39: Celebrity Green Home Trends

Narrator

How would you like to improve your health and keep your family safe? You're listening to that healthy home hacks podcast where we firmly believe in joining optimal health shouldn't be a luxury. healthy home authorities and husband and wife team Ron and Lisa will help you create a home environment that will level up your health. It's time to hear from the expert. listen in on honest conversations and gain the best tips and advice. If you're ready to dive in and improve your well-being and increase your energy, you're in the right place. All right, here are your hosts, Baubiologists, authors, media darlings, vicarious vegans and avocado aficionados. Ron and Lisa Beres.

Ron Beres

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now that's a Chinese proverb. Welcome to today's show. In today's day and age, making green choices and living a healthier lifestyle is becoming less of a luxury and more of a norm. Researchers have even predicted a shift in future trends that non-green will not survive.

Lisa Beres

in nearly every purchasing decision you make. Ask yourself if the short-term savings are really worth the long-term price tag on your health and the planet. Everything in our lifestyle. What we eat touch where and used to furnish our homes is linked to our health and wellbeing our genetics loading the gun and environment and lifestyle choices pulling the trigger as many have previously thought. We have allowed a society with an innocent until proven guilty mentality in everything from pesticides and plastics to lead tobacco, asbestos and pharmaceuticals. In the US chemicals are typically regulated after studies indicate potential harm exists, and a regulatory review is conducted. With so many untested and unregulated harmful chemicals and the products that surround us. It's no wonder that people get sick.

Ron Beres

Through the highways of cyberspace information has become ubiquitous. You might think it's easy to make educated choices, but who really has the time in our fast paced 21st century technology thriving world to do all of the researching. If you're not, there is a green light at the end of the tunnel. Our guest today is here to inform and educate us and how to live a healthier lifestyle. While empowering you. Michelle Harris is the host of alive and well a national television series promoting wellness lifestyle that is syndicated nationwide, reaching over 90 million households on cable satellite and select broadcast stations coast to coast. Michelle is one of media's leading lifestyle experts and is a frequent guest on TV shows, radio shows, magazine interviews, red carpets and live events. Michelle is also the co-founder of Animal Angels, a nonprofit advocacy group where celebrities promote pet health and adoptions. Welcome, Michelle. Hi, Ron and Lisa. Virtually thank you so much for having me today. Oh my god, you just wake up and this is all just there's no clutter.

Lisa Beres

It's just full hair and makeup and beautiful table top. And wow. If you're listening to the podcast, head on over to the YouTube so you can see all this because we're going to be getting into this some today some of the stuff that we're going to be talking about solutions. But welcome Michelle, it is so great to have you. We're really excited to meet at least virtually today and like pick your brain on a lot of this that we're going to go over with sustainable living.

Michelle Harris

I am so excited. And we are actually in my own home right now. I'm in what was my dining room. Our home is not a LEED home because it wasn't built ground up. This is an older home, that we actually made green ourselves. So, I'm excited to talk to you about it.

Lisa Beres

I love that. I think that's really important. We're in this exact same boat Michelle with our home, we didn't build it from the ground up. And so, we just did the changes that we could do with what we had. And I think so many people are in that boat, especially the listeners. I mean, we're not all building multimillion-dollar green dream homes. These tips are really practical, what we're going to go over today because they're going to apply to everybody, no matter where you are, where you're living, and really what your budget is. So, I want to get started. And can you share with our listeners what biggest celebrity home wellness trends you're seeing right now?

Michelle Harris

Well, there are so many and obviously how you kind of started the show today. Green is just taking off. I'm so excited to see it. I think what's really happened is a couple of things is that over the pandemic We've all spent more time in our homes. And we're also kind of getting the correlation between what's going on in our homes in our environment, and how that affects our health. And there's so many ways and one thing people don't realize is that so much of the toxins were exposed to are right here in our own homes, right. So, we really want to use these great home trends and bring them into our own lives. And one of the things that I like about this celebrity trends is they get a lot of attention. Yeah. If you look at someone like Leonardo DiCaprio.

Lisa Beres

Name dropping the poster child for celebrity green living.

Michelle Harris

Exactly now, on a multimillion-dollar scale, but a lot of the things that he likes to do, we can do ourselves, right. And one of them is, of course, he happens to have a couple of LEED Platinum residences. So, like you were saying, Lisa, we all can't have a LEED Platinum residence. Right?

Lisa Beres

I know, especially in California, right?

Michelle Harris

Exactly. Most of us are buying a home that it's not brand new, which is more environmentally friendly. But we want our home environment to be really, really, you know, just as clean as it can be. And not only in the visual sense, but in terms of the chemicals, we're exposing ourselves to the materials. So, a lot of the home trends are taken from these lead celebrity homes, one of which is bamboo flooring, or using something like quartz, something that is renewable and sustainable. That's really a big home trend. And I think when you're going into homes right now, as a remodeling, you're seeing a lot of that in the flooring, and definitely, especially here in California, using no VOC paints. Yeah. Think about how many chemicals are getting into your home environment, if you're breathing in those volatile organic compounds, right, that's another big home trend.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, and, um, and that's a great point, Michelle, a lot of people are getting low VOC. But with the regulations getting more stringent, especially in California and bigger cities, the paints are being sold with lower VOC�s than they used to have. But it's really important to just get the zero VOC because all the manufacturers really offer that now. And there's kind of no excuse you're not sacrificing performance anymore, like you used to.

Michelle Harris

And at the same time, people don't realize that if you have allergies, it's all connected, the noise to see pain is not only going to help you from exposure to toxins, it may not realize you're getting but it's going to help your allergies and it doesn't have that horrible smell. Right? When you're painting your house, you'd have to get out of it for a week.

Lisa Beres

Right? Exactly. Yeah, that new home smell that people think is so fresh and clean and wonderful is really just chemicals. That's my journey, I got sick from a newly remodeled home. And I thought it was great. I thought it was an amazing to have all these newly remodeled parts of the home. Turns out it made me severely ill. And we have to remember that association, is it positive, it's actually negative, those chemicals are a negative smell. And if you smell them, you're inhaling them and breathing them in.

Michelle Harris

And that's what I try and say to people about being green and sustainable. Every single thing is connected. Yeah. So, if it's, you know, if it's bad for the environment, it's usually bad for us, right? Yeah, we just, you know, have to keep the connection going and let people see it. Right now, I think especially with what happened with gas prices, because of the pipeline, people are seeing, hey, you know, I drive a Prius, or I drive an electric vehicle, this isn't going to affect me. So, it's just all these things, we're seeing how important this is. But kind of getting back to our,

Lisa Beres

That's a great point. Like your house is an extension of your body, like I've heard it called you know, your other skin, right? Your other layer. And so, I think that's a great way to look at it because it really is the place, we spend the most time 90% of our time indoors. And so, think about a lot of people just don't pay attention to that this kind of stuff, the flooring, the paint, things that you know that you're spending so much time around.

Michelle Harris

Exactly. And also keep in mind with your cleaning products, believe it or not, it's a celebrity trend, I doubt they clean their own houses. Many of them have their own product lines, right kind of makes it a trend now because they're getting involved with these green cleaning product companies. And that's what we want to use in your own home. You don't want to be spraying again, toxic chemicals, that while you're cleaning, you're inhaling or if someone else is cleaning your house, they stay there. So, you know using green cleaning products is a very inexpensive way that we can help ourselves and help the environment at the same time.

Ron Beres

So, do you have any favorites that you like, personally that you use them house?

Michelle Harris

I use an assortment. I'm a big fan. I hate to say it. I just like a 365. Yeah, yeah, that's very good. You know, this is Myers. Yeah, like some method.

Lisa Beres

I'm like you, Michelle, I'm the exact same. It's like the cornucopia of brands, for sure. Because like, Oh, I like the wood polish and this brand. But I like the floor cleaner in this brand. So, you kind of pick and choose. But I think its kind of shocking today that we even have toxic cleaners still available with the amount of natural green brands out there. And even unhealthy brands have their, their green line, right? You have a lot of the big, the big juggernauts that came up with their sustainable line. So, and these are not more expensive, they're readily available, there's really no reason to be cleaning with toxic cleaners anymore.

Michelle Harris

And Windex makes a green cleaner. That's made out of vinegar at your local grocery store, it's super easy.

Lisa Beres

Yeah. Or make your own.

Ron Beres

They really, they make a vinegar cleaner?

Lisa Beres

They took out the fragrance and the coloring probably. And I you know; Ron and I make our own. We just do vinegar and water. And we put in some essential oil and talk about like very inexpensive and very, very.

Ron Beres

A nice cleaner too. Like cleaning the produce. And then I clean the windows afterwards?

Lisa Beres

Yeah, it's like a one stop shop. It's like one bottle. We use it for everything. Yeah, vinegar is amazing. And a lot of people go, oh, but the vinegar smell, well just throw in a few drops of essential oil. And you've just cut the smell. And it works like amazing.

Michelle Harris

And it's so expensive. Yeah. So, it doesn't have to be, you know, that's why I was saying the 365 products in the Method products are great because they're either generic or method you can buy at Target. And it's very inexpensive. So, it doesn't have to be really expensive. And if you don't feel like you know, mixing vinegar, or using baking soda, if you want to buy a product, they're just so easy to get and good for you. And great. And I think a lot of them include the essential oils, they have a really amazing smell, which I find the commercial products sometimes can be perfumey.

Lisa Beres

Oh, so perfumey. Right. They're nauseating, because they really are using synthetic fragrances. And as we know those synthetic fragrances can hide hundreds of chemicals. So, under that one word right on the ingredient label. So yeah, it's always better to stick with what grandma used to clean with. Go back to the basics, whether you buy it and I like your point there because not everybody does have time to whip up a cleaner and make their own. So, you know, go out and buy the healthy brand and support her enough to get the time to clean. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Yep.

Ron Beres

Yeah. So, going from health to sustainability. Can you shed some light on how sustainability factors into some of these trends? You mentioned that you had bamboo flooring, right? Yes. Is that a trend? Or is that just a personal taste that you have now?

Michelle Harris

That is a big trend. Well, just sustainable flooring in general, using materials that are sustainable if people are using wood, a lot of times it's reclaimed or repurposed wood. You know, the bamboo is obviously very quick growing, right? That's one of the reasons why I like it, you can get it all different shades we kind of went with you know what I consider your normal bamboo book for the people who are watching on YouTube. You can see I have this beautiful kind of creamy flooring. Obviously, the grays really popular right now but you can find that in a lot of different materials. But I also really liked the look of the reclaimed flooring as well. Yes, I want to make sure if you've ever been to where they're cutting down forests, you know for lumber, and you see how valuable it is to have materials like bamboo that you can go ahead and cut it and it's going to grow up like a weed.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, doesn't it grow like three feet per day? Maybe that's even an underestimation.

Michelle Harris

I know crazy. It's crazy. It can even be invasive in your yard. Because that's how quick it grows right? Like keep it in a box if you're growing in your in your home yard.

Lisa Beres

Oh, that's funny. I mean I'm seeing your floors they're gorgeous. I think nowadays you can get that in every color right it when they first came out it was like kind of more natural but I think now you can get it in darker woods too right? Oh yes, a variety of colors to choose from today. And what would you say to people who ask what about the formaldehyde you know, that became a real big issue with imported bamboo that was coming from China that was laced with formaldehyde.

Michelle Harris

Ours does not have any formaldehyde in use when make sure it says formaldehyde free. We actually knew the person. We got the bamboo from and so you know everything was certified and we knew we were getting something without formaldehyde and you can actually get it so it's interlocking, so you don't have to use a glue on the floor if you don't want to.

Lisa Beres

Okay, that's a great tip because a lot of toxins are hidden in those He serves on those sealants and all of that. So, yeah, great.

Michelle Harris

That's an option with a lot of flooring right now.

Lisa Beres

Yeah. So, bamboo flooring. Cork is another sustainable. You mentioned that earlier. I've even seen that cork is being used in insulation. Home Insulation.

Michelle Harris

They have a lot of really fun new installation options, too. They have an installation that's made from recycled jeans.

Lisa Beres

Yes, isn't that? Yep. I think that's stellar. Because there's so many jeans, there's so much clothes that go to the landfill. Oh my gosh, I don't know that the tons every year. But it's an astronomical number. And how neat to feel like you wore your jeans, you're done. Now you're going to upcycle them and they're going to be part of your or someone's home installation. I think that's really, really cool.

Michelle Harris

Another big trend is the upcycling, I'm glad you hit on that because not necessarily buying new and just revamping older, you know pieces of furniture and things like that recovering them instead of sending your old furniture to the landfill. That's one way you can save money and be sustainable.

Lisa Beres

Yes, reupholster. Refinish an old piece of furniture or hand me down Go to salvation army and places like that. We had an interior designer we interviewed and she really talked about how those pieces to kind of become like the statement pieces of your home. Because they really do have that character to them. And they have the unique shapes, you know, and they're not so cookie cutter, like you see with a lot of newer modern furniture.

Michelle Harris

And even the modern furniture, you can recover it. You can keep your modern furniture looking great because I tend to like a cleaner look and more modern furniture. You just recover and it keeps on going.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, yeah, that's a great, that's a great tip.

Ron Beres

Do you have any good examples in your home? Now? I know we're looking at your beautiful layout there. Is there anything in particular that you can think of that you've up?

Michelle Harris

Well, actually our sofas that we have here now you can only kind of see the back of them. They're made with an eight-way hand tied construction. Oh, okay. So, they use us harmful materials and the cushions have recycled foam in them. Oh, nice. Okay, very good. So, we made sure when we got these sofas, and we actually the furnishings we did have we sold Nice. Yeah, I'm always happy to upcycle my clothes with my girlfriends as working wardrobes.

Lisa Beres

I�m going to give Working Wardrobes a plug, I have a huge stack because it just cleaned out my closet. And I have a huge stack of them, especially with a lot of us not going into offices anymore. Think of all those like business, sell clothes that were really just not wearing well. Working wardrobes is a great organization that takes all of that for people, underprivileged who are getting back out into the workforce and need clothes for interviews. I think it's really amazing. But yeah, you can sell your clothes online. Now there's Poshmark and Thread Up and all of these places where you load the bag, you mail it in, and then they give you like a total. Like, okay, Michelle, your bag is worth $100 Well, you got money, someone else is going to enjoy the clothes. It's such a full cycle. I love it.

Michelle Harris

And a lot of really talented people will actually take those clothes and restyle them. And I love vintage clothes. So, you know purchase at vintage shops from the 1960s a lot of them mean some work. Yeah, look amazing. And they don't have fabrics like that anymore. You know, these are really cool.

Lisa Beres

Well, this time. Wow. Now do you sew? No. I wish that was a talent that I had I me too. It's kind of becoming a lost art. So, a shout out to all the seamstresses out there. Michelle, we have a caller. You open to taking a question?

Michelle Harris

Oh, sure.

Lisa Beres

Okay. Matt, welcome to the show. And what is your question for Michelle today?

Caller, Matt

Hey, thanks. Thanks. A lot, longtime listener first time caller. Oh, excellent. We're happy to have you. What are some of your personal design trends that you have going on right now? Like, I follow you both. I follow Ron and Lisa and you on Facebook. I sometimes I get a glimpse, but what are your personal design trends?

Michelle Harris

Well, personally, I like clean, clean, clean. So, for people who see on YouTube, you will notice that yes, we've done everything so that we feel comfortable in our home and that's how I feel the most comfortable now that said, not every room stays perfectly organized, but just my design choices. We kept it simple. You know, in terms of art, we have some really fun art but I call art wall jewelry. No, no, I feel like we just have enough not so much that you feel distracted in your home. You just want to clean sleek and that's regardless if you're doing a modern style. If you're doing something that you know you're incorporating antiques, anything like that, you can still follow having cleaner lines, just so when you come into your house you, you're like, Oh, this is great. And I feel relaxed. And I don't have tons of things everywhere. So yeah, that's one of the things that I really like in terms of design. And I also like to keep it basic in color and then let you know our plants in our art kind of be the pops of color.

Caller, Matt

We just bought a new home and we are taking out a wall to make it more open. And I'm hearing from designers that open is no longer in what's your opinion on an open floor plan?

Michelle Harris

I think it depends on your needs. I wouldn't go crazy with your designer, if you like an open floor plan, that's what you should do. Talk to your designer. So, if you want an open floor plan, do it. I know I don�t like to feel closed in and then also kind of really depends on your ceiling height, like having high ceilings like we have in these rooms can give you the feeling of more openness without it being incredibly open. But you know, having a bunch of little cubbyhole rooms can feel a little cramped sometimes. So, it's really what's your needs? Are you going to have enough privacy and an open floor plan?

Lisa Beres

Yeah, that's a great. Oh, that's a great tip. Um, and if you're kind of a person that's not always cleaning up your dishes, maybe you do want that kitchen closed off a little bit, right? If you're not super, super tidy.

Michelle Harris

I want no one in my kitchen while I�m cooking in there. So, I kind of like to have, you know, a little bit of room in the kitchen without everyone around.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, sometimes I can get a little invasive. Well, Matt, I hope that answered your question. T

Caller, Matt

Thank you. Thank you for having me on. Thank you so much.

Ron Beres

The biggest takeaway for me was is you don't want your house to look like Mr. T. Right? He's like, it's like jewelry.

Lisa Beres

Over gold, too overboard. overboard. I agree, Michelle, and I love how you said the cleanliness and that serenity across every type of design trend, whether it's farmhouse, or modern, or rustic, or whatever. Having a clean clutter free space is so important for your mental health. I don't think people realize the mental energy that stress occurs. That clutter can create so much stress when you see those piles and you see all those things. And the more the more things you have, the more it's going to collect dust also. More books and stacks of paper and things like that, they collect dust. And as we know dust is actually very loaded with toxic chemicals. A little side note here, I'm not sure if you're familiar with the study they did a couple years ago on dust, it was the first one they've ever done. And they found the average dust sample had 45 toxic chemicals, one linked to cancer and this was in just the average dust that they took from homes across the US. So, dust isn't just you know, annoying, it's also unhealthy.

Michelle Harris

Well, I'm here in Southern California think about it our dust is kind of twofold. A lot of it is coming from auto emissions because most of us live near a freeway. My so it's we're actually getting some that particulate in our homes. It's in the dust. And then also because we live in a very dry environment. Yeah. So, you know, we have actually what people would think of is dust from the air because some of that dirt gets blown around. And again, you know, we're breathing in, it's coming into our homes.

Lisa Beres

Yeah. Yeah, that's a really good point.

Michelle Harris

So yeah, just I still love the books. I just have to. I currently do have to maybe put them in a glass case.

Ron Beres

So, you have to keep dusting. Any more green home elements in your home, you wanted to talk about you? I'm looking at all these beautiful plants? Is there a purpose or meaning behind all of them? Do they have qualities that help me purify the air anything specific like that?

Michelle Harris

Well, of course, having real plants in your home does help to purify the air. So that's one of the reasons I have them there. In addition, I like the pop of color. And just personally, I like the feeling of bringing the outdoors inside. Yeah. So, for me, it's really important. We have pets who aren't here right now. So, I make sure that all of my plants aren't toxic to our pets or if you have kids the same thing. You want to make sure you have nontoxic plants, but they're nature's air cleaners. Yeah, which is air purifiers. So, I just like to have a lot of them in the house and I just feel they add to our quality of life and the quality of the air in our home.

Ron Beres

Your home is spotless.

Michelle Harris

No, if you were to see my den over there, it'd be a hold of everything shoved in the corner. Yes, you have like you know, keep it like this as much possible, but I do try and keep it a stream streamlined as possible. But everyone kind of has a little pile.

Lisa Beres

Everyone has their piles and no one's immune. And now with so many people telecommuting because of the pandemic, you know, it's even more important, like you said, to bring that nature in and keep it really tidy, because we need that we need that connection to nature and what I love what another trend, of course, that we're seeing so much right now is that these outdoor spaces are becoming like indoor spaces, right? I mean, there's just like the area rugs, and now they're hanging artwork on the walls and the beautiful lighting and the throw pillows and the fire pits. And its really great way to extend your space, so that you can spend more time outdoors and really enjoy it. And instead of on some rusty lounge chair.

Michelle Harris

Exactly. And doing green walls inside and outside. That's a great way to improve your outdoor space and or indoor space. I don't have a green wall inside, but it's one of the things I have planned for outside is to put a green wall,

Lisa Beres

Like a plant wall, you mean?

Michelle Harris

Yes. Yeah. Okay, a living plant wall.

Lisa Beres

They're so amazing, aren't they?

Michelle Harris

Yes. And I also, you know, most of us, if you live in Southern California, we don't have a very big outdoor area. So, I'm a big fan of those arrow gardens. And yeah, little ones that you can just grow herbs on your window sell. Or you can get something bigger than a small amount of space. Because you're growing vertically, you can actually grow some veggies for yourself.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, exactly. You can have a garden. I know Ron and I had - it's called Click and Grow as a company. And it's a little herb garden with a with a light built in. And the light extends as the plants grow, and you put it in your kitchen. And you can put you know, you can put tomatoes and peppers, you can do herbs, it's a really great idea. So, no matter where you live, if you're in a condo or an apartment, you can do a balcony. One of my friends say make the salsa garden on your balcony.

Michelle Harris

But it's really fun. And you know that it doesn't have anything on it, which is great. Yeah, you're not spraying anything on it, it�s fresh picked.

Ron Beres

The green wall is funny. It actually prompted me. Do you focus your designer, on you know what color means just psychologically to the space? And if so, what are some trends that you might know of that are popular now from a color scheme perspective?

Michelle Harris

You know, first so long, everything has been the gray tones. Yes. Right. And I think that's going to be going away. Yeah. And with the gray tones. Again, you're keeping it very simple and clean and having the pop of color with art, with plans with accessories, things like that. I'm seeing some blues coming back. Yeah. I think that's really fun. Yeah, but at the end of the day, I'm kind of like, I want to create trends. I do what I like and I feel comfortable with.

Lisa Beres

Right? That's great. Like you had said to the caller. I mean, at the end of the day, I never heard open spaces were you know, going away. But I mean, I love an open space. I think it makes your home feel bigger. But you know, you make good points on areas that you need privacy. If you have a lot of kids, you don't probably want, you know, you want a little privacy for them and their playroom or whatever. But yeah, at the end of the day, it's all what works for you and what makes you feel good. And your home, you know, make making your home unique. But I want to switch gears a little into water, which is a very hot topic. water waste is such an issue, especially with outdoor, for example, just to water a quarter acre of lawn takes about 1400 gallons of water. This is a big problem in most parts of the country. So, with this being such a hot topic today, Michelle, can you give our listeners some tips to help people save water both inside and out?

Michelle Harris

Well, one of the things outdoors, which here in Southern California, you'll see it all the time is you're escaping? Yep. Okay, so that's really using native plants, plants that don't require a lot of water, using things like rocks and other design features instead of having grass. And my dad happens to live in Vegas, and they just made a rule that they can't have any more grass really is actually no I don't know if it's from where he specifically lives in his community, or it's all in Nevada, or you know, just Vegas. But again, if you're living in a particularly in a dry place that doesn't get a lot of rain like Las Vegas, and here in Southern California. We don't want to waste that water on our lawns. Yeah, you know, so there, that's something that you can do that's really great. And also, if we do get some rain, so if you can either use rain barrels or an install and underground water capture system can use that that water won't be potable. You can't drink it, but you can use it in your own lawn.

Ron Beres

Is that expensive, Michelle, to do that?

Michelle Harris

Rain barrels are inexpensive. You're not going to get as much obviously, as you would as an underground capture system. But it's a great way to irrigate your house without having to ever, you know, incur any water costs. Yeah. Yeah, we are that way. Right. You know, in terms of water use in our homes. Of course, we've all heard you know, take shorter showers, you know, don't take a bath, use a dishwasher, instead of running the sink. I try and get a water heater that you don't have to run your water so long to get it to heat up that it comes on instantaneously.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, the tankless water heaters.

Michelle Harris

Yes, those are all things that we can do to help save water. But one of the most important things that we can do to save water is actually to follow a plant-based diet, oh, attention here, but I am a vegan, and you save a tremendous amount of water and energy and land usage. And you know, they're clear cutting the Amazon to feed cattle, right for all things that you did when we stop using animals for food, get, you know, helps the environment so much. It's the number one cause of climate change.

Lisa Beres

Yes, it is. And if anyone hasn't seen that documentary, Cowspiracy Oh, man, some of the stats really blow your mind. Like you're like you just said, we don't realize how much production and resources our food our food production is taking in, you know, even if you're not vegan, and that feels very extreme for you going to meatless Mondays, which would you could do that a couple days a week, right? You don't have to do that just on Monday. I was I mean, most people nowadays, when you talk to them, they say, Oh, I don't really eat that much red meat anymore, right? And so just kind of weaning off.

Michelle Harris

Exactly. It just, you know, greatly reducing your consumption or going plant based, which is really easy. But one of the things I love about being plant based is that it's also really healthy for us. It reduces your risk of a lot of types of cancer, it reduces your risk of heart disease of diabetes. People who don't eat meat usually have a better body mass index. So, it's all this connection, it's going to help the planet and it helps us.

Lisa Beres

So, are you full vegan?

Michelle Harris

Yes. Yeah. So, I'm fully plant based.

Lisa Beres

You are and we are too, for a long time, and one of the best decisions I ever made.

Michelle Harris

Oh, yeah, I know. Thanks to beyond burgers. It's like, beef, you can go and have it because burgers are great.

Lisa Beres

I love it. You can get anything. Yeah. And our producer is vegan. And it's really amazing. It's, yeah, we talked about this on other shows, like, you don't have to sacrifice anymore, because anything you want is readily available in a plant-based form nowadays.

Michelle Harris

And yes, it's a whole other show about what I cook. But I make anything that you had with me pretty much with meat substitutes that are high in protein, and are very clean.

Lisa Beres

Oh, we have to have you back and go over recipes because we're, we get bored with our recipes. We get a recipe for things. I'll hook you up. Okay. Yeah, maybe we could put some links in the show notes to some of your recipes. I think maybe that's the challenge. I don't know if all vegans have but I know we do is we run out of creative ideas. And we get in the little rut don't wait, we're on of cooking the same things over and over.

Ron Beres

So, then once we find something we love, we eat it multiple days in a row. Yeah.

Michelle Harris

You know, I think even people who aren't vegan kind of get in that cycle because I just find the more make a recipe the faster, I get it doing it. Yeah, it's like, Okay, well, I can do this really quick. And I'm working late tonight and things like that, but we pretty much make almost anything that we had. You know, I haven�t eaten meat since I was 14.

Lisa Beres

Okay, 17 for me.

Michelle Harris

Yeah, awesome. Yeah, it was a while back. Not too long. Not that not that long. I�m really only 21 right. It's so you can get like that, but I feel since we eat so many things. We're replacing meat with other items, like instead of making a Beef Wellington and I'm using seitan, and tonight we're having Asian and I'm going to use is really great meat-free chicken that we love and like we make a lot of different things that we always had. So it's just I think everyone gets in that kind of rut, but I'm like, oh my goodness, we eat things because I'm really inspired to create foods from different, you know, types of food, whether it's you know, Mexican, Asian, Southern Cooking, you know, all of that. We just like to try all of it.

Lisa Beres

That's, that's fantastic. And I think too, with the lockdowns and everything, because people are spending more time at home, like people are cooking more, right. I know, especially in California, because we had restaurants closed for a lot longer than other states. And so, we kind of were forced to cook more. And that's actually been a really fun hobby that a lot of people really weren't doing. It was Go go go go from work to here to here to here, Jim, you know, we didn't even have our gyms open. So now you're kind of being forced to tap back into some of these, like, really wonderful. And it's a connection, right? I know, like for Ron and I, it's a great thing to do with your spouse or your partner to cook together. It makes your food more enjoyable when you eat it.

Michelle Harris

Definitely. And you know, what's in it, which I like? Yeah. I've been cooking for a long time. But when I go to a restaurant, it's kind of like, Okay, I know how to make things. So, I know the calories are probably in this right. Yeah.

Lisa Beres

Yeah. So, it makes you more aware on your choices when you go out to eat. It does, right. And the fact that it's probably not organic, most of the time when you're going out, whereas at home, you can control that better.

Michelle Harris

Yeah, exactly. Exactly what but organic food is another big trend.

Ron Beres

Okay, that's a good point. Is that what would that be? So, let's say someone's hearing this for the first time, it's like a clean slate. What something where can this jumpstart and implement some immediate trends that you talked about today, but not feel overwhelmed? Like what would you recommend was a 1234 step process to start right now and be like you?

Michelle Harris

In terms of everything or just plant based?

Ron Beres

I'm sorry, not plant based. Like I kind of digressed. I was going into sustainability.

Lisa Beres

Eco things people could do right now.

Michelle Harris

Well, let's talk about some of the things I have here. Okay, let's go. trends that you can easily incorporate into your home. And one of them is if you can believe it, it looks like an everyday towel. But these are organic cotton towels. They're from a wonderful new line at Bed, Bath and Beyond called Haven. You can't really, obviously, you can't feel it. But besides being organic, which is much better for you, these are the softest towels ever. Oh, okay. So, I just love them. And so, it's an easy thing you can do. It's an organic, sustainable product, and you can just incorporate it right into your own home.

Lisa Beres

Michelle, do those come in a variety of colors?

Michelle Harris

Yes, you can't see them. But I have some that are like a cream. There's a variety of colors. I happen to like the white because it feels very spa like. Yes, but they do, they do come in a variety of colors and sizes. This is also from Bed, Bath and Beyond. And this is a fun trend to kind of give your home a little bit more of a Zen feeling. It's a pure Himalayan rock salt lamp combined with an aromatherapy diffuser.

Ron Beres

Excellent. All those negative ions and it smells so good.

Michelle Harris

Yes, the Himalayan rock salt lamps help to give you energy, they purify the air. And then you just add water into the top here and I just have some essential oils, like you were saying isn't cleaning, you just put them right in here. And your whole house will naturally smell wonderful. Right? And that's a big trend. We're seeing that only with aromatherapy oils used in diffusers and things like this. But you can also find a celebrity trend, they�re adding it to your shower.

Lisa Beres

Oh yes, I've been seeing that we actually just got a brand new Moen shower, which we love that uses an aerator that like all the new low flow showerheads do and the aerator or technology gives you the feeling that you're getting a lot of water pressure, the one that we just got actually is 45% less water. Yeah, it's amazing cuz you can't feel it at all. It feels actually like more pressure than what I had before. It has two heads. And then it has these little aromatherapy capsules that you can add.

Ron Beres

What we've seen Haven towels to like compliment the spa experience. Right?

Michelle Harris

Yeah, this is kind of something that's been a theme not only being sustainable, you know, being organic, but that's that feeling you want to have in your home and this is we've all been in our home a lot. It's kind of giving you a little bit of a spa feeling in your own home.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, don't you feel like we're just going to get to a point where don't even leave our homes? We're getting, we're getting gyms in our homes, we're cooking, we�ve even got our spas now.

Michelle Harris

We�re doing it all here and they're doing it one stop. This has been a trend for a long time. And at least I don't know if you've seen these before. I don't know. This is a VitaJuwel water bottle. And it's a glass reusable water bottle which of course I go everywhere with my reusable water bottle hanging out of my bag. I have a giant bag with a water bubbles coming out of it. This is right at your water bottle. It actually has crystals in it and I just like to kiss was pretty but the crystals help to give you more of that spa feeling and this one's for love. Right It's really fun.

Lisa Beres

Wait that is so neat. Where did you get that? Is that something you ordered direct? Because we a podcast on frequency medicine and about the energy like and so water that's infused with certain words and energy and through crystals because we know crystals hold energy right crystals hold you can you can encode crystals with messages. So, is that what they did? Like when you said that once is love, did they encode that with the word love and so when your water goes in there, it's picking up that frequency?

Michelle Harris

That I don't know. I just know that their crystals designed to help promote feelings of love.

Lisa Beres

That�s really neat. We'll definitely put a link to that.

Michelle Harris

And that's a huge celebrity trend by the way, like celebrities are kind of gobbling these water bottles up.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, well good! We could use some more love in Hollywood.

Michelle Harris

It also helps to reduce the waste you get from using plastic water bottles. Right and it's glass so it's healthy for you. Like a lot of good things about this.

Ron Beres

Is that glass Really? Is it hard? I mean, what if you took it to the gym or is it is it not going to break if it falls a short distance?

Michelle Harris

Um, well, considering how clumsy I am.

Lisa Beres

No, Ron, it's a solid.

Ron Beres

Well, you know what I mean. So sometimes they're so strong at the base.

Lisa Beres

Well, we have a glass one that has like a rubber casing on the outside.

Michelle Harris

Yes, I've seen those. And yes, it's still it's still breakable. Another plug for the bamboo. When I do drop things, it fares much better than when I had tile in the kitchen. Usually you'd hear this drop followed by like a scream. Yes, like, okay, maybe a splatter, but most of the time my stuff isn't breaking. So that's been a bonus for me.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, that's another bonus.

Michelle Harris

This does come with a rubber handle so you can carry it with you.

Lisa Beres

Oh, okay, that's nice. And then what was the name of the diffuser again?

Unknown Speaker

This is Pure and it's also from Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Lisa Beres

Oh, wow. That's is beautiful too.

Michelle Harris

One of the things that I was attracted to is that it was not only an aromatherapy diffuser, it�s combined with a Himalayan rock salt lamp, it's like wow.

Lisa Beres

What else can you fit in there? It's gorgeous. That's a great housewarming gift for somebody. Yeah. well, our producer.

Michelle Harris

We're going to have to like do three more of these just to talk about housewarming gifts.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, forget the wine. Bring up bring a Himalayan rock salt diffuser.

Ron Beres

I remember reading a while ago. Aren�t Himalayan salt rocks - aren't they like 200 million years old or something?

Michelle Harris

I don't know exactly the age but that's one of the things that makes them so effective is that this is kind of like something that comes that people brought from ancient times is a Himalayan rock salt. Yeah, and we're just now revitalizing that.

Lisa Beres

Right? And so many of the things really if you think about it, all the things that you're showing here today, that organic is what we used to have before we had pesticides on our towels. The Himalayan rock that's you know, that's so old as I just mentioned, and then essential oils, I mean they go back 1000, then thousand years, right? So amazing and have so many benefits that essential oils have.

Michelle Harris

I love peppermint. So, I have a peppermint oil here but peppermint can help create feelings of happiness and have you energized right and yeah, lavender is probably the oil I use the most. And Natalie in aroma therapy diffuser but in products because it helps you feel relaxed, right like in my bath and body products and my shower gel and moisturizer. I love lavender.

Lisa Beres

Lavender is just to go to, I agree. And a lot of people don't realize that they're not just good smelling they�re therapeutic; therapeutic essential oil. So yeah, you can inhale depending on the oil. You get the benefits via inhalation or maybe sometimes putting it on your skin and even some ingesting, like peppermint. Some of them you can ingest but you�ve got to be careful and make sure you're doing that correctly.

Michelle Harris

You don't want to eat lavender yourself, but they do have calming lavender supplements and teas.

Lisa Beres

Yeah right. That's a good point. We visited a lavender farm and they made lavender ice cream and lavender lemonade and lavender scones. And so, yeah, there's a lavender culinary lavender. Yeah. Okay, that's a great point. Wow, this was so fun. What would you leave our listeners with right now? They're going to end the podcast and what can they do right now? What's one or two things that they should definitely do to change their life for the healthier?

Michelle Harris

Well, I think one of the big takeaways from what we talked about today is eating less meat will be the most profound thing you can do for your own health and for the environment. That's a great. So that's a big takeaway. And, you know, let's watch your consumption. When you are having to paint your house when you are replacing things. Keep that in mind. It's going that way. Anyhow, it's super easy. We can all save water today. Yes. I'm all on things to help the planet today. So, you know, that's one thing that we can do. And keep in mind that connection. Because if you're not using toxic chemicals, it's better for your health. And it's better for the environment. If you're not using a lot of pesticides on your lawn. If those pesticides are killing things outside, what kind of effect Do you think it has on you? So just get natural cleaners? use vinegar, use baking soda, but we could start today? And you know, it feels so empowering?

Lisa Beres

Yeah, it does. You're right. You're taking your power back and you're leaving a better world not just for you today, but for the future generations and something that a lot of people don't think about, you know, so that's great. I love that and on the lawn thing, you know, these Astroturf type, what am I trying to say these artificial grass companies now have very sustainable products. And they look and feel really gorgeous. I remember growing up in Arizona, we had some Astroturf on our on our back, because we were not going to have a lawn in my little desert town that I grew up in. And everybody had it in their backyards. And it was it was hard and scratchy and just horrible. But now they're thick. They look like grass. I mean, a lot of times you walk up and you go, is that real grass? Oh, no, it's not. So that's a great way if you still want that green look, or a place to play in the backyard without bringing in water hogging grass.

Michelle Harris

Exactly. There are so many things we can do. And the great thing is that when I say it makes you feel better health wise, it does. But it makes you feel better here. Yeah. And that you know that you're doing something positive for yourself and for the environment.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, that's a little Amen. Amen to that. Michelle. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you so much. This was fabulous. And friends. head over to Alive and spelled out Aliveandwell.tv. to learn more. All the links that we talked about will be in the show notes at RonandLisa.com/Podacast.

Ron Beres

And remember, don't settle for untested and unregulated goods for you, your family or your planet. You can and you do make a difference.

Lisa Beres

Tune in next week to find out what the heck is going on in your home. Until then, bye friends. Take care.

Michelle Harris

Bye. Thank you.

Narrator

This episode of the healthy home hacks podcast has ended. But be sure to subscribe for more healthy living strategies and tactics to help you create the healthy home you always dreamed up. And don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best content. See you on the next episode.