Nick’s Top 5 Undemanding Yet Powerful Health Changes to Kick Off 2025

By: Nick Sienkiewicz, DPT, CSCS

Nick’s Top 5 Undemanding Yet Powerful Health Changes to Kick Off 2025

Happy New Year everyone! Resolutions are in the infantile stage. In a few weeks, many will realize that their resolution was a little overzealous and unreasonable. Rather than trying to squeeze 365 days worth of exercise into one week, it is much more constructive to partake in realistic and functional health resolutions that will actually stick, thus affording more fruitful outcomes long term. For this reason, I wanted to focus this blog on 5 undemanding but extremely potent changes you can make to start 2025 in the right direction for your health! With just a little bit of effort, the following adjustments can create massive ripple effects:

1. Get high quality air purifiers in your home/workplace: As I’ve mentioned many times, Air Doctor (Get Your Air Doctor Here!) is my go-to air purifier. It’s certainly not cheap, but in the grand scheme of things Air Doctors are worth of every penny. Aside from replacement filters, most of the cost is up front too. Once you purchase, it does all of the work for you! Filtering and purifying your indoor air is pertinent to your health in 2025 for two main reasons: Our air is more toxic than ever, and we spend a disproportional amount of time indoors these days. Air Doctors, or any other high-quality air purifier, can help combat the negative health aspects of these modern factors. Air purification is most important for the places and rooms where you spend the most time, such as the bedroom or office. They are also extremely beneficial near rooms, like the kitchen, where many of the indoor pollution is actually created from byproducts of cooking. The beauty of Air Doctor is that their purifiers will actually give you a real-time reading of your indoor air quality, and I can tell you personally that cooking will disturb the status of the air within your home. Luckily, Air Doctor will not only alert you to this process, but it will also rectify it by actively filtering and purifying the byproducts of your cooking. Air purification is a no-brainer health alteration, and quite frankly, a non-negotiable for me at this point!!
2. Appropriately filter your water: This goes hand in hand with the first health change of purifying your air. Tap water is a massive exposure to environmental toxins nowadays. It is mind-blowing to learn about the types and amounts of chemicals that makes it all the way to your faucet and into your drinking or bathing water. I won’t even go into the details here, but if you want to see for yourself, check out your local data here: https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/. You will most definitely want to invest in water filtration after just creeping down this rabbit hole. These toxicants found in our water supply wreak havoc on our body’s overall health, hijacking our hormones, dampening our immune response, and congesting our livers, among other impacts. Appropriate water filtration comes in a variety of forms, including whole-house filtration, under-sink systems, shower head filters, and water pitchers. AquaTru is a brand that offers a variety of exceptional options (Check them out here!). I also love Hydroviv for shower head filters and Clearly Filtered brands for water pitchers. In my opinion, it is most pertinent to filter drinking water first and foremost, but bathing water comes in an extremely close second. Most of the chemicals in tap water can be absorbed through the skin, especially when heated up into a gaseous form with a hot shower. Washing dishes and hands in filtered water also matters, but I personally believe drinking and bathing water take precedence. You have to figure out the most feasible option for you and your family at this current time, but something is absolutely better than nothing when it comes to water filtration! 
3. Invest in non-toxic pots and pans, and get rid of the toxic cookware: You are still going to cook in 2025, so why not cook with pots and pans that leach less chemicals into your food. Non-stick pans are coated with PFAs (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), which can have devastating effects on many body systems. PFAs are nicknamed “forever chemicals” as they are extremely resistant to break down, so once in the body they can create negative health ripple effects for a long time. We personally steer clear of any non-stick cookware options in our family. Aluminum cookware is certainly affrordable, lightweight, and easier to clean than other metal options. However, heating up aluminum pots and pans leaches aluminum into your food, which you subsequently consume. Since aluminum is a neurotoxic heavy metal and serves no nutritional value to humans, I would steer clear of aluminum cookware in your home. Most restaurants utilize aluminum pots and pans for feasibility purposes, so if you’re like me and love to go out to eat, then I would save your aluminum cookware exposure for restaurants and avoid subjecting yourself to additional aluminum when home cooking. Cast iron is a better option, but when used abundantly can leach excess iron into your body. Despite the human body’s nutritional need for iron as a micronutrient, iron absorbed specifically from the pan is often oxidized. This means it has already been molecularly utilized, so it no longer can serve its necessary purposes within the body, thus creating inflammation rather than carrying out its typical processes. For this reason, cast iron is much better when used every so often, or for specific dishes only. Although less popular, copper cookware can be affordable and lightweight light aluminum. Unlike aluminum and more comparable to iron, copper is also a necessary micronutrient for the human body. However, the human body is very sensitive to copper overload, which can be very problematic for the body. Just like the others described above, cooking on copper can add increased copper to your food. Consequently, I would not recommend copper cookware in your home. Ceramic cookware has gained much popularity in recent years, largely due to its naturally non-stick surface. Although much less toxic than Teflon-coated non-stick pots and pans, ceramic cookware still comes with its potential issues. It is less durable, and can crack much more easily than other options. Another huge concern with ceramic pans is that many of them on the market are not true ceramic, as some are metal plates (usually a cheaper metal, like aluminum) with a ceramic coating and others have even been shown to be a faux, chemically produced ceramic. There are definitely some superior ceramic options out there, such as Chef’s Foundry P600, which is absolutely a valid option if your prefer the non-stick nature of ceramic. Ultimately, ceramic cookware is a fantastic option if you find something that is 100% ceramic and you don’t mind exercising more caution when cooking and cleaning to avoid cracking. Nevertheless, ceramic cookware is still not my first choice personally. My go-to cookware is stainless steel! Yes, they can be frustrating to clean after cooking certain meals, but stainless steel pots and pans are much less toxic than other metals, super durable, and relatively lightweight. Of course, you must be sure to invest in a reputable brand, as some companies may utilize greenwashing techniques to make you think certain things about their products. Since stainless steel does not conduct heat quite as efficiently as other metals, many companies will add copper or aluminum into a metallic concoction for their pots and pans. You want something that is 100% stainless steel, so researching the company is warranted. My other favorite cookware is glass, but that is mainly for the oven. Glass is the absolute least toxic, so the more you can cook with glass in the oven the better in my opinion! It is important to note that certain types of dishes are not meant for particular cookware. For example, acidic recipes, such as tomato or vinegar based meals, should not be cooked in cast iron if possible, as this acidity can increase the leaching of iron into the food and break down the cast iron surface. Hence, an acidic meal can take a less toxic cookware option in the cast iron pan and acutely elevate its toxic profile. So yes, there is more nuance to this topic. Nonetheless, the ultimate goal is to utilize the least toxic kitchen instruments possible when making our food.       
4. Shut your WiFi off at night and put your phone on airplane mode while you sleep: Our society is gaining awareness about the negative health effects of radiation from EMF (electromagnetic fields) at an exponential rate. The problem is that as we’ve been gaining this knowledge, EMF exposure has been increasing at an even faster pace. EMF radiation is affecting our bodies everywhere we go now. You cannot escape it, but you can certainly partake in strategies to mitigate exposure and its potential effects. The overarching issue with EMF is that is disrupts the natural frequency of human cells and hinders mitochondrial function. Basically, our cells have a hard time working optimally, and the energy manufacturers of these cells become sluggish. As a result, all body systems suffer. Utilizing simple strategies, like shutting off your WiFi and putting your phone on airplane mode while sleeping, can significantly reduce your body’s total EMF load and reduce the effects described above. The main variables to think about as it relates to EMF exposure are distance and duration. How close are you to the source of EMF (i.e WiFi router, cell phone, computer, appliances, etc.) and how long did you spend at that distance? Everyone’s goal should be to spend more time farther away from these devices and less time in close proximity!  

• Bonus 4A. Get grounding bags, or invest in other EMF mitigation strategies: The above are the basics, but more can certainly be done. Grounding bags and other technologies are adjunctive ways to reduce your body’s exposure to EMF on a daily basis. Check out Bon Charge for such devices (Use code PROFORMPT). My favorite grounding bags are from Curiously Present (See here!). You can certainly get carried away and end up spending a ridiculous amount of money on EMF mitigation. My recommendation in that regard is to pick one or two additional strategies to go along with the basics and just be meticulously consistent! This does not mean spending money on EMF blocking devices is necessary by any means. Yet, as people learn more about this topic, most are compelled to invest some money due to the ubiquitous nature of EMF in our modern world.

5. Switch to non-toxic laundry detergent: There’s many options for switching to less toxic household items. I chose to start with laundry detergent because of its feasibility, but also profound effectiveness. Some would argue altering deodorant or beauty products first, but that can be more challenging as individual preferences on smell, appearance and personal effectiveness play larger, more intensive roles. Laundry detergent is one of the more chemical-ridden household items in our modern world, and it injects those chemicals into our clothing, which we then wear for numerous hours each day. Thus, these manmade poisons can then seep through your skin and easily be absorbed into the body. Switching your detergent can have significant benefits on your overall health by reducing your exposure to these chemicals, many of which are hormone disruptors, carcinogenic, and/or obesogenic (aka causing obesity). I’ve personally tried many of the “cleaner" laundry detergents on the market, and my favorite by far is Truly Free (https://trulyfreehome.com/). There are a few more high-quality brands out there, and more companies are coming out with viable options at a rapid rate. 

• Bonus 5A. Gradually switch to your entire household to less toxic cleaning and beauty products: Detergent is most definitely a “low hanging fruit,” but you can realistically start anywhere. Do what works for you, but start small. Change one thing at a time to avoid any kind of overwhelm. Excessive stress helps no one, and only contributes to more problems. For all household products, you can use the Environmental Working Group (EWG) app. Just go to the app store on your phone and search “EWG’s Healthy Living.” This app allows you to scan products, then gives a “toxicity score” and provides you with detailed reports and available research on the ingredients listed in the product. 

As you can see, most of these “easy target” health changes cost money. This is by no means to make you spend more money or for us to profit off of your health decisions (we’ve developed affiliations with many of the mentioned companies for your benefit!!!). The theme of this week’s newsletter is low barrier to entry health alterations that take minimal effort but can positively impact your health substantially. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for putting in the work. That is usually my first order of business. Nevertheless, trying to make a bunch of changes all at once is overwhelming and will typically come along with a lack of consistency. Things just won’t stick. This is the basis for most people making resolutions happen for a few weeks, then falling off of the wagon. People either bite off more than they can chew, or try to change everything all at once. These five modifications, although somewhat costly, are seamless to add into your lifestyle! And quite frankly, the financial investment pales in comparison to the cost of significant health issues down the road! Plus, these changes can seamlessly be made in conjunction with the more challenging and time-consuming resolutions you set out to complete a few days ago! 

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*Disclaimer: This is not medical advice. The information is meant to be educational in nature. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent and/or cure any disease or health condition. Simultaneously, the information is not stating that any supplements or methods mentioned can replace medications or any interventions prescribed by your healthcare provider. Please speak with your own healthcare provider before beginning any new supplements or making changes that may affect your health. By utilizing any of this information, you are assuming responsibility for your own health decisions and actions.