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Food Buying & Travel Tips: Being Healthy is NOT More Expensive (Part 2) – Podcast Episode #11

Reading Time: 36 minutes
Food Buying & Travel Tips: Being Healthy is NOT More Expensive (Part 2) – Podcast Episode #11

Today, we debunk the myth that healthy eating has to cost a lot. After sharing what’s in our diffuser and two surprise announcements, we’ll teach you how to save money on food, especially when you shop for healthy foods. These food buying & travel tips will save you a bundle.

We’ll show you how to get the best quality for a reasonable price in grocery and bulk stores, health food shops, and farmer’s markets. Dr. Z reveals why you should avoid costly trends, like unhealthy gluten-free foods. We’ll tell why you don’t always have to buy organic – and when you must.  And Mama Z shares why our kids are not members of the “clean plate club.”

Mama Z wraps it all up with our natural living tip on food for traveling. Join us today so you can save time and money the next time you shop for healthy groceries! You won’t want to miss this episode.

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Episode Highlights

  • Topic intro and what’s in our diffuser (2:33)
  • Two big announcements! (4:55)
  • Airing Dr. Z’s dirty laundry…LITERALLY! (7:53)
  • How to be healthy and not break the bank (12:32)
  • How to save money on food – the Clean Fifteen (21:53)
  • Produce you MUST buy organic and tips to afford them (26:28)
  • Buying in season and using a farmer’s market to save money (28:38)
  • More food buying tips (34:11)
  • When gluten-free food is not healthy (42:30)
  • No more “Clean Plate Club” (47:14)
  • Natural living travel tip and episode wrap (54:28)

Quotable Quotes

“Buying fresh, wholesome food is not more expensive than processed foods.” – Dr. Z
“With our essential oils diet, the drive-through is not an option.” – Mama Z
“We have vegetable cups that we chop and prepare ahead of time so that the kids can start eating while we’re heating up dinner on a busy night.” – Mama Z
“In general, produce is a lot cheaper in season. Wait until summer for nectarines and fall and winter for pears and apples.” – Dr. Z
“If you can buy your food locally, do it. It’s worth the extra money because you are cutting out the middlemen who can reduce the quality of your food.” – Mama Z

The contents of this presentation are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This presentation does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

[0:00 – 1:05] Prelude

Dr. Z: One reason why Sabrina doesn’t like me going grocery shopping is when I see a special, I’ll get a hundred of them.

Mama Z: Yes, when I told the lady at Costco.

Dr. Z: We saved so much money.

Mama Z: It was so funny. So I told the lady at Costco that my husband had bought ninety-nine boxes of something. And he was afraid we were going to run out.

Dr. Z: I really did. It was years ago. It was a closeout sale. I’m like, “Let’s get it all.”

Mama Z: And we ended up donating a lot of it to churches.

Dr. Z: We did. It was a good write-off.

Mama Z: There you go. But the funny thing was the next time I came through the line, because I know all the people at our Costco. We have friends that work there. But I’ve known these people. I see them every week. I love my Costco people. And she goes, “Hey, did your husband go shopping the other day? Because this guy came in and had one of these flatbeds, and he had like a hundred things of the same thing on there. And I thought of your husband. Was it him?”

 

[1:06 – 1:30] Intro

Dr. Z: Hi! Dr. Z here.

Mama Z: And Mama Z. And welcome to episode eleven of the Natural Living Family podcast.

Dr. Z: Each week we invite you into our home to talk about how you can master the art and science of natural living. And we share the very same tips our family uses each and every day to enjoy an abundant life. And you’re going to love today’s talk.

Mama Z: So come on in and get comfortable. After all, you’re one of the family, our Natural Living Family.

 

[1:31 – 2:32] Sponsor Spotlight: Air Doctor

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Mama Z: This is a recipe for a health disaster. And we can personally testify to how polluted air almost devastated our health.

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[2:33 – 4:54] Diffuser Reveal

Dr. Z: Well, hey there, everybody. Welcome to today’s show. We’re going to continue our discussion from last week that being healthy is not more expensive. Yes, it’s not more expensive. And we’re going to give you some of our best money-saving food tips today, our healthy hacks for natural living, but all around food.

Last week we talked about essential oils and supplements. We talked about health insurance. We’re going to dive deep into travel. We’re going to dive deep into food and all kinds of things related to that. But before we do, Mama Z.

Mama Z: Our diffuser. Alright, we’ve got citrus focus today. So we’ve got orange, lime, bergamot, lemon, and spearmint. And it’s a nice combination.

Dr. Z: I like that. I like the lime, everything with lime. I love lime.

Mama Z: I know; I like lime. And you can use key lime, too, if you wanted. But this is like soft focus. I mean, it’s just like so subtle, but it’s like perfect for focus.

Dr. Z: Well, this is great, because, you know, our Essential Oils Diet book is coming out next month. And we talk a lot about lime, because inhaling lime oil has been shown clinically to trigger what’s known as lipolosis, which is the brain telling the body to burn fat. How cool is that?

Mama Z: Oh, my goodness!

Dr. Z: So we’re burning fat right now.

Mama Z: I think I’m just going to get a lime bottle out and just start sniffing.

Dr. Z: Literally, people need to do it. And peppermint is also very good when it comes to unhealthy cravings, and it gives you natural energy.

Mama Z: I’m going to have peppermint in one hand and a lime in the other.

Dr. Z: And all of the citrus oils have that same d-limonene component, which gives it more weight loss benefits. I can’t wait for the book to come out, folks. If you don’t know about it, go to EssentialOilsDiet.com and preorder the book. We have a sweet collection of bonuses and gifts. Just look at it. Check it out. We’ve got a lot more to talk about that in the next couple of episodes, because we want to set you up for success.

Mama Z: Yes.

Dr. Z: We just don’t want to say, hey, here’s a book. Follow the plan. No, Mama Z and I filmed hours; well, actually, it’s mostly Sabrina. She filmed hours, I mean like one video, hours worth of exercise demos, cooking demos, a shopping tour we did at the local health food store. You’re going to get so much starter guides and checklists, all the stuff, just for buying the book. And it’s on super discount, too.

Mama Z: Yes.

Dr. Z: Wherever books are sold.

 

[4:55 – 7:52] Who Would Have Thought It?!

But that’s not what we’re talking about. That’s a big announcement. But we have two really, really big announcements today. You want to go first?

Mama Z: I’m pregnant.

Dr. Z: With baby Z.

Mama Z: Baby Z!

Dr. Z: Number?

Mama Z: Five.

Dr. Z: Yea! That’s huge! How do you feel?

Mama Z: Good!

Dr. Z: Do you feel pregnant?

Mama Z: Yea.

Dr. Z: That’s awesome! I can’t wait. So we have two boys and two girls.

Mama Z: Yea.

Dr. Z: Which one do you think it’s going to be? Split the difference?

Mama Z: Probably a girl.

Dr. Z: Oh, we’ll see. I mean who would have thought? We have two birth announcements–(a), the birth of a new baby; but (b) the birth of a new business. So many of you have asked what oils we use and what our favorite essential oil brand. Well, we’ve done the research. And we want to come out of the closet and tell you something very special, that we are coming out with our own essential oil company.

And we’re going to release the name and have a ribbon cutting party and all that fun stuff. But we’ve done the research, and no essential oil company can get up to snuff to our standards that we’re creating. And we can’t wait to show you. We can’t wait to show you.

Dr. Z and Mama Z: April fools!

Mama Z: No, I’m not pregnant.

Dr. Z: And we’re not starting our own essential oils company. We’re brand neutral.

Mama Z: Always.

Dr. Z: April fools. Today is April 1.

Mama Z: Yea, we’re prepping for a pageant, not prepping for a baby.

Dr. Z: So what’s the best birth control for Mama Z–training for a pageant? I’m happy with four kids. And she’s like she wants a hundred more. She literally wants six kids. I’m like okay, the only thing preventing us from having a baby right now is the Mrs. Georgia pageant coming up in June.

Mama Z: June 9.

Dr. Z: And no, we’re never going to come out with an essential oils company.

Mama Z: Ever.

Dr. Z: Stop asking us.

Mama Z: Yes.

Dr. Z: I got bombarded.

Mama Z: So this is totally April fools.

Dr. Z: Whenever we do a book signing, I get bombarded with some of the nastiest people in the world accusing me of just lying. I mean literally, I’m being real with y’all. It’s like no, we’re not.

Mama Z: So don’t spam our box now if you only listen to the first five seconds.

Dr. Z: We don’t do what we do to steal your downline.

Mama Z: No.

Dr. Z: Like I have people come to me who are part of a network marketing company and said, “We know what you’re doing. You’re just trying to take our customers from us.” Like, are you insane? No, we’re not coming out with an essential oils company.

Mama Z: No, we’re trying to help you use your oils and use them more effectively.

Dr. Z: Our freedom of speech would be stripped from us.

Mama Z: We don’t want that.

Dr. Z: I don’t even know what we would do. I think our publisher would sue us. One of the reasons why we have the book that we do is because we’re not branded.

Mama Z: Right.

Dr. Z: And, folks, we talk about cancer. We talk about weight loss. We talk about diabetes. You can’t talk about that if you own your own essential oils company. So, no, happy April fools. Anyway, let’s get back to today’s broadcast.

Mama Z: Just kidding, everybody.

 

[7:53 – 12:32] Airing Dr. Z’s Dirty Laundry…LITERALLY!

Dr. Z: It is episode eleven of the Natural Living Family podcast. And we’re going to cover how to be healthy and not break the bank.

Mama Z: Yes.

Dr. Z: And when this all came about to me in a very real special way, last week we shared a story. And Sabrina kind of cut me off, and she shared the wrong story. But it was a good story anyway.

Mama Z: It was a good story.

Dr. Z: It was. But it wasn’t the story that I wanted to tell. I want to tell the real story. So when Sabrina goes away, and listen to episode ten to find out. Every year she goes away for sometimes two weeks. At one point, she went away for six weeks. And she spends time with her family. She spends time teaching at Santa school. And whenever she’s gone, now she’ll take the youngest child, and now I’ll be with three kids. Maybe next year I’ll be with four, because Bella will be in school. And so I do everything.

Mama Z: It’s actually like really every time when I get back. And I’ve got to tell you, I got to brag on him for two seconds this time. And I was telling Chris this, when I came back, he had his stuff together, people. He had his stuff together. He ordered all of my favorite things from Whole Foods.

And then he steamed beets. He got me beet juice. And if you know anything about me, if I could be a vegetable, I would be a beet. I love beet everything.

So I had beet greens, beets that were steamed, the beet juice that he did for me, all my favorites. And guacamole and salsa and vegetables–it was so awesome. And everything was put away.

I remember one time when I came home and he was like, “I didn’t want you mad at me. So I just didn’t put away all these dishes, thinking I would put them in the wrong spot.” And like a whole counter was covered with dishes. It took me like a week to dig out of everything. So this time, I was impressed.

Dr. Z: Whoa, hold on a second. I’m not allowed to do the dishes. You are a little OCD.

Mama Z: I’m organized.

Dr. Z: OCD.

Mama Z: Organized.

Dr. Z: And you get to a point where you lose your head if things aren’t exactly how you want them.

Mama Z: You’re missing it. I can think more clearly when everything is put away, totally.

Dr. Z: I can’t fold the laundry because it won’t be perfect. And that’s fine.

Mama Z: Well no, because you know what your underwear drawer used to look like?

Dr. Z: Just throw it in there. Who cares? It’s underwear.

Mama Z: You throw it in there.

Dr. Z: It’s underwear. It’s not dirty.

Mama Z: Oh my goodness. But at least I have your underwear in rainbow color order.

Dr. Z: You know when your underwear is in rainbow color, you’re a little OCD.

So at first, for the first, I don’t know, six or seven years of our marriage, this caused a lot of friction, because I was self sustaining. My mother raised an independent boy. And I would do my own laundry and cook. And Sabrina was like, no, that’s not right. And it would cause a lot of problems. So no, in my defense, you would yell at me, and it would be World War 3 if I didn’t do something perfect. So I ended up not putting anything away.

Mama Z: So thank God, I’ve trained two awesome helpers.

Dr. Z: Yea, it wasn’t me. I didn’t take credit. We have a nanny who you’ve drilled into submission.

Mama Z: But listen, the cool part is that you were then free to use your skills, your gift-giving skills, which you love to do, because you’re a gift guy. And you gave me all these things.

Dr. Z: Well, your love language is gifts. So I love to satisfy that love language. And I love to shower you with you with gifts.

Mama Z: Right. And you like gifts. You like to shop for gifts.

Dr. Z: Anyway, I blessed you.

Mama Z: It’s amazing. I can’t wait until I go away again.

Dr. Z: Me, too.

Mama Z: I just want to come back.

Dr. Z: I think about five years ago, Sabrina was gone, and I only had, I think, two kids at the time, because you were with Elijah when Elijah was a baby. And never really again will I not appreciate and honor the single working parent. You know, I know there are lot of single dads out there, more so single moms and working moms. And so I’m alone. And this was before full-time help, nannies.

Mama: I remember you go, “You don’t understand.” It was so hard.

Dr Z: I was still at school. Again, I was working. I was still a full-time student, getting my doctorate. I was working–did I mention I was working?

Mama Z: And I was like, hallelujah!

Dr. Z: I had two kids to take care of.

Mama Z: Welcome to my world.

Dr. Z: Well, you never went to school and you weren’t working full time either. So it’s different. You were a homemaker. I’m talking about a working mom and working dads who manage everything, and going to work, and day care. And so I get a taste of that for like two to three weeks a year.

And so I remember shopping and just being at this point, I forget. No, I was at Kroger. And I remember shopping for food, which by the way, I haven’t grocery shopped in forever. I only grocery shop once a year when you’re gone.

Mama Z: Yep.

Dr. Z: I’m not allowed to. And that’s another story, because I buy too much. But anyway, that’s a whole another story.

Mama Z: Yes.

 

[12:32 – 21:52] Is Shopping for Healthy Food REALLY More Expensive?

Dr. Z: So I remember shopping. And ninety-nine percent of everything in my cart was fresh and/or healthy, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, humus, guacamole, all the good stuff. The only thing that I had in my cart that was processed was some cool, naturally sweetened cereal, gluten-free stuff that the kids likes, and toilet paper. All right, keep the context. That’s the only thing. Now some things were organic. We’ll cover that. Some things weren’t organic. But everything was good for you.

I remember being in line and vividly remember this lady still. I remember her son. And it’s no judgment call, but her son was at least fifty pounds overweight. And he was like three years old, like a big boy. And he was eating Oreos out of a cup, these little like Oreos. And she was a big woman, too. Her cart, I remember looking at her cart and just being appalled.

Mama Z: I remember you saying it was lined with like pop bottles hanging on the cart.

Dr. Z: It broke my heart. Everything in her cart was processed and/or unhealthy. The only thing she had that would be fresh were conventionally grown apples. Everything, sodas, like you said, her whole cart was lined with diet soda, all the cookies, all the chips, all the processed foods, mac and cheese. And her son was eating Oreos in front of me. And my heart was breaking for her and her son.

And then I looked at her bill. And it was like a hundred and fifty dollars. And I remember that, because my bill was like a hundred and seventy dollars. So my bill was only twenty bucks more than hers for a week’s worth of groceries. We both had a cart full. And it dawned on me. Buying healthy is not more expensive than not. Chips are super expensive. Soda is super expensive. And we save all of our money, because we don’t buy that junk.

Now don’t get me wrong. We’ll buy a $2.50/$3 bag of gluten free organic corn chips here and there and stuff. But it’s not part of our usual.

Mama Z: And we love that Siete brand.

Dr. Z: Yea, and cassava chips are great now. And there are cassava puffs. And what is that called? What’s that popcorn we like?

Mama Z: Oh, Skinny Pop.

Dr. Z: GMO free. But I’ll never forget that. It marked me. It imprinted my mind and heart. And it encouraged me that for twenty dollars more a week, twenty dollars times fifty, for a thousand bucks more a year, I’m willing to fill my cart up. And you know what we did with that stuff? We made homemade chips. Like I love potatoes, and we love sweet potatoes. My daughters, my kids love it with some naturally sweetened agave ketchup.

So what we did was we chopped up little thinly sliced potatoes and we fried them and pan-seared them with a little bit of coconut oil. Like that was our version of chips. And we’re not going to go get the Lay’s Potato Chips.

Mama Z: And we’ve got a great recipe for ketchup on the website.

Dr. Z: Yea, NaturalLivingFamily.com. So let’s start here. So buying fresh wholesome food is not more expensive than processed foods, especially when you’re buying a lot of these pre-frozen meals. That adds up, y’all, especially your pizzas. So let’s first talk about this issue of organic. When it comes to food, the first thing is it’s too expensive. The second thing is do I need organic?

Mama Z: One thing you just said, which is marked in my mind, is you said these pre-done meals. Okay, I was in Kroger the other day, and I couldn’t believe how many lean this meals. And then in either like a plastic type container.

Dr. Z: That you microwave.

Mama Z: Or they’re in like a foil type of container that’s leaching on the food. The food is not even healthy as it is. And those lean things aren’t really that lean, and the ingredients are horrible.

Dr. Z: A lot of salt, a lot of preservatives.

Mama Z: And what really stuck out in my mind was when they re-did the sections, I couldn’t believe how many cases. They had just as many cases for all of that stuff as they had for all the pizzas. And just the amount of that food, it says this is what people are looking for.

Dr. Z: Yea.

Mama Z: And we have to think in a different way. We have to.

Dr. Z: And the natural versions, the “healthy versions,” aren’t much better, y’all; especially the gluten-free ones, because they just fill those up with sugar. And anything gluten-free, be careful. You’ve got to be really careful.

Mama Z: And that’s the thing, with our essential oils diet, we encourage you. So drive-through is not an option. It has to be the theme, drive-through is not an option.

Dr. Z: Unless you’re going to get your green tea at Starbucks. That’s the only drive-through we’ve ever used. The only thing we get at Starbucks is a green tea. Or their passion tea is kind of good, unsweetened of course.

Mama Z: And we bring our stevia.

Dr. Z: I have not been through the drive-through in over fifteen years. I don’t even know what it looks like or smells like anymore. Done!

Mama Z: Oh my gosh, well I did, we were reliving this, last year for my son’s teacher, Miss Kidd

Dr. Z: Oh yea, covert, black ops…

Mama Z: It was so funny. So nobody stepped up to get her a birthday meal. And she’s like one of the best teachers.

Dr. Z: I love Miss Kidd.

Mama Z: So I said I would. But I hadn’t been to a drive-through. It was at Zaxby’s, I remember. I knew that one was next to the gym that I worked at. So I brought the list. And I thought it was like a list of things that maybe she would usually get there. I didn’t know that it was like her wish list, and it was like the all things she likes there. So I got one of everything. And they’re like asking me stuff, you know. I said does this drink come bigger, because they said she likes the bigger one? And they’re like, “You mean super size it?”

Dr. ZSuper Size Me, that’s a fantastic movie..

Mama Z: It had been so long since I had been around stuff like that. I was almost nervous. I was like nervous in the drive-through. And the lady probably thought I was like who is this one? I got a live one on aisle five. I mean they were probably like what is up with this chick? So anyway, I left having my bag. And I bring her the lunch. She goes, oh my gosh, if I knew it was you getting me lunch, I would have said bring me salad and stuff.

Dr. Z: She was all embarrassed.

Mama Z: So she goes, “I tell people this story all the time. You must really like me if you even went to a drive through for me.”

Dr. Z: I wouldn’t have done it. See I wouldn’t have done it. I wouldn’t. I was like I’m not going to. That’s where I get a little extreme. I’m not going to contribute to that.

Mama Z: I did. I was kind of like an ignoramus there in the drive-through. But you’ve got to like look at your options, though, for your family. Drive-through is not an option. And it’s not, because if you look at it that way, then guess what? When we get home from something and the kids are hungry, we have vegetable cups that we chop and pre-do, so that the kids can already start doing that while we’re heating something up, or we’re making something.

There are going to be those days when you don’t have time to get things together. And so during our prep and what not, we’ll make sure that we have options that are frozen or what not that are only going to take either taking it out of the freezer.

Dr. Z: It’s frozen because you made them ahead of time.

Mama Z: Right, exactly.

Dr. Z: When we do vegan taco dip this week, she’ll make two or three of them. And it’s so much easier. It’s so much easier to double it.

Mama Z: And I did the prep last week, and it’s so much easier.

Dr. Z: And then you freeze the other. So that is your frozen meal. And guess what? That’s pennies on the dollar compared to going to the store.

Mama Z: Right. And I’ll make them in different sizes. So it might be a batch of two or a batch of three. But then we’ll split it up, because then it will be a lot more. Like if you’re traveling, we’re going to use a smaller amount. Or if I have a bigger amount, and the schedule changes, then we’ll use what we use and put the leftover in a container and then freeze that.

Dr. Z: Yesterday’s dinner is today’s lunch, too.

Mama Z: Absolutely. And I’m going to tell you a really funny story. It’s like nothing goes to waste.

 

[21:53 – 25:21] Are You Following the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen?

Dr. Z: Whoa, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We’ve got to talk about the dirty dozen. We’ve got notes here.

Mama Z: Oh yea, we do.

Dr. Z: Mama Z is not a follow the notes kind of smurf here.

Mama Z: Well, I’m going to tell my.

Dr. Z: Oh, Sabrina, this is the only thing I’m remotely OCD on. This is the only thing that’s going to keep us on track.

Mama Z: I won’t do it right now. I’m going to do it under that.

Dr. Z: You make a note here. Okay, go talk about everything you want. I’m crossing off the list.

Mama Z: I’ll tell my pizza casserole story in a minute.

Dr. Z: Keeping her on track, y’all, is like bridling a wild horse. I would say donkey, but she would slap me later. But a wild horse.

Mama Z: I actually did play a donkey in the Christmas pageant.

Dr. Z: Hee-haw. Okay talk about that little point. You’re so ahead of us.

Mama Z: No. I’m going to talk about it, I put it on my list. It’s now in its rightful place.

Dr. Z: Okay.

Mama Z: Use everything.

Dr. Z: We’re talking about organic. Organic is not always necessary.

Mama Z: That’s right. We use the clean fifteen and the dirty dozen from The Environmental Working Group.

Dr. Z: What are those? And explain it?

Mama Z: So the clean fifteen are the things that there is either thicker skin or they don’t spray pesticides on them.

Dr. Z: Because the plants don’t need it.

Mama Z: The plants don’t need it.

Dr. Z: You can only get mangos in certain parts of the world. Like you can’t grow a mango tree in Georgia. So indigenously wild crafted plants don’t need the pesticides that a non-native plant does. And that’s the whole thing with essential oils. I don’t care if it’s organic in your backyard, if it’s not where they’re naturally grown, their chemical constituency won’t be as good. So the context to this is these plants don’t need pesticides if they’re grown properly. And what are the clean? These are the ones you don’t need to be wasting your money on organic, y’all. No organic.

Mama Z: Avocadoes, sweet corn, pineapples, cabbages, onions, sweet peas, papayas, asparagus, mangoes, egg plants, honey dew, kiwi, cantaloupe, cauliflower, and broccoli.

Dr. Z: Yep. Or you can go to ewg.org, and it’s right there, clean fifteen and dirty dozen. You can sign up with them. I’m sure they have a newsletter. You could get a wallet card kind of shopping guide?

Mama Z: Yea.

Dr. Z: You said sweet corn. This is important. You don’t need organic sweet corn. But what you need is non-GMO. That’s the important thing. So if you buy corn, which I love corn on the cob in summertime.

Mama Z: Right, and organic is non-GMO.

Dr. Z: Yes. So if you get organic sweet corn, it is non-GMO by nature. But don’t get regular conventional sweet corn unless it says non-GMO. Corn, like soy, cottonseed oil, and peanut, these are the most genetically modified organisms on the planet.

Mama Z: Yea, we should do a list one of these times on the top GMO.

Dr. Z: I’m sure the EWG has it, too. But that’s the only caveat. I want to explain that, because I don’t want people to go like, EWG, Dr. Z, and Mama Z said I can get regular corn. No, no, no–Non-GMO. Again, they just don’t need pesticides. But before we cover that, a word from our sponsor.

 

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Mama Z: Thankfully, we have a solution for you. And it’s called Air Doctor.

Dr. Z: Air Doctor’s Ultra HEPA Filter is one hundred times more effective than ordinary HEPA filters, and it’s able to capture 99.99 percent of allergens and pollutants, including dust, pollen, pet dander, mold spores, air born germs, bacteria, and viruses.

Mama Z: And the best part is there is not installation required. And you’ll be able to smell the difference in your home in minutes.

Dr. Z: As a special gift to our Natural Living Family podcast listeners, Air Doctor is giving you three hundred dollars off when you buy through our special podcast link.

Mama Z: Simply go to NaturalLivingFamilyPodcast.com to find the special links you can redeem this deal on the show note from today’s episode.

 

[26:28 – 28:42] The Fruits and Veggies You MUST Buy Organic!

Dr. Z: That’s the thing about corn and the way that it’s hybridized and GMO is a whole different reason. But these are the safe ones. Now what’s the dirty dozen? These are the plants right?

Mama Z: Yes. And this is like a general rule of thumb there with the dirty dozen. Any of your greens and berries are usually the most pesticide crop. So our dirty dozen that we want to make sure you buy organic are strawberries, spinach, nectarines, apples, grapes, peaches, cherries, pears, tomatoes, celery, potatoes, and sweet bell peppers.

Dr. Z: Yep. And the key is in season. So right now, spring time, April 1, April Fool’s Day.

Mama Z: April Fool’s Day.

Dr. Z: Blueberries aren’t in season, unless it’s in a farm unnaturally, or it’s in a place where they shouldn’t be. But blueberries are naturally season around the summertime, June, July, August in most parts of America. That’s when you go to the grocery store and blueberries are dirt cheap. Why? Because there’s a ton of them. Right now, organic blueberries are more expensive than when they will be in the summertime.

So here’s what you do. Don’t buy and waste your money on organic blueberries right now. If you want some organic blueberries, get them frozen. It’s a super cheap way of getting blueberries frozen. If you want fresh blueberries, eat them in season and eat a ton of them and have fun.

And this lifestyle that we’re condoning is a lifestyle that God designed since the very beginning of time. And I’m convinced that if God wanted us to eat blueberries every single day, if God wanted us to eat bananas every day, these fruits would be naturally in season all the time. It would be natural harvesting. We would be able to harvest them and they would be fruitful all the time.

But that’s not how it is. Plants have growing season, harvest season, and there’s dormant season. And so when you get into this cycle of life, back again to the seasons of life, you save a lot more money.

[28:38 – 34:17] Do You Know How to Navigate the Farmer’s Market?

And that’s where the farmer’s market comes into play. So help people navigate the farmer’s market, because you have a lot of experience with that.

Mama Z: And I want to say, too, at Costco they supply where they are growing these berries. And they’re doing that organically. And they do have a lot of organic options, as well as your health food store. So they’re getting it from organic sources as well. So if it is something that you enjoy and it did make the dirty dozen list, then there’s still a lot of ability for being able to purchase those things.

Dr. Z: Yea, but in general, though, things are a lot cheaper in season.

Mama Z: Oh yea.

Dr. Z: That’s the moral of the story. I’m saying wait until summer time to get your nectarines. And wait until fall and winter to get your apples and your pears.

Mama Z: Right now is citrus season. And so there are tons of citrus.

Dr. Z: They’re super cheap.

Mama Z: But it’s nice because even when you do want those things, is what I’m saying, is that it’s there and available and at a decent price, because they’re buying from a place that it is in season. One of the things about running a farmer’s market and having our family sell at a farmer’s market for over thirty-five years is that there is a big difference from the beginning of the season to the end of the season. And, you know, people are selling what’s in season.

But if you recognize that most of our food travels over twelve-hundred miles before it ever hits the grocery store, so it has to have them picked out of season in order for it to be ripe enough when we pick it up. That’s why some things don’t look ripe when you pick them up. Or some berries aren’t hundred percent ripe; or some are overdone. And so our food is traveling that far away, and so you’re losing the nutrients as it has been picked and all of those days that it’s been traveling.

So it is awesome to get farmer’s market food. But there is a thing, and this is one of the reasons why when I ran our farmer’s market, I made each one of the farmers say whether they made it naturally or locally, whether they bought it from other Michigan farmers, or if they bought it outside of Michigan.

Dr. Z: Some of these farmers would buy watermelon from Wal-Mart and sell them.

Mama Z: Oh my gosh, yea.

Dr. Z: Isn’t that crazy? Farmer’s market.

Mama Z: The only time we had to kick somebody out.

Dr. Z: It had the same stickers on it. Uh oh.

Mama Z: So what happened was that they marketed it. And this is a problem here, too, because people, they’re called jobbers, and they just buy it off of the Detroit Tarmac or Atlanta Tarmac and then sell it as their own.

Dr. Z: That’s horrible.

Mama Z: So a lot of the farmers like to bring pictures of their farm and develop relationships with people so they can see that they actually were the ones that grew it. And this one guy, he said, yea, yea, these are my organic watermelons, until he forgot to take the sticker off. And so we had to do like a drive-by. I had our employee do a drive-by of his house. His wife had all these flowers and stuff. Anyway, there was just a bunch of weeds over there. There was nothing growing over there, not at all. So he was selling his organic watermelons.

Dr. Z: Mama Z, the farmer’s market police here.

Mama Z: It was like recon.

Dr. Z: I never knew that.

Mama Z: Yea!

Dr. Z: That’s why I love doing these podcasts, seriously. We come out with these things.

Mama Z: Oh my gosh. And I learned so much from that guy.

Dr. Z: You’re so diligent.

Mama Z: I can’t wait to tell when I talk about our gardening how I came up with our mobile greenhouse. I don’t know if you remember this.

Dr. Z: Hey, go to OrganicGardenClass.com. You can watch Mama Z’s free mini-master class. And you’ll learn all about her mini-mobile greenhouse, which is cool. But yea, check it out. There are so many things. So this is cool, though. You need to learn. And let me clarify, because you made a good point. When I say in season, in season to where you live. Again, go back a thousand years ago. You would never eat anything than what was local to you within fifteen to twenty miles at the most.

So yes, we’re getting a lot of food from California. If you who live in America or if you live in other parts of the world, you get a lot of food from Mexico or other places or Hawaii. But the reality is locally grown food in season is what God designed us to eat and consume. So just be careful.

Mama Z: And the thing is, if you know the farmers and you talk to them, you can talk about all of the things. Not all of the farmers have the money that it takes and the time that it takes to get the organic certifications, but they don’t use spray, and they’ll talk about that.

Dr. Z: Wild crafted.

Mama Z: It was so funny, my close girlfriend, she lives where there are lots of potato farms. And they would take the ditch water and pump it into the potatoes. She was like, “I know which farmers do it and which farmers don’t. And I’m going to tell you, there’s a few of those farmers, because I know where they live, and I know exactly what they’re doing over there.”

Dr. Z: That’s not cool.

Mama Z: So it’s good to talk to them, because then you can get more of what you want. And the pricing is even more comparable, because they’re not doing some of the more conventional things. And they’re not using spray and all of that stuff.

 

[34:11 – 42:34] More Money-Saving Grocery Shopping Strategies

Anyway, it’s just really good to know where you’re buying your food. And if you can buy local, buy local. It’s worth the extra little money, because you are literally cutting out all the middle men that are trying to really make the produce not even worth its value. And that is going right back into your local community. And my heart is definitely, being that I worked for the chamber of commerce, to buy local. And it’s just so important. So when you can, buy local, and if your local health food store does carry local produce.

Like the Natural Food Patch in Ferndale, Michigan, we would go there. There was always amazing produce. And their produce looked so good all the time. And they freshly stock it. I really, really, really like the companies that are able to do that. And not everyone is because there are lots of options out there.

And you know what happens when the produce goes bad. Not everybody has a prepared foods department. I was talking to a lady that worked for Whole Foods. And she said, you know, when the stuff is starting to turn, they’re able to turn it to a prepared food, so they don’t have any waste; or into juice and other stuff like that. Where a local health food store, for the most part, if they don’t have a café or what not, they’re not able to do that. And so they will lose a lot more of their produce.

Dr. Z: So one thing that we’ve adopted, and I want to give a fun little plug to our friend, Tiffany Crumbs. Our daughters went to school together for a couple of years. Go to DontWasteTheCrumbs.com. Tiffany has a really fun e-course that shows you how–and her whole website is full of these tips–you can live on a really tight budget. She’s like feed a family of four for four-hundred dollars a month and she will show you how to do it.

And she was actually the same time that we were when we had Christian Broadcasting Network come by. We introduced CBN to our friend, Tiffany. And they did a write-up on her. And I saw the segment. She did a great job, by the way. So check it out. Go to CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, and type up Tiffany Crumbs, or “Don’t Waste the Crumbs.” You should be able to find it.

And she did a shopping tour at Kroger, at one of the local supermarkets. And what she did was she goes, okay, we all know that certain cheese–she’s health conscious. Now she doesn’t take it to the level that we do. We seem to take things to the nth degree. But that’s us.

Mama Z: Maybe that’s because you’re such an extremist.

Dr. Z: I am.

Mama Z: And I’m organized.

Dr. Z: And so one thing I really like about Tiffany is she doesn’t want to compromise. She’s like look, we all know that regular meat is bad for you, the hormones and all the junk that they feed the cattle. So you want to do grass fed and wild caught fish if you can.

And she goes, here what you do. Like you shop, and she has her little routine. She goes whenever I see the sale, the special of the food that’s on half off, she’ll go, I’ll buy five or six of them. And then I’ll freeze the rest. So yes, you don’t need to buy the organic grass fed beef at full price every week. Maybe you go a month without eating grass fed beef. But that’s the month that you have some extra wild caught fish that’s healthy that you got because you bought five packages of it.

And it kind of like dawned on me, we’ve been doing this, but we never put it into words. One reason why Sabrina doesn’t like me going grocery shopping is when I see a special, I’ll get a hundred of it.

Mama Z: Yes.

Dr. Z: We save so much money.

Mama Z: It was so funny. So like I told the lady at Costco that my husband had bought ninety-nine boxes of something. And he was afraid we were going to run out.

Dr. Z: I really did. It was years ago. It was a close out sale. I’m like we love it; let’s get it all.

Mama Z: And we ended up donating a lot of it to churches.

Dr. Z: We did. It was a good write-off.

Mama Z: There you go. But the funny thing was, the next time I came through the line, because I know all the people at our Costco. We have friends that work there. But I have known these people. I see them every week. I love my Costco people. And she goes, hey, did your husband go shopping the other day? Because this guy came in and had one of these flatbeds, and he had like a hundred things of the same thing on there, and I thought of your husband. Was it him?

Dr. Z: Okay, I don’t do a hundred. So a couple of months ago, and I forget what it’s called. I’ve got to go upstairs to the pantry and find it.

Mama Z: Oh my gosh!

Dr. Z: This is heaven. If heaven had a taste, it would be this. My first job was Baskin Robbins. I loved–not love–I loved Baskin Robbins hot fudge. It was yum. Or Sanders. Oh, actually I take that back. In Michigan there was a chain called Sanders Ice Cream. Sanders hot fudge was just heaven on earth.

Mama Z: Oh, chocolate is not my love.

Dr. Z: I love chocolate. And I haven’t had hot fudge in forever because I haven’t found a good replacement. And I haven’t really taken the time to come up with my own version of one. I have my own little makeshift chocolate. But I’m talking hot fudge.

Mama Z: And you like the one I made that I made for you a while ago. But it took a lot of time.

Dr. Z: But this is different. Yours was a little runny. This was hot fudge.

Mama Z: It was not runny.

Dr. Z: I love you! It was.

Mama Z: It was firm. It was extra firm. And you loved it.

Dr. Z: No, it was firm because it was cold. It was hard. But when it got hot, it was runny. You’re taking my punch line from me, woman. Seriously.

Mama Z: No I’m not.

Dr. Z: You got me off. I got to get back. This is important.

Mama Z: It’s so important.

Dr. Z: There’s this heaven on earth thing. I forget what it’s called. But it’s date sweetened, with cacao and ghee, which is a really healthy clarified butter. And I would never buy this stuff full price, at least not ten of them. And it was like thirteen bucks for this jar. And I bought it and I gave a spoonful to everyone that was working at this little health food store, because they’ve never had it before. I’m like try this. This tastes like heaven on earth. And so it was half off.

And every health food store I had ever been to always has this little cart half off section. And check and look, because you might find something that they just want to clear the shelves, because by law they can’t sell something that has an expiration date. Man, a lot of these things, unless it’s like cheese or milk or whatever, expiration dates are useless for a lot of stuff.

So I bought ten of these things at half off.

Mama Z: Oh my gosh! And he comes home and he says, “I have surprises.”

Dr. Z: It was great.

Mama Z: And I’m like, oh man, where are we going to put it?

Dr. Z: And it’s been three months, and we’re still eating it.

Mama Z: And I’m like, listen, we only have this much space in our totes for this.

Dr. Z: Well, we got it. So that’s the moral of the story. Yes, that is really expensive on its own, if you buy it full price. But wait until it goes on sale. Wait until it goes on half off. And if you’re like Tiffany Crumbs, if you’re like me, get three or four or five, maybe ten. Don’t get a hundred.

Mama Z: Let’s call it out, though. If you go in the mall, you’re like, oh my gosh, that store says it has got eighty percent off. I must probably get something.

Dr. Z: Okay, you’re wearing the fruit of my labor.

Mama Z: No, my outfit is from Costco.

Dr. Z: No, your jewelry.

Mama Z: Oh, that’s not from Costco.

Dr. Z: Okay, you condemn and criticize me when it’s me-related or kid-related, food-related. But when I see a jewelry store going on a sale and I buy you a thousand dollars worth of jewelry that I’ll end up giving to you over the course of two years. That’s what I’ll do, y’all.

Mama Z: Yea, he’s got some stuff up there that I haven’t even seen.

Dr. Z: Yea, I’ve got things. You know, you see a deal; not like a thousand bucks, but it’s usually a couple of hundred dollars worth. That’s birthday, Christmas, anniversary, Hanukkah, all of them. I’ve got them all down.

Mama Z: Hanukkah?

Dr. Z: Yea, we’ll celebrate Hanukkah, too. Why not?

Mama Z: Hey, I’m down with that.

Dr. Z: But you’re wearing the fruit of my labor, because you’re wearing your crystals.

Mama Z: Yes.

Dr. Z: Criticize it, but go to DontWasteTheCrumbs.com. And be cognizant that there are deals and specials out there. And that’s how you save money. Again, don’t ever buy expensive stuff, unless it’s a treat, at full price.

 

[42:30 – 47:19] Isn’t It Automatically Healthy If It’s Gluten Free?

But one thing before we touch on the no clean plate club, I have a note here about gluten free. One of the worst things that’s happened to the health industry is this gluten-free movement that has just been an excuse for the worst possible processed foods to come out on the market that are filled with sugar, filled with junk.

Mama Z: Right. And a lot of the companies that were previously locally owned have been bought out by bigger manufacturers. So they’ve changed ingredients and done things like that.

Dr. Z: Like Kellogg’s and Coca-Cola, these companies bought out a lot of the…

Mama Z: Smaller. Yea, and so you have to just be like really cognizant. Some brands they have not changed the price or the ingredients, and other ones they definitely have.

Dr. Z: So there are only a couple. Like what’s the one we really like-the only treat, the only cookie that I would ever get?

Mama Z: Simple Mills, the ones that don’t have the chocolate chips in them, because the chocolate chips do have sugar.

Dr. Z: But they’re sweetened with?

Mama Z: Coconut sugar.

Dr. Z: Yea, coconut sugar. But they’re made with cassava or almond flour. You can get them on Thrive Market, Whole Foods, your local health food store. Other than that, and I kid you not, ninety-five percent of all that gluten-free stuff for the most part is just not good for you.

Mama Z: Right.

Dr. Z: And that’s why we say save your money. And that’s where we see a lot of people throw money away.

Mama Z: When you’re on our essential oils diet, and we have people that are doing our challenge right now. And like at first, people are like is this going to cost more money and all this stuff? And I’m like, not really, because if you’re not buying the breads and the this and that that’s all gluten-free, and you’re focusing on the vegetables and the fruits and the things that are much more important to focus on, especially as you’re resetting your body. And like overwhelmingly people are so surprised that they are able to maintain it. When they’re buying all fresh salads and greens and vegetables and fruits and all of that stuff, their prices, you’re not paying five dollars a bag for bread and other stuff like that.

Dr. Z: But we do because we have kids and we don’t bake all of our bread. So what’s the gluten-free bread that you recommend?

Mama Z: Yea, so I really recommend the Sami’s bread, because it’s cultured, too. So it’s like a probiotic bread.

Dr. Z: And it’s frozen. And that’s the other thing, too. You’re not going to find typically good, fresh anything gluten-free that you can get. Now Target has their, what’s it called, Balance, what’s it called? They actually have a pretty decent gluten-free bread. Whatever the Target brand is, they’re simply Balance brand. Just make sure you always look at the ingredients. And look for sugar, cane syrup. All this stuff is bad for you. And that’s just the bottom line. You’ll save a ton of money just not buying a lot of these gluten-free things.

And you know, there are some gluten-free pizzas. Like the kids like the Daiya cheese gluten-free pizzas. There are a couple of little treats. And those get a little pricey, ten dollars for a pizza, I think.

Mama Z: Actually it’s less now.

Dr. Z: Oh.

Mama Z: Yea. It can be $5.99. That’s the cheapest I’ve paid. But, you know, it all depends on the sales and stuff like that.

Dr. Z: But you could really lose your budget if you’re buying everything gluten free.

Mama Z: Oh yea.

Dr. Z: And I’m seeing the most ridiculous things now. Like I’m seeing popcorn labels that say gluten free. Manufacturers as a whole are taking advantage of this craze that people are trying to reduce gluten from their diet. And they’re just jacking up prices, and it’s just not healthy. And again, most of the gluten-free cookies and snacks are just trash.

Mama Z: Right.

Dr. Z: Make your own. At the end of the day, there’s no way around it.

Mama Z: And we have our own popcorn maker.

Dr. Z: Oh I love that freshly made popcorn, coconut oil, like an old school little whatever it’s called.

Mama Z: I know, we’re going to have a date night tomorrow with the kids, a movie night. And we might have to have Daddykins whip that thing out, and a little nutritional yeast.

Dr. Z: I just like Himalayan salt.

Mama Z: It’s so good, though.

Dr. Z: So anyway, these are the things you can save your money. We’ve already talked about organic. Go to Tiffany Crumbs at dontwastethecrumbs.com. Buy things in bulk if you can, or buy the things that are on sale. Buy a few at a time. Use those things. Like there’s a whole shift where we’re looking for things that really healthy.

 

[47:13 – 54:33] Are You a Member of the Clean Plate Club?

Mama Z: So the next point is there’s no more clean plate club. When I was growing up, you had to be a member of the clean plate club. If you weren’t a member of the clean plate club, then you didn’t even qualify for dessert. So the thing is that when you’re eighty percent full, you’re full. And the rest of the food is still coming down. And you have to make sure that you don’t overstuff yourself. And so if you’re at that point, then that’s the time to take whatever is left on there and save it for tomorrow, for tomorrow’s lunch. Build upon that.

And so we offer the leftover food to the kids. So Isaiah is so funny. If one of the kids is not a hundred percent done with something

Dr. Z: Yea, Isaiah is our eight-year-old, and boy he’s growing now.

Mama Z: Yea, he’s in a growth spurt.

Dr. Z: He’s like, are you done with that?

Mama Z: Yea, and he will volunteer to like clean up the other plates. And he’s like the skinniest little guy. He’s kind of like a bottomless pit. I mean he is, but in a good way.

And I have a funny story. My daughter, the baby, we do pizza Fridays. We make a healthy pizza on Friday. Anyway, so she has a thing where she eats all the toppings off of the pizza and doesn’t eat the bread. So, I had an idea. I know that my son loves my red sauce that I make, like loves it. So I had an idea that I would take all the bread and I would put pasta sauce on it and then put our healthy cheese on top.

Dr. Z: Daiya cheese, or if you make homemade cashew cheese.

Mama Z: Cashew cheese, yep. And also they have a good coconut oil cheese out there as well. Anyway, it was so funny because I lined it up in there. And I said, Isaiah, would you like pizza casserole?

Dr. Z: Oh, smart.

Mama Z: And he goes, “Well, yea, of course. It sounds real good. What is it?” And then I told him. He’s like, yea. And then the other kids were like what is he eating? And I said he’s eating pizza casserole. And they were like, why didn’t we get some? So I make it like a fun thing. So leftovers for them. And we offer those things with lunch, with other things. But we do not waste any of the crumbs.

So when I make a wild caught salmon, then I’ll make a batch of organic brown rice or basmati rice. And what I’ll do is I will double up the rice so that it will be like a cup of rice. And anybody that wants to have rice, and some of them like rice and some don’t. But whatever is left of the rice I will turn into rice pudding, and just take the leftovers and turn it into something else. I know pretty much after that, and I really like my salmon on a bed of greens. And I know that will be a great dessert for the other kids. And it doesn’t even have to be today.

Dr. Z: The same thing with quinoa, because in our book, The Essential Oils Diet, go to EssentialOilsDiet.com and get it. We have leftover autumn bake, which is the title our publisher helped us put together. But basically it’s leftover quinoa, leftover rice, or leftover whatever you have. And you can mix it with some eggs and mix it with some coconut milk and with some stevia. And boom, you’ve got yourself a sweet little dessert.

Mama Z: Yea. So sometimes my daughter, Bella, will also do kind of a similar thing with a sandwich or whatever. So if she does that…

Dr. Z: A bread pudding.

Mama Z: Then, well yea. We’ll mix it with eggs. We’ll turn it into something almost like a French toast dish type thing.

Dr. Z: From the bread crust?

Mama Z: Yea.

Dr. Z: Perfect. So don’t throw it away.

Mama Z: So we don’t waste any of that stuff. And like I said, when we make certain dishes, there are always ways to use them for another dish. So we do that all the time. And bread crust to bread pudding.

And then, you know, when we make our veggie broth, we use all different kinds of vegetables. Like I said, my favorite vegetable is beets. And so we’ll put beets in the vegetable broth. We’ll use carrots and celery and all of these things, especially if I notice that we have like an extra amount of certain things. And we’re talking like the real carrots, like the ones that are like long and look like the carrots that come out of the garden, not the mini-carrots. We’re using like the real food in our veggie broth.

And even my pickiest son, you had such a good idea. You’re like yea, he’s probably not going to want all the chunks in this. So he put it in the Vitamix.

Dr. Z: You had beets and you had big veggie chunks. It was great by the way.

Mama Z: I loved it. And so you buzzed it up. And he was talking about mama’s red soup. And he saw I had beet juice. He goes is that your soup? Why aren’t you sharing it with me?

Dr. Z: He liked it.

Mama Z: And then he told everybody on the field trip, he goes my mom makes the best red soup. It was so cute.

Dr. Z: From leftover vegetables and things like that.

Mama Z: Yea, just all kinds of vegetables.

Dr. Z: So folks, it is a way of life that you will start to embrace, and let your creativity flow. Pick up The Essential Oils Diet book, because you will get so many more ideas. And you will learn other time saving shopping hacks and tips along the way. And you know what, I think we should cut this one short here because there’s no way we’re going to be able to cover healthy travel. You know what I think?

Mama Z: No, I have it boiled down to a couple of things. I do.

Dr. Z: Okay. Chris is like cutting us off here. Chris is like you guys are plump like a turkey. You guys are done.

Mama Z: No we’re not.

Dr. Z: No, but hold on. In the book, we cover special occasions. We cover travel. We cover holidays.

Mama Z: But this is very quick. And the healthy travel, the thing is—

Dr. Z: How do we make this like our Natural Living Family tip?

Mama Z: Well, I’m going to tell them how to do it with that in our tip.

Dr. Z: There’s nothing short about you, though. You’re not a short-winded smurf. There’s nothing short about anything.

Mama Z: Listen, mister, I’ll give the Reader’s Digest version. So listen.

Dr. Z: This should be a whole episode, though.

Mama Z: I mean, we can. But I want to give them just the tidbits, because we promised. We can’t under deliver. We under promise and over deliver. That’s what we do.

Dr. Z: Two minutes.

 

[54:28 – 57:11] Natural Living Tip: Eating and Traveling

Dr. Z: And to wrap up today’s show, we have a special natural living tip for you.

Mama Z: So when we travel, it doesn’t matter if it’s Michigan, Disney, other places, when we go somewhere, whether it’s for business or personal, I have a go bag. So our kids have a go bag. That’s like their favorite toys they’re going to play with in the car and all of that stuff. So we can prep those things early.

But with the food, we have our staples that have to go with us everywhere. And I have them in one, it’s a square Whole Foods like freezer bag. And it’s absolutely filled. And we bring our kind of salts. We bring all of the seasonings, the dressing that we like, which is the real olive oil and the balsamic vinegar, all the different staples that we use within the house.

And then we actually have a list. We have a list of the things that we need to bring. We have a list of the things that our B and B or where we’re going need to have, or we need to bring them. And then we have a list of the things that we need to get once we get there. And so we do different things for different places.

So people said to me, “Well, what did you do when you went to Cancun or when you fly somewhere?” And I’ve done this a number of times now. But I have what’s called a food suitcase. And so if you take the things that you can’t live without that they probably won’t have there, it’s important to be able to have those. You can get fresh fruits and vegetables and that kind of stuff anywhere. You can make things on the fly and really pre-plan what you’re going to do for your meals and all of that stuff.

But there are certain things that you may or may not be able to buy. And one thing I didn’t realize is that when we traveled to Mexico that everything was going to be in Spanish and I don’t speak Spanish. So I keep getting calls from Eric, hey our driver has to go right now.

Dr. Z: Well, you were in the grocery store for like two hours.

Mama Z: But I had to keep looking at my phone and like Google translate things, because I had to make sure that certain ingredients didn’t contain sugar and other things like that.

Dr. Z: Two minutes is almost up.

Mama Z: I was like sans gluten, what’s that? And so I had to figure it out.

So anyway, bring your staples that you’re not going to be able to find there. And the things that you know you’re going to be able to find wherever you’re going, then get those there as well.

 

[57:12 – end] Episode WrapUp

Dr. Z: And don’t forget, as a special gift to our Natural Living Family podcast listeners, Air Doctor is giving you three hundred dollars off their portable air purification system so that you and your family can enjoy pure clean air in your home all day long.

Mama Z: Simply go to NaturalLivingFamilypodcast.com to find the special link so you can redeem this deal on the show notes from today’s episode.

Dr. Z: And just as a reminder, you can find all the Natural Living Family podcast episodes and show notes and transcripts on NaturalLivingFamilypodcast.com. And while on our website, don’t forget to sign up for our weekly podcast newsletter, which includes a personal invite to join one of our private Facebook groups so you can connect with Mama Z and me one on one, and so you can also meet thousands of other natural living lovers just like you. And don’t forget, please subscribe to our podcast and leave a review. We love hearing what you have to say about the show.

Mama Z: Awesome!

Dr. Z: Well, Dr. Z here.

Mama Z: And Mama Z.

Dr. Z: And as always, our hope and prayer is that you and your family truly experience the abundant life. And April fools.

Mama Z: And we’re not doing any of that. And I’m not pregnant. I’m not pregnant.

Dr. Z: I don’t know. You might want to take a pregnancy test. Who knows? Oh man! God bless y’all. Bye bye.

Mama Z: Bye.

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