Speaker 0 (0s): Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the true life podcast. We are here with an amazing human being, a nutritionist, a personal trainer, and someone who's been on a pretty spiritual journey for quite some time and enjoys helping people. All her links are below where you can check her out, but I'm going to let her introduce herself a little bit. The very beautiful Karasik Adele. How are you?

Speaker 1 (21s): Hi, good morning. Good afternoon, whatever time it is for everybody. I'm good. Thank you. I'm very, very happy to be here and happy to connect with you again, we were talking chatting before what? 30, 30 years, something like that. We were grew up on the same playground and that elementary school or junior high. So yeah, it's, it's a pleasure to connect and it's really nice to see that we're aligned with the work that we do so that we can put this little chat together and hopefully share some good stuff.

Speaker 0 (56s): Yeah, absolutely. For those that don't know, Chris has been on a pretty amazing journey. She's been practicing yoga. She's been working with nutritionists. She has been studying the sober lifestyle. And what can you tell people, like, how did you get on this journey? Was there something in particular that happened or was it something that was always inside of you? Or what do you think was the spark that made this thing happen?

Speaker 1 (1m 23s): Well, it's been quiet. It's, it's been a long journey, but I'd say I'm in my teen years, my early teen years, you know, the drinking just kind of came along with the slumber parties and the weekend get togethers with the young kids. It started for me in junior high and high school. It just expanded and, and got a little bit more, a little bit more. And through the years, you know, that party lifestyle turned into a coping mechanism for me throughout life.

And so I reached a point in my early twenties to where I knew I needed to quit drinking. And I went to a treatment center and I felt like after close to a year of being sober, you know, I got this thing. I, I can do life again. So I went back out for 16 years and I approached life on my terms. And I tried to do the manageable drinking on my own. And I hit a point at bottom at 39 years old, where I was just at an all time bottom.

And I knew that I was in trouble, health wise. My dreams that I had ever wanted for myself were not coming or not. I was not living any kind of dream that I had ever wanted for myself. And I knew I was at this cusp of an age where I was starting to notice other women in their mid forties, early fifties, that looked just healthy and vibrant. And they were just, you know, business women or just athletic women, yoga, working, whatever they were just living life.

And then I, and then I was looking at the people I was with and they were more party people, or it was doing a lot of golfing at the time. And so drinking and golfing went really hand in hand. So that's another, I love the sport first off, but that was another reason that made me love it even more. But I was starting to really look at these, you know, these paths of where I was, and it was just this inside feeling like I had in my twenties where I just knew that I was, I was really shorting myself of a genuine life that I really wanted to live.

And so it was beyond the health. I was having some health problems and some weight problems. I was 50 pounds heavier. I was like 170. My scale was like right around the one 70 mark. And that was my baby weight when I was full term with my kids. So I was re I reached that weight with just the lifestyle. I was living heavy drinking and I was falling and falling into deep depression. And just, it was really just knowing that I was doing this to myself.

It was a self sabotage and it was a cycle. And it was really hard for me to come to terms that cause I had a love, hate relationship with alcohol and I loved it so much. It was like, make me feel warm and comfortable. And it was my coping mechanism, but then yet it was this culprit to a domino effect of problems and issues. And so it was definitely kept me in a very low vibration. So at 39 years old, I, I made some phone calls to some people that I also knew were on this journey.

And I asked for some help and it's just been, not an easy journey, but I'm seven, seven and a half years sober. And you know, I have to share, you know, before a year before I got sober, you know, I hit this emotional bottom and I remember going to the library. I don't know why I went to the library library because it was just like this place where I, I didn't know what I was going to do there, but I just started journaling. And I took a notebook with me and I started journaling and journaling.

And in this journal, it's so neat to be able to look back on it because now it's the power of that intention and the power of like, when you put something out there into the universe and you actually really feel it, you're not just writing something and checking the box like a goal is that you really truly want something you're passionate about. And I wrote that one day, I want to be one of those women that are healthy and vibrant and, and share somehow be able to be strong enough to share with other women that are in the same spot as I was.

And so unfortunately my kids had to grow up watching their mom, you know, I worked and I did all the things on the outside, but on the inside I was really hurting and I drank a lot. So my kids, your kids feel that your kids know when you're a present or not emotionally available. So anyways, I went to break out of it and somehow be at a point in my life where I can go back and help others. I didn't know if it would ever happen, but I knew that in my journaling session, within that time span that I spent in the library, I didn't even open a book in there.

I just used that space, I guess, to journal. And so, you know, I'm really, I'm living that right now. I get I'm living that. So, you know, I work in a treatment center for substance abuse. I work with people all over the world that come in and I'm a fitness coordinator. I teach yoga and breath work. And then I have my own nutrition business, nutritional recovery. I work with women virtually were men, women, even teenagers. I've been working with teenagers to help get them on the right food path with nutrients that are athletic and want to start making better choices with foods because those better habits start in our teens, especially well end our younger years, but especially those teens when the drinking and all that starts.

So it's a way for me to give back and I truly heal through the people I get to work with. And I get to work with teenagers and help their parents and them kind of connect on a food level for the internal cause it's cognitive as well. What we put into our body food holds vibration and it affects our cognitive health and it affects our self esteem. And I know as a teenager, I broke out, I was heavy. I went there, weights like this. Like I gained 20 pounds, lose 20 pounds gain.

So anyways, that's, that's an a that's, that's my story.

Speaker 0 (8m 10s): It's super inspiring to hear, like, I feel, I think everybody goes on. I think everybody has issues where they, they ride these waves of like, oh, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And then they hit a roadblock and they fall. And so whenever I hear somebody tell their story about a journey about like, they get to a point where they're like, you know what, not anymore I'm done. Like I get goosebumps when I think about that. And when you tell that story, like, that's what I think of. And it's such an empowering thing is such a beautiful thing to see the human emotion come out and conquer fear.

Now you mentioned an interesting point. You set a lot of interesting points, but I wanted to start here is that when you got to this point where you started journaling and finding a quiet space to, to, you know, begin the process, you all, did you also start beginning to change your diet and how are those, how, how do you think your nutrition, your fitness and your ability to get over addiction are all connected. Do they feed off each other is one cause the other, are they, are they synonymous or how does that work for you?

Speaker 1 (9m 21s): Well, when I first started my journaling, I was in just utter pain. I was in utter pain. My children had to go live with their dad and I, you know, I had this time or I had to get my life together and I was just in this utter pain and I didn't want to go to a bar. I didn't want go hang out with my friends. And I almost didn't feel safe to go anywhere. So I just found like, you know, because I was just this, like, where do I do with myself? You know? So I was just, the journaling ins was inspired by just utter pain.

I just, I was doing a lot of praying or going to the church as I went, you know, then I was hired a trainer like I did the trainer, but that didn't help keep me sober. You know, I, that wasn't working. So during this time, I, for a year, I was just doing a lot of effort, like hiring a trainer, going to church, finding youth groups, you know, or finding groups to, you know, volunteer, getting a different job journaling. Like I was trying all these things, you know, I am a part of a traditional 12 step group, which helps me.

You gotta be careful like with the, you know, it's, but there are traditional groups where you can be a part of being able to be around other people in recovery. So I did join other recovery groups after a year when I first got sober. It was really, I, I surrounded myself with a bunch of other people that were sober, but that first year before was just trying everything else.

But that, cause it's really hard to go into a room and to admit to someone else I have a problem with alcohol. It was really hard. I mean, it was just, that was like, I don't know if it was ego or just truly letting go of that one thing I thought I can control because, you know, I wanted to feel like I had control, you know, and I, it was hard to admit as soon as I started at knitting, you know, I do have a problem with this drinking thing and I need help. It was like, it was so embarrassing and humbling at the same time, but it brought people closer to me.

And then all of a sudden I didn't feel so lonely and then I should share it with another person. And then they, you know, and they, if they didn't have a problem going on, it was like, oh my God, my uncle, or my mom or my sister or my husband, or, you know, like, there's, I don't think there's one family out there that's not affected by addiction. I agree if it's not, you it's someone within your family dynamics. So when I get to share, I just had to hit that point where I was in enough pain where I had to talk about it.

I didn't have my kids with me. I was just try almost, almost at a point, like what's there to live for, you know? And it was just like, I knew something had to shift and I'm like, what are these women doing that? Get to look like that I'm going to the gym and I'm, but I'm, it's not just like seeing what they look like on the outside. Like I could feel their joy through their smiles and the white in their eyes and that, and I wanted that. I'm like, what is that? Like, I would want that, you know, so I just kept seeking.

I just kept seeking. I was in enough pain where I knew it was like, if I go this way, any longer, I'm going to die. And it may not be physically die death, but it's going to be a spiritual. I was like, they had this soul sickness going on. It was like, I had this spiritual pain. It was just like, this energy was so low and I couldn't lift it. So yeah, I started with the journaling wanting at enough, figuring out what I wanted and I didn't even know what I wanted until I wrote it all out. And I cried and I cried in the, in the, in the journal.

There's like wet spots in the pen. There's so much tears, but I wanted it. And it's so crazy. Cause it's in us. And when I get to work with other people that are new into breaking out of not the dark, so to speak, but their consciousness is just, you know, glassed over and they're numbed out and they in there and they get to like kind of come into this new, I get to see that, you know, they come to me when they're on their first days of detoxing.

And then I get to see them within the first week, second week, third week and train them and work with them and make sure they drink well, you know, it's just like so beautiful. And then this in the most talented and it doesn't discriminate, you know, it doesn't, it's the most talented people. And I don't know, it's just, it's so beautiful to be able to see people break out of it, but there's maintenance, you know, we have to stay in recovery so anybody can go without picking up a drink.

You know, if they really wanted to, they could, you know, really just fight it and say, I'm not drinking today, but it's the quality of life and that internal, like, it doesn't have to be a struggle. You know, it could be a beautiful journey, but you've gotta do some work. You got to find out the why you drink, you know, and what led you to drink and what the, what are the things you like to do? And I like to go back to childhood, cause there's this inner child in all of us. It's like, what did you like to do as a kid?

That's the first thing I asked me, well, what do you like to do as a kid? They like, I don't know. It likes to swim. Well then let's get you swimming. You know? Like I don't like to use the surf or board. Well, let's get you on a boat. You know? They're like, yeah, but we got to get you healthy enough to be able to do that. They're like, I'm not too old. Like, no, you're not kidding. So I don't know. It's just, I had to go through those stages when I was, like I said, when I was sober first got sober, I was like 50 pounds overweight.

And I went straight to sugar. All like the people I was hanging out with were like, just eat the donuts, drink the coffee. It's better. It's way better than picking up a drink. And I was like, that sounds right. You know, but it was flat and it dopamine hit. It was the serotonin that sugar was kicking. I mean, it's just like cocaine, you know, it's like kicking in. And then I had a whole nother battle with food. And then I'm like, wait a minute. I don't want to just eat my problems away. And not now, this isn't why I got sober, but I had to go through that journey my first year of sobriety.

And then I joined a fitness team and I went to the gym. That's pretty cool. I went to the gym and I was so embarrassed to even go into the gym because I was so out of shape. And then I just kept seeing this fitness team, this one man with all his girls, like the fitness team, you know, it was like a sport. It wasn't just girls hanging out, looking pretty in the gym. Like these girls were like bootcamp and in the gym and they were competitive trainers.

They're competing, you know, they're training to compete. And I wasn't even, like, I looked at them and awe and admired, but very intimidated. And then after so many months I finally built the courage to like talk to the coach. And then he took me on and I stayed with that team. I hired him and I sit in, he actually sponsored me and I became a trainer, the first female trainer on the team.

And I got certified. And because I had that athleticism in me since a child. So that's why I'm so in tune to what we used to do as children for athletics. And then he got me competing, he got me competing and I was doing the bikini competitions and I won first place, all natural. And it was just these crazy experiences I got to do since I got sober. And yeah, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I became a flight attendant for a little bit.

I was doing the personal training. Then I did the, I was managing a golf course at the food and beverage area. I was doing a little bartending, but managing. So yeah, it's been, it's been a journey. And so now I get to work with people in recovery and I that's where my heart's at. That's just where my hearts have.

Speaker 0 (17m 59s): Yeah. It sounds like it's such a story of like, I always think of biblical scripture sometimes whether it's like, I've been reading a lot of Siddhartha and it's just a story of like all of us, how we go through these different stages of life. And it, that when you, the story you told almost sounds like a rebirth, like you got to this point where part of you died and then another part started growing back. And I think when that happens to people, it gives you this rare ability to see it happening inside other people. And like, that's, that's, it seems like a gift you have, like the way you talk about helping other people, you know, I can physically see it when you smile.

Like you get real joy out of it. And that's probably why you're so successful at it. It, I was going to ask you this, how does it feel like when you see someone for the first time going through some of the issues that you went through, like, what are some of the strategies you use to help that person?

Speaker 1 (18m 57s): There's so many different ones because I get the opportunity to work with young girls that are 18 and, you know, an OB, you know, and then I get women my age and I get older, the senior, you know, and then I get the male, the younger, the younger guy, the 18. And so I get a variety. And so I'm kind of being broad here cause I work a full-time job at a treatment center. And I also have my own business where I work nutrition and I also do a little sober coaching life coaching.

It just kind of depends on who comes to me if it feels like it's a connect. So I have different strategies, but I really it's like I had shared before the call and think we were recording at Ru so many years, I was so blocked and numbed out through my drinking and emotional states of just putting up blocks and key, keeping a disconnect with people.

And I felt so deeply and it was just a lot of us in addiction. Do we just have a deep, deep need? And when we numb out and I hate to speak for other people that I own, I will say for myself, but it's this need where it's like this, you need, you you're hurting so much or your feel so much and you kinda can't handle it. So you numb out more. So when you remove the alcohol, like I'm going to speak for myself.

I've grown to become very empathic li inclined without even knowing. So I can feel the emotion and I'm going to give this as an example. When I teach yoga, I teach yoga five nights a week in the treatment center and I do it right before they go to bed eight 30 to nine 30 at night. And I, Jim dim the room and I light the candles, like little battery candles. And we set the tone and I incorporate some breath work and stretching and yoga.

And I'm always asked, you know, what type of yoga do you do? You know, what is it going to be hard intermediate? And I just said, you know, it's restorative, it's in, you know, it's just very, and I said, you know, actually I said, I read the room. I pick up off your guys's energy. If it's an emotional day of therapy for everybody and they come into the room, I can feel it. I can feel all that emotion in the room and I can incorporate like my routines never the same every night, I just incorporate the right stretches to help relieve tension.

Like in the heart shock red, the hips help release tension in the hips. So I just kind of read the room and incorporate to their needs. So that's just one strategy of kind of just suiting everybody's needs. And that's in a group setting, but one-on-one, I don't know. You'll kind of know automatically if it's a connect, you know, I liked, I do like to ask, you know, ask them what their goals are.

What are, you know, what are they wanting for themselves? You know, why, why did they quit drinking? You know, why, why are they, why are they making this change? And that's a big reason sometimes it's because you got the nudge from the judge Or your wife is making you, or your husband's making you and you don't really want it. So that's not going to be exactly the best fit if it's like, you don't really want it. And you're just doing it because you have to. And you want me to just like, I don't know, just show up. You can tell someone you're showing up, but if you really, really want it, I can feel that.

And I can connect with you. And it's like this language of the heart, you know? And I will not necessarily share what's going on with me that they know, I understand by, I just want them to understand more than anything that I understand. And if I don't, I'm not, I don't. But if I understand and we connect and I've already been through like that, I have the needle, at least I know the way to pull you through it.

And so I don't know. I'm kind of speaking in code maybe.

Speaker 0 (23m 28s): No, it's perfect. It's it's I think that there's something to be said about language and you know, not just our words, but the way we carry ourselves. Like, you can totally tell if someone's bullshitting you or if they really mean what they say or if they want to do something or if they're just there because they have to. And, you know, I think that stems from, well, I think it was central in this. Let me ask you, let me put it this way in my life. I have found that looking back on some of the tragedies have happened in my life.

You know, I, I think to myself recently, like maybe everything, all these things happened to me so that I can be who I am today. And I found it to be kind of therapeutic. And when I speak to people like yourself, who've been through difficult tragedies with their families and, you know, trying to figure out who they are and battling with addiction or why they battle with addiction. Maybe some people have been molested or maybe some people have been in abusive relationships, found it like almost cathartic or, or just rewarding to think for a moment that there's some force bigger than us, you know, be a God or all or Buddha, whatever it is you choose to label that force like that force has decided to put you in those situations.

And I think of it like, look, I'm going to put you in this horrible situation. It's going to be horrible, but I want you to know that I'm putting you through this because I think you're strong enough to come out of it and then help other people come through it. You know? And, and when you do come through tragedy, whether it's addiction or the loss of a child, when you come through something like that, maybe not right afterwards, but you will get stronger. Something dies inside you, but something stronger grows back. And I think that that is part of our evolution as people, as humans, as you know, as intelligence.

And that is our job. Look, I'm sorry, this horrible thing happened and it's going to suck. There's going to be consequences, but please go out and find the other people. So it's easier for them. And when you do that, like it's just one per like, like you are making the world better, Chris. I love it. Like you're helping people, not only where you're at, but let me, let me shift gears here. You have this incredible idea about a DNA based diet. Can we start talking about that a little bit? Like, what is that? How did you get there and what does it do for us? How does it work?

Speaker 1 (25m 48s): Yeah, that's a really exciting, that's probably my favorite part because I'm interested in and learning how to eat. Can do you know, for the better reasonings of my health, not just to lose weight. Yes. I wanted to lose weight, but more important. Like I said, when I first got sober, like I had no idea what was going on with my body and nobody in the recovery world was talking about nutrition and nobody in the fitness arena that I jumped into was talking about addiction.

So I had this, these wires were crossed where I just knew eat chicken and rice to get onstage and get in a big community. And to me, I didn't know anything other than like lose weight, healthy. Right? Okay. Bikini fitness, like doing it, right. It's not sustainable. You know, it looks great and it wasn't sustainable. It's just not, and it wasn't the healthiest way to live.

So then I'm in the addiction. We're just eat donuts, drink coffee. It's better than a great I'm like now I'm like on the opposite ends of the spectrum, I'm all in. It's like the addictive, you know, all in with the donuts, all in with the coffee, you're all in with the chicken and rice every day. It's like, so I was through my nutrition journey and my health and wellness journey. It's like seven and a half years now. And to sustain a healthy weight and sustain a healthy lifestyle for the right reasons, the cognitive, the cravings, the sugar cravings, alcohol cravings, all of that.

I came across this genetic DNA testing a few years back and I had studied it and read about it and I liked it. And you know, I tried it and then I did got some blood work done. So I did, you know, I've always tried those testings for myself, cause I want to learn more and more about how my body operates. And then I just, I started realizing, you know, this is something that like everyone should know, especially, I mean, not just for people early in recovery, but everyone should know like how, w w you know, how your body has a tendency to react and metabolize different foods, you know, not everybody's meant for the keto diet.

Yes. If you eliminate, if you eat just a bunch of fat, healthy fats, I mean, there's the healthy keto and the unhealthy keto people out there eating fries and all the fried food keto keto. So if you're going to do it, do the healthy keto, but not everybody's body is meant, or has the ability I should say, has the ability to consume and break down the fats like another person. So everybody's genetics are different.

And same thing with protein. And, you know, some people are in the lucky club gene and some people aren't. And most of us know, like if you're genetically inclined, you know, if you go to the gym, you get results really fast, but it is nice to know where you're at. This test allows me to better coach someone in the aspect of nutrition helps us put us in the right direction and focus on the right foods with proteins, fats and carbs.

And then it gives you a nutrient breakdown of where your body may have more of a tendency to be deficient in vitamin D BC. A lot of the deficiencies that a lot of us in early addiction come across. And even in not early addiction, a lot of people in the world now it is. And then in the fitness body composition, how your body responds to cardio, some people may have, it comes all in the testing.

It shows maybe your body would work better to do. Long-term cardio, you know, 30 to 45 minutes, moderate cardio, you're going to have more fat loss, have your body's going to burn more fat that way versus sprinting. Some people might have that sprint ability to lean, lose that faster. So just kind of allows me to help navigate and to, for the people who have a little bit more of a hurdle in the genetic, it gives us a little bit more grace, like, be easy on yourself.

You know, it doesn't mean it's not going to happen. It just means we just need to kind of like modify and like work in this area a little bit more. It's always inevitable. You exercise eat, right? You get good sleep. You do keep your stress level down. The self care, all that stuff. It's inevitable. You're going to get healthy here. You're going to lose weight. Some people just faster than others. So this test just allows us. And it's awesome to be able to see it on paper and go, okay, this is me.

You only have to take the test one time. It's your genes, your genetics, your blueprint doesn't change as your DNA, your fingerprint doesn't change. And that's it. So it's just something I like to incorporate to help me just get to know the person I'm working with internally. And then we can discuss traits and genetic, you know, the genes. And I want people to be able to fit into their own genes.

Speaker 3 (31m 32s): So good.

Speaker 0 (31m 33s): Then I said, for your tagline, that's beautiful. That's fully it. That is right on the cusp of personalized medicine. And if you look where we're going right now, at least if you li, if you read a lot of the literature coming out of some of the modern medicine schools, you'll see that sites like 23 and me, or ancestry.com or even some of these other ones like Dr. Rhonda Patrick has this one. You can put your information into. And the future, I think is definitely going towards personalized medicine with your genetic code, what you can eat.

And I was curious if you let's say that I sign up and you and I start working on my profile. Does my, would you be able to write me like a, like a, a fitness workout code that goes with diet and eating, and then on top of that, the second part of this question is, do you take notes on someone's psyche? Because while there's different genetic testing that can be done, I think someone such as yourself, a counselor, such as yourself or a coach like yourself, could really add to that particular system by writing down a set of, of personal personality traits or ideas about how that person thinks there might be some patterns there that you could kind of pioneer.

What do you got on those two questions?

Speaker 1 (32m 51s): Yeah, actually I do do that. That's, you know, there, that goes into the incumbent under the coaching. So I do incorporate some coaching in with that, and I do what the accountability I do every Sunday and accountability. And I, so I will create for each client on a way to incorporate healthy habits based on you, based on you.

I mean, not everybody's gonna do fall into meditation and prayer, you know? And so there are other things to kind of wean you into some healthier things. It may be the hot cold therapy, you know, taking a nice hot bath lighting, some candles, listening, you know, listening to whatever you want to journaling for just a few minutes, five minutes, and then taking a nice cold shower after you know, that hot, cold therapy that adrenaline, as soon as your body triggers that little bit of adrenaline, which that cold water spike does that really shocks the body and it, and it also helps your metabolism throughout the rest of the day.

So there are some other things that I can incorporate the psyche. I don't get too much into the psyche. I get more, like I had said in the beginning, it's more of this emotional connect that it's like a language of the heart that I can really feel someone's needs of what, what their needs are. And I like to try and incorporate ways for them to fulfill their own needs without needing it from their husband or needing it, you know, from their child, like the codependent from your children, or, you know, needing to be, you know, just needing to go shop or needing to go, you know, do it like this, to fulfill that void.

In other ways within yourself, I really liked to help focus on that because that does really come out in our behaviors of why we do certain things, impulsively eat, say F it I'm just going to eat this thing, or it could just be I'm, I'm at a party and I'm going to celebrate and have a piece of cake that's totally different. But when we're just in this mood and we're emotionally eating, you know, I do like to really just get to know the person's needs of what they are and why they want it.

Like, why do you want to lose weight? You know, did you just recently become single and you went to revenge body and you want to go out and meet somebody. That's okay, too. Cause I've been there. That was my, that was my bikini body journey. I get it. So it's not necessarily the healthiest mindset I wasn't working with anybody at that time to help tame me down and say, whoa, woman, let's let's, let's do make sure you're doing this for the right reason.

Like, I didn't have anybody kind of navigating me in that area. After I hung up, I say, hung up with the key. The, the competence of the bikini and stopped competing is when I really started opening my heart to that deeper level of what I needed. And I was hurt. There was so much hurt from, you know, being made fun of my weight was made fun of, you know, I was never, you know, I chose relationships where they picked me apart, heated on I was, you know, all those things.

I wanted to feel good enough. You know, I wanted to India, I wanted to get healthy and I want it, but I got sidetracked, you know? So I didn't have anybody to really help navigate me of your deeper level of what does Carissa need what's does Carissa, why does Carissa want to do this bikini competition? Why does it, like, nobody asks me that I was just like, you know, all these other reasons, all I had a hundred reasons. So yeah. I just really liked to get to know your need your why, and focus on that and help you just become the best version of yourself for all the right reasons.

That's it? Cause otherwise it's, you know, it's wasted energy, it's energy, that vengeful energy, it's just low vibration energy, spiteful, energy, like all that stuff is toxic. So I really like to keep your, your whole journey as healthy as possible. And I guess that does go into the mindset into the psyche. It all, it's like this mind, like in yoga, I like to say, connect your breath with your heartbeat, you know, because then you really feel the alignment of your breath of your mind and head.

And when you make a decision and you start doing this long enough, you'll know if you make a decision and it's straight from here, it's just straight here. And then I also make decisions and it's straight here. And I'm like later on, I'm like, ah, man, I should've thought that through a little bit, but I know when I make decisions and in my mind, and my heart is completely aligned and it feels right, whatever the decision is, I'm like, yes, this feels right. Like I know.

And I want that for people I work with. I want you to know why you're choosing the right foods, why you're losing the way, why you're making decisions, because how we do one thing is how we do everything. So

Speaker 0 (38m 52s): Those are such, those are such great points. Like if you don't know your why, then you're not going to have the ability to continue when times get tough because you don't know why you're doing it, you know, and on the topic of your heart and mind being aligned. Like I recently read this book and I'm going to send you a copy. It's phenomenal. It's called the embodied mind. And the general, the gentleman's name is Thomas Verny. He, he graduated from Stanford. And I think, I think maybe it was Harvard. One of those Ivy league schools, I think it was Harvard in like 1970.

And he wrote a book. His first book was called the, the heart and mind of the unborn child or something like that. And he talked about how we begin to develop patterns that will be forever in our lives before we're even born. His second book. The one that I'm going to tell you about is that he's done a lot of recent studies that show the way in which we form memories. The way in which we think is not only in the brain, but in every cell of the body. And every single cell of the body is like its own brain.

And he spoke specifically about people that got heart transplants and they began to take on a new personality. He talked about the different neurotransmitters that are throughout the body. And when you said to me like George, when my heart and my mind is aligned, like, I know it's the right thing. Like, that's your, that's your body working perfectly together to come up with the right decision. And then on another side note, I was thinking, when you do yoga and also in this book, he was saying that when people are on the same frequency, like if you and I are running together or if you and I are working out together, are our heartbeat somewhat synchronized.

And that is when you, you know, when you're with the person you love, whether it's your child or your lover and you you're waking up, or you're, you're sitting at dinner or whatever, the chances of your heartbeat being aligned is probably pretty good. And that's probably a pretty opportune time to have a discussion about things that are real. And it just excites me for what you do and to see the future coming for nutrition for, you know, recovery and for all these things. It's, it's an exciting time on that. I got one more topic I wanted to ask you. Well, I got a few more, but what do you think about like, it seems to me that all of us are some are going through some form of abuse, you know?

And it doesn't matter if you're white or black, or it seems from like a very early time, all of us have been kind of beaten up and we get into our thirties or forties and we're like, we treat other people much better than we would treat ourselves. It seems like we have this inner dialogue. That's so negative. And it's the more people I talk to. Like, I can hear it in their words like, oh, I never do that. You know, just like these little, little jabs they do to themselves. And I've always got to stop the, Hey, don't do that. Like, what are you doing? Don't do that. You don't tell yourself that you would never say that to somebody else.

What look, why do you think we have this collective guilt or this collective anger at ourselves? Where does that stem from?

Speaker 1 (41m 51s): That's inner child work. That's intere, that's inner child work right there. I have done a lot of inner child work. I started doing inner child work. I was introduced to it my first year of sobriety. And it's deep, it's deep stuff because it makes you look back on your, for how you grew up. And, you know, I grew up in a, in an, I mean I had a good upbringing, but there was, I mean, there are always, our parents only know what they know.

Right. Or families only know what they know. And none of it's meant like pun intended, you know, nobody's mad. I don't think no. Or maybe when they're mad, Then we're just hard on ourselves. But it does start from that child. That child is, is told no, no. Or what's wrong with you? What the heck's wrong with you? Or, you know, or we're not talked to, we're not communicated to, so we don't understand.

So then we start, at least I'm going to speak for like, I'm, I'm not like a doctor. I don't know, but this is my experience. Like, and from this, the research that I have done and the inner child work that I've done has taught me that it was all learned from a very, very, very young age. Either someone told you something and you believed it, or they punished you and you didn't understand why, so you just thought I'm bad.

And so those short they're like short circuits, the work I've done, I've done some work. And I was told it was short circuits. So it had short circuits. So we, of those belief systems of those belief systems that carried on through the years, and that's probably D there is a chemical reaction to alcohol. You know, I, I take a drink that says, you know, me after three drinks, my body's like, yay.

More for the average person. They're like, whoa, I've kind of had enough, you know, but me, it's more and more and more because that's the chemical reaction. But then also underlying from that, you got this short circuit of saying a depression. So it's like putting, you know, alcohol is a depressant. So you're putting fuel on the fire of, you know, something's wrong with me. Or, you know, you might be going through a breakup or you might be going through a hard time at work or find it, whatever. And you're just, short-circuiting back to that old belief system of something's wrong with me, or I'm not good enough.

Or, you know, I li I'm, I'm failing again. Or I, you know, I let someone down again, it's just this vibrational like, like, wait, but I do truly believe it starts from childhood. There is a lot of work that you can do. I don't specialize in the work, but I have done the work. So I'm aware of it. And I do know some ways I've done enough work around it, where I do know some ways to work with someone that may be having, I can Impathics we kind of pick up and we can talk, you know, I may not even talk about it, but I'm familiar with it enough where if I, if I see it, I'm going to, from, I'm going to see the familiarities, I'm going to see it's familiar.

I do believe it's just from childhood. There's a lot of work you can do around it. It's almost like reparenting yourself. You have to repair it yourself. I've done a lot of deep meditations and writings and visualizations of literally me holding the, as the adult Carissa, I'm an adult. I'm 46 holding that little girl's hand and saying, I got you. You're okay. No, one's going to hurt you no more. I got you. Like it's cause that little emotional, the emotions still is living inside in that cell.

And it's still that painful memory still comes up. And so I, you know, I get to hold my hand in my inner teenager, I have an inner teenager that's been hurt. I've haven't entered 20 year old there's things that have happened in my twenties where I've been very hurt, like traumatized or in my thirties. And you know, I get to now know I'm 46 and I'm here. We are here now, you know? And I, and I hate to like it for anybody. I don't know, maybe a long time ago.

I might've thought that person's kind of crazy talking to herself, but it's, it's positive talk. It's a positive talk rather than saying you fucking Myself out or cussing myself out or what's wrong with you or put it, you know, I have to reframe it. I have to reframe it and find another way to replace it. And that is we're okay. We're we're okay. I do know a lot of people that work, that specialize in actually working with people in the inner child arena.

And I have worked with a lot of people that do specialize in that solely. So I know that works out there and it's, it's, it's beautiful work. It's beautiful work because there is a lot of self-sabotage and we are very hard on ourselves. And I see it all the time. I see it all, especially the arena that I work in. I see it all the time. And sometimes it comes out and shopping comes out and getting yourself indebted can comes out and cheating.

It comes out and overeating comes out in addiction. It comes out in all sorts of ways, but there's this deeper layer that does stem from childhood.

Speaker 0 (47m 47s): Yeah. It's maybe it's just a part of getting older and looking back on your life and reflecting, or maybe it's a part of helping people have better relationships or maybe it's just the human condition that, that were flawed. However, I, I feel like we can be on the cusp of changing, not only ourselves, but the planet, if we can just learn to, you know, what I think it stems from. I think it comes down to language. W when I, when I was at school, I never realized like, why do I got to take English?

Like, I totally speak it. Like, this is dumb. However, the older you get, the more you realize the, and that is the English language and the different words that can be used. And, you know, a thought or sentence is just a linguistic pathway for a thought. And if you can provide a really beautiful linguistic pathway, then you can get people, you can paint pictures in the minds of other people. And if you can do that, that's when you can really begin to change people's opinions and their views of themselves.

Or if, you know, if a young child who maybe grows up in a home where both parents are working and they don't have any time, or maybe there's just one parent, they don't have any time to spend with them. That child is at a deficit, especially when it comes to language where if the mom, like you said, if the mom is busy and she's like, what are you dumb? You stupid instead of saying, oh my gosh, are you struggling right here? What's the problem? Can I help you to the exact same thing she's saying? But just in different words, but to a child it's like, oh man, I am dumb. I am stupid. I'll never make it.

And then at that point in time, it's, it's so hard for that child to catch back up to the, to the person who has someone that can communicate well to them. And I, I think if there's one thing I could tell people that on my podcast, I try to talk to people about is change your language, change your life, write your inner dialogue, the words you use, like the words you use, describe who you are. You should be trying to find the most beautiful words possible. The 15 letter word in the dictionary. And try to use that one to describe who you are, what you do.

And it's such a beautiful way to communicate is that when you can, I think it opens up ways to see other people to it. Like when you just the word empathic or, you know, the word empathy, and you think about the ideas behind these words, the intention behind those words, like it really opens up.

Speaker 1 (50m 10s): Yeah. And how you treat someone else is a mirror reflection of what you feel about yourself. It just is, you know, so it's so much, so I mean, treating yourself really well and, and being loving towards yourself. I mean, how the heck can you treat somebody genuinely give away? You know, you can't give something you don't have. So if you're, you know, when somebody is doing really good and you're in, I mean, you're really genuinely happy for them.

It's because you're in a good place. You're in a good Headspace. You know, there have been times where I've seen people do really well. And I'm jealous. I'm angry. I mean, that's, you know, that's, those are states of, I'm not in a good place and you kind of can't see it. You're not aware of it, but we, you know, it's our duty. I know. And that's, I like to tell people the better, how could you not invest in yourself? You know? Like that's the best gift you can give to your loved ones. It's the best gift when you are taking care of yourself and on all levels, like you would just, I mean, it's the best gift because now you feel so good and you want to share it.

You want to give it away. And that's how you keep it. I truly believe, you know, you have to give it away to keep it. You have to share it. Now I'm just going to keep it to myself. I want to share it because then it just, it makes me feel like I don't know the purpose, a passion. And when I get to see other people go help other people. And they're just like, it's just this like, oh my God, it's so awesome. And you know, but we do owe it to ourselves. I mean, it's the best gift we can give.

Our loved ones is to take care of ourselves and start talking lovingly to ourselves and treating ourselves, you know, really good on all levels.

Speaker 0 (52m 3s): Yeah. I heard a good quote, one time that says in life, what you give you get to keep, but what you fail to give you lose forever in the beginning, it sounds kind of like, does that make sense? But you know, you'll never get another chance to give your heart or never get another chance to give kindness to someone in that moment. But if you give everything you got like, you look back on that and be thankful for it.

Speaker 1 (52m 27s): And ultimately that's all we have. You know, at the very end, we can't take all the monumental things with us. We, we, I mean, it's nice to live nice. It's nice to live comfortable and we want, you know, but it's what you do. It's how you respect your stuff and what you do with your stuff. And, you know, but at the end we can't take it with us, be able to have that peace in our heart and know that we did good things in life.

So I don't know. So on that, you know, I know we're going to talk about the cookbook. I'm super excited to talk.

Speaker 0 (53m 7s): Absolutely. What, what are you got about? Tell us about the cookbook. When does it come out? What's in it? What can we expect to be cooking? What do you got about it?

Speaker 1 (53m 15s): Yeah, it's called the sober cookbook and it was all stemmed from pretty much everything. We already talked about nutrients, how important it is to take care of your body, but I'm going to have all sorts of fun recipes in there focusing on deficiencies that a lot of us are most common to have when we're first, early in sobriety. And it probably is going to be very aligned with a lot of people who aren't aren't in the recovery arena, but it really focuses on the foods that are best in the nutrients level for deficiencies and to help lose unwanted pounds because anybody who's had the beer belly or the beverage valley knows that, you know, it's time to lose some pounds.

So anyways, that's what the cookbooks about. I'm really excited about that. And that'll be out hopefully in the next few months, but there is a wait list on my website. I don't know if you have it on your podcasts, but

Speaker 0 (54m 25s): I have some links below, but where's the BeltLine. If people want to reach out to you, do you, where can they find you

Speaker 1 (54m 31s): Either? I'm I think I'm on all the, so the Instagram, the Facebook, and then I have my website and I'm on the website. You can go on the list for the cookbook.

Speaker 0 (54m 44s): Nice. Is this a, is it some of like the codel family recipes from generations ago? We're going to see any of that in there.

Speaker 1 (54m 52s): Those were more like was on the softball field. Most of the time, I'm at the snack bar, but Through my, my last seven years of the journey of my favorite recipes that I put together and next best options. So there's a lot of good stuff on there. And

Speaker 0 (55m 14s): There's only

Speaker 1 (55m 14s): The journal in the cookbook as well. So you can kind of show an assessment of where you're at when you first start. It's like a 30 day reset, basically. And if I know I've kind of sampled it and done some kind of beta testing with a few girls already, and it's pretty neat. Like the, these two girls had no desire to quit drinking, but they wanted to see what it felt like to not drink for 30 days. So they did really well and they had some good results.

So it's been, it's, it's a fun little thing to put out there to.

Speaker 0 (55m 50s): Yeah, it's awesome. And does it work with the DNA, the DNA testing kit as well?

Speaker 1 (55m 55s): The DNA testing kit will only help the food selections help you narrow down the food selections to your most optimal foods. So if you do the genetic testing with it, that's optimal. That's going to be the best, but it's not needed. Right.

Speaker 0 (56m 13s): Nice. All right. Well, Karissa CUDA, I'm excited to talk to you. Thank you for taking some time to spend with me and the audience and taking us through a journey that is, I think everyone is going to hopefully go through and find their own way. And thank you very much for helping people and just being a beautiful human being. And I got your links below. Is there anything you want to tell people before we go?

Speaker 1 (56m 33s): Just thank you for being here. If you're listening and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me and yeah. Just take care of yourself. Drink lots of water, lots of water and talk kind to yourself and yeah, it's just love and health to everybody.

Speaker 0 (56m 52s): Nice. Okay. Everybody have a great day.