← Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark
Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark
Acne Isn’t Genetic + The Truth About Tallow & Sunscreen | Primally Pure Founder Bethany McDaniel
01:36:10
Loading summary
Transcript324 lines
- [00:00]
Bethany McDaniel
I don't know if you've ever seen the truck driver that dermatologists always try to say the sun is horrible. Look at this picture. Because there's a guy who he was a truck driver his whole career. One side of his face is like wrinkly and saggy looking and the other side is not as bad.
- [00:14]
Alex Clark
Is it a scam?
- [00:14]
Bethany McDaniel
It's like dermatologist propaganda. Because the truck driver, he's getting an imbalanced spectrum of light day after day for decades, getting blasted with UVA and blue light. He's not getting uvb, he's not getting the red and the infrared from the sun because that's being blocked by the glass on the car window and those rays. Isolation will age your skin more rapidly.
- [00:59]
Alex Clark
You can have the best skin of your life and look younger than everyone else without Botox fillers or a 12 step skincare routine. But you're probably doing the exact opposite of what actually works. Today's guest went from severe adult acne in her 20s to having the kind of skin people literally don't believe is natural. And she didn't get there by adding more products, she got there by taking them away. In this episode, we're breaking down what's really driving chronic acne in women, why so many skincare products are quietly making things worse, and how to actually rebuild your skin from the ground up. We get into to why most non toxic brands don't deliver real results, how to use ingredients like beef tallow the right way because there is an incorrect way, and what your skin actually needs to heal and glow. We also go beyond skin care into hormones, birth control, fasting mom life, and how to create a low tox lifestyle without becoming completely overwhelmed. Joining me today is Bethany McDaniel, founder of Primally Pure, a non toxic skin and body care brand rooted in real farm sourced ingredients. She is also the host of the podcast Grounded Wellness where she interviewed me on her beautiful farm about dating. My response to people who get mad that I discuss the topics I do without being a parent yet and tons more. After Bethany's family started a regenerative farm in Southern California, she transformed her own skin and built a brand that's redefining what actually works in beauty. So if you want better skin, this episode is going to flip a lot of what you've been told. Watch this episode on the real Alex Clark YouTube channel or culture Apothecary on Spotify. Join the Keith Servitude Facebook group for more discussion on this episode and tons more with like minded women Who. Who? Just get it. Pause. Before we start, leave a five star review for Bethany and I. Please welcome the founder of Primally Pure and host of Grounded Wellness, Bethany McDaniel. To Culture Apothecary. When women are in their 20s or 30s, dealing with adult acne, I mean, clearly we're not talking about hormones. Right. We're out of the teenage years. So what do you think is really going on?
- [02:51]
Bethany McDaniel
Hormones can still be a part of it. I firmly believe that almost every case of acne can be healed. Cured by changing your diet, ditching chemicals and getting your circadian rhythm. Right. I think it's a little bit more hormonally driven during the teenage years. But there's so many things that can play into acne. The chemicals in conventional skincare products, those can mess with our hormones at any age. I mean, I have known 50 year old women that still struggle with acne that when they ditch these chemical laden products, it gets better. Our hormones are also totally driven by our light intake. As you know, this is something that both of us are really into right now. But getting outside early in the morning, getting that morning sunlight and then blocking light at nighttime, that can have a big impact on hormones, which can then have a positive impact on getting rid of acne. Yeah, and then diet. I think looking back to my acne ordeal when I was a teenager and young adult, I, I changed my diet and my acne healed almost, you know, very, very quickly after that. So I really think those three things are kind of at the root of it. The chemicals that women are using on their skin, which are having a negative impact on their hormones, are light intake and then staying away from inflammatory foods, I mean, seed oils causing inflammation in, in our cells can, can cause our skin to malfunction, can cause acne, and then also blood sugar. I think when people's blood sugar are out of whack, that can cause acne. So there's a lot of factors behind it, but I think most of it can be fixed by really focusing in on those three things. And then of course there can be sometimes deeper issues, sometimes parasitic infections, sometimes bacterial overgrowth in the gut that needs to be addressed with a specific protocol, diet protocol or supplementation protocol.
- [04:46]
Alex Clark
You have insanely good skin, which I think would shock anyone when they find out that you suffered with severe adult acne. So the other thing is people think that you get Botox, but as your friend, I can attest that you don't. So how do you go from serious chronic adult acne to having skin so perfect that everybody thinks you're doing Botox.
- [05:08]
Bethany McDaniel
Well, thank you. I mean, I feel like my skin is still a work in progress. And my acne was really at its peak when I was, I would say in high school. And I went the conventional route 100%. I went to the dermatologist. The dermatologist prescribed me antibiotics, which I was on several rounds of, on and off over the course of a number of years, which then caused more disruption in my gut and exacerbated the problem. So I was kind of on this, like, up and down cycle of my acne would get better for a little bit, and then it would get worse again. And then, you know, I was using all kinds of topicals at that time as well, which were increasing my skin's sensitivity to the sun. I was on the swim team at the time. I was in chlorine. No one was thinking about how all of these things interacted with one another. I wasn't. My dermatologist wasn't. So I think that my skin just incurred a lot of damage over the years from all of these different elements. I almost wish I would have done nothing back then.
- [06:03]
Alex Clark
Were you using St. Ives apricot scrub?
- [06:05]
Bethany McDaniel
Of course. Of course.
- [06:07]
Alex Clark
And that was just tearing our skin and spreading bacteria all over our face?
- [06:11]
Bethany McDaniel
Yes. And that's another thing. I was under the impression that what you needed to do to treat acne was to just strip your skin of all of the oil, because oil was, quote, bad and you needed to get rid of all the oil. But what I didn't know is that I was stripping my skin of its natural moisture barrier, causing it to then overproduce oil, which then can cause more acne. So I was doing literally everything wrong that you can imagine. And eventually my dermatologist put me on birth control. And then that worked for a while, but then left me with other issues down the road once I realized, oh, my gosh, I want to get off of this stuff.
- [06:49]
Alex Clark
Like what?
- [06:50]
Bethany McDaniel
Melasma? Yeah, I had that dealt with that really bad. I noticed that, like, right around the time of my wedding, all of a sudden I was getting these, like, dark patches on my face and did some research, found out that that can be an effect of birth control. Thankfully, I didn't have any other, like, serious, serious side effects from it. I mean, when I came off of it, the acne came back, and my period cramps were really bad for a while, but didn't deal with infertility or anything, like, super serious, thankfully.
- [07:20]
Alex Clark
That's one of those things, you know, Every time I talk about birth control with another woman who was put on it, it's like I'm hearing about another side effect or something that I didn't even know was a risk factor with birth control. It's like amazing. They just keep popping up more and more things that you should be aware of before you take it.
- [07:36]
Bethany McDaniel
It's wild. And they just prescribe it so flippantly and literally. I remember asking like, what, what are the possible ramifications of this? I was told nothing going into this except for the one, I think really well known risk, which was like blood clots. But I just kind of like schluffed that off and thought, well, I'd rather just not have acne and, and risk it, I guess.
- [08:00]
Alex Clark
So what would you tell another woman who's being told the only way to deal with your severe chronic acne is to take birth control?
- [08:07]
Bethany McDaniel
I think it's absurd. It's absurd. And they're still doing this today. So my assistant Grace, who many people, if they follow primly pure, they've probably seen her on our social media because when she started me, we did this experiment where we took her off all of her, all the products she had been using, all the medications that she was prescribed, including antibiotics. It was basically the same protocol that I was given like 10 years later. I, 20 years later even. I couldn't believe it when she was telling me everything that her dermatologist had told her to do. I just thought, how can this still be happening? How can they still be prescribing antibiotics for acne, which we know antibiotics are terrible for the gut. We know how much gut health is connected to skin health. So this, if anything, will clear up your skin very temporarily, but will always leave you with a worse problem down the road. And then, you know, birth control as well. It's just another. Dermatologists are really good at diagnosing things and then matching up a medication that corresponds with that diagnosis. But in terms of root cause healing, that's not in their playbook at all. And it's still not after all these years. It's absolutely bananas.
- [09:20]
Alex Clark
How did you connect the dots to conventional acne products? What made you think that conventional acne products that you were getting at CVS or Walgreens were, were making your issue worse?
- [09:29]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, I mean, that didn't happen until much later because when I was growing up in the 90s, early 2000s, I just bought into every commercial I saw on TV, you know, proactive. Yeah.
- [09:42]
Alex Clark
Where are they? They disappeared.
- [09:43]
Bethany McDaniel
I know they Were everywhere. I know, it's interesting. And all the mall kiosks. Yeah. Clean and clear. They were like, marketing hard at us for these, like, skin stripping products. And I tried all of them. And then it wasn't until I was in college, I was working at Trader Joe's, which, funny aside about that, but I gained 15 pounds my first year of college. And I blame Trader Joe's because I assumed that everything at Trader Joe's was healthy. Wait, wait a minute. Now.
- [10:16]
Alex Clark
I have said this, Bethany, and I know I posted online. I say that this is an amer. Like Americans are obsessed with thinking Trader Joe's is a healthy store. And it isn't. It's great. They're so friendly. They have a lot of great things. They do have really inexpensive organic produce and cheap eggs and things like that. That's fine, great. But the whole middle section of that store is ultra processed food. I don't know why people don't connect the dots. I guess because it's not, you know, brands like Lays and, and Nabisco, they think it's different.
- [10:44]
Bethany McDaniel
No, but it's just the same thing re. As Trader Joe's. Yeah. So you're absolutely right. And I was one of those people that just thought, okay, it's from Trader Joe's. It must be healthy. And I loaded up on all the snacks. I would buy so many snacks and just keep them in my dorm room and eat them all the time. And I remember one time I was checking out, my co worker was checking me out, and I just had a cart full of snacks. And he was an older man, and he was like, there's no food in there. I was like, what are you talking about? This is. My cart is filled with delicious healthy food. He's like, no, none of that's food. That really stuck with me. Like, later on. I'm like, he was so right. And I had no idea. And I was just blinded by the Trader Joe's, you know, branding. And I was so excited to be working there. It was. It was a great place to work. People were friendly like you said. But yeah, not. Not a healthy store. But I did have a coworker, another coworker, who recommended that I use jojoba oil on my skin because we sold jojoba oil at Trader Joe's. And I was like, you don't. Are you serious?
- [11:44]
Alex Clark
Like an oil?
- [11:45]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, I can't use an oil. I have oily skin. Like, what are you talking about? This is going to make my problem worse. But she kind of explained to Me like, no, this is. It's a lighter oil. It's similar to your skin sebum. Like, I think it'll actually help. So I tried it and I was blown away. Like, for the first time, I felt like my skin was actually being nourished and moisturized. And it did not make my skin oilier. If anything, it just completely balanced it out. So that was a big light bulb moment for me. And I continued to use the jojoba oil. But it wasn't until about, I don't know, several years later when I cleaned up my diet and realized that a lot of the foods that I also thought were healthy my whole life were actually not very healthy. And then I saw massive changes in the health of my skin and body when I changed my diet. And that just led me down a path that at that point, I was bought in. I was like, okay, what else have I been doing wrong my whole life?
- [12:36]
Alex Clark
So what was the strategy that you used to switch up your skincare routine?
- [12:40]
Bethany McDaniel
So the jojoba I continued to use with kind of other products that was just one little light bulb. And then I just continued to use that with, you know, conventional other skin care and makeup. And then after I had the bigger light bulb of the food thing, I was like, oh, it's like everything. And at that point, I purged my bathroom. I got rid of everything almost overnight. I started researching, like, what can I use that maybe I already have in my kitchen on my face and on my body? And I just kind of became obsessed with learning about this stuff and trying to formulate my own products.
- [13:16]
Alex Clark
And how long did it take for you to start noticing a real significant difference? It wasn't just temporary. It was. It was staying the course.
- [13:23]
Bethany McDaniel
It was a journey. But it wasn't overnight. But it was fairly quickly. I changed my diet to like a whole food. Started with kind of like a paleo whole food diet about the time that I. That my husband and I got married because his dad and brothers were starting our farm primal Pastures at the time. And I was just learning about, like, the difference between pasture raised meat and conventional meat and learning about ultra processed foods. So this was back in like 2012. I kind of did a diet overhaul and then subsequently did a skincare product overhaul. Over the course of a couple, a couple of maybe a year, it took me to like, really, really, really transition. And that's not to say I've like, totally arrived. There's still things that I'm swapping out today, but for the most part, it took me About a year to like really, you know, diet wise, fine tune. And then skincare wise was quicker. But I noticed a shift from the diet changes which I made first, I don't know, within a couple of weeks, a month. And then it just continued to get better and progress from there. Especially when I started really like when I got really serious about the skin care stuff as well.
- [14:35]
Alex Clark
I mean, how do you go from that to starting a full blown skincare company?
- [14:40]
Bethany McDaniel
I kind of started it by accident. When they started Primal Pastures, it was just. That was kind of a hobby farm. My husband and I were both living in Scottsdale, Arizona actually. He was a high school teacher. I was working at the Special Olympics. I started working at Lululemon first and then I was working at the Special Olympics at Lululemon. Funny enough, there was also an older customer who told me that everything in the stores was sprayed with forever chemicals. And I thought he was crazy.
- [15:07]
Alex Clark
Wait, that person is a legend.
- [15:09]
Bethany McDaniel
I know. I'm like remembering all these old conversations now. Like, that person was right. That person was right. So the farm was back in California. It got to the point where we were driving back and forth pretty frequently for farm tours. I was making these products in our kitchen in scottsd. And it was all just out of passion. I was just passionate about it. I was determined to find to get a natural deodorant formula that actually worked. There was like Toms on the market back then, which we all know does not work. Sorry, Tom's. So I was determined to create one that worked and I was just passionate and taking these products back to California, selling them at the farm stands. Eventually we both quit our jobs. We moved in with my husband's parents. Cause that's where the farm was at the time. And in Temecula, California, his sister Lindsay and brother Paul and their son Noah. You've interviewed Paul?
- [16:04]
Alex Clark
Yeah, he's the owner of Pasture Bird.
- [16:05]
Bethany McDaniel
Yep, yep. They. They moved in as well. His sister Jamie also moved in. This was not a big house. This was 1600, like full house. It was insane. We were actually approached by a reality TV network. We were pitched this idea, but it wouldn't have been good. Yeah, I was still not really seeing it as something that could turn into its own. I saw it as something that would kind of always be connected to the farm and that I would sell the products at Farm Tours on the farm's website. And then within about a year, it became clear that like, oh, this could actually be its own thing.
- [16:43]
Alex Clark
Why? What made it clear?
- [16:44]
Bethany McDaniel
I started with the goal of making an extra $500 a month because we had no income at the time. And I was like, if I can sell like $500 worth of products, that'll really help. And quickly, within a few months, I surpassed that goal. And I was. Our sales, the primary, pure sales were getting to the point where they were like competing with Primal Pastures. And at that point I was like, oh, okay, I should probably take this more seriously.
- [17:11]
Alex Clark
So you went, you were, you had a goal of taking home $500 a month, and what you ended up with a few thousand.
- [17:16]
Bethany McDaniel
I think we did, I don't know, like 30,000 maybe in sales the first year, which, like, to some people starting a new business, they might be like, that's nothing. I think that's phenomenal. Like, not expecting it to turn into a company. I was, I was blown away and just so excited. Like, I was so closely connected with my customers. I was always making tweaks to our products based on customer feedback. And it was just so fun for me.
- [17:40]
Alex Clark
What was the first product that you were selling?
- [17:42]
Bethany McDaniel
I started with four so deodorant Outdoor lotion, which was an spf product, but it wasn't FDA approved, so I couldn't call it a sunscreen, lip balm and body butter, all tallow based.
- [17:54]
Alex Clark
What was the number one seller?
- [17:55]
Bethany McDaniel
Deodorant still is.
- [17:57]
Alex Clark
That's the number one best selling product from primly pure.
- [17:59]
Bethany McDaniel
Yep. Charcoal deodorant. I think plumping serum is number two.
- [18:03]
Alex Clark
So when you started this and you're making these products in your kitchen, you're starting out with how much money and then where's the company today?
- [18:11]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, I mean, this may sound crazy, but I literally started with $250 because I was making such small batches and selling like such small quantities, but I was using, I was like putting all that money back into the business. So the growth, it was like very small scale, but it was enough to allow me to just continue to reinvest. So I wasn't taking a paycheck at all for over a year. And I just slowly reinvested that and reinvested that. And that was in 2015 when Primally Pure officially began. Now we have a team of over 120 people. I think we're. We've shipped out about 2.5 million orders to date and just never could have imagined that it would turn into what it has.
- [18:54]
Alex Clark
That's unbelievable. How did you strategically scale it to that level? I think this is interesting because, you know, a comment that I see over and over again in, in online, you know, parenting groups and mom groups and, and what have you. Are, you know, how can I make extra money? What's something that I can do to supplement my husband's income while still being home with my children? You know, this is a question that a lot of women strug. And so I think your success story is so interesting.
- [19:19]
Bethany McDaniel
Well, I'll say I wasn't very strategic in the beginning. People say you should work smarter, not harder. I did the opposite. But I also, I don't regret that because I feel like that worked to my benefit for a while where I was just hustling. And I'm thankful that I started the company before I had kids because the hours I was putting in at that point, you know, I just would not have been able to do that once I started having kids. And I was, I was working from literally like when I woke up to sometimes like 2, 3 in the morning, making batches of deodorant in the kitchen. I was labeling products on the couch in our living, in our living room. I was handwriting addresses on boxes. So I feel like with the girl boss movement, hustle culture was like glorified and then it was kind of demonized. And I feel like there's like something in the middle there where it's not all bad. Like you kind of do need to hustle when you're starting something. You need to be willing to put in the hours and the work and not that it can't work in any other scenario like I think it can. It just might be slower. But I'm thankful that I was able to do all of that before starting a family. And then when I started having kids is when I was like forced to work smarter. So at that point I knew I needed to hire employees and learn how to manage people and like learn a thing or two about business in general, which I knew nothing about going into it. So I just started like, I immersed myself in business books and podcasts and was able to kind of continue to grow it to the next phase until I several years later hired. A good friend of ours came in and he is the CEO now. So I'm in more of a founder role where I get to focus on the things that I really enjoy, the product development and our content and a lot of marketing decisions. But I'm not like managing the day to day stuff. I'm not giving performance reviews and stuff.
- [21:16]
Alex Clark
Yeah, I wouldn't want to do that either. Yeah, I think that's great that you're able to do that. You ever meet your kids teacher and just immediately think, this person hates joy? Like they walk into the room and all the fun is sucked right out. Passive aggression, off the charts. And you're like, how did you get into this profession? The first place you're smiling like, yeah, thank you so much for everything you do. While internally you're like, this woman would report me to the government for blinking wrong. You know, half of life is just trying not to offend people, including with your smell because nobody tells you. But most deodorant is basically a chemical weapon. I mean, aluminum, synthetic fragrance, stuff you can't pronounce and you're just putting it directly into your armpits and lymphatic system. That's why I only use zebra deodorant. It actually works, first of all, which is shocking in the natural deodorant world where half of them are like a suggestion. This one keeps you fresh, has unisex scents and does it doesn't burn your armpits. It's clean, non toxic, no aluminum, no fake fragrance. It's designed to support your body instead of shutting it down. Sweating is normal, but smelling like a haunted locker room is not. So we need to be detoxing. And the best part is you don't have to think about it. You just use it. You don't smell weird and your kid's teacher has one less thing to judge you for. Life is hard enough. You don't need your deodorant working against you. Switch to zebra deodorant@yay zebra.com code Alex for 10 off. That's yay zebra.com code Alex For 10 off off. Did you go to school with the orange girl? Be honest. Or were you the orange girl just walking around like a traffic cone with lip gloss? We've all had a bronzer era. That should have come with a legal guardian and a court date. Some of you never left that era. You're 34. And that's why I'm telling you about Adele Natural Cosmetics. Because at a certain point, you have to stop looking like you fell into a vat of Cheeto dust. Adele is a family owned Texas based company making actually clean, non toxic makeup. And here's the part that I really love. They are literally going to col match you for free. They've declared war on the orange girl. Curse you. Email Adele Natural Cosmetics. They tell you what to wear. You stop looking insane. It's revolutionary. Try Adele's Blue Lagoon face balm while you're at it. It hydrates your skin without looking greasy. And Adele's loose powder foundation is so popular because it corrects while letting your skin breathe. What a concept. Go to Adele natural cosmetics.com use code ALEX for 25% off your first order. Get color matched and re enter society looking like a human being and not a cheeto. Adele natural cosmetics.com use code ALEX for 25% off your first order. My biggest issue with clean skin care is I feel like almost none of it works. Like it does nothing besides offer hydration. And my biggest gripe is with just pure beef tallow in a jar. I mean nothing except beef tallow. And that's all someone puts on their skin in my opinion. You can convince me otherwise. I feel like it doesn't do anything besides hydrate. However, you have done something where you are pairing beef tallow with other just supernatural, incredible nature ingredients to create this non toxic powerhouse. I mean, I've said it before and I'll say it again, primally Pure is the only non toxic skin care brand. I would say you and maybe one other brand that I like that I have found that actually work like I use it and I see a noticeable difference. Everything else I think is hogwash. So what is, what are you doing with your beef tallow skincare that makes it way above and beyond like someone just, you know, sticking it in a jar in their kitchen.
- [24:40]
Bethany McDaniel
That's very true. There are a lot of beef tallow brands that just sell beef tallow and maybe they throw a few essential oils in there, maybe some beeswax and that's kind of it. And I think that's given beef tallow kind of a bad rap because it's become known as this comedogenic ingredient, which it can be in isolation still. Not for everyone's skin, I don't think. But for some people's skin, beef tallow in isolation can clog pores. But when it is blended with other oils, other carrier oils, other ingredients, essential oils that are lower on the comedogenic scale, you get this beautifully blended product that hydrates the skin really well. But then you also have these ingredients that are doing other things and repairing the skin in different ways and providing cellular renewal. So yeah, I think beef tallow is an amazing base for a product, but we do blend it really nicely with other ingredients in our product products.
- [25:31]
Alex Clark
You're able, as somebody who has struggled with acne before, you don't have any problems with the beef tallow in your products because it's mixed with all these other things.
- [25:38]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, exactly. And the other Thing that is important is the other complaint I think that I see on beef tallow is that it just sits on the surface of the skin and it doesn't absorb, which also can be true. But that's why we recommend using oil and water kind of in conjunction. We don't really combine those in our products because historically you've needed harsh preservatives to combine the oil and the water. But they are both important for nourishing the skin because the oil provides moisture and then the water provides hydration and allows the moisture to be absorbed better into the skin. So when you apply one of our creams that has beef tallow in it, and then if you spray one of our facial mists on with it, that'll drive the product deeper into the skin and allow it to truly like, penetrate and moisturize at a deeper level.
- [26:26]
Alex Clark
Okay, hang on a minute. I think I just, I just saw my life flash before my eyes. Am I supposed to be spraying your sprays after moisturizer?
- [26:35]
Bethany McDaniel
So I would do it before and after. Yeah.
- [26:38]
Alex Clark
What a game changer. Oh my gosh, I'm doing this wrong.
- [26:40]
Bethany McDaniel
There's this concept called skin drenching. Have you heard of skin drenching?
- [26:44]
Alex Clark
Oh, slugging.
- [26:46]
Bethany McDaniel
Similar, but a little different. So the drenching is really talking about using like an oil based serum or cream or moisturizer of any kind and then applying a water based spritz with it and then kind of doing that multiple times. So you're just getting a lot of hydration, just drenching your skin with hydration, whereas slugging is more. So it can be any, just like emollient type of. I mean, people do that with Vaseline and you can do that with like our products as well. But we, I would recommend something more like skin drenching where you're using the, the water with that as well.
- [27:20]
Alex Clark
I'm obsessed with the plumping mist. I think that's probably my number one reorder from you. I'm. I don't know something about it. I love it. But I mean, I do like a spritz, then do my serum and then do my moisturizer and that's all I'm doing. How am I doing this wrong?
- [27:34]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, no, I mean, that's, that's fine. That's totally fine.
- [27:36]
Alex Clark
No, I don't want to be fine. I want to be all star.
- [27:38]
Bethany McDaniel
Okay. If you want to be an all star, you could just apply another level, another layer of the plumping mist at the end or even in between every application. If you want to, like, really drench your skin.
- [27:48]
Alex Clark
Okay, tell me your morning and nighttime skincare routine.
- [27:51]
Bethany McDaniel
Okay. I mean, it changes a lot.
- [27:53]
Alex Clark
Yeah, so does mine.
- [27:54]
Bethany McDaniel
And I'm always, like, testing out new things.
- [27:56]
Alex Clark
Do you wash your face in the morning?
- [27:57]
Bethany McDaniel
I do most of the time because I usually go in the sauna in morning.
- [28:01]
Alex Clark
Okay.
- [28:01]
Bethany McDaniel
And then I will wash my face after that with a new product that we're launching. It's like a. Ooh. Yeah. It's really fun.
- [28:10]
Alex Clark
So you wash your face sometimes. Whenever you do the sauna, and then what?
- [28:13]
Bethany McDaniel
Yep. And then I will. So I actually, lately have been spraying Quinton hypertonic to my face in the morning. I know.
- [28:21]
Alex Clark
You just told me that they offer Quinton. And by the way, I'm just. Every interview I have done on this. This show's history where we mention Quinton, everybody's like, what is it?
- [28:31]
Bethany McDaniel
Ketone?
- [28:32]
Alex Clark
Nop can spell it. Nobody can Google it. It's Q, U, I, N, T, O, N. And it's just straight minerals, so it's like. It's real salt, magnesium. You drink it, and apparently it's topical, too.
- [28:44]
Bethany McDaniel
They're.
- [28:44]
Alex Clark
They sell it in ways that you can put it on your skin, which I didn't know till, like, yesterday you told me that y. But I looked it up on their website. Waterandwellness.com is where we buy it. And they're not a sponsor. When I looked it up, the spray, it said nasal spray.
- [29:00]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah. Yeah, it's called a nasal spray, but I use.
- [29:02]
Alex Clark
You can use it on any face, just on your body.
- [29:04]
Bethany McDaniel
It's just. It's just. It's a really, like, fancy sea water product, essentially. And I've been using it because I have seasonal allergies. That's, like. My biggest health issue is seasonal allergies. And right now at the farm, something is blooming that's really bothering me. So I actually spray it in my eyes, which may sound crazy. It stings, like, a little bit. Oh, my gosh. Okay. It's like a sting. It's like a sting that stings good for me right now because it kind of cleanses the. The pollen and, like, the allergens that I'm experiencing. So I've been using that just in my eyes, but then I've also just been spraying it on my skin because I like the way it feels, and I feel like it's. It's healthy to put on your skin.
- [29:44]
Alex Clark
Okay. Wow. Okay, so we're. We're doing that, and then what happens?
- [29:48]
Bethany McDaniel
Okay, so then I'LL use something really light in the morning. Lately, I've been using our cleansing oil as a serum. So I just put a few. Do a small dropper full of that, and I kind of massage it into my skin. I always incorporate some sort of facial massage when I'm applying products. So sometimes that's just me using my fingers. Sometimes it's like I taking out my. My facial cupping set and using that. And then I'll finish it off with a few spritzes of one of our mists. So right now I'm using our. Our clarifying mist. Why?
- [30:19]
Alex Clark
What does that do?
- [30:20]
Bethany McDaniel
That's my favorite mist. Have you tried it yet?
- [30:21]
Alex Clark
No, because clarifying to me says acne, and I have severe dry skin.
- [30:25]
Bethany McDaniel
Okay. So that is true. It is meant to help acne, but you can also use it for any skin type.
- [30:32]
Alex Clark
Okay. What's gonna be the difference between that and the plumping?
- [30:34]
Bethany McDaniel
I love the neroli. I'm just obsessed with neroli, which is orange blossom. Like that smell. I don't know if you've ever walked through orange. An orange grove. Sure. When they're blooming and you just get this whiff of this, like, beautiful neroli aroma. So I'm just obsessed with the smell. And I like the way it feels on my skin. I like what it does for my skin. It's brightening. It's just a. It's a really nice mist.
- [30:59]
Alex Clark
And then nighttime routine.
- [31:00]
Bethany McDaniel
Okay.
- [31:01]
Alex Clark
How do you remove your makeup?
- [31:03]
Bethany McDaniel
I remove my makeup with cleansing oil.
- [31:05]
Alex Clark
Okay.
- [31:05]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah.
- [31:05]
Alex Clark
The dry cleansing oil of yours.
- [31:07]
Bethany McDaniel
I use the. I use the normal one.
- [31:09]
Alex Clark
Is there two.
- [31:10]
Bethany McDaniel
There's a. There's, like, tan bar, there's an oily skin, there's a normal skin, and there's a dry skin option.
- [31:15]
Alex Clark
Oh, so the dry cleansing oil is for dry skin?
- [31:17]
Bethany McDaniel
Yep.
- [31:18]
Alex Clark
Oh, good. Then I'm using the right thing. I didn't know. I thought.
- [31:20]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah.
- [31:20]
Alex Clark
I don't know why. I just thought because it was called dry. Because you don't use water. Water?
- [31:23]
Bethany McDaniel
Oh, no, no. Just for. For different, like, skin. Skin complexions.
- [31:27]
Alex Clark
Interesting. Okay. See, I love learning this.
- [31:30]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah.
- [31:30]
Alex Clark
So I use the dry cleansing oil, too, and this has dramatically increased the hydration of my skin.
- [31:36]
Bethany McDaniel
Nice. Yeah, it's amazing. Like, that was another thing that when I started oil cleansing, when I found out about oil cleansing, that helped my skin so much. This was way, like, earlier on in the journey. I started doing that around the same time I was overhauling my diet, and I just didn't come out with a product for that for years. Later.
- [31:55]
Alex Clark
But what's oil cleansing?
- [31:56]
Bethany McDaniel
So the oil cleansing method is when you're using oils to dissolve the dirt and grime in your skin. So it's based on this idea, this scientific principle that like dissolves like. So you're using oils to dissolve like all the, all the oils that are building up in your skin just over the course of the day. You're using an oil to really pull that out and dissolve it it. And then you wipe it away gently with a warm washcloth with water. And. And then you're left with really like balanced skin that feels really clean, but your moisture barrier is still intact. Like it leaves your skin feeling clean, but also moisturized.
- [32:31]
Alex Clark
So I pump a few pumps of this dry cleansing oil in my hand and I mean I have a full face of makeup on right now. And then I like put it on exactly how I am right now. I just. And I start swishing all my makeup around and all of this. And then I put a hot washcloth on and I let it sit there for a minute and then I take it off. Off. Is that the wrong way to do it?
- [32:49]
Bethany McDaniel
No, that's perfect.
- [32:50]
Alex Clark
Okay, great. And then I go back in with my cleanser.
- [32:53]
Bethany McDaniel
That's okay. So that's good. That's double cleansing.
- [32:55]
Alex Clark
Yes, I double cleanse.
- [32:55]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, double cleansing is great. This is something that I forget to do for like months on end sometimes. And I'm still prone to breakouts. So like I will, you know, that's how things, that's how inflammation will show up in my skin is with breakouts. And sometimes I can trace it back to being diet related. Maybe having too much sugar. I don't eat refined sugar. But even like natural. Too many treats. Too many like Paleo treats. Treats. Sometimes that's the culprit. And sometimes I'll go, you know, a while, I'm like, why is my skin like not super clear? This actually just happened to me a few days ago. I'm like, why is. Why am I like getting these like little breakouts? And I'm like, oh, I haven't been double cleansing. That's why. So now again, I'm doing the oil cleansing method and then I'll use one of our cleansing bars after that. And then after I start doing that for a couple, you know, weeks, then it's my skin, skin's clear again. So then after I oil cleanse and then use one of our, our facial bars for the next cleanse, I will tone with our everything spray. So I'll spray a few pumps of that Onto an organic cotton round. Use that as a toner.
- [34:00]
Alex Clark
Okay. What's I love with the sprays? The sprays are like my favorite. So what's the everything spray?
- [34:04]
Bethany McDaniel
So the everything spray, it's kind of a multi purpose product. It has lavender and tea tree, so kind of like oils that are just helpful across the board. Antimicrobial soothing. The lavender soothing tea trees antimicrobial. It has a little bit of apple cider vinegar that helps with toning and just a small amount. And yeah, you can use it as a toner. You can use it as like an underarm spritz midday if you want to freshen up. You can use it on the bikini line after you shave to prevent ingrown hairs. So it's a cool product. People always tell us other things they're doing with it. Like a lot of people will say they spray it on sunburns and that it helps a lot. I haven't tried that, but yeah, it's a great like multi use product. So I'll use that as my toner. And then I'm really into our plumping serum right now. I love our plumping serum.
- [34:47]
Alex Clark
Oh my gosh.
- [34:48]
Bethany McDaniel
So I use that as my serum.
- [34:50]
Alex Clark
And what, how does it plump? How does it work?
- [34:52]
Bethany McDaniel
It has an ingredient called astaxanthin and astaxanthin is a really potent antioxidant derived from algae. It's 6,000 times stronger than vitamin C. It leaves this kind of orangey glow on your face.
- [35:05]
Alex Clark
Obsessed with it.
- [35:06]
Bethany McDaniel
I know, it's fun, it goes away quickly. But it like leaves your skin just feeling really.
- [35:10]
Alex Clark
No, I like it.
- [35:11]
Bethany McDaniel
A lot of people like it.
- [35:12]
Alex Clark
It because it gives me a little extra color, Especially if I have a no makeup day. It gives me a little extra color to my skin where I look a little bit more alive. So I actually love that part of it.
- [35:21]
Bethany McDaniel
It has castor oil too, which castor oil is amazing. Gives you like the instant plumping effect. So I love that product. And then I'll spritz on some more of the, the facial mist. I have to be careful because I still. They used to be called complexion mist and I still call them that sometimes, but it's facial mist. It's our clarifying facialist mist that I'll spray on next. And then sometimes I'll use one of our creams and I just do a really light layer of that and then I'll spray on a little bit more mist.
- [35:46]
Alex Clark
And what are the cream options?
- [35:48]
Bethany McDaniel
So we, we have like three kind of lines Right now it's like plumping, clarifying, soothing. So we have a cream for each of those.
- [35:55]
Alex Clark
So what should I be using?
- [35:57]
Bethany McDaniel
If you have, I think like the plumping cream.
- [35:59]
Alex Clark
Yeah.
- [35:59]
Bethany McDaniel
If you're saying dry skin. Yeah, yeah. Everything in the line, it's not like it's. You can go wrong necessarily by using the wrong product if you have a certain, like they're all going to have things that are still going to benefit. Benefit your. Your skin cells in general and be good for you. But yeah, they're just a little bit specialized. And we have a quiz on our website that people can take to kind of learn more about sometimes the quiz will give you like a clarifying mist with a soothing cream just based on how you answer certain questions. So yeah, that, that kind of makes it easy. But the clarifying line in general is like very focused on brightening anti inflammatory, like, like turmeric and green tea and things that like brighten the skin and ease inflammation. And then the soothing line has things like lavender and blue tansy that are just like calming and soothing for the skin and calming for like reactive kind of skin. And then the plumping line has a lot of botanicals that really just like firm up and plump up the skin.
- [36:57]
Alex Clark
Okay. And so that's your whole routine for night.
- [36:59]
Bethany McDaniel
I always do facial massage. I said that already, but yeah, always incorporating some facial massage into the mix and that helps the, the product to absorb more deeply as well. So. Facial cupping. I'm obsessed with facial cupping. Have you tried it?
- [37:11]
Alex Clark
No.
- [37:11]
Bethany McDaniel
Oh, my gosh. Okay. We have to give you a facial cupping set. It feels amazing. Especially. Especially sell these. Yeah.
- [37:19]
Alex Clark
Really?
- [37:19]
Bethany McDaniel
Yep. Yeah. How do you do it? So we have tutorials, but they're pretty gentle. You just kind of like suction it to your skin. Skin. And they're made of silicone, I believe. Yeah. You just kind of suction into your skin and especially on like podcast days for me. And this applies to you for sure. But after you've been talking a lot, I'm like, it breaks up the, the tension in your muscles of their face so. Well, like, like nothing else does.
- [37:45]
Alex Clark
Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's great. You know what? I've never told anybody that when you film multiple episodes in a day, I've never had your face.
- [37:52]
Bethany McDaniel
You feel it. You feel the.
- [37:53]
Alex Clark
You're like frozen.
- [37:54]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah.
- [37:55]
Alex Clark
And that is. I need that.
- [37:56]
Bethany McDaniel
No, it's amazing. Like, I can already. I can imagine it like on my jaw right now. So you just kind of do it on your, like away away, like up and up and. And towards the ends of your face and on the forehead. It feels so good.
- [38:08]
Alex Clark
I want to do this tomorrow. I'm getting a primly pure facial.
- [38:11]
Bethany McDaniel
We need to.
- [38:11]
Alex Clark
Okay.
- [38:11]
Bethany McDaniel
Courtney will probably do it on you and on the neck. You do it like down the neck to. To encourage lymphatic drainage.
- [38:17]
Alex Clark
Yes.
- [38:17]
Bethany McDaniel
But it's. It's a game changer. Okay.
- [38:19]
Alex Clark
This is so fun. I love nerding. I love the beauty episodes. This is so fun for you.
- [38:23]
Bethany McDaniel
And the boto stuff like, like you mentioned earlier, people will comment on certain videos, and I think some of that, like you had talked about on our episode of Grounded Wellness is like, some of that's just like lighting and some of that I'm not like, you know, super animated. And people are like, your face doesn't move. You must be getting Botox. It's like, no, like you can see it. It moves. But I do think that the facial massage and especially the facial cupping helps so much to break up stagnation in the skin and just boost blood flow in the skin, which is going to create a more youthful appearance.
- [38:56]
Alex Clark
I just got back from a road trip to Branson, Missouri with my friends, which is a fever dream sponsored by Cracker Barrel. You ever lock eyes with someone and immediately know they've seen things that you're not ready for? That's Branson. At one point, we're walking through a parking lot at 2pm broad daylight, and there's a woman just roaming around in a Tweety Bird nightgown. No shoes, no explanation. And someone goes, oh, that's Linda. She owns like half the theaters here. Because of course she does. Of course the Tweety Bird oracle runs the town. Instead of living out of gas stations on your next road trip and eating chips with 47 ingredients, pack masa chips, three ingredients. Organic nixtamalized corn, sea salt, 100 grass fed beef tallow. That is it. No seed oils, no chemical side quests, just real food like people used to eat before everything got weird. In Branson, Missouri, or wherever you are, Masa chips are totally incredible. I brought a bag on the trip thinking that I'd be judged, but they were gone instantly. People who just watched a juggle to a gospel remix. We're fighting over these chips. I'm telling you, there is a reason that masa chips are in sprouts, Wegmans, Whole Foods. This is the real deal. And when you eat them, no crash, no bloat, no I think I need to lie down and rethink my life. Okay, you just feel stable and satiated like you could run a small town in a Tweety Bird nightgown. Personally, I'm into the hatch chile. It's got a little kick to it. So if you're ready to upgrade your family snack game, go to masachips.com use code real Alex Clark for 25% off your first order. Fair warning, Masa makes their chips in small batches with real ingredients, so certain flavors do go out of stock. I just restocked the hatch chile because it was finally back and I wasn't going to miss that again. So grab your favorites while they're available. Go to masachips.com use code real Alex Clark for 25% off or just click the link in the video description or scan the QR code. Let me tell you something that sounds insane, but it's actually real. Your immune system as you get older can basically turn into a lazy government employee clocked in, doing nothing, collecting benefits, not protecting you. And then you're wondering why you feel run down, your skin looks dull, your hair's not hitting. It's because your system isn't active. That's why I take Cowboy Colostrum daily. This is first milking Colostrum, like the first four to six hours from grass fed us cows, which is when it's loaded with the highest concentration of bioactives like immunoglobulins and natural growth factors. This is the good stuff that your body actually recognizes. And unlike a lot of these companies watering it down, Cowboy keeps their colostrum whole. Think whole milk versus skim. This is rich, fluffy, slightly yellow, not weird chalky electrolyte dust that all of the other Colostrum companies are doing. Plus they actually prioritize calf welfare. First the babies eat before anything is collected. You just froth it into water, coffee, smoothies. The vanilla tastes like a childhood milkshake and their serving size is legit. You get 3 grams per scoop and you can go 6 to 9 grams. If you're trying to actually really improve your immunity, your gut health, skin recovery, all of it, go to cowboycolostrum.com use code Alex for 25% off. I'm serious. Cowboycolostrum.com code Alex for 25 off. You gotta wake up up that immune system. I think a lot of people really want to change their deodorant. They know how bad conventional deodorant is that those chemicals are going straight into your lymphatic system, straight into your bloodstream, all throughout your body. Really, really dangerous stuff. Also right there by your breast. What is the step by step process for somebody wanting to transition from conventional deodorant to non toxic toxic and what is the correct mindset and managed expectations that they should go into it having?
- [42:31]
Bethany McDaniel
I always say swapping your conventional deodorant for a natural one is the most important swap you can make for all of the reasons you just mentioned. Conventional deodorant is filled with toxic chemicals like aluminum, which is carcinogenic, it's been linked to Alzheimer's, it's filled with parabens, which we know accumulates in breast tissue. So we don't wanna be applying these chemicals in general, but definitely not to an area that is so close to so much of our lymph nodes to breast tissue. So it's just such an important swap to make and the transition is actually not that bad. But you have to know what to expect. You will sweat. We don't wanna stop ourselves from sweating. Sweating?
- [43:11]
Alex Clark
Why is that important?
- [43:12]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, I mean we detox through sweat. So it's one of the main ways that our body body eliminates toxins is via sweat. So with conventional deodorant, not only are we putting all these toxic chemicals into an area where they should never go, but aluminum actually blocks your pores and doesn't allow any of the toxins that we accumulate to get out. So if someone has been using conventional deodorant for decades and then they try to switch to a natural one, they're for sure going to be extra smelly, extra stinky for several weeks as your body kind of detoxes and normalizes.
- [43:45]
Alex Clark
Would it be helpful to be doing sauna in that process?
- [43:48]
Bethany McDaniel
Yes.
- [43:49]
Alex Clark
Sauna.
- [43:50]
Bethany McDaniel
If you have a sauna, absolutely. That's going to help your body to detox. If you don't have a sauna, you can do a detox bath, you can do intense exercise. Just anything that's going to help your body move those toxins out is going to be helpful during that time. And then we have a product called an underarm detox scrub. It has charcoal in it, so you can use that in the shower. That's also going to help to just pull toxins out out and just create a more balanced microbiome in the underarms. So that's a helpful one in the transition period. And then our everything spray too, like midday, just freshening up with that is going to help, but it's a couple weeks of just smelling and sweating a little bit more. And then after that a lot of people say that everything normalizes and that they sweat less and smell for sure smell less than they did before.
- [44:36]
Alex Clark
Why is sunscreen more toxic than the sun? Sun?
- [44:39]
Bethany McDaniel
I firmly believe that the UV chemical filters in chemical sunscreens today are some of the most toxic products that people are using. There are 19 chemical UV filters that are used in the United States. A lot of these are banned in Australia and Europe. The FDA allows them to be used in products. But they actually recently came out with a letter saying they that we no longer consider these 19 chemical UV filters to be grass or generally recognized as safe. They still allow them to be sold, but they've admitted that we don't actually know if these are safe or not. And the only ones that we do know are safe are the physical mineral barriers which are zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. The Journal of the American Medical association came out with a study where they tested these chemical UV filters and how they were absorbed into the body. Body. And they found that several of them are absorbed at 400 to 500 times what's considered to be the safe limit after just one day of use. So these are super problematic. Spray sunscreens are the absolute worst. All of these have a benzene propellant. That's what allows it to be sprayed on like they are. And benzene is a carcinogen. And so we're not only spraying that all over the skin and all over the skin of children swimming in it and drinking in it, we're inhaling it. Those kids are putting that water in
- [46:03]
Alex Clark
their mouth in the pool.
- [46:04]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And we're, we're banning these in our coral reefs, but not on our bodies. So the sunscreen that we sell, it's mineral based. It has zinc oxide as the active ingredient. It is tallow based as well. So it's just kind of sun protection. The tried and true old fashioned way. Super safe. It has a little bit of a white light sheen, but not as much as some of the other mineral sunscreens out there. It's a really fantastic product. We launched it last summer. We were sold out for several weeks.
- [46:37]
Alex Clark
I ran, couldn't get any myself.
- [46:39]
Bethany McDaniel
I mean it was like told me I could have gotten. I've got a little stash.
- [46:42]
Alex Clark
Oh, okay.
- [46:43]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah.
- [46:43]
Alex Clark
Well, I'll know that next time. But it was, it is the best sunscreen. It smells the best. It's. What is it? Lavender mint.
- [46:50]
Bethany McDaniel
There's a lavender mint and then there's an unscented.
- [46:52]
Alex Clark
Oh, the lavender mint. Don't even waste your time on the unscented. The lavender mint is where it's at. It's so good.
- [46:57]
Bethany McDaniel
And I even encourage people, even with our sunscreen, like use it sparingly. That should not be what you rely on for sun protection all day, every day. The sun is so important. We need sunlight directly on our skin. And so when we use our sunscreen, when we go on trips to Hawaii or Costa Rica, we're out in the sun without it for a while before we apply it. And we also use other things like hats and protective clothing and things like that. But the sunlight on our skin, I mean for sure, like morning, you're getting so many benefits for your circadian rhythm, but midday sun is something that people demonize. And even like midday sun has so many benefits. You're getting vitamin D through the UVB rays, which is so important for our immune health. The midday sun also allows your body to produce nitric oxide. It causes your body to produce all kinds of anti inflammatory peptides that no one ever talks about. So I just think there's so many benefits to the sun that we don't even know about yet. I mean, what we do know, isn't it enough to utilize it and take advantage of it? But there's so much that we're still discovering. It's an underrated pillar of health that more people need to be focusing on. And of course we need to interact with the sun wisely. We don't, we shouldn't be dumb about it and go out and burn and just spend endless hours in the sun, but we also should not avoid it. There was a study done in Sweden that followed 30,000 women around over the course of 20 years. So significant focus group and significant amount of time and one group avoided the sun and one group did not avoid the sun. And what they found at the end of the 20 year study was that the group that avoided the sun had double the all cause mortality than the group who did not avoid the sun. They had the same all cause mortality as pack a day smokers.
- [48:44]
Alex Clark
I feel like that's something more people should be talking about.
- [48:47]
Bethany McDaniel
Yes, I would agree.
- [48:50]
Alex Clark
You've discovered a way to eat organ meats in the most delicious this simple way every day. What is your hack?
- [48:56]
Bethany McDaniel
So this is something that was inspired by something I saw people doing in the health space. Like 10 years ago. They were freezing liver in really like small swallowable pieces and they would just like swallow it. And I'm like, huh, I don't know if I want to do that. But I was like, I can put it in like ice cube trays. And freeze it and then plop it into my smoothie smoothies. And so I started doing that and I've just since kind of been like fine tuning and perfecting that recipe. So what I do is I get the frozen either beef liver or chicken liver. I kind of fluctuate between the two. And I thaw it in the refrigerator just for 24 hours. It thaws super quickly, quicker than meat. So it thaws probably in even like less than that. But thaw it in the refrigerator. And then I put it into the Vitamix. I puree it.
- [49:47]
Alex Clark
How many of them?
- [49:48]
Bethany McDaniel
It's just like a £1 package of it. Yeah, puree it in the Vitamix. And then I have these little silicone molds. They're like, I think they're sold as candy molds on Amazon. And there's a lot of different shapes you can do like fun shapes. I have hearts. So then I, I just pour it into the mold and then with a spatula, just kind of smooth it over. Freeze those. Once they're frozen, I put them into glass Tupperware containers and then they're just there and I can just plop a few in my morning smoothie smoothie. And I've found a smoothie recipe that hides it really well. And it's frozen berries, raw milk, honey and mint leaves. That's it. And it's just an easy way to get liver into your diet. Liver is a really, really, really amazing nutritional powerhouse stacked up to any other food. Ounce to ounce, it's going to have exponentially more nutrients. It has almost everything. I think vitamin C maybe is the only thing it doesn't have. It, maybe it even has a little bit of that B. Vitamin profile is absolutely insane. Vitamin A, which you don't wanna ingest too much vitamin A, but it's really hard, really hard to ingest too much vitamin A in raw liver form. Cause you're just not gonna, your body's gonna reject it. I think a lot of people have that fear actually about vitamin A toxicity with liver because there was a incidence of that with polar bear. Someone who like hunted a polar bear a long time ago. And these hunters, I think I may be getting this a little wrong. But they polar bear liver got vitamin A toxicity. That's not going to happen with beef liver or chicken liver. And you would have to eat so much of it. So I just want to speak to that concern because to me it's like kind of a non concern. But that is, that is a big hesitation that some people have with consuming beef liver or chicken liver.
- [51:30]
Alex Clark
How serious are you as a mom about maintaining your circadian rhythm?
- [51:35]
Bethany McDaniel
Very serious. Very serious. We get morning sunlight every morning. We just have these bifolds and they're open, Open all morning. No other lights are on. So I'll be inside with the bi folds open for a lot of the morning. And then I'll also always just go outside and ground and kind of like bask in the sun. Like close my eyes, face the sun, and just. I feel like it charges my body. I'll even tell my kids that sometimes when I do it in public, they're like, mom, stop. Like, no, I need to charge my battery right now. And that's what the sun does. And some people may think that's weird. I think we need to normalize. Like, staring at the sun with our eyes closed and just like letting it absorb into our skin. You feel an immediate difference.
- [52:14]
Alex Clark
You do?
- [52:15]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah.
- [52:15]
Alex Clark
You also do squats in public.
- [52:17]
Bethany McDaniel
Yes, I do do that.
- [52:19]
Alex Clark
What's up with that?
- [52:20]
Bethany McDaniel
So, I mean, I have a little bit of awareness. I don't do it in, like, every situation. I'm not going to drop into a squat at a restaurant. Maybe I'll go to the bathroom and do some squats.
- [52:27]
Alex Clark
Worship at church.
- [52:28]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, right. Feeling the spirit. The thing is, we don't move enough in our society. And blood sugar balance is something that is so important for overall health, for hormones, and also for our skin health. So when we have too much glucose in our bodies, when we consume too much glucose, that glucose binds to proteins in our skin that create age or advanced glycation end products. Very appropriate acronym for what it does. Because the ages choke out collagen and elastin in the skin. And that's how you get this, like, sugar sag. There's actually a term called the sugar sag. Cause it makes your skin kind of sag a little bit when you eat too much glucose. So one way to counteract that is by moving after meals. And I've just kind of made this a part of my life. It isn't something that I feel like, oh, my gosh, I have to do this. Like, it's just. It feels good to me. It feels natural to me now. And so if you and I were eating dinner at my house, like afterwards, I would start doing air squats, and that's that. And then if we were at a restaurant, I might, like, sneak off to the bathroom and do air squats. Or I might, like, suggest that we all go for a walk after the meal. Because that does the same thing. If I'm on an airplane, I might get up and just do some calf raises on the plane.
- [53:45]
Alex Clark
Oh, there's no way. There's no way I could do that.
- [53:48]
Bethany McDaniel
People. I don't know if people really notice it because it's so. It's so discreet. I mean, maybe they do. I don't really care, but, like, I'll just kind of stand up and I'll be, like, leaning over talking to my kids and stand up and do some calf raises.
- [53:58]
Alex Clark
Amazing.
- [53:59]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, I don't do air squats on the plane.
- [54:00]
Alex Clark
I love how fearless you are.
- [54:02]
Bethany McDaniel
And the other things I do to support my circadian biology are midday. I'm usually here, so I don't know if people don't know this, but we're filming in our guest house right now. In our guest house. And I sit on that table over there with my computer. And I have the bi fold open and no other lights on. And I'm just, like, getting some natural sunlight to balance out the blue light from my screen. I don't really like using computers or devices completely indoors doors apart from natural sunlight. I try to always use devices in conjunction with natural sunlight. So you're not just getting that, like, imbalanced hit of blue light by itself without all the other balancing rays that kind of, you know, work to supplement the blue light.
- [54:46]
Alex Clark
This is actually a phenomenal tip. And I think something very doable for college students during the day, like try to work and sit outside in the courtyard or whatever. I don't know what they call it on your campus. But sitting outside on your computer instead of just in your dorm or in the library if you can.
- [55:03]
Bethany McDaniel
Exactly.
- [55:04]
Alex Clark
That's a really phenomenal tip.
- [55:05]
Bethany McDaniel
I mean, God did it so perfectly with the sun. Like, the way there's so many different rays in the sun and they all work together in unison. And so anytime we're isolating blue light or like UVA light, if we're by a window, the UVA is coming in, but the UVB is not coming in. The blue light's coming in, but most of the red light's getting blocked. So sunlight through a window can be problematic. That's why I don't know if you've ever seen the truck driver that dermatologists always try to say, yes, the sun is horrible. Look at this picture. Because there's a guy who. He was a truck driver his whole career. One side of his face is, like, wrinkly and saggy looking. The other side is not as bad.
- [55:44]
Alex Clark
Yeah, I've seen this.
- [55:45]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah. Is it a scam? It's like dermatologist propaganda. Yeah.
- [55:48]
Alex Clark
Wait, it's propaganda propaganda. What do you mean?
- [55:50]
Bethany McDaniel
Because the truck driver, he's getting an impact balanced spectrum of light day after day for decades. He's getting uva. He's getting blasted with UVA and blue light. He's not getting uvb. He's not getting the red and the infrared from the sun because that's being blocked by the glass on the car window. And those rays in isolation will age your skin more rapidly. I.
- [56:11]
Alex Clark
Literally, everything I knew is a lie. I have seen that picture so many times. And people are like, how can you say the sun is good when you've got this example? And I never know how to answer. Answer it. That is the perfect answer. Wow. That's so, so good, Bethany. Okay, and then what about at nighttime? Do you have to go outside during sunset or what do you do?
- [56:29]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah. So the other thing I do at midday is I try to just get out every day and, like, bask in the sun for a little while if I can. And if it's. If it's sunny outside, if it's cloudy, I'm not gonna, like, bask. But this is just something like my. I'm like a lizard. My body gravitates towards the sun, and I will bask in it. And I protect my face just because I want sunlight on, like, the surface area of my body. The face makes up a very small surface area amount, comparatively, to the rest of the body. And so I'm not as concerned about, like, synthesizing vitamin D. You're a hat on my face. I wear hats all the time. Yeah. So I do protect my face just because. Just to be, like, careful about accelerated aging on the skin on my face. And I damaged it so much from these products, these harsh topicals that I was using that I was prescribed growing up, combined with being in the sun and chloride. So I'm more careful about my face. But I do try to bask every day in the sun with my body. And then at night time, all the lights are getting dimmed in. In the house that we are remodeling right now, we are using these lights that Ryan Blazer told us about. I think you've had him on. Yep.
- [57:30]
Alex Clark
Test my helm.
- [57:31]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah. So they, like, switch to red at night. They're like a new. They're actually LEDs. They're like a newer breed of LEDs that do not flicker, and they don't have the same negative effects of traditional LED LEDs and they, I believe, like, there's like, different modes of the lights, so they turn into. They can turn into red lights at night. I wish I knew what they were called. But that's what we're installing over there right now in the house we're renting. The lighting situation is not optimal. And so I just wear blue blockers. I have my kids wear blue blockers. And they're just dim. The lights are just low. And then, like, no screens. And if we do watch tv, like, if we do watch TV together as a family, then we'll wear blue blockers. I have, like, the kids ones for. For my kids.
- [58:17]
Alex Clark
These blood work companies are often lying about the price. I keep seeing people say, oh, it's only $30 a month. No, that is not actually what you're going to pay. Here's what happens. You sign up, Great. Then you need your blood drawn. Well, that's extra. You want to talk to a human about your results, that's another fee. You need supplements, separate purchase. You need real treatment, like hormones or peptides. Sorry, not available. Go find another doctor and then pay again. So that cheap membership that you guys are thinking about doing for getting your biomarker and all of your blood work actually turns into this expensive scavenger hunt where nothing connects. So this is why I switched to Jevity. Unlike a lot of these other testing companies like Function Health or other ones that are super popular, Jev is not only going to give you all of the answers in your blood work, they have an entire team to go through your blood work with you and then come up with plans, right? Like, okay, based on your blood work, what supplements would we recommend? What nutrition goals should we set? What lifestyle goals should we set? Nobody else is doing that. So with Jevity, the price is the price. You get comprehensive blood work, over 90 biomarkers tested, a personalized longevity blueprint that actually explains what's going on. You get provider visits included, a care team that you can message, supplements, peptides, hormone support, all managed in one place based on your labs and they retest every six months to actually adjust your plan. That's the difference. It's not just testing. It is testing, explanation and actual action. And if you've already wasted money somewhere else and you're sitting on labs that you don't understand, Jevy just launched a free tier. Now, this is important. Listen to me. You can upload your results from previous blood work that you've gotten done that you have no idea how understand without paying anything on gody.com and they will tell you what it means. Go. This is all free. You can use code Alex. Okay. Go dot com. Code Alex. You ever notice how we've completely disconnected from the one thing humans were designed to live around? Light. Like, we sit in these dim, depressing rooms all day, or we stare at blue screens, or we have just crazy LED lights. Like, I mean, honestly, what I have on my set right now. And we wonder, well, why do I always feel like garbage? Garbage? We have no energy, Skin looks tired, bad sleep, our joints hurt. And everyone's like, well, have you tried journaling? No, Hannah, I have not. You need light. That's why I use joov. Joovv is red and near infrared light therapy, which actually has legit science behind it. It's a red light device. These wavelengths from juve penetrate your skin and support mitochondrial function, which is basically how your cells produce energy. If you want to know more about how that all works, look up my Chris masterjohn episode that I just did about a month month ago. When your cells have more energy, everything works better. We're talking improved skin health, reduced inflammation, faster muscle recovery, even supporting wound healing. So red light therapy is not fringe. There are real studies on this. I use my Joov in the morning or at night for, like, 10 minutes. You stand in front of it, you feel like a lizard recharging, and somehow your body just starts working better. Your skin looks healthier, your soreness goes down, sleep improves. It's one of those things where you don't realize how much it's doing until you stop and ju matters. Because not all of these red light devices out there are legit. They use clinically studied wavelengths, deliver a safe, effective dose of light, and their panels are actually medical grade and independently tested. So, yeah, it's not just some red light bulb from Amazon. All right? Joovv has got everything from small targeted devices to full body setups. So you can use it however you want. If you want to try it, go to Joovv.com Alex J-O-O-V-V.com Alex, for an automatic discount. That's Joovv.com Alex J&O-O-V-V dot com Alex, you ever been on a first date with someone and they hit you with so did you vote? And you have that moment where you're like, okay, wait, do I lie? Do I cry? Do I explain that there was a typo on my voter registration and I didn't find out until it was too late? Because that's the reality. Most people think they're registered, they assume everything is fine. Meanwhile, like one in four people either aren't registered to vote or aren't even sure. And you don't realize it till you're standing there looking like you just failed a citizenship test. This stuff changes, right? You move, you change your name, you haven't voted in a while, or there's just some random error. So if you want to make sure that you're registered to vote, go to RealAlexClark.comvote. you can check your registration in like 30 seconds from your phone. RealAlexClark.comvote it walks you through everything. Just handle it now so you're not explaining typos on the first date. What are some health and wellness rules that your whole family abides by, including your kids?
- [62:38]
Bethany McDaniel
The biggest things we avoid like a hundred percent are food dyes and chemicals. And we do pretty much avoid gluten. We do have gluten sometimes with like homemade ancient grain sourdough. But other than that, we, we really avoid gluten. So those are kind of the things that, like, my kids aren't even going to ask me for that because.
- [62:59]
Alex Clark
What do you do for carbs then?
- [63:01]
Bethany McDaniel
We do fruit, we do sweet potatoes. We do do rice, sometimes potatoes, sometimes. I don't eat that many carbs. My kids eat more carbs. My husband kind of goes up and down with his carb intake. I do some carbs. I don't avoid carbs completely. But yeah, if we're gonna eat carbs, then fruit. We eat honey. Honey and smoothies and, and stuff.
- [63:22]
Alex Clark
Does that count as a carb?
- [63:23]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah.
- [63:24]
Alex Clark
I feel like mean girls is butter.
- [63:25]
Bethany McDaniel
I mean, if it's honey, it's not like a complex carb. Okay, so like, I guess for like a complex carb, like sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice.
- [63:31]
Alex Clark
Yeah, like if you're working out, you know, I'm thinking about energy or whatever.
- [63:34]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, yeah. Our kids do have devices, but they have very strict parameters around them. Like the only time they use them is on an airplane. So I think it helps to have like a structure in place with things like that where they just know that they're not going to be able to use that unless you're in this one place. And that way it's not like a wishy washy thing. The hard thing with any of these, these like health rules in a household is if you don't adhere to them all the time. This happened to us with french fries. For a while we would eat french fries. Like, we avoided. We didn't cook with seed oils in the home, we would avoid seed oils, but then we would still eat French fries and our kids would still eat french fries. And eventually a few years ago, we were like, we need to cut French fries. This is getting out of control.
- [64:20]
Alex Clark
Haven't you tried Jesse and Ben's?
- [64:21]
Bethany McDaniel
What's that?
- [64:23]
Alex Clark
Bethany? Are you kidding? Jesse and Ben's. You could get it at Sprouts, Whole Foods, Target. It's a completely seed oil free french fry frozen. In the frozen section, you can get them with just beef tallow and spices and, and potato. Or you can do avocado oil and spices and potato. They are phenomenal. They're such good friends of mine. They're. It's an amazing company. Yeah.
- [64:47]
Bethany McDaniel
Okay, I need to try this.
- [64:48]
Alex Clark
It's in the freezer section of all those different stores.
- [64:50]
Bethany McDaniel
Nice. That's amazing. Yeah. Like, we get so excited when we find a restaurant that, that has fries cooked in beef tallow. And then the kids go nuts on those. But for a while it was like, oh, we're not gonna have them today. And then like a week later be like, okay, you can have them. And like, I think that's just where it gets really hard as a parent, if you're not gonna, like, just put your foot down and have. And set like really clear expectations for your kids on what they can and can't have. So, like with the food dyes, for example, they've never had food dye. And so at birthday parties, parties, they just know it's not this battle when, you know, they bring out this cake that's red and blue and purple. The kids aren't like, can we please have some, please? It's like, no. They just know that that's not something that we do. And I always have something else ready for them. So I'm not like being super mean, like, you can't have anything. And they're super happy with the substitute that I bring because it's something that they know and like and enjoy. Yeah. And then I also explained to my kids why we stay away from these things, that food dyes are linked to erratic behavior in kids and other issues. And so we have those conversations and we're very open about that. Funny though, sometimes they will make comments to other kids when they're offered things like, sorry, we can't have that. It's not healthy. Which I think is okay to say too. But I also try to instill in them, like, you know, we're not better than anyone because we adhere to these rules and because we eat differently that doesn't make us superior in any way. You know, these families, families make these choices and we still love them. We're not like gonna judge them, but this is how our family eats. And I think if you're like really clear about that stuff, it does help them make sense of it all.
- [66:28]
Alex Clark
Does living a non toxic lifestyle as a mom add more or less stress to your life?
- [66:33]
Bethany McDaniel
I'm someone that likes parameters and I like boundaries. I think there's freedom within boundaries.
- [66:41]
Alex Clark
I think that's business biblical. I think that premise is biblical.
- [66:44]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah. How so?
- [66:45]
Alex Clark
There is freedom. When you submit to Christ, people freak out about the word submission. And when the Bible talks about, you know, submitting to Christ's authority, it's not because he wants to take things away from you and make life unfun.
- [66:58]
Bethany McDaniel
Yep.
- [66:59]
Alex Clark
Is that you can really flourish under a certain set of boundaries?
- [67:03]
Bethany McDaniel
For sure. Yes. Like following the ten Commandments. It's not because God wants our lives to be boring and miserable. It's because we will experience a more abundant life life under those guidelines. And I think the same is true for the health choices we make. So I know that if I stay away from certain foods, if I move my body, if I am mindful of my light intake, I feel so much better and I have so much more life in me and so much more to pour out to those around me. And so to me it's exciting. I like being on this health journey. I like making changes. I like doing air squats after I eat. It doesn't feel stressful, it feels, feels very intuitive to me. Every kind of like health change that I make. And once it becomes a habit, you don't have to think twice about it. So maybe sometimes things can be challenging to implement initially, but I think if you stay really closely honed in on your why behind those changes, it becomes this exciting journey rather than this like daunting thing of like, oh, now I have to do this and I can't do this and I can't. I think it's all about the way you frame it and the way you like brand it in your head. Exactly. About like branding things differently. If I want myself to like make a certain change, like I, right now I'm working on rebranding Matcha. Like, I'm trying to take a break.
- [68:23]
Alex Clark
You don't have to like Matcha better than me. Here's the deal.
- [68:26]
Bethany McDaniel
I know, I know, but part of me does. Like, I don't hate it. I don't. I know people hate it and make fun of It, I don't hate it. And I've gone through big matcha kicks where I really enjoy it. I've been trying to rebrand the peak matcha tea, like mixing that with water in the morning because I need to take a break from coffee. I love coffee, but I, I've been like relying on it too much.
- [68:43]
Alex Clark
I'm a junkie for iced chai tea. A raw milk iced chai tea is my go to really, because I don't drink coffee.
- [68:49]
Bethany McDaniel
That sounds really good actually. Yeah. So I'm just working on rebranding the experience of whether it ends up being matcha or like something else. But just how can I make this experience seem really aesthetically pleasing and aspirational and not like this annoying, daunting thing that I have to do? And I think not seeing things as like, oh, I can't have, have that or I have to do this, like, no, I'm choosing, I'm choosing this other thing because I know that it's going to benefit me and it's going to make me feel better and it's going to allow me to live into my purpose in life more effectively.
- [69:24]
Alex Clark
When I see comments of mom saying, you know, I tried to do the non toxic thing but it was stressing me out so then I had to give up on it. You know, I, I talked about this on, on my episode of Grounded Wellness with you when you interviewed me. Is that when those moms are saying like what? Nothing is working right. I'm feel, feeling super burned out and all of these things. And, and I don't think that, I don't think those moms are truly adhering to this 8020 life. They say like, well, I'm doing 8020 and I think that 20% is a lot more than what they think it is. And I think it's all contributing to feeling like crap and everything feeling too overwhelming. That's my hot take.
- [69:59]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, I think that could very well be true.
- [70:00]
Alex Clark
Is fasting a good idea for women?
- [70:03]
Bethany McDaniel
I think it can be. And personally I'm a big fan of fasting. I got really interested in fasting after I, I had my second kid before getting pregnant with number three. And I just dove in. I'm kind of like you in that sense. Once I, once I become sold on something, I'm all in on it. And so I started implementing intermittent fasting and worked my way up to initially a 24 hour fast and then I did a 72 hour fast. The longest fast I've ever done was six days.
- [70:33]
Alex Clark
Why?
- [70:34]
Bethany McDaniel
Why okay, so many reasons. Autophagy is like the biggest reason. I.
- [70:40]
Alex Clark
What does that mean? Like we're in fifth grade, so it's
- [70:42]
Bethany McDaniel
like your body's self cleanup mechanism. So when you are in a fasted state, your body goes into autophagy and it starts to recycle old or damaged cells and replace them with newer, healthier cells. So different things can induce some autophagy, but nothing does it as powerfully as fasting. That's why there's a doctor, Dr. Thomas say, who recommends for cancer prevention. Every year people should do one seven day fast. It's just going to clean up those malfunctioning cells in the body. So I think throughout history, biologically, I think women, women have been fasting, whether for spiritual reasons. Fasting is like the one thing that every world religion has in common. They all incorporate some practice of fasting. So people have been doing this forever, either for spiritual reasons or out of necessity. I think that women, women's bodies are able to handle it biologically, but I also think that we should do it differently than men do it. When I first started, I was not considering how my cycle would play into my fasting protocols. Now that's something that I really take into consideration.
- [71:49]
Alex Clark
So when's the right time to do it?
- [71:51]
Bethany McDaniel
I think the follicular phase is the most optimal time to fast. So kind of after you've finished your menstrual cycle before ovulation, you don't want to fast during ovulation. Your body needs carbs to ovulate, or food especially. I think carbs too can be helpful around ovulation. But I noticed that if I did fast like leading up to ovulation, ovulation would be delayed. Like I wouldn't ovulate on schedule if I would fast too close to ovulation. So I try not to do that. I think right after ovulation too can be a good time to fast. I don't do it leading up to my menstrual cycle or on my menstrual cycle in the follicular phase or like early in the luteal phase can be good times to fast.
- [72:31]
Alex Clark
What is something you'll always find your kids? Plates.
- [72:33]
Bethany McDaniel
They're big meat eaters. We have encouraged them to be meat eaters. I mean, we have a regenerative livestock farm. So meat is just a big part of all of our diets. And at a young age, I mean, I started them off on raw liver, egg yolks, sardines, and so I wanted to get their taste Buds accustomed to these nourishing foods before giving them even fruit we held off on for a while because even something sweet like that at a super young age can influence their craving. Cravings. And so yeah, we've always really prioritized animal based protein at every meal. Like it's a staple at every meal.
- [73:11]
Alex Clark
Is it possible to ever eat too much vegetables?
- [73:14]
Bethany McDaniel
I think so. I mean, I think this is a big conversation in the health and wellness world right now and I think there's something to it. I'm not someone who avoids vegetables. I think that vegetables are good, but I don't think we need to be eating like gobs of kale or spinach. I think that there are plant toxins. I think that's a real thing. Plants do need to protect themselves in some way. So it makes sense to me that they would do that through oxalates or lectins. And I just don't think we need to be overdoing it with vegetables. I think fermenting vegetables is something that we eat a lot of fermented vegetables and I think those are a really safe way to consume vegetables. And I think in general it's fine to eat vegetables, but just I don't think we need to be overdoing it.
- [73:53]
Alex Clark
You just did a primally pure campaign with Nara Smith. I need to know everything. What is she like? What can you tell us about who she is as a person and what she's like to work with?
- [74:02]
Bethany McDaniel
So I didn't go to the shoot. Several people from my team did. It was in Connecticut. It was all kind of happened last minute.
- [74:09]
Alex Clark
Is that where she lives?
- [74:10]
Bethany McDaniel
I believe so. Somewhere over there. Yeah. I just couldn't swing it with a family like that. Last minute. I had had another. I'd had a few other work trips around that time, so unfortunately I did not get to meet her. But the team loved her. They said she was super kind, super sweet, her husband was great and she's just like very. She's much more normal than what she put presents.
- [74:28]
Alex Clark
She didn't whisper talk the whole time?
- [74:30]
Bethany McDaniel
No, no, no. She talked in a normal voice. Yeah, they said like nothing but great things about her. That's so cool.
- [74:36]
Alex Clark
I love that campaign. It's. It's probably one of the most beautiful skincare campaigns I've seen and I don't even know years. I mean it was so beautifully done. Everything you guys do is so beautiful. And I think that's so important, particularly as a Christian founded company. I think putting beauty into the world, like we need that you know, just in. In so many different aspects is. Is protecting beautiful things and creating beautiful things. And you guys do such a beautiful job of that.
- [75:03]
Bethany McDaniel
Thank you.
- [75:03]
Alex Clark
What is the most toxic thing that you still do?
- [75:06]
Bethany McDaniel
Probably getting my hair highlighted.
- [75:08]
Alex Clark
But we can make our experience at the hair salon a little bit less toxic, right?
- [75:13]
Bethany McDaniel
Yes, we can. So when I go in for highlights, which is three or four times a year, my hair stylist is amazing, and she. She knows where I'm at matte with. With everything. And so I've recently started asking her if I can when. After she puts the highlights in my hair, which I ask her to avoid my scalp. So nothing touches the scalp, but she'll put the foils in. And then she lets me go outside in the sun and bake rather than going under, you know, the. The chair that lets off the heat. I don't know any. Anything like, factually negative about those chairs, but to me, they just seem like an EMF bomb, and I just don't feel good sitting under them. And so she lets me go outside and lets the highlights bake outside side. And then I come in and I bring my Inner Sense shampoo and conditioner, and she washes my hair with that. She uses a little bit of the toner, but she tries to avoid my scalp as much as possible, and then that's it.
- [76:07]
Alex Clark
What is your fitness routine like? As a mom, I used to be
- [76:10]
Bethany McDaniel
really serious about fitness. CrossFit was something that I did for years and years and years up until two days before I gave birth to our first daughter. And then it just fell off. Like after I started having kids and I was doing primly pure at the time, I just didn't have time to commit to that. I did try to go back at one point. It just was unsuccessful. I was only able to make it, like, two or three times a week, which was frustrating to me because I just wasn't performing like I wanted to perform and other people were beating me, and I didn't like it, so I stopped doing it. And then I was doing tennis for a while. I love tennis. I would love to get back into tennis, but kind of same, like, it's hard for me to do that things and not put everything into it. So tennis was frustrating. I loved it, but it was frustrating for me because I knew I could be better at it. I just didn't have the time to get better at it. So now pretty much all I do is I go on weighted vest walks, which works for me in this season of life because I can do it. I can plug that walk in anywhere that it fits the best that day. And I don't have to commit to being at a certain place and have someone depend on me being there. I can go in the morning if I wake up early and feel like it. I can go midday, and I can just do it whenever. And. And that works for me. And the weighted vest gives some resistance to the walk, where it feels like more of a workout. And you're just getting more out of that time if you're wearing the weighted vest. So that's kind of what I do. And then I. For the last few weeks, I've been doing 50 burpees a day. Just a random thing. I'm like, I need to just do 50 burpees every day. So I. I get 50 burpees in. However, I can do that every day. Sometimes it's like. Like 20 in the morning, 30 in the afternoon. It just depends. And then I do jumping squats after meals. And so I'm just trying to, like, move throughout the day and make it a lifestyle. And I like that it's working for me right now. Eventually, I want to get back into tennis, but it's probably not going to happen for a while.
- [78:02]
Alex Clark
Are you getting mammograms or pap smears?
- [78:05]
Bethany McDaniel
Oh, gosh, no. No. Why? I've never had a mammogram. I've had maybe like one pap smear when I turn, turned whatever age they tell you you need to get them at. And I hated it. It was a horrible experience. Yeah. I mean, mammograms, gosh. We did an episode with Dr. Jen Simmons. Have you interviewed her?
- [78:23]
Alex Clark
I have, yeah. She's amazing.
- [78:24]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, she's so good. And that got so much backlash. Like, that was one of our most controversial episodes because so many people are just so committed to the yearly. Is it yearly mammogram? Bi. Yearly. And that is what we are sold as breast cancer prevention. I think breast cancer prevention is avoiding chemicals in our personal care and beauty products, getting sunlight, avoiding inflammatory foods, dialing in your sleep. That's what I consider to be breast cancer prevention. But mammograms, they radiate your breasts. They smush. Smush your breasts. They just load them up with radiation. It's not a harmless process. And oftentimes they are detected cancers that haven't even fully manifested into actual cancer. And that's celebrated in the oncology world. Like, I think there's even something called stage zero cancer now where they are detecting, like, cancerous Cells super, super, super early. But we all have cancerous cells in our body, and so they're detecting these super early. And a lot of the times it wouldn't have even manifested into full blown disease. But then women are having mastectomies and getting chemotherapy and all of this stuff that they may have never even needed. I just don't think it's necessary. I never plan on getting a mammogram and then pap smears. I. I don't know a whole lot about pap smears, to be honest. I just hate the experience. And I just don't. I kind of just always lean back towards, like, what did people do a hundred years ago, 200 years ago, before this existed? I think that how cancers have skyrocketed in recent years is all due to our modern environment. And so I opt out of a lot of the things that contribute to these cancers. Not to say that I'm totally protected or that it's not possible, but I just, I don't live my life in. In fear of. Of these diseases and constantly, like, checking on these diseases. Yeah.
- [80:17]
Alex Clark
I also think what. Whatever they're swabbing you with for the pap smear has tons of chemicals on it. I'm sure if I. I might be wrong on this, but I think formaldehyde is one of them. So is Yakko. Yakko stuff.
- [80:27]
Bethany McDaniel
I think about the COVID test too. I regret even, like, being tested. I had to get tested one time to go to horizontal Hawaii. And they swab you. It feels like they're poking your brain. And like, what did they hate up there?
- [80:36]
Alex Clark
That was horrible.
- [80:37]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah.
- [80:37]
Alex Clark
What is primally Pure nature spray.
- [80:39]
Bethany McDaniel
It's a natural bug repellent. So it's made with essential oils that bugs hate. It has castor oil, which is a thicker oil, so it kind of like sits on your skin a little bit. I actually love the smell of it. It's one of our stronger smelling products. But I think it smells really good. We go on road trips every summer. We take it with us. Works amazing. And you don't have to, you know, spray neurotoxic DEET all over yourself.
- [81:02]
Alex Clark
What should people know before putting aloe vera gel on a sunburn?
- [81:06]
Bethany McDaniel
That there is very little actual aloe vera in that product.
- [81:12]
Alex Clark
This is like the bottles that you get at the store.
- [81:13]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah. Like the green goopy gels. These things are loaded with dyes. You're much better off just trying to find actual aloe vera leaf and cutting it and using the real aloe vera that would be something that would be super helpful, but the aloe vera gels are just fake and it's all marketing and it has negative impacts. If anything, what is a tip for
- [81:34]
Alex Clark
moms who want to grow their prayer life?
- [81:36]
Bethany McDaniel
The Bible tells us to pray without ceasing, and it's really hard to do that. I have not perfected it, but I think for a while I was containing my prayer life to like a certain amount of time in the morning and then kind of that's it. And at night as well. And I think now I'm trying really hard to look at it more of a day to day, moment by moment thing where I'm constantly like just sitting with God when I can and sitting in prayer whenever I can throughout the day. I've also started writing like personal prayers out. This has been like super helpful for me. So every kind of season of life, I'll jot down bullet points on what do I need to be really diligent about praying for right now? Because I think a lot of times we forget, like what to pray for or we'll tell someone that we'll be praying for them and then we just forget. Maybe that's just me, I don't know. But I wanted to actually remember what I wanted to be praying for on a regular basis. And so I have been honing that in and really getting serious about, you know, areas of life that I want to see growth in, about praying into those like daily in the form of actual, like, I type out the prayer and I print it out and I keep it in my Bible. And every day I read that prayer and I do a different one kind of as seasons of life change. And so one example, something I was praying about a lot was for a new babysitter for our kids. Our babysitter that we had had for years is pregnant and she's due soon. So I knew that we would need someone else to come into our lives and help with the kids. We do spend a lot of time together as a family. But I also have had help with my kids throughout the years. And I feel like God has put the exact right people into our lives to fill those roles. Because I would not be doing what I'm doing unless I felt like I had the exact right person helping with my kids who truly cared about them, who truly loved them. I was praying really hard that God would bring in that next right person to help with the kids. And this was something I was praying about for two weeks very seriously. My assistant, my. My assistant Allie was also like helping with the kids because our, our babysitter at the time was kind of slowly, like phasing out. So Allie was stepping in. And I think that was hard with her, with her other responsibilities. And so I even asked her, I'm like, hey, so let's start praying for this. So we both were praying about, about this, literally. After two weeks of like serious prayer, a family friend texted me. Someone who my kids have known, they used to, they used to go over to her mom's house and her name's Stephanie, the daughter, she would play with the kids and show them her animals and her horses. So Stephanie texted me and she was like, hey, I'm back in town. And my mom thought I should reach out and see if you need help with the kids. And I was just like, whoa. Like, I just think it's amazing how God has taken these little bits of faith that I've shown. And he's like, done so much with it and it just makes me excited. Like, how much more could I be partnering with him in my everyday life? And how much more would things just flourish? And maybe some hard things too. Maybe he put me through some trials. He has put me through trials where I've grown and learned from those trials. But it's. I would not be able to do any the of of this without God. I think we don't often think about, like, our walk with Christ as something that's fun. And I think it's actually so fun to like, really like, test what it would look like to really like, depend on him in all different areas and like, really actually believe that, that he will meet these needs for us, whether it's something that we think we want, that he meets that need, or if it's something that we didn't realize that we needed. Where, you know, he comes in and teaches us something. But it's like, it's so much better, better. And it takes the pressure off of life when you just know, like, you're walking with, with Jesus and partnering with him on every aspect of life.
- [85:38]
Alex Clark
What are the best primally pure products to start with for somebody who's never, ever tried the brand?
- [85:43]
Bethany McDaniel
So deodorant, I think, number one, I've already talked about that.
- [85:47]
Alex Clark
Are any of them baking soda free?
- [85:49]
Bethany McDaniel
We do have a baking soda free. Yeah, there are some people who are sensitive to baking soda. Okay. And yeah, so we have a baking soda free version that has magnesium chloride, which is also really helpful in preventing odor. Deodorant, natural deodorant is something that everyone should be switching to and if you don't want to buy ours, you can use coconut oil and baking soda. Mix that together. It works. I would also say our cleansing oil. I love our cleansing oil so much. It we talked about how it cleanses the skin without disrupting the moisture barrier. It's also just such an amazing relaxing evening wind down experience. It really sets the tone of like okay, washing off the day, entering into evening, relaxing, relaxing. Body butter. Our body butters are incredible. They are tallow based. They also have mango butter and shea butter. Almond oil, different essential oils. They're fun, fun scents. There's an almond vanilla, there's a eucalyptus lavender. They're super fun. Those are incredibly nourishing for the skin. I just love slathering them all over my body after I get out of the shower or bath. And you want to do that on damp skin. So going back to the oil and water compound concept, it'll absorb much better if you are applying it to damp skin after you've come out of the shower or the bath. I love our face masks. The coffee mask is one that I'm really into right now. It has honey, has coffee, just like awakens the skin, brightens the skin. And then our body washes are really amazing too. I think anything that you're putting over the entire surface area of the skin is important to do non toxic. So body butter is one of those things. Body wash is another one of those things. Those things. It's a really gentle cleanse, really nice experience too. A nice aromatic experience. But it cleans the skin really well and it doesn't disrupt the moisture barrier of the skin. So I think those are products that anyone who's new to natural skin care would love and would be able to transition to really easily.
- [87:36]
Alex Clark
What are primally pure products for the hardcore primally pure fan? They've, they've tried the basics, they've tried the entry level things. They're like I want hardcore things. I'm going to put in my 2 cents which is the kids candles.
- [87:46]
Bethany McDaniel
They are a bit more of an investment but you're not going to find just to brag on our candles like you're not going to find another non toxic candle that does what our candles do. They still smell amazing. They are scented only with essential oils which is really hard to find. I mean there's so many brands out there that say they are doing non toxic candles and maybe they're using.
- [88:08]
Alex Clark
Well they're using soy.
- [88:09]
Bethany McDaniel
They're using soy? Yeah, they're using soy and they think that. That makes it natural, even though it's still loaded with fragrance that is carcinogenic, especially when it's lit with a match and then creating fumes all around your household. Neurotoxic fumes that your whole family's inhaling. So, yeah, it's an important swap. And our candles are really awesome. I don't think our shower steamers get enough attention. Oh, obsessed.
- [88:30]
Alex Clark
Anytime I'm feeling sick.
- [88:31]
Bethany McDaniel
Yeah, yeah. They're so good for breaking up congestion. You just throw one of the little pucks into the shower, and then when the hot water hits it, it kind of does dissolves. And it has eucalyptus and it has menthol. So it's really good for breaking up any congestion. I do this if I'm feeling congested, or I'll do this with my kids as well. Our cycle soothing spray is really good. Oh, have you tried that?
- [88:54]
Alex Clark
How have I. We not talked about it? Of course I've tried it. I have a little period drawer, and it's got all my pads, tampons. I've got a little. I've got a Peppa Pig heating pad.
- [89:05]
Bethany McDaniel
It actually has Peppa Pig.
- [89:06]
Alex Clark
It actually.
- [89:07]
Bethany McDaniel
It's Peppa Pig.
- [89:08]
Alex Clark
Actually, like, a fan of the show years ago, sent it to me, I think as a gift. They know. I think Peppa Pig is funny. So I have a Peppa Pig heating pad, and I have that cycle soothing spray. What I have been meaning to ask you, what is this sorcery?
- [89:21]
Bethany McDaniel
It is so incredible, that one. Okay, so there's, like, a funny story behind every product and how it came to be. That one. I vividly remember when I had the idea we were on vacation. I was. I had started my period. Normally, I always take a bath. When was I. I would start my period ideally with Epsom salt, and that would kind of like. I don't have horrible cramps. I used to have really bad cramps. They're not that bad anymore, but I still have them. So I would always just take a bath, and that would kind of. I would be fine after that. There wasn't a bathtub in this hotel. I'm like, what am I gonna do? I had magnesium for something, like, in a spray bottle. I'm like, okay, Epsom salts helps. So magnesium oil. I'll spray it on my abdomen. We'll see if it works. It worked. And I was like, this is amazing. Why aren't more people doing this? And so I worked with our formulator to create a product with magnesium oil as the base. And then it's Also loaded with other essential oils that are known to balance out hormones. So it has rose, it has geranium. So it's just, it's just an awesome product that 100% woman needs to know about.
- [90:21]
Alex Clark
It works. It smells amazing. So you're going to smell good if you spray it on, you know, before you go to work in the morning or whatever. It is a game changing.
- [90:30]
Bethany McDaniel
Just kind of massage it in and like let it absorb. It's a little bit sticky, so you want to give it a little bit of time to absorb into your skin because before you put clothing on and if you need to do a few different applications, you can do that. You can't overdo it with magnesium. Topically, internally you can, but topically, your skin will only absorb what it needs and the rest will kind of sit on the surface of the skin. You'll see it like, kind of like a white flaky thing that you can just kind of brush off.
- [90:53]
Alex Clark
You interviewed me on your podcast, Grounded Wellness. Where can people listen to that? And what source of things did we cover in that interview?
- [90:59]
Bethany McDaniel
Oh, my gosh, it was so fun. We covered a lot. I think it was like a two hour conversation. We talked about your journey with Botox and fillers and why you weren't doing those anymore. We talked about the Maha movement and where that's at. We talked about what God has taught you from past relationships that you've been in. I know that's something people are always wanting to, to hear more about from you. We talked about your dad. We talked about Charlie.
- [91:26]
Alex Clark
Oh, we talked about things that I do not want to do as a parent. That's gonna tick everyone off.
- [91:33]
Bethany McDaniel
That was good.
- [91:33]
Alex Clark
That, the juicy one. So you have to go listen to that. Okay, so where can they find your podcast?
- [91:37]
Bethany McDaniel
Okay, so our podcast is Grounded Wellness. Wherever people podcast, they can find it. The video on YouTube and Spotify audio on iTunes. And our website is primally pure.com primly pure on Instagram. And my small Instagram is Bethany J. McDaniel.
- [91:53]
Alex Clark
Grounded Wellness is the most beautiful podcast in existence. It's filmed outside on her farm in beautiful Temecula, California. Literal wild animals coming up to us, all this natural light mountains behind us. It's. It's the most stunning set ever. And you're going to love to watch it. But you interview a lot of the, say like you're doing, you know, wellness interviews and things like that. Very similar to me. So if you love this show, you will love Bethany's show. Like that. That should Be a new podcast that you check out.
- [92:25]
Bethany McDaniel
Oh, thank you. Yeah, it take. We only release episodes every other week. It takes a while to film. Film as you experienced. Yeah, because a lot of elements filming outside every time a plane goes by
- [92:33]
Alex Clark
or car drives by or an animal comes up and nips me, like, we have to pause.
- [92:38]
Bethany McDaniel
So bugs crawling on your face. Yeah.
- [92:40]
Alex Clark
So it was like three hours of recording because you had to start, stop, start, stop, start, stop. So my crew is like, don't get any ideas from Bethany. No, we'll leave that to her because they do a beautiful job. And somehow you have found this gem of a videographer crew in California that's conservative and Christian and super into wellness. A bunch of guys like, and they
- [93:00]
Bethany McDaniel
all tell you this. I don't know if you heard this, but they all have four kids. Like all of them.
- [93:04]
Alex Clark
Oh, cool.
- [93:05]
Bethany McDaniel
Except for one of them. And one of them is about to have four kids.
- [93:08]
Alex Clark
One of them tells me, hey, I just have to tell you, my wife told me to tell you she's a cute servative. I'm like, like how. And I'm like, how did Bethany find these people in California?
- [93:17]
Bethany McDaniel
Like another.
- [93:18]
Alex Clark
Another God thing.
- [93:19]
Bethany McDaniel
So cool.
- [93:20]
Alex Clark
So cool how God has blessed you. And I love just watching you flourish as a friend and. And your company is so incredible. Like I said, I am so. I am such a negative Nancy when it comes to non toxic skin care. Like, I just think most of it. I think most of it is a scam. I think most of it is greenwash. Yours actually works. I use it every single day, morning and nights. Part of my routine have not wavered. Primlypure.com code Alex Clark to get you guys a discount. And Bethany, I have to ask every guest, if you had one remedy to heal a sick culture, physically, emotionally or spiritually, what would it be?
- [93:55]
Bethany McDaniel
That God's design is perfect. I think that our modern world has just confused so many things about health, how we live our lives. I mean, almost everything in our modern world is backwards. And so I think if anyone is feeling confused about where to go next, what decisions to make, like, look back at creation and God's design for human flourishing. And if it lines up with that, great. If it's. It doesn't, cut it out of your life. I think that's a really clear, simple guideline that we can easily fall back on.
- [94:27]
Alex Clark
Bethany, thank you for coming on Culture Apothecary.
- [94:29]
Bethany McDaniel
Thank you, Alex. I just want your audience to know too, how genuine you are in real life. Like, I think that people can think they know a lot about someone online and you share a lot of your life online. But I just want people to know like in real life you are insanely authentic and like you're one Walk with Christ is authentic. Your health journey is authentic. How you treat people is authentic. Like you do that in a really amazing, meaningful way. Like how you how intentional you are about relationships. I've just been so impressed by you as I've gotten to know you more and really grateful for for what you do and for our friendship. And this is why I love her.
- [95:10]
Alex Clark
See, I'm very picky about the brand. If you're if you're a brand that wants to be parted on the show, you better talk about me like this. Thank you, Bethany.
- [95:17]
Bethany McDaniel
Thanks Alex.
- [95:21]
Alex Clark
So if your skin still isn't where you want it to be, it might not be that you haven't tried enough. It might be that you've tried too much. I freaking love Bethany and Primally Pure. I know you guys do too. Don't forget to use code Alex Clark on PrimalPure.com for a significant discount if you decide to try anything new. Episodes come out every Monday and Thursday at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern. Anywhere you get your podcast, please leave us a five star review on Apple or Spotify. If it's been a while or you just never have, let me know which episode is the first that you send people when you want to introduce them to the podcast. It takes two seconds to do it immensely helps the show for free. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be taken as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional regarding any questions or decisions related to your health or medical care. I'm Alex Clark and this is Culture Apothecary.