Take it off! See. Love. Grow.
An unfulfilled life has less to do with what it is - and more with how you see it. Your fulfillment is often on the other side of a tough decision or conversation. It is in the resolving of conflict and the releasing of self-judgment that we grow the most. So, if you feel stuck in your career, relationships, or how you think about yourself, it’s time to “TAKE IT OFF” and show up as your authentic self. Joshua A. Fields and Jeremy Rubin co-host the “Take it Off” Podcast. As a master practitioner of the Energy Leadership Index with 15 years of executive leadership experience at a Fortune 10 company, Certified Executive Coach Joshua Fields has a proven track record of creating high-performing teams and environments for personal transformation. Renowned author, speaker, and founder of FACE Consulting, Jeremy Rubin, immediately impacts groups large and small using humor, personal stories, and practical, result-driven applications. These two have brought unique life experiences, skill sets, and energy to create an experience like no other. The mission is simple but not easy. It is to empower people with the skills to see and accept themselves and others clearly and without judgment to live a more authentic life. So, if you’re ready to live with purpose and curiosity and to get clear on what you want for your life, join us weekly at the “Take it Off” Podcast. Some concepts are based on and inspired by the coach training program Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC).
Take it off! See. Love. Grow.
Food as a Mirror of Self Identity: A Conversation with Kelsey Weaver
In this episode of *Take it Off! See. Love. Grow.*, we sit down with Kelsey Weaver, founder of *The Holistic Health Lab*, to explore how food reflects our emotions, self-identity, and well-being. Kelsey shares insights on how our eating habits mirror deeper emotional states and how shifting our relationship with food can transform our health. We discuss mindful eating, the connection between gut health and emotions, and practical tips for overcoming emotional eating. This episode is packed with wisdom to help you align your food choices with your authentic self.
Connect with Joshua Fields:
- Co-Host: Joshua Fields ACC, CPC, & Master ELI Practitioner
- Website: https://joshuafields.coach
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- Email List
Connect with Kelsey Weaver:
- Instagram
- Website: https://theholistichealthlab.com/
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this mentality of all or nothing, of black and white, will slowly kill us all, and I think that if we can live a little bit more in the gray, then that would be so magical for all of us and our health to just stay more balanced.
Speaker 2:Hey everyone, I want to welcome you to Take it Off. See Love Grow, the podcast where we strip away the layers and dive into real conversations about being authentically human. I'm your co-host, Joshua Fields, and today we have a special guest who is an expert in helping people reconnect with their bodies and find their true health, which is oftentimes connected to our truer self. Kelsey Weaver, the founder of the Holistic Health Lab, is here to talk about something we often overlook how food reflects who we are, how we feel sometimes, about how we feel about who we are and how we ultimately live. We'll explore how food can serve as a mirror to our emotions, health and relationships. So, with that said, you got the love that I want, the love that I need. Word bond it's butter, baby, and we're going to talk about whether you should put that butter in your body less of the time or more of the time. I think you know the answer to that, but let's get into why, without further ado. Let's tap into this thought-provoking, riveting conversation.
Speaker 2:I'm here with a functional diagnostic nutritional practitioner. She's also a holistic health practitioner and a metabolic specialist and the founder of Holistic Health Lab, a very passionate, driven advocate for folks around functional health solutions. She has certifications from the Institute of Integrated Nutrition, Functional Nutrition Alliance and Precision Nutrition. This individual is dedicated to helping individuals uncover the root causes of chronic health issues, such as autoimmune diseases, fatigue, digestive problems and hormonal imbalances, through functional lab testing and personalized healing protocols. This person I know I'm keeping you guys in the dark this person provides her clients with Taylor, science-backed strategies to restore vitality and well-being. Her approach goes beyond symptom management, offering long-term solutions that address metabolic dysfunction and support overall health.
Speaker 2:Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is Kelsey Weaver, and her mission is to empower clients to reclaim their health by focusing on lifestyle modifications, nutrition and holistic care. She combines her expertise in functional medicine with a deep commitment to guiding clients on their journey towards lasting health and transformation. Ladies and gentlemen, I know you're going crazy in your cars or wherever. You're listening. Yes, Kelsey Weaver is here and she's going to help me have a very, very deep conversation about a topic around our health and our wellness. And before I go any further, Kelsey, please make some noise, let people know you're here and thank you for joining me on the Take it Off podcast.
Speaker 1:That was so beautiful. She sounds great.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I'm sure we're going to meet more of this great person here shortly. How are you?
Speaker 1:I'm so good. I'm so good. School has started Kind of get my feet back under me. Not me for school, but the kids for school.
Speaker 2:Got you Okay.
Speaker 1:Now the autumn has rolled in and I'm ready for sweater weather, sweater weather, sweater weather.
Speaker 2:Yes, indeed, I'm ready for that too. Say it five times fast, I am ready for that as well, but we don't want to keep these folks waiting. I know your time is of the essence, and we got some spectacular material to walk through. The title of the episode, though, is Food as a Mirror of Self-Identity and thinking about how our food choices, the things that we put in our body, we consume, that we like the way they taste. It's more than just oh, I like the way that tastes, or I grew up eating this, so I always eat this.
Speaker 2:You approach really transforming people's lives by what they put on their plate, and sometimes that decision oftentimes that decision is just autopilot behavior, where it's just unconscious. I'm just grabbing what feels good in the moment, and it might not align with how I want to feel and be for self authentically. My deep down intimate relationship with myself is impacted by what we decide to put in our body, food included, so I will pause there. I'm just curious your thoughts on the title. What comes up for you when you think about this discussion?
Speaker 1:Well, first let me say let me pause, because I'm going to answer your question.
Speaker 2:Yes, you are, and you're going to give me applied media rules to it too.
Speaker 1:I'm going to do it, I am going to do it.
Speaker 1:I just want you, I just want to make sure you know I am super pumped to be here. I have been bugging Joshua ever since he had a podcast. I'm like I'm not sure why we're not having conversations in real life with people to listen to, because I think our conversations are very engaging and ever since I knew you from Orange Theory Days running 7,000 miles an hour like a madman I have always felt connected to you in really great ways. So I'm excited to be here. But the answer to your question- yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:All the warm and fuzzies. I appreciate it though, Thank you.
Speaker 1:Everybody needs warms and fuzzies.
Speaker 2:It feels good, right? I said sweater weather all day.
Speaker 1:I'll just give you a sweater right now. I think that it is so multifactorial and when you sent me this topic, there's immediate things that come up in my mind. Right, and then, just immediately, I'm thinking what types of foods are we eating? How does that impact us? And then how does that impact on our bodies, physiologically affect the choices we make? Because there's a very cyclical relationship behind the foods we choose to how we feel, and then how we feel to the foods we choose. It doesn't just go one way.
Speaker 1:So that was my automatic response, and then I started thinking well, hold on, let's talk about what identity actually is for some people. So, picking that apart, I think it would be unjust to not have that conversation, because I think, unfortunately, many of us are just driving through life, maybe not 100% sure of what our identity or values are on a really deep level. And I think if you put in that work ahead of time and you know well what a blessing. But a lot of us haven't done that work because either we don't have time, we don't know how to do it, we don't have mentors, we don't have leadership that helps us do that. So I think this is a very cool conversation that demands a lot of picking apart, unpacking, if you will.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Unpacking is so overused.
Speaker 2:Let's just say that right now.
Speaker 1:So overused, unpack that for me. Yeah, I choose unravel because it's the road less traveled.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:We're going to unravel it today.
Speaker 2:Okay, we're going to unravel it today. I'm down, we're going to take it off. We're going to take parts of this conversation off to just look at it, analyze it and then, if you want to put those clothes back on, go right back ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you don't have to. You don't have to and you can put them on in different order. You can put your socks on before your pants.
Speaker 2:That is very true. That is very true. That is very true. Okay, all right. Well, what is your relationship with your connection between food and who you are?
Speaker 1:My personal connection between food.
Speaker 2:What resonates, what gives you goosebumps in this area? I call it Jeremy, and I my co-host, who has actually abandoned me for a brief moment. Yes, I'm talking to you, jeremy. I hope you're listening.
Speaker 1:I think Jeremy should know I'm very upset that he's not here.
Speaker 2:I know, I know he's disappointed many of our guests that have come on and they're like where's our guy?
Speaker 1:I know what are we supposed to do without him. I haven't had a conversation with him in a long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's some social media call-outs coming With. Yeah, there's some social media call outs coming With. That said, though, he has a term that he would say often was about the carnal cut. Where does it hit us personally? And I think it's appropriate to have this discussion when we begin with, what is your relationship when you think about your identity and how that's been impacted by what you've chosen over the course of years that have obviously ebbed and flowed and changed along the way, based on what you have educated yourself on? But where did this identity around you and food begin? How has it impacted your life?
Speaker 1:Well, that's a great question. Well, that's a great question. I would say that for me personally, I have been on one radical side of an unhealthy relationship with food to a more radical side of a healthy relationship with food, and that particular evolution has been difficult at times. It's obviously always multifactorial and it's never linear either. So I think that in a previous life, prior to basically me having children because it was really me having kiddos at a young age I think I was 24 when I had Jaden, and so Jaden now is 18. And so really working on over the course of the last 18 years is where my relationship with food has evolved and how that has changed my identity.
Speaker 1:And at 24 years old, I'll be honest, I had no idea what the hell I was doing in life. I was a disaster. I was married to someone that was not a good fit for me. We got married at 21. I was 21 years old and it was really really hard and I didn't have I was kind of living in an umbrella right. I didn't have the education behind food. I didn't have the understanding. My mom was a single mom. She didn't have the means to always buy, you know, really healthy food for us and this is kind of prior to the, the podcast itself we were having this conversation about socioeconomics and how that plays a huge role. So I've been on one side of this pretty drastically, and at the time, if you asked me about my, I would have no idea how to answer that question.
Speaker 1:And so, for me, food was something that was more of a comfort, because I was in a place of not understanding myself, not knowing who I was. You know, there were times when I felt unsafe, there were definitely times where I felt, you know, lost and food became a comfort for me. So I was really I was severely overweight at the time. I think I was 70 pounds heavier than I am now, and so now, at that time, it meant something to me.
Speaker 1:Food meant something to me. It was part of my identity, in a way that it was just a comfort for me and it was a blanket that I needed. So then, on the flip side of that, that evolution from that point to now, is obviously very, very different. And now, when I think of food, I think of and I think of my identity in general. You know, my identity doesn't come down to one or two words, right, it comes down to different buckets that I fill. So I am a mother, I'm a wife, I'm a friend, I'm a health advocate, an athlete, a coach, a mentor, an artist, a musician. Recently.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 1:That's a big deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:Super beginner, but, whatever you know, I'm an avid reader. What are all of these different identities that I have and how do I feed them? With my food choices, with my lifestyle choices, and how does that connect? And I think sometimes people are like, well, you just eat food, right, you eat it because it's good. No, I eat it and I create meals and I make choices because I want to be the best in each of those identities I just listed. And so when I'm thinking about how sharp can I be for my family, how well can I perform in the gym? How sharp can I be with my cello today, how much reading comprehension can I get from this book I love? I'm not going to get that by giving my body crappy food. I'm going to get that by maximizing my potential with amazing foods that I know can fuel me, give my body good information, because it's information. Hey, here's this really amazing breakfast that I made, which I did today, and it was delicious.
Speaker 1:Yes, ma'am, and every one of these components are going to make me better and fill these buckets of my identity so much more effectively than had. I chose something like Lucky Charms no offense to the Lucky Charms lovers but that, for me, would not be good for what I'm hoping to do with all of these different identities that I nurture on a regular basis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which you intend to do.
Speaker 2:Right, that's an intentional decision right which you intend to do with this information that, through conscious engagement, you're able to awaken to more choices available to you than what you thought was just a default option. So, first of all, I love what you're saying about the fuel your best self is directly connected. One of the places where it's directly connected is what you decide to put in your body. And again, this isn't I'm not, this is I have my own relationship with food. It is ebbed and flow, I think, about identity being, you know, so for me, so cultural I had fried chicken in my house every week.
Speaker 2:Every week, my mom fried chicken and it wasn't out of spite, out of like, yeah, I'm going to have fried food here. It wasn't that conscious. I grew up in a home well-seasoned fried chicken. My brother would come home when he's done spending his time on stay-pay, pay vacation sometime, and he'd be at the house and he was frying chicken. Learned it from my mom.
Speaker 2:I learned how to fry chicken, and so fried chicken just becomes this normal, not a special thing for a day, but a lifestyle of eating fried foods without question, because this is what this is, just what we do. Oh, and it better have a decent amount of salt on there as well. So fried chicken with a decent amount of salt and it better taste good and all the things that come from. Starting at a place where we're only feeding a temporary feeling. I want, I want it to taste good for the moment. Again, not knocking anybody, I'm struggling with it right now, still, even after losing 80 pounds over the course of 10 years ago, right, still, that's what I'm facing. So there's not a place to learn so much where you're not going to still be confronted with I really want this to taste good right now. Yeah, that's totally fair. Yeah, right now. Yeah, yeah, so that's totally fair. Yeah, go ahead, go for it.
Speaker 1:Go for it Add to this no, I think, when I love that you say that, because one thing that I think is really unfortunate is when we don't humanize ourselves and say, like you know what, I do that too, and so I'll tell you. I see you, joshua, I do that too. Not with like fried chicken, necessarily, but I have a sweet tooth bat.
Speaker 1:Like and I didn't get there yet, but you got to go for it. You know what I mean and it's it is. I think so much of this is cultural, so much of this is familial and like how you were brought up. What are those? Like loving conversations that you had surrounding food growing up, you know it can't just be food is not just fuel and information.
Speaker 1:It is an event. It is a showing of love and admiration and being with people, and that is part of our identities too. Right Is who surrounds us and our community, and so you had fried chicken growing up. I don't know if I can really pinpoint anything that I really had growing up other than hamburger helper without the actual hamburger, because we were poor. That was not a thing, but I don't have a good relationship with that part of me. It sounds like you have a good relationship with that fact that your mom made this every week. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean great, this is so, yes, until you realize, wait a minute I'm in high school, I don't make the basketball team, I start working a job, working at the mall, at a video game store. So my lunch is Cinnabon because, oh my God, I got a job. And now and?
Speaker 1:also delicious.
Speaker 2:And I can just walk across the way to Cinnabon, which normally this would be a big event. We're going to the mall and we're going to get. Now I'm like driving to work and I can go buy what I want, and so I choose the thing that I want to have because it was so specialized. And then, oh, but you're not playing basketball anymore, joshua, why am I gaining weight? Oh, you're driving Sedentary, so you're not moving your body.
Speaker 2:I didn't even know I could gain weight at the rate I did, until I stopped being active, started eating a certain way, because I didn't understand that your activity level impacts what you can. You know. Just, there's just more flexibility when you're more active. Just, period Didn't make that connection right. And so then I'm like, well damn, oh. Then I'm learning, oh, calories, and what type of calories? Where are those calories coming from? That fried chicken, that orange juice, pure orange juice, not watered down, just orange juice with my fried chicken. And we got French fries on the way, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:There wasn't this mindset that my activity level, and I love mom, love what mom was doing, loved all of it, and I did not love the way I started to look, which impacted who I wanted to be, which then shrunk me from opportunities around stepping out and being confident and bold. Haven't even got to dating yet. My food choices impacted me, finding someone that I was even comfortable entertaining as a girlfriend until I was deep into my 20s because I was so insecure about damn, I gained all this weight, not changing the way I ate because it's good and I don't have zero clue that my activity levels what I'm picking. All that was learned later, and so you look at it with a smile Wow, that was awesome.
Speaker 2:And I had to pay the price still to be able to awaken up new behaviors. That not about not eating it but about, like, how do you balance and put this into perspective for who you want to be? You can't keep eating that and want to be this. You got to change it right, and that's where the discipline and self-accountability takes over, regardless of where you are socioeconomically. Grew up in the South End in a very, very urban neighborhood. It wasn't Bellevue, it wasn't Sewer Park, right, these other affluent neighborhoods in Seattle. It was the South End, you know. And so we were limited, but yet I still lost the majority of my weight living in South End. So it can be done, but anyway I digress. Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1:No, and it's. I think, that a lot of this you bring up a really great point too, because this is so much, this is so much about education and knowledge. You said it, you know I'm hearing you and you're saying I didn't know, I didn't connect movement to how I felt in my body or gaining weight and how that contributed to how I felt as a human. You know your identity. That can be controlled with learning more and, unfortunately, well, joshua, like I mean, we didn't have freaking social media and TikTok and.
Speaker 1:Instagram, and maybe that's a good thing, because there's so many influencers right now that are preaching certain diets and certain modalities of movement and nutrition that are not going to benefit everybody. Could people benefit by eating whole foods? Yeah, I think the general consensus is eat whole foods. That's going to be better for you than processed foods. I think we all know that at this point. But the education is what I'm hearing that you had to learn that for yourself because you had no idea, because you had a mother who had part of her identity, was taking care of her babies with delicious, freaking food.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And the side effect for you was gaining weight and then not understanding, and you made that connection on your own, which a lot of people don't do or they can't face because it's too hard yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So, when we think about food serving no pun intended as a mirror around self-identity, I want to explore the idea of alignment versus misalignment, so how people's food choices may or may not honor who they want to be. And I'm curious, like from the people that you've worked with obviously confidential, I would say anybody's name, name but what you encounter in your, your world, around the decisions for people to, or the decisions people make to eat what they eat. What do they what? Why does it begin there for who they want to be, oftentimes, oh, I'm overweight, I gotta lose, I gotta lose this weight. Well, what's on that plate? Okay, I got to go on a diet.
Speaker 2:My experience with Weight Watchers Yep, atkins, oh, just no carbs. Great, cool, lost the weight. Bam, don't really know what I did. Lost it, picked it right back up. Because what I crave? Carbs again. So it was a temporary fix that gave me a result, but again, a part of what my education was around lowering carbohydrates because of the impact that it has. But it doesn't mean carbs are bad. There's some information missing here. So I think yeah. Back to the question. As I ask you again, what about this connection around who I want to be, this person. I have of myself visually that I want to be who I want to be this person. I have of myself visually that I want to be. And then I'm like, oh, what do I do about what I'm eating? What is?
Speaker 1:that connection between who we want to be versus who we are based on, kind of just this weight around our decisions, around making food choices. Yeah, that's a great question too, because I think a lot of this and we, you know, obviously we're digging pretty deep into some things and.
Speaker 1:I have notes on what I really wanted to say and I'm not saying any of it. So that's fine, We'll get to it and we'll let this just ride its course. But I think that you said something interesting, and this is why I love conversations and like and podcasts, because it is you say something and then it sparks me to say something and it sparks you to say something, and that's what I love about it. But you said something that I thought was really interesting.
Speaker 1:You said that you know, you, how you want to look and feel and and and there was a lot of emphasis on the outward appearance that we have and I want to go and feel, and there was a lot of emphasis on the outward appearance that we have and I want to go on record and.
Speaker 1:I want to say I'm doing it right now. Right, it's happening, but I want to go on record and say that in my experience, because I've been a metabolic coach, a macro counter with people, we're talking calories in and calories out. We're maximizing the metabolism. That's easy. That is honestly easy.
Speaker 1:What the hard part is is when people are so radical about doing it and they don't recognize that the issue is not how much you weigh, causes behind how you got there, whether that is chemical or biochemical, physiological right so maybe it's a hormonal imbalance or whatever or whether that's mental, emotional, psychological right, and we're not really uncovering these root causes behind how we're getting to where we're getting to or how we got there in the first place, because a lot of times it's hard to see that. So when I help people lose weight, it cannot be. It never, ever works. It cannot be. We are going to get you metabolically healthy just by reducing your calories and by increasing movement, because that person 97% of people this is an actual stat, 97% of people that lose weight, a significant amount of weight, 20 pounds or more will gain it all back and more within five years. Five, and then the stat is 91%. I'm pulling this off the top of my head.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:This is not on my notes, but I believe the stat was 91% gains it back within three years. So it just is so devastating how much we are connecting hey, I want to look better because I want to feel more confident. That's almost always why we're wanting to lose weight, but we're not connecting it back to how do I really want to feel as a person, in my own identity. How do I want to maximize my potential as a human and feel my best and be happy and confident in who I am? Is it just losing weight? It's never just losing weight, never. It is so much more than that. And if we don't uncover that part and that's why this conversation is so interesting it's how are you really nurturing each part of these identities that you have because you don't just have one in order to reach that potential and let weight loss or losing body fat, or however you want to say it, be the outcome or the symptom of you actually realizing who you are? You know.
Speaker 2:I mean that is, is it? It's almost the advertisement for health and wellness is. Well, yeah, this is beginning, and then, this is like the before and after, like that drives so much of advertising and marketing for fad diets, diets that are sustainable, holistic diets, like you will look and feel better and it's very aesthetic and surface. Yes, not knocking it, not judging it it's the starting point for many people, myself included.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right, it is often the catalyst.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you said this, and when we're talking about misalignment I did not forget about your question when we're talking about misalignment, you said this perfectly, because you said, basically, that there has to be a health crisis for someone to realign, because we can be a little bit wonky with how we feel about the foods that we choose and how we take care of our body because you don't have red flags the foods that we choose and how we take care of our body because you don't have red flags but what happens when a doctor suddenly diagnoses you with something or you get on the scale after you haven't gotten on the scale for a year, and you're upset and you're crying? That is now a health crisis that catapults you towards nurturing who you actually want to be, or who you think you want to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Ladies, I didn't say this in the intro, but, ladies and gentlemen, I should have said this this person that we're talking to, a catalyst in my health and wellness journey, like I Jimmy just played us out I would go to OTF, orange Theory Fitness Shout out to Orange Theory Fitness because you're a major part of my transformation physically. She was a coach there and we would line up. Many folks would line up for the treadmill. It was a thing when she was referencing and I hated running, so I was already doing something hard for myself. I hated running. So the fact that I'm even here at this gym and starting on a treadmill was already leaps and bounds.
Speaker 2:And Kelsey just has a way of like you're better than that. She just has a you're better than that mentality. Whatever it is, whether you love it or hate it or indifferent about it, she is committed to and, when it's all said and done, you're better than that. So what are you going to do to be better? That's just her vibe for me, and so she would challenge all the folks lining up on the treadmill because we wanted to get the in our minds. I want to get the hardest part of the workout done because we hate it and then we'll leave the weights Again. Otf is more like cardio with the kiss of weight. So it was not. It's not like sam weaver's of the world, it's not what you're going to experience elevation fitness. But I digress, that's just here nor there. The point is is that we were so like let me get this, this thing, done so I can get to what's easy and, you know, interesting mentality, right, that can serve you in certain ways. But what she was picking apart was the weights, that physique that you're looking for Because you're here for a reason and I bet it's probably aesthetic to start Go do.
Speaker 2:The harder thing is to slow yourself down, and this is what weight training gives you is slowing down and creating time under tension so your body can be processed by a delay in satisfaction. You can work on a treadmill, lose 10 pounds like that in two weeks, whatever, and it's not the whole picture. You need to marry the two right, this slow commitment to this long-term lifestyle choice and decision making that you're going to make, and weights represent that beautifully. Versus I want to be shot up at cannon. I got to get 10 pounds off for this wedding that I'm going to be in and I got to get this in. I got three months to do it. Treadmills is what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2:These are short-term fixes and guess what? That 97%, that 91% over the course of three to five years? It actually makes a lot of sense because our weight loss goals are typically attached to these micro events in our life that we got to get ready for the high school, graduation or when I'm back around for the holidays. When I'm doing this and back to Kelsey Weaver's mindset, deciding that I'm going to slow down my weight loss wherever the weight comes from whether it's muscle or fat, I don't care, just get it off me and waking us up to this is a lifestyle. Slow grind, that's what the weight room is going to give you, and that mentality is showing up in where you decide to start your workout. I'm going to stop there A little bit of a tangent, but I feel like I did a good job bringing it back.
Speaker 1:I loved your tangent.
Speaker 2:To align where we're going and being able to keep 80 plus pounds off by just watching how you lived, especially in this health and wellness world. But your thoughts, what comes up for you?
Speaker 1:So let's talk about that 3% really quick, the 3% of people that keep it off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:When did you lose all your weight?
Speaker 2:Yeah, when did you lose all your weight when it's been about 10, 12 years ago now.
Speaker 1:Cool, so you're 3%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, yeah. So I was feeling myself when you dropped the number too. I didn't want to make it about me, but yeah, I was like, yeah, I'm at 3%.
Speaker 1:I'm going to make it about you because I'm going to make it about me too, right, because I'm that 3% too. Yeah, right, because I'm that 3% too.
Speaker 1:So 100% of the people in this conversation are within that 3% of the population that kept it off and 100% of the people in this conversation can talk about how that actually happened. And I know because I've seen you have this incredible growth in who you are. And again we can come back to the topic of identity, right, what you did in order to nurture your identities, what I did to nurture my identities, and how that related back to the decisions that we needed to make to make sure that these identities were working for us. So 3% of the people are going to keep their weight off because they changed their entire life. 97% of the population are going to gain that weight back, and more Don't forget the and more.
Speaker 1:So they're, going to gain more weight because metabolically, they've downregulated right, so now they can't eat that much ever in order to keep the weight off. And so, when you think about this, 90% of people and you said this, and this is why I thought about it 90% of people are probably looking at the fad diets they're probably looking at I bet intermittent fasting will help me, or ketosis will help me, or Weight Watchers will help me. Can it be a catalyst 100% Weight Watchers will help me. Can it be a catalyst 100%? Is that your forever for you to launch into the 3% category? Hell?
Speaker 2:no.
Speaker 1:Right, so good job for being that 3%.
Speaker 2:Yes, ma'am, and same to you, same to you, thank you.
Speaker 2:And I want to acknowledge I spent a decent amount of my life not in the 3% to value, even more by the sacrifices to get. And you're 100% right, it was done in community. I was there at OTF, maybe by myself in person, but I had this whole work group connected to. We would shout out the OTF workout. So there's community involved here. There was who am I doing this? What's my why? Well, damn, and at the time I mean my.
Speaker 2:You know my hairline is pretty decent now, but I was concerned that it was going to go way back quicker, like my dad when he was rocking the cul-de-sac. I said, well, I'm not doing that and I'm not going to be bald and fat. I got to pick my poison. So that was a motivator factor for me Aesthetic, obviously. But these things really show up for us, especially as we get older and we want to preserve our bodies, and then your body's not working the same. You're not 20, you're 30, you're 40.
Speaker 2:And you can still maximize who you are by deciding that you want to make some real changes and they have to start small. They have to be small, sustainable. Deciding that you want to make some real changes and they have to start small. They have to be small, sustainable things that you build on, and that's the slow grind. That's the part of it that we I mean humans avoid often, often. So with that can we get let's get into a conversation about from your world, what are practical strategies to employ when we start talking about. I want better food choices to align with who I want to be when I look in the mirror, physically. When I look in the mirror, I want to see a better version of myself, whatever that means. That might mean weight gain for some people, that might mean weight loss for some people, but I want it to look a certain way based on how I see and envision my authentic self.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What do I do to do that without maybe falling into the fads or the quick fix? And I'm ignorant on this topic, but I know Exempic is kind of dominating our airwaves and our social media feeds around how to lose the weight right, and so your thoughts on how do we do this, what are your strategies that we can learn from how to do this and do it sustainably?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that, in my experience, it's the long-term solutions that are going to make the biggest impact, right? So I don't think I have to say this out loud, but I'm going to anyway. I think Ozempic is absolutely horrible, right, the side effects are devastating. But, with that being said, I think that something to consider is what are you doing right now and is this sustainable for you? Are you going to continue doing this five years from now? Are you going to do this 10 years from now? So if Ozempic is not something that you're going to do, or if you're like I don't know that I'm going to do Weight Watchers 10 years from now, why are we doing it now? Why are we trying to build habits? Habit forming is already so hard. It is so hard to build new habits and skills, so why are we doing things right now that are not going to benefit us in the long term or is not going to be part of our toolbox long term? So I think that part of this is connecting yourself to what identities you want to nurture, right? I kind of mentioned mine mother, wife, friend, musician, athlete. You know you should have so many of these and one of the.
Speaker 1:I love doing these sessions with clients because I think it can be so emotionally releasing. I have this conversation all the time, but if you envision yourself with your identities in five-gallon buckets, right, how are you filling up these five-gallon buckets of being a mother? I'm doing that by talking to my kids every day, by playing Mario Kart, which I do with my kids, right? It's having hard conversations about politics and about school and about sexuality. It's having hard conversations. That's how I'm filling up being a mother. How am I filling up being a wife? Being present, being supportive, aligning their goals with my efforts. It's being present with them in every way, right?
Speaker 1:There's so many things that we can be doing, so I think the first thing that I would challenge everyone to do is make a list of their own identities and then, from there, what values do you have that are important to each of these identities and what skills do we need to have to nurture each of these identities, right? So I mentioned my values, or my skills, or how I contribute to my kids and my husband. Those are just two of my many identities, right? And I think that that's important, because that goes deeper than just I want to lose weight and I think it's about my self-confidence and fitting into a smaller pair of pants. That is so it's surface level. Is that wrong? Hell, no, because everybody wants to do that and I think it's great to say it out loud that we absolutely have these surface level goals to feel better in our bodies. Yes, you should.
Speaker 1:What is underneath that? You have to dig the values and the characteristics and the time commitments that we have for each of these, and I think a big part of this is when things get hard, it is very easy for all of us to come back into. I need comfort, I need mom's fried chicken. Do I need? Well, I don't need hamburger helper, but I would pick like an apple fritter, for sure.
Speaker 1:Like, what are these things that would make us feel comfortable? That would push us off of the tracks? Something is always going to push us off of the tracks, and typically those are going to be the health crisis that we kind of talked about. It's going to be social events and occasions right, you can't control who brings what to the barbecue, but it looks really good, so you're going to have it right. It's stress and it's exhaustion.
Speaker 1:Those are the things that are going to push us off track and when that happens, is it always easy to connect us back to who we are as a person? All of these various identities we have? No, it's way harder. We're going to want to blur, we're going to want to step away from that because we feel small, because maybe we feel unsafe, because we need something that's going to bring us back and feel good in the moment. We need that dopamine hit right away.
Speaker 1:And so I think that if we can focus on what identities we have, the values connected, and we can also understand how we feel in each moment, right, nobody has that kind of time to be like right now, how do I feel? But when you're grabbing for something or it's like, oh my God, it was a long day and I need a glass of wine. So if you choose a glass of wine, why are you choosing the glass of wine? Is it just because something happened at work? Is it whatever it is? Is there stress and exhaustion involved? Was it a social event? What is it exactly? And then, pausing there, recognizing how you feel, I actually have this really cool tool that's the feelings wheel. Has everybody seen this? Have you seen this?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Oh, this is magic.
Speaker 2:This is magic, okay.
Speaker 1:This is magic. I actually I'll send it to you and if you want to like, you can do whatever you want with it. But it actually is amazing for connecting your emotions at that moment to who you are, how you're feeling in your own body and so on. But it's a wheel that's like more of the primitive kind of big emotions are in the middle and then it expands out to a little bit more detailed emotions, right, like, if you have anger there, you may have frustration, you may have whatever it is, and then it continues to go out to this big side of the wheel, anyway. So I think that a lot of this is understanding how you feel. And if you can't name that which for some of us it's hard to name emotions, if we can name those emotions, that is huge. And then if you are aware because we're trying to be more aware, self-aware then we can more connect to.
Speaker 1:Okay, do I need that glass of wine or that beer or that apple fritter that I'm craving? Because you know what I realized? I had a really tough day with my coworker and they said something to me that bothered me and made me feel less of who I am in my own identities and that felt like an attack to me. So I'm feeling sad, I'm feeling invalid, I'm feeling unsafe. What do I need to feel more safe? Do I need community? Do I need a conversation? Do I need a hug from my spouse? Do I need to talk to a friend? What do I actually need? Because it's probably not the glass of wine that you actually need. Does that mean that picking up a glass of wine is bad? No, but I think it's the exploration of why you're feeling that way that can be so eye-opening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. These are great strategies and this is why they are for me. Oftentimes, I'm speaking with a leader. It has a team. There's some weight pressure. There's some performative aspect of their life that they want to improve, and to improve is we.
Speaker 2:You have to stop spending time snorkeling and we got a scuba dive. We got to go to where the waters are darker and still, which is really to help you is to eliminate focus, because at the surface, it's really there's so many things to see. There's so many beautiful fish and the coral reef and I don't know if you've been snorkeling, but yeah, the snorkeling is beautiful, like the sun is out. It's hitting the water just right. There's so many things to look at that are pretty, and I like looking at pretty things, so it's just like, wow, go down deep for what? I'm going to miss this view, but something about getting deeper is that is responsible for the beauty. It's responsible that the waters are anchored in a way to create stability for us to access the surface, but it is in building the foundation that is stable, that allows you, for you know what?
Speaker 2:It's wine day. I haven't had one in a minute, but it's this day. It's hamburger day. It might be a day for fried chicken, joshua, yeah, but the stability of who I am is not in the surface of my feelings, but it is deeper connected to who I desire to be more of the time in more places, around more people, and that decision is a choice. You get to decide what you put in your body when you are conscious about what to put in your body. Again, there are many ways that you can do this, and we're not just going to beat up fast food places. There are items on that fast food menu that have a different set of information than maybe a burger and fry option the same $2.99 or whatever. The savings are that you are going to go spend. The fast food industry is responding to what gets served and bought more often, so it's really like we're looking in the mirror and we're looking at well.
Speaker 2:I want to serve you something else. Y'all keep saying this is what you want to buy. Well, if it wasn't in our neighborhoods, we would do better. Would you Right, would you? Yeah, you know? So those conversations require some self-accountability and some discipline around a deeper desire back to the foundation of who you want to be, not who you want to be in the moment, and you can do that no matter where you are. That is your responsibility. I say this all the time no one is coming to save you, no one. You're it, and guess what? You are fully equipped for the mission. So, anyway, this is a great conversation. I want to.
Speaker 2:I want to start moving us to one topic that really stood out from the outline that I shared with you was healing ourselves from our food and this, this connection between gut health and emotional wellbeing. And I don't know if that conversation has had a lot, but we are all emotional. We all have that anger you're talking about that fear, these. I'm overwhelmed From choosing differently around. What feeds our gut. Literally, your gut feeling about things is fed Like our gut instincts is what allowed us to survive for millions of years as human beings.
Speaker 2:So fear and oh, do we got to run? Do we got to fight? What do we got to do? Because we got to survive. So it is very much a part of our identity is to be in moments of survival mode, and so you're just going to eat what I just need to eat, so I need some sustenance. I got to to eat, so I need some sustenance. But as we implore more growth mindset and more like, well, wait a minute, do I have to choose this right now? Am I really suffering? So I have to pick this item because I can't deal with this thing that's happening at work, so I need the whatever that's full of calories and sugar. And then here comes my emotional wellbeing. It didn't improve. It was here for a moment and then went away. So, simply, the connection between what we feed our gut and how this impacts our emotional wellbeing. What are your thoughts on this?
Speaker 1:This is. I could talk about this for hours, so we'll talk about it for a few minutes, but I could talk about this one for hours. I am a big fan of nurturing the gut. I do a lot of gut health testing and I want to say that probiotics are not going to save your life.
Speaker 2:Ag1 and athletic creams are not going to save your life, and they're not necessarily when you say probiotics like supplements, you know kombucha, things of that gotcha Okay, they're not going to do it, not going to do it.
Speaker 1:No, supplements are just supplements. Are supplements Like? If we really think about what a supplement is, it is supplementing something that's already happening, right? So if we already have a beautiful home and we're happy with our home and you just got a fresh coat of paint on it and it looks really good, you're supplementing your home by taking care of the lawn, you're mowing it, you're making it look pretty, you're keeping it clean, whatever. So why? You know we don't have to talk about supplements forever, but this is important because I think a lot of people are like this saved me, this pill saved me and I'm less bloated. And whatever the case may be right, nevermind the thousands of dollars they're making on saying that out loud, right to a bunch of followers. But using supplements without actually looking deeper into what is actually going on is a lot like mowing your lawn while your house is burning down. Why are we taking care of something that doesn't really matter that much and we're really trying to make everything look good, but your house is coming down, right?
Speaker 1:So I think that when I'm thinking about the gut, there is a health crisis right now. All over that, everybody is getting diagnosed with IBS irritable bowel syndrome and it is insane when you look at the science the connection between the gut and mood disorders, depression, anxiety, autoimmune disease. There are so many things MS I mean crazy stuff. So when we're thinking about the gut stuff, so when we're thinking about the gut, we're thinking about a two-way superhighway of how the gut connects to the brain via the vagus nerve. There's this giant nerve that goes through your body. It's the biggest nerve we have called the vagus nerve. It is feeding information from your gut, your enteric nervous system, to your brain, your central nervous system, but it also the brain goes down and speaks to the gut too. So it's a two-way conversation all the time. So this is not only about how we eat to support the gut, which supports the brain. It's how we eat that supports the gut, that supports the brain to support the gut. So it's this cyclical relationship that we have to be thinking about. And so when we're thinking about gut dysfunction like I have IBS or whatever is happening that person often has anxiety, that person often has a mood disorder or they can't control their moods or they have major fatigue. Right, it's not just about the gut. Or they have gut dysfunction without actually having gut symptoms and they have other symptoms. So it's like oh, I have eczema. That actually is a gut problem, but people don't know that right, this is a mucosal barrier issue which often happens in the gut. So we're not even talking about.
Speaker 1:If your gut is messed up, don't tune out this podcast now, because you're like well, I don't have gas and bloating and I don't have loose stools and I'm not constipated. So this is not a conversation for me. It is always a conversation for you if you have a brain, because of the way that it connects to the gut. So if we support the gut and figure out what is going on and we nurture it based on what we know about your unique gut. Like I have this client who they came to me because they had IBS and they were constantly bloated, just chronic bloat, not sure what's going on. And in my mind I'm thinking, gosh, this sounds a lot like this or that or whatever which has to do with the gut.
Speaker 1:So I did a GI match with a stool test. You get to see the microbiome, you get to see bacterial populations, you get to see like parasitic infections, all these things. So I run this lab and I get it back and I'm floored. Actually, this doesn't happen to me often, but I'm floored because this person is basically barren. In the gut there's very little bacteria, almost no commensal bacteria, which is the good bacteria. We want this bacteria. We need this bacteria to create vitamins, minerals, all these things and really support us metabolically.
Speaker 1:What they did have was a couple very small overgrowths in pathogenic bacteria, and it was just two bacteria in particular, and that's it. There was really nothing else that was remarkable about this particular GI map, but they were experiencing insane symptoms. That was not only affecting their gut, but they had mass anxiety, they were extremely fatigued, they had mood swings, issues with libido, lots of things were happening and, granted, we also ran a Dutch test and so there's some hormonal stuff going on. But how much of this is in the gut? So they were barren everywhere except for these two overgrowth of bacteria.
Speaker 1:And when you can go in and you can nurture the gut with really strategic probiotics not just one random one, right, really strategic probiotic strategies, with a really healthy nutritional strategy, and you can also eradicate some of these bacteria that are causing this gas and bloat, we can get them back to normal and suddenly they're feeling better. Oh, my anxiety is gone, I don't have these mood swings, my libido is back. Does it take work? Absolutely, but how does this impact their emotional well-being? Who they are, who they want to be, is huge, and the gut played a huge role in that. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, yes, gut health makes a huge difference in your emotional well-being and not in the way that is just a. I feel bloated, so I feel uncomfortable and I feel bad and unattractive in a way that these gut bacteria can create so many issues and they can actually hijack the way that you think. So candida is another one. I could talk about this for hours. I told you but I'll wrap it up.
Speaker 1:But candida is another one. It's a yeast overgrowth and candida is prevalent in a lot of people that have sugar cravings. Those go hand in hand and that's because candida is a yeast and yeast loves sugar. Right, if you want to make a really good bread and you put your yeast in there, you've got to give it a little sugar for the yeast to feed on it and activate. So candida can live in the gut and it can create these sugar cravings by hijacking your brain, that big bagel nerve and saying hey, hey, brain, I'm gonna need some sugar.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna need you to give it to me. So is that you craving sugar? Yes, but is it because you have someone else named candida in the driver's seat often? Yes, yes. So there's just this really interesting connection and these studies and science coming out sharing how this gut bacteria, this microbiome, is actually affecting how you feel about yourself and how you feel about food.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my dad used to say this all the time you can't do much. If you don't know much, you can't do much. That was just a simple, simple saying.
Speaker 1:Brilliant.
Speaker 2:And this is why you all listen right. This is a heavy conversation on so many levels, because what you're saying is once I know more about myself and sometimes that term is used intellectually once I know more about me and I connect more with why this trauma and why these burdens and why this, why that happened to me, why I made that decision. We don't move that lens to capture well, who are you? How are you predisposed to choose the food you choose, that impact who you are and the parts of you that you have access to consciously, because there's an unconscious battle going on that's driving a lot of these decisions that are foundational, that you're just oblivious to. Because, again, even as you're talking about that, I'm like I didn't. I I haven't even thought of who I am really, who my authentic self is around my food choices that impact my behaviors, because a lot of my conversations are this I want to be my better self and that is still very vague.
Speaker 2:Your better self includes and I think this is appropriate it's allow your when you look in the mirror and you like what you see. I know that had a wild impact on how can I be better? I did the hardest thing, which was wake up and look in the mirror and have a body, a smile, skin, whatever it is outside that I could see. That was like I'm fucking with this guy. I really am this guy. Thank you for showing up, joshua. It's been a minute, but that feeling. You can't get that from a double tap on Instagram or a Cinnabon or another serving of fried chicken.
Speaker 2:No, you can get that minor dopamine hit though 1,000% and we can be addicted to the dopamine hits which may come right. They're not done happening for me. I want to keep that a buck too. And who are you when it comes to what you're picking to put in your body? That's connected to that foundational truth and not that temporary feeling that ebbs and flows and will always be accessible. You'll always be conscious of what's on the surface because it's right there in front of you. Yeah, it's deeper, right, and so this conversation really drives that point home. As we approach our close, I would love to hear about people that you've come across that have been sparked to think deeper about their food choices and connecting it to that deeper self of who they desire to be. That's beyond, maybe, the snorkeling level, and they've used your help to be able to break through their own journey around, their own self-discovery journey around food. Any highlights to share that you're proud of?
Speaker 1:Yeah, gosh, I've helped so many people and there's a few of them that really hit me deep in my heart, and one is recent. There's a couple that came to me that I got their labs back, and they came to me because they've been trying for two years to have a baby. Labs back, and they came to me because they'd been trying for two years to have a baby. And this story, for me, is just exactly why I do what I do. But they came to me because they couldn't have a baby and the doctors were like you need to get on IVF. This is how we're going to do it. We've got to figure out what the heck is going on and we're just, you know, we're going to do it the old fashioned way, with $30,000 of IVF every time right. And they weren't ready for that because ultimately, metabolically, they were unhealthy and they knew. They knew they're like we'd like to lose weight and we'd like to figure out what's going on. So we got their labs back and it turns out that it's interesting because the woman had hormone levels that should look like a man's and the man had hormone levels that should look like a man's and the man had hormone levels that looked like a woman's, so they had like this flip-flopping effect. Right, he was estrogen dominant, which high levels in males estrogen and testosterone balance out each other. He had really low levels of testosterone, really high levels of estrogen.
Speaker 1:We had to figure out why, with her, she had really high levels of testosterone.
Speaker 1:We had to figure out why, with her, she had really high levels of testosterone and she was kind of going down the androgenic pathway, which is a little bit more going to happen with people that have inflammation, pcos, polycystic ovarian syndrome, which makes it extremely difficult for people to get pregnant.
Speaker 1:So we had two major barriers, right, both of them were contributing hormonally in this, and so we needed to do some work and we needed to dig a lot deeper. We worked on their identities. We worked on they were a parent, they wanted to make sure that they were showing their children how to be healthy and how to empower themselves. So we were working on it together for about six months and it was really beautiful. They ran through, sometimes kicking and screaming some of the things that I really wanted them to focus on in order to rebalance their body and pull her out of these PCOS tendencies, which was never diagnosed by the doctor, but definitely we were going in that direction, and then him with the estrogen dominance. So we worked on it for six months and I got a text and I was the first person that they sent me a picture of their pregnancy test positive.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was like I literally started crying, no matter how many times this has happened, because, you know, I I have been so blessed to help so many people and I've been blessed to help a lot of couples achieve their health so that they could naturally become pregnant. Did I help them get pregnant?
Speaker 2:No, they did it themselves. Yeah, you weren't there for that part.
Speaker 1:I wasn't. I don't want to be there for that. I think there's a term for that and I feel like I learned that the other day what the term was for observing, and I'm like, oh my God, no.
Speaker 2:Oh, like voyeurism.
Speaker 1:I don't even know, I'll text you later. I don't even know, I'll text you later. But no, I was not there for that body. If given half a chance, will heal itself. You don't need to have medical freaking intervention all the time.
Speaker 2:That's a whole other conversation. But what a bomb. Your body is designed to heal itself.
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 2:You're not broken.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:You're not. Yeah, I mean, I mean yes to all of that story, such a beautiful story it was, it was just, it was.
Speaker 1:So it's those moments and I I feel like I want to start collecting little ultrasound or little baby photos and just keep them in my office yeah because it's it's so beautiful and that's obviously one of many different stories people coming off of medications and doctors shoving and I love modern medicine. It saves people's lives and I'm not hating on doctors either, because they are doing what they were educated to do.
Speaker 2:Thank, God, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:What I am saying is that there is so much more that we can do and we just have to go out and get it. So the people that I work with on a regular basis, it's always magical, it's always hard, it's never easy but, it is always worth it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep, yep, yep. Such a great discussion.
Speaker 1:Super fun.
Speaker 2:Super great discussion, super fun, super great. I'm walking away from our conversation. I'm walking away with a few things and, yes, listeners, I'm going to share them with you so you can take out your notepad. Food choices matter. They shape our identity. Who do you want to be and not just who you want? Oh, I got to work more, I got to get a higher paying job because it's going to afford me this. You fuel that vessel with information. I love this connection between food being information. What information are you feeding your physical self that impacts you emotionally and spiritually?
Speaker 2:Sustainable health requires addressing root causes, not just symptoms. Aligning your diet with core values drives change. I don't know if you guys picked that up Aligning your food choices and we didn't get specific around eat this, eat that. That's not the point of this conversation. You'll follow it with Kelsey later and she'll give you a whole plan on that. But what your diet consists of from a core value standpoint is what's going to drive a lasting change.
Speaker 2:I knew I wanted to be a different person deep down, which was more of me, which knew I wanted to be a different person deep down, which was more of me, which means I wanted to be more confident in spaces that I usually would shrink from Shit. I like the way I look in that suit in front of this audience of people. But what am I doing for this audience of people? Awakening them, inspiring them, being motivational, being me and I just like that me packaged in a 42-long suit versus a 52-long suit, I don't know. That was a start for me.
Speaker 2:Gut health profoundly impacts mental and physical well-being. I mean, again, she can talk about this. You can feel the passion and quick fixes fail. Holistic approaches endure, right, quick fixes are exactly what they are and, in essence, they're not even fixing anything at all. They are a temporary quote, unquote solution for a temporary moment that is fleeting. And yes, joshua, all moments, ironically, are fleeting, but there are some that can last to become a lifestyle, depending on how much time you have on this planet. Emotional awareness enhances food decision-making choices. Knowledge empowers healthier choices and this last one for me, which was really powerful, which came out towards the end of our conversation, right, authentic transformation demands practice.
Speaker 2:You went self-awareness as well as commitment, but authentic transformation is something we practice. It's not in a place to arrive to right the slow grind of the weight room and lifting weights and working out and setting the time out. That is what people are practicing daily, and those have outcomes that look very different depending on how often people practice, and that is a decision. You don't need to, I'm telling you. Outside parks I do a lot of government work.
Speaker 2:Seattle Parks and Recreation I do a lot of government work. Seattle Parks and Recreation, metro, the city of Portland there are a lot of free options that require nothing but your effort. We can have the social, economic conversation about what people have access to all day long, and still we have to look at that as a mirror back to us about our choices, and no one is coming to save you. You have all the means to access more of who you want to be, and those are conversations like this that awaken you to a light, a path that you might've avoided because it was a block. You just didn't know it was there, like Kelsey and I's conversation. I didn't know. Oh, you don't work out as much. Yeah, that's going to have an impact on your waistline. Damn Shit. I like the way it tastes. Yep, these are decisions. These are decisions and not reasons not to make a decision. So, kelsey, anything you would leave us with. And I also want to make sure people know how to find you. That deserve to find you.
Speaker 1:I would say one thing that I wish someone had told me at the beginning of my journey, and I don't know if someone told you. I know I told you, but you and I haven't known each other for 10 years, right. We've known each other, for I don't know seven or eight maybe at this point.
Speaker 1:So over the course of your time. But I think one of the things that I wish that someone had told me, and that I think it's important to always highlight, is that you're never going to be perfect in your diet. You're never going to be perfect in your nutrition and your lifestyle and your mindset and all of these things that need to be aligned in order for us to feel our best, and that it's okay to make mistakes and then learn from them and not have self-judgment, because I think so many times, many of us are type A, myself included, and it's the type A personalities, it's the go-getters, it's the constant I can't sit down. People those are the people that get sick, and it's really people. Those are the people that get sick. And it's really, really devastating because if you think about I always use this example but like Lance Armstrong, when he got cancer, it was like what the hell?
Speaker 1:He's so healthy, is he? We don't know what was going on. Was there so many stressors? Was there so much that was happening on his body? Was his immune system lacking? What was happening? And so I think that if we can all slow down just a little bit more not perfectly, I'm not asking you to go to a bunch of yoga retreats or anything, but if we can have less self-judgment and know that Joshua's going to have fried chicken, he's going to do it and it's going to make him happy in that moment. Does that moment define him? Absolutely not, but did it in that exact moment For sure, and that's okay. Is Kelsey going to have an apple fritter? Maybe, and when she right, I'd say maybe more ice cream, right? More ice cream, more prone to ice cream now.
Speaker 1:But, is that happening? Is that because I'm losing touch with who I am? Absolutely not. I know exactly who I am. I know exactly why I'm making that choice to go to salt and straw or whatever with my kids, because, again, I'm nurturing different parts of my identity. But I can walk away from that and not have the shame or the judgment on myself and I can look at, I can zoom out and I can see. What does my landscape of my life look like? It looks pretty damn good, even with the salt and straw or the glass of wine after dinner or my blow up when I got mad at something and I didn't handle it the way that I wanted to. Who cares? Like, let it go and just move on.
Speaker 1:This mentality of all or nothing, of black and white, will slowly kill us all and I think that if we can like live a little bit more in the gray, then that would be so magical for all of us and our health to just stay more balanced, right. So that's what I would say. It would be kind of my. I love the conversation we had.
Speaker 1:I don't want anybody to walk away this conversation feeling like, well, I just have to put on a gold star and walk around making perfect food choices and have chicken and asparagus and brown rice Hell, no, nobody lives like that. They shouldn't Go and enjoy your life making choices that make sense for you. And if you don't know the choices that make sense for you, because your body is feeling a certain way and there are symptoms that you don't feel happy with, just find out why. Find out why they're there and get to the root cause and don't be, don't be, don't have knee jerk reactions to symptomatic issues. So that's what I would say would be kind of my hey cheerleader over here. Let's just let's get after what makes sense for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's get after things that make sense for us. Thank you, Ms Weaver. Kelsey to the stars yeah, great conversation. How can people find you?
Speaker 1:You can find me on Instagram. I'm pretty active on Instagram at healthwithkelsey it's an easy one. I'm at theholistichealthlabcom you can find me there. I had a season one of my own podcast on the Mend on Spotify. We're actually going to do a season two starting tomorrow, so I'm pretty excited about that. You know who my co-host is going to be.
Speaker 2:Who's your co-host?
Speaker 1:Well, I wish it was you. It's Sam. Sam and I are going to be doing it together.
Speaker 2:Sam Weaver, who just congratulations to our brother. He just competed finished with his second, second, second place. Finish right. Yeah, as a newbie really on the scene.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:This guy? He's. What is it? He's kicking ass and taking checks. Or taking checks and kicking ass? It's one of them. He's doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's tan and jacked all the time.
Speaker 2:He's just walking around with it.
Speaker 1:So he and I are going to start that. Actually we're doing our first one tomorrow, so that'll be really fun, but that's how you can find me.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Well, thank you again for joining us. You have been such a blessing in my life and many of you don't know this. If those of you that have stayed to the end, here's a little Easter egg Kelsey inspired my decision to move forward with executive coaching and leave my corporate job to go find more of who I am and not be limited by a structure. I had to. Now, again, there's still structure, but I wanted to pick a different structure and I watched her journey around educating herself and fighting for who she wants to be. And again, the journey is not over ever is it designed to be. But that part of what I was able to witness helped motivate and inspire and spark a newness in me to go and get lost in finding more of who I am.
Speaker 2:Out. So a big deal and a heavyweight in the Joshua Fields. If they had told the story of Joshua Fields, kelsey Weaver would be in the story One thousand percent. One thousand percent. She's in the story. She made the cut. I don't know who would play you. There would still be some. Consider, I think maybe Anne Hathaway.
Speaker 1:Anne Hathaway and hathaway. She's great. She's great, yeah, I mean who knows?
Speaker 2:I don't know who you want to play you, but they would be in the movie of joshua shields and hathaway's a great.
Speaker 1:Who's playing you?
Speaker 2:oh, that's a great question. I was actually gonna hope I could play I don't know why you wouldn't oh this sounds magical.
Speaker 1:Wait, who would play Jeremy?
Speaker 2:Jeremy, jeremy, he's got a. Not Cuban Gooding Jr, who's the brother Omar Omar Gooding? Yeah, I think that that would be. Yeah, that's a good one, that's a good one.
Speaker 1:That's also a good one. So he's not going to play. He's not playing himself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, he might write the movie for me.
Speaker 2:You know he's doing his thing on the Hollywood front, but he's got some special stuff coming up that I will let him announce on his own Instagram account. You do not get my airways for any more of your social capital would be raised. With that said, kelsey, again, thank you so much. It has been a delight to have you here. I look forward to more conversations, because there's a lot more places in this discussion that deserves a double click, and we will save that for more. Can't do it all, can't eat the elephant in one sitting, so we're just going to take.
Speaker 2:This was just a toenail. I don't know if you guys are into elephant toenails, but this is what this conversation was. We just scratched the surface. I know I'm going to leave you with that visual. Thank you all so much for joining us. Take it off Podcast. See love and grow.
