Grow Your Own Sanity: How Self Reliance Heals More Than Your Gut

🍅 From black thumb to fermentation queen, Elizabeth Bruckner didn’t just plant a garden—she grew a whole new mindset.

In this laugh-out-loud, soul-nourishing episode, Elizabeth shares how she went from L.A. suburbs to backyard bounty, all while blending ancient Chinese medicine, traditional food, and modern common sense. We’re talking compost therapy, habit hacks, and why sauerkraut might just save your sanity.

Whether you’ve got acreage or a windowsill, this one’s for anyone who’s ever dreamed of a more grounded, glowing, and gut-friendly life.

🎧 Listen now to The Homesteader Mindset with Elizabeth Bruckner and discover how self-reliance starts between the ears—and maybe also in your pickling jar.

Join us at Preparedness Pro in our Facebook Group or on our blog where you'll find peaceful, practical preparedness advice every day of the week!

Transcript

Grow Your Own Sanity: How Self-Reliance Can Heal More Than Just Your Gut

Kellene: [00:00:00] Welcome to Preparedness Pro, where being prepared isn't about fear, it's about freedom. I'm your host, Colleen, and every episode we explore the peaceful principles of preparedness and self-reliance. No gloom, no doom, just practical solutions for everyday living that help you become more independent and prepared for whatever life brings your way.

From kitchen skills to financial wisdom, emergency planning to sustainable living. We're building a community of capable, confident people who understand that preparedness isn't about preparing for the worst. It's about being free to live your best life regardless of what comes your way. So whether you're starting your preparedness journey or you're a seasoned pro, you're in the right place.

Welcome.

Hey everyone. Welcome back to Preparedness Pro. I'm so glad to have everyone today. . Hey, it's a great day. So welcome back to Preparedness Pro You Wonderful Freedom Chasers. We believe in being [00:01:00] prepared. And not just about panic, it's about peace and purpose and occasionally fermenting weird things in the mason jar in the back of your fridge.

So today's guest is Elizabeth Bruckner. She is author of the Homesteader Mindset, as well as an acupuncturist. Fermentation Queen and proof that you don't need land and barn or even a chicken to start living a more meaningful self-sufficient life. In 2020, Elizabeth went from black thumb to being a backyard grocery store in the middle of suburban Los Angeles.

And since then, she's become a powerhouse of traditional skills, gut healing, wisdom, life transforming mindset shifts rooted in Chinese medicine and good old fashioned common sense. I love people who have that. So whether you're living in an apartment or already knee deep in compost, this episode is gonna be packed with, uplifting insights, maybe even a hilarious.

Fail or two, and some practical steps to help you [00:02:00] create a life that nourishes from soil to soul, like how I did that. So grab your herbal tea or maybe a bubbly jar of homemade kimchi and get ready to laugh and learn, and rethink your relationship with your gut flora. Welcome Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth: Well, well, thank you so much for having me.

What a fantastic welcome. You should be. If I ever make millions and millions of dollars, I'm gonna hire you specifically for introductions. 

Kellene: Oh, I only need 1 million though, so you only need to make millions. That's all. Okay, 

Elizabeth: deal. Done. 

Kellene: Alright, so from Black Thumb to Backyard Bounty, tell us about your very first gardening victory.

Was it a tomato or a weed you thought was basil? Come on, give us the play by play here. 

Elizabeth: All right, I'm gonna give you the absolute scoop. So I grew up, , in a family that's only one generation away from homesteading, natural homesteading. And a lot of your listeners will already know what homesteading is.

But for those that don't, initially homesteading was back in the 18, 1860s, 1862, they had homesteader acts [00:03:00] and. They were, federal government was giving federal land to private owners. Sadly, not a lot of mama pa kettles got land. It was mostly went to very rich people. But there were a few, and that's what people typically think of outside of the prepper world.

But in the prepper world, we know that homesteading is an intentional way of living. It's self-reliance. So I didn't call myself a homesteader when I first started doing these things. It wasn't until 2020 when I started realizing that our food systems were so broken and so fragile that. Kind of lights went off.

But I'll say before that, I did have a garden and I grew tomatoes. That was my first success. And then one of my relatives, without my permission, plucked my first tomato. And I was so upset because, 

Kellene: oh no, that was your baby. 

Elizabeth: That was my baby. And so since then I've made thousands of babies. I've shared thousands of babies.

I usually ask that I get to pluck the first one. That's kind of my rule, but that was a one-off that tomato plant that was in grad school when I was studying [00:04:00] traditional Chinese medicine, my master's to become an acupuncturist. And so it was kind of like, oh, this is nice. I really like it. I think food is important, but it didn't seem like it was essential.

I was not prepared at that time. My husband and I had did not have any food in the pantry. We mostly ate processed foods, organic, fancy, you know, happy label, processed foods, but not real food. And I just always assumed that it would be okay, which was really quite silly of me. It was very, very shortsighted.

And then 2020 came, I. And I couldn't find ginger or garlic, organic ginger or garlic at the grocery store. And I had in my, when I was young, around 18 at the fall of the Iron Curtain, I went on a school trip to , the USSR, which was then Russia. 'cause it had just fallen. And I remember seeing these.

Gigantic stores with like one loaf of bread in them. And I was like, how does that happen? I don't understand. And then here we were having that same issue, you know, shelves were empty and, and it kind of kicked up my DNA, my, my grandparents are from are war refugees from World [00:05:00] War ii, so was my mom. And so I realized , oh, I've gotta take, like if I want to take care of myself. I've gotta take action. I can't depend on somebody outside of me. I can't outsource my safety and my security, and so I came home. I told my husband, I'm really worried. You know, garlic and ginger are two of our most important herbs in Chinese medicine. We use that a lot during flu and cold season.

This was a, you know, a big flu and cold scare that was going on. So I knew that would be boosting my immune system. And my husband said, well, why don't you grow something in the backyard? And I kind of blinked a few times and I'm like. Have you met me? Like we've been married for 15 years, but do you know who, have you seen the things that I kill out there?

So we have a backyard, it's suburban backyard. It's completely cement around a pool, and nothing grows there because it's super, super, super hot. Nothing grew there. I'm gonna change that. And so I would go to the grocery store. I would buy a plant. I would ask the gro, I'm sorry, the garden store. I'd ask the garden guy, [00:06:00] listen, can you please gimme the thing that people can't kill?

And then I'd promptly bring it home. I'd kill it within two weeks. And then I'd go back to the garden store and I'd get, do this again and again. So that was my repertoire. I had that one tomato plant miracle, and then I just, plants weren't mine. So then I bumped into, I started reading about how to grow food in your backyard.

And I started learning about zones, which each person's region, where they live has a different growing zone. And so there are certain plants that grow here like weeds, and there are other plants that I can't grow no matter what. And so I started peeking at the things that I could grow. Tomatoes are something that are very, very easy to, to grow here.

So it was a good motivation. So I started with herbs and then I I went from there, but. This started me on my prepper journey because at that time I started looking up gardening. I started looking up how to permaculture, what is permaculture? What is regenerative farming? And then I kept hearing homesteading, home setting, home setting.

I'm like, what is that? Oh, well I preserved my foods. I'm really into fermentation. 'cause gut health is very important. I happen to be a homesteader and didn't even know it. And I think a lot of [00:07:00] people are, and they're not aware of it. 

Kellene: Well, that's wonderful. Oh, what a wonderful background story that we've got here.

Okay. So you were growing kale in the suburbs of LA during a pandemic. Was that rebellion or desperation or divine inspiration? 

Elizabeth: I think it was a little of all three. Mm-hmm. Definitely rebellion, because I think that I've always questioned authority. I don't think I would've been an acupuncturist, an American.

White acupuncturist in Southern California if I didn't have a streak of rebellion, I, I feel like the Western medic medical model during my childhood failed me. It had me on antibiotics every three months. Mm. I was very, very sick. Wow. My teeth were falling out. My, you know, I was a very sick little girl, and the doctors didn't fix it.

They made it worse. And when I started learning about that. I knew that when I wanted to go into healthcare, it had to be something that was sticking it to the man because I thought I knew something intuitively that Big Pharma wasn't working. I knew that Big Ag [00:08:00] wasn't working. I just didn't, I didn't, I couldn't explain it.

It just felt intuitively wrong, and then I. The other thing I think you said was, was it inspiring? I, I definitely think it was divinely inspired because I feel like when you are, when you are connected to your food, when you are connected to an emergency plan, you are more able to connect with your higher power.

I. When you are in an absolute panic, that's not really, you know, most people say that's when they had their come to Jesus moment, but that's not always the case. A lot of times it's when you're, when you're grounded that you can go, God, please can you, can you give me some direction here? 

Kellene: Yeah. And there's 

Elizabeth: a, is it a Russian proverb I think, that says like, pray to God and row your boat.

So I think it was both. 

Kellene: Well, good. All of the above. 

Elizabeth: All of the above. 

Kellene: So you blend essentially mental health principles with compost piles and kombucha. So what does that fusion look like in your day-to-day way? I. 

Elizabeth: Well, as a practitioner, my focus in the clinic and in my [00:09:00] online, , sessions always revolve around stress related illnesses.

, a lot of times, even pain can be stress related. So when we're looking at mental health, that's always been a focus. Even when I was in grad school, I always asked for the patients with anxiety, depression. Post-traumatic stress disorder because I've dealt with in my life, I have a lot of family members that have had it, and now I've dealt with a lot of patients that have had those issues.

And what I see is when we are hopeless, the prescription for that is gratitude. And when we are anxious, the prescription for anxiety is action. And home setting has both of those things, right? So where, when I'm. When I'm picking that tomato off of my, off of my plant, or I'm harvesting kale, or the collard green, the perennial collard green that I have, I'm very grateful.

I make a point of being, aren't I living in a charmed life? Like, look at both of us, right? We can afford a computer. We've got water if we need it. Clear running water. We have a lot to be grateful for, and I believe that in depressive cases, [00:10:00] having that. Hope that, that feeling of gratitude can break free some of the hopelessness and then action.

They say that there's a study that, , people that do hobbies with their hands are let, are happier. He's 

Kellene: anxious. We had a specialist on, did you, , on our show? You, you'll have to listen to that podcast that he specifically talks about, chances are you're not depressed. You just need some creative action in your life.

Elizabeth: Yes, absolutely. We're humans. Humans need to create, we're creations that are meant to create. Yeah. And so when you can do just a little something, and that's what the book basically works on. It's how to get past this mindset that I'm too busy or it's too hard, or I can't do it. I'm overwhelmed. And just take one small action towards wellness.

Kellene: Yeah. Well, you talk about quote, , glowing mental health in your work. Mm-hmm. That's a juicy phrase. So what does it mean and how does it connect to self-reliance? 

Elizabeth: That's a fantastic question. I. I would say that glowing mental health, I think the first page of my book [00:11:00] says, do you ever wake up looking forward to the first day, like the, the first few hours of your day?

Do you remember going to sleep as a child, tired from being in the sun and falling asleep and waking up, being surprised that the next day is coming and there's something fantastic that you're gonna learn. There's that wonder, I think that reliance. A lot of times people outside of the self-reliance, self-sufficiency world think that people that are preppers are, super, paranoid or angry or frustrated.

And I think instead what I meet is a lot of hopeful, grateful, glowing people. Why? Because they have their basic needs met and they know that if there's going to be some sort of emergency, they're, they can take care of themselves and their family and their neighbors, and so. When I talk about glowing mental health, I think a lot of times people are looking for a pill or a program that's going to fix them, and I don't think that we're broken.

I actually think we have these incredible, amazing [00:12:00] self-healing bodies if we just give it the right energy. So you don't put water in a car, right? You don't fill it up, fill up your gasoline tank with water. When we fill ourselves up with a feeling of very safe, very healthy. Tools. It turns out that our mental health can, it can glow.

And I, and I, when I say that, I'm talking about not just good food, not just having your pantry filled, knowing your neighbors. And it can also be like you had had someone on that had been in an, in a, an earthquake and then was living in a tent for like 13 years, you interviewed her. And I think one of the most important things, which I see in my life too, is she had community, there were people that kept her safe as a child because other, other people were, you know.

They were selling their children and she had her community that was keeping her safe. You wanna think about the same thing. If you have a fire in your house, like I know my neighbors. I'm not gonna go to someone's house with curlers in my hair and a robe on and not know their name. If something happens in my house, they know me, I know them, and we have good reci [00:13:00] reciprocity.

I think that's important. 

Kellene: Yeah, absolutely. This whole, let's keep everything quiet and mm-hmm. And the one man is a is the one man band that is just, it's flawed. Yes. It's flawed thinking. What's one. Traditional homesteading skill that surprised you by being therapeutic. And I'm gonna follow this up with a two part.

Yeah. I want one also that nearly sent you to therapy.

Elizabeth: Okay. , oh, I have the one that nearly sent me to therapy. So the one that surprised me and delighted me, and I really focus a lot on when I'm speaking with people about how to make changes. I think it's important that you look at what piques your curiosity and what like makes you excited. For me it was fermentation.

Kellene: Mm. 

Elizabeth: I'm very nerdy. I love reading about neuroscience and how the brain interacts with the gut and these microbes that are creating good stuff in your body and how [00:14:00] is it? Why do some bad microbes do bad things? And why do some good microbes do good things? And I wanna know all of those little details. So when I started fermenting, it was like a whole new world to me.

First of all, I love growing things, so I was growing these little babies, and I remember when I first got my first. , packet of Keefer grains from a raw milk farmer. And I remember saying to the little keefer grains like, hi, welcome to your new, new home, and as soon as you grow, we're gonna share you. And like, they become my little babies in the kitchen and like popping 'em open and seeing them and tasting the different consistencies.

And then learning , from a Western medicine perspective, how. When you're fermenting vegetables, the vitamin content increases. 

Yeah. So you can take celery fermented and it's increased. You can take garlic. Have you ever fermented garlic? I cannot say that I have. Let me tell you, this is gonna be, you're gonna think of me years from now.

If you start fermenting garlic and being like, bless Elizabeth. Bless her heart. So all the listeners here, when you do this, yes. You can send blessings my way. [00:15:00] So what you do is you just peel the garlic, you put it in brine, which is , a. Water and salt. Yeah, I think it's

one tablespoon of salt for two cups of water is usually my brain, and that's a little salty, but then it kind of hits all of them. So I put my garlic cloves in there, pop it fermented a few days, which when I say pop it every day, you open it, you let the air out, it just goes, and then you close it back up in, in a sealed jar.

And then after about seven days, it's. Fermented, you'll hear it fizzle, and then it'll stop the fizzle. I put it in my fridge. The beautiful thing about fermented garlic is that it's very adaptive. It changes a lot in your body, and so , I don't forget mrsa. So MRSA's this, this really bad guy.

It's it's a, infection that is antibiotic resistant and when people get it, they freak out. You gotta get stuff chopped off sometimes to, to save you from MRSA and fermented garlic actually kills MRSA because it changes faster than MRSA can learn. So MRSA has adapted itself to the [00:16:00] high-end antibiotics, but it hasn't adapted itself to fermented garlic.

So this to that 

Kellene: low, that low frequency, that's interesting. Yes. So in traditional Chinese medicine, and I'm, I'm asking for a friend, emotions tied to organs. So does that mean that rage cleaning is liver therapy? 

Elizabeth: The liver does house, the liver houses anger. Absolutely. And I'll even see, when people come in, if they are feeling a lot of anger and they tell me about it, I will be doing liver channel points to cleanse it.

Mm-hmm. But let's say you're not an acupuncturist 'cause I do not recommend needling yourself at home. , you need to get sterile needles, et cetera. But what you can do is a castor oil pack over your liver. So your liver is just under your right rib. So if you feel your ribs, you put a castor oil pack on that, which is like a wool pack.

And then you put a little bit of castor oil. Castor oil that's been in a glass jar, hexine free. You can get it online very easily, and you put that over for an hour. I do it every night actually. It [00:17:00] helps with insomnia, it helps with, helping to heal, tumors, break up tumors, break up fibroids, but in the case of the liver, it will course the liver and it will detox the liver while you sleep.

And so a lot of times people that have liver issues tend to be a little more angry because their liver needs to be detoxed. 

Kellene: Oh, I can think of somebody who needs liver detox. 

Elizabeth: You be slapping castor oil on people as they walk by. That's all those 

Kellene: road rages. I'm gonna be throwing , liver therapy at them.

Here. Here's some castor oil for you. Put that finger back in your car. Okay, so let's talk about fermentation. 'cause you're known as the fermentation maven. 

Elizabeth: Mm-hmm. 

Kellene: What was your weirdest aha moment while fermenting something? Ever had something bubble back at you? 

Elizabeth: My husband's been fermented accidentally.

So I went away on vacation without him, for a meditation retreat. And I said, please, can you just burp the jars every day? And he forgot one day to burp it. And so he opened it up and [00:18:00] he did it slow. He did like this little, and when you do it slow, it becomes. If you're not careful, it could become a fountain.

And he just got completely, he texted me and said I was fermented by the ferments. So that happens. I have had a, I've had a slimy onion fermentation that did not go well. I don't usually ferment, fermentation's relatively simple, but sometimes there can be something a little tricky. And my slimy onions did just that.

It was pretty gross, and I had to throw 'em away and start again. 

Kellene: Oh dear. Well, we have to fail in order to succeed. Right? 

Elizabeth: That's exactly right. 

Kellene: So gut health gets all the buzz these days. Mm-hmm. , what's a misconception that people have about fermented foods? 

Elizabeth: Okay. So a lot of people think that they were told that fermented, fermented foods are gonna hurt your gut lining, like it's gonna cause ulcers. That was an old myth. Actually what happens is when you're using fermented foods, which they're calling them fermented, but it's with vinegar, like you're pickling with vinegar mm-hmm.

That could cause a little [00:19:00] more, difficulty and digestion, but most fermented foods aren't that difficult. The truth is though, there are some things you have to be careful of. So if you eat too much fermentation at once and your body's not ready for it, your gut is not able to handle that, , that amount of probiotics, then you could have a histamine reaction.

You might have a rash or you might feel upset in your tummy. So what I recommend is that people start really. Tiny. They start slow and they gradually increase. One fun fact about sauerkraut at home, so you use the same water and salt water and you, , put cabbage in it. You just break up the cabbage, cut it up, put it in, you make sauerkraut.

Sauerkraut. Just a teaspoon of it has more probiotics in it than that $50 expensive bottle of probiotics that you get at , the pharmacy. And so a lot of people don't know that, and a lot of times that's only got one strain, whereas the probiotics that you make, the fermented food that you make is actually bringing microbes in from your home and helping you kind of [00:20:00] have an antibiotic for the stuff that's happening in your region.

Kellene: Wow. Yeah. In your, in your environment even. Yes, 

Elizabeth: that's right. Wow. 

Kellene: That's amazing. That's amazing. Okay. What's the starter kit for someone? Who's never fermented anything except maybe a relationship?

Elizabeth: Well, I think that, fermenting foods is much, it will make you more mentally glowing than fermenting a relationship. I will tell you that your, your mental health will be glowing more than fermenting a relationship. I would say that if you wanna start today. Go into your refrigerator, look at whatever veggie you have in there that is, , there, and it's relatively fresh.

And then get some salt water. Get some water, some salt, and a mason jar. Now Mason jars are really trendy right now. In the nineties, they became the hip thing to put throughout your house. Benny and June had this one single girl in the movie that had mason jars everywhere.

So just go to Amazon or Walgreens or wherever you go normally to get home goods and you can buy a mason jar. [00:21:00] Once you do that, I usually think a nice one to start with is carrots. You just chop up some carrots in sticks, throw 'em in your mason jar, fill the mason jar up, up three quarters of the way. Put some with water, put some salt in that, enough salt to make it a brine.

Shake it up, pop it, like open it up so that all the Fs comes out, close it. And then every day I usually do morning and night. Just open it and listen to hear if it's fizzling. Usually in a day or two you'll start hearing it bubbling. That means the microbes are starting to eat. All of the, there's actually, lacto basilica.

There's, , certain living beings on all of your vegetables, and it's starting to eat parts of the vegetable. It's starting to break it down, mostly the sugar in your vegetable, which is why it gets salty. So every time you hear it fizzing, you know you're on the right track. You do that for, you know, four days.

If you wanna start and you don't, you feel a little weird sometimes I'll go seven days, and then you take that, put it in your fridge, and you can start snacking on it as a condiment. 

Kellene: Sounds yummy 

Elizabeth: actually. It's delicious and pretty easy. 

Kellene: Okay, so how [00:22:00] can we incorporate healing herbs and gut friendly cuisine without becoming that person who brings beets to a Super Bowl party?

Elizabeth: Yeah. You don't wanna be the person that brings beets to a Super Bowl party, do you? No. No. So, I like to say that the first thing that you can do is really make it simple and, do things that. Really lights you up. For example, I love comfort food. I love mashed potatoes. They make me really happy. But currently I'm on a gut healing protocol that does not have.

Potatoes in it and it will be for a year. One more year. I've been on it for a year. Wow. Oh yeah. And that's devotion. That's devotion. I was, I was pretty sick before that. And so I think, if you're not super sick you might have to do that, but for me that was necessary. But I wanted something that still gave me that satiation like feeling like my mom made me some delicious mashed potatoes and without the need, so what I would bring to a dinner party.

And a lot of times people have told me this is really good. I don't know if it's gonna do Super Bowl 'cause it's. [00:23:00] Not, I mean, it's mashed potato EI don't know if Super Bowl party, you know, can you have mashed potatoes with your wings? I take, just a head of cauliflower. I chop it up, not just roughly like four pieces, throw it in a pot with two sticks of butter and , a little bit of garlic and just a tiny bit of meat stock.

And then I cook that down and then I take a hand wand and mash it up. And I have the in salt and it's, it is as delicious as, mashed potatoes to me, but it's also super satiating because there's a high fat, fat content. Mm-hmm. And I grew up in an era where fat was the devil. And that's not true. Fat is so good for your brain.

It, yeah. It's, you know, it's so good for your absolutely organs. It helps your, it helps your gut heal. It lines your gut with healing, with like healing seal so that people, when we have. Leaky gut, it means that your particles of food are going undigested into your bloodstream and it's causing back pain and headaches and aphasia and all sorts of nasty stuff.

Well, delicious fat, full meals can actually keep you very satiated and very healthy longer. I. Yeah, [00:24:00] 

Kellene: yeah, it's, it's hard for me to advocate, you know, uh, being overweight and saying, fat's good for you. But I don't mean that kind of fat. I mean, the food fat, the quality, the tallow, the lard instead of the Crisco and the hydrogenated oils, you know, the, the good fat, the avocados, the olives, you know, those are all fantastic fats.

Even the fat on the steak. It was always my favorite part growing up as a girl. And that's good for you. 

Elizabeth: So good for you. And you know, you're lucky because you have a taste where some people, they have to grow that taste because they've been taught to only eat lean meat and it's all that's available.

And so they're not getting any of the nutrients like a lot of the indigenous, people that, Weston A. Price who is a dentist to study. Oh, I love 

Kellene: Weston A price. Absolutely. Do you, do you love that foundation? Oh yeah. I love it. 

Elizabeth: I'm a chapter leader in Orange County and Oh, 

Kellene: that's wonderful. Yeah. It's a 

Elizabeth: great way to, I love his 

Kellene: book.

Um, yes. Just [00:25:00] fascinating. Yes. 

Elizabeth: It's fascinating, right? And so he talks a lot about these indigenous tribes that we're doing really well without our processed foods. Mm-hmm. And they don't just eat muscle meat, they eat all the organs, all the fat. And you can, you can teach your body to enjoy that stuff. Like I remember a year ago when I was going, okay, I'm gonna start having.

Real food for breakfast. And that means that it's gonna be like, pork soup with, you know, pork feet that had been blended up. This is a bit hardcore for some people, but for me, I really knew that I needed this and how was I going to make it delicious? And you add enough fat, you blend it up, you put some texture in, like some.

Crunchy vegetables. It's amazing. And people just don't realize that we are, so many of us are malnutrition, have malnutrition, like I was 30 pound, 35 pounds heavier than I am now before I started eating nutrient dense food. Mm-hmm. And then the weight started dropping because I, my body was finally getting what it needed.

So I think that, we're all on this journey together, but those of us that understand [00:26:00] that fat is really good for your body are a few steps ahead. 

Kellene: Yeah. Um, thank goodness it's good for the body. That's all I can, I know. Say, I mean butter. Everything's better with butter. Real butter. Yep. That's right.

Okay, so your book talks about habit creation as a way to build self-sufficiency. So what's a simple habit that people often overlook that could actually transform their mindset? 

Elizabeth: And, and in terms of prepping too, right? 

Kellene: Yeah, absolutely. 

Elizabeth: Okay. So I would say habit stacking is a really good thing to do.

Habit stacking means that when you're doing one habit, you add another habit to it. So I'm gonna give you an example that's not prepping and then I'm gonna give you one that is okay. The example would be bonus. Bonus. The example would be when I'm washing dishes, I listen to podcasts about healing herbs in the kitchen.

So I am educating myself on, oh, Talu is good for stopping bleeding. That's a really good thing for me to know, and yet I'm washing dishes. I would've been [00:27:00] listening to music, or maybe somebody's listening to a True Crime podcast, but instead I'm listening to something that's gonna help me. That's habit stacking.

At the same time, another way that you could do that, so people , that are growing their pantry, not everything you can make yourself for your proper pantry. If you live in an urban area, like I'm not going to be able to grow rice where I live. That you need a little more room than I have in my, who is 

Kellene: slacker?

I know 

Elizabeth: I'm such a slack. I, holy 

Kellene: gosh, 

Elizabeth: I know. At least I'm honest, right? Most people are. I don't grow rice on the top of my house, but. I want to have rice stored up in my pantry so that if there's ever an issue, I have some grains, some carbohydrates, and some protein. So I have it stack. Every time I go to the grocery store, I'm going to buy one or two items for my prepper pantry.

And in that way I'm not overwhelmed because I think a lot of people, especially in 2020, they're like, oh my gosh, I gotta run out. And then they were going out and buying all this ridiculous canned food that they're never going to eat. But they were so panicked. Yeah. And [00:28:00] they, we and myself included, I wasn't prepared.

And so we go into panic mode and we start doing things that aren't necessarily the smartest thing. But what we can do is if we're habit change, habit stacking, every time I go to the grocery store, I'm gonna pick up one more thing. Oh, do they have canned chicken? Well, I'm not gonna be eating canned chicken, but it's good to have it in my, in my pantry.

And then every six months I have the habit stack of I, when I go to the, we do a, , food drive at our. At our clinic, our acupuncture clinic, and I bring that food there that I, that's going to expire. And I, as I'm buying new, so I'm rotating out through a habit stack. I'm not creating, I'm not going to the grocery store specifically with this big, gigantic list.

I'm doing one or two pieces at a time and I'm seeing my pantry fill up. Yeah. 

Kellene: Yeah. There's, , I personally talking about filling up, in Malachi, it tells us that if we tithe that we'll be blessed that we won't have room enough to receive it. And my nieces and nephews remind me all the time that I must be.

Be paying way too much tithing because, [00:29:00] because there's some parts. The house where I have room, I do not have room enough to receive it. Alright, so you've got a background in science and wellness and acupuncture. Do you think that modern self-reliance is more about mastering skills or mastering our mindset?

Elizabeth: Mm-hmm. Wow. I would say mindset, Trump skills. 

Kellene: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, because that was a trick question, just so you know. Was 

Elizabeth: it? 

Kellene: Yeah. 

Elizabeth: Is there gonna be a buzzer or a gong and then gonna just water that comes on me. There's gong. Yeah, because I think in my twenties I had this brilliant idea that I could be an island unto myself and there'd be no complications.

Right. Everyone goes through something about that. Sure. Usually in your teens. I went a little later, I'm like, I'm just gonna do this all myself. And that was, that was really a dangerous place to be because without community, you really are nothing. You're just one little tiny human being. Mm-hmm. And so I, I started.

With the, um, [00:30:00] idea before 2020 that I need to know my neighbors and I need to be around like-minded people because some of the things that I believe the mainstream media definitely does not believe, and I didn't wanna constantly explaining myself, so I was looking for like-minded people. And that doesn't mean that they believe everything that I believe.

It just means that we can communicate in a way, like maybe kindness is the common language that we have, like with my neighbors next door. And so every Christmas Eve I go out with some gifts, my husband and I, just little, you know, $10 gifts for our neighbors right next to us so that we know their names.

And I remember the first few years my husband was like, do we have to do this? I'm like, no, we don't have to. But we won't know them if we don't. And he's like, you're right. This is a really good way. And now we have neighbors that know us and we know about their family and their lives. And if there's, I remember one time I got a text while I was at work because there was something a little tricky going on outside in front of my house.

Well, if I had never made the point of. Of creating community within my neighbors. I wouldn't have known that. So that's mindset shift. [00:31:00] 

Kellene: Yeah. That's 

Elizabeth: knowing that I don't have to isolate because people have different beliefs than me. I can educate. I mean, let me tell you, if you come over to my house, I will be feeding you fermented food.

I will be taking, giving you a tour of the garden. And people love it because they're like, how? You know, my garden looks like it doesn't look like a food garden. It look, it's, it's a food forest, so it looks very much like, , edible landscaping. It looks like landscaping that you wouldn't know. But then when we go up closer and I'm like, and here's where my ginger resides and this is how I make my tea.

And you know, these are collard greens that grow all the time. It looks like a bush, but it's actually food. I remember somebody came over to help me, , dye eggs for Easter on Saturday, and as she was walking out, she's like, so what can you eat here? I'm like, what do you mean? She's like, well, what can you eat on this?

I'm like, you can eat everything. And she's like, well, not the flowers. I'm like, oh no, those are edible flowers, my friend. So it's definitely mindset. 

Kellene: Wonderful. Okay, so how can people start small? We're talking home setting here. Yeah. So how can they start small without getting overwhelmed by Pinterest worthy pressure?

Elizabeth: Yeah, well [00:32:00] firstly kill all of your social media. That would be my 

Kellene: first, first thing to say, Hey, wait, people are gonna be watching this video on social media. Okay. We can't kill it all. 

Elizabeth: Kill all your social media except for Kellene's, channel that's, that's her account only, just only do that. But I would say, 

when it comes to being, things being too complicated, that is a myth that a lot of Americans here because, in this day and age, it has been very difficult to live a traditional life, to live a life of peace. It's you're actually swimming upstream when you do it. Yeah. So you have to work very. Very smartly on how to be diligently simple.

And the way that I do that, when I'm starting a home setting project or when someone comes up to me and says, I'd really like to do this. What do I, what do I do? I say, you start by, are you ready for this? This is the, this is the the secret. You start, start by daydreaming. So start with what does a homestead look like?

Me, for me, for me. Ideally, I would love to go outside and give my chickens some [00:33:00] compost and then, , grab some eggs. Now, where I live, there's, there are no, , regulations for not having chickens, but I have a dog that I'm just not sure I can train and the backyard is very small for chickens, but in my mind, that's what I want.

And so I'm looking for my next home will be somewhere where I can easily have chickens separated from my dog and I can have my own eggs. That is. That is the highlight of my, of my daydreams. Somebody else might be daydreaming like, oh, garlic, you know, fermented garlic, and you can keep it in your, your fridge and you can chop it up easily.

There's no prep. I mean, it's so easy. Then actually getting out, you know, peeling and all that stuff. That might be the one thing that kind of lights their lights, their fire. So start with what, when you think of homesteading, what ignites the light in you? What makes you want to get off this video or this podcast episode and immediately go look it up.

Write that down, write down whatever you, whatever comes up in the daydream. Spend about five minutes and then take three of those. For me, it would be eggs. I love [00:34:00] fermentation and I absolutely love healing nerves like I like stepping out of the Western mindset as much as I can. As much as possible. So find one of those.

Pick three and then take one of those and make it into a mini tiny project. And that means I'm gonna commit to working on this particular project five minutes a day. Well, what does that mean if I wanna have chickens, right? Let's say I do have a yard. Firstly it could be finding a yard. So I could go, Hmm, which of my neighbors has a really big yard and they're not using it 'cause their kids are out of the house.

Mm-hmm. And they would be interested in having chickens. Maybe I could. I could barter, I could do all the chicken prep and work, and they get free eggs and all they need to do is give me a little corner that I can, you know, roll my chicken tractor on. So that would be like thinking about how to do it.

Okay, so what are the things I'm gonna do five minutes a day? Well, maybe it's, I come home from work, and unlike you, Colleen, people come home from work and they watch tv. They don't host a podcast. You're just cool. You're just cool that way. So they come home from work, they sit down, they put their feet up, and they start to watch a movie.

Well, maybe instead of [00:35:00] watching the Netflix. Series for five minutes. You watch something on, on YouTube about how to create a chicken tractor or how to feed chickens from scraps in your backyard. And so you just do five minutes a day and then after that five minutes, you watch your Netflix, whatever it is, stranger things, whatever's, whatever floats your, your boat.

And then each day you're growing on that. And as you build on successes, and I do have a, a free gift. Surrounding this, there's a habit tracker. I like to use habit trackers because let's say my goal is five minutes a day, and I'm gonna do that for 30 days. I like to just check it off on my habit tracker so that I can see it every day.

I can see that I've made a success. I can see that if I had a bad week, well, I had two good weeks, and so this habit tracker, which I'll give the link to at the end of the, at the end of the episode, if we both remember, it is very good for creating that habit. Like, okay, , I did my five minutes. Now I can watch.

The Netflix series and know that , I've accomplished something even in a very busy day or Okay. I listened to a podcast on how to create, how to, you know, [00:36:00] how to grow, how what, what are the best chickens to buy? And so I listened to a chicken farmer that does chickens in their backyard, and I did that while washing the dishes.

And so you're just taking that, that tiny habit and building on small successes. And those small successes, they create more motivation for bigger successes. 

Kellene: Yeah, they do. Okay, we're gonna do a rapid fire round. Okay. Alright. 

Elizabeth: Okay. 

Kellene: So no pressure. Just say the first thing that comes to mind. 

Elizabeth: Okay. 

Kellene: So composting, love it or tolerate it.

Elizabeth: Love it, love it, love it, love it. 

Kellene: First garden. Fail. 

Elizabeth: , everything before 2020. Every, every morning glories, I killed morning glories. They're very hard to kill. 

Kellene: Yes, those are hard to kill. Yes. Okay. Worst tasting, but healthy thing. You still eat. 

Elizabeth: Hmm.

Well, I've made chicken livers tasty by putting them pate, but initially I didn't like the taste of it until [00:37:00] I upped it with rosemary. So liver was probably, organ meats were hard for me initially. 

Kellene: Okay. One herb you'd take to a deserted island. Ooh, that's a good one. Can I have two? I have to have one. Nope, you can only take one.

Sorry. It's gonna have to 

Elizabeth: be garlic. Can I ferment it? 'cause if I can ferment it on the desert island, absolutely. No, you can 

Kellene: ferment it. You can ferment it. Garlic root. Okay. Kombucha. Is it elixir or is it evil? 

Elizabeth: It's an elixir, but I'm not a fan of it. I've made it. It doesn't do anything for me. 

Kellene: Okay. A homestead skill that you're still intimidated by.

Elizabeth: Ooh. Hmm. Building stuff, like creating actual buildings. I would really like to, I would like to put a hammer and nail together, but I'm a little, I'm a little scared about it. 

Kellene: Okay. So last one, one book besides your own that every Wellness Minded prepper should read. Ooh, that's a 

Elizabeth: great 

Kellene: question. 

Elizabeth: Okay, so I love, , anything by Joel Sale, of course.

So any book, but he's [00:38:00] got one focus. This ain't normal. Love it, love it, love it. Can I give you two more? Come on. Oh, I know it's rapid. Okay. Okay. Okay. , David, the Good has a composting book called Compost Everything. It will Blow Your Mind. He's really good. And then in terms of just home setting, prepping, there's a really nice easy book called, , old Fashioned on Purpose by Jill Winger.

Kellene: Okay, well great. And everybody, don't forget the Neanderthals in the Kitchen book. You've got to get that one. I wrote it. Did you write it? And then, oh yeah. Neanderthals in the kitchen. And then of course you've gotta get the accompanying recipe book that goes with it that, uh, is called the Magnificent Pantry.

So. There you go. Okay. I'm gonna get 

Elizabeth: that. I'm absolutely use that. We've got our book 

Kellene: plugs. I'll send you one, Elizabeth. Don't worry about getting it. I'll send you one. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Okay, so what do you wish every woman or man knew about their ability to create peace, health and meaning through homesteading?

This is gonna be our last 

Elizabeth: question. That's a good question. It's within your power. It's absolutely possible no matter where you [00:39:00] live, urban, suburban, rural, no matter what your body type, say, you may have a disability or some dysfunction in your life. It is possible to homestead and it will bring you more connection to your higher power to yourself and to your community.

Kellene: So where can people start if they want to glow from the inside out? Mentally, physically, and me. Maybe even with some sauerkraut breath. 

Elizabeth: You can find me. So my free gift, the a homesteader habit. Stacker the homestead. Okay. That's like a. Try again. It's like red, red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather.

The homesteader Habit tracker is can be found on my website at www.createwellness.com/gift GI ft. And you can find me at that website too. Wonderful. 

Kellene: Well I'm glad that I found you. It was a match made in heaven and I'm sure we'll have you on again because this was fun. It was so much fun. Thank you so much for having me.

My pleasure. Alright, you take [00:40:00] care.

Thanks for joining us today on Preparedness Pro. I hope you enjoyed yourself and learned something new. Want more preparedness? Inspiration? Join our live shows every Tuesday and Thursday at 11:00 AM Eastern on YouTube or Facebook at Preparedness Pro, where we can answer your questions Live looking for a community of like-minded people who understand that preparedness is about freedom.

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Until next time, remember, preparation brings peace, and peace [00:41:00] brings freedom. See you soon.