Welcome to Grounded Wellness, your go to podcast for
simplified and trusted information on how to live a
more non-toxic and holistic life.
We are your hosts. I'm Bethany McDaniel, founder of
Primarily Pure biohacking enthusiast and mom of three.
And I'm Courtney O'Connor, holistic esthetician with over
15 years experience in the healing power of touch and
holistic skin care rituals. If you deeply care about the
health and well-being of your family and want actionable,
simple steps to start eliminating toxins from your
life, this episode is for you. Today I'm chatting with my good
friends Kelly Love of Branch Basics, which in my opinion are
the most effective non-toxic and safe cleaning products on the
market. Kelly unexpectedly started
Branch Basics 12 years ago with her best friend Allison and
Allison's aunt Marilee. After spending a blissful summer
reconnecting to nature and a holistic approach to everyday
life, Kelly is here to guide you through how to detox your life
and boost well for yourself and your loved ones.
Let's dig in, Kelly. Welcome to the Grounded Wellness
podcast. So good to have you here.
I'm so excited. This is like a dream.
We are grounding right now. You are like one of the biggest
grounding people I know. In fact, after Kelly flew in
last night, she came over and right away she was, I was like
making dinner with the kids and she was like, I just need to
like put on my grounding shoes and go for a walk after flying.
And then I took them off halfway and walked bare with you.
In the Meadow with all the red ants.
That's that's hardcore. I love it.
Let's get right into it. I bet when you were in college
you never would have thought that you would start and be the
face of a non-toxic cleaning company.
Tell us how that all happened. How did Branch Basics get
started? Yeah, in college I was actually
a kinesiology major because I wanted to be a Pilates
instructor and hopefully have my own Pilates business one day.
And so I think there was like, there's always been obviously
this little entrepreneur spirit in me, but never would I thought
that I would go like learn, open my eyes to this whole new world
of non-toxic living. And then, yeah, started cleaning
products company grew up standard American diet, all
conventional. Went to college at University of
Texas in Austin. Met Allison, my Co founder best
friend and all of a sudden she went from being fairly healthy.
Like in high school she'd been diagnosed with PCOS, had many
many cysts on her ovaries but you know, still active and felt
good. And in college all of a sudden
started just breaking down. Her body started breaking down,
losing motor skill. She went to grab the carton of
milk one day and it just dropped out of her hand and she's in
chronic pain head to toe. And so she starts searching for
answers and seeking doctors all around the country for two
years. Like no doctors could figure out
what was wrong with her. She was on an ever growing list
of medications and therapies. I mean like steroid injections,
muscle relaxers, painkillers, antidepressants, like a whole
list and not getting any relief. And so she finally started being
open to other options and she talked to her aunt.
Marilee was our third Co founder and her aunt had been consulting
extremely chemically sensitive and chronically ill people for a
long time. Allison's like, OK, what is my
aunt in the Hill Country in Texas going to know that these
top specialists didn't and merrily starts asking her
questions like, what are you eating every day?
Give me a diet diary. What are you using to clean your
house with? What personal care products are
you using? Do you have the exterminator tum
and spray pesticides regularly? Like all these questions that
Allison had never been asked, it had always just been about about
family history and genetics and her symptoms.
And so finally, Allison's like, OK, I feel like there's
something I can do. Like, this is the first time I
feel like there's something I can do.
And so I'm her roommate and best friend.
And watching this whole process go down and I'm like, this just
makes so much sense. Like, of course, what we put in
on and around ourselves everyday impacts how we feel and our, you
know, immediate health and long term health.
And so Allison starts feeling better.
And we asked Marilyn if we can go live with her for the summer.
And. What was her response?
She was like, I like, I'm going to pray about this.
And she's like, I think like, yes, because no, like there's
got to be something big going on here because these two college
grads that could go anywhere. Like we were talking about maybe
going overseas and traveling and doing like a cooking spa in
Italy. But we're like, no, we really
want to learn from you, Marilyn. And she's like, OK, like there's
something going on here. I want to, you know, I want to
teach y'all. And so it was the first time
that I've learned about grounding and juicing like
actual vegetables. And we just spent the summer
literally waking up every morning, getting sunlight in our
eyes, walking barefoot on the grass, drinking organic juice,
eating only organic food, getting plenty of fresh air and
movement, and listening to merely consult her clients.
And all while living in a completely non-toxic home.
Like after a few days, were you guys like struggling with
anything or the whole time was it just like, this is awesome,
this is great, We love this. So there were definitely like
detox symptoms because for me, I show up and I'm like smelling
very fragrant for my laundry detergent that I'd used my whole
life. So she's like, we're going to,
we're going to put your clothes. She's so sweet.
We're going to put your clothes outside in the sun and detox and
out gas them. And I'm like, OK, what does that
mean? And why are we putting my
clothes outside and why? And so she's explaining to me
about the fragrance and the laundry detergent and dryer
sheets, but I had used them my whole life so I couldn't really
smell of and it was wild. Very quickly I started to be
able to smell them and unmask and I started to realize, OK,
this is when I'm around. Those clothes that weren't I
guess like my eye were watery and itchy and dry.
My headaches. I like my temples would throb, I
would get a headache. And so it was really cool
experience being able to see the correlation in the exposures and
how I felt because it was the first time in my life I'd only
eaten organic and been in this clean environment.
My body was like dumping toxins, like they were stored in my fat
tissues and organs. And so I would some days feel
like so heavy, like I'm like, Oh my gosh, I can't get out of bed.
What else were you doing to kind of help your body release those
toxins and get them out of your system?
So we she had an infrared sauna. So we would sit in the sauna, we
would go on walks every morning, morning and every evening after
dinner, she taught us about dry brushing.
And it was just like little free tools that I was learning that
was so cool just how to how to care for my body and help like
support it while it was eliminating.
But it wasn't anything like crazy or drastic, like we
weren't doing any targeted therapies or supplement
regimens. It was literally just getting
back to basics of eating real food, getting outside, moving,
you know, and just helping our body eliminate and do its thing.
Yeah. Gentle, accessible stuff, yeah.
And that's what I love so much about Branch Basics and the
content that you guys share is that it's not these, most of the
time, these like intense things that are not accessible to
people. It's like easy, simple, often
times free tweaks that almost anyone can do to change their
lives and change their health for the better.
But I want to go back to Marilee.
How did she become an expert in all these things?
Because she was so far ahead of her time in so many areas?
How did she come to have this knowledge?
Yeah. So she grew up very sickly,
always having to miss school and miss out on events and traveling
because she was just always getting sick and could, again,
doctors couldn't really figure out what was going on with her.
And in her 20s, she had exploratory surgery.
And she was so excited to finally, like, get answers.
And they told her you're going to need a kidney transplant and
your endometriosis is so bad you're likely never have
children. And in that moment, she had no
frame of reference for like anything other than medical.
But she just, I love this. Like she just didn't go into
fear mode and she just said, no, I know there's another way.
Like what if what if there's a cure, you know, that's
discovered that would allow me to keep my kidney next year?
Like I'm not going to be subject to what medicine is right now.
Like I know there's another way before the.
Internet for access to all of like the information we have
today. Yeah, so she comes across like I
just brought her this information of a doctor in
Boston using food as medicine, and she went all in.
She literally threw out all of the food in her pantry and
refrigerator and went from being like junk food junkie standard
American diet to literally not taking a single bite of food
outside of this organic food as medicine prescription she was
given and in 10 days completely healed her kidney damage and was
not never had to get a kidney transplant and has never been on
a prescription medication sick. And again, she was always sick.
And so she knew all about food and the power of food from that
experience. And she actually became a
medicinal chef and started cooking for clients that were
sick. She did get pregnant and she had
a son who is brilliant and healthy and at 10 years old was
exposed to high levels of pesticides.
So he had a pesticide poisoning and went from being athletic,
coordinated, brilliant to not being able to spell 3 letter
word or walk a straight line and hardly left his head off the
pillow. And so they saw the top poison
control doctors who said essentially he would be a bubble
boy for the rest of his life. They needed to create a safe
room for him with like pretty much nothing in it but an
organic mattress. And he would have to take shots
for the rest of his life, probably live at home forever.
And again, Marilyn just refused to accept that that was the only
option and just knew there had to be another way and was
determined to get her son back. And they didn't want to create
just a safe room for him. They wanted to create a whole
house safe home for him. And so they literally like got
their house to like bare bones minimum like a wooden table,
organic mattress, like just the essential and lived.
Outside for a while and. Left outside because he was so
sensitive, basically his detoxification system and his
brain and immune system we're all so severely damaged that he
couldn't be around anything without having extreme
reactions. Like lymph nodes would swell up.
He would go from being like super sound sensitive to and,
and like hardly having any energy to them, like being off
the walls and being super hypersensitive.
Like it was really interesting because she could see he was
like the Canary in the coal mine telling her how he would react
to different exposures, chemicals.
And so they slept outside. She thought she had done
everything she could to make her home safe for him.
And one night she's, she's on the caught, like, you know,
having a conversation with herself.
Like, what am I missing? Why is he not able to stay
inside? And she thought about this box
of her favorite personal care products and perfumes, etcetera,
that she was keeping a box in her bathroom.
And she was like, I need to just get rid of that box.
I'm not going to tell him or my son or my husband and just see
what happens. Like, that's crazy, but I'm
going to try it. Well, sure enough, after that,
after she removed that box of, of fragrance, you know,
products, the next day he comes in and he's like, mom, what'd
you do? I'm not feeling like I need to
get outside. And she's like, OK, let's just
see how long you can stay. He ends up sleeping in the house
that night. And he had no idea, right?
He had no idea. And she didn't even tell her
husband cuz she was like, they're going to say I'm crazy.
And she wanted to kind of conduct this little experiment.
And, and that was the turning point for him, for his recovery.
He was able to stay inside. She realized at that moment how
we're all kind of like living in a low level chemical soup
because she was at the grocery store the next day and was on
the cleaning products aisle. And she realized all these
products are sealed and closed. And yet, you know when you're on
on the cleaning products aisle, or even getting near it when
you're at the grocery store. So.
Intense. And so she realized all these
products that we bring in our homes are releasing these
volatile organic compounds, impacting our indoor air quality
and creating a body burden that we're constantly having to
detoxify. That was really like the the
pivotal event that that taught her about the importance of the
products and the chemicals were around.
So this combination of food and environment then became like a
powerhouse for his healing. He fully recovered and graduated
the top of his class in the Naval Academy, married with
three children, brilliant and and strong.
And so by word of mouth merely started consulting because
people wanted help there, you know, a lot of sick people and
it didn't matter what the symptoms or health condition
was. She would just always start
with, you know, going category by category of helping people
get toxic products out of their home, like pesticides, cleaning
products, fragrance products, laundry products, the the most
toxic, like biggest offenders, you know, and always said, look,
you don't have to throw these things away.
Just just just take a chance and hear me out and put them in a
box and get them outside so at least they're out of your, you
know, everyday environment. And sure enough, just over and
over kept having success. And of course there are other
things in there and there are things like mold and there are
things with genetics and all and all this and emotions but like
trauma that can all 'cause stress.
But this foundation of a non-toxic, healthy space, air
quality with food has been so powerful and proven to be so
over and over again. It's like so far ahead of her
time with that, because I feel like that was really the time
period and even a few decades before that when everything was
caused by genetics, right? Like, Oh, I'm genetically
predisposed to this, Therefore that's my destiny.
Like my mom had this, my grandma had this, right?
I'm probably going to have this, you know, condition and what
Merrily Merrily's approach is so different and that instead of
just accepting, you know, whatever your mom or your
grandma had as being your destiny, it's this approach of
like, no, I, I have the, the power to change things based on
the decisions I'm making and what I'm allowing into my home
and the foods that I'm eating. And now there's so much
information, you know, coming out about epigenetics and
genetics, load the gun, but lifestyle, thoughts, diet, all
these things we're talking about actually pull the trigger.
So I'm just always amazed by like how far ahead she was with
all of that information and, and how many people she's helped
with it. And she couldn't really find a
lot of information in the US, She started finding information
about the brain and movement being nourishment for the brain
and in Europe. So a lot of people in Germany
were starting to study this. And she was led to all of this,
like without any Internet. It was amazing.
But she, yes, I think what you said is important.
She refused to just kind of take on that label and claim that
diagnosis as if it was the only way, you know.
And I think that is the first step in making a huge difference
because our, our mindset and perspective on all this is so
huge. And we always tell people like,
we invite you to do this with your home.
Like, we invite you to take this opportunity to toss the toxins
instead of feeling like, Oh my gosh, I have to do this or I'm
gonna be like poisoning myself and my family and like going
into this fierce state and. Then people get paralyzed and do
nothing. Yes, yeah, exactly.
Yeah. But yeah, Marilyn is definitely
ahead of our time. And because of that, she has
been so valuable in helping us formulate our products based on
what she has seen for decades with her clients, you know, and
she's always like, Nope, that ingredients going to become the
next big thing that you know, or that ingredient and like, we're
not going to allow it. And I'm so thankful for that.
And that's what her experience and her knowledge and has really
enabled us to create products that we can 100% like be
confident that they're the same, safest, best for our customers.
And so actually back to your original question, like cleaning
products company, we started off like telling everyone, our
friends and family and started a blog telling everyone about all
the things, you know, sauna, supplements, cleaning products,
diet, water filters, you name it.
And everyone was really confused.
I mean, sorry, really overwhelmed and confused, but
overwhelmed and didn't know where to start.
And we just kept finding ourselves saying, start with
cleaning products. It's an easy first step.
Make such a huge impact in your air quality and you don't have
to think about it multiple times a day.
Like your food, you know, and it's you're not like addicted to
it like like food or sugar or whatever.
So that's kind of how we landed in the cleaning product space
because there it was an easy first step and there was such a
need for truly clean products that weren't just greenwashed
and you know, cuz non-toxic on a label is not enough.
It doesn't really mean anything. It's not regulated and all
natural. It doesn't mean anything.
And so we saw a need and we saw that it was an easy first step
for people. And really our mission and our
heart is to educate on all things healthy living.
And so we kind of viewed it as like a way to get in the door
with people. It's like, OK, if people can
start thinking about what cleaning products am I bringing
into my home, then we can then get them start thinking about
all the rest you know of, of the things they're putting in on and
around themselves everyday. Yeah.
Absolutely. And you guys do such a good job
of that, of educating. I don't think most people know
the powerhouse of information and knowledge that is behind
that, which is like Marilee and now you and Allison.
We don't often see Marilee like in front of the camera though,
but she's like, she's. Behind all the vlogs.
Yeah, What about going back to cleaning products?
What are some toxic household cleaning items that people might
be surprised by that are in their home?
So cleaning. Specifically cleaning.
Anything, Any household toxins that would just surprise people
to know about. Gosh, well, I mean, I think
people just don't even realize the amount of products they keep
in their homes that they don't need.
And so we have all these, these toxins, you know, that
everything from bug sprays, like wasp sprays, Roach sprays, even
like the lice treatments that we put on our heads, like all these
pesticides that we are that are designed to kill that we're just
putting a lot of times like it, they'll be in people's pantries
next to their food. And so I would say the, the, the
everyday kind of pesticides and and then just cleaning products
in particular I think of. Like dryer sheets and laundry as
some of the biggest culprits because we never escape our
laundry. Guy can smell it from the street
walking by a house that is using dryer sheets and like toxic
laundry products and they're. Designed to cling to your
clothes like, you know, to give that long lasting freshness and
so the phthalates and like the chemicals that are you know,
added to keep. Those smells sticky.
Yes, fragrant for a long time. It just makes it where they
impregnate every porous material in your home, your walls, your
furniture, you know, and then obviously your clothes and, and
you're, so you're absorbing it and inhaling it.
It's just the worst. I always think if I can smell
this walking outside of a house, like what are those people that
are in the house, you know, doing laundry?
I mean, I grew up using that and I, I became, our bodies are
amazing. And I became like, you know,
masked to it and adapted and I now can smell it from a mile
away and my body starts to give me the red flags immediately.
And it's so it's been so fun because I've gotten family
members and friends on board to, you know, switch and just try.
I'm like, Oh my. It's just like, just take a
challenge. Like view it as a challenge.
Just do it for like 30 days. And unfortunately those
chemicals can take a long time to get out of your clothes.
It can take like 7 to 10 washes. And so speeding, putting it up
out in the sun can speed it up. The people that do it are now
telling me when they go on walks or runs like around a trail,
they can even smell the people like as they're running by that
are using the same products that they used to use but couldn't
smell. And so it's, you know, Allison
always talks about it like it's like if you used to smoke and
you're now and then you quit, you like can't stand being
around cigarette smoke. And it's kind of that same
thing. But yeah, I would say laundry
product is like a major place to look at.
And then just anything with disinfectants because they're
usually going to have an API registered pesticide.
OK. You mentioned disinfectants.
What is the difference between disinfecting and removing germs?
Yeah. So we're big proponents of
removing versus trying to kill because when you try and kill,
undoubtedly there's going to be something leftover that that
lives. And we're moving with soap and
water is actually much more effective.
You're removing the germs and not leaving that chance for
mutation. And also the disinfectants, like
I said, are designed to kill. And so you're disrupting your
microbiome, your gut. Pesticides are some of the most
toxic products that we have in our homes.
Like I said, I mean, since the introduction of home pesticides,
childhood cancer has gone up 28%.
And so we always take this approach of like, less is more
and you don't need to expose yourself to these things.
But because of all the marketing, we've come to believe
that, like, we have to kill all the germs to keep our family
safe. Oftentimes, these chemical
pesticides are making our immune systems weaker.
They're adding more stress to our bodies.
And so it's actually doing more harm than good.
And when you just remove germs with soap and water, you're not
having that negative impact and exposure on your body, and
you're actually creating a cleaner surface.
Yeah, that totally. Makes sense.
So our most would you say like most your average cleaner that
you would find at the grocery store is a disinfectant and not
something that would actually like remove germs.
Well, they, I mean usually you know, you'll, you'll know if it
says disinfectant or sanitizer or kills versus just like an
all-purpose cleaner, surface cleaner, something like that.
And actually is recommended to clean a surface before you even
use the disinfectant. Like the disinfectant
instructions will say that because it's not as effective if
you don't clean at first because it's the dirt and grime and dust
can affect it. And then also you're supposed to
keep it on for like 10 minutes and no one doesn't know.
So they're just not effective and they are, like I said,
exposing you to more harm than good.
Even if you don't want to use branch basics, just use like hot
water or bar soap and lemon juice, baking soda.
There's so many simple things to use.
But if you do want something that gives that cofactor, then
you can use vinegar and hydrogen peroxide.
You don't want to mix them together because when they're
mixed they can create harmful fumes.
But separately, like if you spray one and then spray the
other, those two have been found to be just as effective as as
bleach. Wow.
Is there a scenario that you would do that personally like in
your home? So I have a trigger, I mean
sorry hydrogen peroxide bottle with a trigger spray on it
because you want to keep it in the brown bottle of the amber
bottle. I have one under my sink and
there have been times where like after raw meat or a sick kid
that I've sprayed it. But honestly I haven't even done
that in like years and I just I we've never had an issue.
My husband was a doctor on the COVID floor and we just use
branch basics and never had any issues.
I think it's more I tell it to people who need it for the Peace
of Mind. Right, right.
That makes sense. I think another wild thing that
I learned from you guys about different household cleaners is
that so there's when you go to the store, there's like the
toilet cleaner and then the dish soap cleaner, like all these
different ones. And that differs from your
approach, which is 1 concentrate in different, you know, levels
and solutions to loaded with water for different areas of the
house. But I always grew up thinking,
oh, you need a totally different products for your toilet then
you need for your counters or what not.
When in reality, that's all just kind of a marketing gimmick,
right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it's different levels of water and like a few drops of
chemicals, but it's pretty much all the same thing.
It's really for people mentally to that struggle with throwing
the same thing on your toilet as your countertop.
They want to like, nuke the toilet and then be a little more
gentle on the countertop. And just like the idea of having
the same cleaning products in for your like that can be safe
on your skin and your toilet or all your vegetables and your
toilet, like it's really hard for people to.
Yeah, it doesn't seem like it would do its job.
If it's safe enough to like exactly like your skin, yes.
Like it's not strong enough and then also just for marketing to
sell more products. I mean, because really our
bathroom cleaner and our street free cleaner is all comes from
the same stuff with the street free cleaner has way more water.
And so when you're buying different products on the shelf,
yeah, it's like you're basically buying water with a few drops of
chemicals. And said the concentrate model
allows you to use not only one thing that's safe for everything
and like easily replace dozens of different cleaners at one
time without having to research an oven cleaner, a bathroom
cleaner, etcetera. But you get to just use one
thing and mix it yourself with different, you know, small
amounts with water and it's just really.
And see how the same thing can be effective.
Yeah and all around your house. And it just that simplicity like
the whole. You're always such an
inspiration to me with like minimizing and the simplicity of
getting rid of like 30 different cleaning products and then just
having one concentrate and then a, you know, a few different
spray bottles that is healthy like that, that takes the
stressor off of your body. You mentioned some of the DIY
things that people can do to clean.
You guys always have so many good, like easy, you know, tips
and hacks for people to create a safer home environment.
What are some like low hanging fruit things that people can do
to improve the quality of air in their home?
Other than removal, which we talked about, Yeah.
Well, first I want to say that I just realized I forgot to
mention this, that we often think that just because the
product is on store shelves that it's been tested for safety and
that's not the case. And skin care, yes, exactly as
you all know. And, and then with cleaning
products, unlike skin care, we're not even required to list
our ingredients on the bottle. And so many times cleaning
products don't have an ingredient list when when I talk
about removal and going around your home and let you know,
getting out pesticides and getting out toxic cleaning
products. When it comes to cleaning
products, some easy things to look for are an ingredient list.
If it if there's not one and that's a red flag.
And then words like caution, danger, warning, of course
you're going to see like keep out of reach of children.
That's just to be expected that. But the caution warning and
danger are indicative of more hazardous classifications.
And so those are not products you want in your home.
And and then anything with fragrance like that single word
fragrance as you know is protected trade secret like can
contain hundreds of different chemicals, asthmogens,
obesogens, allergens, neurotoxins, carcinogens,
endocrine disruptors. So those like three kind of
categories of pesticides, cleaning products and fragrance,
which goes into personal care, candles, cleaning products, all
that can immediately make a dramatic improvement in your air
quality. And we always say better air
means better health. For people that get really
overwhelmed by the thought of of getting all these products out
of their house or or get throwing them away, we always
say you don't have to throw them away.
We like to tell people to just get like those big Sterilite
boxes, those big bends and put everything in there and just
take it outside for a little bit, like 30 days, maybe 60 days
and just see how you feel, see how your family feels, your pets
feel. Just getting rid of that
exposure versus thinking of it as like, oh, what new things can
I add? Like air purifier, What new
supplements can I get? Like those things can be great,
but creating that foundation of getting the the harmful
stressors out is going to just set you up for the biggest first
step is the biggest first step. Yeah.
So that is like hack number one, just remove the harmful stuff.
And EWG, the environmental working group is a great
resource. We like to tell people to go to
the skin deep website because and really look at everything
based on the ingredients versus just an overall product rating.
Because there can be ingredients like have like, you know, a
higher rating, like a 10 for the overall product rating can be
good. And so if you just start with
the bottom of the list, the ingredient list, you know,
because usually the some of the most toxic ones are at the
bottom for preservatives. But then obviously that single
word fragrance, that's an easy one to spot.
And usually that can be higher up.
But but going through and looking at ingredient list, once
you do it, it's that finite process.
You get it out, you find your brands and you're done.
Where is, you know, like with food, that can be harder because
you're, you're having to think about it multiple times a day
and, and what you're eating. So the whole removal process, I
know it can sound daunting, but there are ways to to make it
easier and to kind of just allow your your body to get a break at
all at once like that by putting them outside and then slowly
going through them and replacing them over time.
And it's a good first step of like, OK, I'm not getting rid of
it yet. I'm just putting it outside, but
I don't think there's probably ever been anyone who has taken
on that challenge and decided at the end of it, actually, I want
to bring everything back in my. Exactly, that's what I said.
Because just getting it out, you realize 1 I don't need all this
stuff and two, like I when I go back to my box to get some
unlikely getting like runny nose or sneezing, coughing or mighty
head will start hurting all those.
Signals that have been suppressed, that are really just
like such a gift of our bodies to alert us when we're in like a
dangerous environment. That was the biggest thing that
I learned from merely is just like starting to connect the
dots when I had a symptom and think about and.
And not to the point where I'm like always freaking about about
everything around me and thinking, Oh my gosh, did this,
'cause this did that, that caused that.
But just to start being aware and like, like tuning, acting
the dot. Yeah, which?
Is so different from Western medicine, which is like, OK
symptom, here's a medication that lines up with this symptom.
This is your protocol. It's like, OK, no, I'm
experiencing this. Like, why?
What, where was I? What happened?
What did I products did I use? What foods did I eat?
And kind of, yeah, figuring out your body and like what your
body's trying to tell you. Yeah, it's like being a little
investigator. Yeah.
And that's like what Marilyn was doing when she asked Allison all
those questions. Yeah.
Like to figure out more of the underlying 'cause right removal
and then just getting fresh air into your home and flushing it
out and then a really interesting like inexpensive
hack for air purification. You can make your own air
purifier just with a 20 by 20 box fan and putting a Filtry
filter 20 by 20 Filtry filter onto it.
And when you turn on the fan, it'll suction the filter to it.
And like that can be a really easy and expensive way to like
get better air, especially in your bedroom.
Like I always tell people to start with your bedroom or
Merrily has always taught us to start with your bedroom because
when you sleep at night, that's when your body is meant to
repair and rejuvenate and rest and heal.
And so the, the more you can take the burden off of the body
at night and the more you know healing will happen.
And so look, I get it, air purifiers can be really
expensive, but if you can just put a box fan in every bedroom,
like that's huge that. Is such a good tip.
We did that when we were demoing and remodeling our master
bedroom because there's so many particulates in the air during
that time. And we had a few of them going
and. And I would replace them every
so often. And one time I remember bringing
in a replacement and, like, lining them up side by side with
the one that we had that I had just taken off.
I mean, it was filthy. Like, it really works.
It collects so much. Yeah.
That's an amazing hack. Yeah.
OK, I have to try this. Yeah, yeah.
Wait, tell me what's in this real quick.
OK, so this is raw beef liver, raw milk, raw mint from the
primary pure farm, the mint berries and honey barrel
pastures honey. I'm not just saying this because
you're my friend. This is truly the best liver
smoothie I've ever had. Right.
It doesn't. I don't even taste the liver.
Yeah, like is there. It has a decent hammer.
Yeah. OK.
I'm glad you like it. Really good.
I was not expecting it to be that.
You. Tried had a liver smoothie
before and. Mine are never that good.
Getting into some family, motherhood things.
How do you live a healthy lifestyle and maintain a
non-toxic home when your family, like spouse or extended family
may not be on board with your choices?
Yeah, I definitely have that scenario in a few different
areas. I was actually just at my my
mom's house this past weekend. And it's just funny to me
because I'm like, people probably think, oh, Kelly like
has it so easy because she owns branch basics and like
everything's so natural around her.
Like my mom and stepdad are not live in the branch basic
lifestyle. And so anyway, I've had to
navigate like, cuz I've been what, almost been like 15 years
since I've been living this way. And so it's just my norm.
But I've had to go through periods where I've realized like
I came on too strong. I tried to like push it on
people and often times it's just better for me to do my thing
and, you know, if people are interested, then I'll tell more,
but not trying to like push it on people.
And so that's where, you know, that's where we're at with my
mom and stuff that it's worth it to me to make go through the
extra effort and to carry the the weight of making the the
choices for our home and, you know, groceries and all that.
That. Like my husband is on board and
he is supportive about almost everything, but he's not going
to be the one like spearheading, spearheading this and doing the
research and getting really nerdy about like the latest and
greatest, you know, help hacks. But he's so appreciative.
I. Know with my husband too.
I was kind of the one, I mean, it was him and his family that
started the farm. And so we were like both kind of
into healthy living at the time. But I was really like reading
the books and telling him out of excitement about everything I
was learning. And you know, right away I was
ready to make the commitment and change my diet, change my
lifestyle kind of in real time as I was learning these things.
And for him, it took a little while of him like seeing the
difference, the changes that I was making and the difference
that it made and how I felt and just my outlook.
And then that is kind of, I think in time, what drew him in
more to it. And and just like me making,
taking the first steps and making it accessible and making
those changes in our home, right.
Like you, like your husband wasn't opposed to it really, but
just probably wouldn't have taken that first step.
Yeah. But for people that do kind of
learn about this after having used all conventional products
forever, and then their spouse is like, wait, what?
What's going on? Why you want to throw everything
out? I always recommend like, you
don't need to go in and create fear and tell everyone, Oh my
gosh, like we've got to throw out all this poisonous stuff.
But go under the radar and switch out the things that you
can that don't really impact people in a big way.
Like they won't notice, especially if you have the older
kids. Like cleaning products again, is
something that is pretty easy to do.
But something I think about the most for me is like when we're
traveling, I am willing to go through the extra effort of like
packing, you know, some extra like beach towels, even though
the place may have towel towels at the house that we're renting
at the beach, because I want to make sure that the towels are
fragrance free. And I'm going to bring my branch
basics with me and I'm going to bring food and make sure we have
clean water and like kind of the basics.
This is important to me. And so people might look at that
and say like, OK, that's not worth, worth effort.
But I always tell people I'm like, if, if it's important to
you, then like people can't argue with that.
And, and so I have learned when to keep my mouth shut and when
to say something or let my actions speak louder than words.
And then when to kind of do things under the radar.
And you kind of just have to gauge your audience because I
think a lot of times people feel judged even when you don't
intend to, when you start educating about all this.
But if you say it in a way that is truly trying to like educate
or, or you share your own experience of like, I learned
this and this helped me so much versus like, Oh my gosh, like,
did you that's so bad for you. You should never eat that.
Like that's so terrible, blah, blah, blah.
I think that goes a long way. And so just being mindful of all
those things and. Knowing that if you believe in
your heart that you're doing the best thing for your family and
you're willing to put in the effort, then tell other people
like you do you. Let me do me.
Yeah. I.
Think that's hard when you first get started?
I know if me in the beginning when I was learning all this
stuff, I wanted to shout it to the.
Rooftop so passionate. I'm like, I was on our entire
life about this. Like I right.
It's so hard to like keep it in and learn to, you know that
approach of knowing the right time like you're mentioning.
But I think I've developed that ability over the years.
Definitely didn't have it right away.
I was more forceful. My friends are like, so are you
about to like go live in a tree house, like and Kelly, like,
just because we don't eat like you doesn't mean yeah, this it
was. I came on strong at first, so I
had to learn this, how to turn it down.
Same. OK what about kids and like
going into the school year? Healthy snack ideas for kids.
I know you have so many just like fun kids snack swaps like
your blue spirulina lemonade. So easy.
And now kids love making it. What else do you do?
Literally just even if we have like 1 lemon in the fridge, my
daughter read. You know, we'll just get the
lemon squeezer out and. She mix it, yeah.
She'll do it all the time and, and just literally mix it with
water and a little bit of the blue spirulina, which is so
great because it doesn't have a strong taste.
And then usually like either Maple syrup or a little bit of
cavia leaf powder. That's amazing.
It's. So easy and just, you know,
they'll either use the frother because they love using the
frother as you're cooking. Myself, a lot of frothing last
night was in our table with my kids with belly.
Or just like, stir it up with the pork and put some ice in
there. And it's so good and it's so
pretty. It looks like, yeah, literally
looks like blue Gatorade. So fun.
And I mean, there are other things other powders you can do
with different colors even like, you know, beet powder or
whatever. And then I don't know, I'm
always wanting to learn from you about healthy snacks.
But I think the biggest thing for me is just, and this is
where my husband gets on board too.
It's like we're more lenient with our kids when we're out at
functions because they are in a healthy, strong place.
If they are sick or if they're they, if they were going through
like a chronic illness, I would be much more stringent, I guess,
or I wouldn't be as LAX, I should say.
But at home, I'm like, I don't want to have anything, any
unhealthy snacks in our home because if it's there, then of
course they're going to go to that.
And so the more we can just make our home kind of like a place
where there are only healthy options and like real food
options like fruit and vegetables and nuts.
And then if they get hungry, they're going to eat something.
And usually they end up just like making a smoothie or eating
yogurt and yeah, fruit and nuts. You know when your kids are
sick? I know you use garlic.
Like tell me about the other day.
You told me you made garlic drops.
Oh yeah. Or read.
Read the ear. Yeah.
OK, tell me how you do that, and tell me what else you do when
your kids are sick. So yeah, she was congested and
we've never had an earache so much.
Read is 7 1/2, George is 4 1/2 and Griffin's almost 2.
Never had an earache but there have been times where.
Never had an ear infection. I'm sorry, ear infection.
Thank you. But there have been times when
Reed's ear is hurt. It's all so far it's only been
Reed and every time that she says that it's when she has
congestion. I think it's just the pressure
build up. I have made garlic oil drops by
literally just chopping up garlic, putting it in a skillet
with olive oil and simmering it so it doesn't like cook where
you know, it starts to burn. But it just went as soon as you
kind of start smelling the garlic smell and it's soft, turn
it off, let it cool down or strain it, let it cool down and
then just use a dropper and put, you know, drops in her ear and
then put alarm compress like a warm towel over here.
And every single time, well, she, her pain goes away and it's
never like progressed. That's so cool.
So it's like things like that, that I am just so grateful to
know and I'm so grateful that I knew all this before kids
because I because I empathize with people who this is also new
and when and then if especially like if you're a mom and that's
whole new, you're like trying to figure out the best, but you
don't like not ever. I I'm so blessed to have
Marilyn. I tell people all the time,
like, I promise it'll just get easier and easier.
And there's so many amazing resources and support systems
now. And the, once you get over that
mindset of thinking, oh, I, I have to take an antibiotic for
this or I have to, you know, do this because you grew up doing
that and you're willing to step out-of-the-box and try something
different. You just see that it works.
And, and then it just gets easier and easier over time.
And you're you start like finding new resources and people
friends that you can share ideas with.
Yes, overwhelming at first, but when you're on a journey, you
know once you master one thing, it just becomes second nature
and then you're ready to tackle that next thing and the next
thing and the. Beautiful thing about removal,
going back to that for a second, is that these chemicals impact
the way we think and feel. And so a lot of times just
getting them out, you actually start to like think more clearly
and not have as much brain fog and the overwhelm actually goes
down. Yeah.
OK. So you mentioned thoughts and
feelings. Let's talk a little bit about
that. I know you have spoken about
this before. How do our emotions and our
thoughts impact our whole body health?
I mean, obviously there's a lot more awareness of like mind body
connection now, but I have just been so fascinated by the fact
that every thought we think sends a cell to every signal in
our body. So when we focus our mind on
negative feelings of fear, resentment, bitterness, that
sends a signal to our body. And then our body starts to
store these negative emotions and it can impact our organs, it
can impact our physical health. And so when we can actively like
consciously stop our thoughts from going down that negative
rabbit hole and say like, no, I'm not going to, I'm not going
to dwell in that. I'm going to choose hope, I'm
going to choose faith, I'm going to choose forgiveness.
It actually impacts our physical health in a, you know, in a
positive way. So that's actually why we
include emotions in our tossa toxins course, you know, along
with the pesticides cleaning products, you're going to see
emotions because it is such a huge part of our of our overall
physical health. Oftentimes when people go
through a detox or a cleanse like sadness or different
emotions that may have come like been stored and suppressed will
come up and it'll be like, you know, so early I was talking
about like living that merrily isn't having those detox
symptoms. Emotions can be part of that
process. Health really is so multifaceted
and I love the work of Doctor Caroline Leaf in this area.
And just, I think there's so much hope with like
neuroplasticity, like yes, negative thoughts and emotions
can wire our bodies negatively and secrete an imbalanced amount
of hormones and chemicals to like really throw things off.
But we can rewire that by retraining our brain to think
about a certain experience with a positive light or with
gratitude. It's just really a matter of
like holding those thoughts captive and having a say in in
what we're thinking and not just kind of like letting our
thoughts happen to us, which is easier said than done, but it is
possible. Yeah, I love that, But don't
believe everything you think. Yes.
Speaking of neuroplasticity, when Douglas Marilee's son was
exposed to those chemicals and told that he would be bubble boy
forever, they didn't know, like the medical world didn't know
about neuroplasticity then. And so again, it just goes to
show like there's we're always learning more.
And so to be like open minded and you know, also obviously to
be cautious, not just like jump into every new like health thing
that comes up. But yeah, I think it's this
whole area is so fascinating. Yeah, if we.
Think about how many times like the experts have been wrong in
the past, like back when women were put to sleep to give birth.
Just, you know, as a standard practice.
There's so many things throughout history that we have
done wrong that we can't automatically just trust what
we're being told without doing our own investigation into it.
And I think what's so interesting is that when you
step back and think about it, like what we're talking about
and what I was just talking about with like this whole idea
of removal, it's common sense. Yeah.
But it seems so like revolutionary because we're
we're in a world today where these chemicals are so
commonplace. And so they've just been
accepted like by everyone to be the nor it's in everything.
They're all around us. And so it feels like when you
say, Oh, I don't want to eat this chemicals that you're being
like radical, but it's actually just like, no, I, I just want to
get back to basics. I want to like actually have the
real thing. And so I think it's just so
fascinating today that like, you know, going back to that point
of navigating when other people don't understand it, I like to
just kind of point that out. I always want people to know,
too, that I realized that we think of so many symptoms as
normal, like painful menstrual cramps, but really they're just
common. And that was a huge part of my
story. I was again like the healthy one
that summer at Maryly's, but all of a sudden I had no more
painful menstrual cramps, no more dry, itchy eyes, and I
realized that these are not our bodies.
Normal. They're just common.
OK, last question, this is kind of a fun one.
What was your most cringe worthy habit or just something that you
did before you knew better that you look back on now and you're
just like, Oh my gosh, I cannot believe I used to do that.
When I think of like being in middle school and spending the
night in my room that had been freshly painted with like really
horrible paint, like oil based, not non toxicating and using all
my I don't know, can I name names?
I'll just say like really scented name body hair products
like all the bath and body works and the Super fragrant shampoo.
What did I use? Like they're like great Garnier.
Yes, yeah, yeah, that was a big one.
In our generation. And then eating, you know, my
well, I was going to say like 100 calorie packs, but that was
probably not until college. So like in middle school it was
literally just Lucky Charms breakfast.
And it's like, I can't say one thing because it's like I think
of my whole day. Yeah, it.
Was still crunch. Really.
Yeah. Same.
So I don't know I.
Remember coming back from swim practice after school and high
school and every day I would heat up two Eggo waffles in the
in the toaster and then I get mint chip ice cream and eat have
like a Eggo waffle Ice Cream Sandwich that's like my after I
go. Oh my goodness, I feel.
Like we both grew up in similar like eating types of households
maybe? Yeah, and thankfully we had my
mom always did home cooked meals.
And so actually I was telling her recently I was like, let's
take some of your recipes and like you may, I'm going to make
them with you, but I'm going to have all my ingredients and
you're going to have all your ingredients and see if they
taste pretty much the same. Like if you still think they
taste good, that's cool, but with all clean ingredients
because you can do that and. My mom has actually done that a
lot. Like she's so on board now with
everything. That's.
Awesome. Yeah, it totally works.
Like you can modify almost anything, yeah.
But I just want to say the people that are eating, I go
waffles and all that, like there is no shame and no guilt in all
of this. We all like once we know better,
we do better. And, you know, even merrily she
was painting her son's room and herself as she was nine months
pregnant. And the bug man came, you know,
and sprayed that morning before she started painting.
I mean, we just you think she would never do now.
And she would tell all of her classes do not do.
But as we learn more, you know, we can do better.
And so there's never any guilt or shame in any of this because
I think that is one thing that can cripple people from moving
forward and making steps because they feel like it's just more
comfortable to stay and what they've been doing and to say
like, oh, that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter because they
don't want to like, you know, recognize or come to terms with
maybe some of the things they've been doing haven't been the best
thing, you know, thing so. Almost all of us have been in
that spot where we're making not so great choices.
And so there's only opportunities to do better.
There's not just, you know, looking back and having guilt
about past choices. There's, there's no like
progress or improvement or just it's not a good place to sit in.
You don't want to like stay there.
You just want to think about the future and what you can change
going forward. Yeah.
And there's so much we can do, and there's so much hope.
So much hope. So.
Yeah, well, thank you so much for joining us today.
Kelly and I have a flight to catch, but it was so good
spending time when I. Enjoy my liver smoothie and it's
fresh air before I have to go sit on a plane.
Yes. Enjoy it.
No, thank you. Thank you.