Non-Toxic Cookware, Natural Healing in Hospitals and Finding Inner Peace
37. Non-Toxic Cookware, Natural Healing in Hospitals and Finding Inner Peace with Marguerite + Karl
Can scratched nonstick pans be dangerous? Do hospitals heal better with nature-inspired design? And, what's the mindset shift that makes dealing with rude people easier? Marguerite & Karl are diving into all of it in this week's episode!
This week, we're talking about:
why a single scratch on certain nonstick pans might matter more than you'd think and which nontoxic cookware we trust instead
the surprisingly simple way to care for cast iron and stainless steel cookware (without the anxiety!)
our dream hospital: treatments balanced with natural medicine modalities that actually supports healing.
the Empty Boat Theory...the perspective shift that's helped us stop taking other people's behavior so personally
the fascinating takeaway from the 85-year Harvard Study of Adult Development on what really leads to a happy, meaningful life
big news: our crunchy product reviews series is officially launching this week on our youtube channel!
✨ if this episode resonated with you, please rate, review, and subscribe to Unapologetically Crunchy for more conversations on holistic and spiritual wellness for the mind, body & soul 🙏
Chapters
[00:51]
Mentions / Sources
Empty Boat Theory: Chapter 20, "Mountain Tree" (山木) of the Zhuangzi.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/zhuangzi/
https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/sg-social-connection-fact-cards.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S004896972205392X
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969724027232
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-teflon-coating-hot-microplastics-cooking.html
Transcript
MARGUERITE + KARL (00:00) how would you design a hospital from scratch I was never crunchy before. you came out of over to the dark side and never look back. Exactly. everybody's seen the picture of the hospital with the sun deck at the top, all the beds out there just so patients could get some natural sun. there's actually a study that shows that like one surface scratch can release approximately nine thousand microplastic particles per use. when it comes to lighting, the fluorescent lights, like they need to go. They need to go out of hospitals, they need to get out of schools too. Let's bring in some circadian supporting lights. what you do is you season it. We decided to season ours with tallow and you have to bake it for like an hour in the oven upside down. Raise the frequency of the earth, Woo woo. Hey. Hi. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing good. I'm so excited to be on the pod with you today. Same here. So what do you want to talk about? Everything crunchy. Well, that's easy. Yeah. Well, we've there's been a lot going on around here. Yes. There's a lot of stuff out and being replaced right now. And maybe we can just talk a little bit about what that is and why. Okay. I am going through a kitchen rampage. Yes. Rampage is a nice way to say it. And it's really fun because I did this like back in 2019, but it's been really fun because I'm kind of learning some new things that, have come to surface in the last few years. So let me tell you the whole story. Okay. So in 2019, that's when we bought our first set of pots and pans that were like considered non-toxic. Right. I remember how excited you were to find that brand. Yes. We so we have green pan, which I love, but I have made the mistake of using stainless steel spatulas and utensils on these pans and they are like scratch the F up at this point. Yeah. They're great pans. But they are scratched. Yeah, they're really great pans. But why does a scratch matter? Because to me they they're functioning pans. They work. I know, you would think that. But unfortunately, when you scratch the surface of most pans, especially Teflon pans, aluminum, there's an aluminum core inside most pans. So That is just you know to conduct the heat to make sure everything is heating evenly. That actually, when it's exposed, can leach into your food. Gross. Yeah, and a lot of pans also have the PIFAs. So green pan doesn't because they are PIFA free, which PIFAs are forever chemicals. And that means they stay in your bloodstream. So they are PIFA free, which is great, but there's still the aluminum issue. so aluminum, PFAs, microplastics, that can all leach into your food, especially if you're cooking something acidic like tomatoes or lemon or even something vinegar based. So tomato is like pasta sauce. Yeah. Something you cook all the time in a pan. Yeah. Or like lemon chicken pasta or something like that. you definitely don't want to cook those in scratched pots and pans. Right, because even though the pan works and it's serving its purpose, those scratches can release some of those chemicals and then it gets right into your food and then you put it right in your body. Yeah, so it's basically not it's basically toxic. Gross. Totally. So anyways, there's actually a study that shows that like one surface scratch can release approximately nine thousand microplastic particles per use. And that's a lot, right? That's a lot. And there's a lot of research on this, and we'll link all the sources in our show notes too if anybody wants to check that out. I'm glad you said that because I was gonna ask, like, does one scratch matter? Can you wait until it's like completely scratched up? Before you replace it, but I guess as soon as there's one scratch, you gotta think about it. Yeah. Okay. And I mean it's very easy to avoid. Like I said, I'm guilty of using the wrong utensils on my pans. It would be much better if you used like wood utensils or silicone. Definitely don't use plastic if you're trying to decrease your microplastic load, toxic load. and stainless steel is great, just not with those pans. Not with most pans. I'm probably guilty of it too though, because after we cook, if you leave it there for a minute, things get stuck on the pan. Yeah. And you gotta scrape it off. Right. That's always a pain in the ass. I hate that. I know, me too. So, anyways, it's great because I've really wanted to kind of go a little bit more non toxic. And some of those options would be cast iron or stainless steel. And it is, you know, I'm sure other people can relate to this. It feels overwhelming because there's a lot of care that you have to do. Like Extra steps that you have to do to take care of these pans so they're working properly and so they last. Yeah, I want to get into that a little bit too. Yeah. The instructions for use. Yes. And do you my gosh, I have to tell a funny story. All right, go for it. Okay, so I never like did any research on the cast iron. I knew like you had to season it, and that was basically it. So I had a cast iron pan and I washed it, and you know how we wash, we just wash our pans and put them in the drying rack. I had no idea that it was gonna rust out my pan. Yeah. And I thought I ruined it and I freaking threw it out. And all I had to do was just dry it immediately. I had no idea. Yes. So that is one thing. I literally threw almost brand new pan out, which is like so annoying, but I just thought it was ruined. Well you didn't know. Thankfully they're not too crazy expensive, but still very annoying. I'm interested to start using I've never owned one or like cared for one, but I'm now aware that they need their own wellness routine. But I've I've had friends in the past who have used them and had them in their kitchens and they love them. And like I know they were seasoning them and doing all kinds of different things, but I never understood the actual protocol for caring for it. Yes. Okay. So it differs a little bit. So with cast iron is going to be a little bit in stainless steel. And I'll just like give you the highlights. if you want the full breakdown, check it out on our Substack. at Crunchy Pod. I will even list all the exact pots and pans that we got. but that's gonna be a little bit more of a detailed breakdown. But just for kind of like an high level. So with cast iron yes so a lot of people think that you can't use soap on it but you actually can use a little bit of soap and you just like when you're washing it you just need to dry it like immediately. Sometimes if you can't even get it All the way dry with a towel, you can just stick it on the stove for like two minutes and it'll dry it all up. that way you can avoid the problem that I had, which is the resting. and then you just have to season it. But what was so annoy or kind of, it was kind of annoying, is when we first got them, you have to bake them several times just to make sure they're like really strong and durable. So basically what I had to do, if we got this all started with the griddle, because we love smash burgers. So we got the griddle. And we got the little like press so we could smash our burgers. Right. And also get a little bit of extra iron in our food too. Cause I'm always needing iron. And so what you do is you season it. We decided to season ours with tallow and you have to bake it for like an hour in the oven upside down. And so I did it three times because I wanted to make sure that I did this like really ready. I remember that day. There's a interesting smell in the house too. I know. my gosh, I know. It's like what is she cooking over here? There's just empty pans in here. Just cooking empty pans. Yeah. so yeah, and then you only have to do that when you first get them though. And then each time after you use it, you just want to l put a little bit of seasoning on it and you're ready. It's honestly super easy. It's just a little bit of a learning curve. And then the stainless steel, you definitely want to use wood utensils on stainless steel because those will get scratched up. And even though they're stainless steel, they still I mean most of the stainless steel pans still have aluminum cores. I think it might be a little bit different if you scratch them, but I'll let you know in my sub stack. Let me look into that a little bit. So back back to the cast iron though, every time you cook, is it as soon as you're done you have to wash it and dry it? You can leave it like for a minute if you don't want to like wash it that moment. That's not gonna hurt it. But you definitely do not want to put soap and water in it and then just leave it in the sink. Got it. Yeah, because then that's what I did. Cause we were cooking eggs on it. Mm-hmm. So I soaked it in the sink. So, anyways, and then stainless steel, you just kind of have to preheat it. So let it heat up for a few minutes and then you splash a little water on it. And then when the water like turns into little balls, that means it's ready. Okay. So like I said, I don't wanna like go on a whole thing on the podcast about how to care for them. Like you guys can check out the sub stack article and that will be a little bit easier to reference. But yeah, it's been fun. You have instructions that I'm printing out to put on the cabinet. You're gonna have have it on the wall so you can see how to use these pots and pans. Until we learn it sounds nuts, but I guess like when you think about it with everything that we talk about. Like a little bit extra saves you from the exposure that you're trying to avoid and it's really not that bad. Yeah. my gosh, it's not a big deal at all. And like I said, I was really overwhelmed at first. But now that I know how to do it, I'm like, this is totally fine. This is a piece of cake and so worth it. And they are the most non-toxic ways to cook that to my knowledge. So it's completely worth it. Well, I'm excited to get into it. so I've just really been very into my pots and pans. That's awesome. I even organize them differently. So I'll post it on Instagram in case anyone's interested in seeing all that fun stuff. And then I have made other upgrades to the kitchen too, but I will share that in the next couple weeks on Instagram and Substack. Perfect. What do want to about next? Okay, so I saw something that I thought would be really fun to talk about. And it's hospitals. That sounds fun. No, it does not sound fun. None at all. But I was thinking about ways, like how would you design a hospital from scratch with all of like the natural healing that you believe in, all of the research that we've seen, all of the things that they used to do, and we kind of just lost along the way what do you think is a good balance for a hospital to have natural healing, everything that supports a natural healing process with the balance of science and obviously like modern medicine that is needed. I wanted to know how you would redesign a hospital. That is a great question because I think hospitals are great places. They are the advancement in technology, science, the efficiency of them. I know a lot of people we can complain pretty well, but they're busy, right? And they're doing the best they can. But it's a it's a great place to go and get your diagnosis treated, to get your problem treated, to get fixed up. But when you think about actually healing and healing the whole person, And I think that's where we're going with this is that there's a lot of opportunity to build a more comfortable space and integrate community and family and really help heal. the whole person rather than just what the issue is they went in for and make people feel a lot more comfortable. I kinda think about like a like the pediatric wings in hospitals. They're they're much more comfortable and set up for less stress in the environment. And why not kind of parlay that more into the adult areas, The everybody's seen the picture of the hospital with the sun deck at the top, all the beds out there just so patients could get some natural sun. So cool. I think that's like the best example of how to utilize earth and some of the natural he healing modalities that we think are really good for for the body, mind and soul. Yeah. So thinking about designing one from scratch is tough because you want to have like basically the same hospital that you have now, because you want all of the different things, all the the The rooms, the equipment, you know, the tests, everything that everything that a hospital needs. But why not integrate some more of that? Yeah, like I would definitely want to bring back sun. Sun for sure. I think and I've s I've seen a lot of hospitals now that have like little common areas outside, but I think having more access to nature would be a great idea. Bigger common rooms like set it up so there's more visibility to some nature. So you can even if you're just up in your room, you can't leave, you can see it out a window or at least open a window and get some fresh air. Yeah. you know, pathways to walk. I mean, have a garden or something, right? Mm-hmm. Even, you know, maybe long term patients can help take care of it and get outside. absolutely. Do things a little bit better. So I think access to nature's huge. And they could use herbs in food. Exactly. Food's one of the biggest things I would mention. Yes. It's like why we're there to heal and you get some of the worst food you can find. I know. It's I know there's a lot of cost implications and whatever else. I mean, I think that we can like that's the basis of health though, is like what you're putting into your body. So cost aside, which by the way, like the cost of hospital care is pretty steep. They got money. They got money to invest in food to help heal their patients. Right. yeah, I think that would be so cool to have like the nature of the garden, but then also use some of the produce from the garden in their food and cooking. I think it's a great idea. And just having more natural whole foods being served throughout. I think it's definitely doable. I mean, like take example for Jell O, you know, the regular jello that you find in stores, dyes, sugars, I don't even like know what kind of ingredients are on there. we'll have to post it. But I make jello all the time at home and it's like three ingredients. It's organic juice, whatever flavor the kids want or us. I put in organic coconut water and then just grass fed gelatin. That's it. And it's so easy to make. Yeah. It's good too. It feels just like regular jello. Like it looks the same, feels the same. Exactly. Or even tastes even better, actually. Yeah. Or soups with like bone broth base bases. Like that's so much better, with the protein and everything. So there's definitely some like easy upgrades. I agree. For like I'm I guess I'm just kind of thinking like for people who may have had like a surgery and can't have solid foods or something like that. Right. Well, that goes too like part of the whole experience should be a little bit more guidance on nutrition. And of course in all doctor settings you want to see that. Yeah. But definitely in a hospital too. For sure. And then go ahead. No, I was just thinking, the other thing that I would try to integrate a little bit better is the family. Community family, right? Like you go in, waiting rooms are like just there to cause anxiety. Like you already have enough when you're going in there waiting for somebody to go through a procedure, whether it's easy or not. and so waiting rooms I think could be designed much better. I think access, family access to their to the patient, to their family member is big. Like instead of having visiting hours, like make it so that they can see them more often. When appropriate, you know, I know there's times where they shouldn't be able to, but don't call it visiting hours, call it something else. Obviously, keep it safe, but make the waiting rooms more comfortable and try to make the rooms a little bit more comfortable for family to be in there and be supporting the person who's laying in that bed and can't get up. Yep. I agree. I mean, that's probably one of the most important things too, you know, is your mental health. I mean, I think too, unhealthy mental health can manifest into physical health. And or it kind of brings me back to, you know, one of my favorite public figures is Joe Dispenza. Anyone who's listening has probably heard me say that a million times. I think his work is really groundbreaking. And he has a book and it's called You Are the Placebo and that is really the whole idea and I mean this is literally being proven with science that your thoughts and ha your mindset, it shapes your physical health. I agree. So I think that would be a really, really big upgrade. Yeah, just the idea of feeling safer and more supported. Yeah. A little bit more comfortable with the experience will go a long way. Right. And that's where I think too we could my my special hospital that I'm designing would integrate a lot more of like the opportunity for meditation and breath work. I mean yoga if you can, you could get up and do that anyway if you if you can get up. But like I think about breath work is like why not have staff trained to come in like before a procedure to help you do some breathing exercises and calm yourself down rather than like dropping in with a machine and grabbing your arm and hooking you up, you know. I'm not saying they do a bad job 'cause those people are wonderful, amazing and I appreciate everything they do, but we could slow down a little bit. Right. And we also know like this varies on case by case scenarios, like just depending on what someone is in the hospital for. This is just our, you know, fantasizing. Right. Right. And then to go with like the the the waiting room and making the room a little bit more comfortable for family to be involved is you know, a a hospital is just like white and sterile. Mm-hmm. I guess, you know, in a lot of ways it has to be. But if there's white walls everywhere. It doesn't have to be white walls, right? Like we could add some more color. There's usually murals and some artwork or something, but like why not let's go a little further with it. Yeah. Let's bring color back in the world, including a hospital. We say that about houses and buildings too. Yes. make it a little bit more soft and calming and comfortable. Like greens shaded, like a nice, like calming palette of colors. If we could add plants, that would be great. More plants where where they can be. Absolutely. And that also, I mean, when you have a large amount of plants too, that also is good for purifying the air. Yeah. I know in a hospital setting you need a little bit more than that, but still every bit counts and it's beautiful. plants are live creatures. Plants are living energy. So it's, really good addition. Right. And just creating a more calm space. So maybe in the evening I know there's somewhat of a turndow at nighttime, but like maybe enhance that a little bit more. Little bit darker, quieter, turn off some of the alarms that don't r absolutely need to be on. Yes. you know, something like that I think would be very helpful. Maybe add some more calming music. Frequency music. Frequency music is a great idea. I mean, I'm pretty sure too. I mean, don't like hold me to it, but I'm almost positive that they do a lot of frequency work in the hospitals over in Asia. I know that they are doing a lot of healing with frequencies there. I've seen it. That's great. Yeah. So frequency music would be great addition to bring into hospitals in my opinion. I agree with that. Anything to help calm the body and mind a little bit. Do you want to know some things I would do? Yes. Okay. So going back to nature, I would definitely have as much natural light as possible. lots of windows. I think would be really cool as having like floor to ceiling windows when possible. And I know it just depends on the location, but having views of nature to at least like if you can't go outside, at least be able to see it and look at it. Yeah. because nature is so incredibly healing. And also when it comes to lighting, the fluorescent lights, like they need to go. They need to go out of hospitals, they need to get out of schools too. that blue lights, the flickering. Let's bring in some circadian supporting lights. Yeah. Those lights are stressful. Yeah. And we're actually that's another switch we're making right now. So we'll talk about that next week too. if anybody wants to learn more about that. But take them out of the hospitals. I think that is just so much better for it's hard enough to sleep in an unfamiliar space, somewhere that's not as comfortable as at home. And so a lot of that has to do with blue light and our melatonin production. So that would probably help a lot with people even trying to like sleep in such a you know, foreign environment. Anything to help just make it a little bit more comfortable. Yeah. I think too, you could probably talk a little bit about like the bed sheets and the pillow and the mattress. It's absolutely. Never great. No. And I'm pretty sure that they used to actually use linen sheets in hospitals too. I know they used a lot of natural fiber. So today I would definitely say linen sheets or organic cotton sheets or even one hundred percent cotton sheets that are tested for toxic substances. those would be great to bring in. And blankets, pillows, non-toxic pillows and mattresses, everything to just support the healing process. Like a great place to start for that would be in children's hospitals since they are much more susceptible to toxins in their bodies, and their little bodies than adults are, even just from a starting point. also like a hundred percent cotton, organic cotton. The gowns. Yes, the gowns. Yeah. Hospital gowns. Yeah, those things are rough. Yeah, and including for all the nurses and the doctors, because they're running around in doing twelve hour shifts, probably sweating a little bit, like, make it all non toxic. We're in a healing environment here. Right. So it probably exists too, but I mean my my special hospital, I would definitely have a really nice area for staff to take a break. Yes. And to decompress. Mm-hmm. You know, not just like a break room with a TV and a refrigerator. I don't know what it looks like. I've never been staff at a hospital before. But to have like a a really calm area where they can, you know, have some lower light, some decent music, good food, just a place to rest and breathe for a minute, I think that'd be great. They go through so much. They go through so much much and it's not even just like physically being on your feet all the time. They're literally seeing people dying. They're seeing people, you know, being treated for cancer. Family members upset, their nervous systems need to be regulated too. I mean, this is a really like Stressful job. Absolutely. okay, one more thing I wanted to mention about the hospital, what I would do in my dream hospital is when it comes to paint, and I know we talked about colors, I would really want to do like an EMF paint, like reducing paint, because in hospitals there's so many different pieces of equipment that I'm sure there's like tons of like obviously Wi Fi, I don't know how if there's dirty electricity or what, but There are definitely a lot of things going on. And so where it's appropriate or possible, it'd be cool to have like, hardwired internet for the TVs even. I know that that's not possible like in 2026 for a lot of the machines that they use, but at least for like the TVs, anything to just cut down on the EMFs that's going on there, and the radiation or like just something to cut down on Bluetooth and Wi Fi a little bit and to make it a little bit more comfortable because that does mess like some people can like literally feel those physical effects. Yeah. And there's so much going on there. So I know like I said, you can't like fully get rid of all that with everything that they need, but you can make some changes to like minimize it at least. Yeah. No, absolutely. It's all great points. I'm gonna look a little bit more into EMF blocking paint too. Yes. I feel like that's something I looked into before. There's a little bit out there, but I'm hopeful now maybe there's more. There is some. I need to learn a little bit more about it before I speak on it, but that is something I am looking into. So stay tuned. Awesome. That's perfect. And one more thing I think was really cool about the hospital that you had mentioned when we were talking about this is therapy dogs. Yeah. And I know that they are allowed in some hospitals. Yeah, we've got a good friend who is a volunteer and Who bring a therapy dog around the hospital to anybody who wanted to see it and pet it and hang out. Yeah. That's cool. I mean I know that would probably have to be like A separate area because allergies and and people who maybe don't want animals around them. But for people who do, I think it'd be really cool to have like designated rooms or space for them. Right. No, I totally agree. I think if it could ever happen, to be able to have your own pets come visit would be kinda cool too. Yeah. For those who are in a more dire situation or yeah, in there for a long time for some reason, I guess. Yeah. I know that would work, but no. Remember guys, this is just like our dream scenarios. Like I know there's so many different moving parts when it comes to this. And it would be free. Yes. Exactly. The other thing I would add too in my special areas is like a nice little reading corner or something like that. So that people who are there for longer term or even just for a few days, if you could break away and just find some peace and feel a little bit more like you're in your normal environment or your normal routine, it'd be kinda cool. That's such a good idea. Like instead of just going to a waiting room type area. Like I've I've seen in the hospitals I've been in, there's like an area that has more windows, which is great. It's lit up, but it's like it's like off a hallway and there's just chairs kind of lined around it. Yeah. But maybe something a little bit more intimate, like with some books or puzzles even, you know, something like that. Probably exists, but I would make that a big part of my special hospital. Yep. and of course filtered water. yeah. I mean, even in the showers. Yeah. We're trying to minimize all the toxic lib possible to support the body healing. You have to get a whole hospital filter. Yeah. Yeah, they don't already have that. Yeah, right. I'm pretty sure some hospitals do have air filters. probably. Yeah. Yeah. So anyways, yeah. That was fun. That was kinda cool. I it's it's fun to think about how you would design like a hospital from scratch. I never thought about that. Yeah. But especially now, like knowing the things I know and the way I wanna not just like support the whole body, mind, body, and soul, but also be more preventative for things. I think all of that could be integrated into a new sort of architecture of a hospital. I do too. I love it. Yes. And hospitals are super stressful no matter what. Yeah. It kinda goes right along with our new theory that we're talking about. Right? The empty boat theory. The empty boat theory. It'd be really good to keep this in mind when you walk into a hospital because you gotta think everybody's there for some sort of reason, whether they're excited, they're having a new baby or something, or somebody's getting released, or Most likely they're not so excited. Something happened, something bad happened, somebody needs something, or you're just worried about whatever's going on. So everybody in a hospital's got a lot on their mind. Yes, a lot of stress. Right. So what's the empty boat theory? So the empty boat theory that we've been talking a lot about. Like I I've followed this concept for a long time but never knew there was this theory out there that kind of puts it all into like a a nice summary, right? So empty boat theory. it is a kind of like a metaphor or theory, but essentially there's a monk floating on a lake or river in a boat and just mind his own business and another boat crashes into it. And the your immediate reaction would be like, What the hell? Yeah. And get mad at somebody or like, Why are they coming at me? Why would you bump me? And sort of allow your ego to take over and make it about you. And then that monk happened to turn around and look and there's nobody in the boat. And immediately you're like, okay. No big deal. Like an empty boat just bumped into me. Like whatever. And so the idea is that your peace doesn't come when all these boats stop bumping into you. Your peace comes when you start to realize that not every boat has somebody in it. Like whatever's happening to you, somebody's rude to you, somebody makes a snarky comment, maybe somebody didn't text you back. Like that's not about you. It's probably about them and whatever's going on in their world. And so you can let that be a little bit more without making about yourself and getting upset and letting your emotions get crazy and, you know, start to feel offended or whatever the feeling is. makes it a little bit easier to create space between what happens and your reaction. Right. And because your emotions are all about your reactions. Mm-hmm. I think it's I think every single person can relate to that because there's definitely times where all of us have taken something personally. And this is just a nice theory or story to keep in mind to kind of help redirect us. Right. And I love that because it's so true. Like people are not that it's not like you have a bunch of people out to get you. You know, even when someone's rude, like we all have those people in our lives that are just like rude for no reason and we're just kind of like, what the F. But at the end of the day, like it literally has nothing to do with you. It's their own. situation. Whatever's going on in their own inner world in their perception. Think about it when you're like take something out on someone. It has nothing to do with I'm like, okay, when I think about when I take something out on someone, okay, this is not I'm just having a bad day. This has nothing to do with You typically come back around and say just whoever it is, like, I'm sorry, like that wasn't about you. Yeah. I was having a bad day and just whatever happened happened to trigger me to do whatever reaction I did there. So why do you think that it's so easy for us to see that about ourselves? But when someone takes something out on us, maybe they don't come back around and say, Hey, I'm sorry about that. Maybe it just you're in the store and someone gives you a dirty look or, whatever the case is, like why is it so hard for us to know we're taking stuff out, but when people take stuff out on us, we're just kinda like taking it so personally, and then it kind of starts to mess with our own inner peace. Well, I think if you're not applying empty boat theory, your first reaction is like, What did I do? Right. Or like, why does that person hate me? And you but that's all about you. All those thoughts, it seems like it's about them, but it's really your ego worrying like, why did that person do that to me? Why did they bump me or say that rude thing? Or why do they hate me? Why didn't they think to walk around me or something? And then in most of those interactions, that that was a one and done. Like you don't have the opportunity to talk to that person later. I'm sure that a lot of people will walk away and say, maybe I was a little bit rude there. I could should have said sorry. Or maybe not. Some people are just kind of floating through life, just doing their own thing, don't really give a shit. But you know, hopefully if we can all sort of be more aware of how we're interacting with others and really looking inward at things more so than looking around us for the reasons and excuses or whatever, we can become better totally. Better people. Yeah. It's hard. Yeah, it's very hard. I think it's really hard in situations maybe when someone is, you know, rude to you. Maybe they're jealous of something, or maybe, you know, you're doing something that they haven't given themselves permission to do for themselves and they kinda take it out on you. I think those types of situations can be really hard. Yeah. To kind of realize like, hey Wait a minute, that doesn't have anything to do with me, actually. I've had that happen to me and I'm I would take it to heart. Like the way someone would treat me until I realize, like, that is has nothing to do with me. Like, that's you and like good luck to you. But I'm not gonna react to that and I'm not gonna let it ruin my inner peace. I think that's a situation that is kind of like a little bit harder to s harder for me at least to see. It's really hard. And in practice, it's like you gotta start really small. Yeah. And just, you know, brush it off your shoulder and say, I'm not gonna bother with that. Yeah. But it's it's easy for other people to have an impact on your day. Especially like in working, right? Like it's it's tough. But you know, if you just start small and and start letting little things that are easier to go, let it letting that go, but while trying to understand like it really wasn't about me. That'll start building up into bigger areas. I mean, you're not gonna be able to let of everything. Some people are just dicks and you're gonna be like, hey, that sucked. Yeah. But maybe you just recognize it as that and try to let it go too. Mm-hmm. Either way, anytime you can do that, I think it's it's not just like becoming a better person in any way. It's just making yourself a little bit easier to be with. Yeah, and it is kind of becoming a better person though, because it's helping you not react. Because if someone's rude to you, sometimes you wanna react too and be like, what the F is your problem? Yeah. You know, I'm been I found myself in both situations where it depends on who it is and what the situation is. Like maybe I don't want to have any issues or because it will affect something else in my life or something and I'll just brush it off and know that's not me. But other times I could there are times where I'm like, No, I'm gonna stand up for myself here and you are not gonna treat me like that. Like I'm sorry for whatever you're going through, but like it's not my fault. Yeah, there's definitely lines. Yeah, it just definitely it just depends. Yeah. And and the way I see that is you help create awareness for that other person. If you stand up for yourself a little bit. And set boundaries for yourself. You don't have to fight, but just make it known. Yeah. Yeah. And setting boundaries for yourself is a strong thing to do. So in this theory, the question is it doesn't stop at like what is in other people's boats. What is in your boat? Yeah. And so this helps me be more aware about what's in my boat, whether it is something with ego, whether it's unprocessed emotions, whether it's old wounds or expectations. Expectations is a big one for me because I have like very, very, very high expectations with things. And I've kind of worked on that a lot in the past few years, but it's definitely been a journey for me. Yeah. To not be let down by things. Or even like identity attachments, those are all things, very common things that could be in our boats. Yeah, absolutely. It's tough. I mean everybody's got a full boat. Yeah. They just gotta start realizing it. But like I think one one good way to start addressing that is to look at your boat and see how much of it is full of things you're looking for external validation for and finding your worth outside of yourself, like by what you accomplish or what somebody says about you or climbing the career ladder, whatever it may be, and just start like bringing it back to who you really are and what really makes you happy and makes you feel like a worthy person. Yeah. A good place to start, I think. I think so too. I love that. Yeah. It starts with kids. Yeah. Starts with raising kids. and trying to cultivate your children into adults who have very enjoyable, passionate lives, there was a Harvard study that tracked people I think it started in the thirties and it tracked them throughout their entire life to see what actually made them happy, confident, you know, and and enjoying their life. And the result was not having success in their career, you know, reaching VP, CEO level in any company, wasn't related to IQ or the amount of money they had or the amount of possessions they owned. I think across the board the answer was connection, family, what community. It was close relationships. Close relationships. The ability to have somebody to talk to and be deep with and open with and transparent and have partners in life. and to enjoy life. your life and enjoy other passions that other people held too. Yeah. I like how you tied that in with the empty boat theory into that too, because that has so much to do with who you are as a person. Right. but yeah, I thought it was really interesting too to see I mean it's interesting, but it's also not at the same time because we all know that connection I guess you know what we don't all know that. Not everybody knows that actually. There's a lot of people that I know that I would probably assume that I feel like maybe don't see that. We see a lot of people being interviewed on social media and anywhere else. You say like what's your biggest accomplishment or whatever and you think the word accomplishment or like what are you most proud of in your life or what why how did you live so long? Like what's the secret to living this long? And you know, the first couple of questions the answer would be something material possession or status, you know? the second, what would help you live the longest, happiest life is usually For those people who have made it, something about connection. Yeah, yeah. It's even more so even than health, really, because your relationships affect your health so much. Right. So that is I love that. we thought it would be fun to talk about that because I think so much so many of us can lose sight of that. Mm-hmm. Cause yeah, of course, like we want to have freedom and we wanna be successful, of course. But at the end of the day, the most important thing in life is our connections. with people in our relationships that we have. loneliness is actually I read, I think it was actually connected to this article, or maybe it was in the TED Talk that was speaking about this study. There is a statistic that said that loneliness is actually just as harmful as being an alcoholic or smoker. I'm pretty sure that's right. If not will clarify that, but it's not good for your health. Yeah. So that makes me feel really sad for people who do feel lonely. but I do hope that maybe if anyone's hearing this, it'll inspire them to maybe work on their relationships. I think Reach out. Yeah. Yeah. And I think for me too, in my personal life, I definitely feel like my accomplishment for me, and I I've accomplished a lot in my career, I would say. but in my life, the things that I'm the most proud of is regulating my nervous system, which has helped me with my emotional regulation. which really I started working on a while ago, but it really got kicked into overdrive when we had kids because I'm like want to be very patient and, you know, a calming, safe presence for them. And so in order for me to do that, I need to make sure that that is what I am. And so I definitely think that for me, if I had to say my accomplishment that I'm most proud of would be who I am in my relationships. Yeah, I think s same for me. Not even them too, in my relationship with you and my relationship with other people, whether it has to do with growing a relationship or whether it has to do with putting up boundaries to protect myself in a relationship. I think so I totally understand that from I totally get that study. It makes total sense. Yeah. I I'm the same way. So obviously being with you changed my life and my perspective quite a bit. And then having kids was even like a huge a bigger push. It was just crazy. It changed my perspective on everything. Yeah. There's a whole nother reason to live. And maybe that's why we're here, right? Is to just continue to create better and better generations too. Raise the frequency of the earth, but Woo woo. Yeah. but yeah, like I never I was never crunchy before. I had kids before meeting you and you were teaching me, but like you came out of over to the dark side and never look back. Exactly. Well it's like now it's my responsibility to like give the kids something to eat or you know, and they're not thinking for themselves as much. They're starting to now, which is really cool. Yeah. But you know, making sure that we're being healthy and careful and everything else just sort of like pushed me down this path, but also on like the spiritual side or the mindfulness side or the nervous system regulation side, like making sure that they are balanced people and that they have a good understanding and control of their body and their emotions and sort of the way they think. and what we've done so far has been amazing and you see it and it's like, okay, this is perfect. This is this is proof to proof to the theory. And everything we've talked about today kind of alludes to that. Like being mindful and taking care of your nervous system. engaging with family as part of like healing or anything else. it's all just incredibly important. Mm-hmm. I love that. this has been great, but I'd say sit down and think about what kind of hospital you would create. 'Cause it was kind of a cool exercise to go through. Like we talk about all the time with like how will we build our perfect home, our non toxic, crunchy ass home. And that's super fun. But thinking about it like in a hospital or even like a school or something, if you want to go to down that path, is is really fun to do and I think it'll push you towards what we're talking about a little bit more than anything else. Absolutely. Cool. Yeah. So I want to talk about a little bit of housekeeping things just to fill everybody in. first I want to let everyone know that we are doing product reviews for crunchy products. Yes. And I'm very excited. We have a lot of products that we've tested over the years. So a lot. Maybe not experts, but maybe experts. I definitely would be because I love products. But what is so special about our product reviews is it's not only products. Because you know how I feel? Like I I don't want wellness to turn into like, pharma where it's like, you know, there's lots of natural wellness, I don't want it to turn into like there has to be a product for every single thing. so it's gonna be a mix of products, but it's also I wanna support brands, I wanna support creators, I wanna support, people who maybe are offering something great, but it's not really getting the recognition. you know, I love investing in myself and my health. I love investing in my physical health, I love investing in my mental health, and now for you guys and in our family too, but there are lots of like programs that I have purchased from people that have created these amazing programs. There's been a somatic exercise program. There are ebooks that I've gotten that have been very valuable, or, you know, all kinds of things across the board. And so we're also going to be reviewing things like that. Yeah, absolutely. And some DIY stuff too. DIY stuff, yes. We have a really fun one coming up soon, which I'm not going to give it away yet, but We are starting out our first product review is this week and it is the cleanest, I mean the cleanest water that I have ever come across. And I am very excited about it. So stay tuned for that. That's gonna be on our YouTube. And I also want to let you guys know that we do have weekly product swaps. Every Wednesday we do a themed product swap guide, and that's on our sub stack. And then we also have our free email on Monday that goes out that tells you all about our podcast for that week and our swap guide of that week, our product review of that week, and everything that's going on, anything fun. That we're doing over here. So I just want to make sure everybody knows to go over to our Substack and subscribe. it's just one email a week. Yeah. Join the community. Yes. And then we're also on Instagram. So check us out. come join us over on Instagram. All right. And thank you so much for listening. One, two, three. Peace, love, and crunch.
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Marguerite’s passion for health & wellness started in her late teens when she started exploring what truly healthy eating meant. Over the years, that interest grew into a deep love for real, wholesome ingredients that nourish from the inside, out. While working in fashion PR, her passion expanded as she became aware of the hidden toxins in beauty and personal care products, which inspired her to launch an online clean beauty store focusing on safer, more conscious choices.
As she continues to deepen her knowledge of the holistic world, she felt compelled to transition into podcasting as the next chapter in fulfilling a soul-aligned purpose; to offer a non-judgmental platform where different perspectives are shared, empowering others to explore various approaches so they can make informed & confident choices for their well-being.
Meet Karl
Karl is dedicated to finding balance in body, mind, spirit. He brings a grounded yet passionate energy to the podcast as he explores holistic wellness and natural living on a personal level. After spending much of his life unknowingly living with a severe autoimmune condition, becoming a husband and father sparked a deeper curiosity in him; one that led him to question the mainstream narratives around health, healing, and medicine.
Whether he’s in conversation with Marguerite or connecting with thought leaders in the wellness space, Karl openly shares reflections from his own healing journey and his ongoing pursuit of simply feeling good, both inside and out.
Together, they host the Unapologetically Crunchy Podcast for a female + male perspective!
👀 you can find Marguerite:
+ email hi@crunchypod.com
+ on the web crunchypod.com
+ on instagram @margueritebuer
+ on substack @crunchypod+ on Facebook/crunchypod
+ on YouTube @crunchypod
👀 you can find Karl:+ on instagram @uncommonstandpoint
+ on substack @uncommonstandpoint
👀 you can find us:
🎥 watch → YouTube
👂 listen → spotify, apple podcasts, amazon music & iheartradio
💌 read → substack (weekly emails & all the extras!)
🤩 follow along with us on our socials!
instagram → @crunchypod
facebook → crunchypod
youtube → @crunchypod
pinterest → /unapologeticallycrunchy
📝 on the web → crunchypod.com
🛍️ shop merch → unapologeticallycrunchy.com
💫 connect with marguerite → @unapologeticallycrunchy + unapologeticallycrunchy.substack.com
💫 connect with karl → uncommonstandpoint.substack.com
💜 peace, love + CRUNCH!