Episode 17 – Full Transcript
Michelle and Lindsey talk about the benefits of living by the water
Michelle: Hey everyone, my name is Michelle.
Lindsay: And I’m Lindsay. And you’re listening to Nurse first, today’s episode. We’re going to be talking about living by the water.
Michelle: Yes. So we want to talk about this today because obviously we live by the water and so we’re super biased, but we want to talk about, about the physical health benefits as well as the benefits to your overall well being when you’re living by the water. And as I said, we’re super biased because we’re both water people. But I think everything that we say today can also be, taken into consideration that there’s going to be some equivalent to living in other environments as well. There’s tons of physical benefits living by the water as well as there’s going to be a ton of physical benefits if you live by the mountains or in a desert or wherever your environment may be. So, yes, we’re not trying to say that living by the ocean is the best, even though that’s how we feel. I think there’s two types of people in the world. There are people that feel at home by the water and there’s people that feel at home by the mountains. And I think that personal opinion, I just think that has a lot to do with your heritage, where you’re, or your ethnicity where you’re from. And that is what becomes innate in you. I have a lot of Sicilian in me and we’re technically island people.
Lindsay: And I’m half Filipino, so that’s Pacific Islander, so we’re water people.
Michelle: But Lindsey’s also got a lot of European in there too, and American, and so she can feel comfortable wherever.
Lindsay: I do find myself at home, anywhere.
Michelle: But that’s also just an opinion. I’m not saying that’s anything science based. That’s just how I feel about it because I tend to notice everybody always gears towards one or the other. Or maybe you’re a city person, maybe you’re just not about mountains or ocean and that’s fine too.
Lindsay: Maybe you thrive in a concrete jungle. Maybe that’s your playground. And so for you, we did that for a little bit short lived.
Michelle: It was fun while it lasted. And then we were over it.
Lindsay: So why did we choose to move to Florida?
Michelle: For so many reasons. Anytime we would have a break when we lived in D.C. we would immediately go find a ocean or a beach.
Lindsay: Beach to sleep on first and foremost because we did night shift. So we drive like three hours and then, find a safe spot on the beach, put on a blanket and pass the F out. Literally. We did that multiple times.
Michelle: Yep.
Lindsay: We did it in Virginia Beach.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: We did it on Assateague Beach. We did it.
Michelle: Did we fall? No, we did.
Lindsay: These are beaches in Delaware.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: In Maryland, in Virginia, whatever was closest.
Michelle: To D.C. all around.
Lindsay: Yeah. There’s nothing very close to D.C. yeah.
Michelle: It’s like we drove. Yeah. So we were like, why are we doing this to ourselves? All we ever want to do, like, we’re off and we’re not working. We just want to go to the beach. So why don’t we live by the beach so that we can spend a majority of our time by the water? And then when we have time off, we can go travel to the places that we wouldn’t normally choose, because we would never. When we lived in dc, we would never choose to go on, like, a skiing trip or really want to go, like, north, because we were already cold in D.C. and we frequently visited,
Lindsay: Jupiter, Florida, because we have family there.
Michelle: Exactly.
Lindsay: And we felt like we were on vacation. And honestly, during the first year that we lived in Palm Beach Gardens, I felt like I was a traveling nurse.
Michelle: Yeah. Yeah. Seriously.
Lindsay: And we’re gonna eventually return back to the city.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: Yeah. We’ve. We’ve just so at home here. And I think it’s in large part due to the fact that we live within 10 minutes of the beach. And I live, actually, I work 10 minutes away from the beach as well. Yeah, pretty much work.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: Yeah, yeah. So we really enjoy our time here, and it has definitely added some major health benefits that we’re going to talk to you about.
The Therapeutic Benefits of Being in, on and by the Water
Michelle: Yes. So if you’re watching the podcast right now, you’ll see that I have a book in my hands, and this book is called by the Sea. The Therapeutic Benefits of Being in, on and by the Water by Deborah Cracknell. I don’t know if I pronounced that last name correctly, but Lindsay found this book when we were at some beach on the east coast in, like, Maryland or Virginia or somewhere.
Lindsay: We don’t really remember where it was up there.
Michelle: And it was a really cute little bookstore. And all of the books were about the beach and the ocean and my kind of bookstore. So Lindsay Fiss. And this book is basically the scientific explanation for why we love living by the water. This is, like, of the reasons why we already knew we loved to be anywhere in literally being in, on and by the water. Like, on and around.
Lindsay: Nana likes to say, yes, in the water.
Michelle: No, she calls me. She goes, where are you? You in the water? Under water. Around the water. Under the water. Yeah.
Lindsay: Basically about it.
Michelle: Yes, this is a book about it. And so this book I think kind of put one of the nails that kind of solidified to move down to Florida too because we bought, you bought this like right before we moved down, didn’t you? Or did we already have the plan to move down?
Lindsay: I honestly don’t remember.
Michelle: I don’t remember. But either way it’s
The benefits of living by the sea are discussed in this book
So what we are going to talk about in regards to the, your physical health benefits and your benefits of your general well being by living by the sea is all gathered from this book right here. And I’m not going to go into too much detail of all of the different benefits because I really want people to just buy this book and read it.
Lindsay: It is a really cute coffee table book as well.
Michelle: It’s also super cute. It’s really nice. Amazing photos, like super water background and yeah, it’s great for decor as well. but I, I do want to just kind of glaze out of these benefits and then we can also talk about like our own experiences of these as well. And so this book goes into the content of this book, just so you get a good overview of it is the concept of blue health. The physical benefits of the sea, the mental and emotional benefits of the sea, enhancing the benefits, bringing the ocean closer to home and taking care of the ocean so they take care of us. And I’m not going to go into all those different chapters, but I just really want to focus on the physical benefits of the sea and the mental and emotional benefits of the sea. And again, I’m sure there’s probably a book out there that is expresses the equivalence of the benefits of the mountains or the forest or woods or whatever it might be. So I’m not excluding any other type of environment. It’s just today we’re going to talk about seed.
Being in the ocean can provide your body with tons of vitamins and minerals
And so in this chapter, briefly the physical benefits, one obvious one being seafood. Seafood eating provides you with a tremendous amount of nutrition, given that you’re not allergic to any of it. But they provide tremendous amounts of vitamins like vitamin A and D and minerals and iodine and things that might be harder to get in higher quantities in other food groups. And lots of things in the ocean are also considered medicinal so can be used as pharmaceuticals such as seaweeds and sponges and moss and kelp. Kelp, some of those things that have shown to have incredible quantities and concentrations of nutrients in such a small amount. And so especially nowadays as our soil is becoming more and more depleted, we’re looking for other places to find higher concentrations of nutrition. And the sea provides a large amount of those. and we had from a farmer’s market here. Was it cmos?
Lindsay: Yeah, we got cmos. And I believe that you. Yeah, Orange theme.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah. And the way they prepared it, they, like, mixed it through and it was delicious. But mango is really mango. Yeah, yeah.
Lindsay: We get in our smoothies sometimes when we go out.
Michelle: Yes. Yeah. You have to mix it, otherwise it’s a little bit difficult flavor it up.
Lindsay: But the health benefits are great.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah. Seriously hovers like a ridiculous of vitamins and minerals in there as well. So it’s like, better than a multivitamin and doesn’t give you that nauseousness feeling. Also, ocean itself is very highly concentrated in magnesium. And so I know in the science, this has been argued quite a bit of how much your body actually absorbs when you’re in the ocean. So caveat around this one. But just being in the ocean can provide your body with tons of vitamins and minerals that you can absorb through your skin. Of course, this is argued. So depending on. On who you’re talking to and what literature you’re reading. But just my own anecdote is that I, don’t know about you guys, but I feel extremely relaxed whenever I come from the beach and I go swimming always when we’re at the beach. So I also notice a difference that when I exercise at the beach, so I’ll, like, go for a run and then I’ll go for a swim in the ocean after my run. I can recover so much faster than if I run just in our neighborhood. Like, if I run our neighborhood and I don’t do a swim afterwards, I definitely feel more sore. And again, you can argue this might be placebo, but either way, it doesn’t matter because I get a much better workout and recovery time when I work out at the beach.
Lindsay: Also, you’re able to cool your body off a lot faster when you plunge into the ocean.
Michelle: It’s so refreshing.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: Yeah, 100%.
Lindsay: There are things that absorb into your skin.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: Whether it’s. Have you ever seen a drop of ocean water under a microscope?
Michelle: Yeah. There’s a lot of shit in it.
Lindsay: There’s a lot of stuff. So you’re definitely, like, absorbing. So maybe those critters are helping you, recover from your.
Michelle: Yeah. Side note, too. I just thought of this, but it’s not actually in this book, at least not that I can recall. But my skin is always the clearest and the best when I have a lot of sunshine and a lot of salt water. Like, if I. A lot of time at the beach and I’m actually able to, like, go swimming, it’s on at the same time. It literally clears everything up.
Lindsay: So skin. Skin routine, you guys.
Michelle: Yes, yes. That’s. My only skin routine is salt water and sunshine. I might look like a leather bag when I’m older, but right now, skin’s perfect.
Lindsay: That’s okay.
Michelle: that’s. I’m not for youth. I’m just trying to have nice, clear.
Lindsay: Skin, like, whatever it is. Those little plankton thingies.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: They help grip your skin.
Michelle: Yeah, they’re like something. They’re definitely on my team, though. They’re benefiting me. Yeah, yeah, 100%. Just in general, I have always said this, and also I think my mother has always said this to me. Like, when. And my grandmother, like, if I had a problem, like a, rash, acne, or whatever it might be on my skin, my grandmother and my mother were always like, just go in the ocean, put salt water on it, and then, like, let it water dry in the sun. And so I think that’s why I have this skin regimen or routine now, because I always did that as a kid. And it literally worked for everything. Like, just the slaughter always healed everything or made everything better again. Maybe it’s placebo, but either way, it works for me.
Lindsay: So great on,
Michelle: You. Yeah, yeah.
Living by the water encourages and boosts family exercise as well, author says
So this is another thing that the book does talk about is inhaling salts air, salty air, beach air, whatever the white right term that m. Coastal air. Thus, breathing salt air has been proven to help with certain respiratory ailments.
Lindsay: Like a free nebulizer treatment.
Michelle: Yeah, exactly. It’s free nebulizer treatment. And so just general physical activity. Obviously, physical activity has been proven without a doubt to benefit your physical wellbeing. This book specifically discusses how if you live by the water, you are more likely to be physically active than people who might live inland. And that can be for so many reasons. One, there’s so many activities to do by the ocean, whatever, whether it’s like surfing, kites, fishing, swimming, walking on the beach, looking for shark teeth or seashells. You’re more likely to run because the weather is nicer. There’s it just give more opportunity and also, like, more desire to work out. Because who wants to work out in a gym? Like, who wants on a treadmill, staring at the treadmill screen when you could be running on the beach or near the beach and you have a beautiful view of the ocean. I think it just like inherently encourages people more. but of course a book will go into more scientific explanation than what I just said. But all of those different types of exercise are without a shadow of a doubt will be able to improve your physical wellness or your physical health and your well being. And also living, by the sea encourages and boosts family exercise as well. Because there’s more activities for the entire family to do.
Lindsay: Because everybody could take a walk on the beach.
Michelle: Yeah, exactly. Everybody Never too old to build a sandcastle, either true. Or to look for seashells. Like that’s all eight ranges and you.
Lindsay: Can fly a kite.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And also this book mentions blue zones. There’s a bunch of documentaries and books on blue zones and those are areas of the world that have the oldest or the largest population of elderly people, people living their one hundreds or what is it called?
Lindsay: Centennials.
Michelle: Thank you. Centennials. and they all happen to be areas that are by the water. So just like further reiterating this book is trying to prove here. and also, this kind of ties in with the magnesium exposure from the ocean, but also physical activity too is better sleep that whether it’s you went for a swim in the ocean and you got to absorb a decent amount of magnesium through your skin, some.
Lindsay: Swimming and maybe got beat up by some waves, overexerted and know, retired and you got the best sleep of your life because you got beat up by the ocean.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah. or a sport of physical activity by the water.
Lindsay: But I like to sometimes just throw ourselves into the waves and like we’re the people in the ocean that day. Like we also go to the dog beach and we’re happier than the dogs.
Michelle: Yeah, no, like nothing, no, nothing’s happier than a dog at the beach in my personal opinion.
Lindsay: We were that first year that we threw ourselves into the waves and we’re just jumping.
Michelle: We were doing like pole vaulting.
Lindsay: Yeah, over the. Exactly.
Michelle: Yeah, that was fun.
Lindsay: We had a really good sleep that night.
Michelle: Yeah, we did sleep well. Yeah, I feel like I always have good sleep after we go to the beach. But vitamin D and sunshine as well. This is a huge one. This cannot be argued. Everybody needs vitamin D. And there is no shadow of a doubt that you get the best exposure and absorption or creation or whatever it is of vitamin D through sunshine. And so, but yeah, yeah, vitamin D and sunshine it again. I won’t beat a dead horse on this one. It’s so important to your health and it’s so important for Your immune system. And people need more sunshine, people need more sun. Exposure to the mental and emotional benefits of the sea, which I think a lot of the, the physical benefits will lead to the mental and emotional benefits as well. It will begin that domino effect.
Lindsay: I’m from California and I don’t know if it’s just me, but the ocean over there is so moody in comparison to the oceans out here.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: Florida, it’s just calm, nice, serene. You go to any beach in California and it’s so dark moody. Like cold. Cold. Don’t want to swim in it.
Michelle: Yeah, you don’t swim in it.
Lindsay: You never want to go in, go in it without like a wetsuit. Cold plunge and go numb like then that California beaches are for you.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.
Lindsay: No idea. And so living in Florida and being able to go into the ocean is. Makes me so happy.
Michelle: Yeah. And in my mind I like never really understood in California you can’t really just like go swimming. I still, I have a hard time with that.
Lindsay: Like you people, you can.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: And they to water and they’re like oh my gosh, it’s freezing. Yeah.
Michelle: That would be like torture to me. Like, like that to live there and not be able and to see it all the time but not be able to actually go in it or if you do, you know, you’re wearing all this stuff.
Lindsay: Yeah. You got, you need the equipment.
Michelle: But even though you can’t go swimming in the water in California comfortably, I love when we go to Santa Cruz. to me it is such a calming, therapeutic experience being by the water there through something.
Lindsay: It’s so nice to walk on a California beach. You know.
Michelle: I think Hollywood also graduates.
Lindsay: I would do that though because I lived within walking distance when I was a teen so it was perfect for teenage.
Michelle: But even though it’s moody, it’s very calming. It’s very therapeutic. It’s very. Yeah. Moody is the best word.
Lindsay: It’s so moody.
Book talks about sea creatures, the effects of marine life on your health
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: Overarching theme is.
Michelle: Yes.
Lindsay: Calming.
Michelle: Exactly.
Lindsay: It makes us happy. It adds to our health and well being.
Michelle: Yeah. And like you thought it like spas. What is the theme? So the decor most of the time, ocean vibes and of Zen spa. It’s always there’s like a water to it. And so the book does, does talk about is that ah, like sense of calm. It’s this sense of serene that comes with the ocean. I can’t recall if the book discusses this based off of literature or science, but a lot of times depending on where you live, at least in Florida, the sunshine is going to have a massive impact on your mo. Food. Just in general. At least it does for me. I think the weather impacts people differently, but for me, I have all of the energy in the world. When the sunshine is out and when it’s gray, I’m like, all right, I’m growing up. It. As much as I don’t want to take a nap or be cuddled up on the couch on the blanket, it’s like a, such a physical. Like, even before I wake up, like, I’ll know raining before I even wake up. Yeah.
Lindsay: Because you want to get out of it.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Lindsay: I know you lived in Connecticut.
Michelle: I know. Tell me about it. Jeez. Book talks about sea creatures, the effects of marine life on your health and well being. Seriously, you need to. If you have not experienced this, you need to go paddleboarding, snorkeling, scuba diving, something, and you need to come in contact with a sea creature in its environment.
Lindsay: Like, hopefully it’s a pleasant sea turtle.
Michelle: Yes. I’m sorry, like, not a. I don’t mean it like that. Not like I should. Ye. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I should clarify. I mean like a positive, happy, nice with a secret sanity. Yes.
Lindsay: Something that’s not going to kill you.
Michelle: Yes. Yeah. Yes. Like, you get to be under the water and you get to see like, this beautiful in its environment. You’re not going to necessarily, like, be interacting with, like, petting it. Just going to get to witness it.
Lindsay: Be over the water.
Michelle: Yeah. Or, yeah, if you’re a paddle board, you’re like, over the. Walking down into it. And I’m like, maybe I’m. Yes, we’re definitely biased, but, like, it is the most magical thing in the world to me. But it is. But just seeing that, like, it just brings so much joy, so much excitement. And, maybe that’s for everybody. But if you’re one of those people that loves it, then just go experience it as much as you can because it’s just so great. And it’s different than an aquarium. I have to specify. It’s so, so different. The, the experience for me, when I see an animal in a caged environment versus when I see or a creature in a caged environment versus non versus their natural environment. It’s so different for me.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: Book also talks about animal assisted therapy, specifically dolphins kind of like may or may not have heard, about like, e. Equine therapy. There is also similar effects to. With dolphin assisted therapy as well. Yes. It’s actually called that. Dolphin assisted therapy. Yes. Provides Participants with opportunity to swim or interact with live captive dolphins. And actually I have experienced this when I was a kid in Mexico.
Lindsay: Very nice.
Michelle: Yeah, I guess it wasn’t like often assisted therapy. It was just I got to sweat with dolphins and it really is a magical experience. And I think anybody that’s gotten to see dolphins out in the wild would agree with that statement.
Book goes into how to incorporate more of the ocean into your environment
Book goes into also now, like how to more of the ocean into your environment regardless of where you are, if you live by the water or not. And how to improve access to the ocean and then enhancing the benefits. It’s protecting the ocean which is the most important part of all this book. It’s so good. If you live by the water, it just reaffirms your decision.
Lindsay: And if this is your sign to take that beach vacation that you have been putting off and take it.
Michelle: Yes, this is your sign and. Or this is your sign to take that move and move closer towards the ocean. Like if you’ve been thinking about doing it, do it, be it. for us, it was the best decision we ever made.
Lindsay: Yeah. We have been so calm, chill together.
Michelle: Yeah. Ah, yeah.
Lindsay: Like in Florida, we were, we thought we were calm, chill and all that together. In D.C. we were not.
Michelle: Yeah. It was stressful environment.
Lindsay: We’re so stressed out, we didn’t even realize.
Michelle: Yeah. Yeah. You functioning at that like, level of constant stimulus. You’re just like so used to it.
Lindsay: And you don’t have to be a certain age to feel comfortable where you live.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Lindsay: Wait till you’re.
Michelle: Yeah. You don’t age. Yeah, yeah. Seriously, steal your life. Be where you want to be. And if it’s the ocean, go to the ocean. If it’s the mountains, go down. If it’s the desert, go to the desert.
Lindsay: Wait, don’t say you have to live certainly somewhere.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: And endure. And when I’m older, I’ll. I’ll be here. No, be there now.
Michelle: Yeah, exactly. I always make the decision to move elsewhere.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: It’s like I feel like set roots and they’re like, I have to stay here forever. No, at, literally at any point in time, just make the decision that you need to make. I know it’s complicated and financially straining, but it’s for your well being. There’s no more important financial investment than your own physical health and your well being.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: Period.
Lindsay: Period. Happened. You got this. Thanks, for listening.
Michelle: Okay, thanks. Bye Bye. The dog. All, you see is her huffing. Hear her breathing heavy. Yeah. Don’t even bother closing the door. Just, like, put her out there. That should be good enough. She looks like she’s in timeout. Love you, dog. You breathe too heavy, all right? She’s gonna fucking kill me.
Lindsay: Monster.
Michelle: You’Re being an asshole. You’re, like, straight up right now. Turns around so that she can breathe heavy in this direction.
Lindsay: Can you hear her?
Michelle: Yeah. Give her a second. And then Noly is, like, rolling around on top of the equipment. What a disaster. Monster.
Lindsay: Oh, my God. You. But you could see her. How? She’s, like. She, like, hovered at the top of my leg.
Michelle: No, I’m gonna zoom in.
Lindsay: My baby camera. My baby.
Michelle: Nolly. My baby. Hello? Are you gonna talk into the mic?
Lindsay: No, I can’t hear.