Podcast Episode #176: Bacne, SAD in Boston, AIP & Time Saving Kitchen Tips

Topics:
1.  What’s new for you from Diane & Liz [1:40] 2.  Shout Out: Jen Sinkler [10:58] 3.  This week in the Paleosphere: Autoimmune paleo diet article [22:51]

Listener Questions:
4. Holistic dermatologist, the Clarisonic, and cystic back acne [31:12] 5. Autoimmune shopping list has the very items I avoid; tell me why? [37:34] 6. Moving out of the sun of Florida to Boston [42:27] 7. Diane’s Kitchen tip: 3 time saving products in the kitchen  [47:24] 8. Liz’s fertility tip of the week: don’t rely on OPKs [52:14] [smart_track_player url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/balancedbites/BB_Podcast_176_final.mp3″ color=”00aeef” title=”#176: Bacne, SAD in Boston, AIP & Time Saving Kitchen Tips ” artist=”Diane Sanfilippo & Liz Wolfe ” ]

---

 

Links:

Subscribe to Real Food Liz! 
Subscribe to Dianesanfilippo.com 

[smart_track_player url=”http://www.blogtalkradio.com/balancedbites/2015/01/29/176-bacne-sad-in-boston-aip-time-saving-kitchen-tips.mp3″ title=”#176: Bacne, SAD in Boston, AIP & Time Saving Kitchen Tips” artist=”Diane Sanfilippo & Liz Wolfe” ]

The episodes are currently available in iTunes, Stitcher & Blog Talk Radio. 

Show sponsors:

Liz Wolfe: Hi friends! Welcome to the Balanced Bites podcast. Let’s get a quick word in from our first episode sponsor.

Support for this podcast is provided by Dragonfly Traditions; natural, nourishing skin care with absolutely no unnecessary chemicals. It’s natural nutrition for the skin. I am a huge fan of Dragonfly from their serum, to their night cream, and everything else the owner, Phoebe, has created. Your skin will be soft and happy with Dragonfly Traditions. If you head over to DragonflyTraditions.com and make a purchase of one or more of their skin care products, you can then add Balanced Bites to your shopping cart for 1 penny. Phoebe will not only send you 2 free lip balms with your order, she’ll also send you that penny back. Remember that’s 2 free lip balms with purchase from Dragonfly Traditions.

1. What’s new for you from Diane & Liz [1:40]

Liz Wolfe: Alright folks. Liz here, with Diane, as usual, and we’re banging out my last few episodes of the Balanced Bites podcast before I go on leave.

Diane Sanfilippo: Is that supposed to be a pun?

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, it was.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: I also, later on, I had put into the introduction like a coped, to copulating reference and {laughs} I took it out. But I’m glad you got that. But I’m coming back. So, last few episodes before I go on leave, and then I go on leave, and I come back. So I’m not gone forever, and I’ll pop in. Enjoy my voice though, for now, savor it while you can.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Because {laughs} while I will be contributing my fertility tips with Meg to the podcast while I’m gone, I will not be assaulting you with weekly wisdom for a little while. We’re going to prerecord the tips. Are you sad, Diane?

Diane Sanfilippo: I am.

Liz Wolfe: Are you weepy?

Diane Sanfilippo: I’m sobbing. I have a whole box of tissues and I’ve already used half of them just for the last 30 seconds while you were talking.

Liz Wolfe: You poor thing.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: I hope they’re the soft kind.

Diane Sanfilippo: I shall miss you, but I will do my best to find a guest cohost for some episodes, and a bunch of guests. I know we have a handful of guests already planned coming up, so I’m excited about that. I like interviewing people. It’s fun. Good times.

Liz Wolfe: I feel like it probably sounds a little strange to talk about leave already since I literally; here you go. Here’s my little joke, since I just coped to having copulated.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Since I just coped to being in the family way like 2 weeks ago.

Diane Sanfilippo: How many other ways can we say pregnant that are not pregnant?

Liz Wolfe: {laughing}

Diane Sanfilippo: In the family way.

Liz Wolfe: In the family way, do you like that? I actually got that from thesaurus.com.

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh em ghee.

Liz Wolfe: Maybe they’ll sponsor us.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: But it’s getting close to that time. I did not come clean until a little bit later than most people do. So I am going on leave ahead of and after my estimated due date. So still, yeah. That will just give me some time to get ready and really be present for what’s about to happen, which is apparently a big deal, so I’ve been told.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} It’s a minor responsibility, I think.

Liz Wolfe: Apparently so. So anyway, that’s what’s new with me. What’s new with you?

Diane Sanfilippo: What else is new with you? You sound a little stuffy over there.

Liz Wolfe: I am. I forgot to turn on my humidifier last night, and it is insanely dry around here. Insanely dry.

Diane Sanfilippo: We should talk about that. We should talk about that, I don’t know when.

Liz Wolfe: What, that you should sleep with your face in a humidifier?

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. Alright, we’ll just talk about it right now.

Liz Wolfe: It’s everything. It’s skin, it’s your mucus membranes, it’s everything. Humidifiers during the winter are just a must.

Diane Sanfilippo: Totally important. Since we got back from our trip to South America, literally the next day, my throat had that little scratch in it.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: Which, for me is the first sign that I need to take care of something to just get my immunity boosted. We turned on the humidifier, I popped some oregano capsules, and fine. Totally fine. Nothing ended up creeping into my system there. I shared, I think it was, well, by the time this airs, I shared a little while ago on social media again the post I have on my blog about natural cold care tips and prevention and all that. I have a video on it, but the one thing I didn’t add to it was a humidifier because I made that video quite some time ago. The humidifier is definitely, probably my top 2 things right now, between the oregano and the humidifier. They’re battling it out.

Liz Wolfe: I’m saying, man. It’s just, I think it’s getting worse.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: It must be concomitant with global warming, or something. Global drying.

Diane Sanfilippo: The skin on my legs will agree with you there. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} Eww.

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s so scaly and dry. But the humidifier has been awesome. It’s awesome for everyone except the dog, because she {laughs} she basically equates it to something scary.

Liz Wolfe: It’s like Kevin with his furnace in the basement. Kevin McAllister.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yes, that’s exactly, she cowers, and as soon as we start filling it, she knows something is going on, and then as soon as I plug it in. And I have a humidifier from probably 1978.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Probably from the year I was born. It is legit, old school, don’t put your hand in front of it, you’ll burn yourself.

Liz Wolfe: That’s how we used to teach kids to be careful around appliances.

Diane Sanfilippo: Exactly. Yeah, before things were all so protected that you couldn’t get hurt.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. {laughing}

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s like, don’t touch the thing it’s going to burn you {laughs}. But yeah, love the humidifier.

Liz Wolfe: You know, I’ve been getting questions lately from people who, and I’m going to do a Skin Care Saturday post at PurelyPrimalSkinCare.com at the blog about this. People have been asking me the difference between skin that is oil dry and skin that is water dry. So maybe I’ll just throw that in here. Obviously, I tell everybody who is concerned about skin care to use a humidifier, but if your skin is still dry consistently, it might not be so much that it’s water dry and your environment is sapping water from your skin. It might be more that its oil dry, you might need some more nourishing oils for your skin, because maybe you’re skin is not producing enough sebum to make our skin nice and plump.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think the real solution for me would be to go back to South America.

Liz Wolfe: Probably.

Diane Sanfilippo: Because my skin was definitely not dry there {laughs}.

Liz Wolfe: I’m pretty sure nobody is supposed to live in north Jersey in the winter.

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s the worst. And this past weekend it was so icy that there were so many folks who were slipping and falling. Actually, Scott slipped and fell, so yeah. It’s pretty gnarly, and I question why anybody lives here.

Liz Wolfe: Oh no, who chiropractored the chiropractor?

Diane Sanfilippo: He did, he went to see one of our friends.

Liz Wolfe: Good.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. So, I digress. What else is going on with me? I just wanted to quickly mention that this spring I’ll be doing a handful of events. I don’t have specific dates and times as of just yet, but I’ll probably be popping in the last leg of the tour with my friends, our friends, Bill and Hayley. I think they’re going to be hitting Washington DC, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Orlando some time mid March. So I’ll probably be with them, and I’m looking at a couple of other spots. Possibly Vegas, and possibly Phoenix, because as we’re talking, {laughs} I would like to go somewhere warm. So keep your eyes and ears open for all that good stuff.

And then, late April, right before my birthday, I will be at PaleoFx. This year I’m actually speaking about business related stuff. So for those of you who have been following the podcast for 3-plus years, you know I’ve been talking about this stuff for longer than that. I’ve just got a lot of things I’m interested in teaching people and want to support people with, and that is one of them. So I’m pretty excited about that little workshop.

I just want to mention to our new listeners, if you’ve only been listening for the last few weeks or few months, we have 170-something episodes in the archive, and I would say 95-99% of everything we’ve ever said on them would still hold true today, even if there’s something that we may have talked about on one of the very first episodes. I doubt either of us, we really don’t tend to over state anything or get too alarmist about anything.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} You mean you don’t tend to exaggerate, ever?

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: No one in my family overreacts.

Diane Sanfilippo: To anything.

Liz Wolfe: No.

Diane Sanfilippo: But I just want to remind people they can go back and listen to those because I think we have a lot of new listeners who, they’re asking questions that I’m like, we’ve definitely covered that a bunch of times. We’re happy to cover them again, because I think you and I both have certain things that we have new perspectives on, so we like to share that. But I just want to encourage anybody who’s listening who is newer to the show, just go back and listen maybe to a new one and a old one, and kind of alternate that way, so you stay up to date on what’s’ going on currently but then get all that background information and education.

Liz Wolfe: Lovely. I agree. I was checking Instagram while you said that {laughs}.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Thank you.

Liz Wolfe: I got tagged in a picture of a book that is not my book.

Diane Sanfilippo: Awesome.

Liz Wolfe: That’s ok, though. At least people are thinking of me when they’re reading. That’s really important.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: Reading is important.

Diane Sanfilippo: On Facebook, years ago when Facebook was new and you could still see everything, people just always used to tag me in pictures of bacon. Literally, pictures of food. Its like, {laughs} ok, hi!

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} Oh man.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah it was so crazy.

Liz Wolfe: Back when Facebook was, what, we were like 15? No. 18? No. When did I get on Facebook? I think I was 20 or 21 maybe, for the first time.

Diane Sanfilippo: I’m not even…

Liz Wolfe: Back before they had photo albums, before you had a timeline, you literally had to go out and attempt to stalk somebody. You had to {laughs} go to their page intentionally.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: To stalk them. And rarely could you then find them on other social media, because it was like Facebook or MySpace.

Diane Sanfilippo: And now…

Liz Wolfe: What am I bringing this child into? What kind of world is this.

Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t even know.

2. Shout Out: Jen Sinkler [10:58]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, moving on to our shout out this week. This is for Jen Sinkler, of Thrive as the Fittest. I know you’ve worked with Jen on at least one project in the past, and we love Jen. She is a former rugby player, now weight lifter empowering social media, she pretty much does everything, but she’s basically a badass. But she recently provided some words of wisdom for women who lift or want to lift on the Factor 75 blog, and I wanted to read a few quotes from the article. She was featured along with a few other strong women, but we’ll just focus on what Jen had to say here. A few quotes from the article, which was entitled, “Real Life Advice from Women who Lift.”

First quote – Presenting as feminine (as society defines it)—or not—has no bearing whatsoever on the amount of weight you can lift. All that matters is, “Can I lift it or not?”

Next quote – Strength is contagious.” It has a habit of bleeding into every other aspect of your life, and the empowerment you feel after completing a big feat in the gym is easily carried out beyond the gym doors.

I just loved that.

Diane Sanfilippo: How much do you love her? Love her!

Liz Wolfe: She’s amazing.

Diane Sanfilippo: And she’s an amazing writer, too. She’s been a writer for a very long time. I don’t know if she was also an editor over at Experience Life, but I know she was a writer, as well. And that’s actually how I first got in touch with her. She contacted me for an interview for Experience Life Magazine several years ago, and then I just have been following her and totally girl crushing on her ever since, because she is such a badass. I think her first quote there, “presenting as feminine”, I think that kind of {laughs} that makes me laugh because I think about how some of us can look really badass and not really be able to follow that up, and then some of us can look, you know, just wear makeup and feel like we’re walking into the gym and somebody gives us a weird look because we happen to have makeup up. And it’s like, why does that matter, I’m still going to do this thing. Don’t you worry about whether or not I’m wearing makeup {laughs}.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: Because I know that’s something that she’s pretty into. Having her femininity and being strong, and all of it comes together. It is who you are, or not. If you don’t want to wear makeup, and you don’t want to be into the fashion of fitness, then don’t. If you do, then do. And no one should really get to say whether or not that defines you as feminine or not.

Liz Wolfe: I think that particular quote may have come out of the beginning of the article, kind of going, whoever actually wrote the article and was interviewing these women, was saying something about how, I tell people all the time that lifting won’t make you big and bulky, it will make you sexy and strong, or whatever. I think Jen was kind of saying like you’re saying, whatever lifting makes you, it’s amazing. Can you lift this thing or not? Are you capable or not? And whether or not that fits the bill of what we currently consider as some kind of ideal for women. Which I don’t even know what it would be at this point, because apparently I think women are dead sexy when maybe they don’t fit that conventional whatever it is. What would it be? The figure competitor bill, or the Gisele Bundchen bill, or whatever it might be.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I think it depends on the circles you run in.

Liz Wolfe: Victoria’s Secret, I don’t even know anymore.

Diane Sanfilippo: I run in some circles where abs and traps and quads and glutes are the thing. Everybody wants to have muscles and be lean and fit and strong. And then there are some folks that I’m sort of friends with or connected to that, if the Crossfit Games is on TV, it’s kind of appalling to them. They don’t think that’s anything they aspire to, and they think it’s crazy. You know what I mean? Different strokes for different folks.

But I think the part of the next quote that she has about strength being contagious and how it bleeds into every aspect of your life; that’s one of the big things that is sort of the mantra within our gym. I say our gym, and sometimes people think that means I co-own a gym, and I don’t. {laughs} But it’s our community, it’s our gym. One of the big things that our coaches are always reminding us about is that we’re there in the gym to train for life. Part of it, yeah, is lifting this thing, but part of it is the mentality and the mindset and the strength of your mind that you bring to focus on what you’re doing in the gym. Because you can’t be in the gym, especially in a Crossfit gym or any sort of weight lifting or strength training environment, you can’t be in there and have a weak mind and make progress the way you want to make progress.

I think that one of the cool things that happens when people lift weights, whether or not it was their intention, they step into the athlete that every person is designed to be in some way. You know? Not everyone is going to be the same type of athlete, but I just think that the human body is capable and built to do athletic things, whatever that means. Whether that means walking and Zumba, or whether it means weight lifting. I have no stigma around either of those. I think whatever feels good for you and makes you feel strong and confident and able to go out into the world and say, yeah, I just did this thing physically, now I’m going to do this thing emotionally and psychologically, and have that same strength carry through. The way that we can feel positive about ourselves by doing something in the gym with our bodies, then I think that definitely carries through to what we do with the rest of our lives, just having that confidence.

I just think there’s nobody who comes to the gym and, hopefully in a good environment, in the right kind of environment for you, whatever that may be, you should leave feeling better and feeling more empowered than when you walked in. I don’t think, if that’s not the scenario that you have, then it’s probably not the best set up for you. If the classes you’re in leave you emotionally and physically beat down and not positive and not ready to take on the world, I don’t think it’s giving you the right additional benefit beyond the strength.

I don’t know. I know it’s been a while since you’ve been out of a specific Crossfit gym, but was that something that you think was a big undertone of everything you guys were doing when you were in the gym.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, I think so. I think that’s not necessarily what happens when people step into the gym for the first time.

Diane Sanfilippo: Right.

Liz Wolfe: But your goals have a way of changing when your introduced to this stuff.

Diane Sanfilippo: For the first time, they’re like what is happening. This is scary, and I’m leaving {laughs}.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, or they walk in and they’re like, I heard this is going to be really, really hard and maybe it will make me look like that, or whatever the ideal is. And then they come in, they get a tribe, they get a community, they get a new set of values that they realize speaks to them a lot more powerfully than whatever it was they were looking for when they walked in the door for the first time. Which is a huge strength I think of Crossfit, of movement, and of that kind of community that you have at your gym.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, and I think that’s the kind of thing Jen, she and her husband own a gym called the Movement Minneapolis, I believe that’s the name of it, in Minneapolis so you guys can check them out there if you’re looking for a place to train in that area. I think that would be a great place to do it.

Liz Wolfe: Now, this kind of reminds me, and I don’t think we had intended to talk about this, but there’s been a lot of talk just floating around social media about the atrocities that go on at the Biggest Loser ranch. And it’s just so in stark contrast to what Jen is talking about and what you were just talking about. There’s no empowerment in getting yelled out, and getting beat down for 8 hours in an attempt to reach your best self. I would argue that that makes it completely impossible {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Mmm.

Liz Wolfe: That is just the wrong road, you’re on the wrong road, and no matter how long you’re on it, it’s still going to continue to be the wrong road. So if you’re not seeking empowerment, and you’re not seeking some kind of happiness that does bleed into every other aspect of your life; if you’re just getting your butt kicked constantly by people who make you feel like crap about who you are. Man, it’s just not going to work. And it makes me sad, because I really like Bob Harper.

Diane Sanfilippo: I could definitely play devil’s advocate on that point too.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I agree with what you’re saying, but also the people who are there, they’re there for a different reason. Not to say that there aren’t folks who might walk into a Crossfit gym and have as much of a journey to be on, perhaps as a weight loss journey. You know? I would say it has to be a minimum of 100 pounds that you would really need to lose to be in that situation. But I don’t think that’s the vast majority of folks who walk into Crossfit. I’m going to go out on a limb and say I know that anybody who is in that situation, it’s extremely different from an emotional perspective than somebody who maybe…

Liz Wolfe: What situation?

Diane Sanfilippo: Their mindset and their emotional state is very different from somebody who maybe has 10-20 or even 40 or 50 pounds that they’d like to lose. Not assuming that everybody who walks into Crossfit has weight to lose, but my point here is, I don’t think the beat down is appropriate. {laughs} So I’m going to just say that. But I think what happens emotionally to somebody when they’re in that situation is they’re forced to stop playing the victim and take responsibility for whatever choices they’ve made about their life and their lifestyle and their food.

Liz Wolfe: That’s certainly the way they frame it when they put all the clips together on the Biggest Loser.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I mean I know that’s one of the things that has to happen, and I’m totally with you on the approach to it, but neither of us really know what it’s like to work with that population in that type of setting. And of course, the last element there is always going to be entertainment and television, and that’s always going to add something I think we would both agree that is sort of negative, because they’re trying to sensationalize something that would be better suited to a more private environment where people can handle what’s going on with their emotions privately. You know? And get help with that and not have to be berated on TV physically.

Boy, we just got onto a totally … {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: And that’s what it boils down to, is the television. What you going to put on the TV?

Diane Sanfilippo: That dang TV. Which is why I really stick to the two main channels of the Food Network and HGTV, because really, nothing good happens anywhere else.

Liz Wolfe: That’s true.

Diane Sanfilippo: Maybe Bravo, but that’s just, you know.

Liz Wolfe: Bravo is a hole that you don’t want to get sucked into, because you will never get out. And you won’t be sad about that.

Diane Sanfilippo: Top Chef is amazing.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, I even like Top Chef. I don’t watch it, but I like it though.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: But I’m just saying, I’m happy in my Bravo hole. Eww.

Diane Sanfilippo: This is a good tangent. This was a good one.

Liz Wolfe: And I just said Bravo hole, so let’s move on.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: We’d like to thank Vital Choice for supporting our podcast today, and we encourage you to visit their online store at vitalchoice.com. You’ll find an amazing array of some of the world’s best seafood, including wild Alaskan salmon, halibut, tuna and cod, as well as sustainably harvested shellfish. These foods are not only delicious, but vital choices for your health. You’ll also find grass-fed organic Wagyu beef, live fermented foods to promote gut health, wild organic blueberries, and dark organic chocolates. Eat better, think better, and feel better with deeply nourishing foods from Vital Choice. They’re offering our listeners 15% off any order using code BALANCEDBITES. Remember that orders of $99 or more ship free.

3. This week in the Paleosphere: Autoimmune paleo diet article [22:51]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, so this week I guess will probably be the last in the Real food Paleosphere. I wanted to bring up a US News and World Report article talking about the autoimmune paleo diet. Is the autoimmune paleo diet legit, with of course a nice little stock photo of someone cutting chicken breast.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: We have to have the stock photos in there. So, one of the quotes in that article was actually from Marion Nestle, who we’ve actually talked about before, and I believe I used some of her work in my book, Eat the Yolks. It’s just so funny to me, because I want to sit down with Marion, and say, what’s bothering you, Marion.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: About paleo? What is it? {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Let’s talk about your feelings about paleo.

Liz Wolfe: Let’s talk about your feelings. Because she says, in the article, “I’d like to see the science behind this,” says Marion Nestle.

Diane Sanfilippo: Have you met Terry Wahls?

Liz Wolfe: Exactly! A professor in the department of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. “A lot of it doesn’t make much biological sense. But eating the foods on the OK list should be healthy, so the diet is unlikely to be harmful – other than being a pain to follow.” Which is funny to me, because isn’t she the one about eating {laughs} more fresh, good foods that actually have to be prepared, which is kind of the whole point of transitioning to real food anyways.

But “a lot of it doesn’t make much biological sense” is funny to me,

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: Because when you really do go down that rabbit hole of biological mechanisms behind a lot of the things that we’re talking about, specifically in the autoimmune paleo community, it actually makes complete and utter biological sense, so unfortunately she just kind of outed herself as not being super up on the mechanistic part of all of this {laughs}.

Diane Sanfilippo: So it seems like with folks like Marion Nestle, and other bigwigs in the nutrition community, guys like Michael Pollan, when they have their feet and their roots kind of dug in on whatever it is that they’re take is, they either don’t want to backtrack and say something that might go against something they said in the past, or I think they’re just afraid to align themselves with the word and the community of paleo. I think they just have a really strong aversion to that, and they don’t want to be in our camp for some reason, just because it’s easier for them to toe the line of moderation, or whole grains, and just kind of keep on with it and not get involved.

I don’t even know, I’m kind of at a loss for words. It’s a little bit, I think, negligent or. I’m not really sure how I want to say this.

Liz Wolfe: Ooh, negligent. Wopah!

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s just, for her to not acknowledge that there is research on this. “I’d like to see the science”? Ok, we can show you the science! {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: Would you really want to see it, Mar?

Diane Sanfilippo: I mean, if you’d like to see it, just Dr. Google can help you. Autoimmune condition and paleo diet, and there’s research. And that was one of the cool things about interviewing Dr. Wahls, because she is one of those people who is out there doing that research. People ask about foundations they can donate money to for paleo research; hers is probably the number one that I would say, go ahead and donate money to what she’s doing with her research.

I know I’m going to talk to Dr. Amy Myers about autoimmunity with her new book, the Autoimmune Solution. I think we’re going to talk to her probably in the next couple of weeks here, so you guys can stay tuned for more on that. But, I mean this last part about the plan being a pain to follow, that part, I just…

Liz Wolfe: Just stop it. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: I feel, yeah, just enough with that. Because, why? Because people want to take a pill, and that’s easy, so changing what you eat is difficult? Obviously you’ve not met enough folks struggling with autoimmunity to find out that changing what they’re eating is not as hard as the pain that they’re in.

That part really bugs me, because it also underestimates what people will do when you tell them, this is the solution. Because doctors for so many years; not all doctors {laughs}, but most doctors for so many years literally their solutions are always a pill, a cream, a powder, something that is not personal responsibility. It’s always been, you go to the doctor, you get a diagnosis, and you get a prescription. And so that’s easy. It’s easy to be told you have this condition, woe is you, take this pill. It’s difficult to change your diet, but assuming that people won’t do it, or that it’s too hard for people to stick to, or whatever, it’s so weak to me that it’s just a totally poor argument and I can’t stand it. That really just makes me angry.

Liz Wolfe: I was bummed to see that that was Marion Nestle’s quote. I really was.

Diane Sanfilippo: I used to have a lot of respect for her.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I mean, I can’t say I don’t, historically, because many years ago, a decade ago, two decades ago, she definitely was at the forefront of telling people the truth about, look, we should be eating real food. That was definitely always her approach, and exposing the truth about the size of fast food, how big the sodas have gotten compared to what they were in the past, the French fries, all of that. And I think that all that stuff is very important on a public health basis. It is important when you look at what fast food restaurants are serving, or what’s available in food deserts, and these other topics that we don’t really talk about as much in our little world, because it’s such a micro view when we talk about just paleo. She has had a lot to say about what we should be eating.

And for many years, I was reading her books and really following her work. I’ve even seen her speak at least once, if not twice, and no disrespect to the historical work that she’s done to uncover a lot of the stuff and to talk about the marketing that’s happened to children, and the way that the food industry is in bed with big food companies, and all of that. She’s really exposed a lot of that stuff. But then when it comes to the science, I think she’s maybe a little bit behind.

Liz Wolfe: Well, and that’s not an unusual thing.

Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.

Liz Wolfe: She’s a public health expert. And honestly, that’s what I was working toward when I was a little more enthusiastic about getting my masters in public health, which isn’t completely, well it’s a little bit on hold right now, let’s be honest. But public health experts are steeped in epidemiology, which is great, but as I talk about in Eat the Yolks, there are some problems to the way we look at epidemiology and how we draw conclusions from it.

But what public health experts are really able to do is bring the research, generally done by somebody else, to the public in a way that is sustainable and truly makes a difference. Which is why I want to do that. And it’s not necessarily her forte to be up on the research. So I just don’t know; I don’t know, it was an interesting choice of person to quote as these things tend to always do. It may not be her place to put the biological mechanisms into, I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s just interesting. It’s interesting how we kind of chose who we trust on these things. Kind of shut that conversation down with that comment.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} For sure.

Liz Wolfe: It is what it is.

Diane Sanfilippo: I’ve said all I can about that.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: Pete’s Paleo is a friend of the Balanced Bites podcast, and they also are fans of the 21-Day Sugar Detox. The 21-Day Sugar Detox is great for your body in so many ways, but consistently feeding yourself right can be a challenge. Pete’s Paleo makes delicious, seasonal, ready to eat meals that strictly follow the 21DSD program. They’re shipped directly to your door, ready to go. Let Pete’s Paleo help you with your 21DSD success. And don’t forget that their bacon is also sugar free. 5OFF21DSD is your coupon code for $5 off 21DSD meals, and 5OFFPETESPALEO is your coupon code for $5 off regular Pete’s Paleo meals.

Listener Questions
4. Holistic dermatologist, the Clarisonic, and cystic back acne [31:12]

Liz Wolfe: Questions.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yes.

Liz Wolfe: Cool. This first one is kind of for me, I think, but you’ll probably have something to say on it. This is from Sabrina. “Hey ladies! Thanks for all you do. Wisdom from you ladies and a paleo lifestyle saved me from Accutane. The skin on my face looks great, and is mostly acne-free since going paleo and removing dairy and most nuts. However, I still get severe cystic acne on my back. What’s that about? Also, I have large pores and some scarring from years of acne which oil cleansing has really helped, but I’m considering a Clarisonic. Thoughts on the Clarisonic? Ok, last question here.”

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: “Any tips of finding a dermatologist in my area who would have holistic, natural approach to skin care. I need someone to help me troubleshoot some non-acne skin problems, but the last dermatologist I saw told me he didn’t think removing dairy was really why my acne cleared up.”

So, a couple of things here. Unfortunately, I have no suggestions on finding a holistic or natural dermatologist. A lot of times Chinese medicine docs will do some of the natural skin care stuff that you might be looking for, but I don’t know whether that’s exactly the road Sabrina wants to go down or not. I just don’t know.

Thoughts on the Clarisonic.. do you have a Clarisonic, Diane?

Diane Sanfilippo: I thought I got one from, I feel like there’s one sitting right here, hold on.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: What is this? I don’t think it’s called that. Is a Clarisonic one of those little brushy things?

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. It’s like a buzzy brush, but it’s for your face.

Diane Sanfilippo: So, I have one from my Oprah swag bag that’s sitting here. It’s made by Olay, though.

Liz Wolfe: Seriously, you have an Oprah swag bag?

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, it had the MOFI in it, and all that stuff.

Liz Wolfe: You’re so fancy.

Diane Sanfilippo: It had so much cool stuff. No, it’s literally sitting here on my dining room table where I’m sitting recording this podcast, and it’s still in the box. That’s how good I am about doing skin care things. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Well, you find stuff that works and you stick with it, you don’t need to keep trying a bunch of other stuff.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: So my thoughts on the Clarisonic. I’m never one to; if a group of people say, wow it’s been amazing for me, I’m obsessed with it, then it clearly works for those people. It addressed whatever need those people had, and go on with your bad self. But there are also many people who say that the Clarisonic or other machiney things, buzzy brushes like it, caused too much irritation. And the problem is not necessarily with the Clarisonic; it’s what type of skin the Clarisonic is acting upon. What the problems on internally.

Diane Sanfilippo: The terrain is everything.

Liz Wolfe: The terrain is absolutely everything. So if you’re skin is easily irritated, or cystic even, I tend to think it’s really not a good idea. I think it can be more irritating than not. And there are just a couple of other issues. I don’t know, I don’t want to just dog on the Clarisonic, because I think it does help some people. But I think for people with cystic issues, probably don’t want to go there right away.

Of course, there will be people who say that I’m completely wrong about that, but that’s just been my observation. I just tend to be so easily irritated; less now than in the past, but to a degree I just like to be as gentle as I possibly can, and I tend to think that’s the best approach, along with nutrition and digestive health and all that.

Diane Sanfilippo: What about the cystic acne on her back? What’s that about? That’s what she said.

Liz Wolfe: The cystic acne, I would say if she’s already seen a ton of progress with the skin on her face with a paleo/dairy-free diet, she’s kind of figured out what works for her. I personally would think that over time, the acne on her back will also improve, given that there’s not some kind of issue with extreme sensitivity to detergent or something like that. It just tends to take a little bit longer to resolve for some people.

You know people like to put up that acne map that just gets recirculated from the same website over and over and over again; I’ve seen some, there’s some validity to it. I don’t know if it’s accidental or what it is exactly, but it just seems to me that that is one of those things that just takes some patience, and if you’re improving in other areas you should improve there eventually, as well. There’s nothing really magic, it’s pretty much the same ideas that I like to give people.

Diane Sanfilippo: So, it’s not necessarily; I don’t really know much about acne on the back, it’s not necessarily hormonal?

Liz Wolfe: It’s not like, oh your stomach acid, oh it’s your luteal phase. It’s not, I just haven’t been able to be that pinpointing of it. I just don’t see that close of a pattern for people.

Diane Sanfilippo: The only other thing I would say about it is, when I used to have more issues with acne on my back was just from sitting in sweaty sports bras. Just stuff that I would do that I’m like, I should probably take a shower. But I don’t know…

Liz Wolfe: Which is a combination of probably irritation fostering some bacteria that you don’t want back there.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, like the sweat kind of opening your pores up.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: That combination.

Liz Wolfe: But when people identify something as cystic, I assume that they’re talking about something that..

Diane Sanfilippo: Is deeper.

Liz Wolfe: Not just the way it feels and looks, but also the timing of it. Which, you don’t always know. I guess maybe some people kind of think cystic acne is just cysts, the big really painful kind of underground acne, so I don’t know. I could be wrong on what she’s talking about there. But that’s just one of those things I also think benefits from a really simple approach.

You can ice it, but don’t pick at it, don’t put a whole lot of stuff on it. Vitamin A in the diet is something I think you should definitely focus on. That just seems to be the first line of defense that we have. It can also modify how our body produces sebum and all that. That’s kind of my best advice there, not knowing a whole lot more about what’s going on.

But yeah, that’s what I think about the Clarisonic and the dermatologist. It might be fun to go to a Chinese medicine practitioner and see what they have to say.

5. Autoimmune shopping list has the very items I avoid; tell me why? [37:34]

Liz Wolfe: Alright. This next question I think is for you. Autoimmune shopping list has the very items I avoid; tell me why? Annie’s natural organic salad dressing, for example, love it or leave it?

Diane Sanfilippo: I think the salad dressing is an also, in addition, because that’s definitely not on any of my shopping lists {laughs}.

Liz Wolfe: Oh, ok. I’ve got to say, I don’t love Annie’s natural organic salad dressing. I think she uses some junk.

Diane Sanfilippo: No, I’m going to read you the ingredients from that in just a moment, and I think we’ll all be able to make our ruling.

Liz Wolfe: Ok {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: So, Paula is asking about the shopping list for autoimmune, I’m presuming she means from Practical Paleo. Just to review some of the recommendations for the autoimmune meal plan in Practical Paleo, I do say under the general diet and lifestyle recommendations, which are kind of an add and avoid, sort of on top of the basic paleo approach. It’s also add more of this, also really try and avoid this stuff.

So, under the avoid, which I think is what she’s kind of referring to here, I have some foods that might normally be considered paleo like nuts, seeds, eggs, nightshades, and then I mention foods that are high in insoluble fiber, like leafy greens or raspberries and strawberries. The raspberries and strawberries having a ton of those little seeds, and if you read the nutrition facts on any of those berries, or if you’d like at, like I used to eat the dried raspberries Trader Joe’s sells. I don’t know if they still sell them, but years ago I used to get them, I was like, wow these have a ton of fiber! And it’s just all the seeds that essentially just pass through you. So that’s that insoluble fiber from those seeds.

But, when she’s asking about why those would be on the meal plan at all, it’s not that you shouldn’t ever eat them, it’s just that modulating how much of them you eat is important depending on your digestive state. So somebody who is dealing with autoimmune flares, is probably also dealing with some impaired digestion. They almost can’t ever go in isolation, they’re going to work together. So if your digestion is really strong, you’re probably not going to be having an autoimmune flare. And this is just stuff that, even if you’re not sure what you’re feeling with your digestion, just kind of paying attention to the types of foods that you’re eating can really help.

It’s not that you shouldn’t ever eat leafy greens; I don’t even have broccoli or cauliflower or green beans on this list of what you should avoid additionally, so I’m not sure where she got that, but if that’s something that she was told elsewhere, I would just say to avoid those in a raw state. I would say they should always be cooked or very well cooked, and what that does is it helps to break down some of that fiber. It starts to break down some of the cellulose in the plant, and makes it easier to digest, and it makes some of the nutrients easier to access.

Although, the one thing that food will lose mostly when it’s cooked is vitamin C. So that’s one that people do need to be aware of getting in other ways from some raw foods or citrus juice is a really good place for that. We can get tons of vitamin C from bell peppers, if you are doing bell peppers on autoimmune, which some people are not doing the same autoimmune as everyone else, just kind of depending on the things that you’ve tested. So that’s that. It’s pretty much the basics.

When it comes to autoimmune; if she’s avoiding broccoli and cauliflower because she has a thyroid condition, so she’s trying to avoid goitrogenic foods, again it comes back to cooking them, which is going to reduce the goitrogenic properties in those vegetables in the cruciferous family. So that’s going to be an ok approach for her.

Lastly, looking at the Annie’s natural organic salad dressing, she was asking about the French variety. The ingredients, I don’t know why it said other ingredients. Water, expeller pressed vegetable oil (canola and/or sunflower), apple cider vinegar, tomato paste, cane sugar, etc., it kind of goes on. Really the biggest issue here is the oil. Just inherently, number one, the oil that they’re using in this, I wouldn’t recommend this salad dressing. It’s something that you’re going to be eating these types of oils when you dine out all the time, this is what every restaurant is using. So I would just say, if you like this type of dressing, I would try and find a recipe for it online, and I’m sure that you can, and I would try and use either an olive oil or even an avocado oil, something that’s a cold pressed oil that’s not a refined seed oil as the canola or even sunflower oil would be.

Liz Wolfe: I just realized that I read the question heading and not the actual question, so way to break it down. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh.

Liz Wolfe: Sorry.

Diane Sanfilippo: Alrighty.

6. Moving out of the sun of Florida to Boston [42:27]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, next one. Moving out of the sun of Florida to Boston. Rebecca says, “Thank you for all that you do. I love listening to your podcast. I’ve lived in Florida my whole life,” or as Diane would say, “Flarida”. Say it Diane.

Diane Sanfilippo: “Flarida”?

Liz Wolfe: “Flarida.”

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} “Growing up in hot and humid south Florida, and going to college in central north Florida.”

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: “However, I’ve recently graduated from college and I’m moving to “Baston” after getting an amazing job offer. I’m terrified of the cold and possible lack of sunlight I’ll be getting up north; do you have any suggestions to how to adjust to living in the cold, and how to mitigate any negative effects. Thank you so much.”

Diane Sanfilippo: When did she send this one? Can we be like, “don’t do it!”

Liz Wolfe: I have no idea.

Diane Sanfilippo: Don’t go!

Liz Wolfe: She may be going at a time of year that, I mean, maybe she’s not going this winter. But I liked this question. I know we’ve talked about, we’ve talked about tanning beds and which ones to use and all of that type of thing if you really want to get some of that naturally occurring vitamin D. But I think it’s important that folks contextualize their seasonal feelings with vitamin D in mind, which is why I liked this question so much.

So I think at this point, we’re recording this January, February, its like, its right in the hot middle of the really difficult time for a lot of people. And a lot of locations that have a high prevalence of seasonal affective disorder, and whatnot, also have a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency. So, one of the things that that could mean is that during the winter when there’s less vitamin D, we just are going to have more issues. But what that could also mean is that people are not propping up their vitamin D levels effectively in the summer when they could have some good, natural sun exposure, like I talk about in Eat the Yolks, and that can take them through a more difficult winter.

Now, if you’re moving from “Flarida” to “Baston”, that could be interesting.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Because Rebecca is probably used to getting a lot more sun and a lot more vitamin D than she will get once she’s been there for a full seasonal cycle. So I don’t know. I think supplementing with a good source of vitamin D3. I like the stuff from Thorn, but I would recommend not getting it through Amazon, I would recommend trying to find a practitioner that can order it for you. The vitamin D3 drops are good. For some people, vitamin D supplementation seems to be good; for others not so much. I like to recommend really vitamin D rich foods like sardines and get some egg yolks, and get some good seafood, which shouldn’t be a problem in “Baston”.

Those are my recommendations, but also make sure, Rebecca, you recognize when it gets tough that could be what’s going on and not so much that you hate your job, and your life, and the city, and all of that stuff. Just contextualize it properly, and that might make it a little bit easier to tackle.

Diane Sanfilippo: Side note here on the seasonal affective disorder. Our friend, Bill Staley, actually posted about this, I want to say maybe it was on Instagram or Facebook. I don’t know. But he mentioned that while doing a really low sugar, sort of Candida detox cleanse with Hayley, because she’s been doing a cleanse as directed by her naturopath, I believe. He’s been just supporting her, doing it along with her, and his seasonal mood issues have really not been the same. He’s actually felt a ton better by reducing it.

He’s really got a sugar monster; I mean, he can handle it, he doesn’t have body fat issues and generally doesn’t have any issues with his mood or anything like that, but he’ll eat paleo treats and it’s no big deal for his body typically. Scott is the same way, I just don’t bake as much, even for testing or anything like that as Hayley does. But he can usually have a few cookies, no big deal, but doing that challenge, I think, was tough and I don’t think he expected to have that response. They’ve also been doing some infrared sauna detox and all kinds of cool stuff. So I don’t know, I just thought that was interesting.

Liz Wolfe: Very interesting. Boston’s fun. “Baston”. My friend Quinn lives in “Baston”

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} “Baston”.

Liz Wolfe: I mean, you can have fun in the sun in “Flarida”, but you can have fun at the “baa” in “Baston”.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Google Jimmy Fallon, Rachel Dratch SNL skit. They’re pretty funny.

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, yeah!.

Liz Wolfe: You are.

Diane Sanfilippo: No you are.

Liz Wolfe: No you are. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: All day. All day.

Diane Sanfilippo: All day!

Liz Wolfe: Alright, so we’re at about 45 minutes right now. Should we jump into our tips and all that other good stuff?

Diane Sanfilippo: Yes indeed.

7. Diane’s Kitchen tip: 3 time saving products in the kitchen  [47:24]

Liz Wolfe: Yes indeedio. Alright, so I know I’ve been asking you your kitchen tip questions.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: But what is your kitchen tip for this week for us, good and bad cooks alike.

Diane Sanfilippo: Alright. This week I figured I would give you guys three shortcutting/time saving products that I love and that I use in my kitchen. I know whenever I post pictures on Instagram, which I do all the time, so if you don’t follow me there, head over there. But I post pictures all the time just holding some random product that I like, and people just seem to enjoy seeing that.

So the first one, which I have posted about quite a few times, is a brand called Good Boy Organics. They have a line of tomato sauces that’s called Yellow Barn. They are not only organic, but they are also biodynamic, which I consider this tomato sauce to be made from unicorn tears because {laughs} it tastes probably better than anything I could make from fresh. I think they have some of the best sourced produce that you can get. I don’t even ever see organic and biodynamic produce that’s in the Whole Foods that’s here by me, or farmer’s markets here, if you can even find organic produce, that’s kind of the best of it. I’m in northeastern New Jersey.

If you have all that stuff near you, cool, make it yourself. I do not, and I love these tomato sauces. They do not pay us to say that {laughs}. All of them are great. And I tend to buy them when they’re on sale at Whole Foods, because they’re pretty expensive when they’re not on sale. I want to say they’re 8 bucks a jar not on sale, but you can get them $2 off. So for me, for 6 bucks, that’s kind of like the crux of my meal.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s like, the sauce is bringing it all together. I know you’re a big fan of premade tomato sauce, really good, clean ones.

Liz Wolfe: Oh yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: This is my favorite brand right now, love it. Super mild. I don’t even think they use oregano in it, which I have grown to love oregano, but for many years I had a kind of ick response to it. It just tasted like not good pizza to me, which, you know, pizza can be really good. But I really used to be turned off by dried spices in a tomato sauce, and everything they use is super fresh. I love it, check that out.

The second one is pre-sliced precooked frozen eggplant.

Liz Wolfe: Hold on; pre-sliced,

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: Precooked

Diane Sanfilippo: Uh-huh.

Liz Wolfe: Frozen.

Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.

Liz Wolfe: Ok.

Diane Sanfilippo: So they slice it and cook it, and then they freeze it. So it’s actually, you just have to thaw it or heat it up, eggplant. So anybody who’s trying to make a paleo eggplant parm. Or this morning, I just threw eggplant down underneath some scrambled eggs, and I don’t know, just mix it with anything. And also they sell artichokes this way, just frozen artichoke heart quarters. They’re just frozen, in a bag from Whole Foods; again, that’s where I tend to do most of my shopping. And you’ll see the ingredients list, only eggplants or only artichokes. So the company that’s slicing it and pre-grilling it, they’re not even brushing it with oil or putting salt and pepper on it. It’s just totally plain, and it’s awesome. I love those, really great for shortcuts.

And I love the artichokes, because most of the artichoke hearts you might find in a jar or a can have either citric acid or some other kind of preservative, and I just love that these are frozen with nothing on them. I think Trader Joe’s had been selling a similar one for a while, and now they do have something added, so just kind of keep your eyes open for that.

The very last one that I use is kind of a shortcut, and I kind of joke to Scott all the time, that I’m like, we are lazy and this is costing us more money than it should, but we’ve been buying the organic parcooked rice. Did I talk about that previously.

Liz Wolfe: You talked about the word “par” before, it kind of blew my mind.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} It might have been the rice, so I’m just going to throw it out there really quickly, because I think I talked about it last time we were on the phone. Or, on the phone! The last time we were on the phone.

Liz Wolfe: {laughing} Was never.

Diane Sanfilippo: Which is never, we never talk on the phone {laughs} It’s either a text or a podcast.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: But yeah, the precooked rice. So, just shouting those out because I love them, and I know that all you guys want to know ways to make cooking faster and easier. And when I’m home, I cook almost every single meal I’m eating at home, and those are some shortcuts that I take. So hopefully you enjoy them.

Liz Wolfe: That’s lovely, but I just have to say my sadness right now is most of my digestive system has been displaced by my uterus.

Diane Sanfilippo: Ugh.

Liz Wolfe: And I can’t fit all the food in my body. It makes me so sad. Because I like to eat a good volume of food in one sitting. I’m so over the days when it was like, 6 small meals a day, and I have 12 Tupperware containers.

Diane Sanfilippo: Who has time for that?!

Liz Wolfe: I know! But I’m having to make time. It makes me so sad. It’s the worst. I guess it will all be worth it in the end. So they tell me.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: {laughing} Alright.

8. Liz’s fertility tip of the week: don’t rely on OPKs [52:14]

Diane Sanfilippo: Alright Liz. Do you have a fertility tip for us this week?

Liz Wolfe: Yes. This is kind of a little teaser, summary type thing. Because obviously this is a tip and not a, you know, something longer than a tip. Which what would that be?

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} I can’t.

Liz Wolfe: An acrylic? I don’t know. Alright, so my fertility tip. If you’re trying to get pregnant, don’t rely alone on ovulator predictor kits if you can help it. If you can, take your daily waking basal body temperature. There are a lot of resources out there that can help you do this. We’re going to collect them a little bit more and talk about this in Baby Making and Beyond. But doing this can help clue us into our cycles, which is kind of where it really begins and ends, and possible phase length issues much better than OPKs alone.

Next week, I’m going to give a little tip on how to boost your basal body temperature if you’re waking with a temperature at 97 or below, as I did for a very long time, which can have some association with cycle issues and fertility and all of that good stuff. So, it’s just a good practice to get into if you’re trying to learn a little bit more about your body and how it works, and all of that stuff.

You can do the two together, the OPKs and the basal body temperature taking, but I would not just do OPKs alone if you’re looking to collect more information in less time.

Did your eyes glaze over, Diane?

Diane Sanfilippo: I was like, whatever you’re saying, I will do the opposite.

Liz Wolfe: {laughing} Do the opposite, do none of that.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} Well, I’m going to throw this in. I think that knowing about your fertility is just as important either way.

Liz Wolfe: Agreed.

Diane Sanfilippo: Because if you’re trying to approach family planning in the opposite way, where you’re not wanting to have kids, I think it’s just as important to pay attention to your cycles. You know, we’ve talked about birth control, and natural birth control in the past, and I think that’s one of the huge factors to just paying attention to your cycle, and what’s happening there, knowing where you’re at.

Liz Wolfe: Very much so. I think a couple of years ago, I think it was actually a listener to alerted me to some of the taking charge of your fertility stuff. Because before that, I had just kind of said copper IUD, nonhormonal birth control and you’re good. And now, of course, people know that I’m less enthusiastic about that, and I’m much more enthusiastic about what you just said. Knowing your cycles and use a condom. Any chance I have to say that word, I’ll do it.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: Alright, so that’s it for this week. You can find Diane at http://dianesanfilippo.com, and join me, Liz, at http://realfoodliz.com/. Join our email lists for free goodies you don’t find anywhere else on our website. And, while you’re on the internet, leave us an iTunes review. We’ll see you next week.