Our bodies want to perform the best they can for us, but the problem is we've got to feel them properly in order for them to actually accomplish that. And the problem with me dealing with that depression was I was not feeling my body properly, and finally, my body had had it. Hi everyone.
Welcome back. I am so excited about our conversation today, and our special guest today is Carlin. Call and she you might have heard of her with just ingredients on Instagram. She is a food expert and a wellness expert, and I'm so excited to talk to you today, Carlin, thank you so much for coming well.
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here today.
Oh, wonderful. Our listeners are in for such a treat. So will you first just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about, first of all, who you are and what you do, and then we'll kind of jump right into your own wellness journey.
Yeah. So I actually am the CEO of just ingredients, and we make good, clean, healthy products that nourish the body inside and out. So we have food products as well as beauty products, because I believe we should nourish our body, like I said, from the inside out, and also the things we put on our body. And so we have those products. But I also have an Instagram account, like you said, where I try to teach people in just little baby steps of how to live a healthier lifestyle and just how to choose more nourishing type foods. I'm a mom of six and a mental health advocate, and I also am a nutritionist, and that started because of my own health struggles years ago. Yes,
I we want to hear more about that. I have to tell you, though, before you move forward, is I've been following you for years, and I am an OB GYN. And my patients, we would often start talking about topics related to our health and wellness and finding the healthiest skin products and healthiest food products. And when I first started following you, I would say, do you follow just ingredients on Instagram, and there was always a couple people here and there. And now, when I bring it up, like, you follow just ingredients on Instagram, every single one of them is like, oh, yeah, no. So I started doing this, and I started changing this, and I love her serum. And so it's, it's, it's been a fun journey for me to watch from the outside and see how well you're educating people. So thank you so much for that.
Oh, you're welcome, and I'm glad to hear that. I always say, the more we educate, the better. So
absolutely awesome. Well, yeah. So tell us a little bit about your own wellness journey with with foods and things that we are exposed to on a regular basis. And then also, like you mentioned, your own mental health journey.
Yeah. So my mental health journey actually was about 16 years ago, or started, I guess, 16 years ago, and I found myself with really deep depression. In fact, it was suicidal depression, suicidal thoughts all the time, and to the point that I actually attempted suicide, and by the grace of God, it did not happen, which thankfully, obviously. And so when I had hit that rock bottom, I was like, Okay, I need help. I have got to do whatever I have to do to find myself help. And I knew that the body could heal itself. I knew from, like, breaking a bone, if you gave it the right tools, or the, you know, the right structures, it could heal itself. You cut your finger, it heals itself. So I kept thinking, Well, I haven't always been depressed, so something must have happened in my body, and so I need to heal from this. And so I went to doctor after doctor trying to find help, and every single doctor would just say, Oh, let me give you an antidepressant. And now, don't get me wrong, I would, I'd have nothing against antidepressants at all. In fact, they were very life saving for me at the time. But my frustration was, I would ask the doctor, will this help heal me? And they would always say, No, it's just going to mask the symptoms to help you. Yeah, which, again, was very helpful at the time. But I went for two years to doctor after doctor with this, like, inner, inner knowledge of knowing that I could heal, but I just didn't have the tools or the know how. And back then, we didn't have the internet to just search, like, how do you heal from depression, you know? Yeah. So finally I found a doctor who was like, Yes, I can help you heal, but it's not a magic pill. It's not going to happen overnight. We've got to run a lot of lab tests. We did blood, saliva, urine test, you know, she's like, it's going to be a long process, and you can't just get off your antidepressants. We've got to heal your body first, and slowly, wean off the antidepressants, and so I went on an 18 month journey with her, just learning about the products we put in our body, the food we put in our body, how it can harm our body or heal our body or help us. And then she also helped me learn about beauty products and how those can maybe mess with your. Hormones, and she just taught me a lot of stuff, because, honestly, I knew nothing about nutrition. At the time, I was eating cross stitch likes for breakfast and who knows what for lunch and at dinner time, maybe some frozen meal or something. You know, I did not know much about nutrition at all. And so Anyways, long story short, went on this journey with her. She we healed a lot of things. I found out that my body was low in vitamin D, low in magnesium. I wasn't absorbing B vitamins. My adrenals were struggling. My cortisol was off. I mean, the list goes on and on. I have feed intolerances. I mean, it's a whole slew of things. And so my body finally had had it. It just was screaming for help. And so that's what she helped me realize. And it has been 13 years since that I have never had to go back on antidepressants, and I've known how to just nourish and help my body feel its best self. And so I now just try to teach that on Instagram and little small nuggets, nothing overwhelming, to try to help people understand, like, hey, there's a way for your body to heal. You're not doomed to this life sentence of depression or whatever illness maybe they're struggling with at the time. And so I just feel like I was given a second chance at life, and now I want to help others feel their best self.
Well, I love that it's such an important story. So thank you for being so willing to share it. I think it's important to destigmatize your experience, you know, and the shared experience of so many others as we talk about mental health, because it's so easy to hide behind it and be embarrassed about it. And I'm so glad that you are sharing that so that other people can learn from your journey. So thank you so much for being brave enough and open enough to share that with us.
Well, I do have to tell you, I understand why people hide behind it, because I did hide behind it for years, because when I did try to tell people like I was really struggling with depression, it was more like judgmental and Oh, you're so weak and negative things. And so I did hide behind it. And it wasn't until a few years ago that I was like, no one is talking about this. No, our suicidal rates are going up, our depression rates are going up, and no one is talking about healing, that there are ways to heal, that there is hope, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Because back then, I understood no light at the end of the tunnel. There it was, you know, pure darkness and misery. And we just need to speak out about it and help people and help them know that, hey, your it's your body screaming for help. You just need to find the right help. And thankfully, more and more doctors are aware of this. Now, back 15 years ago, many didn't understand what was causing depression. I
mean, I think still a lot of them don't, but I do think what you're saying is exactly right to understand this link to the rest of our bodies, that it's not our brain functioning out here on a totally different plane, and our bodies out here perfectly healthy. They're so intertwined. And so if our brain isn't serving us very well, chances are there's deep connections to the rest of our bodies, so understanding is key, right? And that jumps right into what we want to focus on today. So we are focusing all on food, and you have so much more to offer than just talking about food, but, but that would take hours. So today, we're just going to focus on food and our own wellness. And when we're talking about wellness, I like to talk about, you know, living our very best lives, using the habits and routines available to us to really boost our lives so we're happy and healthy and we feel good and our relationships thrive. So just from like a bird's eye view, when we talk about that, that form of wellness and food. What does that mean to you? How does food fit into that idea of wellness? So
food nourishes our body. We can absolutely choose the foods that nourish our body, and so I am not about counting calories. I'm not about counting macros. I'm not about any of those diets. Mine is just really simple. Let's just eat foods that nourish the body. And we know sugar doesn't right, but we know fiber is amazing. So we know the fruits and the vegetables are just so nutritious and full of all those, like I said, fiber and vitamins and minerals and antioxidants and phytonutrients and all these amazing things that our body can do. But I have six kids, so I am not about a kale and sardine diet like I tried to do that my kids would flip. They still want their hamburgers and pancakes and spaghetti and all the yummy things families have. And so I am all about eating all the American traditional foods, but just maybe making them with a couple different ingredients, so that they're real food ingredients, rather than processed man made chemicals.
Yes, which is what we love about you, because that's what all of us, most of us are in that position where we can't go too far out there and really eat perfectly. But we do want to do our best. We do want. To do better and have those good benefits. So when you're talking about food, there's, there seems to be kind of two main sides, right? The the good that can come from food and the bad that can come from food. So we'll start with the negative side, and then we'll end with the positive side. So in general, when we're talking about what types of food we put in our body, what are some of the negative things that come from either putting things that are not pure or grown in the earth. What are some of the negative effects that come from that? And then we'll go to the positive text.
So there's actually a lot of negative effects depending on which ingredient you're talking about. Artificial sweeteners are a big one that a lot of women take on a daily basis just due to all the diet food that they're eating, or all the protein powder or pre workout things like that. Artificial sweeteners are in the zero calorie zero sugar type products. Anyways, those can really cause havoc on people's gut. There's research showing that that can change the gut microbiome. And the gut is so important to our health. I mean, it regulates everything from our immune system to our hormones to our serotonin to all the different neurotransmitters. You know, people don't realize that most of our hormones at some time, will come in contact with our gut, whether that's produced or regulated or, you know, different things that it will come in contact with the gut at some point, and so taking care of our gut is really important. So that's one thing. Is like artificial sweeteners. There's things like high fructose corn syrup that have been linked to actually degrading our tryptophan, which tryptophan needed for serotonin. So it's LinkedIn mental health issues. It's also linked to fatty liver. There's just lots of things, and I'm all about little simple swaps. So for instance, a lot of ketchups out there have high fructose corn syrup, but sitting right next to the one with high fructose corn syrup is one without, and your kids will never know that you brought home the ketchup without the high fructose corn syrup, but their help will know over time. And so, yeah, there's just lots of different ingredients that we can go over. I mean, there's sugar, which a lot of people know that also causes havoc on the gut, and so many issues, as you know, with hormones, and yeah, so many things with sugar. And our kids just get way too much sugar as it is on a daily basis, and not enough fiber. So a lot of negative that can happen.
Great, great. Thank you. And so just to kind of recap, when we eat foods that are not good for us, then we're missing out on the positive benefits, but we're also getting these negative effects on our body, so wreaking havoc on our gut, which changes the way that we you mentioned earlier that one of the problems you had is absorption. And certainly different types of absorption comes from an unhealthy gut, or different problems with absorption. So even if you're eating the healthy things some of the time, if you're if you're damaging your gut lining, then you're not absorbing. You're not getting the benefit of those healthy choices. So gut health and then inflammation, I think you alluded to, is another big thing. And I think, like you said, there are a million different negative effects that we could talk about. So let's talk about, sort of the positive effects that come, that can come from eating healthy, nutritious foods. So
I find it fascinating. If you go study all the like plants in nature and just all the foods in nature, it's incredible the little scientific things that they do within your body, just even at a cellular level. But like, even spinach is so miraculous, if you study what spinach can do for your body. And so there's a research showing that a lot of people that deal with depression are low in their B vitamins, especially be night. Spinach is a great source of that folate, and, you know, those B vitamins. And so spinach is a great thing to add into your diet. There's even some studies showing that you could be low on amino acids, and that's contributing to your depression. And a good grass fed meat is full of those amino acids, you know. And yeah, fiber, the fiber feeds the good bacteria in the gut. And so many of us are short on a daily basis of how much fiber we get. And so those fruits and vegetables are full of the fiber feeding the good bacteria in our gut. There's so many amazing vitamins and minerals, and even like pumpkin seeds, are full of tryptophan, and tryptophan is needed to make serotonin. Chia seeds is another one right full of omega threes, which are important not only for our brain health, but also for the creation of hormones as well. So I feel like all these foods in nature, just each of them, have these amazing little individual things that they can do to really help your body. But I think the problem is, is that most of us don't maybe understand all of these cool things that they do, like who you'd have to I don't know. It's years of studying what all these little foods do. And so if we can just maybe understand on a whole that these foods all have a specific purpose that they're doing in your body, and they're very nourishing, then that's easier to go. Comprehend and having to go study every little seed and nut and fruit and vegetable out there
absolutely and I think especially for women who are just sort of getting started on this journey, I think that's the take home, is it can feel really overwhelming to say, Wait, so was that, was that folate, that you said, or was that iron, or was that like, what was, was that one good for my gut health? And really, at the end of the day, none of that matters, at least when we're starting out right. The idea is to put as many good things into your body and to keep as many bad things out of your body. And if you can do that, it's going to solve a lot of your problems, even if you don't exactly remember what it was that it was doing for you, but things that come from the ground and that are harvested in general, are giving our bodies what they need. It's those building blocks you mentioned tryptophan and amino acids and vitamins and minerals, and those things are in food. That's the whole point, right? The whole point is for us to eat whole foods so that we can get all of those tiny, little building blocks that our body already knows how to use so we don't have to understand it, because our bodies understand it. We just have to give our bodies access to it, and then take away the things that are getting in the way of our body accessing those healthy things,
right? Well, and our bodies want to perform the best they can for us, but the problem is we've got to fuel them properly in order for them to actually accomplish that. And the problem with me dealing with that depression was I was not fueling my body properly. And finally, my body had had it. And I think that's what's happening in America, is we just have so many processed foods and so many junk foods and things that it's okay once in a while, like, I'm not extreme about things. I'm not like, oh, on the birthday, we can't have birthday cake or ice cream. No, they're going to enjoy their birthday cake in their ice cream. But are they going to enjoy ice cream every single day of the week? No, because it's just too much sugar, right? So we've just got to learn to nourish our body and feel our body, and then in return, it's going to do its best it can absolutely
I love that. I think that's so important. So if you're talking to a woman who or a man, but I only, I only know women, so if you're talking to someone who is just sort of getting started on this, they say, Do you know I've been eating the traditional American diet. We go out to eat three or four times a week when we eat at home, maybe it's something that we grab off the shelf, like Hamburger Helper or rice a Roni, or something like that. Carlin, I believe you. I mean what you're saying sounds great. How do I get started that I can't I can't go crazy at the grocery store and just suddenly switch to everything organic. My budget doesn't allow for it. So how on earth do I just even begin this well,
and it can be very overwhelming if we think like that. And I get it, because when my doctor started working with me, I was like, whoa, wait, wait, you have to know that I have a personality that if I get too overwhelmed, I'm just going to be like, I'm done. I quit, like, I can't do it. Yeah. So I was like, I have to do baby steps, and that's what we have to do on a healthy journey. This is not a two week diet, it's not some 30 day cleanse, it is a healthy lifestyle. And so we take our time just learning one thing at a time. So maybe one of the first things that someone starts doing is just simply looking at the ingredients at the grocery store. Because some people don't even do that. They just grab right, like you said, the Hamburger Helper. So I say, start out like a little child. And how I teach my little children is, I don't get scientific with them at all. I don't even teach them what the ingredients are doing. I just simply say, look at the back of the ingredients. If we have all of those ingredients in our pantry, then it's a pretty good choice. But if it has things in it, like mono and diglycerides. Do we have mono and diglycerides in our pantry? No, so let's find one that just has cream instead, or so, you know. So, yeah, it might just be starting as basic as that. It might be starting with, like a topic. How I started was she asked me, the doctor asked, Do you eat whole grains each day? And I was like, um, I don't even know what a whole grain is. Like, that's how pathetic I was, you know. And so she's like, okay, maybe you could start introducing quinoa into your diet. And I was like, keen, what? Like, what are you talking about? But for her, it was a topic. So like, first we started with grains, then the next thing we moved to was actually high fructose corn syrup. She was like, just go look in your pantry and see what snacks you have with high fructose corn syrup. And then after I got really good with swapping out all the things with high fructose corn syrup, then we went to a new topic. So it was never like, go home right now to your pantry and ditch everything. It was okay. We're going to take one topic at a time. And so I tell people, find a method that works best for you. Maybe it's use up that body lotion, and next time, buy a better choice, use up that cleaning supply. And then. Next time buy a better choice, or I tell people, maybe it's just with the item you use the most in your house. Maybe you have lots of kids and you have lots of fruit snacks in your house. Maybe just find fruit snacks made from real fruit rather than artificial dyes, and, you know, high fructose corn syrup. So it's just finding a method for you that works and it there's no time frame. It's not that you have to do it this week or this month, just one little step at a time, and over time, all these little changes will add up to a healthier lifestyle. It's
so important because we're all in the learning process somewhere, and you are not pathetic for not knowing what quinoa was, right? I mean, but we're all on a different phase of our journey, and there's nothing wrong with wherever you're at on the journey. The point is that if you want to feel better and you want your body to work do its best, that we start moving in that direction. One of the things that I recommend, number one, to my patients, when they say, like, I don't even know where to start, is to say, add more vegetables. Whatever it is, add more vegetables. I've learned a lot from you actually throwing vegetables in to kind of hidden in spaghetti sauce or sloppy joes or things like that. So So adding more vegetables in, you get more vitamins, more fiber, more of those minerals. What are a couple other things that you would say you mentioned adding whole grains in? Are there a couple other things that you would say, you know, don't get down into the weeds a little bit. Here's what you want to bring into your diet. I stole the easy one.
Yeah, no, you're fine. So there's actually three things. So some of these aren't diet. But when people tell me, like, where do I start? Because I get that all of the time. So my first one is, add more fruits and vegetables, like you said. And so that's why I try to show on my site just easy ways that you can do it. Because people are like, how do I do that? At breakfast or, you know, and so even just adding an apple to your lunch, you know, apples have are a great prebiotic that are going to feed the good bacteria. You know, there's so many fun things about all these fruits and vegetables. So that is number one. Number two, I say, just start drinking filtered water, a lot of water. It's actually crazy. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated, and that water is so necessary for flushing out the toxins. And, you know, people want to do these detox cleanses, and sometimes I'm like, Just get drinking more water. Yeah. And so that is my number second, or my number two thing, I always tell people, and then my number three thing is I tell people to just start moving. Whether that's a walk during the day, if that's joining a gym, you know, or if that's just stretching, doing yoga, right? It doesn't have to be something major, just start walking or moving something you enjoy. I'm so glad
you said that, because I think we all have to be very conscious of the things that we have culturally been indoctrinated with. You know, this idea that, like, cardiovascular exercise has to happen for 30 to 45 minutes, six days a week? Now, there may be benefits there, and I'm I'm not saying that, but just in terms of, like, baseline healthy goals. It's different than what some of these people are saying about really perfecting your health. Like what we're talking about at a foundational level is any type of movement. So I think we would be so much better at moving if we just let go of some of those preconceived notions of the right way or the wrong way to move our body, because from this foundational level, there's really not a wrong way to move, right? You can stand in place and swing your arms around, and you would get benefit. People think, like, oh, but it's not cardiovascular or it's not fat burning, right? I'm not this, but like, move, just move your body. So I'm glad that you said just do something. I think that is perfect, just anything you enjoy. Yeah, absolutely. And then as you as your journey goes on, you know, maybe you do want to fine tune it to to serve you in whatever way or whatever goals you have, but that initial step is just movement. So I love that.
Yeah, I'll tell you, actually, when I started this health journey with that doctor, I was not exercising, and she was like, just take a walk every day so that you can get the vitamin D and the movement at the same time. And then, like you said, that actually got me interested in moving. And so then I started jogging. And then I was like, Oh, I actually enjoy this. Like, maybe I'll jog a little further. And then I started running half marathons. Because I was like, that's like, a fun thrill and challenge. You know, it went from nothing to half marathons, but by no means was that done in a year's time. You know, it was over years that that happened
well, and I'm so glad you mentioned that too, because I think when people, if people just look at you in a snapshot, it's like, oh, yeah, that's so easy for her to do. You know, here Carlin, can she eats all the healthy stuff and does all the healthy things. But this has been a long journey for you, and you've been very open about that. And like you mentioned, I mean, more than 10 years of you sort of going through this transformation. So I'm, I think that's we all have to remember we're starting where we're starting, and it may take us a long time,
exactly. And I tell people all the time, I'm still on my health journey. Actually, I have friends who can eat the kale and this, I mean the sardines and even liver on a daily basis. And I'm like, that's above my health journey, you know? And so someday I may get there. So we all can be on a health journey, and we can start eating Frosted Flakes three times a day, if that's where you're at. And if you're eating liver and kaolin sardines. Great. You're still on a health journey. You know? Yes,
yes, I love that. I think that's so important. So I feel like I have to bring this up, because when people, whenever we talk about wellness and food, I think so many people jump straight to weight loss, like, okay, so wellness and food, I need to lose weight, right? And you mentioned earlier that you don't count macros or do anything like that. I don't know that I've ever heard you say anything about weight loss on any of your educational platforms. Will you talk about that a little bit? Why don't you talk about weight loss?
I don't talk about it because I'm more about nourishing your body and doing the things that will fuel your body to help it feel its best. There are some skinny women out there and some very muscular women who probably eat a lot of man made chemicals, things that are not nourishing their body the most. And to me, help is not defined by skinny or muscular. Help is defined by not feeling exhausted all the time, not being inflamed, not having chronic pain, chronic joint pain, chronic fatigue. You know what I mean? There's so many other metrics of being healthy than just skinny or muscular. Yes,
and you said it. You touched on it. You know to say that if we look at someone, you do not have any clue how healthy they are, right. All you can guess is maybe their weight, maybe their fat percentage, their body fat percentage, but you have zero idea what type of chronic disease they may or may not be suffering from, or how healthy they may be if they do have a higher body fat percentage, right? We have no idea. And so it is probably the least significant metric. We have to say, my BMI is this, or my weight is this. There is some link to chronic disease, of course, but, but in general, when we're going for health, I love that you're constantly talking about just put good things in your body. How many good things can we put in our bodies? So I wanted to give you a chance to say that, because I think that's so important
well, and also I was going to tell you so I've been trying to show on my Instagram more often me working out, and I will give all the health benefits of working out, how it helps our hormones and our inflammation and joints and our gut, and how it helps the different bacteria even in our gut, and how it helps with neurotransmitters and all I mean, it helps our liver, and it helps with detoxing. And I'll go through this whole list of like 20 things, of this is why I exercise, and nowhere on there does it say because I want to lose weight or I want to look a certain way. It's all these other amazing health benefits that come from it. And I have to tell you, there are so many women that respond back lately saying, Oh, my goodness, I had no idea exercise had so many other health benefits besides just losing weight. And so we've just been in this media, in this culture, diet culture, for so long that women just think, Oh, we work out to be skinny, or we work out to look a certain way, where I'm really trying to teach on my site that it's one of the best things that you can do for your overall health. It has nothing to do with your looks, but overall health, it's a the such an amazing thing that you can do for your help.
Absolutely, I think that is so important. It It's funny, because I talk to a lot of patients about weight loss, you know, they'll come in and say, something's wrong with me, I'm not losing weight. And so we talk, we end up talking about lifestyle changes. And one of the things that's so important is that I find one of the main things that's getting in the way of people losing weight is stress, and stress can be certain types of exercise. And so it's almost like a double, like shooting yourself in the foot twice. You know, you're you're putting too much of a good thing in your body, and it can get in the way. And so treating exercise the way that you treat exercise keeps that from happening, right? You're taking it as how, how do I nourish my body through movement? How do I strengthen my body through exercise? And it gets rid of those mind games which are so harmful for women and so difficult to get past to say, Well, I only exercised for 60 minutes. I need to go for 70 or 80. You know, I only ran five miles. I need to run for 10 or 20. And it's just like, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not going to help you lose weight or be your healthiest mental self, right? This is, again, like we said earlier, our brains are very much connected to our bodies, and so you don't get to do one without the other. You don't get to go exercise without the mind stuff. And so if your mind is playing unhealthy games with you, that exercise is not going to serve you as well as if you embrace it as this nourishing, strengthening, healing. I love that you used that word earlier, healing, thing that we're doing for ourselves. And. Same thing with food, you know, if we can get rid of the dang mind games of, well, if I eat this many macros or too many carbs, not enough, that's not like it just is so limiting to us when, if we switch our mindset to what you are, are such a good example of which is, let's just nourish. Let's just find all the good that we can put into our bodies. It gets, gets us past that mind game of like, but I only lost one pound, or I only lost 10 pounds, like, who cares? You are nourishing your body, and that is going to serve you very, very well,
right? Well, and so many women don't realize maybe that losing weight or weight gain, whatever can be affected by our quality of sleep. Like you said, our stress plays a huge role in it. Our hormones being off balance plays a huge role in excess weight or gaining weight or storing weight, whatever, right? So there's so many other things than working out at a gym and counting calories that affect our weight, and so that's also what I'm I did try to teach that on Instagram that you guys, there's more to it than just counting every little thing we put in our mouth.
Absolutely, I am just a big fan of talking about healthier ways to nourish our bodies and taking care of our bodies, because we are so obsessed with weight, and it is just not doing us any favors. So thank you for sharing that. Now we've talked about some of the ways that we can eat healthy. Tell us a little bit more you have six kids, and when you try to incorporate these things into your life with six kids, presumably on a budget, because most people with six kids don't have tons and tons of money, because kids are expensive. So how do we do this? How do we incorporate some of these changes? I think the default thinking that a lot of people will go to is, well, I can't afford to eat like that. That's good for you, Carlyn, but like I can't afford to eat like that. How do you help people kind of make that transition?
I get that comment all the time, and I actually started my health journey. When we were so poor, we had tried to start a business, and it had failed, and my husband then was unemployed. I mean, it just was a disaster. So I tell people, you can do it on a budget. There are actually a lot of things that are free or cheaper than buying organic or buying, you know, these things that are maybe expensive. So for instance, my doctor was like, You need to get vitamin D. Like, your vitamin D is really low. Well, I made sure I spent time outside every day, let the kids play outside, and I was outside, or I took the walk outside. Another thing is the exercise that we talked about, you don't have to go join a gym. I couldn't afford a gym, so I walked the neighborhood every day. Another thing is your sleep. That we talked about, if you're getting four or five hours of sleep, that's going to cause havoc on your health, you know, so you've got to prioritize sleep. But also with the health stuff, pre packaged, processed food is so expensive it destroys your food budget. And so when I took that out and replaced it with apples, bananas, pears, salads, just things that I made from scratch, our food budget actually dropped. And so I do tell people it may take more time living a healthier lifestyle, but it doesn't take more money. And when I talk about time, it might take time planning out what you're going to eat for the week, so that you actually go to the grocery store and buy the ingredients that you need for the whole week, so that you're not running to the fast food 2345, times a week because you don't know what to cook for dinner. So planning does take a little bit more time. Making things from scratch actually are much, much cheaper, but it does take time. And so time is sort of the issue I feel like these days, and so I do try to show like on my site, just faster ways to make meals, or fast meals or fast snacks. And with the snacks, we can still just grab the apple with some cottage cheese, or the, you know, Apple and peanut butter, the apple and string cheese, all these different variations that we can just grab that are actually really nourishing to the body, rather than grabbing those pre packaged processed snacks, like I said, that are really expensive. And so if you actually take the time to plan out what you're going to make for the week and make some meals from scratch. You don't have to make them all you can, you know, eat out maybe once or twice, I don't know, but if you take the time to do do that, you'll actually see that it is less expensive, and so you don't have to buy into all these gimmicks that are being sold out there, like buy this expensive detox cleanse or buy this expensive supplement. A lot of the supplements you can just get from whole nourishing foods. In fact, when I started my journey, my doctor was like, you've got to be on a daily probiotic, but a good one that actually will make it through the whole digestive tract. They were so expensive I couldn't afford it. And so I was like, I need something else. And so. She was like, Okay, go the store and buy kimchi. You may not like it, but every morning, just take a spoonful of kimchi, and that will be a great probiotic, you know. And so I ate it like medicine. I didn't love it, but there are things out there that are definitely cheaper than having to buy expensive, healthy, organic foods. Yeah,
I love that. And I would add too, you know, sometimes we look at things in a vacuum of this is my monthly budget, but we are so much more than that, meaning, you know, if you are not nourishing yourself, you're not going to have the same energy, you're going to feel gross, you're going to get sick more. All of those things get into that get wrapped into our overall, like, whole life budget, you know, and we don't have time to be sick. We don't have time to have, you know, no energy at all. We don't have time to be depressed, or, you know, not be able to relate to our kids the way we want to, because our poor hormones are going nuts. So I think we have to expand the view to say, Yes, money can feel fine like this is what the paycheck is. This is what the budget is. But we also have to remember that there are other costs associated with our lifestyles than than just the dollars and cents. And I totally, I totally 100 under 100% understand the budget thing is the most concrete, and so we can't, even if we think it's a good idea, we can't make money come out of the blue. So the blue. But when it comes to those decisions of how we spend money, we just have to remember that it's affecting more than just the dollars and cents. So
and I was gonna say, look for the free things drinking more water, you know, look for those free things. Also, I have two other things to say about this budget thing that you've just touched upon, I save a ton in medical bills, a ton I cannot tell you the last time I took one of my children for a sick visit. And I actually did a poll last winter on my Instagram, just asking people how many times they take their kids to the doctors for sick visits. And it was astounding, the numbers. And I was like, I honestly can't remember the last time I took one of my kids in just because they're not eating a ton of junk food and all the processed foods and things like that. They're nourishing their bodies with fruits and vegetables and things like that. We don't, they don't eat perfectly. But anyways, that so you can save in medical bills. And then another thing that takes time, but has helped us a lot is I buy in bulk. And so there's a lot of great like online places that you can buy in bulk. And I just buy everything in both bulk, like we have a ton of organic oats all the time, but I buy them in big, 50 pound bags, because buying a little, tiny thing of organic oats at the grocery store is so pricey. So again, if you want to take the time to prioritize your help and make it a thing that you're interested in, then besides making things from scratch and checking ingredients in the store things like that, buying bulk is another fun option.
Yeah, I love that. And if you I have a small family, I just have two little kids, but you could certainly split with a neighbor or split with a friend or a family member and say, Hey, let's buy them both together, and then we'll divide that 50 pound bag of oats that would would last my little family for years. So I love that you said that, and I think the other thing that I've heard you say is we speak with our money too, right? So if you're going to Costco, I think Costco, especially, they do a good job at listening and saying, like, Well, hey, we want these other options. So there are ways that that as we kind of make this transformation, hopefully as a society, it will come back to us and give us more control. So I love that. One of the things that I see when I talk to patients come in, especially patients who are not yet started on this journey. A lot of them will say, you know, I I didn't grow up eating all organic. I didn't grow up eating any of that stuff, and I'm fine. Well, what would you say to that?
Oh, that's a comment I get all of the time. Yeah. And okay, well, there's lots of parts to this. So a lot of our food changed in the late 90s, and so they maybe ate organic, but they didn't have the word organic back then. We didn't get the word organic until the year 2000 and it was just when people were tired of not knowing what was in their food. And so organic just tells us that there's no artificial dyes, there's no artificial sweeteners, there's no artificial preservative, there's no high fructose corn syrup. You know, there's no, I mean, the list is really long, and all these things that are not in it, well before the early 90s, their food, like I said, probably was organic. And so, like I said, the late 90s is when we brought in a lot of these GMO crops and glyphosate and things like that. And so when people say that to me, I'm like, Well, you actually probably ate organic. You just didn't actually realize it, and we didn't have to label it as that. And so, but then again, I'm not a huge proponent on organic. Like people think, oh, to be healthy, you have to eat organic. No, that is a. Misconception, to be healthy, you need to eat real food. And so there actually are some organic products out there that are adult food, right? Organic, ice cream, organic, you know, lots of those things. They're not great for you. And so I wish we'd sort of get over that mindset of, oh, healthy is organic and expensive. No, healthy is real nourishing foods.
I love that you said that. I think that leads into one of the last things I wanted to talk about, which is this mind game that we end up getting into. You know, we are so surrounded by people who want to tell us how to take care of our bodies, oftentimes for their own gain, right? I don't think, I think I think there are plenty of people who just want to make a buck off of us buying their magical supplement or or program, right? And so we end up with this mind game of like, Ooh, that's a bad food. I shouldn't eat that. And I think sometimes it can cause us a lot of angst of like, what am I supposed to eat? I don't have anything in the house because that's bad. I can't eat that, and that's good, but I don't feel like that. So how do we how do we figure out how to navigate that mind game of good food and bad food
that is a hard thing these days, and even when I was starting my health journey, and just even a few years ago, I remember getting so frustrated because I kept telling people that voices out there are so loud, yeah, meaning, it's just so confusing. You know, one person saying, don't eat wheat, and one person don't eat dairy, and one person is don't eat this, you know. And it really comes down to knowing your body, because dairy may be really beneficial for you, but to others, it may be very inflammatory, or, you know, not good for their gut. And same with wheat, same with meat. Meat may not be good for some, but for me, I do really well with a good, you know, grass fed meat, I love the amino acids. My body loves it. And so I think it comes down to one, knowing your body and just realizing that nobody is the same. So what may be bad for one person is just perfectly fine for another person. But then two, I told myself, we just have to simplify it. It's too confusing. Simplify it. If it nourishes your body, then eat it. Yes, if it doesn't, then maybe save it for that holiday, that special occasion. It's not the little bit of sugar that's killing us, it's not the little bit of high fructose corn syrup that's hurting us. It's not the little bit of inflammatory oils that's causing health issues. It's the too much of them, yes, the too much sugar, the too much too many inflammatory oils, too much high fructose corn syrup. So we have to get away from just being like, Oh, this food is good and this food is bad. We need to be like, this food nourishes our body on a daily basis. So it's going to be something I try to incorporate every day. This food has some sugar and has inflammatory oils, but it's a fun birthday cake, so I'm going to enjoy it on the birthday, but I surely not going to have it every single meal every day, because it's not going to nourish my body and help my body feel its best. And so I have an analogy about a Lamborghini, like, if you were gifted a free Lamborghini, most likely you would take the time to figure out, like, Okay, what, what kind of fuel do I put in it? How do I maintain it? When do I have to change its oil? When do I have to do these certain things, right? Well, I tell people, we've been given this body that is priceless, right? Much more so than a free Lamborghini. Have we taken the time to figure out how to fuel it, how to maintain it, the things that we need to do to our body to make it feel its best and run its best, just like we would help that Lamborghini run its best, right? And so we've gotta get rid of the good bad. Shouldn't eat this. Should eat this, because we're all different. It's all going to affect us differently and learn to know yourself and what your body can or can't handle, and learn how to nourish your own body, not your neighbor's body, not your cousin's body, but your body. And a prime example of this that just recently I've been hearing a lot on is eggs. I was reading all this. People were telling me all their inflammatory all this, right, eggs are amazing multivitamin food like they are a gift from nature that can give us so many amazing things. But maybe for some people, it could be inflammatory. Eggs, for me, are not. Eggs are very healing to my body. So that's just another example of the loud voices saying, don't eat eggs. And then someone saying, Yes, eat eggs, right? It just isn't on an individual basis, and so we have to look at it that way.
Thank you so much for sharing that. I want to recap, because I love so many of these big picture items that you've talked about, and one of those is minimize the unhealthy things that we're putting in our diet, like high fructose corn. Syrup or sugar or processed foods, maximize things that will nourish and heal our bodies, and then move your body, Get lots of sleep and leave your body to its own wisdom. You know, leave our bodies to do what they're meant to do, which is to balance it out.
I loved that you
You've mentioned a couple different things that you've seen through your journey. One of them was your own improvement in your mental health, in finding that healing, and another is that your kids seem healthier, and, you know, avoiding doctor's visits. Are there any other big things that you've seen, either in your own health journey, or as you've kind of witnessed other people go through this transformation? Some big things that you've you've seen that have come from this health transformation. So
I think the biggest takeaway that I've seen is people just have more energy and feel good. And when you have more energy, you want to be like a better mom, you want to do things with your kids, or you want to volunteer or do more in the community, right? When you feel your best, you can do more, just good in the world. Really, when I dealt with that depression, I was just in survival mode to just take care of myself. The last thing I was thinking about was reading a book to my kids, or feeding them a nutritious meal, or volunteer in their classroom or something. You know what? I mean. It was pure survival mode. And I think some of us don't feel that great, or we're just constantly tired. And so getting on a health journey is just I think it's empowering, because you start to feel better, and you want to do better and do things for others. And so I think that extra energy and just feeling good just makes your life overall better.
I think so too. And I have patients come in, you know, 30 and 40 years old, who will say, you know, I am just exhausted. I must just be getting older, and I want to be like, you're 30. That's not old. You're supposed to feel really good. So, so just let it be known. But just feeling exhausted all the time, even if every woman you know feels that way is not really how we're intended to feel. There are ways that we can feel better and be better, and that's tying back to our definition of wellness. Is it's living our best life that's living this life that we are here, and that's when we can really gift ourselves to the universe, or to our community or to our families, is when we're taking good care of ourselves, enough that we function how we we're meant to function,
right? And I want to say something about this, because I get people tell me about exhaustion all the time. It may be common, but it is not normal. Yeah, it actually is your body telling you, like, hey, something is off. You shouldn't feel exhausted every single day, unless you have a newborn. That's what I tell people. If you have a newborn, that's a whole different story. Yeah. But I heard the other day on a TV show, a lady say, if you feel tired all the time, that just means you're an amazing mom. And I thought, well, you can actually be an amazing mom and not be tired every day. So yeah, you should. We want to say like, you're an amazing mom that has a lot of energy. Is a better, you know, saying for that. So anyways,
I wanted to ask you one last question. One of the things that I see patients struggle with the most on their own health journey is when they're trying to eat healthy, and they say these sugar cravings, or these carb cravings are just totally getting in my way. What? How can women deal with those sorts of cravings when they're trying to transition?
You know what? I think we've grown up in this society that we think sugar cravings are a lack of our willpower, or we need more willpower to overcome these sugar cravings. Yeah, I tell people that sugar cravings, if you're having them every day, is usually a sign or your body trying to tell you something. And so it might be that you're low in magnesium, or it could be that there's this cool study about women having sugar savings when their glucose has dropped too low, or they've had big glucose spikes and then let it drop. And so there's lots of different things that could be causing a sugar craving, rather than just, oh, I have the sugar craving, and now I've gotta be strong willed and push through it. So when women have that, I always say, go to your doctor, figure out what it is. It could be a Candida or some, you know, yeast overgrowth, growth. Or it could be the lack of magnesium, or these, you know, maybe your blood sugar needs to be more stable throughout the day, lots of different things. So something I try to tell my followers all the time is, listen to your body and realize when something is off that's just your body trying to talk to you. It can't verbally speak to you, so it's going to talk to you with symptoms. So listen to those symptoms, and then try to figure out why your body is giving you those symptoms. And
most importantly, don't shame yourself because you're having. Those symptoms and saying, Oh, I'm the worst. Why do I have these sugar cravings that just trying to eat healthy, recognizing it that, that it's your body reacting to different things. It's not you being a terrible human being, right?
Exactly. Our symptoms are never because we're terrible or we're weak or anything like that. Our symptoms are just purely our body saying, hey, maybe check this out.
And if we can embody those ideas, you know, you
mentioned a couple thoughts. One was, Does this nourish my body? Does this heal my body? Does it make me feel good? I mean, if we can get that into our brains instead of our current thoughts around food, which are frequently, is this food going to, like, give me a buzz, or is this food going to give me emotional comfort? You know, I think so many of us are driven by by other things with food, but if we can replace it with, does it nourish me? Does it heal me? Does it lift me? I think, man, that's that's a pretty great way to live. So thank you so much for being here and for sharing all of your wisdom. It's been such a fun conversation.
Oh, you're welcome. Thank you so much for having me.
Thanks for listening. And come back next time for another episode, and remember this information is for education only and not intended to be medical advice. You.
