to me, it just, it feels, it feels pretty good to live this way.

Well, thank you so much again for sharing your wisdom.

Thank you.

And I can't wait for the wellness weekend coming up soon. Namaste.

Namaste.

Oh, my gosh. How much did you love this episode? I just love Sophie's energy so much. She's so kind, so sweet, so welcoming. Plus I love her British accent. I could listen to it forever. So if you loved this episode, please come to Sophie's wellness weekend. It is going to be amazing. It's taking place in LA June 9th and 10th. I'm going to be there too. You can use the code Sahara and you are going to receive a really big discount. So I'll meet you there. Gorgeously Green dot com. You can learn all more about it or sophieuliano dot com and as I mentioned, if you want to become an ayurvedic practitioner or a holistic health coach, head over to my website. I am SaharaRose.com you can find both links. You can get the discount. $1,500 off for IIN, $1,000 off for Joyful Belly. Plus both have the bonus webinars with me and Facebook groups. You don't wanna miss this opportunity. Plus, so many people are waiting for your wellness advice. So if you are listening to this episode, nodding along like, yep, I do that. I do that too. Hello. We need you in the fields. Come with us. Can't wait to see you on the other side. And if you loved this episode, I would love for you to submit a review on the itunes store. And as a free gift, I will send you the first half of my unreleased book, eat right for your mind body type, which infuses ancient ayurvedic wisdom with modern western nutritional science. So if you want the book, just submit a screenshot of your view on the itunes store. Email it over to me@saharaatfieldfresh.com with subject review and I'll send you back the first half of my unreleased book eat right for your mind body time type. Thank you so much. For listening and namaste.