Transcript for Episode 08

00:05

Hi, good peeps. Welcome to the flexible neurotic podcast. You know that friend that you can call to ask anything? That's me. Dr. Sarah Milken. I'm known to my friends as the flexible, neurotic. What does flexible neurotic even mean? Let me be neurotic while I take out my golden shovel to dig deep for all the golden nuggets in the hottest topics, from parenting, to education to neuroscience, and maybe even some beauty secrets. So we can all start living more flexibly. Come join us for edgy conversations with rad moms. Innovative thought leaders and well being practitioners helping you find that sweet spot between chaotic and chill. If you're craving that sweet spot, grab your golden shovel with me. You will walk away with nuggets you can start using today.

01:01

Hi, good peeps. This is the flexible neurotic podcast. I'm Dr. Sarah Milken, the flexible neurotic. Today I have a very special guest. She's all the rage right now. Especially in Los Angeles, where you can get her five day cleanse with 45 vegetables in soups, homemade and brought to your door. Her name is Alyssa Goodman, the holistic nutritionist. Many of you are probably saying I know her I've heard about her soup cleanse, and I see her all over Instagram and wellness sites. That's her. I secured my hour with Alyssa. So here we go. Alyssa Goodman, as I said, is a holistic nutritionist and lifestyle cleanse expert. After being diagnosed with cancer at 32 and then losing her husband his own fight with cancer. Alyssa dove deep into finding solutions for helping to cure cancer and many other health problems. Her quest to heal her own cancer led her into being a fountain of health and lifestyle change and solutions for 1000s of her clients. In addition to her best selling book cancer hacks and her upcoming book auto immune hacks. Alyssa continues to grow her five day homemade soup cleanse and her signature sidebars. You should see her waiting list of people trying to get some of her magic lifestyle secret sauce. She's a gorgeous person inside and out and just exudes energy. She will be sharing her energy secrets with us today. Hi, Alyssa. Hello. It's so good to be on. I'm so excited. Yes. And to be like one of the early words on your show. That means a lot. I know. I thought okay uhealth Alyssa Goodman da.

02:48

Thank you. Oh, my pleasure. I want to start with my intentions for the episode. My intentions for this episode. As it is for all my episodes of the flexible neurotic, it's for us to dig deep in an edgy conversation about how we can find our sweet spots between neurotic and chill. You know some of my story of being the flexible neurotic. We are going to discuss with Alyssa how she has taken out her golden shovel and helped find her second life path and the sweet spot between healthy and unhealthy self care, balance and her flexible approach to wellness and her incredible toolbox. Alyssa has an incredibly layered story because she really has led to life paths, one filled with self judgment, fear unhealthy life habits and stress. And the second path filled with meaningful purpose good mental and physical health. Her second path has led her to finding her sweet spot between chaotic and chill. So hopefully by the end of this episode, we're going to know these four top things. Number one, what did Alicia's life look like before her cancer diagnosis at age 32? And what is Alyssa second life look like now? Are you getting ready Alyssa? Hi yah. Number two, facing the second half of life with curiosity. What do you good physical and mental health look like and feel like? Number three, this is a good one for especially with teens right now for me. What did raising her two kids look like after her cancer diagnosis and the passing of her husband from cancer. And the fourth one, Alyssa is golden nuggets for how we can try to recreate ourselves in the second half of life. In her case, it was a pain point a major life event that led her to the next step of finding personal answers that led to her career and helping others achieve health. Some of you might already know some of Alicia's amazing story. But I want her to take us through her version of her life before the cancer diagnosis and dive into how she's helped others and herself. Wow.

05:00

Wow, I did my research. You did your research. Yeah, woman. Yeah, that is, it's part of me. It's hard. But now we're gonna get flexible with Alyssa. I have never heard someone come in with a podcast with that much information. What do I even need to say now? Because you said it all you need to tell us everything from your perspective. Yes, you're right. Give us an overview. Your childhood, your husband, your career move. Well, childhood. Interestingly, I know a lot of people can relate to this. I was raised with very type A parents. They were very motivated, they were educated. They were movers and shakers, they were very entrepreneur, they were ready to take on the world. So it was really kind of hard to live in a shadow of them growing up because it was always all about them. I mean, we can relate to that. I mean, I always looked up to them, I was amazed at what they were able to do in a day. The thing that was hard for me was that when I came into the world, I had a low immune system, I was always getting sick. So everything chicken pox and strep and tonsillitis and shingles, and mono and, you know, just allergies and digestion issues. I mean, the list goes on and on. I feel like there isn't anything that I didn't have like a hot mess of a kid, it sounds like Oh, poor thing totally. And antibiotics all the time, or, you know, just not being able to do a lot of things because my mom was afraid I was going to get sick. So it was a double whammy. I had these parents that were like moving a million miles an hour. And then here I was the Slowpoke, wondering why I can't keep up and why I was always feeling bad. And behind the eight ball. So that was the beginning of my childhood. So of course, I felt low self esteem, low self worth, you know that I was never going to measure up, I was never going to be as successful. And potentially, my identity was that I was never going to be healthy, never ultimately gonna thrive in my life. So it was an identity that I was associated with, that I carried with me until much later in my years too late to want to acknowledge but at least I did. And I was able to get an older brother. I did, he was three years older. And how did that play into the family dynamic was he like the perfect one, he was the perfect one. He was the golden child. And I posted this on Instagram a few weeks ago, like I was always the black sheep, I was always going a different direction. But I was a seeker, you know, is always seeking for something better for how he's gonna feel better for just do things better. And I was always the one that really wanted to feel life and to feel connection with people and the intimacy of connecting with people. And I just always was kind of, you know, not going down the family lineage of what we had been taught. Now we sort of are interested in this idea of living outside the box and thinking outside of the box. And it's really encouraged. But back then, it wasn't encouraged. I mean, I remember that. I mean, I talked about in the other episodes, like I'm a very performance driven person, too. And I was like, I'm going to go to school, and I'm going to take these classes, I'm going to get A's and then I'm going to do this and then I'm going to do that. But sometimes I wish I had more of the exploration of creativity or thinking outside of the box during those formative years. For sure, Yes, I know. I mean, I definitely had that. I did get into trouble a lot. Right? Exactly. Because you don't follow the rules. You're the black sheep, you're always always in trouble always, you know, stepping on toes, always like mixing up the dynamic, which people don't like. I kind of always did that. But now when I sit here with you today, I mean, I love that I did that, because I got to really experience life at that really gut root level. So how did that change your parenting?

09:11

Oh, wow. It's been such an incredible process. Not an easy one at all. I mean, as you and I know, raising kids in LA or I think you grew up in LA and I grew up in LA and I've had two kids in LA so but the LA back then was a little different. I mean, now with social media. Forget it, you know? Oh, right. So I mean, the kids went to private school. My husband and I were definitely overachievers. We're definitely trying to keep up, you know, because we were just following in the footsteps of our families. And when he got sick, and he passed away, you know, the rug was completely pulled out from underneath us. Yes, we had a really great support system because where the kids went to private school, the families were amazing and they were friends and they were still

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super supportive, but all of a sudden it was like, Oh my god, I'm a single parent, never dreaming that I would ever have to do that. And I wasn't working at the time because my husband was and thinking, oh my god, am I going to have to go back to work and support them and all the feelings of like, holy shit, what the hell is ahead for me? You have to keep your shit together, and your kids shit together? And where do you even start when your life is sort of unraveling like that? I can't imagine so well. It didn't go so well. We floundered and I made a lot of mistakes, you know, I still continue to push my girls, you know, like I was pushed, which was the very big mistake, because the stress of it all, they just couldn't manage. And I couldn't manage it. either. I was trying to uphold this whole idea of this perfect family that was okay. But we really weren't Okay, so it was really challenging. But as time has gone on, I mean, now, we all believe in therapy, and, you know, we're communicators. So we have really dove deep into our traumas and our psyche, and our just emotional well being, that it's been a blessing in every way. I mean, the three of us, you know, whereas I would have said, you know, 15 years ago, we were at odds to some degree for those years periodically, but now we are because these were so close, we don't really make a move without each other we are we're really supportive, you know, and I now realize how much I want them to voice how they like things, they don't like things, I want them to feel the sense of freedom to tell me what's right and what's not. Right. I was never given that it was never okay to say, hey, what you said, or what you did made me feel bad, or I didn't really like that. So I was never able to voice how I felt. Yeah, I can completely understand that. I feel like based on your childhood, when you were the sort of quote black sheep out of the box thinker. In some ways, you think when you come back as a parent, you're gonna raise your kids in this idealistic way of how you weren't raised, but then when the shit hits the fan, and you're there, you sometimes revert back to how you were raised. So then you have these life events come in, like your diagnosis, and then your husband's diagnosis, and it's like, oh, shit, maybe I should be doing this differently. Maybe I really do have to listen to those inner voices of what I didn't like in my childhood and actually fix those things.

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And I had to you know, why is because I knew my cancer was caused from being suppressed not voicing how I felt, you know, that very much emotional suppression, and anxiety suppresses the immune system. So or the fear of maybe getting sick. I mean, my girls had two parents who had cancer, and automatically I thought they were gonna think they're gonna get cancer. So that fear of always looking over your shoulder thinking, Oh, my God, my parents had cancer, maybe that might happen to me someday. That is absolutely the goal of what I didn't want them to feel. And I wanted to figure out a way to release that fear and reduce the trauma release the PTSD of losing their dad, you know, to be able to live a life where they felt some sense of freedom. That has been the total goal. And then the nutrition thing just came out of all of that. It was interesting, I didn't want to become a nutritionist. I never dreamed I'd be here sitting here talking to you about cleansing and nutrition. That's a good story. good story. It fell into my lap like crazy. It was like, basically wanting to get healthy, and make sure they were healthy. And then I went down the nutrition route. Then I got trained in a little bit of trauma work and therapy and figuring out how to release those thought patterns. Then I went into energy healing, which I loved for years where energy healers can go in and actually release thought patterns that aren't working for you and teach you ways to release them yourself by journaling, or meditation or all those things. I mean, I explore them all.

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Like a vending machine of mental health, right? I did. I did. Wow, I wanted to actually try everything in that vending machine. And I'm glad I'm so glad I did because it has opened up my world in a way that I never dreamed was possible. Between you and me. I never had inner peace ever, ever until probably about two or three years ago. I never knew what intercom meant. I didn't live like that. What does it mean to you? intercom means that everything's going to be okay. That you are good enough. You have enough materialistic you might not think you have enough but really you do have enough and that that I love myself. I love myself for all my flaws.

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And to love yourself is huge, because that really does calm down the body. And when I talk to my clients, and I say to them, Do you love yourself? The answer is always, I never thought about it. And no, I don't like, you know, I love everybody else around me, potentially, but I never think about loving myself. So that that's what that peace what is loving yourself mean, I know that you've talked about it as sort of the cornerstone of the health lifestyle process? How would you define it? loving yourself means you put yourself first, you know, it's just like that oxygen mask that they say on the airplane. I mean, we we all know that. But we do not do that. I'm not saying we're being narcissistic, or anything like that. But we need to take care of ourselves and make sure that we're energetically in a good place we feel fulfilled, you know, we have a sense of calm about life. Yes, there's gonna be moments of not calm. But overall, we realize why we were put on this planet, there's a reason why we're here, we're all here for a reason. And if we can find that reason, and we can find what really gets us up every day energizes us and excites us. I mean, that's what life is all about. And also loving yourself means taking care of yourself, you know, eating, right, sleeping, well, just the pillars of, you know, knowing what your identity is not attributing your identity to a past life, or a past circumstance, like I did with the health or the self poor stuff, because I couldn't keep up with what my parents were doing. My road was different. So it's all of those things. That's what love is, is just realizing you're maybe never going to be like them, but you're going to be something else, and it's going to be so fulfilling to you, and you're going to be healthy. Because you're going to take care of yourself. First and foremost. That's really what self love is all about. And when you find that, and you let go of a lot of the frustrations and the fear, and the self doubt and self worth and the lack of self worth, everything opens up for you, when you manifest things, and you just are like open to whatever happened. It's like the synchronicity of opening doors. Yes, absolutely. It's like you open one door, another door opens, another door slightly opens and you keep pushing a little bit harder. And then the next one opens. That's what I have found, even in this podcast process of starting something new starting from scratch, starting small, it's so hard for someone like myself, who's 45 years old with a PhD, you know, with all of these sort of like accolades, but then with the podcast, it's brand new, and I'm starting over and I'm starting super small. And how do you put yourself out there? It's a very vulnerable spot to be in. Yeah, it's very vulnerable. But vulnerability is where it's at. You know, right when you're open and vulnerable.

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I'm like, Oh, my God, I have to put myself on social media.

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I know that was a hard one for me, especially at my age, because I went on at 50. So or maybe a little later. How did you make that jump? Can you give me some advice? Oh, my God, I'm not sure. Is that like a whole dinner for us? Social media. Now being 60 and still being on it's still hard. It's still hard. Because, you know, I feel like I'm kind of one of the older ones on there. I feel older at 45. I'm like, Oh my God, who am I? Why am I doing this? How am I doing this? It's true. It's Turkey. But then when I get the stories back from people who I can touch their heart, or I can help them in some small way. Um, it doesn't have to be a huge way. But if I'm helping people just make little changes in their life that are transformative. It's what it's all about it I will do this forever until I can't. I think that knowing what your why is and you have a very clear why do you want to tell us how you see your why.

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Yes, my why is that I really want to teach people that they don't have to live with illness with self doubt, with lack of self love, not thriving, they don't have to just survive in their life. I see that a lot. I want them to learn to thrive. And it's not that hard. There's easy things that they could do to get to a life that's really fulfilling and health wise to you don't have to live with cancer and autoimmune and diabetes and hormone issues. There are so many fabulous things out there that you can do to transform that and not ever have to live with that stuff again. Yeah, I'm happy you said that because I feel like for a lot of us who are listening to this podcast or sort of in our

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Second half of life sage, which sounds so I don't know what but I don't think there's a better term for it, because it is what it is. But I think it's interesting to think about what our next steps are, or what are the next tiny, small micro steps that we can take to figure out what the next big step is, and all the small habits in between. So I think first of all, I want to ask you, how did you make that leap from, I'm sick, I have this cancer diagnosis, I want to get healthy. I'm gathering all this information from my vending machine of mental health. Now I'm going to nutrition school, because I think it's important for listeners to get suggestions or tips of how you take a very small little passion in your life or Spark, and turn it into your why, how do you do that? I think that you really have to listen to your instincts and your inner wisdom. I mean, I think we all came into the world with incredible instincts. We all know what we want to do in our life, which direction we want to go what people we want to hang out with. So after two years after my husband died, you know, when I was saying we were floundering a bit and I was definitely floundering, and not feeling very energized and feeling really low energy, and not well, mentally, I just was like, This is not how I want to live my life, my gut instincts and my intuition said, like, Look, you really need to get your shit together, because you have two girls that are relying on you to be a strong person and to live as long as you can. Because you're in for them at the moment. So my intuition one day when I was having lunch with a girlfriend, and she said, What do you want to do? And I said, God, I'm so interested in just getting healthy and really being strong for these girls. And then she's like, oh, I've heard of this school, that integrative nutrition school that you could maybe check out at the time they weren't doing online. It was in New York City. It's very big right now the Institute of integrative nutrition. Yeah, I was like, do I need a degree from now?

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On I don't know. Yeah.

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But I found one here. And it was actually even better was a two year program. I was actually in classroom with a group of women that were amazing. And we got to learn so much more. Are you Vedic medicine, Chinese medicine, herbal remedies, supplements, you know, all the western modalities. We got to learn about trauma, and you know, the gut brain connection. I mean, it was so phenomenal. And once I got into it, it was like, holy crap. This is so much fun. That's cool. still around? I don't think it is. It was a nonprofit organization in Beverly Hills. It's called the American University of complimentary medicine. And the woman who ran it passed away years ago. So I'm not sure but I started using the modalities that I learned and I started feeling so much better and healthier and stronger, like more so than I ever had. So things started to open up for me in that regard. And then it was, after I graduated from the program, I have a really good friend who had brought down cafe gratitude from San Francisco. And they had just opened our large mine. And my background is marketing and advertising. I grew up in that and that's what I did for years. And she said to me, you know, why don't you put a cleanse together for cafe gratitude, with your marketing advertising. And also their food was very easy to put a cleanse together. And it was like that was the door that led me to everything else. I mean, she opened up this door for me, I'll never I mean, I'm so grateful and thankful that she did. And I really handheld cleansers for about four and a half, five years with them. And a year into that and cafe hired me to do a macrobiotic cleanse. So I kind of landed into this whole cleansing world which Who would have known and it would have gone down. expert of Los Angeles, especially

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bizarre still today. I like what cleanse expert, but cleansing isn't about starvation, deprivation. It's really about just eating really healthy whole food. You know, I know when I heard you on the goop podcast, I was like, that's so funny. Like cleanse is sort of like a dirty word. Yeah, it has a bad connotation. It does. It's like oh my god, am I gonna be starving? And am I gonna have a hangover headache? I can't wait to talk about that with you. Yeah, you touched on doors being opened and having maybe a mentor? How would you suggest for listeners or people like us to sort of knock on those doors and ask for help and about the receivers of that like willing to take a leap on somebody new or trying to open a door for someone I mean, even me calling you and saying Hey, will you do this podcast? You do feel like well, what if she says no, what if she doesn't want to do it? And there's so much self doubt so what do you

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say to the people who want doors open for them and for people who can open doors for other people? That's a great question. Because I think that's what it's all about, you know, is helping others in terms of, if I can open doors for people, I absolutely love that. The first part though the answer to wanting to call someone, and ask for help, or ask for something, and you're afraid that you're going to get a no on the other side. We all have that fear. I don't know too many people who are, don't have that fear. But they don't show it. They don't show it. They you know, never let them see you sweat Ray course. So like Aaron said, Yeah, I tried not to. But yeah, I just put makeup over the sweat. I just put makeup right over it. But I feel like if you don't ask for what you want, you're never going to get what you want. Never. So there always are tons of people out there preaching the fact that they asked and they asked, and it got no, no, no. And then finally got that, yes. And then it was like, Oh, my God, everything opened up for them. So again, you can't give up on yourself, you're here for a reason, you're important, you're worth loving that person on the other line of the phone or whoever you're going to need wants to meet you for a reason. That's what I always believe. Maybe the timing isn't right. But at some point, the timing will be right. And that will work out. So but I also think it's just about paying it forward. It's like you do me a favor. And I actually had a college graduated from Northwestern. And I had a conversation with her today. And I was like, she doesn't have a job right now I need extra help. She and I aligned. So why don't I give her an opportunity if I can to jump in with me and open a door. So I think if we can all sort of stop and think about like, the next call that comes in or even reaching out to someone who you know, might need that extra door opened, I think it's a great concept of paying it forward and supporting women starting small. Absolutely. Now more than ever, I mean, we need the community, we need the connection, we need to feel good about what we're doing in our lives. I mean, that is what makes me feel good. It makes me feel good when people get healthy. And it makes me feel good when I can help someone. That's really what it's all about. When people feel connected to you and feel like you are safe person, you know, you will take the time to help them. I mean, I think that's the best feeling ever. Yeah, it's like double purpose. It's like the person getting that assistance feels purposeful. And the person giving the assistance feels purposeful. So it's a nice little swirl. Right? It's not all about me. I think that's how we do get successful. As you know, this is not all about me, this is about everyone else. I mean, I do take care of myself, like I said, but it's not about me becoming a big nutritionist at all. No, it's just the ebb and flow of it all. And that's why it's hard as it was to say, Okay, I'm going to start really small and be really vulnerable and put myself out there. Unless you make one small step. And we're going to talk about health small steps in a second, then you're sort of paralyzed. And so I'm hoping that, you know, by having women talking to more women and listening to podcasts like these, that some people will feel that sense of Okay, I can try this, I can do this, even if it's not, you know, I'm not Bernie brown tomorrow, I'm doing my service of my why. Absolutely, literally, also, as we age, we need more purpose in our life, you know, so I feel so grateful and lucky that I got to have a second life, you know, a second purpose. So I know I talked to so many women who aren't healthy, who don't feel good about themselves. They raised their kids, they stopped working, or they weren't even loving what they were doing prior to like stopping work and raising their kids. Right. We hear that all the time. But they're like, how do I recreate myself? How Do I have a second life? What do I do with my life? You know, it's like, it's a pretty amazing thing to be able to have this gift and to be able to reinvent yourself. Yeah, the recreation process, the recreation process. It has so many little parts to it. And I think it gets overwhelming because you think you have to solve it all in a day. But it's really again about those tiny steps in switching gears for a second since you did cure your own cancer and put hashimotos into remission. I want to ask you what cancer prevention looks like on a daily and long term basis. What can we do to prevent cancer? I know there's this whole idea of epigenetics, can you kind of give us the

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Cancer Prevention for dummies?

30:04

Absolutely, absolutely. There is a book out there that is one of my all time favorite books. It's called radical remission. It's by Kelly Turner. And it's really incredible. She did her PhD and she interviewed I think it was stage three and four cancer might have been just for cancer cases. And she came up with 10 modalities of how they heal themselves. They did not do Western medication, it was holistic healing. seven of those modalities were emotional stress, just definitely everything to do with the mind and emotions, PTSD, trauma, then eighth, one was food. The ninth one was supplements and the 10th. One was exercise. So I'm always like, Oh, my God, seven out of the 10 had to do with the mind and the emotional stuff that we carry around our subconscious. our subconscious is fully downloaded by the age of seven. So if anything traumatic happened in those first seven years, we carry it with us. And we operate 90 to 95% out of our subconscious on a daily basis, which blows by blows my mind. I just interviewed Ryan hadden, who's a hypnotherapist and a life coach for poosh last week, and I've done some hypnosis with her. And it's really amazing when you have someone who knows a little bit of your story, and has it a little unpacked, and they can develop this tape for you to really listen and retrain your thoughts. It's an incredible process. It is it is there is I mean, there are tons of spontaneous remissions, there's, you know, healing going on out there that we don't hear about. And it's because we have basically released the trauma and the subconscious of not good enough and no self worth and all of those things that we were maybe given in those early years. What that does is it really does calm down and reactivate the immune system, so it's not compromised. So the immune system can work better and stronger. Because when you have those negative thought patterns circulating, the immune system is completely compromised, your digestion shuts down when you're stressed. So that's a big one. It's trying to find distressing mechanisms. You know, sleep is a huge one, I know we've kind of been brought up in a lack of sleep environment in terms of you know, got to get everything done. And sleep has become kind of on the side. But that's when the body replenishes and reset. So sleep and finding ways to de stress finding ways to emotionally like I said love yourself, those are huge anti cancers. Then the other thing is I became a juicer when I had cancer. I feel like that was a lifesaver. So I do screens like five out of the seven days a week, I feel like it's a liquid IV of vitamins and minerals. So the problem is we are not getting enough nutrients at a cellular level right now. There's not nutrients in the soil and in our food. And you know, the food is traveling across country. And by the time it gets to you, it's really lacking what it needs for your body. Plus, we're eating a lot of processed sugar, gluten, dairy, a lot of inflammatory foods, you know, so basically, we're not eating enough vegetables and fruits and leafy greens. So the juice does that, for me, it's like definitely goes into the bloodstream into the cells gives you nutrients at a cellular level. I think that was one of the biggest gifts my cancer gave me was learning how to juice and continuing to juice because it also is a detoxifier it helps the organs detoxify and it helps lower toxin loads in the body. It's really incredible. That has been one and then also upping the veggie count. You know, that's why I came up with the soup cleanse. And all those vegetables in the five days. I mean, there's way more than 45 vegetables out there. Yeah, but how do you get 45 vegetables into one day? I can't even name 45 vegetables right now I know. I know.

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I've never even heard 1000s right. I mean, they're all crazy. But it's through the soups. You know the salads, the fermented veggies that we do. So we usually do seven soups and three salads right now because this summer we're doing five and five because it's been so hot, but we just load them up with vegetables, we have a vegan broth that is loaded up probably with 20 vegetables. So it's just that reset of watching these people over the six years in five days be different people with eating plant based not that animal proteins bad for you. But plant based is where it's at mostly. I mean, you look at all the studies for cancer, what foods low or tumor markers it's ridiculous spinach, all their cruciferous veggies, it's all the onions, garlic, leeks. You know, it's those kind of foods that lower tumor markers. It's not chicken or fish or you know eggs. I mean, animal protein is not bad, but it can be way

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you overdo it, and it's saturated fats. So it's hard for the body to break down when your gut isn't working properly. And it has a lot of toxins in it hormones and antibiotics and you know, mercury in the fish. So not that be afraid of these toxins. But we just want to make sure that we eat as clean as possible is another one of my anti cancers. I mean, it's not supposed to be hard, really feels really hard. But I want to go back to a couple things you mentioned before my short term memory plops out on me, you were talking about the nervous system. And I know from what I've read, and my own personal self inflammation is a hot topic right now, how inflammation leads to all of these illnesses. Can you talk about that a little bit? Like, what is inflammation? How do we reduce it? How do we prevent it? Because I'm the spokesperson for it?

36:02

I'd love to know how you do it. Well, no, I actually, it's funny that you asked that because I went to a women's health doctor about two years ago. And I said, I just want you to test everything, you know more than an internist, what I want you to dig deep with your shit shovel and go right in and find out what's going on with me. And he was like, Sarah, your cortisol levels are like four times what it should be, what are you doing and what is going on in your life, your husband's is normal and yours is not. And I thought, Oh, my God, and he's like, what's happening in your life? And I said, Well, nothing super specific. I'm just like a crazy mom with two teenagers running around like a lunatic. I'm on all these boards and trying to make everything fit. And I have a pretty good life, I don't know. And he said, Well, Something's got to give. I mean, I know my dad had just been in the hospital for a few months, like, within the year prior, which was traumatic for myself, my mom for everyone. But he was like, Sarah, there's no medication that's gonna solve that that's gonna be you meditating and distressing yourself, or you're going to get sick from this inflammation. And I was like, oh my god. So that sort of sent me to my vending machine where my husband was coming home from work every day going, Okay, what weird thing did she do today? Maybe, like ancestral trauma or Reiki like what's going on? So we you kind of comment on that and take us through what you just said about inflammation, though? Like, what can we do? Like, are there things that we can eat? Or is it all just stress? No, it isn't just stress that stress is a huge component, just like we talked about with the cancer and the radical remission book. I mean, it's those messages in the subconscious, you know, because the reason why we run around like crazy and like chickens with our heads cut off is because we don't feel like we're doing enough. We're not accomplishing enough. So we're not feeling enough, right? So that's a good point. And then our adrenaline is pumping. Our adrenals is where the cortisol comes out of. So your adrenaline, your cortisol is pumping, because you're running around. And even when it's like fun and exciting. It's still adrenaline and cortisol, like the fight or flight. I'm like a cortisol manufacturer, I think. But the good news is, I had my blood retested a year later. And he's like, Sarah, it's so much better. So so much better, but you still got work to do. I was like, okay, steps, baby. So things that we always have work to do on that as women, especially depending on how we're raised in sort of the environment we live in, and now you're starting a podcast. Yeah, you're gonna have

38:40

to be, you know,

38:43

learning too much new technology. I'm like, my brain, you know, so we do have to figure out ways to de stress, we do have to take breaks throughout the day, two, do breath, work, even five minutes of breathing, a lot of people go through the day, and they don't even take a breath. So just to set a timer on your phone throughout the day, four times a day to five minutes to just

39:07

breathe and exhale, you know, because everything is going to be okay, everything's going to get done, right. But we just were overachievers. So that's where that cortisol comes in. And that does create inflammation in the body. Also, toxicity creates inflammation in the body. So we've been exposed to a lot of toxins over our lifetime, heavy metals, and pesticides, and you know, also viral, and bacteria and funguses were like covered in that in our body. We have microscopic cancer cells in our body. So if those are disrupted, they're laying dormant in our organs. And if we're really stressed, and we're not sleeping well and we're eating kind of crappy, then they will raise their ugly head and they will wreak havoc in the system. So that's where I come in with my cleansing mode is like we got to figure out how to lower those pathogen loads. Yes, we got to do that.

40:00

Stress, meditation, yoga, Reiki journaling, all those things I do consistently plant medicine. I do that Haha, I love it all. So I'm always doing crazy things to my family's always like, oh my god what I know now they're like is she gonna make us meditated dinner? This is so annoying. I'm like, oh, and then I started this whole gratitude thing at dinner when COVID started, like, Okay, guys, everybody's gonna write three things you're grateful for and these little tags and throw them in the bowl, and then we're gonna read them out loud. And I got a lot of shit for that, for at least a week less very long. Well, no, and actually lasted for about, I'd say, a good month, I have to give my kids breaks for me, because I don't want them to totally hate me. You know, because my son's like, on a scale of one to two Mom, how flexible Are you really, you know, I've said that in another podcast, too. And it's just, we're all trying to do the best we can and try different things from the vending machine. But it did. My kids got a kick out of it. And it started getting funny. Like my husband finally got the new hose that he had been talking about for two weeks so that he could hose the dog off after a hike. And I was like, Wait, are gratitudes gotten that low right now. But it was kind of funny, and everyone got a kick out of it. So it's good. Yeah, I think a really good thing about releasing that stress too, is we talked about is the journaling. That has been a huge thing for me in the morning, I'll wake up and sometimes I'll feel anxious, I'll write down everything I'm anxious about, or my fears or what I'm mad about or what's carried with me. And when you put it down on paper, you can release it from your body. The other great thing is in the nighttime, when I go to bed, I write down three things I'm grateful for in the day, so that my mind gets into a more open, grateful space. So my sleep is more restful, and deep and calmer. I'm definitely type A and I'm definitely I'm an Aries. And you can call me when you're awake at three o'clock in the morning writing, right? Exactly. Yeah. Get it done no matter what totally. There has to be things but lowering the toxin loads. I mean, I think it was brilliant that you went to a doctor and got really thorough bloodwork I'm talking about this week on my Insta story because bloodwork comes to me all the time and it's not thorough, and doctors are like, you're fine. You're totally, totally. I've gone to a million internist. And I'm like, No, no, I want to know something other than my cholesterol level. I want to know everything that's going on. I mean, I also tend to be on the neurotic side. So then I went to a thyroid specialist because I have a goiter and I take Synthroid, you know, it's like a whole thing. We're all sort of these crazy packages, but I like how I know sort of locked down. Yeah. And so when you have clients come in, are there doctors that you refer to to get the proper bloodwork done? Like you said, there's so much sort of shitty stuff out there? I do. There's definitely a handful of functional integrative natural paths that I refer people to. And then if people don't want to can't get into these doctors, there's a great place called next health. Have you ever heard of that, Oh, I'm gonna write this down by a functional doctor. And clients go in there and they can get a thorough bloodwork done, they could get a total baseline and everything is done. And they can also get a nutrient deficiency test and a food intolerance test. The bummer with Nick's health is not covered by insurance. But if you're really interested in really getting to the root like you were there, nurse practitioners are great at reading bloodwork. They definitely know what to look for in terms of like, if it's not in range, they can recalibrate you. I mean, the goal is to get you to an optimal health level not to be like, you know, just where you're at, because you're going to the doctor and you don't feel so great. You feel okay, but yeah, medicine can sort of pinpoint these things that are making us tired and sluggish and feeling gross. They're starting to Yeah, starting to, overall, they didn't know how to, they didn't know the gut brain connection as much. They didn't know how important that gut was. They didn't know what supplements would really like help calm down the central nervous system or increase serotonin for the thyroid. They didn't know how to like detoxify the thyroid, and get it back in working order. Instead, they just put them on Synthroid, you know, any secrets about goiters? I don't even understand what that even is. All I know is my mom has it. I have it and I've taken since I was 27. Okay, so really, it's an overload of toxins in the thyroid. Oh, perfect. Yeah.

44:38

Usually it's epstein barr virus in the thyroid. It's the viral loads that lay dormant in the organs and that was mine. I had mono strep tonsillitis, chickenpox. You know, I've had no symptoms. You have no none of that growing up. No as a kid. No, I just got a raise and I got tested. This is the weirdest story. My mom went to the gynecologist

45:00

Just for her annual checkup, and he was feeling her neck like regular and he said, you know, your Adam's Apple II thing kind of feels big to me, I want you to go to a thyroid specialist. So she went and he said, Oh, you have a goiter put her on Synthroid. So when I was about 28, before I got pregnant with my first kid, I was like, you know, everything that my mom gets, I sort of get so I really just want to test it randomly, but I had no symptoms. So I went to the same thyroid guy, he does my stuff. And he says, Sarah, you have a goiter also, and you need to be on Synthroid. And we need to, especially during your pregnancy, have it tested. I think it was like once a month or something crazy. And I've just been on it ever since. Wow, that is interesting. But maybe I'll revisit that with you.

45:45

privately. Have you ever had your iodine levels checked? Yes, I have had them checked, and I guess normal, but he said I try not to eat seaweed or things with a lot of iodine, because he would overload your system. So if I get sushi, I get soy paper instead of seaweed, that kind of thing. Okay, okay. We'll have to dive deep into that. Yeah, I'm a believer that anything is healable Anything is possible, because I've seen so much. You know, when you see stage four cancer heal, it doesn't even make sense. I know when you see people go off their cholesterol meds and you know, go off, like balance their hormones or go off insulin for blood type two diabetes, you know, it's pretty miraculous. You know, there's a shitload of studies out there that actually prove it. So I know there's just what's so hard is finding someone like you who can take that shit ton of studies, and make it practical, like Alyssa just told me what to fucking do right now, like, just told me what to do. And I think that we're all looking for the sort of digested version, the synthesize version. And I feel like that's why you're such a perfect resource, and you have so many people waiting to talk to you. Next, it is fun.

47:04

It is fun, because I've had all these health issues. So mostly, you know, I've had hormone issues, sleep issues, like the thyroid stuff, the hashimotos the digestion. So I think to myself, Oh, my God, I've had it all. And it's been really, you know, a challenge. But then when I get to help people, because I've actually gotten myself through it, and I've tested supplements and doctors and protocols, I was able to get through it, then it's like, you know, you have first hand experience. Wow, I can do it. So you can do it. And you even wrote a book about it. And now you're writing a second one, right? Cancer x and the author of your book coming up. I can't wait to read that the autoimmune book. Also, my mom actually has sjogrens, which is an autoimmune disorder. And yes, really multilayered? I mean, she's a full time career woman walking around with sjogrens. It's really hard. It's very debilitating and annoying. It is debilitating. It's a hard one. Yeah, that's an autoimmune disease. That's hard. I mean, you know, we've talked a little bit, I think, when we first met about the Medical Medium, he actually was the one who sort of started me on that path to put my autoimmune into remission. So he does a lot with sjogrens and all the autoimmune diseases. He's one of my fascinator example is freaked out to do any of the juices or the vegetables because her digestion is so off that she feels that if she puts in fruits and vegetables that it's going to send her into a tailspin. So it's like, she needs someone like you to sort of unpack all the different layers, because it's like, one thing affects the next affects the next it's like a car. And so you have to kind of keep everything in check. Yeah, yeah. And you're gonna start at the bottom where the root is, and then you start building on top of it slowly but surely. So. Yeah, it's definitely doable. Now, in terms of the juicing, when we got into that conversation, we didn't really specifically talk about what kind of juice and I know juice can mean 74 different things to 74 different people. I have a feeling about what you're gonna say in terms of sugar, so why don't you just say it?

49:10

Because I'm like, ding, ding, ding sugar. Yeah, so you know, juices out there that are cold pressed that have apple or pear, and they do have like, you look on the back of them, they're about 18 grams of sugar. So we're really only supposed to have 25 added grams of sugar per day. So let's say you do a juice of cold pressed juice and then you do a protein bar your way over your 25 grams of sugar in one row.

49:39

So basically, I am a big fan of like juicing at home and I know it can be a pain in the ass. But I just do simple things like cucumber, celery, lemon, ginger, romaine, and then sometimes I'll throw in parsley or cilantro or dandelion greens, but my base is always the cucumbers, celery, ginger, lemon romaine because it's

50:00

So powerful in itself and how do you sweeten it or you don't or you just I don't know it I cut it with the lemon and the ginger so that but actually romaine and celery and cucumber don't have a bitterness. Now dandelion greens would be very bitter and I I'm addicted to dandelion greens I nobody talks about them, we don't even get that like air water.

50:21

But what I need we have to have a sideline conversation or like put it in my show notes for everyone. Everyone's like make infusions with dandelion. I'm like, I don't even know what you're talking about. Natalie greens are powerful nettles are powerful. So you know dandelion tea nettle tea is really powerful. It actually is a nettle is a diuretic, so it really helps with lowering inflammation, it balances blood sugar levels, but dandelion is so amazing for liver detoxifier. Also, it helps the liver pushed bile into the gut, in order to digest with bitter greens do that. So if you have a rubella or dandelion or radicchio, or kale, and let's say you have it before a meal that will wake up your digestive enzymes and get the bile into your digestive system. It's really helpful when you're eating animal protein. But the biggest thing with dandelion is that it detoxifies the liver and our liver is not healthy these days. We have our livers are totally overrun for sure, totally. Yeah, sure. And I know that because of my blood test.

51:27

I know the nitty gritty of it all. He's like, what are you eating? I'm like, Oh, I'm not gonna talk about the frosting that I'd stuck my spoon into the tray.

51:38

Yes, right. Oh, are the sugars or the Yeah, the bad oils, two things for listeners. What's in the celery that makes it so potent? And how many fucking celery stalks is one drink? Because like, I wouldn't even be able to conceptualize how much celery you have to crunch in a machine to get a full drink. Yeah, that's true. I mean, the ultimate is 16 ounces of celery juice. How many stocks is that? Like two bunches? This is one it usually is one. It's one healthy one. Okay. There are 300 million people juicing celery juice right now around the world. Can you even get celery juice? And can you even get it because of the Medical Medium. I am shocked. But you there is a celery that was a low stockage of celery. Now, you know you can find celery everywhere. And toilet paper. Right? It was right. And now we've done to celery. I mean all my clients that I mean, I've been kind of messing around with it for four years since I met him and my acid reflux GERD clients that go on salary, they go off their medicine in about a week or two weeks. My cebo clients do better my eczema psoriasis clients do better. It's not for everybody. They give you the shifts. It can give you the shifts. Yes, it absolutely can. It can give you diarrhea. Yeah, God, but do you get used to it? It's because sometimes if I have a green juice, my stomach is like, I don't know. But I feel like if I do it for three or four days, and I'm not as sensitive to it, do you build a tolerance for that kind of stuff? Absolutely. You can. I think that really what the reaction to could be when you don't feel good, could be that you have pathogens in the gut and an intestinal lining. And it's trying to clear those out. So I definitely think it's kind of disrupting them a bit. It's the same thing with legumes and beans, you know, when people go on the cleanse, and they're not used to that a lot of people like oh, give me gas, right. But the more you eat them, the less they give you gas, the less they disrupt you. So they start to build their prebiotics for the gut, which help with probiotics, so they're so good for you. And it's sad to have people be like I can't eat legumes and beans because they give me gas. It's the resistance starch that actually gives them gas. But the things that are good for you sometimes can disrupt you at the beginning, but as time goes on, they will be less disruptive. I guess it leads me to another question in terms of a cleanse like I think of like the times we're in college, I'm like, I'm not gonna eat any carbs. I'm only gonna have protein or whatever kind of cuckoo cleanse I've tried. I don't know with yours. And that's my question. Are there some sort of side effects or you might feel like a little dizzy or like you haven't had your coffee? Like, while you're feeling good from dumping a lot of the toxic stuff? Do you still sometimes feel a little weird?

54:37

Absolutely. You can. A lot of times when you go on a juice cleanse or a cleanse that's like let's say you mostly cook food, you eat animal protein and you go on a raw cleanse like cafe gratitude. You know, the raw food can really rub up the system so it can be disturbing. Also, maybe you're running very high energy and then you go on this raw food cleanse and your energy will even be elevated even more

55:00

So and there might be a little too much sugar in it as well. So it's going to hype you up. And if you have any adrenal fatigue or you know any issues like that, which most of us do, you will feel bad, you'll feel like maybe blood sugar crashes or you'll feel dizzy or you feel nauseous, you can totally feel all those feelings. Some people get constipated, some people get the runs, you know. So my cleanse is just really gentle and kind of a no brainer, because it really is all about just giving your body a break from animal protein and gluten and dairy and added sugars and processed foods and bad oils and GMO. I mean, it's just the inflammatory foods is just giving your body a break from that. And it's loading you up with good stuff that your body knows how to break down and metabolize. So mine, I don't have a lot of people that complain. The only complaint I get is the bean, and legume thing where they aren't using gas for the gas bar. Yeah, but I give them digestive enzymes for that. Oh, and they also get a gut drink in the morning, which has apple cider vinegar, and it's full of probiotics. So it's not like when you do a pro lawn thing, you should sort of pick a week, you don't have a lot of activities or things to do, because I think with some cleanses like that you kind of feel a little for a bit and then you feel amazing. But it sounds like yours is like just the perfect meals. It's just a gentle cleanse. It's just a resetting. The only thing that you have to worry about is when we weren't in COVID is if you had lunches and dinner at entertaining to do but Lucky me you know because of COVID the cleanses done really well. Amazing But yeah, I mean, prolong is great too, because it is a lot of research behind it. The fasting you know the time

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my husband did it, but I I had ordered two boxes and it's like still staring at me. I'm like, I don't know if I'm strong enough to do that. I'm gonna start with Alyssa Glenn's for

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I actually am a whim too. They've sent it to me. And I couldn't do it. Either. My daughter has done it like four times. And she loves it. And I'm like, Oh my god, it's just I couldn't not eat. I couldn't start myself and eat those powdered soup. Maybe I'll do your own tastes great and clean all the shit out and then move to there's so it's like stages of the dirty cleanse. Right?

57:18

Yeah, it definitely there is something good about all those things. Intermittent Fasting is good, you know, relates back to giving your digestive system a break, we eat so much food. And we're never, you know, giving that long period of time where we're not digesting and processing food.

57:37

Yeah. And you think of like the animal proteins that sit in your system? Like you said, for so long. I'm like, Oh, my God, I can't even think about that. I know, I know.

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You say that you're a flexitarian which of course piqued my interest as the flexible neurotic. Can you tell us about that and what that means. I feel like it could relate to me in some way. 100% 100 present, because I love to eat. And I do love to entertain, and I do love food. So I am not going to be strict all the time with my food. You know, I'm going to eat gluten and have pizza and pasta and I am going to go out. And hopefully I'll come over to your house someday for a dinner party. And you're serving cheese, a cheese platter or cocktails, you know, I mean, there's no way that I'm not going to enjoy my life. That's why I'm a flexitarian you know, I try to do the best I can 80% of the time 20% of the time I am going to do those things. I'm going to have a shot of tequila, I'm going to have too much wine. I absolutely love pasta and pizza. So and I'm a cheese fanatic. So I tried to do the vegan cheeses and we try to make things with the Big Cheese. But it's not the same. It's not. I mean, the other night actually, when I was preparing for this interview with you, I was like, God, I'm tired. I didn't really work out today I said to my husband, I'm like, let's work your de vinos like rigatoni with like that meat Ragu sauce, I mean, just pile it on. Then he orders the vegetable pizza and I'm like, Oh my God. But once in a while. I just feel like you have to just dive in. That's my flexible part. Majority my kids it's probably my only flexible part, right? I know. I'm not sure my kids would say I'm so flexible with that stuff, either. I mean, the deserts around here are a little tricky because I tried to do gluten free low sugar or vegan. Sometimes they turn out sometimes there are over here.

59:34

I'm gonna try to send a good one. But in the drawer will be Oreos. And when my stepson was living here, your m&ms and I would basically hyperventilate when I'd open the door and see the m&ms I would sweat. Yeah. Yeah. Then there's me who has the m&ms hidden from my children in my closet. I'm like, oh, when I wanted I want it and I don't want my kids to see that I'm eating it but I think they kind of know. Okay, and sometimes

1:00:00

There's some missing so I'm like somebody stole my mini Twix bars, what? We have to laugh at ourselves and we have to make fun of ourselves. I mean, in front of them to the kids, you know, they know we're not perfect. And if we admit to our imperfections and and they see how neurotic we are, and then we can say, Oh my god, I know I'm being wronged you know how much humor This podcast is brought to my children and my husband, they think it's amazing. But they're like, Mom, you have to let us get like a small kick out of it. I mean, you're calling yourself the flexible, neurotic, you're doing a podcast, we're listening to your trailer, like, you got to give us like a little I'm like, I know. So I basically am thrown under the bus all day long. But they are proud of me. I will say that. I mean, right now they're on zoom school. I told them they can order Postmates the doorbell camera and everybody's following instructions. So far, so good. But this is Jamie into my next deep dive shit shovel with you is into parenting. I want to pick your brain a little bit about how you dealt with this food shed and health. After you sort of found your second path of being mentally and physically healthy. Your kids were held.

1:01:12

They were 12 and 15. Oof, that's like where I'm at right now. How the fuck did that play out? Not very nodding her head with? No. Okay. No, it didn't play out very well. I mean, it was disaster. I took sugar out of the house like my mom did when I was growing up. I was trying to do the gluten free thing. I had a chef come in and cook really healthy. You know, they would just go to their friend's houses and sneak and drink soda and eat shitty food. And it didn't work out for me at all. The sugar thing was a disaster. You are the sugar police? Yes, but you maintained it for yourself. But you couldn't really enforce it with them at their ages? Absolutely not. It definitely backfired. And the interesting thing is, you know, in the green juices and smoothies, and I mean, I would give my daughter smoothies and by like the fifth or sixth day, they're like if I ever see another smoothie again. So I totally get it. But I kept trying and trying. But interestingly now they're 22 and 25. And my 22 year old, can't wait to come downstairs and make me a green juice every morning and my 25 year old is just so incredibly healthy. And you know, just always I mean, it's cool to see now but it for you, you answered my question of have they adopted it since as adults? So you just answered that. But when you first implemented it, it was like No chance. And what advice would you have for parents? Who if you haven't necessarily had your kid since birth, eating all organic and perfectly and gluten free? And on greens all the time? How would someone like myself start that now? Are there any things that are non negotiables? And what are the negotiables?

1:03:09

I would say, you know, I do feel like organic is the way to go and farmers markets and fresh produce as much as possible. We do that we do. I mean, if it's not an issue of money, and you can do organic, it's quite a privilege because the prices are absolutely bonkers. My dad's like, I can't believe you buy organic strawberries, Sarah, they're so expensive. And I'm like, everyone eats them all day long. I don't want them putting garbage in their bodies if I don't have to. And they're teenagers. They're still growing. And there are a lot of farmer markets across the world, you know, across the country. I mean, they're not as expensive at the farmers markets as they are even going to the farmers market like on Wednesday mornings at the prominent or whatever. Yeah, but I feel like you probably do this too, if you could sit down as a family one meal, if it's dinner, and cook the healthiest meal possible and introduce your kids to different foods and not be restrictive. And that was the best scenario for me. We would sit down for dinner we would connect we would bond and we would eat you know really healthy tasty food. There's a lot of dinner connecting bonding during COVID. I mean, honestly, my kids used to be at friend's houses like all day long and sideways. And my husband's like, when school starting this is like a lot of together time.

1:04:33

That's true. I know it has been

1:04:36

right but I'm just saying instead of having dinner four nights a week and it's like turned into six and I'm like oh shit and then everybody wants to order different things from Postmates. It's like a whole thing but I will say I mean I would love to get your thoughts on it in my non negotiables I've really tried to make my kids take supplements when I can. I'll be like two weeks on on then I'll give them a few days off because they find

1:05:00

be annoying, but I bought that like seven day pill separator. And each of us in the family has one and then I put them in the middle of the table at dinner time. And so I have my kids take vitamin D since no one's getting sunlight during COVID I have them taking omega threes, a probiotic, and I think methylated B 12. Sounds great. Is there anything else I'm missing? You know, no probiotic vitamin D. The zinc would be the only thing because it just immune Okay, yeah, I get my girls like they do take supplements now but I would say like if you can give your kid a multi a good high quality multi, I didn't know which one was which one I know they say a lot of them are crappy. So instead, they are five things. for better for worse. Mary rousse has a liquid multi and a mineral they have a two ounce shot and how does that taste? It's good. And then a two ounce little shot of mineral at night. And how do you spell that is great products. Mary Ruth Mar. Why Ruth? Okay. She's actually located in Santa Monica, certified organic, super high quality. I love the liquid to because it's so easily absorbed. That's probably something right now. You're right. With everything going on. I would be a non negotiable for me too. It's just at least giving nice. I know a basic something and the greens powder that you've recommended in the past. I've heard you talk about do you taste that? Yeah, it depends. I mean, I love all the greens and all of that. So you know, of course it's fine for me throw it in a smoothie. Would you taste it? Oh, no, you can't taste it. No. Okay, go on a smoothie. You can't taste it because my son hates vegetables. Ah, okay. My daughter loves them could eat them all day and my son's like, you know, so I was thinking he does make a smoothie for breakfast every day with protein powder, frozen strawberries, and I don't know and almond milk. So I was like, maybe if he threw the greens powder in there, at least I knew he would be getting like some basics. He would it would be amazing, which is the one that you recommend, or ra easy being green. Okay, I'm going to put that in my show notes. I've actually tasted all the greens powders like ton of them, and that's the one that's the most mellow. It's also very clean, it's organic as well. You could definitely throw that into smoothie add when tastes the greens. So what I do sometimes for clients, if they're not going to juice, I have them throw a scoop into 16 ounces of water and a squeeze a lemon. And that also is amazing. That can be a replacement of a juice, too, as well as if it's still a little grassy greedy for them. You could put a few drops of stevia like liquid omega stevia, just a clean stevia. So that's also delicious. But you're right if you can just get some of those vegetables nutrients in for the day. You're golden, you know, especially for the kids. Yeah, like for him who's not a huge vegetable eater, and he works out a lot. So he's like a big protein and gesture like I feel like he's gonna like turn into a chicken or a cow or something. Or sushi, you know, he's gonna turn into a fish. But if he drink one glass of that, how much are you really getting as it would relate to like the real vegetable? That's a good question. I think he's uh, he would be getting a lot because again, you have to eat a lot of vegetables to get the nutrients, you know, eight to 10 servings a day, which he's not going to do. So the powder potentially could give you that plus it absorbs so fast. So when you're eating vegetables, you got to break them down and and hopefully absorb those vitamins and and also, the powder again is like just kind of a IV of it. That's why I always love anything to bypass the digestive system. The soups, you know, the juices, the smoothies, those are great things to like, just infiltrate your body with good stuff. Okay, so you've given us like all of these tips and hacks if you had to like break down the basics right? for someone to buy like six to eight things to start taking tomorrow obviously with the consent of their medical doctor, what would they be? It would probably be a probiotic. I love genuine health, advanced gut health probiotic. I love that. We'll put this on the show notes. The multi and the multi. I love Mary Rose but I also love pure synergy certified organic to tablets, Easy Food based for multi. I would say magnesium is a must. Which one? innate response 300 milligrams is amazing take before you go to bed. Okay. Yeah, so magnesium has 700 different enzymatic reactions in the body. It's crucial. I would say vitamin D like you said is crucial and omega threes

1:10:00

are super crucial to so what is it? Nordic naturals makes really high quality wine take that one,

1:10:08

too, which is interesting. Good for your cholesterol good for your mind your mood, lowers inflammation, all those need that during a pandemic. Oh my god, I agree. And then I mean, there's a lot of things that I take but right, but if you just had to start, like, if somebody was just starting fresh and they were like, Alyssa, I just need to hit the basics. It would be those, I would say B 12. I would say a really high quality methylated B 12. Or, you know, methocarbamol I mean, it's a type of B 12. I love Quicksilver makes a spray of a b 12. It's super easy. We burned through our bees with stress. They're water soluble vitamin so I would say to do that would help. Okay, good. I'm definitely going to get the B 12. Spray. My kids hate the one that dissolves under their tongue. They like freak out about it. Now, how would you say you do with the supplements? You know, some say take them in the morning. Some say take an afternoon in the evening, empty stomach, not empty stomach? Like, do you have a general rule of thumb, the Alyssa Goodman way. It just depends on the supplement. There's some supplements, you got to take on an empty stomach. The probiotic definitely, but then there's watersoluble b 12. The B vitamins you take on an empty stomach. But then there's fat soluble the vitamin D, the a the k omega, those are fat soluble, so you want to take them with food. And also it just depends on how you feel when you take like if you take a multi, the what I suggest is you kind of feel funky, then you should probably take it with food. But a lot of times I can take those things on an empty stomach. Oh, see, I take a lot of mine at night with dinner so that like I don't have any potential feeling gross. At least I know that I'm going to bed within the next four hours or something. Right? Okay. Yeah, it just depends on you. Do you find that just following the directions on the bottle? Sometimes, and sometimes they don't really tell you when to take them, which is a strange thing. I mean, it tells you how much to take. But a lot of times they don't tell you when well maybe you'll add that to your website for the dummies like myself.

1:12:15

It's not that easy to figure out. But I think once you figure it out, you know, but I did hear you say that you take omegas at night is that so you don't burp fish all day. It's because it's a fat soluble. So I know I've had fat during the day, as well as I take my vitamin D at night because it's fat soluble too. So I take magnesium and magnesium at night because it's calming for the central nervous system and it helps digestion and it just helps you sleep. So definitely there's certain things that the morning you want energy the night you want to be calm down, right? Yes, for sure. Especially with my cortisol levels.

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Now what's the first thing you do in the morning? The very first thing I do in the morning is 16 to 20 ounces of water because you're super dehydrated throughout the night because your body has been detoxing and cleansing and trying to get rid of toxins and actually converting the toxins in the liver into a safe form or any of the chemicals or fats How do you get down just two cups like two cups of water sometimes I find a straw helps I know that sounds really dumb, but I put a straw in my water bottle the other day and then of course I did pee every five minutes which is like a whole other story. But I felt like I was going faster I know drinking straws can be gassy I think or Sam Where can you get a good while if I just got to get that water down I'm like gonna go for it. It's true. It's the straw is fine. It's become a habit. And I know that it just makes me feel good. It's weird. I feel energized I feel hydrated my brain is a little bit of anything in the water my bathrooms upstairs so I drink it upstairs but if I was downstairs I probably would put lemon in it because lemon is great for lowering pathogen loads in the intestines so but I I'm upstairs I just do my supplements and my water up there. So and then I do my journaling and do a little stretching that kind of thing and then I come down and have my coffee and then I have my green juice. Do you want to trick for that the upstairs downstairs thing I've sort of mastered that. Yeah, I wanted to do teeth bleaching and the dentist was like okay, here are the trays but you have to put the bleach in the fridge and I was like there's no fucking way that I'm going up and down the stairs 14 times for my bleach to get it to put it back. So I bought this little pink mini fridge on Amazon and I plugged it in my bathroom and put it under the countertop. So every morning when I'm putting makeup on, I set my timer for 15 minutes I pop the trays in I mean I take the bleach out of the fridge, put it in the trays, pop them in while I put my makeup on and then

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With the bleach back in the mini fridge, so you could do that with your love and joy. Yes with my lemon. Yeah, okay, I'm gonna send you a refrigerator.

1:15:09

Now do you think yes pink but it was like they had it's under the counter my husband's like that's kind of weird I'm like just get over it just get over it now in terms of like I know we're gonna run out of time but favorite breakfast lunch and dinner. I'm not a big breakfast girl. I love intermittent fasting Yeah, am I 16 hour girl so I do my juice and my coffee and I'll have to Brazil nuts for this Millennium for my thyroid. Wow that's a guy do that to Brazil not so I'm going to write that down Brazil nuts you get just Millennium requirement. Then lunches usually. Of course I love salads. And I love bowls of veggies and gluten free grains and leafy greens and all that stuff. I mean, so I usually do some kind of bowl or salad dinners are usually kind of like a little bit old fashion because the family eats animal protein. So you have like a chicken brass. I would have a little bit of chicken or fish with them. We do try to do two nights vegan. My favorite dinner of all are these vegan crab cakes.

1:16:14

They're made with hearts of palm There are so delicious love hearts of palm. It's such a random thing would love these crab. Where do you get them? We just buy the canned ones. the hearts of

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the crab make them are they part of the clans? The recipes on this site? No. And are they part of No. Okay. It's one of my oldest recipes. I did. I must have done it eight years ago, but it's still my all time favorite. I have to say just I love I love that. I'm going to do that. Now in terms of like aside from waters or anything you drink juices, water, coffee, tequila, just no soda, nothing chemical a or no. And also I drink Tulsi tea. I love holy basil. It's an adaptogen herb. It's super balancing for the hormones and the cortisol love that sort of like my ashwagandha supplements that I take. Yeah, it's actually the Queen of adaptogenic herbs holy basil. You would love the taste of this Tulsi tea you should probably have work when I get a fire like you've been everywhere right fucking out there. Now is special. You can get it everywhere you can get on Amazon around and holy basil is the flavor organic India is the brand of India and Tulsi is the type of tea and it's holy basil and they make all different kinds of Tulsi they make Tulsi ginger Tulsi Rosa keep you awake. No, it doesn't have any caffeine. But it tastes like tea. Amazing. I love it. I love it. It's a lifesaver. Okay. Oh my gosh. Can I just come live with you for a week for like a revamp? drive you crazy? No, it's kind of fun, though. It's fun when someone else is the expert. Right? It is I do love it too. Okay, before we wrap up, I have a few things. First of all, I want to ask you what your thoughts are. I mean, I know in my mid 40s and in this self recreation process, I do want to expand my interior, but I also want to maintain my exterior. And it's not necessarily for other people. It's just for me it's like makeup, Botox, like whatever the basic things are for me, and I know everyone's is different. How do you feel about the importance self importance of maintaining your exterior? Oh, I think it's crucial. It's totally crucial. I mean, who wants to age? Right? I mean, I feel today at 60 I can't I feel better. It's so crazy. I can't wait till people haven't seen you before. It's like ridiculous. I absolutely feel so much better it is because of the hydration it's because of the juicing it up all day. No, you know, did you get don't do it? Is that the same kind of thing? Yeah, I got used to it. Plus, I built up my body with the minerals, minerals in your body help the water go into the cells. So you're really hydrated. It's the lifestyles, the plants, you know, their fruits, they're full of like antioxidants and like hydration. Believe me, I'm not against Botox, filler, facials, all those things, but I have to tell you living more plant based and juicing and hydrating and all the things we talked about on the podcast today. I've completely changed my life and I feel have anti aged me. So you're getting your glow on internally and externally. It looks like and so like I mean, you look unbelievable. It's great. Thank you. I really I know I feel so lucky to have found this lifestyle and to have embraced it and really, I really love it for the most part. So I got lucky some people like they don't really want to live that way. So they're coming

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constantly chasing it, but it feels really, I think he's doing it like you are in an authentic way. And it makes sense to you and it's answering your personal why and making you feel good, then it doesn't hurt anyone to try out new things and some things are gonna work for certain people and some things are not going to work for certain people. Right? Well, we have to keep going back to that vending machine and trying like different treats, you know, and seeing what we can find out. Now before we wrap up, I want to do a quick fun shit about Alyssa, you ready? Okay. Okay, what's next on the bucket list? Next on the bucket list is probably increasing the number of people I do on the cleanse list. I mean, we're getting quite a lot of people interested in it. And it's getting over the fear of making it bigger and reaching more people and still having it tastes good. And still having it service people the way I want it. That's definitely there. I mean, finishing a book is definitely there. That's, that's been hard to sit down and really focus on that. You know.

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What are other things that? I think that sounds like a lot, actually, it's a lot. Yeah. And okay, so anything that you've learned in COVID, or quarantine, that's now on your bucket list? Oh, my God. I absolutely thought I was the most social human and loved parties and loved going to lunches. And now I am so happy. I'm an introvert. I thought it was an extrovert, but I really love my show and introverted extrovert. And that's what I am. It's like, I can go 1000 miles an hour for three days. And then I need a day alone. Yeah, absolutely. That's what happened to me too. But I think I've just learned to hang out with myself. I never hung out with myself this much. And at the beginning, I didn't really like it. I was a wreck.

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Myself, like, Oh, my God, I don't have all these things to keep my mind occupied. I know, right? And the distractions, but no distractions, hanging out with yourself. You have to learn to understand yourself and love yourself and figure out Wow, like this ain't so bad. So I think that's the biggest thing. And then also having this time with my family, probably, you know, even though it does get a little crazy, but just the togetherness has been so incredible, because all of our kids are grown and most of them live. Three of them live out of the house and one lives in but they have jobs, they have girlfriends, they have lives. But you don't feel like that because of what's been happening with COVID. I know my son got his driver's license last week. And I'm like, Oh, I can kind of secretly happy that this quarantines happening because at least even though he has his license, he's still sort of has to stay home. So I get to spend that extra half an hour at night where he sort of like appeases me with 30 minutes of conversation. But yes, there's definitely pros and cons. I've actually loved it. And I think my kids have really enjoyed the extra time even though they wouldn't necessarily be the first to admit it. You renegotiate the sort of boundaries in your house, like my daughter thinks that every time she has a zoom school break, that I should be available for her to talk to and I'm like, do you understand I'm like recording a podcast. I'm talking to a marketing Like what? So that's definitely been a big shift for us. Now. What's your secret? pleasure? I love mini Twix bars.

1:23:29

I that's a funny one. I mean, I would this sounds so terrible. I would have to say tequila, like a shot of tequila with lime or like a juice cucumber and throw some tequila in there. I just I grew up in Arizona. I don't know. Maybe it's because of that, but it just, it makes me happy. I just get a like a lift. I don't do it every night, you know, for your birthday. Yes. We know what to send you. Now what whoo things have you not done that you would want to do? Oh god, that's a really

1:24:04

good. I'm saying like some people I say what things do you want to do? And I'm like, What have you not done? Is there anything you did plant medicine, right? I did all the plant medicines, mostly all of them. I did somatic therapy, which was amazing. I'm Reiki certified. I mean, I've done energy healing for 12 plus years. Have you been to those vortexes or something? No, I haven't done that. And I actually haven't been to a Silent Retreat. So Ah, I've never done that. I have a friend who did not attend a retreat. She did it. She made it through. So if you need someone to talk to about it. I was impressed. Oh my god. I'm impressed too because I'm not sure that I could handle that. But that's probably the one thing oh my god. Okay, what was the last thing you ordered from Amazon?

1:24:54

The last thing I ordered from Amazon. It's a crazy question.

1:25:00

Probably we're fake candles, like candles with batteries. I like that. That's a good one.

1:25:08

That's so crazy. No, we all have our thing. The last episode I did um, the last thing I had ordered was a wisdom to face ice pack holder for my daughter. So it's not sexy a lot of time Believe me, Angela Nazarian was a leg brace for husband, because he just had surgery. So sometimes it's just the basics. Right? Right, right, I have these fake candles all over the house. No, perfect. So what so what's the smallest thing that we can do today to start our shift toward self recreation, the smallest thing would be to start journaling, to have a journal, write down the things that frustrate you or give you anxiety. And if you're writing about your husband, or your spouse or your partner, you just have to hide it, you have to, you have to hide it.

1:25:56

We've got a release thought patterns that aren't working for us anymore, they keep us stuck. That's the biggest thing of all. At one point, I was writing down the same thing, what it made me angry, like 20 times the same thing for five days until it was able to pass, you know, and I was able to let it go. But when we hold on to stuff, you know, whatever it is, it's a killer for our mental, emotional and physical well being. So you didn't judge yourself if you wrote down the same shit every day? No. Okay, cuz sometimes with gratitude journals, I sort of get mad at myself. I'm like, you couldn't think of anything original? Like watch?

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You know, ya know, sometimes it was things that I thought I had let go of, but I hadn't let go of them. So basically, it took a lot for me to get there. You know, we can talk about it till we're blue in the face. But can we let it go physically from our body and from ourselves? And from our central nervous system? I mean, it's there in our subconscious. So that's the biggest thing I see in client, what was the most effective thing you did for releasing your childhood trauma from the vending machine? was suicidal. Explain that. It was the magic mushrooms? Yes. Okay. I did mental therapy for 13 to 15 years, I did energy healing for 12 years. I still do it today. You know, I spiritual advisors, I all of that, the Reiki, all that stuff, meditating your doorbell, stop ringing, that's good. Stop drinking, we're gonna we're gonna keep on going. I know, I thought someone was playing the piano. The psilocybin journey with a coach with a friend of mine, who's a coach who I've known for 10 years, was the most incredible experience I've ever had. Because it took me back to my childhood traumas. And it took me back to the places where I did get fear, like I had fear and things that people said to me that I held on to some of us are more sensitive than others. And physically, I was able to release it, he helped me go to the other side of it, I went into a fear based mode with it, it came up for me, but I was able to embrace it, and know that it wasn't going to take me over and it wasn't going to take me down, I should say, because I'm here today still. And basically, I was able to show compassion, give love to that trauma, and it completely melted away from my body and my system in my mind. But did you know what you were going in there, the traumas that would come up or they just popped out of nowhere? That's so crazy. The mushrooms actually take you want a journey and they show you what you need to see. And I did it. I did it about four times with him. Each journey was different. And each one showed me a different part of my life. That was important for me to embrace, either to let go of or embrace and be able to, like, you know, hang on to that was important. And what part of your journey did you do that? Like before your husband passed away after? No, it was just two years ago? It was just recently? Like, I know, Isn't that crazy? Um, yeah, all of those things that helped me along the way, but the suicide bomb was hands down the most powerful thing I have ever done in my entire life. I don't love psychedelics. I don't love being out of control. I have people dming you for that. I'm like, should I put that in the show notes? I don't smoke pot. You know, I'm not like I would never could do it in high school.

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me through. So I didn't think I was going to be okay with it. But because I had somebody there to handhold me through it and to get me to the other side and he was able to be able to show me how to like, release and like surrender to it all because that's the biggest thing. Everything changed for me everything, all my relationships, my relationship with myself just that's when I actually got bloodwork back because I had been trying to get my antibodies down and my thyroid

1:30:00

back into alignment. My, I wasn't on thyroid medication, and I felt great, but my blood work wasn't great. So after I did the mushroom journey, two times my antibodies came down. My thyroid came back into balance. It was crazy, because there was all this energy that I had felt was stuck in my body.

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I know it's a whole other. Oh, I love it. And I also did you do? EMDR? No, I haven't done that. Because I've heard a lot about that. But I've never really dug deep into that. But I'll have to find someone who's an expert in that, because I've heard a lot of amazing things about it. I have a functional doctor who I love who does this stuff as well. His name is Dr. Lycos. Oh, like him do some podcasts out? Yeah, he's amazing. He's a very good friend. And, you know, we both have been going down this path a little bit together with all of this. And I love the fact that, you know, I get to talk to an actual functional doctor, he is a great energy to I don't know him personally. But I've heard him speak on several occasions. I like his energy. Great. And he's a great doctor. So I will take note of that. And now what's your bottom line advice on finding the sweet spot in the second half of life?

1:31:16

I think it would be, you know, showing yourself the most compassion you can like we talked about giving yourself the love and respect that you deserve that maybe you never did your first half of your life. Because if you do that, like we talked about on the podcast, as well, so many doors can open for you. And so many possibilities can happen that you never thought were possible. people that you meet opportunities that come your way. I mean, it's just incredible life offers you when you're in a good space for yourself. And you honor who you are. And when you stand in that power. Anything's possible. Yeah, I agree with that. It's really been with even with this podcast, it's been like such a dig deep on so many layers, and sort of figuring things out. And what's hard for a neurotic person like myself is learning how to get comfortable when things aren't linear, when things aren't perfect. And I think that kind of moving away from our performance driven linear life into a more intentionally expanded I don't want to say messy but circuitous life, with a lot of different things. And without an exact journey is definitely hard. But so fun. And so interesting. That's the sweet spot. With in all of that, it's not tied up in a nice little neat bow the package, which is so easy, the bow seems so easy, right? And I definitely think it's something I'm trying to do better. I think I've done it a little bit with my kids, but I'm trying to get even better at it. So I don't look back and go, Oh, my God, I should have just loosened up a bit. I shouldn't have been so mental about X, Y, or Z. Did you feel that way? Absolutely. 100%. I still think about that. We talked about it. And we laugh about it now. Because I was really uptight. And I wasn't as loose as I should have been, or as an open to understanding where they were at. I mean, today, I'm very open. I'm like, just everything that they experienced. I want to know about I want to help if they want me to, but no judgement at all. Like, yes, you always kind of a little bit. But basically, I'm trying not to have any judgment, because they're just incredible humans. And I never got that as a kid growing up. I wasn't worshipped, I worship my girls in that way, because of who they are. They're just wonderful people. Yeah, I think part of our journey as parents is letting our kids evolve into who they want to be not who we want them to become. And I think that as we all as a collective become intentionally more, like I said, expanded or interested in these other sort of mental health models, we become more open to that. And I think our kids will benefit from that mean, I let my kids switch schools, and everyone was like, That's crazy. We can't believe you let your kids switch schools. And then but a lot of people were like, wow, that's like a really interesting, proud moment as a parent that you can like, put your shit aside and let your kids be who they want to be go to school where they want to go to school, and own that, because it's their journey. It's not mine, you know, and as a parent, it's a beautiful thing. Yeah, it's that I think is so important these days, you know, when I allowed my girls to be who they were, who they are, and I allowed them to screw up and like, have me still love them on the other end. I mean, everything changed for them to their lives opened up, everything in their world changed. So I watch it and I watched it

1:35:00

client's you know, I mean, it's really beautiful to be able to have people really open up and be vulnerable and intimate with you and have you hold that space for them and honor them. Because I don't think we've gotten enough of that in our lives. Hopefully moving forward our kids well, but I hope so because I feel like we're all digging deep. And I want to thank you, Alyssa, because you've let me dig deep with you with our golden shit shovels. I've so loved having you on this podcast and getting to know you better. I'm going to be your next client. I definitely need to help refresh for sure. I can probably only name nine vegetables. If listeners want to find you. Where can they find you? Alyssa goodman.com really, you know, I have a website and I'm on social media. So it's easy, Eli SSA. Ellis has a great Instagram. I just want you know, I did screenshot your smoothie making today on Instagram. Because I was like, I want all those fucking parts and all those ingredients.

1:36:03

So your website, your Instagram, your five day cleanse delivery. For those who don't live in Los Angeles, I've heard that there's a seven day online cleanse where you don't get the actual item sent to you. But there's a plan. Do you want to tell us about that? Yeah, there's a seven day Do It Yourself cleanse that's very similar to the soup cleanse. And it just gives you all the recipes and everything you need to do for seven days. So we get to do all the shopping.

1:36:31

So we're chopping all the vegetables? Oh, yes. You're chopping all

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that's gonna happen in your house. Well, my daughter became like a COVID chef, no joke. She can slice and dice vegetables. Me, I'm a disaster. But I just want to say thank you. I've really enjoyed getting to know you. And I want everyone to think about what should they can start doing today. One small step. And I want to thank Alyssa for being the inspiration today and giving us some tools and recreating ourselves. And hence this podcast Alyssa Goodman. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, it's me again. I listened to this episode with Alyssa Goodman. So I could start to summarize the golden nuggets for you to have actionable items that you can start using today. I know that when I listen to a long episode, I'm like, Oh, I love that. But now I can't remember specifics. This is why I come back and do a golden nugget summary. Also, if you go to my website and click episodes, then show notes. It's all written out and the links mentioned in the episode are there too. In this episode, we found the sweet spot and learning to thrive not just survive in our bodies and minds. We learn the benefits of cleansing juicing supplements stress reduction, and cancer prevention hacks. Golden Nugget number one juice juice juice. The first Golden Nugget from Alyssa Goodman is juice. Alyssa has turned her life around using many food mindset and health tooled juices and veggie soups have been a main way. Juicing cleansing and eating more plants and vegetables allows you to get more veggies into your body. All of these plant nutrients are useful in reducing inflammation in our bodies, helping with different illnesses and even autoimmune diseases. juices allow you to quickly and easily get various vegetables and other leafy greens into your diet. Alyssa says so I drink greens like five out of the seven days a week. I feel like it's a liquid IV of vitamins and minerals. So the problem is we're not getting enough nutrients at a cellular level right now. There's no nutrients in the soil and in our food. You know the food is traveling across the country. And by the time it gets to you it's really lacking what it needs for your body. Plus, we're eating a lot of processed sugars, gluten, dairy and inflammatory foods. So basically, we're not getting enough vegetables and fruits and leafy greens. So the juice does that for me. It goes into the bloodstream into the cells and gives you nutrients at a cellular level. Golden Nugget number to turn a lifestyle obstacle into a transformational moment. The second Golden Nugget comes from Melissa's personal life experience. She was able to continue on with her life after her husband passed away from cancer and she received her own cancer diagnosis at 32 years of age and was able to turn these traumatic and challenging experiences into something that would go on to change hundreds of people's lives. It is possible to continue on from traumatic life experiences and turn them into a moment that you can move on from rather than freezing or going backwards. Trauma doesn't mean it's the end. It just means we need to keep trying different things from the health and wellness vending machine as Alissa and I talked about what works for one person may not work for another. You have to keep trying new things and be open to them. Alyssa says because the stress of it all her two daughters couldn't match

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And she couldn't either. She said I was trying to uphold the whole idea of this perfect family that was okay. But we weren't really okay. It was really challenging. As time went on, we got into therapy, and now we've become communicators. So we have really dove deep into our traumas, our psyche and emotional well being. It's been a blessing to figure out how to become more calm in every way. Golden Nugget number three, plant based diets more cruciferous vegetables to lower tumor markers and reduce inflammation. It doesn't mean you can't have meats. But studies have shown and Alyssa his own personal experience has shown that a plant based diet, more plants and less meat are better for your body and inflammation. It is not that animal proteins are necessarily bad for you, but if you overdo it, the hormones and antibiotics or mercury from fish can have a negative impact on your digestion and gut. The plants and other vegetables like cruciferous vegetables, which are spinach, onions, garlic, leeks, and other veggies like that are the ones that are able to lower tumor markers and create a healthier gut system and immune system and reduce inflammation. Alyssa says animal proteins are not bad for you. But plant based is where it's at. Mostly, if you look at all the studies for cancer and you see what foods lower tumor markers, it's mind blowing. Saturated fats from animal proteins are hard for the body to break down when your gut isn't working properly. The toxins, hormones and antibiotics and Mercury and fish aren't good for you. We shouldn't be afraid of these toxins. But we should want to make sure that we eat as clean as possible. This is a cancer prevention hack. Golden Nugget number four, stick to the 8020 idea. The fourth Golden Nugget is called the 8020 rule or flexitarian. Alyssa calls herself a flexitarian. This idea is that Alyssa likes to be plant based but only 80% of the time, whereas 20% of the time, she's a little more flexible, which means 80% of the time, she's on 20% of the time she's off, we talked about how it's really hard to stick to a plant based diet all the time. So if you can't follow it all the time, and you want to have that cheese board or you're out to dinner, or you go to a really great pizza and pasta restaurant, then just go for it. Alyssa said to me, quote, I'm going to eat gluten and pizza and pasta when I go out for dinner. And hopefully I'll come over to your house someday for dinner and you're serving cheese or cheese platter or cocktails, there's no way that I'm not going to enjoy my life. So that's why I'm a flexitarian Golden Nugget number five, don't be afraid to try many different things when you start your self recreation journey. Alyssa and I spoke about how she essentially tried a vending machine of different tools for things after she was recovering from her and her husband's cancer diagnoses. She tried everything from trauma therapy, to energy healing to meditation, even though none of those things necessarily became the thing that she focused her second half of life on, she used all of these different aspects when it came into holistic nutrition program, and they didn't go to waste. So even if the first thing you try isn't what you end up focusing on forever, like trauma therapy, it will still be useful. And the second half of life is like a vending machine, you can go and try many different things and pick and choose and see what sticks for you. It may take many trials to find the thing that works for you, it won't necessarily be the first thing that you try. And by the end of it, maybe all the things you try will end up working together and be beneficial. It was like basically wanting to get healthy LSS Ed and make sure that my kids were healthy, Golden Nugget number six, find an outlet to release your emotions, they have a physical effect on you. This Golden Nugget is important from Melissa because she talks about ways to release your emotions anxieties and stress. Because after everything she tried and learn this was one of the biggest components to recovering from her illness, disease and cancer. All of these stresses can make you not sleep, which makes it even harder for your illnesses to recover. She says it is important to find an outlet to relieve the stresses, get on with the negative thoughts and you may be able to release the trauma. Alyssa says it really does calm down and reactivate the immune system so it's not compromised. This is releasing stress. Stress can raise cortisol levels and adrenaline and the adrenaline pumps through your body which can have physical effects on you. And if you're really stressed you're not sleeping well and then we're just kind of wreaking havoc on our bodies and feeling crappy. Golden Nugget number seven is journaling. It's part of nugget number six journaling is a type of stress release. Alyssa has found that journaling is one of the best ways for her to release her stresses and traumas. journaling can help release suppressed emotions.

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or fears which can make you sick. Alyssa says journaling has been a huge thing for her in the morning. She says, quote, I'll wake up and sometimes I'll feel anxious or write everything down that I'm anxious about or my fears. And you know what my whole body seems to calm down a little bit. And when you put it down on paper, you can release it from your body. The other great thing in the nighttime when I go to bed is I write down three things I'm grateful for in the day, so that my mind gets more open a grateful space. Alyssa says if you write similar things down every day, don't stress about that you can be grateful for the same thing. Get ulisses book, cancer hacks a holistic guide to overcoming your fears and healing cancer. The gold is dripping off these nuggets, grab it, use it. The resources and products mentioned in this episode are in the show notes. Go to the flexible neurotic.com. Click on episodes and click on show notes. share this episode with a friend and subscribe to the flexible neurotic for more golden nuggets. And please write a five star review. It helps me grow as a podcast. Thank you.

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Good peeps. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed finding our sweet spot today, and digging through layers of shit with your golden shovel, subscribe, subscribe. Subscribe. DM me on Instagram at the flexible neurotic. Tell me which golden nuggets resonated with you. The ones that you're going to start using today to start getting your shit together to find our sweet spots. screenshot it, send it to a friend. This is Dr. Sarah Milken, the flexible neurotic, inspiring you to gather, curate, incorporate, maybe even meditate.