You know how sometimes you do something that you’ve grown so accustomed to that you don’t even notice that you do it?  And then someone is like, wait what are you doing, that’s kind of weird?  Or maybe not even weird, but just different and you realize that not everyone does it?

So this is my list of that stuff.  A collection of things I’ve slowly added, over a few years, that I do for my healthiness.  I don’t do all of them every day, but I do a lot of these a lot of the time.

(And as always I AM NOT A DOCTOR.  This is just stuff that I do.  Do your research.)

On the Supplements Front

I’m not the hugestest fan of supplements.  In a perfect world, we’d get all this stuff from our food.  But it’s not a perfect world so what are you gonna do.  These are the ones I do take regularly:

Fish Oil

I’m trying to remember when I first started taking fish oil.  Maybe when I was pregnant with Henry?  Maybe earlier?  I’m guessing that I took it during my two pregnancies and then stopped.

I started up some time in the last two years because I discovered liquid fish oil.  This stuff is a GAME CHANGER.  Before it felt like you had to take a bazillion little tablets.  Now?  One teaspoon and done.

How does it taste?  I think it’s just fine.  I mean it’s only one teaspoon.  I prefer the lemon flavor, but James has been saying that orange is easier to get so we’ve done that one lately.  I’d say he thinks the orange covers any fishiness more too.

But even the kids drink it so it can’t be that bad.  I don’t give them a full serving, but a little bit on the spoon.

Collagen

I think I started hearing about collagen around the same time I started adding all kinds of stuff to my coffee.  This made me want to try it right away.

What I’ve added to my coffee has changed (right now it’s cacao butter and it’s delicious), but I’ve kept doing the collagen.  (Except when I run out and didn’t order more appropriately.)  Have I noticed a difference on my hair and nails?  Some days I would say ABSOLUTELY.  Other days I’m not sure.

This is one I like to slip in on the kids too.  It gets added to their oatmeal.  Sometimes even their yogurt.  Because I can barely get them to eat soup, much less drink bone broth.  And even if I wanted to attempt that, I have less broth around these days which bums me out.  I used to cook a chicken like once a week in Rome because I’d just grab one on the weekly market run.  Now we’ve found a meet place we love that delivers, but their delivery window is kind of large and is right when I need to pick up the kids so we order massive amounts of meat and freeze it.  I do love being able to walk over and just shop the freezer.  It’s awesome.  And I DO get whole chickens from these guys, but I don’t love freezing whole chickens, ya know?  They take forever to thaw and it just seems weird.  Anyhow these are all total first world problems, but it reminds me that I should work harder to get more bone broth into my life.

Magnesium

I remember hearing about soil depletion causing our foods to have fewer minerals like magnesium which is sad because magnesium helps you sleep and poop and do other awesome stuff.  (Clearly, you guys don’t come here for the science.)

I’ve added magnesium to the regime in a couple of ways to cover the bases.  James and I drink Natural Calm at night.  Sometimes mixed into bubbly water.  Sometimes mixed into flat water.  We have it along with our evening tea.  (He almost always always has peppermint.  I mix mine up because I’m  rebel like that.)  Sometimes we’ll have it every single day.  Sometimes we take a little time off.  But it shows up a lot.

I also enjoy Primally Pure’s Everything Spray with Magnesium.  I can’t tell you exactly what it does for me, but it does feel nice.  I just give my face a few spritzes, usually before I’m putting on sunscreen or lotion.  Having that tiny bit of moisture makes everything rub in ever so nicely.

I don’t often take baths, but when I’m in the mood for a soak (usually when I just can’t feel warm or I want to binge on podcasts without doing chores), what do I add?  Magnesium.

Vitamin C

I added this at the time of my eye surgery, and I’ve just kept doing it.  One glass of Vitamin C water in the morning.  We have a giant tub of the stuff now and you just add a quarter teaspoon.  The end.

Occasionally, we’ll add some other stuff to the mix like these turmeric/ginger pills, but not on the regular.  Supplements get expensive!  And you may be thinking: what about Vitamin D?  I am too.  Strangely, in Italy I feel like we got a lot more sun exposure and we were probably OK on the Vitamin D front.  Here, because of the weather and safety we drive almost everywhere.  We spend way more time indoors.  I’ve been thinking about adding Vitamin D, but just haven’t gotten around to it.

Avoiding Toxic Stuff

I feel like this is a good life motto.  Avoid toxic stuff.

This means that I’ve been trying to limit our exposure to toxic stuff, not just through what we eat, but what we’re exposed to around the home.  Cleaning products and skincare stuff mainly.  (So stuff like using our Norwex cloths instead of heavy duty cleaners all the time.)

In some ways, I haven’t replaced any products but I’ve just tried to either use them less or use less of them.  For example, I don’t really wash my hair much.  Years ago I started washing my hair every other day.  I felt like a total rebel.  Then I started skipping more days.  The world didn’t end.  Then I dabbled with not washing my hair after working out.  It was fine.  So now I wash my hair about once a week.  I don’t have a set “wash my hair every Tuesday” system.  Just whenever.  (The whole refusing a date in old movies thing because you are washing your hair TOTALLY makes more sense to me now though.)

The point being that I haven’t done as much due diligence on my shampoo and conditioner because I don’t use them that often.  Eventually I’ll probably find some better options, but I’m mostly just distancing myself now.

Ditto for cosmetics.  As I’m getting older, I find myself using less makeup.  For the things I still use, I’ll keep looking for better options as I can.

deodorant

Deodorant is one of those products that scares me a little.  Metals and stuff I can’t pronounce.  (Better explained here.)  I’ve been using the products from Primally Pure for closing in on a year, and I really do love them.  James has tried their new charcoal variation, and I think even he is a convert.

fasting

This one I should probably do a whole separate post about.  It’s also one I talk about the least because it really throws people for a loop.  You don’t eat?  Sometimes for days?  On purpose??

I get it.  I used to think that fasting was crazy too.  But my prediction is that very soon we’re going to start hearing more and more interesting things about fasting.  Both as a treatment and prevention measure against chronic diseases.

I do both intermittent fasting and extended fasting.  I typed up like 1000 words on this and it seemed like it was taking over the post so I will cover in a separate post soon.

Other Things

Cold showers

I’m not a Wim Hof devotee, but I think I first heard about the idea of using the cold to strengthen your immune system and do other cool stuff from someone talking about him.

I was better about doing this in Rome.  At the end of my shower, I’d switch to cold water for 20-30 seconds.  (I started off kind of cold and built my way up to all the way cold.)  Did it give me lots of benefits?  Unsure.  But I did start to crave that feeling at the end of my shower.  It just seemed complete.

Here, for a few reasons, I haven’t been as good about it.  For one, there never seems to be enough hot water so I’m reluctant to switch to cold.  (#firstworldproblems)  Strangely, it is much more satisfying to switch from hot water to freezing cold than to switch from lukewarm water to cold.  Also, we have separate taps here so even adjusting the temperature is more of a pain.  (I KNOW.  #firstworldproblems)

To fix all of this, I should just take cold showers.  All of the benefit.  None of the whining about lack of hot water.  Maybe some day . . .

Evening  Stretches

I think it was Tim Ferriss who planted the idea of releasing your back for better sleep at night.  I do not have any gravity boot contraptions, but I liked the idea of stretching.  I started doing half hero stretches (where I tuck one foot at a time up by my butt) while I read in bed.  (I’ve also seen these referred to as camel stretch.)  Consequently, this is the only “cool thing” I can do in yoga class because of  my practice.

Because of my hamstring stretching goal for 2018 for pancake straddle stretch, I’ve been trying to work some other stretches in as well.  It doesn’t happen every night, but I think it does help me wind down.

I’m sure I’m forgetting many more things.  But now you. . . what “weird” things do you do for health?  Inquiring minds need to know!

This post contains affiliate links.  Thanks for supporting Roman Reboot!