10 Purchases Under $100 That Changed My Life

What's up everyone? Today I'm gonna go over my 10 best purchases of this year that have significantly improved my quality of life and that are under $100. So let's go ahead and dive in and make sure you guys stick around to the end of this video where I will list my last and final item that has been the most helpful purchase of this year. And also it is the strangest purchase that you probably will hear on anybody's list of helpful items. So stick around for that one. And if any of these items look enticing to you on this list, I put all the links down below in the description so you can go ahead and add 'em to your shopping cart and go from there. The first thing I'm going to talk about is my Whoop, and I absolutely love my Whoop. Now, this is actually a subscription, so it's about $30 a month. You can pay in advance and it goes down to like $18 a month. You don't have to keep it forever. You can, you know, do a few months and then decide to return it or to not use it really and to kind of cancel your subscription. But the Whoop has been so significant in being able to understand my recovery patterns, my training patterns, and just helping me to get better sleep overall and understand really what, what's going to help me recover better, what's not, and be able to kind of mitigate some of these behaviors. So really what it is, is it's a health tracker you wear pretty much all day. The charger pops onto it so you don't have to take it off to charge it, which is really nice. But I'm telling you guys, I've been able to really adjust the way that I train, the way that I recover, the way that I sleep, and really have learned a lot about my body and how it functions best to be able to tailor it so I can optimize how I'm performing during the day, whether that's mentally or physically, but even emotionally. I mean, as you guys know, I talk about on this channel, you know, emotional health, physical health, mental health, all those things kind of factor into each other. So when you're feeling good, you're going to think more clearly and you're going to have better emotional regulation. So the Whoop, definitely one of my favorite things of this year. The second thing that is one of my favorite purchases of this year are my glass meal prep containers. Now, the reason why I say they're glass is because glass is the way to go if you truly want to be toxin-free in terms of what's leaching in from plastic. So even BPA-free plastic containers are still gonna have other alternatives to BPA like bisphenol F and bisphenol S, which also can leach into the food and cause some, some health issues down the line, which is why I really love, love, love recommending these glass meal prep containers. So I got a full 2 sets of these this year to do all my meal prep in, and they are sturdy, they don't break, and the lids snap on so well. I don't have to worry about it leaking. It really does lock on pretty solidly, super easy to clean, and it's been a game changer this year. The next item on the list is my Oral-B Genius X toothbrush. This has been such a game changer for my teeth, my oral health, but just the way I brush and kind of mitigating some dental issues down the line. I went into a new dentist this year, found out I had a couple of cavities and that I've been brushing too hard and have been getting receding gums. He recommended this toothbrush. It has a pressure sensor in it, so it alerts— it basically glows red if you're pressing down too hard. But it also has the circular vibrating head. It has a lot of other cool features too, but this has been one of my favorite purchases, and I can actively tell how much more it's cleaning my teeth. I had a checkup recently, and he's like, you're all good, things look great. So I highly recommend this. I will say this is currently listed at slightly over $100, but when I did purchase it, it was, I think, $97. They run specials on it, so check, check the links down below and see, you know, during Black Friday or the holidays or anything like that, there might be some specials on this toothbrush to get it close to $100 or less. And if you're curious about why this toothbrush is superior to other electric toothbrushes, I've done my research. I actually did a whole video on it and you can see that down in the description below or I'll link it somewhere above in this video. Okay, so the next item I found to be very life improving this year has been my French press, my Espro French press maker. Now this is the P6 model. Again, when I purchased it, it was on sale. It was under $100. Currently it sits at, I think, $120-something, $130-something. $130-something, but again, there's sales on these puppies and you don't have to get the P6 model. You can get the P5 or the P3. You know, the P6 is just one of the newer models. They all, the brand is really, really great. And French press in general is new for me. I was always a drip coffee maker. I have found my love for French press and the flavors and the taste of it's just different. But I think the other aspect of what it really provides me in the morning is instead of having an automatic drip machine going and then having it ready when I'm waking up in the morning, this actually takes time. It takes time to grind the beans, to boil the water, to cool the water to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. And it really helps you kind of more slowly wake up. And I get some kind of like, it's almost like this connection time with the coffee. Like it's a very like intimate process I feel. I don't know, maybe I'm weird about it, but I'm probably weird about it. Shh, don't make it weird. But anyways, I have just found this to be like a very different experience in making coffee in the morning where I'm actually just involved in the process a little bit more and in the smells and I don't know, just kind of like, just my morning time has become a lot more sacred, I guess, since getting this French press. But who knows? I don't know. It's a weird one. So the next item on my list is a rebounder. I got this during this year and it has been absolutely amazing to have in the wintertime. It gets your blood flowing. You can hop on this thing for like 5-10 minutes and honestly it just gives you a lot of like childlike joy. And it just really made me feel a lot happier, I think, especially in the winter months up here in the Northern Hemisphere, being Chicago, but it's just a nice little small size trampoline that you can keep in your home and I absolutely love it. You can do some tricks and you can just have some fun. Really great for the lymphatic system too. So all around lots of health benefits. Okay, so the next item on this list, it was something I didn't know I needed until I had it and I was like, I'm getting all of these. It's a self-watering pot for plants. If you have a lot of houseplants like I do, it can start to feel like a hassle to have to water them every single week. These These pots in particular have a double layer to them with a wick on the inside. And it actually, the wick on the inside, I don't know if I could take it off without totally killing my plant right now. The wick on the inside actually waters the plant in perpetuity. So you can see the wick here. There it is. So basically it's taking water up from the inside and it's kind of bringing that up into the roots. So it actually prevents a lot of root rot and you only need to fill these guys like once a month if that. So it's been pretty amazing and it's taken some time off my plate and I can feel like I'm still taking care of my plants without spending too much time taking care of them. So self-watering pots, game changer. Okay, so the next item on the list is actually something I'm wearing right now. So let me just pop one of these babies off. Okay. My Xero Prio shoes. I love these shoes and any barefoot shoe really, but the Xero Prios my first barefoot shoe I've ever gotten, and it's been such a game changer for my foot health, for my joint health, for my knees, my hips. Really what it does is it's foot-shaped, and I have a full review on this, by the way. So if you want to learn way more in depth about it, I'll link that down below as well as above. You'll see that pop up here in a sec. But the Xero Prio shoes are foot-shaped, so they allow space for your feet to spread out, and it also is zero drop, meaning that there is no, like, padding back here and incline. So it kind of forces your foot flat on the ground, so it forces you to really activate your arch and form some strong foot muscles, which again is only going to support your knees and your hips better. So I have absolutely fallen in love. I'm like never going back to any other, any other gym shoe, and I can't say enough good things about the Xero Shoes. Links for that down below as well. Okay, so the next game-changing item on this list is the ATG program app that I purchased through the ATG online website. So if you're not familiar with the ATG program or anything knees over toes related, that has been what I've talked about on this channel quite a bit the past year. I started the Knees Over Toes program slash the ATD program earlier this year, and it has been probably the most impactful program I've ever done in terms of my physical fitness, um, my joint health, my— the— just the— every, every connective tissue in my body feels amazing. I feel way more athletic and mobile and agile than I ever have before, especially coming out of an ACL reconstruction surgery and all that stuff and, and 2 calf tears and all that, this program has gotten me back to and even surpassed my levels of athletic capability before I was even injured. I just, I'm such a huge fan. I'll put the link down below if you wanna visit their website and check out the program that I've been doing. But that has been one of the best purchases. Again, that's actually a subscription model, so it's not like a one and done purchase, but the first month you can usually, they have a discount code, you can get half off the first month. And then from there on forth, $50 a month, but it is probably the most well-spent amount of money that I've put to use this year. Alright, so the next item on the list, guys, is something I unfortunately do not have in my house right now, which is unusual. I usually have some of these and they are delicious. They are the OUN pre-made protein shakes. Now I'm a big fan of making protein shakes at home, you know, with powder and like mixing my own and blending it and all that jazz, but there are just sometimes where you just you just gotta, you know, you're on the run, you just have no time to even put stuff in the blender, you're in between things, or maybe you forgot to eat, um, it happens to the best of us sometimes, or you just feel like you need like a little extra protein for the day, these OUN shakes are amazing. And as somebody who is dairy-free myself and can't have any lactose, um, OUN is great for people that are like nut-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, pretty much all the frees. They're very conscientious of their ingredients. But those OUN protein shakes have just been so great. They're 20 grams of protein, really quick, they're already pre-blended, and just in little bottles. You could just grab and take them with you, and they taste so good. So I love those, and I will always continuously purchase them except for this week. I don't know what happened. I normally have them on my grocery list, um, so I gotta get some of those. I actually could really use one right now. These are like the perfect circumstances where I've had lunch already, it's not quite time for dinner, I need a little something but I don't need a whole lot, like, but I want to make sure I'm prioritizing protein. So The own shakes are where it's at. And last but not least, guys, I promised I'd save the weirdest thing on this list for last. Are you guys ready? Is this— what is this? It's a Squatty Potty. This Squatty Potty has been honestly one of the best purchases of this year. You just put this right up to your toilet basically, and you are able to elevate your feet and it actually puts your body and your colon and everything in a better position to be able to have a better bowel movement. Um, it's just better for your colorectal health in general, and you don't have to strain when you're going to the bathroom. I know it's weird that I'm talking about this on my YouTube channel, but it is related to health, and I think it's important to talk about our digestive well-being too. So the Squatty Potty has been a game changer for that, and being able to, um, just have better digestive health and better colon health. And there's different models of the Squatty Potties. This one I upgraded a little bit from the basic model where it's, you know, made out of bamboo and it folds in so you could take it with you traveling if you want to. But they have cheaper models and they have way more expensive models, so, you know, you can kind of peruse and see what you, what you want to get. But definitely recommend this guy, especially if you deal with bowel movement issues or anything like that. So guys, those are 10 of the items that I purchased in this past year that are under $100 that have really drastically improved my quality of life in one, one way or another. So I hope you guys found this useful. And again, all those links are down below in the description if you want to add those to your shopping cart or get some ideas for gift lists and all that good stuff. And until next time, I'll see you guys later. Bye!