I grew up on an organic farm my father started decades before Make America Healthy Again was a twinkle in RFK’s eye. My parents were grinding their own flour and giving us raw milk from the family cow throughout my childhood.
As my husband says, we’re all hippies now, and my childhood’s wholesome but also isolating and exhausting “homesteading” lifestyle now grabs millions of Instagram eyeballs from city people who have no idea how hard small-time farming really is. (That experience brought me to the conclusion that homesteading should be done the Amish way — as a whole community, not one family striking out alone. But that’s another article!)
So I grew up unconsciously as one of Rod Dreher’s Crunchy Cons, and I’ve never stopped. Today, our family still does weird health stuff that I’d like to share with the millions of other folks interested in weird health stuff, because we’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on conventional medicine without resolving our symptoms. I’ve tried tons of things that don’t work at all that I won’t be sharing here (such as grounding mats!).
Many of my favorite health products are having great Black Friday sales. I’d also like to give a financial tip: the best way to spend on Black Friday is to buy things you were already going to buy but for less, and only buy what you have money saved to buy. My dad also gave me that advice as a child, and it’s blessedly saved my husband and me from all the millennial and Zoomer financial angst brought about by living on debt.
So think of this list as some ideas to look at, not only for this year but for long-term pre-paid planning. It’s best to integrate one health practice at a time anyway, so you can assess the results.
Top-Shelf, No-Seed-Oil Skincare
I cannot recommend enough the skincare products from Australian-based Saturee. I use their Pro-Metabolic Face Cream (which will be “back in stock soon”) every morning ($81, or $65 with discount below), and their Saturated Body Cream ($44, or $35 with discount below) every night.
The products feel amazing and have genuinely clean and hyper-advanced ingredients based on traditional nutrition that is diametrically opposed to beauty industry norms (nose-to-tail eating, strength training to develop muscle instead of starving yourself sickly thin, pro-good-carbs like root veggies and fruit to upregulate your thyroid/metabolism, easy-to-digest foods to resolve gut issues). They have zero seed oils, use several coconut-derived ingredients, and hydrate luxuriously without oiliness. I can’t wait to try their methylene blue face serum ($52, or $42 with below discount).
I’ve used these for more than a year and still have half of each product left, although it’s important to mention I don’t have dry skin, and I only use moisturizer at night in the summer. The face cream is lighter and the body cream thicker.
They’re so saturated, you need to use very little to get plump and hydrated skin within seconds. It’s unlike any other moisturizer I’ve ever used. And I do recommend the tube key to get every bit out of your body cream.
With code JOY20, you’ll get 20 percent off your first order, so use it to stock up on these products that last years! This discount is the best I’ve ever seen from them after years of watching their email list for sales. Their usual best discount is 10 percent.
I’ve also tried their clean casein — a longer-lasting milk protein powder that people drink to keep their blood sugar stable and avoid the 2 a.m. wakeup — and filler-free niacinimide, a B vitamin that improves your metabolism.
As a side note, for health information, I cannot recommend enough the SEO-optimized Weight Loss for Women podcast by Saturee cofounder Kitty Blomfield. I plan to join her weight-training program next year and cannot wait. (If you are religious or have children around when you listen to podcasts, be aware that Kitty drops F-bombs constantly!)
The podcast is the best source of prometabolic and women’s health information I’ve found, and I have listened to hundreds of hours of the top ones in that space. If you, like most of the 30-something and older women I know, have mysterious health issues that your doctor cannot resolve or only offers you pharmaceutical patches with side effects that don’t address the root problem, go back to the earliest episodes of that podcast and listen to some of her foundational ones, especially all her interviews with Kate Deering and any on the topics of thyroid health, progesterone use, and gut health.
Sauna
My former colleague and fellow health enthusiast, Tristan Justice, taught me you don’t need to spend thousands for a sauna. You can get a perfectly serviceable one for less than $200. Yes, it’s a wet sauna instead of a dry one, and it may not have infrared light. But it’s also as inexpensive as $80.
Tristan and I bought this one on Amazon, and it’s now $80 (we paid almost twice that!), but I noticed Sam’s Club and Costco sell versions for $150 and $280, respectively. Costco’s is $60 off, for $220 total, from Black Friday through Dec. 1. These warehouse stores also each sell reasonably priced infrared saunas for those who don’t mind spending a couple thousand.
Mine requires minimal cleaning. The most difficult thing about it is finding a standing location for it, as I keep it up all the time.
These are great for chasing colds and flus from the whole family, easing aches and pains, and detox. I’ve had my cheapo for almost two years now, using it about once weekly, and it’s still in great shape. Yes, I did worry about chemicals coming off the plastic, but I figured those would dissipate through use, so I ran it empty five times before using to clear out the worst, and since I see noticeable health benefits from it, I decided not to worry about that.
Castor Oil Packs
This is weird, but not Gwyneth Paltrow-level weird. Castor oil is an old remedy for lots of things, but topically over your liver, it is fabulous for improving digestion, detox, and hormones. Queen of Thrones’s organic flannel packs make holding the oil over your liver (on the right side of your tummy under the rib cage) way easier than cutting your own flannel. They also end the risk of indelibly soaking your clothing with the sticky bean oil.
I also have the thyroid pack, but my favorite is the liver pack. I use it most evenings for about an hour while doing the bedtime routine. Queen of Thrones suggests even wearing them overnight, but other practitioners raise concerns that could lead to recycling back into your body the toxins you’ve removed. I own two packs and wear one when the other is in the wash. I run it alone in a load of hot water, and it needs to air dry for about a week. That also helps reduce any toxin recycling.
Their pre-Black Friday sale starts at 15 percent off for two items and up to 30 percent for six items (check out my other recommendations from them below). Their Black Friday sale will be 25 percent off.
Full-spectrum Light
The internet people say it is important for your circadian rhythm to get outside as often as possible, and especially before and after sunrise. When sunrise is 5:30 a.m. or the outdoors are frigid, it’s hard to make myself do that.
So for the days I can’t get myself on the porch for the sunrise, I use a Happy Light. I have the Alba, which is 30 percent off at Amazon now on a Black Friday deal ($35).
Dual-Purpose Olive Oil
Switching to zero seed oils in our home cooking was one of the easiest and earliest health changes I made to our family diet a decade or so ago. We now use butter, coconut oil, olive oil, and animal fats like lard — no canola or other oils.
We get our standard olive and coconut oils from Sam’s Club, but the most wonderful-tasting olive oils I’ve ever had were introduced to me by my thoughtful and generous mother-in-law. I assume their website is SunshineInaBottle.com because that’s more memorable and pronounceable than Sciabica Family Olive Oil! But that’s the name of this California-based family company whose name is pronounced shuh-beek-uh.
Their lavender olive oil, meant as a moisturizer, smells wonderful, and I like to dab it under my nose before bed. It’s also especially lovely for a hand moisturizer in the winter, when my hands get much drier from all the dishwashing I do each day. The only two ingredients are lavender and extra virgin olive oil. This gift pack includes the oil and would be the perfect gift for any woman in your life. Speaking from experience, it is a long-lasting and constantly uplifting gift.
I also love, love, love their naturally flavored olive oils. The flavors are delicious and powerful, and move any meal with olive up into the gourmet realm instantly. I like to use them for meat rubs or marinades and for salad dressings. You don’t need too much to taste the wonderful, transformative flavor in your dish.
You can’t get much better than this for a gift for anyone who likes to eat. All their products are 10-25 percent off for Black Friday now through Nov. 28.
Bath Water Filters
We have long owned a reverse-osmosis water filter and a Berkey to clean our drinking water of agricultural runoff, other people’s prescription drugs, and all kinds of other nasties. A health-conscious friend introduced me to Crystal Quest’s bath and shower water filters to do the same for your bathing water, which is absorbed through your body’s biggest organ, your skin. Their well-priced products are all 15 percent off now until Thanksgiving with code THANKSGIVING.
Hair-Tissue Mineral Analysis Tests
You can learn useful things from blood tests, but since blood only measures a single, always shifting point in time, a tissue analysis can be even more useful because it tells you about the current solid state of your body. This is the most effective health thing I have ever done, not least because you can (and I always do) buy it with a Zoom consultation to explain your results and get personalized nutrient recommendations. The cost varies from $125-$295 before the discount below, depending on whether you buy a consult. It’s cheaper than one doctor visit for us, and has been far more useful.
I learned about the HTMA while spending thousands over two years on conventional medical testing with a great functional doctor that netted zero relief for serious postpartum nutritional deficiencies that an organic diet did not relieve. I have been very happy with the consults and testing from EvenBetterNow, and their Thanksgiving code for 18 percent off everything on their site is GIVETHANKS18.
You can also get the insightful G-MAP and DUTCH tests from them for the best price you can get anywhere (unless your insurance covers it, the cheapest I’ve ever found the G-MAP is at EBN for just under $500). I can also recommend the G-MAP as leading to lasting health improvements — most of us have gut issues, and this is the best test to see what’s going on in there. And with the discount above, it’s under $410!
My EBN practitioner recommends starting with the Profile 1 HTMA test. Since I know I’m going to use two of these tests next year (people on a mineral-balancing plan usually re-test every 4-6 months), I’m buying them now to get the discounted price, plus one for my husband. EBN offers an ADDED discount for buying the tests in bulk. Your test kits are good for one year, so don’t buy more than you will use before next November.
Potassium
Allow me to guess that, like most Westerners today, you’ll learn from your HTMA test that you need to supplement with magnesium and potassium, among others, because our soils are less nutrient-dense than ever! I learned from my HTMAs that I was running on essentially zero potassium, a.k.a. total exhaustion.
The supplement I’ve found with the highest amount of potassium is Jigsaw Health’s Potassium Cocktail, in three flavors. It’s 15 percent off for Black Friday with code BFCM25 (although you can get it and most supplements that exist for 30 percent off always through this homeopath’s Fullscript dispensary with a free account). You can thank me in the comments for telling you how to get 30 percent off every supplement you ever buy!
Tapping and Brain Relaxation Apps
I love the app Tapping Solution, and an annual subscription to its library is rumored to be 50 percent off for Black Friday ($50) starting on Black Friday itself. Tapping is a natural, easy stress antidote that lowers stress hormones like cortisol in just a few minutes. It gently regulates your nervous system.
You just gently tap with your hands on various pressure points on your body, like under your nose or on your collarbone, while listening to the guided meditation. You can listen to about a dozen or so of their meditations for free, or get thousands for the subscription. I use this myself and with my children and have recommended it to many friends.
A more intensive version of this idea is available from BrainTap, and its annual subscription is $80 off for $180 with code BFSUB2025. I think their sessions really work, also, and they have a 14-day free trial. Much cheaper than therapy and at least as effective unless you have an unusually good therapist who is better than the dismal norm.
Dry Brush and Muscle Roller
I also have Queen of Thrones’s dry body brush ($18) and hand-roller ($28). The latter is wonderful for rubbing over strained and sore muscles, especially in a hot bath or the sauna. The former is perfect for just before you get into the bath or sauna. I’ve had both for well more than a year, and they are in great shape.
Bits of Dried Dead Cow
Everything on Ancestral Supplements’ website is 25 percent off now through Thursday as part of their “Early Black Friday Sale.” I am a big fan of their thyroid supplement — I definitely feel the difference when I take it. Take it with some vitamin C or an orange for better absorption. Since my dad has high blood pressure and doesn’t want to take pharmaceuticals for it, I am going to try to convince him to get their beef heart supplement before this sale ends.
I regularly eat homemade liver pate made from a pastured, locally grown organic cow, so I don’t need their liver supplement, but that’s the one recommended to people who won’t eat liver and need an overall boost. These are whole-food, whole-animal supplements, and I’ve just converted over to using their digestive enzymes instead of enzymes grown in labs.
If you have a health savings account, you can use it to buy a portion of these supplements, which are unavailable on Fullscript.
Happy shopping, and here’s to your health!
Let me add a common-sense disclaimer that I am not a medical professional, and my good experiences with these products may not be applicable to you. Please consult any medical professionals you wish before using any health products.
