Hey, I'm your host, Mari Wagner, and you're listening to the ever be podcast where faith meets lifestyle. I'm so excited you're here, whether you're a new listener or a longtime follower, I know there's something here for you. Pull up a chair and listen in for insightful real life conversations and actionable steps on how to claim the full life God created you for. If you're a woman desiring to live a Christ centered life in today's modern world, then this is for you. Welcome to Ever Be.
mari:Hey, Kristen, welcome to ever be.
Kristen:Hi Mari. Thank you so much for having me today.
mari:I'm so pumped to get into our conversation today because I know it's going to be the type of resource that's going to educate people, um, and empower women to start ditching toxins and leaning into a cleaner lifestyle.
Kristen:Absolutely. Those are two of my favorite words, educate and empower.
mari:Yes, exactly. I know that when I started like my whole clean living journey, it was about three years ago and it was a little bit alarming at first to hear about all the things that were bad and to hear that everything in my house was. You know, harming me in some way. And I felt this like anxiety and this urgency to get rid of everything at the same time. And for a while it just kind of became an all or nothing thing. And so I just kind of like focused on learning and educating, uh, myself because I think at first I was, I was kind of skeptical. I was like, how come everything all of a sudden is bad? Like how did I never know this? And it wasn't until really that I, like I said, focused on educating myself and focusing on just like a few, Resources that I feel felt like were trusted resources, Christian based resources of women who were going through similar experiences as me and that were really dedicating time to real research. It was then that I felt really empowered, you know, to actually start making small changes, little changes. Um, and your Instagram has been such a wonderful resource to me the past, I think, like year that I've been following you. It's been. So great. So I'm excited to have you and really dive into all this and help people, you know, just gain that confidence in their clean living journey.
Kristen:Absolutely. Yeah, that's great.
mari:So let's just kick it off. Can you give us all an introduction on yourself? Um, and maybe kind of how you got into this space, like what really kicked off your journey in the non toxic world? What?
Kristen:name is Kristen. I show up on Instagram as the Organa Mama. and basically my whole platform is around helping women learn how to heal themselves or prevent. disease down the road. And so, basically this all stems from my own personal story, which is that, um, when I got married at age 21, my husband and I went on our honeymoon, and while we were on our honeymoon in the Dominican Republic, I developed really painful, um, symptoms of what felt like a urinary tract infection. I just assumed that's what it was. And we actually went to like a pharmacy and Nick, my husband can like speak a little Spanish. So he like tried to like find me an antibiotic for like a urinary tract infection while we were there. And. I like took some drugs that we got from the pharmacy, like, don't know how legit they were, but, uh, basically what ended up happening is I suffered from symptoms of what I thought was a UTI for months and I, you know, saw a doctor when we got back to the States and they like did a test and they were like, well, I can't really tell if you like actually have an infection or not, but like, clearly you're symptomatic. So let's put you on another round of antibiotics. So I actually did three rounds of antibiotics, which I'm sure just like killed my gut bacteria, but um, my symptoms really never went away. And so I eventually went and saw a urologist about four months after our wedding kind of told him all about what had been going on, what had happened with the antibiotics and all my symptoms. And he said, yeah, it sounds like you have this. illness called interstitial cystitis, and it's lifelong. There's no known cure, and you will probably be in pain for the foreseeable future, like maybe for the rest of your life. And here's a pamphlet. In this pamphlet, there's some suggestions on things that might help you. Some people have found help from stuff that's in here, and some people haven't. And then he said literally. And
mari:Oh my,
Kristen:I was
mari:that's so, that's so tough. I mean, especially just like a few months into your marriage or just like in this new chapter of life. It's exciting. And then you get hit with this bomb. Like that must've been really hard.
Kristen:so hard. And we were still seniors in college. And so I was wondering like, am I going to really like have to try to finish school, like in all this pain? Like, I just thought I had a UTI and I thought it would go away, but like, it hasn't gone away. And, um, you know, it definitely was like a complication on our sex life as new newly married,
mari:Yes.
Kristen:much pain all the time. There was just so many challenges to that and I think when that doctor said that to me, I think that like initially I had this feeling just like this feeling in my heart of like my life is never gonna be the same like I am like Damaged and I'm like going to be sick for the rest of my life But then there was also this little part of me that like is the very like stubborn side of me that was listening to this diagnosis going Really though, like, are we sure that, that this is going to be my future? And I think that I just leaned pretty heavily into that. And I started researching, trying to understand like what causes a disease like this? Like why someone like me, like, I thought I was pretty normal, healthy, but what I didn't know is my lifestyle was terrible, but I was living like every other 21 year old college student that I knew, like, a lot of fast food, staying up late, being on social media a lot, and not drinking enough water. Just all these things, these like basic foundations of health that I didn't really realize how important they were. then as I started researching and trying to understand this, diagnosis of interstitial cystitis, I started learning about inflammation for the first time. wasn't really familiar with that as a concept, and the more I learned about it, the more it felt like I was just waking up to a whole new world of, oh my goodness, the food I'm eating, the quality of sleep I'm getting, the amount of water I'm drinking, and All of these environmental toxins, which like who I had no idea what those were before either all of these environmental toxins are contributing to my body's inflammatory levels. And that's disease is an inflammation based disease, and I'm sick because my body is just full of inflammation. So
mari:Dang.
Kristen:trying to figure out, okay, how do I lower my body's inflammatory response and inflammatory load? And so I started by some diet changes. I was able to, um, make also, sorry, you hear a baby crying in the background.
mari:good. We love babies here, so not a problem.
Kristen:We're watching my two kids. There might be some screaming in the background.
mari:All good.
Kristen:so I started out by cutting gluten and that was a huge improvement for me just in terms of how my body was handling its pain levels. And the flares of my disease really slowed down when I cut gluten out because the gluten I had been eating for my whole life was. Not good quality gluten. It was the bleached enriched flour with all of the preservatives and gums and fillers and stabilizers added to it and all of that stuff.
mari:Yes.
Kristen:I cut out like junk food and fast food and gluten, that was a huge change. And then I started researching like, Oh my gosh, like these products that I'm putting on my body on a daily basis, my skincare, my makeup, my shampoo and body wash, my perfume, all of this stuff is contributing to my inflammation. So I need to change that.
mari:Yes.
Kristen:And that's how I got started. And that started like a journey for me of several years of, learning how to read ingredient labels, learning how to identify toxic ingredients in my personal care products, in my cleaning products and in other things in my home. And gradually over the years, Nick and I started swapping things out one thing at a time. It wasn't like an overnight thing. success story, but we started just slowly whenever we needed to replace one product, we would try to figure out what's the most non toxic version of this that we can get. Instead we would swap it out. And within two and a half years of my diagnosis, I was in permanent remission from interstitial cystitis. So that was summer of 2020 and now it's summer of 2024. So it's been four years since
mari:What?
Kristen:flare. So
mari:That is amazing, Kristen. Like what? This is so great.
Kristen:yeah. Yeah,
mari:Wow, I, I'm like getting so excited and giddy just listening to you talk, because I feel like half the time when I talk to people about clean living, toxins, all this stuff, I just kind of get like, mm hmm, mm hmm, like little like nods here and there, and I think people probably think I'm nuts or like super intense, but I'm like, yes, you get it. Oh, gosh. Well, praise God. I love, I love your story. I've, I've. Definitely like write it on Instagram before, but just hearing coming from you is just so amazing. And I know that it's probably going to touch a lot of people's hearts that are listening. Cause I'm sure you're not the only one, you know, um, we all are dealing with some sort of health journey or chronic illness or, you know, whatever it is that's, that's going on. And I think that a lot of us don't really realize some of those root causes because especially like you said, environmental toxins are something that we're just everywhere and that we were never taught about. And. It's really surfacing in the past few years and I love that more and more is coming out and people are learning about it. So let's kind of dive into that a little bit. Can you just identify what sort of toxins we might encounter in our life and in our home or like where they even are? Um, I know that, like I said, if it's your first time hearing this, you might feel a little bit like, what are you talking about? I didn't know everything was bad. So can you just touch on like, kind of where can you find these? What are these? You know, why is it bad? What are the effects?
Kristen:Sure. Um, there's kind of like four different categories in my mind of where you're going to be exposed to toxins on a regular basis. the first is going to be the things that you put on your body. So that's going to be personal care products. So makeup, skincare, shampoo, body wash, and also clothing. Um, so anything that's like touching your body has the potential to expose you to harmful toxins, um, depending on what it's made from and what the materials and ingredients are. The second category is going to be cleaning products. So the things that you're cleaning your home with. So those either may be things that you're actually inhaling or things that you're touching. So this is kind of more of like a middle category because it, It falls between two of my other categories. So things that you're putting on your body and then you have cleaning products, which you might, they might end up going on your body, like touching your hands or you might end up breathing them in, like inhaling them. There's most store bought cleaning products are full of toxic chemicals that are linked to endocrine disruption. That's basically if you're unfamiliar, that means it's messing up your hormone levels. Um, that's what endocrine disruption means screwing up your hormones, um, or they're linked to cancer or they're linked to respiratory issues like asthma, um, or lung cancer. Like there's so many things and there's hundreds of studies to back this up. Um, then the third category is going to be what's in the air. So again, cleaning products could fall into this if it's something you're spraying, but there are toxins in the air, whether that's. smoke, pollution. It could be pet dander. It could be what we call volatile organic compounds, which that's a fancy word for basically gases that come off of stuff. It could be gases coming off of furniture. It could be gases coming out of your perfume bottle. It's anything that kind of releases gases into the air. Some volatile organic compounds, or I like to call them VOCs. Some of them are fine. Some of them are not dangerous. They don't have any. negative health implications, but many of them are very dangerous. Um, and then the fourth category is going to be stuff you put in your body. So food, water, and supplements. Um, or I guess there's other things that people like ingest, but, uh, yeah, or yeah, food supplements, drugs and water. So there's potential harmful toxins in, in those things as well.
mari:Yeah, so good. Yeah. And that's why I'm like, if this is the first time you're hearing this, you're probably like, Oh my gosh, that is everything.
Kristen:Yes.
mari:is why, well, I was just going to say, which is why, like, I want to reiterate, like that starting small is such a good first step and that don't fall into what I fell into of just like overall. I'm in like, Oh my gosh, everything's bad. I, I, I am just paralyzed. You know, like I can't do anything once. I actually was like, okay. My shampoo ran out. I'm just going to switch that. My soap ran out. I'm going to switch that. My makeup ran out. You know, little by little starts making a difference and makes it, makes it so much easier as well as like I said, like learning more and actually like educating yourself. So were you going to say something else?
Kristen:I was just going to say that I like to think about like toxin exposure in your life as like a bucket. And I kind of call this the bucket analogy. There's other wellness people that like share the same analogy too. But essentially if you think about your health as this bucket, And all of the toxin exposures are like a splash of water. So you have like a splash of water from your makeup, a splash of water from your toxic shampoo, a splash of water from toxins in your all purpose cleaner, a splash from toxic laundry detergent, a splash from pollution that's in the air around your home, a splash from pesticides that are in the food you're eating, a splash from food dyes in the candy that you maybe eat on an occasion. All of those things are just a splash, but they add up. And then when our body responds and presents symptomatically with chronic illness, infertility, cancer, it's an overflow of that bucket. So that bucket has overflowed. Our body cannot handle these exposures anymore and we're overflowing. So don't have to empty your bucket overnight. You just need to take out enough of those, splashes of water to get your level low enough that your body can breathe and, and operate. And it doesn't have to be empty for that to be a thing.
mari:So good. I'm going to use that. That's so good. Okay. So when it comes to reading ingredient labels, we know that this can be tough and confusing sometimes. I mean, half the time we can't pronounce what's even on the ingredient label. And so you just kind of put it down and kind of hope that it's okay. So can you kind of help shed some light on this? What are some of those top ingredients that you could teach us to look out for?
Kristen:Yes. I would say if you're just starting out, there's one, there's one that you need to look out for Mari. I'm sure you know what this is.
mari:Yeah.
Kristen:ingredient that I would say, if you're brand new to this concept of toxin free living or low tox. There's one ingredient you need to be able to identify. And I strongly encourage that you never buy anything that contains it again. And that's, fragrance. fragrance is sadly in so many things. It's in shampoo. It's in perfume. It's basically what perfume is.
mari:Right? Yeah.
Kristen:you look at the ingredient list of pretty much anything that is sold in stores, you're gonna see Fragrance it could also be listed as perfume or aroma what it is Fragrance perfume aroma. This is an umbrella label that companies are legally allowed to use on their products and Underneath this umbrella label can live up to hundreds of chemicals. They're legally through the United States, at least allowed to put hundreds of different chemicals into a product and label it as fragrance. And the purpose of these products is to provide a smell to the product. Now, the problem with this is it takes away accountability from the company. So if a brand is putting fragrance in their product, they don't have to disclose what the chemicals are that they've used to make to scent their product. And unfortunately, the majority of times when a brand, when a company is manufacturing something that they want to smell good, and they're using fragrance, they're also going to include this group of chemicals called phthalates. It's spelled very weird. It's P H T H A L A T E S. Phthalates.
mari:Mm. Mm hmm.
Kristen:This is a very harmful group of chemicals. This is proven with hundreds of studies. Phthalates are directly linked to hormone disruption and cancer. Like time and time again, studies show linked to those two things. Now, it's really unfortunate because is it possible that a brand could be using fragrance and not have phthalates? Yes. But is it likely? No, because they don't have to say. And the reason why they're using phthalates is phthalates are a chemical that is often most commonly known in plastic because it actually makes plastic more bendable. It makes it more flexible. That's just like the compound of the compounds within this group of chemicals called phthalates makes plastic bendy. And so a lot of times, you know, when you see plastic bags in grocery stores, it'll say like phthalate or BPA free. It's because those chemicals are what makes like bendy plastic. So a lot of times if it's a type of Like flexible plastic they they will say like this is free of phthalates This is free of bpa because they Know that people will look at that type of plastic and wonder if it has those chemicals in it So the reason they put phthalates in fragrance is because it makes fragrance more sticky It's the same like um attribute that makes plastic bendy It makes molecules stick to stuff and it makes the scent last longer. So that's why they put it in perfume That's why they put it in In that umbrella label of fragrance is cause they want that set to stick around longer to make a better impression on you with their product.
mari:Mm.
Kristen:shampoo to smell good all day. They want that perfume to last 24 hours. It's that lingering smell. Like in theory, it's like, Oh, that makes sense. it's really messed up because what it's doing is it's causing this epidemic in, like, when we start introducing body sprays to girls in middle school and they start covering themselves in bath and body works and other types of perfumes and scented products like shampoo, conditioner, makeup. We're exposing them to so many hormone disrupting chemicals. And then we have these girls who are going into puberty at age nine. um, struggling to get pregnant when they are ready to, to enter that season of life. Or for someone like me, it may be that you suddenly develop a random, seemingly random autoimmune disease.. didn't realize I'd been dousing myself in phthalates from my personal care products for basically my entire life.
mari:I know. Same. I mean, like, when you said Bath and Body Works, I'm like, that's what we would do in middle school. We would go to the mall and go to Bath and Body Works and buy everything and spray ourselves with everything.
Kristen:Yes.
mari:It's consuming. Mm hmm.
Kristen:so if you can. Learn to shop for things without buying anything with fragrance. a big change. Like if you've been living like a normal American, you probably have a lot of fragrance products because that's just the norm and. It takes a lot of dedication to walk away from that because that means like getting rid of scented candles scented everything And a lot
mari:Yeah,
Kristen:products have fragrance in them as well so I would say for anybody who's totally new to this journey if you can just start looking at ingredient labels and Putting it back on the shelf. If you see fragrance or perfume or aroma on there, you're already making a huge step in the right direction.
mari:cool. What about like if the ingredient label says natural fragrance? I know I've seen that before and that one always makes me pause because I'm like, well, you said natural. So what does that mean? Is, do you feel like that falls under the same umbrella or is that like, Nope, that's a green light.
Kristen:Uh, I personally, I would say I'm pretty strict when it comes to fragrance and anytime a company is not fully disclosing their ingredient list. That is a hard red flag for me because that to me indicates that they're a trying to trick you into thinking their product is safe when it might not be because they're not actually telling you what they're using to send the product. And B, where was I going with this? I forgot what my second thought was.
mari:We can circle back. If it comes back to you, bring it up. But the second part of my question was, I've heard different opinions on this. What if it's scented with essential oils?
Kristen:Yes,
mari:like, that's how it's written in the ingredient list, like scented with essential oils.
Kristen:yes. Okay, going back a little too, and then I'll get to this.
mari:Okay. Perfect.
Kristen:So basically, natural fragrance is oftentimes an attempt by a company to make their product seem safe when it might not be. Because that's still, natural doesn't mean anything. It's not a regulated term. It's not a government term. It's not anything particular. Literally, if a company puts natural fragrance, might be the exact same as them putting fragrance So there's no regulation on the use of the word natural In fact, it's used a lot in what we would call green washing where a brand is trying to make their products seem nice and safe Like when it says safe for all ages that is unregulated. That means nothing when it says natural all natural That means nothing. Uh, and so natural fragrance as well, I think falls into that same category of, I would proceed with extreme caution. And generally I'm kind of a crazy person, but I would email a company and be like, Hey, what chemicals do you use in your natural fragrance? And if they respond back and say, Oh, we have like our proprietary blend. I'm sorry. We can't disclose, but trust us. It's all natural. I'm like walking away. No way.
mari:Goodbye.
Kristen:can give me a full list of exactly what's in there. I do not trust it. And then in terms of essential oils, depends oils. Um, some of them are good and safe. Some of them are sourced very poorly. So it really depends on the company on their, um, standards for sourcing. It's, um. Preferred that essential oils in a product would be organic, because that
mari:Right.
Kristen:going to have been sprayed with pestis with harmful pesticides. Um, that's not always the case, and there are some products that I do recommend that don't use organic essential oils, but I trust their sourcing and I trust that where they're getting their, uh, essential oils from is safe. But I think 1 thing. That this is kind of a hot take of mine that isn't necessarily shared by everybody in the clean beauty space, but essential oils for the most part are antimicrobial and antibacterial, which means they kill things off. A lot of people would consider that to be a good thing because it's like, oh, it's killing off bad bacteria, but it also kills off good bacteria. And something that I am a huge proponent for is having a home that has a healthy microbiome. Which means you have good bacteria that are thriving in your home. And if all you're doing is just disinfecting or using essential oils to clean everything, you're actually killing off all the good bacteria too that you want to have in your home. So I'm very cautious with the use of use of essential oils because it can kind of over sterilize your home or your body or your mouth or wherever it is that you're using them or applying them. I just try to be cautious and not overuse them.
mari:Yeah. Just mindful and in moderation. Okay. Great. You did mention greenwashing and I wanted to touch on that a little bit because I think this is increasingly getting worse and worse and you see more and more brands pop up that are claiming to be natural or clean or whatever and kind of using these buzzwords to make people think that it's non toxic and not harmful and clearly that's not the case. And I even had a conversation with. My mother in law recently, um, which just kind of shows like people are being tricked by this. And myself included before I've been definitely fallen into thinking that something is clean, but we were talking about the new laundry detergent I've been using truly free. I know you use it too. And she was like, well, I bought like tides free and clear version. Like that's like their non toxic version. So I think I'm good. And I was like, I hate to break it to you, even though it's called like free, clear, natural, whatever. This is what's called greenwashing. This is like brands that are like trying to market things in a way that's not actually true. Is that right?
Kristen:Yes. Yep.
mari:Yes.
Kristen:um, It's when a brand is promoting their product making it sound safe or environmentally friendly or good for your body And it's actually not and this is why I really encourage people I want to educate and empower people to actually learn how to read ingredient labels themselves but also Rather than just looking at branding on a product and say, Oh, that looks good. Because it's easy to do that. I have a graphic design background. That's what I have my degree in. And we learned about this in college of like. How, like, certain colors make people more trusting, uh, anything that's colored green is, uh, is an automatic win for people mentally, because you assume that it's environmentally friendly if it has green packaging.
mari:Yeah. Like it's
Kristen:and
mari:natural.
Kristen:really good example of this is just in, like, the oil industry. This is, like, not really having to do with, like. Things in your home. But if you think about gas stations, like BP is no different really than any other gas station in terms of like where they source their oil, how they do things, but their branding is green. And so people think it's better for the environment to get gas at BP, which is like, That's just a straight up marketing ploy, but it's a good example. It's a good example. I mean, they've done a good job with their marketing to help people think like, Oh, BP is like better gas, but it's like, it's no different. You know what I mean? But it's the same for like beauty brands and personal care products, deodorants. Like you're going to see all kinds of buzzwords on the front, like. free of aluminum or free of sulfates or safe for the whole family. And those things don't mean anything. It's why you need to take a closer look, flip it over, look at the ingredient list, look for fragrance first. If you're just starting out, that's the most important one. But then there's also a lot of other things that you have to watch out for. And like you were saying with like free and clear detergents, those ones are fragrance free usually. And so that's why they save. Free and clear. It's like, Oh, fragrance free. And that's a good start, but that's not really enough because a lot of times they're using other very toxic chemicals in their ingredient list, you really don't want to be exposing yourself to
mari:Yeah, for sure. So how can we find brands that we trust? Can you talk about that a little bit and then kind of touch on EWG as well?
Kristen:sure. So finding brands that you trust it, it's a labor of love. It's hard. And if you're new to this, it can be really confusing and overwhelming, which is why, like you said, at the beginning, Mari, it's important to have some trusted resources of people who, you know, are really, really going to be taking a deep dive into every single product and you can trust them. Now, I always recommend that people do their own research. Don't just take what one person says at face value and just go with it. Like do your own research, trust your gut on things, and Do a, do a double check on everything, but it can be really helpful to find people or sources or sites that are a good starting point to help navigate. Okay. Are the ingredients in this product actually safe? And so finding good brands, there's a couple of things that I value a lot when it comes to choosing a safe brand. And sometimes brands will have like one product that's good, but the other products. aren't. So it's kind of nuanced. It's kind of difficult. It's not always like, Oh, this brand is great across the board. Sometimes it's like, Oh, this one product, this one sunscreen that this brand has is safe, but I wouldn't recommend all of their products. I look for transparency when brands are listing out everything that they're using, when they're not using terms like fragrance. When you can go on their website and easily find an ingredient list, that is usually a green flag for me. So a lot of times when you'll go on to a cosmetics website and you'd start looking at a product and you want to find an ingredient list, it might be very hard to find. Um, a lot of times they'll have their ingredients listed somewhere, but you really have to dig to find it. It may not be listed on the actual product page. You have to go to like a different part of the website to look up the ingredients for things. That's never good. If a brand is not putting their ingredients right up front, right where the product is, that is something to be very alert towards. And usually that's a red flag because that means they don't want you to see what ingredients they're using. When brands are proud to list their ingredients. Right up front. That's usually a good sign. Not always, but usually it's a good place to start and then from there You you want to start kind of actually just reading through like what are they using in here? Are they? prioritizing organic products and Like are there any of these big red flag toxic ingredients in here or not? so also the EWG is a website that you may or may not have heard of. It is, it stands for the environmental working group. They are a nonprofit that does a lot of really good work in helping to get safer products into people's homes. Now I would consider EWG to be a good starting point, but not the end all. So EWG is a great place to look up an ingredient and say like, Is this safe? Is this like toxic or how, like, what is it? What even is this? If you're like, I don't know what this ingredient is, I want to look it up and find out more about it. EWG is a great place to go for that because they rate all ingredients on a scale of one to 10 in terms of safety. Now there are some EWG because Brands do have to pay a premium to have their products looked at on a very specific deep level because EWG cares about the dosage of ingredients. So there
mari:Hmm.
Kristen:one ingredient, for example, that like, let's take, um, sodium lauryl sulfate, for example, as a type of salt it's used in a lot of like detergents and things like that. The EWG would say that it's. It's safe in small amounts, but unsafe in bigger amounts. So if someone that uses that ingredient wants their product to score well on the EWG or become EWG verified in that, like they approve of it, they have to pay a premium for their scientists to take a look at that product. And look at the dosages of the ingredients used and really determine is this at a safe level that this ingredient is in there or not. And so brands that are EWG verified, that means that they've paid for EWG to look at their product and determine that it's safe. But then there's also brands that are safe that are rated lower scores on their website because they've chosen not to pay that fee. so it can be a little bit difficult sometimes to know if something is actually truly safe or not, because if a brand doesn't pay for verification, then they're going to be scoring lower on the EWG's scale. Um, even if their product is really safe. So it's a great starting point, but it's not the only thing I base my decisions off of when I'm looking at ingredient lists.
mari:Mm hmm. Yeah, that's very helpful. Um, I know it's been a helpful resource, but I did, yeah, learn everything that you just talked about. Cause I, I've gotten a lot of questions on crunchy. My audience knows I talk about crunchy all the time and people are like, why is it not on EWG or like, why isn't it rated the highest or whatever? And that's the explanation I give. Although I do, I think we did hear that they're like going to pay now. And so it's going to be accurately rated and everything. So that's exciting, but. That's helpful to know kind of like a starting resource that kind of helps you learn a little bit about a product or a brand or not a product, an ingredient, uh, or a product. And I mean, following OrganiMama is a great first step as well of where to get some more information. I know you educate a lot in your content. So moving into practicality, just like what are some practical first steps somebody can take to start reducing toxins in their life?
Kristen:Yes, that is a great question. And listening to all of this explanation about ingredients and chemicals, it might be going right over your head. Like when I was starting out on this journey, I would hear people talk about phthalates and fragrance and EWG. And I would be like, what? Like, I don't understand any of this. Like, what do I actually just need to do? The first step I would say is Just start looking at your products that you have in your home. The products you use on a regular basis, your toothpaste, your body wash, your makeup, your skincare, look at the ingredients. If you can't find an ingredient list on the bottle, look it up, Google it. And if it has fragrance in it, just make a mental note of when I run out of this, I need to replace it with something better.
mari:Mm hmm.
Kristen:pressure on yourself to go and run through your whole house and throw everything away all at once because that does not make financial sense for most people. Um, be easy at yourself. Be gentle on yourself as you're starting to navigate this journey because it is a journey. It took me several years of learning all of this to throw out my toxic products.
mari:Same.
Kristen:on yourself. Take your time. Don't feel stressed. There's a lot of people out there that love to just fear monger women into throwing everything out and freaking out and feeling like they need to spend all this money. You don't, the best ways to heal your body are free. one of the best things you can do in terms of getting rid of toxic products is just start making a mental note of when I run out of this, I need to find something better. And then when you do run out of it, Then look for those good resources. My page is a place you can come to find good resources on on different things. I have a bunch of different guides that walk you through like how to choose toxic cleaning products, how to choose non toxic personal care products, how to choose non toxic baby products, all of these different guides. There are other great resources out there as well, but that's when you turn to a trusted resource to decide, okay, I just ran out of laundry detergent. What should I get now? That's, that's a better, safer option, but just do one thing at a time. And like I mentioned earlier, that's going to slowly reduce that amount of water in your bucket
mari:yeah. And I just recommend focusing on that first category of items you mentioned, things that go on your body. I think that's what made the most sense for me when I started finally switching things because I was like you. It took me. Probably at least a year of hearing things before I really took action. Um, and that's because like your skin just absorbs everything immediately. And like you said, like we have this bucket and our body can, like does have the functions to filter out toxins, but when it's like being exposed to toxins and everything that you put in your body, it's going to be overwhelming. So starting with what you put in your body, I know that I started with, um, honestly, I think my first one was makeup, which I know is like usually one of the last ones people Let go of, cause it's hard to let go of those brands that you love. But I was like, I'm going all in. I had tried other clean beauty brands before and they all sucked. And finally I was like, okay, we're just going to do one last try one last brand. So I switched my makeup and then my skincare, then my shampoo, then my body wash, um, the last thing I'm looking for is lotion still, which I know that you recommended that one baby brand and then somebody else recommended another brand, but it was like 86 for a bottle of lotion. And I was. I'm, I'm like all in on investing, but I was not about to spend 90 bucks on a bottle of lotion. So if you have any other recommendations on that, that would be great. Um, but yeah, just start with products that go on your body. I think that's like the less stress and you feel like you're making the most impact because it's directly being absorbed by your skin.
Kristen:Absolutely. And if someone comes to me and they're like, I don't, I've, I, Have no experience with this kind of lifestyle, but I want to get started. What's the very first thing I should swap out? I always tell people do your deodorant first because you're deodorant, your armpits are a very highly absorbent area of your skin. And there's a lot of lymph nodes near there. And there's just a lot going on in your armpit area. And it's, um, for women, it's very close to your breasts and breast cancer is super prevalent right now. And a lot of the toxic chemicals that are found in deodorant. Uh, have very easy access to your breast tissue. So that is always the first thing I recommend for, at least for women to swap out is your deodorant because most deodorant contains fragrance and you're going to, again, you're going to get those phthalates in there and those are directly linked to breast cancer. So get fragrance out of your, out of your deodorant, get heavy metals like aluminum out of your deodorant. Um, and there are some really great safe options out there. But that's always the first thing I recommend.
mari:Absolutely. Okay. So what are some health benefits you feel like you could speak to or that people might notice after reducing their exposure to toxins? I know we heard your personal testimony, but I think this is where people get skeptical sometimes is like, okay, is this going to like actually make a difference in my life? Like, am I going to notice what's going on? So can you just speak to kind of some of those health benefits?
Kristen:Absolutely. So I actually did a poll of my followers, um, a couple of weeks ago and I asked them, I was like, if you have been on a low tox journey, can you tell me what are some of the positive outcomes you've seen on your own health? Since starting on this journey, and I, I literally cried when I read these responses because it just blew me away. So there was a girl who said that her cancer never came back after she started low tox. were multiple women who were able to get pregnant after long seasons of infertility. There were also women telling me that their husbands had made big changes, like my husband stopped smoking or my husband finally got on board after he saw how much more energy I have. Energy is a huge one. I heard from tons of women that they have increased energy and joy in their life. After, um, getting rid of toxins in their home, many of them said, I feel more in control of my own health just by knowing what I'm putting on and in my body. And that's huge. I mean, just think about the empowerment that comes from knowing exactly what you're putting on versus going, yeah, I don't really know what's in this. I hope it's okay. It's a huge shift in, in the way you think about it. there were women who were healed from chronic illness, just like me overcoming things like Lyme. Lyme disease, Hashimoto's, other chronic pain, improved sleep quality, so many things like, and it just depends on the person. It's such a bio individual experience, but I have rarely ever heard non positive stories from people that have been tox journey.
mari:Yeah, for sure. I love that you mentioned energy because I feel like that's one that can be overlooked so easily. Like you might not even notice that unless it's like really severe before and after, but I feel like I noticed that as well as like headaches. Like if I look back, I felt like I got random headaches here and there throughout the day. High school and college. And I kind of attributed to like, Oh, like I just have a lot on my plate. But the truth is I still have a lot of my plate. I'm an entrepreneur. I got a lot of businesses to run. You know, it's like that hasn't changed. And I don't really remember last time I had a head, like, it's not normal for me to get a headache anymore. And it used to be. And so that's something that I definitely have just kind of kept in the back of my brain. Like, huh, I wonder if that's because I removed fragrance in my home.
Kristen:Yeah, that's a huge one. Headaches, massive. I mean, that's a lot. Just the number of stories of women I've heard from who are like, yeah, I just stopped wearing like fragrance perfume and now my headaches are gone. Like it's just wild. It's wild.
mari:Awesome. Okay. Last question before we wrap up, I get this question a lot. Many women tell me that they're getting started on this clean living journey, trying to, you know, switch out to non toxic products in their home and their husband or their family think that they're crazy or they just are not on board and there might be some tension there because it is a little bit more of an investment or people just aren't aware of the reality and so they, they just don't hop on board. So do you have any tips for women on how to get Specifically your husband on board. Yeah, that
Kristen:If you don't already follow me on Instagram, you may not know this, but my husband is a fourth year medical student right now. So he is very much in the conventional medicine world. Um, I'm really grateful because he is doing a medical program that is a little bit more holistically leaning. It's doctor of osteopathics compared to an MD program. So that's definitely like his initial lean is to lean into that and really see the value in it, which I'm, I'm grateful for because I think that his career has kept me from going completely off the deep end of like crunchy living and like, Becoming like a crazy person. Like he keeps me grounded and centered. And I like have a deep appreciation for, um, the ways that modern medicine saves lives. And I really am grateful for that. And he's going to be, uh, hopefully Lord willing a surgeon who's able to help save lives. So really important. It's needed. And like a lot of people would die if we didn't have that. So I'm grateful for it. But definitely when I first started on this journey, he had a lot of skepticism, you know, like are you sure? Like doing this and like eating beef liver and like all this stuff. Like he was just like, you sound crazy. And I was like, I know, but let's just try it out. And I think that like, at the point when I started this journey, I was so sick that we were willing to try anything, you know, and it was hard on him too. Like for me to be so sick, it was challenging on our marriage. We were in college, it was tough. And so I think his mind was kind of like, well, if you want to try something and it works, then let's try it. And so. I, you know, asked if we could change our diet and get rid of gluten and start like switching out things like laundry detergent and skincare products. And initially he was kind of annoyed, especially when I started asking him to switch his things too. Like, Hey babe, can you like not use that body wash anymore? And he'd be like, Oh, come on. I like this one. I'm like, I'm sorry, but I think that it might be also contributing to my health issues. And so he would kind of just be like, all right, well, just, you know, pick something for me, I guess, and we'll try it, but he's kind of picky. And so it was a little hard at first, but I think for him, what really got him on board was seeing how I healed myself, you know, like in his experience, I think he sees a lot of people come to doctors and get medications for symptoms. And then. That medication kind of eradicates the symptom, but they're not necessarily trying to figure out, well, why did I get sick with that in the first place? And so I think for him from kind of like a little bit of an outsider perspective, he watched me make all these lifestyle changes. And then as we covered my health in prayer and took it to the Lord too, I think it was very clear to him, like. kind of weird changes that Kristen is making getting rid of Fragrance and changing out all our cleaning products and all this stuff She's getting better and I think that that kind of blew his mind and he was like, wow Respect babe, honestly, like I think he just had a lot of respect for my like my drive to, to be able to heal my body. And, and he was really impressed by that. And he like saw firsthand how those changes made me a whole different person. but that's obviously not everyone's story. And some people choose a toxin free journey, not because they're currently sick, but because they more so want to be proactively safe in what they have in their home. They want to protect their future health, or they want to protect their children or their children's future health. And so you're making these decisions. And it might be a little more tough if you have a husband who's not on board to be like, no, yeah, we all feel fine right now, but I'm making these changes to prevent us from feeling bad later. You might get that response of, yeah, but we feel fine right now, you know? And so that's where I think it can be really helpful to know where to get some of these great science, studies, studies, these peer reviewed studies that really point exactly to The potential health implications of certain chemicals. So one of my favorite studies that I talk about all the time is this one study that was done about a year and a half ago on a group of women. And they had two, two groups of women and the first group of women continued to use all of the standard conventional beauty products They had been always using that had all the normal toxic ingredients in them And then they had a second group of women for a month who switched to products that had no phthalates So no fragrance and no parabens, which is another toxic Group of chemicals that are found in a lot of conventional products. So they had the group of women doing normal The products they'd always been using a group of women who got rid of products that had phthalates and parabens And before they started the study, they took a sample of every woman's breast tissue and analyzed how many pro carcinogenic breast cells were there so pro carcinogenic cells essentially to dumb it down means like cells that have the potential to turn into cancer, that are already cancerous, but could turn into cancer. And so they like did analysis on how many of these cells each woman had. So the group that had that maintained the same products had the same level of pro carcinogenic cells after this was over. And the group of women who had gotten rid of toxic products Had a significantly reduced number of pro carcinogenic breast cells. that to me is like wow, I mean Clear clear evidence there and obviously we would hope that they'll continue to do more studies to just keep proving this over and over and over of the importance of Eliminating these toxins in our products, but there are a lot of studies out there that point to Direct correlation between phthalates and parabens and other groups of chemicals that are in all of our beauty products that are directly linked to all of these health issues. And right now in the US, 50 percent of Americans have a chronic illness. this is not the minority that we're talking about. It's over 50%. So. illness is prevalent. It is more common than it's ever been before. And it's not just adults anymore. It's children and our children are being exposed to all these chemicals too. So it feels to me like if you're trying to bring your spouse on board with all of this, start sharing some of these stats, start looking at some of these studies. If you go on to pub med, you can look up like phthalates, health effects, med, and then you're going to get this whole list of studies and you can just start reading them with your spouse. Like, Hey. Take a look at this. This is really interesting. And it takes time. You can't expect for someone to suddenly jump on board overnight. It takes time. It takes hearing these things over and over and over for someone to say, okay, yeah, I'm willing to try this, but do your best not to get frustrated with a husband. Who's not really ready yet. Just be consistent, be kind and, uh, and make the swaps that make financial sense for your family. Little by little as you go along.
mari:was so helpful. One thing that came to mind too, was like, listen to this podcast episode together, like play this podcast episode for your husband in the car or something like that, or while you're making dinner or. Uh, just in a time where you guys can kind of sit down and actually pay attention because it all comes down to education. Like a lot of my skepticism from the beginning and everyone's skepticism is just like, how come we've never heard of this? Is this really true? But when you really hear the facts, you start to realize like, Oh, it's true. And I remember when we were, when we started this journey, I mean, I started with products and, you know, sourcing better food and organic and EMFs was one of the ones that I was like, ah, is this real? Or is it like, this is like, invisible waves in my, you know, air. Um, and I listened to a podcast episode that Jordan Dooley did with her brother or something like that, that owns an EMF remission company or something like that. And I listened to it and I was like, okay, This is really intriguing and I'm on board. And then I talked to my husband about it and he was like, uh, no about that. And so one time we did a road trip and I was like, Oh, I just want to listen to this like new podcast episode. And I didn't even really say anything about it. And we played it and he had a lot of questions. And like, by the end, he was like, wow, this is crazy. And just by playing that podcast episode, sometimes I feel like. Our husbands maybe need to hear it from someone else. That's not us. It's someone who's done more research or who's like kind of in a place of authority teaching this kind of thing. And so after he heard that podcast episode, he was like, all right, let's buy the things. And so we like made some EMF changes in our home. And, and even just playing this episode might be a helpful start.
Kristen:Absolutely. And like coming from someone who's married to somebody who is very much in conventional medicine, I, I mean, he'll tell you straight up, he'll be like, Oh yeah, fragrance is bad. Don't use fragrance. Like he's like very much on board now. And I think I love, I love it. Cause he'll, he'll. to me and he'll be like, babe, I just found this new body wash and it's free of parabens. It's free of phthalates It's like free of all the things and then he'll be like, can you look at the ingredient list to make sure it looks good? I'll be like, yeah sure and I take a look. I'm like looks great, baby. Like sweet. I'm so excited to try it Like it's awesome to see how he's gotten on board and and he's gonna carry that with him through his whole career You know of like understanding These
mari:Yes.
Kristen:of health that are so important that they're not teaching about in medical school, like you're not going to learn about the dangers of fragrance in medical school. Um, but it's important. So, yeah,
mari:Absolutely. Amazing. This has been such a helpful, such an awesome, empowering conversation. Any other, you know, things or encouragement that you want to share before we totally close out? Yes. Yes.
Kristen:just, um, it, it may feel easy to just get overwhelmed when you start this journey out. And like you were saying earlier, Mari, I think sometimes when you first hear about all of this, you can start having this feeling of like. Panic of, my goodness. I probably have so much stuff in my home right now that's like killing me and it's toxic and I'm going to get cancer. And like, you can start spiraling and just really freak out. And I always just encourage people, like take a breath, take a step back, pray about it, and And make one little change. That's it. Know that every little change you're making is making an impact on your body's toxic burden. And it makes a difference. And you don't have to do everything overnight. And I say this a lot, like, don't compare my year five to your day one. I was at day one at one point, and now I'm at year five, but it took a long time to get here. And I don't expect people to suddenly wake up one day and be able to explain phthalates and be able to understand all these chemicals and stuff, but it's one little change at a time. And, and whenever you start to feel like your nervous system kind of freaking out, your heart starts going faster. You get a little sweaty as you start to hear about something or toxins in my brain. Floss. What? And then you start just freaking out, right? It's like important to just take a step back, take a breath and be like, okay, today I'm going to do my best. And then I'm going to forget the rest. I'm just going to let go what I, what I can't handle or can't control today because truly If our nervous system is dysregulated, we can't live well, we can't
mari:Mm hmm.
Kristen:And that's the most important thing is to learn how to be still, be calm, get outside, be in the sun, put your feet in the grass, drink some water, eat some protein, you know, get those, those basics of health. And then yeah, start swapping out toxic products, but don't become so obsessed with getting rid of toxins that your mental health becomes super toxic in itself. Because I think that's. That's a risk that you run when you start this non toxic lifestyle is this mindset of I have to switch everything. I have to swap it all. I have to do it perfectly. And that's not the point. The point is just to give our bodies the space that they need to function optimally. And for anybody who's like, Okay. I'm looking for next steps after this. I really want to start swapping out products in my beauty, in my, um, in my beauty routine, or I want to know like, how can I buy toxin free furniture? Or how can I have toxin free kitchen gear? I have a whole lineup of guides that if you go to my Instagram, it's at the dot organic mama. If you go to the link in my bio, I have several different guides that are all based on different categories of your life for babies, for homes, for beauty products, and, um, those are some great resources if you're wanting to dive further into this on how can I lessen my toxic load. That would be a great place to start, at least I think so. I'm biased, but I put those resources together for people that are ready to take it a step further.
mari:Yeah. No, that'll be really helpful. Uh, thank you for those words of encouragement. You have such a spirit of like peace and kindness and love when you speak about this, that I hope people feel that on the other side of their headphones or car, wherever they're listening. So, uh, where can we find you? I know we've mentioned your Instagram before you mentioned your bio, but one more time, do you, what your Instagram handle and do you have a website or
Kristen:Yeah. So you can find me on Instagram. It's at the. organamama. I do have a website that's organamama. com. It's in the works right now. So maybe by the
mari:Okay.
Kristen:comes out, it'll be updated, but. working on making that better and getting my blog back up and running. But
mari:Perfect.
Kristen:talking on Instagram, feel free to send me a DM. I always love having conversations with people to help them get their health back on track.
mari:Perfect. Thanks, Kristen.
Kristen:Absolutely, Mari. Thank you so much for having me today.