How to Live a Balanced and Healthy Life (WITHOUT Orthorexia) | Seth Spears

There's so many people that they identify a certain lifestyle or diet or way of living that it stresses them out if they have to deviate from that in any manner. And that just increases your stress, which is the worst thing for health. My rules for health: get good sleep, get daily sun, move your body daily, eat real food, have friends and community that you love to spend time with. We see like the blue zones in those areas where people tend to live the longest. And it's really a combination of having all of those because we can never eat perfectly All the time.

Welcome to the Balancing Hormones Naturally podcast. This is your podcast host, Leah Brugeman. I am a functional diagnostic nutritional practitioner. Here you're going to get actionable steps you can take today to start balancing your hormones naturally so that you can maximize your menstrual cycle for painless periods, more energy, and weight loss. Learn my 3 secrets to balancing hormones naturally. Just go to freehormonetraining.com and save your spot. Let's dive on in.

Hey ladies, welcome back to another episode. So we're going to be talking with Seth Spears, who is the co-founder of Wellness, which you guys are well aware of Wellness because they're one of our podcast sponsors and we've been using Wellness for over 2 years now. So I know you heard a little bit about him in his intro, but I also just want to remind you that Killian is sick and chilling with me. So, if you hear noises like that, it's because he is insistent on eating his meat stick down here. So, anyways, I would love to just dive right in, Seth, and hear a little bit more about your health story and really what kind of inspires you to start a holistic and nontoxic toothpaste company because I feel like that's not— something people wake up and they're like, oh, I'm going to start a toothpaste company and see what happens.

Yeah, great. Well, thanks for having me, Leah. So, I grew up in a family that was very health-conscious. I'm the oldest of 6 children. And, my mom was— she was a nurse. She was a family nurse practitioner and retired when I was born, but she always kind of kept up with her interest in health and went down very much a a natural holistic path of researching about her own health and stuff. So, I was always around homeopathy and herbs and doing things a little bit more naturally, although she still had a lot of conventional ideas and sub-banners. And so, I'd kind of been in that mindset for most of my life. Then, I had another company in the health and wellness space as well. And, we had tutorials on how to make your own personal care products. And, that includes oral care, skincare, and hair care. And, when you hear the same request over and over, will you please just make these products and sell them to me so I don't have to make them? Then, you realize that that's probably a good business model because everybody wants the healthiest products for their family. And often, as we go through our health journey, we realize that most of the products out there are not actually very good. They're not healthy. They're using toxic ingredients. So if, so the easiest way and often the least expensive way is to just make them yourself, but then you're also trading out your time versus dollars. And so because of that, it's, we get to a point where just like, I just want to buy it. I don't want to make it anymore. And so I think a lot of the audience, that's where they got. And I've been an entrepreneur for many years. And so when I see trends, like, hey, this is probably a good idea. So that was kind of the impetus for starting Wellness.

Yeah, I get that. I was doing a masterclass last week on progesterone. And so one of the things that we talk about in there is endocrine disruptors, you know, because that's obviously going to impact egg quality. And somebody asked me if, well, is the best way just going to be to make your own shampoo and conditioner and cleaning products? And I was like, maybe, but I do not have that time. And then secondly, Whenever I've tried that stuff, it just doesn't work. Like, no matter— I don't know if I'm just not buying the right supplies or not doing it back. Okay, he literally— we have red light and he wants it on his back.

He wants it on his back.

He is a health and wellness child.

Attaboy.

Anyways, I just don't find it works. And so I am one of those people that would have been emailing you. I'm like, okay, thanks for the recipe, but can I just buy this because it's, I don't know, it's kind of hard to make your own products. I don't know. Maybe that was just a user error in my—

It can definitely be cumbersome. And, I think that some people, they're just more inclined to do that than others. There's still some people that they would prefer to make their own than buy it just because they feel like they're saving money. And, I think it's like a badge of honor in some way. But, what you said as far as the endocrine disruptors, I mean, that's so important. We are inundated with toxins throughout our daily life. And so, the whole goal that we have is how can we reduce our toxic load? And, all of those products, what we're putting on our body, we're putting in our body. So, the more that we can reduce that toxic load is incredibly important, especially if you have health issues that you're trying to recover from.

Yeah, 100%. And, in terms of your oral microbiome and toothpaste and things like that, is also so important because your oral microbiome impacts your gut health. So, can you tell me a little bit about coming up with Wellness, like the formulation and how you did that? Just because I've tried a lot of natural toothpaste and I tried a lot that didn't work. My teeth were turning not yellow, but they would have that tint and I felt like they weren't cleaning my teeth well. And, even though I wanted to stay away from fluoride, I also didn't really want cavities. So, what did you have to do to come up with that formulation? Because we've been using Wellness for multiple years. We really like them.

So, the original formulation was created in the kitchen of my ex-wife. We tested out multiple different iterations of the formula and just found one that worked. And then, that's what we were making. our family. And then we had the tutorial on how to make yourself. And when we went to create the company, there's a lot of things that you have to do differently for shelf stability and just to make sure that you can mass produce it, you know, create it at scale. So we had to test quite a bit. We had the base formula, but then in order to actually put it on shelves and sell it, there's some things that had to change. So we tweaked it quite a bit. So, the active ingredient in our toothpaste is a micro hydroxyapatite. Your teeth are made of hydroxyapatite. It's basically the enamel. And so, we source ours in Europe. And so, it's a naturally occurring mineral that will help to mineralize your teeth and help to improve. So, if you have soft spots or things that are turning into a cavity or is a cavity, it will help to improve that. Now, granted, there's a lot of things that you need to do as well as just brush your teeth with a good toothpaste and how that is affecting your oral microbiome too. So, for instance, you do need to keep your mouth at a good pH level. So, if your mouth is at a pH of 6.8 or higher, you can't get cavities.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah. But honestly, that's hard to do day to day from moment to moment because it's constantly changing what we're eating, what we're consuming, what we're drinking. So, that is a challenge. But, in a vacuum, that's all you need to do and then your teeth would be fine.

I don't even know how you would do that because every time you eat, it would change, drink water, change, and all of that kind of stuff. I'm curious, can we actually talk about the micro hydroxyapatite, which we have like a running joke on this podcast about how hard that word is to say?

Yeah.

Maybe I'm new to the game with hydroxyapatite in terms of micro versus nano. Because I remember when I was first learning about this nano, people were like, that's what you need for teeth health for it to really work. But then, then there started to be research that was coming out about how it actually impacts your brain in not such a great way because it can pass the blood-brain barrier. So you guys have been around for a little bit. Like, did you guys already know about this research and Leah's just slow to the game? Or what made you choose the micro, the small particle versus Great question.

So, we are now 5 years old. We launched in January of 2020. And, when we were doing our research on this, we always wanted to decide on what is the most natural. And obviously, nano is lab-created. And, that was the original one that most of the studies came out about around hydroxyapatite remineralizing teeth and helping to improve your oral health. So then, micro is a little bit newer on the scene as far as the studies coming up around it. But, our goal is always to have the best, the cleanest products using the cleanest ingredients that are the most efficacious. And, we always want to side on whatever is the most natural. And so, because nano is created in a lab, that's less natural. And, like you said, those studies that are coming out showing that it can cross the blood-brain barrier. We don't know what that's going to do long-term. There hasn't been enough research on that and what the implications are because it's so new. So, we always want to side on whatever is the healthiest and most natural option. So, that's how we chose to use micro. And, the studies that are coming out are showing that it is just as effective as nano without the implications there.

Yeah.

You were definitely ahead of the game because The studies I've seen on nano and that becoming more mainstream is definitely very recent. That's not been around for a while. Outside of that, I know there's a few other things inside the toothpaste that are very useful for optimal oral microbiome as well as preventing bad breath and all of that. So, can you tell me a little bit more about the ingredients and why they're in there?

Yes, we're very intentional with all the ingredients that we put in that would be the most beneficial for your health, for your oral microbiome, for your mouth health, for your teeth. So, we also wanted it to be whitening. And, we're talking specifically about our mint flavor. So, the aloe vera, the green tea, the xylitol in there, all of these are very beneficial for your teeth and can really help to improve that. So we're very intentional with all the ingredients and wanted to make sure that we're not just putting things in to have them. Most other companies are using glycerin in theirs and they use it. It basically is like an agent that helps to keep it together and to perform better. However, the problem with glycerin, if you're using a good organic glycerin, then that's fine. There's no issues there. But if The problem with glycerin is that it coats the teeth and then the hydroxyapatite can't do its job of getting into the cracks and the crevices and the micropores to remineralize it. So, that's why we avoided it. And, most toothpaste companies, they use sodium lauryl sulfate. We all know how bad that is.

Can you explain a little bit more about that? Let's talk about why is that bad? Why do we not like it?

Well, it's a foaming agent. And so, it's also not a natural product as well. And so, we've figured out have are the different levels of our ingredients so that it foams very naturally and does not have the implications about how bad that is for you. And unfortunately, there's so many of these ingredients that a lot of companies use that are just not good for you at all.

Yeah, I think it's kind of overwhelming sometimes as, as a consumer to turn into a chemist just to like try and take care of your health. Because I mean, I feel like I've read so many labels and I still have to like go back to the notes section on my phone and be like, okay, what form of this do we not like and why do we not like it? It's it's a lot and it's kind of exhausting. So it is nice when we have companies that prioritize that for us so we don't have to turn into chemists ourselves. But the one thing that um. Outside of it working for cavities is I— your toothpaste actually whitens your teeth. Like, it genuinely actually works. And that is really, really nice because I think everybody always wants whiter teeth. But, you know, most teeth whitening stuff out there is pretty, pretty toxic. So we're a big fan of that. So let's dive a little bit more into Just health in general. And why are you in this space to like have these different companies and share this education? And like, where do you want to see that holistic space grow? What do you want to see happen?

There's so many things we can do to make money. There are so many different products that are needed in the market. But if you can't wake up knowing that you did your very best and you're actually improving people's health and their lives, then you're What are you doing it for? Like, what's the point? You know, and my motto has always been quality over quantity. And I'd rather focus on doing the right things the right way than just trying to get a paycheck. Because at the end of the day, it's my own sense of ethics that I want to be able to sleep at night. And I want to provide the— create and provide the best products that I possibly can for my family, for my own children. And I think that's so important. And if more companies did that, If they weren't just beholden to their shareholders to maximize profits at all costs at the expense of healthier ingredients, at the expense of the health of our families, the world would be a much better place. And so, I think we need more of that. And so, that's always been my goal and objective is to create the highest quality products that I can that work better than the conventional and toxic alternatives.

So, you mentioned you came from a family of 6 kids and you have 6 kids. How is that navigating the health space with all the kids? Is it just that they've never really been exposed to toxic products, so it's never been having to switch with your kids and things like that and just kind of navigating keeping them healthy?

Yeah.

Do you mind talking about that, especially in terms of an expense? Because I think a lot of times people say, well, it's so hard to be healthy with kids and choose nontoxic products. Because it's expensive.

Yeah. No, you're right. Choosing healthier options is definitely more expensive. And, you know, when it comes to food, that's one of the things that I think is the most important, especially for growing bodies and growing minds, but also not being super rigorous and saying, hey, you can never have anything with sugar or you can never eat out or anything. But, it's just teaching kids good habits. And, that's what I've always tried to focus on with my own kids is instilling good habits and helping them to think critically why McDonald's isn't the best option, why cooking from home typically is going to be healthier for you than going out to restaurants where they're using seed oils and things like that. So, it's teaching them from an early age the difference in product ingredients and the different quality. And, when you're at the grocery store shopping around the outer edges where it's the real foods as opposed to the processed ones. And so, explaining some of these concepts and whether that is the food that you're consuming or the products that you're using every day or putting on your body. And so having those conversations from an early age so that they understand and then they can make their own choices from, from a place of, of understanding and thinking critically.

Do you have any like health routines or like habit stacking or things that you do with your kids that you guys all really enjoy or anything like that?

All the kids are so different. So it's It depends. I'm really big into sauna and cold plunge. And so, I'm always encouraging them to do that. Yeah. So, I'm divorced and then co-parenting, it changes the dynamic a little bit. So, when I'm with my children, I'm always encouraging them to come get in the sauna or try the cold plunge. And so, the older ones, they're very active and they're athletes and are playing sports and working out. And so, they understand the benefits now. So, they're doing it a little bit more than the younger ones like, oh, it's too hot or that's too cold. But, I think showing them what I'm doing and staying active whether that's going to the gym or working out, playing lots of sports. And so, they've been around that so much, so it just seems normal. And so, I think it's all about just normalizing those activities that are healthy and encouraging those so they're not not just going with what their peer group says if they're not doing those healthy options.

Yeah, I am scared of cold plunging.

Most women say that until they try it and then they're naturally better at it than men. That whole ability to give birth. Yeah, I mean, it's all mental.

Yeah, that's true. That is true. But see, the thing is, it's just, it's so cold. And when I, when When you have to go through birth, like, I don't really have a choice. Like, once you have that baby, like, that's how the baby gets out is you have to go through birth. With cold plunging, I have a choice though.

So, it's all about getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. You know, we get to choose our hard, you know, just going through life and just eating whatever is there. You know, that will— there's consequences to those actions down the road. Which will be hard, or we can make those decisions now, which is a different kind of hard. So, what hard are you choosing? So, if you intentionally choose to get in the cold and experience that and it's mind over matter, if you start your day off with that, the rest of the day is a lot easier and you get such a dopamine rush from it after the fact.

Mushroom cycle syncing to help support hormone balance is really becoming a hot topic. If you haven't listened to episode 178, 3, where we do a deep dive in how you can use cycle syncing with mushrooms to help support balancing hormones naturally. I highly recommend you go listen to that. It was such an incredible episode and you'll learn so much. But I wanna tell you how I use this in my follicular and ovulatory phase. So you guys know I use Aversio Wellness mushrooms. I will never use any other mushrooms, and neither will you once you try them, because you'll notice such a difference so quickly that you will know that they're doing everything they're supposed to do, and you will be obsessed. You will love them. But anyways, for my follicular and ovulatory phase, I use their Awaken set. So if you go on their website, Aversio Wellness, you go to the sets, you'll see the Awaken set. And this one you take for— well, yeah, about 2 weeks, follicular and ovulatory phase. And when I first started this, I was committed to giving it the full 3 cycles to seeing a difference before I said, okay, cycle syncing with mushrooms works or it doesn't work. Well, my first cycle using this, my follicular and ovulatory phase, you know, all of those follicular and ovulatory vibes, like more creativity, more energy.

It was like they were supercharged.

That first cycle I noticed that difference. So I take the Awaken blend from this set. Um, it's the yellow one.

It has the cordyceps, the turkey tail, and the lion's mane.

So it's helping with focus, it's helping with immune system, it's helping with energy, it's helping with my body's ATP, it's helping support egg quality. So all around wins. And then at lunchtime, I take their Protect Now, which is the teal bottle that has chaga. And that's so amazing for your gut health. It's so amazing for helping support blood sugar balance. It's an amazing antioxidant. I mean, what a good one to have in this phase. And then at nighttime or Dinnertime, I take the Lion's Mane. Now this is for brain health.

It also supports focus.

So I'm definitely doing a little bit more work in that phase. So I definitely wanted that at nighttime, but it also helps you detox at nighttime. So this is going to be great for helping support your brain detox, detoxing at nighttime. So they all come in glass bottles when you buy them in that set, which is great. You guys know how I love glass bottles, but then when you want to refill, actually you can go on their site and they have a great refill system and they will actually send you a refill in pouches that are 100% home compostable, which is a really hard word to say.

I don't know why.

So that is amazing. So you just have your glass jar, don't throw it away, go on their site, order the pouch for the refill, and then when it comes in, just take the pouch, go ahead and put it into your jar so it can look nice and pretty on your countertop, and then they're 100% home compostable. So that's amazing. Go to eversiowellness.com, E-V-E-R-S-I-O wellness.com. Their sets are 10% off, so the Awaken set you can get 10% off, and then you can stack that, my dears, with the code LEAH, L-E-A-H, to save an extra 15%, which is incredibly generous. So Awaken set and use the code LEAH, L-E-A-H, save an extra 15% on any products at Aversio Wellness.

Yeah, that's how I felt about running. Um, obviously I'm not running now because I'm pregnant, but when I was running, I hated running, despised it actually. And people were like, well, why do you run? Like, what if you hate it so much? And I'm like, well, by running I mean like I would run like an 11-minute mile. Like, I was probably the slowest runner on planet Earth. But it's really good for your heart health. Like, it's really good for that. It's also good for your lymphatic system. But the main reason why I did it was because it sucked and it was hard. And so I would get up and I would do it in the morning and it would take me— if I was running 1 mile, it'd take me 11 minutes. If I was doing 2, 22 minutes, and I was done. And everything else was easier throughout the day because I had just run and that was horrible and I hated it. So if I could do that, then I could do anything else throughout my day. So I can definitely see that for sure. So is that— I actually think that's kind of interesting. Could you bring that approach a little bit to other aspects of health? Because We do have to choose our hard and it's not always easy maybe if you're out and you have to say no to certain foods or alcohol or other choices. And, what is your kind of take on that overall?

I think there's a balance. There's some people that they go overboard with how hard they want to make life. They're optimizing so much for their health that they forget to actually enjoy life. So, the whole point of improving your health and optimizing and biohacking and doing all these things is so that we can live a long, full, fruitful, enjoyable life. But, there are sacrifices and trade-offs. With anything, there's a light and a dark, a shadow, the yin and the yang. And so, it's that polarity of that dance of life that we have to Embrace, and you can't have all of one or all of the other. If all you do is just eat those things that you enjoy, you're probably going to get sick and fat. If all you do is things that you hate just because it's healthy, well, your enjoyment of life is probably not going to be very good. So, I think it's finding that balance, and there's a season within all of it. So, and like right now, you know, you're pregnant, so you're going through a different season. You know, you have to eat different things, different foods, and different supplements in order to make sure that the baby growing inside of you is getting all the nutrients it needs. So, it's going to have the healthiest— a healthy birth and have the right foot forward when it comes out as opposed to your cravings may just be for chocolate and ice cream, but that's not going to be good for you or the child. So, it's having that balance and it's that constant dance.

So, I do agree with that. I think it's Kind of surprising sometimes because I'm a functional practitioner, like, and I live in this space. If somebody sees me eat something, they'll be shocked if they're like, oh, I can't believe you ate that. It has a seed oil in it. Like, don't you have to make sure everything is always this way? Because that— this is what you do for work. This is what you specialize in. I'm like, absolutely not, because the stress I would have over trying to be perfect is going to cause truly more inflammation in my body than not being perfect about everything when it comes to health and wellness. And, I think I see this a lot, especially if you've been someone who's been dealing with chronic health issues for a really, really long time.

Yeah.

Is that you get obsessive about everything that goes into your food and everything you're putting into your body. And, I do think there's cases where there's something specific you have to be really strong about. For example, if you have celiac disease, you really have to watch out for cross-contamination and you have to watch out for all of those things. But, if that's not the case, I think if you go somewhere and there's no food for you to eat that you deem as perfect, so you just don't eat— Is going to cause more issues for you down the road than just eating something, you know?

I totally agree. Orthorexia is a real thing. There's so many people that they identify a certain lifestyle or diet or way of living or eating or just being that it stresses them out if they have to deviate from that in any manner. And that just increases your stress, which is the worst thing for health. I mean, that affects all of your hormones. And so, we're seeing that across the board. As a functional practitioner, I'm sure you can speak even more to that, like the clients and the patients that you're working with and how that relates to them. My rules for health: get good sleep, get daily sun, move your body daily, eat real food as much as possible, and have friends and community that you love to spend time with. We see the blue zones in those areas where people tend to live the longest. And, it's really a combination of having all of those because we can never eat perfectly all the time. Our world is just saturated and inundated with foods that are not great for us, with products that are not great. Like we were talking about before, that toxic load just because it's how things are unfortunately. So, as much as we can reduce that as possible, that's great. But if all we're thinking about it is, oh, I can't go there because the only food that they have is this, this, or this, then the stress of that and not going somewhere and not having that community of people you're spending time with because of it, you're losing out on one of those vital components for your health. So again, it's finding that balance.

Yeah. I also want to play devil's advocate of the opposite side too because You will see then people will say, oh, well, I don't want to stress about this. So I just kind of take it as it goes. But then it turns out, like, let's say they have to avoid a certain food or whatever. And it turns out that because they aren't being intentional about making choices and they're just kind of going with whatever, it's 4 out of 7 days of the week, they're not eating great because they're like, oh, whatever. I'm trying not to stress about it. Yeah. And so that's where I really think sometimes it's tricky. It's really tricky when it comes to health because you have to become so brutally honest with yourself. You know, like I have these goals and are the choices I'm making getting me closer to these goals or am I having— making excuses for myself and things like that? Because Often I find, and it's easy to fall into this trap, I find myself falling into this trap where it's like, oh, it's just today. It's just the day's really busy, my kids are sick, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We're going to make XYZ choices with food because of that. But then, when you take a bird's-eye view and you go, oh, I've done that 6 days this week, that's not balanced. We kind of tipped in the other direction.

Yeah, I see that a lot as well. Like, I have friends who basically use that excuse like, oh, I'm never going to stress about it. And you're never going to— you're creating so much stress just thinking about everything that you're eating or biohacking or doing all of these things that is way worse for you. And, you know, they are definitely not the picture of health at all. And so, all these things should be to improve the quality of your life. But again, it's a trade-off and that's a balance. And I think it's going to be different for different people. And there are seasons for it. You know, I think if we could get back to seasonal eating, I think that would help a lot. That's something that we don't talk enough about because with mass refrigeration and just the way we produce, we harvest our food and are able to refrigerate it and save it. We get blueberries in or strawberries in Canada in the winter. Well, they don't grow there naturally. So, and seasonally, historically, we would never have had access to that. And so, I think there's a season for everything in life. And, if we were to get back to eating seasonally and also locally, so where we're from, where ancestors are from, and granted we travel so much and move around, that's changed a little bit. But, I'm Italian, so I do really well with olive oil. I don't do that great with coconut oil. But, for several years, coconut oil was seen as the superfood. Oh, everybody needs more of it. Well, if you didn't grow up in the tropics in Polynesia where it's from there, then no, your body is not adjusted to that. And the same with seafood or lots of meat or if you grow up in Northern Europe where it's hardier and darker. I was just in Finland about a month ago and seeing how they eat with so much less sunlight is very different than say in Southern Europe where it's more seafood and lighter. And things like that. And this is something that we don't talk enough about. It's all just everything is a superfood. And so, we all just need more of this. Well, maybe, but we're also genetically and biologically different that I think knowing who we are, what actually works for us, for our body, for our metabolism, and for our own system is really important.

That's really interesting. I would love to talk a little bit more about that. I did an interview a while back with a holistic OB. He talked a lot about how, because of just pure traveling, we used to live more on the coastline, you know, like not so far in, just because like, you know, that's where the ships would come in and things like that. And so how getting those different types of foods in actually impacted egg quality and they impacted our fertility. And then as you know, we changed where we lived, obviously that changed what we were eating.

Let me tell you about the unmatched supplements that I've been using while I am pregnant.

So I've actually been using the grass-fed beef organ complex from Paleo Valley well before I was pregnant, but I have continued on through my pregnancy. There are so many benefits to taking beef organs. They're basically nature's multivitamin. It is really important though that you are making sure that you're getting it from well-fed, grass-fed animals. Because again, you are what you eat, you are what you consume. And I love the transparency of Paleo Valley. They are 100% grass-fed, so that's really important to me. They are freeze-dried. There's absolutely no fillers in here. So you notice a massive difference in energy. So I used to take different beef organs and it didn't matter what time of day I took them because it just didn't matter. When I started taking the beef organs from Paleo Valley, I can't take these late in the afternoon because I won't sleep very well that night because they give you energy. So when I noticed that difference right away, just from switching from a different brand, I knew that these were amazing, the real deal, and so important.

I take these to support iron while I'm pregnant, but they also are an amazing source of CoQ10.

They're also an amazing source of folate and B vitamins, so they're just incredible all around. But here is the unsung hero that I just started taking when I was pregnant. Before then, I was just like, I like these, but do they change my life? I don't know. And that is the apple cider vinegar complex. You guys know about pregnancy nausea, and these are amazing because you don't feel gross after eating, which I always get when I'm pregnant. You just— I get turned off by foods. I have so many food aversions. I just think all food is gross. And this helped so much with digestion and feeling good after I ate.

So Who knew that these were gonna just come in and save my life?

But they do have ginger in it, so ginger does help with nausea, so it kind of makes sense. But I love these. They are a great support to bring in for blood sugar, or if you're like me and you just wanted to bring them in to help with digestion, highly recommend. These are my 2 go-tos, unsung heroes. I love them. And beef organs, I was taking well before pregnancy, added in the apple cider vinegar complex after I was pregnant.

Highly recommend.

So you can go to paleovalley.com and use the coupon code Leah to save 15%. That's paleovalley.com/Leah or use the coupon code Leah to save 15%. You will not regret it. And so if we were looking at seasonal food, what I think is really cool, at least In the area I live, I don't know if this is the same if you live in California, you'll actually see that seasonal food is in the fall and winter. It's more focused on vitamin C, you know, it's those like warm squashes, like the, you know, those like nourishing, like types of soups, which we're more focused on versus like what we would have in the summer, which is those berries and other fruits.

Yeah. I'd never thought about that, but that makes a lot of sense. And, I think the seasonality of it when different foods are grown, when they're produced, it goes with these seasons of just the natural seasons of life, whether it's hotter or colder or getting warmer. So, that makes a lot of sense and that's what our body needs. And, it's the concept of intuitive eating. And so, a lot of people who are very in touch with their body and what they need, they're really good at that. And, there's also a lot of people who I think they're just giving into cravings and not actually intuiting what their body needs. But, it's like, oh, I intuitively need chocolate. Well, do you really? Do you really need chocolate? Or, I intuitively need a cheeseburger.

Come on now. Yeah, it's true. It's true. What I do find is funny though, so sometimes I think we need to understand What nutrients are in those food? Because, for example, like women always will say, "I crave you know I crave a cheeseburger, I crave a hamburger, and I crave chocolate before your period." And you actually do need more iron. You need that zinc. You need the B vitamins, and you need the magnesium. So I think sometimes when you can see that craving and actually go, "Okay, well, what what nutrients maybe are in those foods that I may need?" Or when someone's craving a lot of salty foods, and then you go, "Okay, maybe." Maybe it's actually my adrenals. My adrenals are needing some more support here.

A little deficiency.

Yeah. I think that that is such a roundy conversation because I think there's so many ways to look at it and all of that. But, I don't know. Do you think seasonal eating ever really is going to be truly— I don't know because with all of the way, unless you are completely able to either grow your own food or have that accessibility to a local farmer, I don't know how you would do that. Really?

I don't know. So, I have a goal. One year of my life, all the food that I consume, I want it to be something that I've either grown myself or I've hunted or fished for and I've procured it. And granted, that's a very big and lofty goal and I don't know if it will happen or not, but I'm a hunter and so I really enjoy that and just the process of harvesting my own meat. And so, I really enjoy that. The gardening side, I used to garden quite a bit, don't do that quite as much now. And, I think it's possible, it's just very hard and very intentional. If we want to get a little controversial, I think one of the worst things that has happened to our food supply and just our food industry is food scientists because they have basically figured out a way to change just Natural foods, like real foods that what you're growing in your garden or what you're harvesting on the farm or in the wild, and basically creating things to mimic those animals or those plants and creating things that taste so much better. So, it intentionally creates a craving so that we want more of it. And so, but it's not real food. Even those things that are healthy, that are very processed because they're taking ingredients and they're combining them and they taste so much better. And we would never get that taste in the wild, like from real food. And so, I think that has definitely increased our appetites and the mass consumption and how brands are able to create food and stay in business long-term because there's so much demand for it because we basically have gotten addicted to it as opposed to naturally filling up on real foods, whether that's steak, seafood, vegetables, fruit, nuts, et cetera.

So, what you're talking about with the food scientists, that bliss factor is so dangerous because people will say like, oh, it's organic, so I eat healthy because it's organic. I'm like, well, that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

It's better than the non-organic But, it's still processed. It's still creating a different response in the body than if you were just eating a steak or a salad.

100%. So, kudos to you if you ever do this year-long thing. I am working very hard to not be a plant killer. So, I feel like if I was to do this, I'd probably starve because I am not so great at keeping plants alive. Like, let's just say since, like, where would you kind of start to like eating seasonally? Or do you, if you, especially let's say you live in a subdivision or someplace where you can't grow all of your own foods, like, do you have hacks or things to like find really good local farmers or how to do that?

I think no matter where you live, you can grow some food. You know, you can make like a little herb garden in your kitchen, like on the counter or in a window. If you have a backyard, you can do raised planter beds and grow things there. If you're a hunter, you know, that's a seasonal thing as well, depending on the animal and what you're hunting for. There's a lot of public land where you can go and hunt. You can also— I'm pretty sure there's different websites and resources where you can find farmers markets and co-ops and things like that where you could do like a share of a cow or a bison or something like that. So it'll probably just take some Googling and research based on where you live.

Yeah, I definitely know like there's some farmers in our area and stuff like that that we utilize. There's even, you know, Azure Standard is kind of like a co-op where you can get a little bit more seasonal things. But local farmers, it's, if you can find, if you can find them, they're amazing, you know, cause I mean, you can get, you know, vegetables from them and then it kind of helps. You're buying from them. So that helps them to continue going and then you're getting the local produce. And so everything kind of supports itself there.

But the more we can support our local farmers, the better. They're under more and more stress and duress to be bought out because it's a hard life for one. It's contingent upon the weather. And so, they're getting bought up by much bigger industrial farming and manufacturing. There's companies that— major seed companies like Monsanto and others who are there destroying our food supply and the health of it. I think the destruction of our soil is one of the worst things that's happening today. I started another company with my brothers a few years ago called Rewild Gear. The mission is to get more people back into nature and to rewild ourselves. And so, we make knives and fire starters and backpacking grills and camping utensils really to scratch our own itch. But, we really want to encourage people to spend more time in nature because we're not going to protect what we don't understand or appreciate. So, the more we can get back to nature and rewild ourselves, the more we will go about protecting Our soil, our water, our air, because the quality and the pollution that's happening in all of those, it's devastating.

People ask me all the time about like, what do you think about grounding mats? Like, I should get a grounding mat. I'm like, no, you should just get your butt outside.

Go step in the grass.

Yeah.

Go push your feet in dirt.

It's free. It's literally free. And, I understand that that's tricky when you live somewhere colder, you know, to go outside and to get that. But—

Or just go step in the snow. It's not going to kill you. It's not that bad.

For a couple minutes, you'll be okay. I think that, again, when you talked about the food scientists, I feel like sometimes the biohacking, it just, it pulls people away from like living a real life. You know, they, we try and And, don't get me wrong, I love biohacking tools except for the cold plunge. I don't have one of those. But, I do have the PEMF mat and we have a sauna and we have red light and I love all of those things, but you have to go outside. You have to get the actual red light from the sunrise and the sunset and you have to go out and get sunlight on your eyes and you have to go outside and— Breathe in fresh air and you have to go out and de-stress and actually see the land where your food's coming from. And, I think that the biohacking tools sometimes they just— they're like, you can get everything indoors. You can sleep on a grounding mat. You can wear these red light glasses. You can do all of these things. You don't have to go outside. And, I think that is a disservice to people. Yeah.

I totally agree. We see guys like Bryan Johnson and others who they're spending $1 million a year trying to reverse age and trying to live to be 200 or whatever it is. Okay. But, when you look like that, you look like a vampire, you look like you haven't seen the sun in 10 years. Who wants to live like that when all you're doing is living a miserable existence? Your routine is 7 hours a day of doing all these things just so that you can live. That's not living. I think that's quantity and not quality. So, even if we are increasing our expected age span, although I think that's going down now, if the quality isn't there, then what's the point? How can we increase the quality of our life? And, that goes back to those things that I mentioned before. Eat real food, get some sunlight, move your body, have friends and family that you enjoy spending time with and doing those things. things that make it a good life and not just a long life.

I think that one of the interesting statistics is that community and having a strong community actually plays a really big role in how well you age, like in your mind and your body and your resilience as you age, just because you have those people around you and you have a purpose to kind of like keep serving and giving to others.

Yeah, I totally agree. And, you know, there's the studies that have shown that you will be the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with. And, I would add on to that, in 5 years, you are going to be the sum total of the people that you spend time with and the books that you read and the media that you consume because I think that that's important too. The media you consume.

That's kind of deep. Terrifying.

Just stop consuming media.

Yeah, literally, media is kind of depressing. I, I find myself every day just unfollowing. Just like, that's depressing, unfollow you. That's depressing, unfollow you. Well, this has been a little bit all over the place with my lovely son butting in. But do you have any last thoughts or anything you would love to share with the audience about being resilient in their health journey, especially when it feels like maybe they're going at it a little bit by themselves?

Yeah, I think it's doing the very best you can with what you have and where you're at. And, everyone's in a different place, whether that's financially, whether that's location, whether that's what they can or cannot eat if they have serious allergies or issues there. So, figuring out what works for you because there's no one-size-fits-all. And, we're all so different, but trying to avoid those toxic products and foods as much as possible, reducing that toxic load, but not stressing about it so much where it's adversely affecting you. So, I think it's just trying to find that balance that's for you and choose your heart. Do something every day that scares you a little bit. I think that's important in getting yourself out of your comfort zone because if we're always comfortable, we're not growing.

Yeah, I'll let you know if I ever do the cold plunge. When you get your year, your entire year where you have made and grown and hunted all your food, maybe that will be the year I also go.

I think it'll be easier to get you into a cold plunge before that happens.

This is a little more work. That means I have a ways to work up to it. Well, thank you very much for coming on.

Thanks, Leah.

Thank you for listening to today's episode of Balancing Hormones Naturally. If you found this helpful, I would love for you to share it with a friend and post it on your stories and tag Balancing Hormones Naturally Podcast so we can get this message out. You can find me on Instagram at Leah_Bruig, and I would absolutely love to hear from you.