Latest / That Mom / The Wellness Swaps Every Busy Mom Should Make with Danielle D’Ambrosio
Transcript
- Maria Woods: you Welcome to That Mom, the podcast where we explore finding more joy and more meaning in the beautiful chaos of motherhood. I'm your host Maria, and I'm so glad you're here. Wellness, it's such a hot topic, but where do we actually start? Today, I have Danielle D'Ambrogio from Serena Wellness to make sense of everything wellness and give us the most impactful swaps. Danielle, welcome to that mom. excited to have you. So excited to be here. It's nice to see you. Yes. Nice to see you again. I know since the last time we've talked, you've inspired me to make a few more personal changes. So we can get into that, but, um, tell the audience about you and about Serena wellness. Okay. So it's funny you say that because I inspire myself to make changes to that. And I say that in the way that You never get there. Right. So I always tell my clients, this is about small changes. It's about looking at the things you do every day and then just trying to do something a little different, right. Or a little better. And so it's funny, we had a conversation over text actually about like bathtub filters, right. And you're like, ⁓ I found this great bath filter and I was still on the hunt for a great bathtub filter, even though, you know, this is really what I help people with every day. it's never about perfection. It's just about the little progress every day. ⁓ And that's kind of how I ended up doing this. years ago, I found myself crawling out of bed onto the floor, really sick, chronic pain, chronic strep infections, a lot of different things going on. And you're young and you look healthy, right? So that's, you know, I just think that's a piece like people maybe are not feeling their best or they're identifying with some of what you're saying. mean, and this was a decade ago, right? so I had gone to the doctor and they told me, well, this is just kind of how it is. I had lower back stuff. They said, you're going to have to live with this the rest of your life and take drugs or whatever it was that I would need to take to manage the pain. And so I started asking questions because I'm like, this can't be right. Right? It just can't be, you know, they say, well, that's just it, that you just have to live with it. And so what ended up happening is I was realizing there was something else compromising my immune system. There was something else, you know, contributing to the inflammation of my body. And so one big thing that came up was I had black mold in my ⁓ condo. And so that's a big one. And it started this really long. great journey, actually. You you look at the things that happen to you and you're grateful for them when you look back sometimes, even though they're really hard. It led me to this place where I started digging into, what else is in my home? Right. So once I kind of wrangled that situation, I said, well, God, I'm cooking with nonstick pans, right? Toxic nonstick pans. And I've got, ⁓ you know, phthalates and the candles that I'm burning and the Glade plugins. ⁓ And so little by little, and really it was little by little over years, I started to really swap things out in my home. ⁓ And then I've been in real estate for two decades and I kept coming into contact with clients who had similar issues. And I found that I had the ability to help them ⁓ just from the knowledge that I had gained along the way. On my own journey, I had a client who was dealing with chronic... ⁓ chronic respiratory issues and chronic psoriasis for 10 years. And he had been to every specialist in Boston and everyone said, ⁓ it's just something you have to deal with. And nobody thought to ask what was in his environment, what was in his home. And I went into his home and within a few minutes, I found a bunch of Glade plugins in a place actually in a home gym where he was basically had no ventilation and was creating a chemical sauna for himself and poisoning himself every day. And so we unplugged them. We ventilated the space and a few weeks later, he never had a single issue ever again. Wow. Yeah. And so I really started to just have a passion for helping people in that way. And with my own issues, I wanted to learn more. I went back to school for nutrition ⁓ and I was doing that. And in that, I was also realizing it doesn't matter what you're eating, right? It doesn't matter how well you're taking care of your body in that sense, if you're compromising your health with some of these environmental factors. Those are big contributing factors to a lot of issues. lot of my female clients, fertility issues, you know, and the statistics are out there. You know, they're finding these connections with PSAFs and with phthalates and... Yeah, it's kind of a big deal. So I found myself just wanting to be of service to people in this way. Well, I'm so glad you're here because I think I've also been on kind of a wellness journey and been eliminating things or adding more positive things in. But I will say when you start out on this journey or you start becoming curious or maybe you're in the middle, either stage can feel overwhelming. There can feel like there's so much information. And so you can help mom sort through What are the top items where we can make an impact and make change? What are the top things we should be looking at so that we're not met with all this overwhelm and we're making changes in ways that can benefit life, benefit what we're doing on a daily basis? Yeah, I would say, so I always tell my clients, look to the things that you're doing the most every day, right? I think that's really the place to look. We know moms, right? They're the most underserved people, right? And they're fed things all the time, right? You go on social media and do this, add this to your routine, right? Add this to your... It's not really about that. It's about you don't need to add another habit. You need to look at what you're already doing, right? So for instance, you know, in the morning that there's a study out there that shows that women are come into contact with 168 unique chemicals before they leave the house in the morning. That's a lot. a lot, right? That's a scary amount. But the thing is, it doesn't have to be scary. It's really about, OK, well, what would that be, right? Well, I'm putting my makeup on, right? I'm putting my skincare on, ⁓ the clothing that I'm wearing, right? And in that, you're finding that there are a lot of chemicals being hidden. ⁓ And so really, it's just about, what small swaps can I make? So I tell my clients one of the biggest things, like your underwear, for instance, right? it out to organic, your workout clothes, right? We put on these synthetic materials and then we call it kind of wellness, right? And we go out and we do our, we're doing, we're doing the best we can. Right. And we're, trying to take care of ourselves. But what is happening is that, you know, those synthetic fabrics are on your skin. They've got chemicals on them. Right. And now we're getting friction on our body and it's opening things up and you're absorbing that into the bloodstream. Right. So really it's about looking at these really small things. right? So swap out your skincare little by little as you're using it up. That's the other thing. That's the biggest thing I tell my clients. Do not stress. You don't have to change everything in your house. You don't have to throw away every product. Sometimes I'm compelled to throw everything in my house away. But we don't want to do that and that's not reasonable. So it's about, right, my makeup's running low. Maybe I should be looking at some cleaner brands. ⁓ And same thing with your clothes. I just want to put my... Work out my yoga pants on the other day and my fingers like went right through them and I said, ⁓ good. Now I can swap these out for a more organic material. Right? So I would say it's definitely that looking at your personal care products and looking at, know, the clothing that you're wearing and really what you're putting on your skin, your skin is your biggest organ and you're absorbing 60 % of what you're putting on your skin every day. So, that's including water. So I'll, I guess I'll move to the next thing I would suggest. Can I just pause for a second? ask, so we're talking about yoga pants in particular, and we're talking about skin care or makeup, personal care products. In those categories, OK, we're coming into contact with chemicals. So what? Why should we be concerned about that? Well, for instance, so you're coming into contact with chemicals like phthalates and parabens and SLS and these things. These are... contributing factors, they're directly linked to cancers and fertility issues. They're even linked to ⁓ cardiovascular issues now, right? So if you look at microplastics, for instance, which you're wearing these workout clothes, they're polyester, they're plastic, right? So you're absorbing that. You're absorbing that as you're sweating, you're breathing it in. Now they're finding this in the brain, in the heart, right? In semen, right? In breast milk. So you're seeing the direct correlation to how these things are affecting you. it's not just that, okay, now there's microplastics. Well, what are those microplastics doing to your body? And we're seeing the direct correlation in health issues. And so it seems like a pretty simple one, right? Where, well, why would you want to put that on your body? Right? If it can contribute to some other things. And when it comes to, you mentioned underwear and athletic clothes, is that just because of proximity to important parts? that because you mentioned the friction and the heat? Yeah, it's a combination of those things. So especially as women, right? And so I tell my clients, well, if you don't want to swap out all of your workout clothes just yet, right? Maybe just invest in some organic undergarments, right? So that you're protecting your most sensitive areas from those things because we absorb these things through our skin. Okay. Yeah. All right. Now, water, guess. Tell us about water. Yeah. So water is a big one. ⁓ So along the lines of what we were talking about with what you're putting on your skin and your skin's absorbing things. So when you're taking a shower, your skin's your biggest organ. It's absorbing that water. Now we've got chlorine. We've got pharmaceuticals. We've got fluoride. We've got hormones in the water. We don't want that, right? No. So ⁓ I would say that that's pretty much the number one thing I would say to, if someone wants to focus on one thing to start, I would say, look at water, right? So that means, know, Aqua True, for instance, it has a countertop. reverse osmosis system, right? That's the place to start. You know, they're reasonable, they're cost effective, and you know what you're, you know, what you're consuming ⁓ is safe, right? Because our drinking water is legal, but is it safe? Right? If you really look that up, and you, you know, go on the EWG website, and you type in your zip code, you'll be pretty... concerned with what's in your water. So I just think that that's a really good place to start for people. it's something, you put something like that on the countertop, or if you can, you can install a reverse osmosis under the sink. It impacts the entire family, right? It's not just something that impacts one person. And it makes a huge difference, a huge difference in your health. And I didn't know that EWG did drinking water, because I know they have a skin deep. Database that I do use when I'm looking at skincare products either for myself or my kids. Yeah, they have enough That's great, but they do you if you go in there? You know, I'm gonna create a page on my website for that mom and I'll put the link in there but it's one that I just find it to be really helpful because that's the thing. It's hard sometimes to make changes when you can't see the direct correlation, but just to see what's up there and what's in your drinking water, it changes it for some people and they realize, well, what an easy swap that I can make. What an easy change that I can make that significantly impacts my life. So drinking water is one and then also the water that we shower with. Definitely. ⁓ You know, it's funny when I swapped to a reverse osmosis system, I was using, ⁓ I was getting water delivered, spring water, you know, and we don't know if that's even spring water. Like, how do you know? ⁓ but they were in BPA free, you know, plastic jugs, which BPA free really means nothing. It's still plastic sitting in the sun, usually outside. But I was, you know, I thought I was doing the right thing for myself. And when I first installed my RO system, I did a blind taste test of the water and all I could taste. in the spring water ⁓ was plastics, which is interesting. So then when I finally got to the point of swapping out my filter, putting a filter in rather, in my shower, the first time I took a shower, it was like my skin was new. You see the difference, right? You feel the difference immediately. So definitely shower and bath filter would be a really big one because that's touching your body. one to two times a day at least. And especially if you're, I love to soak in a bath. ⁓ So you're soaking in a bath and you want to know that what you're absorbing into your body is good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you can find them now. I think the bathtub filters are a little harder. I found in my experience because of like the fast flow, but you can find a bathtub filter and you can find the shower filters are readily available. Yeah. You want to look for NSF certifications. Definitely. That's, that's like, That's the tell right there to know that it's that it's actually filtering out the right things for you. ⁓ but again, it's a little different than the water that you're drinking. You don't have to be so critical about it. I just think putting any sort of filter on there is definitely going to help you in the long run. So don't overthink it. Cause I definitely did for years. Okay. Yeah. so we have our personal care products that we can kind of swap out for better for you one for one. As we run out of them, we have our water that we drink and bathe in. anything else that is a big change. Okay. Because think about it, right? I mean, you shower every day, he get dressed every day. You put things on your skin every day, but you're in that kitchen, right? Every day. Yeah. And so one of the big ones is nonstick pans, right? Nonstick, would say nonstick pans and plastic storage are the two. big ones to look at in the kitchen. I think they're pretty, like you mentioned, I mean, there are a lot of options out there now, right? And so we're lucky in that people are kind of waking up and companies are waking up. And I think people are wanting more. So they're consuming more of these better for you products. So they're easier to find. I would say if you're cooking on a nonstick, pan, definitely swap to something stainless steel, something cast iron. ⁓ Caraway is one of my favorites for ceramic nonstick. mean, because listen. You can cook an egg on a stainless steel pan, if you heat the pan up the way you're supposed to, it is technically nonstick, but there's really nothing like a ceramic nonstick that's non-toxic and that egg just slides right off and you can move on with your life. ⁓ Yeah. So I would definitely look to swapping a pan out. That would be a big one. And start with the one you use the most. I honestly, I have a few pans that I love, but the one I use the most is my little caraway. And I kind of cook everything in there and it makes a big difference. So it's a small investment with a big return. And then I would also say plastic food storage. So. you're putting your food in this and especially I implore everybody, please, please, please do not put your plastic storage containers in the microwave and please, please, please don't put hot food in them. I think if you still want to use them, ⁓ at least try to put cold things in them and not heat them up. That's pretty important because when you're heating up those plastics, ⁓ it's really releasing those plastics into your food and you're consuming that. Yeah. Yeah. And you want to be swapping it out for, you know, glass, glass storage containers, ⁓ stainless steel storage containers, anything like that, that just doesn't have that microplastics effect. Yeah, that it's so simple. I mean, I think the glass storage containers, I know I've gone down that route. A lot of them still have plastic lids. Yes. Which is crazy. But I just I personally make sure to not put them in the In the microwave. You know, it's funny. I'll tell you, I was also crazy about the plastic lids for a while. Like why? And then yesterday actually dropped one of those plastic lids on the floor. And I said, well, I'm gonna look out at my glass. Funny immediate moment. Like, well, that's okay. Yeah. And as long as really the food's not touching it, you're, should be okay. But I've actually transitioned and I'm fine. I find it really. Useful though big whack jars or the ball jars the mason jars I store a lot of my food in there now the whack jars I like because they have Glass lids and you you know, they have the little clamps that you can use but when you're storing food in it You don't even need to put the clamps on I just put the glass on I put it in the fridge and I find them so much easier than kind of any other food storage and then it's nice because if you're storing things if you're freezing things in the freezer Those are really easy to use. So those are kind of my favorite That's great. you know what I like about your approach is just that you can do a little bit at a time. Like you didn't say go buy a whole new baking set or cooking set. You said like pick the pan that you're using every day. You know, so I think that's it's helpful. It makes it a little less overwhelming and you can as you need new storage containers, you can replace them with glass. You don't have to do and just. maybe taking them from that plastic container, putting them onto a plate, microwaving them that way. Like that's just a step that you can take. Yeah. It's the small things. Definitely. It is the small things. And the problem is we know as humans, we're not going to do things if we put too much on our plate. Right? We're just not going to do it. It's going to be completely overwhelming. And then you're not going to do anything. ⁓ and you know, my business, I, I come into people's homes and I do a full evaluation in every room. go room by room and I identify what might be compromising their health, right? Like the non-stick pans or. I'll even go into people's vanities and into people's closets. And I spit out a blueprint essentially of here are the swaps, right? And I make it really easy for them, right? Cause that's the biggest problem. can't just say, buy a stainless steel pan, right? Because now you have to do the work of figuring out what's the best stainless steel pan, right? And that's where we all get caught up. So really what I do, I provide, I have vetted products, right? So over the years I have 200, 300 products that I've specifically used. ⁓ And I provide the links to those right to make it easier. But even in that blueprint, it's here's the priority, right? Here's what to do today. Here's what to do when you have a little more headspace in three months, right? Or whatever that looks like for them. So I have found that that's the biggest piece of it. And I think when you make one swap, you get excited because you notice the difference and you're like, ⁓ I like this, right? You know, what else can I do? Yeah. And you're kind of just naturally inclined to do more. of that. I find that that's true. Like once you get on the journey and you do a little more, you do a little more. Totally. And then if, mean, personal care, clothing, water, and kitchen, like those are some big categories. So you're making it feel very manageable, but if you're working through those categories, you're probably making some meaningful changes. You're making the most meaningful changes. And I always say the dose makes the poison, right? So it's all about what you're doing the most, right? So I mean, if you're doing, you know, one specific thing, but not very often, well, to swap that out, it's not going to really make that much of a meaningful change in your life and in your health, right? So don't worry about that one, right? ⁓ So yeah, you're right. It's just about... you know, approaching things in the way that it's going to make the biggest impact in your life. Yeah. And what have you heard from your clients in terms of their results from making these changes? Yeah. So as I mentioned, ⁓ I've had a few female clients who struggled with fertility, and that's a big one. So there is a study I was just reading yesterday. And in this study, they took women who have never had breast cancer and they asked them to remove products, right? Skincare products, personal care products for 28 days ⁓ and things that had fragrance in them, And things that phthalates and things that they know are endocrine disruptors, they know affect hormones, right? So fragrance affects hormones. Absolutely. So if you see fragrance and perfume, right on a label, big no, no, you want to stay away from that. So you really want to focus on fragrance free. That's what you're looking for on a label is fragrance free. Now, interestingly enough, we had this conversation. Yeah. Yeah. About, ⁓ unscented. ⁓ gosh. Yeah. See, this is where they get you. And it's kind of fun to figure these things out actually. Right. So an unscented is a scent. Turns out that's crazy. Now, isn't it crazy? Yeah, I know. I know you because we're trying so hard. And you're like, I was right there. was right there. bought the unscented lotion. I really tried. Yes. I can't tell you how many times this happens to me still, right? It's so funny. So unscented is a scent. So when you see unscented, that means that they added a scent to mask the scent. You really want to be looking for. Fragrance free. ⁓ my gosh. OK. Yes. Now I'll never forget this. I know. I won't either, right? Because those are hormone disruptors. Those are hormone disruptors. Absolutely. So those are the cleanest choices, fragrance free. I love the brand Necessaire. And I've used Necessaire for years. the body wash and the body lotion. And of course, there are some of those that are scented. And I was using that for a long time. And then I realized, ⁓ they're scented, right? And it's okay, some of these products, especially if they're sent with essential oils, that's definitely okay. Those are on the okay list. But I think generally as a rule of thumb, if you can go fragrance free on anything that you're putting on your body, that's really preferable. And that brand Necessaire does have a fragrance free. So I have swapped to the fragrance free body lotion and those things. And I do feel like it makes a difference every little bit. Yeah. And then you were kind of touching on fertility in a recent study. Yeah. that study that they had women remove products like this for 28 days and what... And they were basically looking at the gene expression, the breast cancer gene expression. And when women were removing these products for 28 days, they were looking at this gene expression and it actually went down, which means that essentially these products are triggering something in our bodies that are causing cancers and they're causing disease. again, it doesn't take long. I was going to say, 28 days, if you're actually making a meaningful difference in your health and how your body's operating in 28 days. these participants were, they were experiencing no other lifestyle changes, right? So this is 28 days of all they were doing was swapping out. products that they were using that had phthalates and fragrances in them, which is pretty incredible because these products and these chemicals are suppressing immunity, right? They're affecting our hormones. you know, that's a big deal, right? Your body is taking on that toxic load and you can imagine, how can it function in the way it's supposed to function if it has these toxic loads that it's competing with, right? And so when you look at that, it's the same thing about making a small swap, right? When you make a small swap and it has a big impact, that's a really small change to make, especially if you're going through fertility issues and multiple rounds of IVF. So you asked about clients. I've had clients going through multiple rounds of IVF and struggling with fertility for years and making these small changes and getting pregnant naturally. Wow. So it just goes to show you that it might seem like a really big weight, you know, to take on some of these things and make some of these changes. But it's actually not even about, you know, buy more, right? It's about less at the end of the day. Yeah, it's so interesting because I think like clean eating or unprocessed foods, I was kind of on that train. But then when I had my son, I remember a doctor telling me that fragrance and perfume was really bad for infants. So you have grandparents or a nanny or caregivers or people visiting, have them not wear perfume or even scented detergents. And so that kind of got me first thinking about all that because it's like, if this is not good for a small child, then how could this be something that's good for me? Yeah. Well, the thing about small children is we think of them as small adults. Children are not small adults. Children's natural detox systems don't fully develop until after puberty. Children also breathe faster. They breathe fast, more air per pound based on their body weight than we do. When they're interacting with these chemicals and these fragrances and things like that, it's affecting them in a much different way. There's also PFAS research where there's pre-natal it's linked to a 40 % drop in vaccine antibody response by age five. So you're seeing that these things that are happening prenatally and also when these children are really young are significantly, significantly affecting them, right? And also when you think about things around the home, You've got the microplastics in, you know, rugs, right. And in furniture and in different things in children have hand to mouth behavior, right? So they're coming into contact with these things in a much different way and their bodies cannot process them and cannot detect some out naturally like we can. So I think it's, you know, pretty important to look at that. and I help clients, I do a nursery at it essentially where I help them figure out, know, what are the best things to be putting in a nursery, right? And the best products and the best toys to be. buying kids and I actually find that some of my clients, you know, buy that and they give it to people as a baby shower gift, right? Because, or, you know, they give it to them so they can create their registry, right? Their baby registry because instead now you're getting all of these things and, you know, you don't know if they're really safe. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure that applies to specific things in the nursery, but also if you're filtering. the water for the household and filtering bath water. If you're eliminating ⁓ fragrance from any lotions or products, bath products for your child. If you're focusing on more natural fibers for their clothing and also what you're using in the kitchen, all those things are going to positively impact your children as well. Absolutely. mean, we talk about ⁓ like the fluoride in the water, right? I mean, that's... that's impacting children's neurological development, right? So that's an easy one, like I said. You make that swap and everybody's winning there. In terms of what you're putting on your body, right? You want to make sure your kids are in more organic clothing, but you also have to think about the bedroom, right? mean, the other place where we spend the most amount of our time, right? At least eight hours a night, if we're lucky. In and out, at least. bed, yeah. You you're sleeping on a mattress, right? Is that... Is that releasing chemicals? You're sleeping on sheets. Are those organic materials? It's on your skin and same thing for the kids. So you want to be looking for Okotex certified. That's the main driver of just knowing how they're processing those. Those materials so, you people think okay. No, but my sheets are organic. I mean, excuse me My sheets are cotton well, they might be cotton but cotton actually has some of the most chemicals out of anything because it's the way that it's processed and treated with chemicals So you really want to be looking at organic, right? So you want to look for bedding that's organic and you want to see that Oko tech certified Standard. Okay, that's how you know, it's safe and it's tough because you go on the internet and there's a lot of options But I think that's how it can help you really not have the overwhelm while you're searching for these things. Yeah, that sounds like a big one too, since we all spend so much time in bed, our kids included. Absolutely. I think that's a huge one. And I would always say too, there's a very free, easy fix. It's every morning, open your windows. I mean, they do this in other countries, even when it's the dead of winter. They open the windows, it's like part of the culture. I would say opening the windows is one of the easiest hacks you could do, right? The air in your house is two to five times more polluted than the air outside. ⁓ wow. Right? Even in the city. So when you think about that, open the windows. That's an easy one to get the airflow going. And then if you can invest in a good air purifier, I would start with putting it in the bedroom, right? Because that's where you're spending the most concentrated time. and breathing kind of the most stale air, would say. Yeah. But opening the windows or the doors, that seems easy. Opening the windows and the doors. It's always, I know I have a lot of, you know, free things that I think about during the day, right? That like seriously impact our health and our, you know, lymphatic drainage and all these things that are natural detoxification, right? Opening a window is a way to naturally detoxify your space and your body. I wake up in the morning and I drink at least eight ounces of warm water, right? in a little pinch of sea salt for absorption. Again, very easy. You don't need any of these things that they're selling you on the internet, right? You just need your, you're, you're sleeping for eight hours and you're dehydrated. So just before you put coffee in your body, right? Drink some water, drink some more water, get that, you know, lymphatic drainage going. Right. ⁓ so I do think that you should also look to the natural things that you can do, right? Because it's not about swapping things out. Sometimes it's about just simplifying. in your life. Yeah. Or adding some of these free things like water and of these free fresh air. Yeah. Movement. mean, movement is a natural detoxification of the body. It's great for your hormones. It's great for everything in your life. And I'm a big fan of the rebounder, the little trampoline you bounce on. The lymphatic drainage from going on that is like 30 to 40 times what you normally get just by doing what you normally do during the day. But I find when I travel or when I'm not home, home or when I have to rush out the door in the morning, I go, ⁓ I didn't get to get on my. So I've actually started doing some Qigong. I don't know. It's a big thing. I think on Instagram right now is Qigong. ⁓ no way. Yeah. So it's just, it's, it's an ancient practice, but it's really just kind of shaking and moving your body and it naturally just starts the lymphatic drainage. And so I think it's funny because, know, maybe you can't get to your workout class or maybe, but you don't need to, you know, they have these like shake plates now. No, if that's what gets you to do things, that's great. But you don't need to buy that. You don't need to buy a shake plate. You can shake it out, right? Or dance with your kids in the living room. know what I mean? Anything where you're moving your body, think about it. It's naturally detoxing you. ⁓ So again, it's not about more. It's really about kind of less and just trying to simplify ⁓ how you live every day. I love this. This is great. And so we talked a little bit about your clients and some of the results that they've seen, which is amazing. ⁓ Why is this so hard for, I think, moms in particular to adopt? Well, I mean, as we said, moms are the most underserved, right? You're exhausted usually. You have a bunch of things on your plate, right? It's just about having the bandwidth to do things, right? mean, if you don't have any more bandwidth, how can you approach something that seems optional? I would say, right? ⁓ And I do know though, there's that tug at you, right? Where you wanna do better for yourself, you wanna do better for your kids, you wanna be making these changes, but I actually just think, you know, it's bandwidth. Right? I mean, you only have so much head space, you only have so much time in the day, right? And so- That's why you're trying to make it simple. Yeah, you're trying to make it, you want to make it simple. And I think it's so hard for moms because it feels like it's one more thing to do. And that's why I say, don't really don't think about it. Like another habit you have to add to your life. You really should look at what you already do every single day. Right. And maybe it's one thing you do different every day. Maybe you wake up tomorrow and you say, I'm going to open the windows today. That's huge, actually. That's huge. Or maybe I'm going to unplug that Glade plugin that I've got. That's a big change in your life. ⁓ And it seems small. But. That's why I think it's so important to look at it from that perspective. It's about the small things that add up every day. Again, it's that I say the dose makes the poison, right? So it's about the things that you do the most that you're exposed to the most every day. And just think about how you can make that small change. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. ⁓ is there anything else you want to mention in terms of habits or high impact items? So I would say that some of the other really simple, easy, approachable things that you can do for yourself, morning light. Morning light's a huge one. Tell me about this. I'm interested. I've been trying to do it, but explain it to us. Well, and this goes back to what I said. No, no shade to any of these things that you might buy, right? A red light panel or any of these things. I love that, right? I go to a infrared sauna a few times a week and I love that red light and I love, you know, having that in my life. But really we have that for free, right? Don't go investing in things and don't go buying things and spending your money when nature gives it to us for free. ⁓ So we can do get the same results from the sun. get the same results, right? So essentially within, know, within a half an hour of waking up, you really want to be getting light exposure, natural light exposure in your face, in your eyes, eyes open. Right? So I would aim for just even 10 minutes, right? If you can just sit with your coffee by a window, right? Sit outside if you can. It's just getting that natural sunlight because what that's doing is it's resetting your circadian rhythm, right? And your circadian rhythm is your circadian rhythm is helping you with your hormones, right? It's helping you with sleep regulation. It's really setting that up at the beginning of the day and it affects your body the entire day. So I would say definitely focusing on light. ⁓ One of the most highest impact things that you can do and it's free. And also just a little tip. I know we live in New England and we don't always have the luxury of sunlight. I mean, first of all, even when it's cloudy, you are getting sunlight, right? ⁓ But there are these small light boxes and you can just Google them. You know, you can there, I don't know, 20, 30 bucks sometimes. And they mimic that white light, that natural light. And this is actually a psychiatrist I know recommended it to me when I was getting like really seasonally blue. And I said, there's no way that thing works. And I bought one and turns out it does. Wow. So all you do is you plug it in, you put it on your desk or wherever you're able to be in front of it. You don't have to be looking at You can be working or drinking your coffee or whatever. But it just mimics that natural sunlight, and it helps you reset that circadian rhythm. What's so fascinating, too, is that I think getting morning light has been linked to better sleep, too. Yes, of course. And I think sleep is something all moms want, is better sleep, I think. Yes. Sleep's a big one. So. And I know I have my, I what, what an ideal sleep regimen looks like, right? Tell us what does it like to my clients. call it the turndown service, right? Because it sounds a little better than a sleep regimen, right? It's it doesn't sound like something you have to do. It sounds like a luxury and it is a luxury, but I would say these are, so I used to struggle pretty badly with sleep. Actually. ⁓ I was, I had chronic sleep problems, chronic nightmares for years. And when you look at what actually happens to you, so when you sleep for four hours or less a night, what happens is there's a protein that's released from the blood brain barrier that mimics a traumatic brain injury. ⁓ And it sounds bad, but then when you think about that, that is exactly what you feel like when you sleep for less than four hours a night, right? I mean, I'm sure you've had those nights where you're foggy, you're memorably lost, you you're just, you know, that is what it feels like. So I think it's actually a good thing to know that because you understand that yes, you need sleep, right? You need to be prioritizing this. But what studies also show that's super interesting, it's the consistency of when you go to sleep. That's actually just as important, if not more important than getting to seven, getting seven to nine hours. Yes. So really getting to seven, getting seven to nine hours of sleep a night is super important. But the consistency, if you go to bed within 30 minutes around the same time every night, which I know is hard, but if it's possible, that makes one of the biggest impacts on your body. Because we have this natural ancient wiring, right? This fight or flight. And so what ends up happening is is if you're not going to sleep within the same range, your fight or flight is triggered. So you're actually not getting that deep sleep. You're not getting into that restorative REM sleep or your mitochondria is actually healing, right? Because your body's consistently waking you up all night because it thinks there's a threat. Why else would your routine be off? Right? So number one, I would say really try to aim for a consistent sleep schedule. I would say about an hour before bed, really try to shut your phone off. Do not disturb. Put it in another room. I think sleeping with the phone in another room has been one of the biggest life hacks I've ever found. Yeah, I've been doing that too. Yeah, it's super helpful. I'm still working on going to bed at the same time. I found honestly, if I can fall into a rhythm, like I can, if I can fall asleep by 10, then I just wake up at six. And when I'm in that rhythm, it's so easy. But then once life throws me off, I have to fight to get back into that rhythm. You do, but that's okay. mean, that's part of life, right? Like I always say, like the one guarantee in life is impermanence, that everything is always changing, right? But I think that's... It's natural. This is what happens in life, right? We get thrown off and then we find our way back. I mean, in every, every area of our lives. we know moms, know, you might get woken up in the middle of the night because someone needs you. Exactly. And that's totally okay. Right. And the other thing is that, you know, sometimes there are changes that you can make where it affects, you know, both you and your kids. So I tell my clients to swap all your light bulbs in the bedrooms out for red light. Right. And so red light, it's like the best, it's essentially like the best light that helps us wind down to a sleep state essentially. So if you're putting that in your kid's room and you're putting that in your room, that makes a huge difference, right? So either dimming the lights completely down, I go candlelight and red light, and it just feels like I'm at a retreat every night. You know, it really does, doesn't it? What does it take, you know, buying some light bulbs and screwing them in, right? It's really a small change, but it definitely winds you down into that restorative state. So that would be another one, definitely. I do love the phone thing too, because I think, well, one, you're not tempted to, like, if you have a thought like, ⁓ I need to order something or, ⁓ I to the email, you just get, I've gotten better at letting that go. Yes. You know, which I think is helpful instead of staying on the phone, you're not, you're not ending up down rabbit holes you didn't mean to get into. Yes. And then in the morning too. It allows you, allows me to set up for what kind of day do I want to have versus just responding to things that are being thrown at me via the phone the first second I wake up. Absolutely. And you know what I've started to do. So I've started, I have a notebook and a pen next to my bed. Cause when I started to do that, I do believe that if something to do list is coming to you and brain dump. I brain dump at night before I go to bed is what I do. I open a page and just whatever it is I'm thinking about, or I'll, I'll open it up and I'll write the top three things I want to do tomorrow. I mean, that simplifies things, top three things you want to do. And then when you go to bed, first of all, you're kind of organized for the next day. Like these are my priorities, but also you're not thinking about everything else. Cause you realize, wow, those are the priorities, right? mean, not everything in life can be a priority. I'm still trying to learn that. Sometimes I'll make a to-do list. It's like 50 things. And then I'm shocked when I don't do them all the next day. Yeah. I think this is so helpful for moms to just brain dump, have a place for it. And then you can hopefully get better chance at getting to the other side and finding some sleep. Absolutely. Yeah. And again, just protecting that sleep because it sets you up for everything. Right? mean, getting good sleep, you wake up and... I don't know, you just function in a different way, right? So it doesn't matter that you didn't order that thing on Amazon that you thought about when you were going to bed because like, you're gonna crush it the next day. You're gonna order all the things you need to order. You're gonna get everything done, right? But if you're losing that sleep and it's also, it's a nervous system thing, right? I mean, at the end of the day, we don't need... We don't need crazy routines and crazy rituals and habits. We really just need to regulate our nervous system, right? And also regulating your nervous system. Legs up the wall before bed. I should add. So that's a crazy one, especially when I'm not feeling particularly sleepy. And I really want to get myself into that state. I just thought in my bed, I just turned myself around and I put my legs up the wall for about 10, 15 minutes. And it's pretty amazing how that lulls you right to sleep. It's just that natural kind of drainage. And so that's a big one actually, where you're in now, you're in the bed, you don't have your phone, maybe you have a nice book. ⁓ I love a nice book, maybe a cup of tea next to you. mean, again, you feel like you're on a retreat. Yeah. And it actually really, really does help with like calming your nervous system and maybe some deep breaths while you're there. Right. Sometimes I'll just do like, like some really deep breaths four or five times. and it shifts you completely really out of that fight or flight and your nervous system is pretty calm. So I think that's great because I'm just thinking about all the moms who probably go to bed, put their head on their pillow, thinking about one million things. And this sounds like a better way to go to sleep. again, if you're thinking of million things, okay, that's, you know, you're not going to be falling asleep anytime soon. like Trust try to do something a little different, right? Put those legs up the wall or, you know, grab a book, something a little, a little different. And I think it's those small shifts. And then you start, cause really the bedroom, know, the thing about the phone, not having a phone or a TV in the bedroom is that you really want it. You want your body and your nervous system identifying the bedroom with rest. Right? You don't want it to be identifying the bedroom with, we're watching TV. I have to say, I watched a movie last night in bed and I don't do that at all anymore. And I had one of the worst nights of sleep of my life last night because I was going straight from again, probably light, right? Light in my, in my face right before a bed. And also that stimulation. I couldn't sleep last night. Um, and so I do think that it's important to start thinking about your bedroom kind as a sanctuary of sleep, right? That's the place for sleep. They also say, if you get up in the middle of the night, you know, if you're tossing and turning for more than 10, 15 minutes, try to get up, go in another room, right? Maybe open a book for a little while. And then when you get sleepy again, go back to bed. That's kind of a tough one, but it's just along the same vein of try to make sure the bedroom is a place that you identify with just really sleeping and rest. Yeah. Yeah. This is great. I think there's so many nuggets in here that people can hold on to and make some really small changes for big impact. Do you want to tell the audience where can they find you if they're interested in learning more? So ⁓ homewellnessarchitect.com. You can find my website. You can see some of my offerings I'm gonna put a page up for that mom and I'll list some of my swaps to make it really easy like some of these critical things that we were talking about And then also I'll put a free guide on there, right? So just kind of the 101 of the simple things that you can start doing and then off also I offer, you know 20-minute complementary discovery calls so even if someone just wants to call and chat and you know has some questions, I just love to talk about this stuff. So more than happy to do that for any of your listeners. That's great. Thank you, Danielle. This is such a fun conversation. so much. This is Maria and you've been listening to That Mom. Thank you for being here. If this episode resonated, share it with a mom who needs it too. And if you're ready for more, your next episode is waiting because every conversation here is meant to empower you to live better.