5 things worth the money if I were just starting out on my health journey 

If I were building my healthy home from scratch today, knowing everything I know now, these are the five things I'd spend on first. Not the trendiest or flashiest stuff. The stuff that changes the inputs your body is swimming in all day and all night, which is where the real leverage is.

Here they are, in the order I'd buy them.

(before I jump in - don't miss the chance to grab CARBS at 50% off!  click here for all the details & use code SUMMER50)

1. A real air scrubber (JASPR) - if you don't filter your air - your lungs become the filter

Start with the air, because you breathe more of it than you eat or drink of anything else, and most "air purifiers" are barely doing anything (click here and use code SARAHK)

The JASPR is the one I'd buy. It's the Cadillac here, and I want to be clear that it's a different category from a normal air purifier. An air scrubber pulls a much higher volume of air and actually captures the fine and ultrafine particles, the ones small enough to cross into your bloodstream, plus the dander, dust, and gunk a cheap unit just pushes around the room. It's quiet, it looks good, and it's the kind of thing you set up once and forget while it works.

If the JASPR is out of budget, the runner-up is the AirDoctor, which punches well above its price. And if you're starting with nothing and just need to move, there are Amazon dupes that will get you a fraction of the way there for a fraction of the cost. Something is better than nothing with air. But if you can swing the JASPR, it's the one.

2. Clean water, then put the minerals back

Second input, second most of what you take in. Get the junk out of your water, then remineralize it.

That second half is the part people skip. Filtering hard enough to strip out contaminants also strips out minerals, and drinking a lot of "empty" water can actually pull minerals out of you over time. So the goal isn't just clean water, it's clean water with minerals added back so it actually hydrates you instead of just passing through.

I put all my favorite filters, the water I actually drink, and exactly how I remineralize in a full write-up, because it's too much for a bullet point.

Click here for the comprehensive guide with all my favorite filters and minerals 

3. A silk eye mask

This one is cheap and the payoff is wildly out of proportion to the price (click here to get the one I love)

Light pollution at night is sneaky. Streetlights, a charging cable's LED, the light leaking under the door, all of it adds up in a way you stop noticing because you're asleep for it. But your body isn't ignoring it. In a Northwestern study, sleeping one night in a moderately lit room, just 100 lux, versus a dim room under 3 lux, raised people's nighttime heart rate, lowered their heart rate variability, and increased their insulin resistance the very next morning. One night. The researchers think it's the sympathetic nervous system getting switched on when it should be resting.

You want your sleeping space as close to pitch black as you can get it. Blackout curtains are great, but the simplest, cheapest fix is a good silk mask over your eyes. Silk because it's soft enough that you'll actually keep it on, and it won't tug at your skin all night.

You can also measure lux with the lux meter inside MYCIRCADIANAPP (click here to download & grab year one at 30% off in July only using code SARAHK)

Click here for my favorite eye mask

4. Incandescent bulbs 

If you swap one lighting thing in your house, make it this.

Standard LED lighting is something I've heard called silent asbestos, because we've filled our homes with it without really asking what all that flicker and blue-heavy, spiky light does to us over years of exposure. It's cheap and efficient, and it's also nothing like any light humans evolved under.

Old-school incandescent bulbs are warmer, they contain no blue spike, and running them especially in the evening helps offset the harsh LED environment your body is otherwise soaking in after dark. They're getting harder to find, which tells you something. Stock up - these will ship to California also - use code SARAHK)

For a full list of light bulbs you can also click here to download my free light bulb guide

5. A little red flashlight (Chroma)

Last one, and it's the sleeper favorite.

Get a small red flashlight for your nightstand. When you get up in the night, for the bathroom, for a kid, for water, flipping on a normal white overhead light blasts your eyes with exactly the signal that tells your brain it's daytime, and you can wreck your melatonin and your ability to fall back asleep in a couple of seconds. A dim red light lets you see what you're doing without sending that wake-up signal.

The one I like is from Chroma (code SARAHK), and here's the bonus: red and near-infrared light is therapeutic on its own. So the same little light that saves your sleep at 2am doubles as a pocket red light therapy tool. Two jobs, one purchase, which is exactly the kind of thing I love when you're starting out and every dollar counts.

That's the five. Air, water, darkness & light. None of it is glamorous, and all of it changes the environment your body is living in every single day. If I were starting over, this is where I'd put my money first.

Now of course I have other things I love - which is why I have them in my full product guide - check it out below!

For my full product guide CLICK HERE & favorite Hair products that I use daily - including my favorite hair oil - click here or save 40% when you become a VIP (30 days to send products back with no obligation if you don't like them!)

and lastly - here are all your most purchased products in JUNE - click here (includes my favorite skin care)

Warmly,

Sarah