Updates, Health, Hair and Business!

This is a transcript of the podcast episode released on 9/18/25:

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Girly Homesteader Podcast.

Today's episode is one of those where I'm just giving a bunch of updates.

I do this not because I don't know what to talk about, but because I just really enjoy these episodes.

Honestly.

I know that you are not here to talk back and talk with me, but I do feel that these kind of episodes, it's kind of like we're just together chatting like friends about, you know, what's going on in our lives, what is exciting and stuff like that.

So today I'm going to be talking about some business updates.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know what I'm talking about and I'm so, so excited.

So I'm going to be talking about that.

I'm also going to be talking about health updates, which that's probably going to take a little bit of time because I'm also going to be reviewing the aura Ring.

And then I'm going to give a little bit of update about my hair.

Hello, and welcome to season 4 of the Girly Homesteader Podcast, the show that's definitely not your typical homesteading podcast.

I'm your host, Laura, a born and raised Midwestern girl living in Xenia, OH with my husband, chickens, and garden.

On this show, we'll cover the typical stuff like gardening and chicken lady life, but we also go beyond the farm and talk about all the other things that are important to us girly homesteaders, like feeling beautiful in your own skin, finding purpose in life, and staying in tune with nature's seasons.

I'll share my experiences and favorite things with you every week on this podcast.

And hopefully at the end of 2025, you and I will have grown more food and preserved our sanity by finding balance between wanting to do it all and getting too overwhelmed.

So welcome to this girlier side of homesteading where we can grow and flourish together.

OK, so first of all, I want to get into the business updates that I have.

And what I mean by this is the new product that I have designed, OK, as a listener of the podcast, you probably know that I created a garden planner.

I really do like this product, I do.

But I will admit that for somebody that was already using a paper planner, it was a little bit redundant for me to have both.

And yes, I did combine it into my planner, but at least for me, it just wasn't something that I was using as much as I thought I would.

I still do believe it's a great product and I do still have that for sale.

But what I realized when I was doing my assessment for fall, which is part of the Grow and Flourish Garden Planner that I created, every season there would be a check in, a seasonal check in where you would answer questions about your life, about your homestead and just kind of figure out where your goals needed to be for that season.

So I had that that planner designed so that you would do these assessments at the beginning of each real season like traditional season.

So I did mine for the month of September and when I was doing it, because I that is the part that I use the most.

I will say that I would do that with every season.

And so when I was doing it for this September, it kind of hit me that like, I wish I could do it more often.

And I thought to myself, well Laura, you created this, so why not do it more often?

So then this is something that I had created for myself, but was not part of the Grow and Flourish planner, but I developed just for my own mental, you know, whatever.

I developed a simple or like a, a system of mini seasons that would go throughout the year and there would be a different theme.

So again, I did this all just for myself.

I didn't, this was not part of anything that I had created before.

And so again, when I was doing the fall assessment for September, I thought, you know, I'm entering one of these new mini seasons.

Why don't I just do this every two months?

So every mini season was two months of the year.

January and February they had a a theme, March and April they had a theme and so on.

And so I thought, OK, why not do this every other month?

Because I think every month doing this, it would be like a little bit too often, maybe not enough time to let yourself really see any change or be able to devote good time to these goals.

But I thought, you know, maybe every other month would be good.

Do it for each mini season.

And so the thing just kind of compounded and spiraled.

And now I have created a print product that is a beautiful saddle stitched workbook where every other month you will reflect and you will do this assessment and figure out your goals for the mini season.

I am so, so beyond excited because my original thought is that I was going to make this like a digital download and you could do it on your own.

But then I was so happy to find a printer that can make these in this beautiful saddle stitched book.

It took me a while to try and find a printer that was going to bind this thing the way that I wanted spiral binding.

I honestly, I can't stand spiral binding because I just, I don't know, I hate writing on that coil on when like so if like I'm right-handed, I hate writing on the coil when the coil's on the right side of the page.

What I love about disc binding, which is how my actual planner is, is that I can pull my pages out and I can write on them on a flat surface.

So I didn't want spiral bound, but then the fact that I was able to create something that was a true printed bound product, I just, I got so excited.

So saddle stitched, it's a notebook where like they basically just stitch the pages together.

That way it can lay perfectly flat.

You can fold it around itself and it just, it's, it's going to be, it's going to be so perfect.

The size of this journal too.

It's also going to be slightly smaller than a regular piece of paper.

And the reason I chose this is because I wanted it to be able to slip into another notebook or something else.

I didn't want it to be too huge, but it also needs to be big enough.

That way there was enough space to do all the reflection and the assessments and all of that in the goal setting.

So again, I am so, so excited that I have finally created this.

I don't know why I didn't do it sooner, but I guess it just shows that over time you do discover what is really important to you.

And as I said at the beginning, you know, I developed this whole garden planner, but for me, I was only using a very specific part of it and it was the reflection, the assessment and the goal setting parts.

And I love that part of it.

And so now that is exactly what this goal setting workbook is.

So let me give you a rundown of just kind of like how the mini seasons work, how the assessment is and so on.

So at the beginning of the workbook, there is a space to review your 2025.

And so I am speaking about this product as the 2026 version.

After I'm done with that, I will tell you about the pre sale option that I do have, but I'll get to that.

So anyways, at the beginning of the workbook there are pages dedicated to celebrating your wins from the year 2025 and just kind of giving an overall like assessment and just kind of check in for that year.

After that you will create your overarching goals for the year 2026.

Then the workbook talks about these mini seasons that I mentioned and so January and February, those two months have the theme of aspiration.

This is the time in the year when you are making your big goals for the year, your big ideas.

Just like go big and just aspire for greatness, aspire for the best.

The second mini season is the months of March and April and this is the season of renewal.

The reason I chose this word is because in March and April, and so I do want to say all of these mini seasons, they are very tied into what is going on in nature.

So in March and April, the sun is starting to come back and that is when you finally feel that energy to take on the projects that you were dreaming of in January and February, 'cause I know a lot of people, they're kind of like anti New Year's because you don't have as much energy at that time of year.

And that is true.

That is totally true.

January and February is the time to aspire.

It's the it's the time to dream, it's the time to plan.

But then March and April, that's when you start actually getting your energy back, feeling that resent that sense of renewal and energized like that just energized feeling.

And that is when you can start to put your plans into action.

So the third mini season for the months of May and June, that theme is cultivation.

And the reason I chose this word is because May and June is probably the time that you are ramped up the most, you are amped up the most, and you have the most energy.

That is also when Mother Nature has ramped up and is ramping up to her peak.

That's when we have the most sunlight at the summer solstice.

And so that is a time when you do have the most energy and it's before you start to get too tired.

So this is the time when you really cultivate and work on and kind of get even more precise about the way that you are doing things and just, you know, really honing in on everything that you have built up for the first part of the year.

So the 4th mini season is for the months of July and August.

As I have mentioned on the podcast many, many times.

That is my least favorite time of year because it is way too hot and it is also one of the busiest seasons in the garden.

Everything is going gangbusters, everything is hot, the weeds are crazy.

And so this is the season of balance because there is so much to do outside, but you still do have to do your other chores.

You still do have other obligations with your family.

And so this season is all about just finding balance between what you have been achieving, trying to figure out a way to make that manageable, and then also just getting everything to just be in a state of equilibrium.

So I know I'm talking fast, but that's because I'm just so excited about this.

OK, so then the 5th mini season is where we are now.

And this these are the months of September and October.

And the word I chose for this season is refinement.

And it took me a while to figure out the perfect word for this season.

Originally I had a different word.

It was the word restoration.

But what I think a lot of us feel at this time of year, especially if you have kids that are going back to school, September and October is when we get to go back into our routines that we had before summertime.

Because during summertime I know things get haywire.

Everybody is more busy, people are going on vacations, you have so many more parties and stuff like that to go to.

And so a lot of times and also because summer the garden gets away from you and it's just a busy time of year.

If you're a homesteader, it feels like during that time, your schedule just kind of it it, it just gets taken away from you and you don't really have control.

But once when summer ends and once fall starts to come back, your kids go back to school and like your obligations just kind of settle down a little bit.

I think that is when you kind of have like a little mini season of like a little mini New Year's because you are able to take control again.

And so that is why I chose the word refinement because this is when you look at your year so far and then you kind of go back and kind of reassess, you recalibrate and you focus back in on the on the things that you want to do and what mean most to you for the final third of the year.

Because yes, now that we're in September, there's only 1/3 of the year left.

So the many seasons wrap up with the sixth season, which is the months of November and December.

And those are the months of reflection.

This is something that I think everybody feels.

These are the slower minds.

It's the time to celebrate with family.

It's the time to just chill, get cozy.

There's really not much going outside, going on outside.

And so this is when you have the time to breathe and you have the time to reflect and celebrate all the things that you did achieve in the year.

So that is a rundown on the many seasons.

But the other thing that this goal setting work, bug goal setting system does is it divides your life into eight different facets.

And I apologize if I can't list them all off the top of my head, but I'm gonna try here.

There is Homestead, which I refer to as Farm 'cause I just wanted quick short words.

So there's farm, home, love, mind.

Actually, I'm gonna pause here really quick.

OK, sorry about that.

But we're friends, so it's OK if I have to do this.

So anyways, I have a print out now in front of me, the 8 facets of your life where you will do assessments and answer specific questions to help guide your goal setting.

The eight different facets are home, mine, farm, dream, work, health, fun, and love.

I do have descriptions of these different facets in the workbook, but it also gives you the ability to kind of determine what these facets mean to you.

So at the beginning of each mini season, you will take an assessment and there are 6 questions for each facet.

You rate how you're feeling about that question on a scale from 1:00 to 5:00 total, up your number, get your score, whatever.

And then you go to the interpretation page of the assessment where you start to really look and see what is most important for you right now, what does need the most work, what's doing great actually what you should celebrate.

And then it helps you set your goals for those two months.

After that page, there is a a spread where you can plan out your ideal week.

There is also a page where you can go week by week of that mini season and you can write down any big obligations that you have.

Maybe there are family obligations, maybe it's big outdoor tasks, maybe it's a vacation or something like that.

The reason I have this layout in here is because if like those things that you're writing down there, they're non negotiables, you know they're going to happen.

And so if you design the other time that you have to support your goals, you're going to do a lot better.

You're going to do so much better if you work around the obligations that are just set in stone.

So there's a week to do that or there's a page to do that.

Then there is also a page to design your ideal week on this spread.

I think what is most important is that for all of us homesteaders, our week to week, it changes based on the seasons.

Because I know that in the dead of January, it's freezing cold in the morning and I'm not going outside.

And so at that time of day, that is when I need to do my indoor chores.

And then if I do have any outdoor chores, I'm going to be doing them midday when it's the warmest and I'm not freezing my butt off.

But instead, during summertime, it's the exact opposite.

If I have outdoor chores, I'm going to do those early in the morning when it's not too hot, or I'm going to do them in the evening, late, late when my garden is in shade, I'm not going to be doing them during midday.

So our cycles, they change depending on where we are at in the year.

So this spread, again, it is a place where you can just map out your ideal week, map out when you would do this chore, when you would do this chore based on the seasonal changes that are going on.

And I'm not just talking about outside, but I'm also talking about how your life changes based on the seasons because, yeah, if you have kids, your kids are now in school.

And so that changes the way that your life works.

So after the week by week kind of spread there, there is a part where you can go into detailed habit tracking.

I really like this page because although habits are something that I haven't tracked the most, I do think that creating habits is the way to make these small changes in your life actually stick.

So there's a full page for habit tracking and at the very end there's a place to summarize.

That is something that I didn't do in the previous edition or like the previous Grow and Flourish Garden Planner, I didn't have a place to summarize.

And I realized, you know, I really do, I really do need to put that in there.

So that's kind of a rundown of how this goal setting workbook and goal setting system works.

So what I have decided though, because I don't want to miss out on the last two months of this year, which are reflection season.

These are big moments when you can really start to dig deep and figure out what you want for 2026.

And so I am offering this workbook as a pre sale and you as a podcast listener, you get the very first dibs on it.

So the options will be getting your workbook, just the workbook itself, or you can also get the workbook and a supplemental journal.

The journal goes day by day through each month and it has a space on each day to write down how you grew and how you flourished.

Of course, this is the name of the workbook, the grow and flourish goal setting workbook.

So in the spot where you write down how you grew, you can either write, write down like a set back, you can write down something that you learned about yourself, something like that.

And then the spot for how you flourished, you can write down an achievement or something happy or something like that.

But this journal is a supplement to the workbook.

And the journal I think is a great way.

It's, this is something that I wanted to do in my 2025.

I wanted to get a lot better at journaling because when you do this, even if you're writing down just tiny little things, it helps you celebrate all of what you have done.

And it helps you at the end of the year.

Just see, oh, this actually was a pretty awesome year.

Or you can see, well, it might not have been the best year, but at least I learned so much about, you know, whatever it is.

And so that is why this journal is a supplement to the workbook.

So you can choose to get just the workbook or the bundle, but because the main edition starts in the year 2026.

What I have offered for pre sale is for the journal or well I should start with the workbook.

For the workbook you will get the 2026 edition but you will also get a separate and condensed version for the end of 2025.

It will have the intro pretty much the same and then it will have the assessment for reflection season, which is November and December of 2025.

It will have all of the week by week planning all of that stuff.

So that's what you will get in addition for just the workbook.

And then if you want to buy the journal bundle too, you will get both those things that I already mentioned, but your journal will also include spreads for the months of November and December of 2025.

So it will span the very end of 2025 and then all of 2026.

So the price is OK.

If you want to do just the workbook, it is $35 and then if you want to do the workbook and the journal, it is 45.

If you use the code presale when you check out two, you will also get free shipping.

Now do I know when this is going to be shipping out?

No, I don't know the exact date, but it will definitely be here or be in your hands by November.

That way you can get get started.

Ideally, I would have it to you in your hands like by the end of or like, I don't know, is the maybe like one week left of October is my that's that would be perfect.

But that is what that is what I'm offering.

That's what I'm so excited about.

Again, if I got tongue tied, I apologize.

I am just, I am so, so excited.

I will also be offering other add-ons like I have a, a desk calendar that I will have for sale.

I'm thinking about like doing some candles too that just kind of help you get into the mindset of your planning and your goal setting session.

So yeah, I just have, I have so many ideas and that is kind of another update that I'm going to be sharing later.

But anyways, I, I am just so freaking pumped.

So again, as a podcast listener, you get the absolute first dibs on the presale.

I am going to have the link in the show notes to both the bundles or well, the bundle of the workbook and the journal and then also just the workbook.

So again, use the code presale and you'll get free shipping and those will be in your hands definitely, definitely by the beginning of November.

This episode of the podcast is brought to you by Counter Beauty.

If you were a previous customer of Beauty Counter and you loved the mascara like I did, I am excited to announce that I think it's September 25th.

So about a week after this episode comes out, they will be coming back with some of their makeup products, including the mascara.

So if you want to be one of the first people to know about it and be able to buy it, make sure you follow me on Instagram because that is where I'll be sharing about it the most.

So again, if you were a fan of the Counter mascara like I was, please follow me.

I'll give you the links so you can get your hands on it as soon as possible.

All right, so now on to hair and health updates.

So I'm going to do hair first just because that's the quickest one.

My hair is finally feeling long and I have actually started styling it a little bit differently.

And I've also been using even less product.

OK, so now that my hair is longer, it's to the point where my shortest layers are now sitting on top of my shoulders.

And this is kind of frustrating because 'cause my layers are acting a little bit funky because of my shoulders.

But anyways.

What I've discovered though is that now that my hair is longer, I am really using a lot less product.

Actually, the styling product that I am using is Hairspray.

It is the book Lame Hairspray.

And the reason I like this stuff is because it has protein in it.

Protein balance is so, so important for my hair.

I know that I've talked about this on the podcast before, but my hair is so fine.

And if it is and it gets over moisturized really easily.

And so if it gets over moisturized, my waves just kind of look weird.

Like they can be extra like smushy and they can just, I don't know, they get they get affected by like the shape or like the the way that they were set way more easily and they are less ringletty if I don't have enough protein on my hair.

So with this length that I have, I am still loving the renewing conditioner, I think from Innersense.

It has a lot of protein in it.

It smells lovely and I really do like that conditioner for my hair.

Now what I have discovered though is that during summertime at least I didn't need a leave in conditioner or I definitely didn't need one that was super, super hydrating.

So what I'm doing right now is I am double cleansing when I shampoo.

I am using that renewing conditioner, which has plenty of protein and then when I get out of the shower, I will use prep spray from the brand inner sense as well.

This also has a lot of protein in it, but it's not really like a, I don't know.

It's not, it's not a leave in because it really isn't moisturizing at all.

It's kind of like a spray protein, sort of a treatment that is supposed to protect your hair from heat damage.

Because I do dry my hair, I, I use it and I can definitely tell that it gives my fine hair much more body.

If you already have really thick hair, you might not need this.

But if you are somebody who has very slippery hair, very fine hair, you might like it.

And then the last thing that I'm using is a leave in conditioner.

And I've mentioned this brand on the podcast before, but it is from the brand Know Nothing.

It doesn't have any glycerin in it and it is very, very lightweight.

It's probably like the weirdest leave in conditioner texture you've ever seen because you spray it in your hand and it kind of feels like you have just water in your hands.

But basically what it does is it gives my hair just the finest little layer of silicones.

So it's not actually moisturizing my hair.

It's just leaving a coating on my hair that helps to protect it from humidity and then also just protect it in general because again, because my hair is so fine, it breaks really, really easily.

And so by having this slight layer of silicones on it, it's a lot more slippery and because of that, it doesn't break or tangle as easily.

So I will use that in the evening, I'll rough blow dry my hair.

I am still loving the kind of like concept of washing my hair at night and then styling it in the morning.

So what I am now doing in the morning, now that my hair is long enough to be able to do this, is I am sectioning the top portion of my hair.

I'm putting that up in a clip and then I'm taking the bottom portion of my hair and I'm putting it in like a little ponytail bun sort of a deal.

I will then flip my head over, remove the clip and so now I'm working with just the top section of my hair.

I will get that wet, but not all the way to the roots.

I am getting really just like the ends of my hair wet.

And then I will add that Hairspray that I mentioned before, the one from Boo Clam.

It actually has protein in it and I'm using just like 5 sprays of it.

That is it.

So I'm definitely breaking like the curly girl rules or the WAVY girl rules or whatever because I'm barely using any old product.

So anyways, I will run that through my hair, my wet hair at that point, and I will scrunch.

I'll kind of tap it to bring the waves out.

I will flip upright and believe me, my hair will look like a crazy poofy, sort of a mess.

But that's OK because my hair is also weird in the sense that it can start out big, but then by the by the time it is fully dry and it has settled, it like shrinks by a lot so it doesn't actually look as big.

So then the bottom half of my hair, it's in that little kind of ponytail thing.

I will remove that and then I will wet just the ends of my hair, scrunch and tap, add a little bit more Hairspray, I'll fix the pieces around the front of my face and I will diffuse and that's about it.

Again, I think the only reason that I can get away with styling my hair in this way is because it is now long enough to be able to do so.

So that is a quick hair update, but let's get on to health because I know that that is what everybody is dying to know about.

OK, so health, first of all, health updates for me.

I am on a new birth control.

I actually, I haven't shared this with like many people at all, but I actually have another ovarian cyst.

I actually have two, but the good news is that they are shrinking like they are supposed to.

If you need a refresher if you weren't here at the beginning of the year, I started out this year with surgery to remove an ovarian cyst that we thought was on my right ovary.

It wasn't actually.

It was on the left side, but it had tangled itself up on the right side of my body.

During that surgery, I had the cyst removed, I had my left ovary removed, and I also had both of my fallopian tubes removed because they were too tangled up and too scarred.

So I also discovered that I have stage 4 endometriosis.

And so I was put on birth control.

So that's, that's the recap.

So during the beginning part of this year, I was using the patch as birth control.

I talked about it on the podcast, said that I felt great and I did.

I really, really did.

There was really nothing wrong with it except that it definitely did dry out my skin, but it was something that I could deal with.

It really wasn't that big of an issue.

So I did know though that or well, I was feeling pain that was eerily similar to the pain that I have felt that prompted my surgery.

And so I told my doctor about it and she said, you know, really not to worry just yet.

But then I said, no, I think I want an ultrasound.

And so I got 1.

And sure enough, I had a cyst on my ovary, my remaining ovary that was almost 6 centimeters, which was, which is as big as the one that was removed at the beginning of the year.

Actually, there were two.

There was one that was smaller, so she wanted me to watch them and just see how things were going.

So I had my second ultrasound and guess what guys?

It shrunk.

They are both now about 2cm big and that is great.

She told me that based on that ultrasound, the types of cysts that they are, they're none that we really have to worry about and that they will shrink on their own because my deductible's blown though for this year, just for my own like curiosity, I do think that I want to have another ultrasound at the end of the year just to monitor their size.

But again, it's because my deductible's blown and so might as well get it done for free.

So at that follow up appointment though with my doctor, you know, she told me these are shrinking like they're supposed to.

This is good.

She did mention going on a different type of birth control.

And so when I initially was going to go on birth control, I was thinking about two different options.

It was either going to be the patch or it was going to be the ring.

The reason I did not want to take a pill is because I already have to take a thyroid medication and that one has to be in the morning and birth control would affect it like the pill would affect it.

And so I just didn't want to have to deal with two different pills that are timed out.

So I first started with a patch because that was a little bit less invasive.

And again, as I said, there really was nothing wrong with it.

I felt good on it and I I enjoyed it.

Now, was it annoying to have like that sticker stuck to my butt?

Yes, it was.

But it wasn't that big of a deal because I did figure out a good place to put it on my body.

So when I went to talk to my doctor, she talked about trying something different to kind of get rid of some potential spotting issues that I was having.

I was hoping that I'd be able to use the birth control, the patch, so that I could not have periods or just have periods only whenever, like my body told me that I needed one.

So the theory here is that with endometriosis, when your estrogen levels get high, it can make the endometriosis worse.

And so if you use the birth control, you can just regulate how much estrogen is in your body and, and in theory makes the endometriosis better.

Now, I know that this is probably a very polarizing topic.

Some people will tell you that, yeah, you know, that can work.

But also there's lots of lifestyle changes that can work to make your endometriosis better.

But the reality is I'm not having children.

And so fertility and stuff like that, it doesn't matter to me.

I was looking for an easy option, to be honest with you.

And so I decided to go the birth control route.

The theory also with birth control and skipping your periods, is that you can just continuously take the pill or the patch or the ring or whatever.

And then if you would get any spotting, that would be your body telling you, hey, we need a break.

And then you would, you know, remove the ring, remove the patch, whatever, and you get a period.

Umm, I was really hoping that I'd be able to go without a period, and that wasn't really showing that it was going to work.

But I really, really have a hunch though that if I wouldn't have taken off my last patch that I probably could have gone and not had a period.

I don't really know how to explain it like what I was feeling, but I just had a hunch that I had finally, finally gotten used to the synthetic hormones after, gosh, that was August when I've had that feeling and I started it back in February.

I mean, my doctor told me that it would be 3 months at least to see if it was working for me.

But I guess what I'm saying is that it should be more than three months to really see if it can work for you.

Because I just, I don't know, just based on the symptoms that I was experiencing, I bet that I could have just continued the patch usage and not had a period.

But because I discussed with my doctor switching to the ring, I did take that break.

So right now I had had the ring in for exactly 2 weeks and I have one more week to go.

And if I'm still feeling that same kind of confidence that I was with the patch that I could continue the use and just skip a period, I'm going to do it because again, I think that my body had finally gotten used to having those synthetic hormones.

Because, and here is why I extra, extra think about this.

It is because that week that I took the patch off and I had a bleed.

I swear to you, I felt like I was having menopausal hot flashes during the middle of the night.

Like I woke up and I was literally sweating, like on my face.

I could not have anything on top of me when I was sleeping.

And to me, that was kind of like my body being like, Oh my God, where are the hormones?

And it was, you know, giving me a hot flash.

I had never experienced that before during any of my previous bleeds.

And so that is another clue that I think that my body was just finally, like, all right, this is where we're getting the hormones.

Cool.

We're peachy keen, let's just continue with it.

So I have a hunch that I will be able to do that with the ring.

Now.

So far, I am really loving the ring because I don't have a sticker on me.

I don't feel it.

I really, really don't.

And I feel like I have more creative energy now.

It could just be coincidence because I love this time of year because it is September, it is fall, the leaves are changing, it is getting cooler.

It's not cool today, but Oh well.

But I feel like my brain has been just extra like energized.

So that I think is a big, big perk.

So far from the ring, I don't know.

So far I'm really, really loving it.

So that is my very personal health update.

But now on to my rowing machine and my aura ring.

So my rowing machine, I really love it now.

Is it the specific rowing machine that I love?

Not really.

There was actually quite a bit of drama when I ordered the rowing machine.

I did a bunch of research.

I was about to order like the typical kind that you see at Jim's, but it was expensive.

And I did some more research and I found one that is a magnetic rower that was about $200 cheaper than the Concept 2.

And I ordered it because it was supposed to have like 20 preset workouts in it.

Well, it arrived and it didn't.

And I was pissed, but I ended up paying the subscription to get the like interactive workouts that are on there.

And I will say it's actually really, really cool.

There's a trainer, you know, who talks you through the workout, whatever.

And so as a personal trainer, I think it's funny just because I am finally seeing like how motivating it actually is to have someone talking to you through your workout.

And I know that that's what I do with my clients and like I know that it's helpful for them because it makes them not think they're working out.

But now I'm finally experiencing it, so it's just funny.

But anyways, I do love my rower.

I will put a link to it in the show notes.

I'm not affiliated with it at all, but I really am enjoying rowing.

And I will say that I have been incorporating 2, maybe three hit style workouts.

So high intensity training or high intensity like interval training with a rower.

I've been doing that too, maybe three times a week.

And I will say that I have noticed myself feeling and looking leaner.

My husband has also noticed it too.

So I really, really love it.

I love how I can have it in my basement.

I can get the workout done even in like 10 minutes. 10 minutes of HIT is still a big deal.

Sometimes I'll do 20 minutes just depending on my mood or my energy.

And I really love the rowing workouts and it's perfect for when it's super, super hot out 'cause I can go in the basement, I can do it, get it over with, and I don't have to be out in the heat and the humidity of summertime.

So I really love my rower.

OK, But finally, the moment that everybody's been waiting for my review of the Aura ring, OK, I have had it now for officially one month, a little bit over a month now.

I really love it.

It's expensive.

I will say I got the Gold 1 and it is expensive, especially for one of those different finishes like gold.

It's a glossy gold and I guess my only gripe about it is that at least the color and the look of it, they are big.

They definitely are.

And I have tiny hands and so for somebody that has more normal sized hands, it might not look as crazy on you, but for me it does look pretty big.

And because I picked the gold one, it is pretty darn flashy.

I wear it on the index finger of my left hand because, well, I sometimes wear a ring on the index finger of my right hand.

And also because this one is so big, the OR ring is because I'm right-handed.

I don't think I'd be able to hold a pen correctly with it on that finger.

So if you wear a wedding band, just keep that in mind that like you probably wouldn't want the aura ring on your middle finger right next to the wedding band because it would probably be just too much stuff on your fingers.

Now if you wanted to swap your wedding band for it, that would be fine because actually that's what my husband did.

He bought one maybe like a week and a half ago or a week and 1/2 after I got mine and he just swapped his wedding band for his aura ring.

He was actually shocked because the aura ring weighs less than his wedding band.

It is a little bit thicker but it is lighter weight than his wedding band was.

So he got like the brushed silver one.

It looks very nice on him.

But again, I got gold and so back to the gold.

It is very shiny and my gripe about the price of it because the gold 1 was like $100 more than the brushed silver that my husband got for having to pay extra for the gold.

I do think they could have made it a better looking gold.

I think it's a little bit faky looking gold.

And I mean it doesn't bother me because it still was my favorite of all the options for my skin tone and for my preferences.

But I do think that they could have done a better job of making the gold a little bit prettier.

And I will also say now that I've had it for a month, I'm looking at the inside of it right now.

It is pretty darn dinged up on the inside, but of course mine is glossy and it will show those scratches more.

OK, so that's the review of like the looks and how it feels on OK in terms of what it actually like shows you.

I am pretty blown away.

Now.

I will say though, my husband, he is not as impressed by it and the reason is because of the stress.

Things that it can show you, it can show when your body is in a state of stress.

Now it takes a little while for the ring to adapt to you and it has to learn kind of more about you for I think like 2 weeks or so and then it can start to monitor stress levels.

For me, I think it's very, very perceptive 'cause I even one of my, this was a couple weeks ago, one of my clients, she came in and she was having a very rough week and she was started crying.

And so I got the tissues out for her and we were talking through things and I looked at my Aura Ring app at the stress markers.

It actually bumped it up a bit when she started crying.

And I mean, obviously not that, you know, I was stressed, but I was feeling the stress that she was feeling.

And so I don't know, for me, I think the stress markers are pretty darn accurate in terms of how well it tracks your sleep.

It seems to do a pretty darn good job of it.

In terms of calorie expenditure, it seems to be pretty accurate, at least as far as what my guesses would be as a personal trainer.

Now what did shock me so much more is that my husband's calorie burn is so much more than me and it pisses me off so much.

But I mean, yeah, obviously he's a man and he's taller than me and he does way more than me, but he is also older than me.

But I swear to you, his calorie expenditure is like almost 1000 more calories than me every single fucking day.

And it really makes me mad because that means that he can eat so much.

Anyways, that's besides the point.

But the ring, the way that it kind of gives you like a, a summary or not a summary, but like kind of a, a forecast for the day is it gives you what they call a readiness score.

And so this is based a lot on your sleep and your activity from the previous day.

And so I will admit I did buy this ring.

Well, I bought this ring for probably 3 reasons.

OK, The first one is because I have Hashimoto's.

I have an autoimmune issue and I was curious to see if it would be able to tell me kind of if like I'm overmedicated, undermedicated, or if I need to let myself rest after having a stressful experience.

Umm, and, and when I say stressful, I don't necessarily mean like bad stress, but like if I have a super, super busy weekend with like lots of family time and no time to myself, I will feel stressed.

And my body, if you, if you have a thyroid issue, you know exactly what I'm talking about, but your body just feels like achy.

Your body feels just so wiped out.

And so I was hoping that this ring would be able to kind of show me if that was happening.

It does take a little bit of time for the ring to really start to get to know you.

And I think for me that was around the three-week mark where I noticed that it was actually like really giving me more insights than I was expecting.

Cause at the very beginning I was a little bit underwhelmed by what it was telling me.

But after that three-week mark, I think that's when it really starts to kind of get in tune with you.

So that was the first reason that I got it because I have an autoimmune issue.

Second reason is because I am going through these hormonal changes and these shifts.

One thing that I think is pretty bonkers is that, as I said, I switched to a new birth control.

I think that my body temperature has increased because of this birth control.

And you can tell on my ring, like from the data from the aura ring that that is true.

I've been warmer at night, which I'm still trying to, you know, deal with, but my my internal body temperature, it has increased and my ring has tracked that.

So I do think that's pretty darn cool.

And then the third reason, I will be brutally honest with you, the third reason that I wanted it is because I wanted to see how much alcohol affects me.

I am admitting it, but I wanted to see that because as you guys know, I do like bourbon.

That is my vice.

That is the vice that I choose.

And I know that it's not the best for me.

Obviously, I know it's a toxin, but I enjoy it.

I love cocktails, I love the flavor of it and I just, I do think there is an art to it.

So that's my vice that I'm not giving up.

So I did want to see if it really was affecting me as much as I was like worried that it was affecting me.

And I will say that, yeah, I can definitely tell that my readiness is lower the mornings after the nights that I have had alcohol.

But I have also discovered that it's actually not as bad as I really thought it was going to be.

So for me, that is great news that my one voice is not actually like killing me that much, quote UN quote.

So All in all, I really like the Aura ring.

I got very used to wearing it or like I got used to wearing it very quickly.

But I should say though, I am someone who likes wearing rings.

The other reason that I chose the Aura ring is because I hate Apple Watches.

Goodness gracious.

I'm sorry, but if you have an Apple Watch, fine.

But like, I don't know how you can stand having those notifications on your wrist.

Oh my God.

I mean, a phone is enough.

And so I wanted something, I wanted a health tracker that wouldn't be like talking to me.

And so that's the beautiful thing about the ring that you just wear it.

You go about your day and then you check on the app if you want to.

I do check it pretty frequently.

I definitely check it every morning to just kind of see how I slept and what my readiness is.

And so I will say the readiness score, sometimes I think it's accurate and sometimes I do have more energy than I think it tells me that I do.

Now there is one metric that I think it's kind of bullshit.

This is part of the readiness score and they call it your recovery index.

And this is supposed to mark where in your sleep time your heart rate lowers the most.

They say that in an ideal night of sleep, your heart rate should be the lowest during the middle.

Now I rarely ever have that happen, like ever.

I have a hunch that it is due to my thyroid medication.

Now my other thing that I want to say here, I have a client who also has thyroid issues.

She even has another autoimmune issue that she does take medicine.

For.

This client though, she is like the epitome of healthy because she doesn't drink.

She goes to bed early and she is at a stage in her life where her children are out of the house.

So she does like, I guess I'm just saying she doesn't have young children.

She has grown children.

So she has control of her schedule.

She can go to bed when she wants to.

She doesn't drink and she eats very well.

She even never gets a good recovery index quote UN quote according to the aura ring.

And so I guess that's my like, I guess my complaint.

So I do love it overall.

I'm very glad that I bought it.

But my complaints first are the gold color, like I said.

But then 2 is that I was kind of hoping it would give me a little bit more insight into autoimmune issues or at least have a way for me to mark that I have an autoimmune issue because I do think that's something that the ring should know that could come with app updates.

We'll see.

But I guess that is my only drawback of it.

I do really like seeing my calorie expenditure.

I like try tracking my activities.

I like sleep, seeing how my sleep is.

I do like seeing all of those things.

So All in all, I do really like it.

It will probably be one of my favorite things from the year 2025.

I did this last year, but I did my favorite things and like kind of concepts from 2024 and I am going to do that again.

I'm starting to build my list for 2025 and the aura ring will definitely be on there.

So will the rowing machine.

So will birth control.

OK, so All in all, I really do love it, but are there some tweaks that they could make to it?

Yes, because I also think that the app is kind of overwhelming.

Eventually you figure it out, but there's just a lot of information on it.

So I really do like it.

I am not affiliated with them at all, but I do think it's a pretty cool tool.

So holy crap, that was a lot of talking today and this was a long episode.

But again, I like these episodes because it's like we're chatting as friends.

So that is it for today.

Next week I'm going to be doing my favourites from the month of September.

Thanks for listening to the Girly Homesteader podcast.

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I'll talk to you next week, but until then, I hope you grow and flourish in all the ways that make you you.