As a physio who did post graduate study in chronic pain, it was clear to see that we knew all the neurobiology behind what was going on, and how chronicity manifested, but we were having no luck with just exercise and psychological intervention to actually transform people's experiences.
Why?
Well, because people are ignoring a GIANT elephant in the room.
Nutrition.
Personally, we've gradually taken more and more care of our nutrition over the years, and we've noticed huge differences in ourselves and the functioning of our bodies.
Nutrition underpins everything. You are what you eat. No joke.
And your body responds drastically to what you put in it. If you put things in that tax it, it inflames. And that's just like starting the flame for all the fires going on in your body. They are so so much amplified.
People see massive changes in their health by eating in an anti-inflammatory way, but most can't manage the confrontation of how different that is to mainstream society.
Anyway, sorry, on the soap box again, see, frustrated. I'll continue on with the story...
We mainly eat what we feel our ancestors would've eaten, but it comes a point where you don't have the same processes (nor maybe tolerance of the palate) and you find you need to figure out how to get the electrolytes they would've had from consuming blood.
We started sodium supplementing, and wow, it was pretty bloody clear difference. Energy, brain fog, effort when training, sleep quality, pain, everything improved.
And then I got preggo. I did the classic google you do as a new mum, worrying you're doing something wrong, and found out how so incredibly important sodium is in the development of a child, particularly their nervous system.
Not to mention the sodium content in breastmilk, and the fuelling process your body goes through to make it.
Or the fatigue of disrupted sleep.
It is safe to say this drastically helped being new parents feel a little easier.
But here we were, no money in the bank, no investors and what not, managing working and always having a parent at home with our babies (very important factor, but s bloody impossible value to uphold with the cost of living), wanting to create what we are lacking in our country.
But we did it.
It's pretty laughable looking back at our tiny fish beginnings, but we couldn't afford to do it any other way.
Blood, sweat, tears, verrrry long days, verrrryy late nights (luckily we had MNRL. to help replenish our systems!)
If you weren't here, we started with creating the MNRL. mix (essentially unflavoured) and selling flavour drops to add in separately.
We gradually saved up, and also moved to a tiny town where our mortgage was a lot lower, and were able to just manage the minimum order quantities for ingredients to make flavoured products.
Alongside this timing, a huge player stopped shipping outside of the US, what a shame. And I mean, MNRL's definitely better being an all-in-one product, so things grew a little quicker from there.
Now we've had the joy of moving to Waiheke Island (lol not the posh part) to live near the support of some very important friends and family.
We're still making the powder and doing everything ourselves. We're still tiny, but we're so proud of the growth we have had.
It's all been word of mouth and through the depths of learning to parent 2 babies that are pretty close in age.
We're absolutely mind-blown that this gets to be part of our lives and that we get to share it with you.
Thank you so much for being here and to everyone that has supported us on the way. We're the true kiwi grassroots business story, and we're bloody proud of it!
Now go on, GET SALTED!
