As entrepreneurs, we can get so carried away with our work that the concept of work-life balance becomes non-existent. In today’s episode, our guest reminds us that you don’t have to sacrifice your health for your work and that both can co-exist. Karie Cassell puts the HEAL back in HEALTH. She is a sought-after speaker and #1 Bestselling author of The Domino Diet: How to Heal You from The Inside Out. She joins Juliet Clark to share the unhealthy habits she commonly sees among entrepreneurs and what we can do to change them into healthy patterns. From sugar addiction to processed foods, Karie breaks down the barriers that keep us from operating from a place of health and creativity. Tune in and learn more about what we can do to “nourish to flourish” and find ourselves in the Rest, Digest, Create Zone. Karie leads the way in this conversation!

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Karie Cassell Puts The Heal Back In Health

I’m excited about our guest. She’s a new contributor to Breakthrough Author Magazine. Before we get started there, I want to invite you to go over and sign up for Breakthrough Author Magazine. It is a free magazine downloaded into your inbox around the first of every month. It has lots of tips and tricks on how to build a platform, things you may not know about publishing and content and a lot of other areas that you need to become proficient in and launch your book. Once again, you can go get that at www.BreakthroughAuthorMagazine.com.

Secondly, if you haven’t signed up for our monthly training, I encourage you to go over and do that. It’s the first Friday of every month, unless that falls on a holiday weekend. February’s guest is Parshall Tashi. Parshall has created digital worksheets that are interactive. When I say interactive, I mean not just your downloaded workbook that is a PDF. This is something with video embedded in it and all sorts of things that are interactive with the course you’re taking.

That’s an exciting advancement in this area because I know a lot of times I’ll download something that goes with the course and it’ll go in a drawer or I’ll read it and I won’t execute it. This is a great way to be interactive and engage in real time. I invite you guys to go over and sign up for that training. You can do that by going over to BAMagTraining.com.

You can sign up for that event that Parshall will be talking about. What I love about these live events is that it’s an opportunity for you to not only get some training but to ask questions, bring up concerns, and get to know the people that are part of a magazine because the magazine can be integral to your book launch.

Our guest is Karie Cassell. Karie brings a nourish-to-flourish message as a sought-after speaker and number one bestselling author of The Domino Diet: How to Heal You From the Inside Out. Combining her life coach and certification alternative and non-alternative medicine as a dietician for several years, Karie’s unique formula unlocks patterns of self-sabotage while putting the heel back in hell.

Look for her soon-to-be-released courses on the Domino Diet formula and cracking the craving code for your full spectrum well-being. These are both important programs for entrepreneurs because, as you know, as an entrepreneur, if you’re reading, we often get so ingrained in work that it’s hard to find work-life balance and we don’t get the exercise we need. We’re not eating the right foods, which impacts not only us but our performance. It also impacts if we have employees. If we don’t have work because we’re down for health reasons, there’s a whole ecosystem that depends on us. Stay tuned for this great interview with Karie.

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Karie, welcome. I’m excited to have you on the show.

I’m excited to be here. Thank you. It’s always a pleasure.

It’s always fun to talk to you. The reason I brought Karie on to the magazine is because authors, for the most part, are entrepreneurs. We do a lot of bad things to keep ourselves going that we don’t even realize in the process of all of this. I’ve mentioned on the show before, when Karie was here with her book, that I’ve developed quite a sugar addiction. I worked on that when Karie’s book was in-house getting processed. There are far more things besides that sugar addiction that are hurting entrepreneurs. Karie, tell us a little bit about that cycle that you see entrepreneurs getting into when you’re working with them.

There are a few cycles, we’ll say, but to niche down in terms of nutrition, probably what I get to hear the most often is, “I’m so tired.” The tiredness leads to, “That’s why I didn’t have time to prep meals or workout/activity/walking.” Those are the remedies for the tiredness, ironically. Usually, when someone says, “I’m so tired. I’m managing so many things at once. I’m multitasking,” they’re at the risk of burnout.

I feel like the wording matters to say feeling what you’re after is more energy because, with more energy, we tend to be very creative with our time. We tend to have this ability to stay sustained and achieve many things. Entrepreneurs are wearing so many hats, and it’s so important to have that sustainable energy.

We forget. I don’t know about you, but I’m at a desk or computer, and our mind is being completely stimulated, fulfilled, and maybe overstimulated. It could be another way of looking at it. The body is sitting and needing fuel. We forget that we have this body. It’s almost like we go into our heads, staring at what we’re doing and taking for granted. It would be one way of saying that we still have a pumping heart. There are still lungs that are inflating. Our brain is functioning and all of that is like a vehicle needing gasoline, like we need fuel.

It’ll be typical to see people maybe nibbling out the desk to save time because, again, time is this precious thing. It’s grabbing the M&Ms and drinking a diet soda. Maybe there seems to be a temporary fix, but there’s an extra hunger along and low sugar that goes with it. We do know, at least subconsciously, to grab something. The bar is going to send up some cravings in order for that to be fixed.

It doesn’t mean we fixed it properly. It’s a temporary fix. A lot of sugary foods are only digested for so long on the body as it is. I’ve noticed that we might not be eating enough in terms of the supplement or as often, and probably worse, if I start at the very beginning of where this could, rather than at the symptom level, go to the root, is it’s mindless eating.

In the mindless eating, we’re breathing very differently, too. We’re all familiar with the fight-flight response. It was what was required and still is now, but nowhere near like it was. We needed it for fending off animals and being able to eat. We survived because of it. The fight-flight with our spouse, the teenager, the co-worker, or the deadline that we’re trying to meet, all of it is creating shallow breathing and we know this.

Instinctively, we’re like, “I hardly breathe through.” That’s maintaining this shallow breathing and that’s creating a cascade of hormones like cortisol, which is stressing the body. In a lack of a better way of saying it, it’s stressing the heart. When we’re eating under the fight-flight response, it’s the worst time to be digesting. It shuts down.

Back in the day, especially anybody who’s done any running knows that if they’re eating while running, it doesn’t work out very well. They’re making a few pit stops, let’s put it that way. We know that there’s another way. It’s called the rest digest. The word digest is right in the title and creates a zone. We do access that by how we breathe. By breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth like you’re going through a straw, we begin to switch on the opposite system of the fight-flight response called the parasympathetic. I won’t say that one anymore. It’s the rest digest that creates them.

Why am I saying all this? The word digest is in that. For multitasking up the desk, entrepreneur, or anything else for that matter, even if we’re in the house cleaning and eating, it’s the same thing. It’s not the time for digestion and we’re mindlessly eating versus mindfully eating. I say all that again to say that if we stopped and did that breathing, we’d maybe tune into our proper hunger cues.

We would tune into, “What am I actually craving? Am I looking for this sugar? Is there a reason I’m looking for the sugar? Have I eaten or not?” It’s asking those questions and then proceeding onward. Most people probably heard by this point that sitting is the new smoking. It’s one thing to talk about sugar, but it’s another that we are eating in the wrong way, the wrong things, and the wrong places.

If we start from the beginning, I would love to think that we’re going to reset hunger cues again and go through what I call creating a checklist to find out what the body is saying. We entrepreneurs can achieve our things. We’d have the energy and the sustainability because that walk is all going to give you the energy. It’s cleaning up the lifestyle a little bit. We have kicked the sugar habits. Honestly, I feel like we’re missing a few steps of that’s where we begin. It’s not wrong-wrong. It’s just missing key points, I feel. I know that you know you conquered the sugar habit in many different ways and experiences.

I have it. It’s funny you brought up running because you guys are going to laugh at this. When I ran the LA Marathon, which is my first marathon, I had no idea that there were people along the way that were holding food out for energy. As I was running, I had oranges and licorice. I told somebody who tried to offer me a Coke that I only drank diet and they’re like, “No, you need the sugar.” I kid you not, I woke up the next day and I gained four pounds.

Granted, some of it is probably the water weight from the inflammation, but let’s say that I ate my way through the LA Marathon. It’s like sitting at your desk the same way because you were mentioning running that you’re not even thinking about, “What am I putting into my mouth? Is that fattening?” You’re looking for that energy desperately and I’m sure that quite a few entrepreneurs also start gaining a little bit of weight along the way.

It is a combination of things. It sounds almost old-fashioned now to say the word mindful eating. When it first started to be a term that we would use, it seemed sexy enough, but now it’s overly used. If I say, “Anchor for a moment,” one thing’s for sure, when a craving rises, there are neurotransmitters and hormones all occurring at the same time. That lasts about the length of a song, roughly 90 seconds. There are some times I’ll say, “You have this craving and you want to maybe get empowered versus using willpower energy.” Start with setting a timer, listening to a song first, and then asking, “What’s going on here? Am I looking for a crunch? Am I dehydrated? Am I craving salt?”

That could be the clue right there. You could be very well dehydrated, which can come off like hunger. They could be asking, “If it’s sugar I’m craving, then have I eaten?” More empowering questions. “Is it chocolate I’m craving? Is that different from sugar?” Yes, it is and it tends to be more hormone-related. “Did I have a good enough sleep?” Serotonin is produced wonderfully through our sleep and often, sugar cravings are one hormonal pathway, but chocolate is usually serotonin.

Not always but it’s something to check with. A lot of women on their cycle will certainly say, “It’s around that time I’m looking for chocolate.” Right there, that’s hormones. I feel like just separating it out is letting your body speak to you. It has so much wisdom. It’s very intelligent. When we learn to clue in, we can say, “I can have sugar. It’s not about kicking it to the curb. It’s about curbing it.” I feel like we can invite this 80/20 rule.

It’s not about no M&M’s and no to the enjoying a coffee with whatever that might be for you, but fuel first. Take that deep breath. It will activate their serotonin as well. The rest digest creates a zone, which means you’ll also maybe have more creative thoughts around it. It’s so simple to breathe before you eat. It’s a habit I would love to be able to create on this planet because our default, the fight-flight response, served as well once upon a time, but why not default now into what’s called that parasympathetic zone? We could become better digesters. We probably have way less digestive disorders and heart disease because cortisol is not produced the same when we’re under that pathway. I got sciencey on you there.

You did, but here’s the thing, I learned that I’m not a sugar whore. I may be sleep-deprived because my thing is chocolate. There you go. I’ve been redeemed. Thank you. As you get older, you start reading more about what’s going to keep me and my brain from accelerating aging. I mostly look into brain function. When I look at it, a lot of it seems to be foods that are natural versus processed foods.

Can you talk a little bit about that? One of the things that struck me is I was looking at the study. During COVID, very few Amish people, only one, died from COVID in this study and they don’t eat chicken nuggies and Stouffer’s lasagna. They go out on the farm, work hard and everything is natural. Tell us a little bit about that because I don’t think that processed food is something we should be going for, either.

That’s multi-layered as well. First, we’ll start with the fact that they also have great sleep habits. They’re physically active doing what you just described, so they’re sleeping and you know what’s natural is oxygen. They’re also doing a lot of that wonderful deep sleep, which does lead to you are fuller and longer. There’s more hunger when there’s a lack of sleep, so starting with that. Remember I said earlier that often we’re saying we don’t have time and don’t want to cook or prepare meals, which can lead to that process world more so.

It’s one thing for me to say, eat fuller then the remedy is cooking and that can lead to this, “I don’t have time.” Go back to the beginning and begin thinking about how to manage time in terms of energy. Now, with carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, I’m not one to pick on either one of them. Ironically, I was reading the Nutrition Almanac book when I was thirteen years old, thinking it was normal and learning about vitamins.

All along in these last few decades, I was privy in the ‘80s when carbohydrates were the best and then the ‘90s were all about fat. It started off with cold-pressed oils and Omega-3s. Let’s have that,” and halfway through, it was like, “Diet and low fat. Cut the fat.” Into the next decade, it became the proteins. I say all that because what was missing in the conversations, and still is, is the micronutrients,, vitamins, mineral,s and fiber. Whole Foods has all of those by proxy.

The apples have certain types of fiber inside and outside. They have Vitamin C, a wonderful component. The juice already misses some of that because the fiber is stripped away. That’s processed food right there. We can look at rice, which has the normal brown hull on it. Process that and take the hull off, that’s the fiber because we want instant rice, apparently. It’s quicker to cook when you take off the fiber, but you’re missing the fiber. That is also nutrition.

What’s happening with processed foods is we’re stripping away the Vitamin Ds, Ks, Cs and so forth and we don’t have that weaponry against what is required to fight off certain illnesses. Our immune system is very equipped to fight off, but not if we haven’t worked with it. It’s one thing to think that it’s there by default. The body works in such a way that it protects the first-year core, what your heart, brain, and lungs need.

You would think the immune system is right in that category, but no. It becomes secondary. It first takes care of what you need to live with first. If the heart stops, guess what? If your immune system starts to lower, you can still survive for a length of time. It just makes you tired, so that you’ll preserve your energy. There are little clues. Why am I so tired lately? Have I been sleeping or eating enough? What about my nutrition period?

That could, by the way, tie right back to the beginning, which is why we might have cravings. We are low on certain nutrition. I personally want and work with people to build meal planning around the vitamins. Knock off this discussion about the macronutrients, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, and picking on them. Let’s look first at the vitamins because they’re inside of all of those big giants.

Take away a carb, and you’re taking away vitamins. Take away protein, and you’re taking away vitamins. Take away fat, the same thing. I call it a flexitarian way of eating so we can include our mighty army of vitamins and minerals. We’re not having enough discussions about that. If we focused on eating that to its adequacy, we wouldn’t have the discussion about immune health and heart disease near the same guaranteed.

For someone who’s reading, I’m sitting at my desk, and feeling a little stressed, what are those good snacks that people could grab? I realize one of them, you’re going to say, you may or may not, but I know you’re going to throw nuts in there.

What I usually like to do is, at the very least, combine carbohydrates and proteins. It’s for a few reasons. Let’s say that you’re having crackers and we’re going to hope that they’re like a higher fiber cracker and they’re not nearly loaded with a bunch of salt and so forth. Let’s start there. Let’s say that for a moment. That, by itself, is insufficient in the way that it’s going to give you fuel, but it’s only going to be in your system maybe 30 or 40 minutes.

Heal In Health: Combine carbohydrates and proteins.

For sustainability, I’m going to suggest a protein that combines with it because protein takes 2 to 3 hours to digest. That’s only one reason. The other is I’m sneaking in more nutrition. If you had cheese or some combined protein with it, you’re getting the protein itself. You’re getting calcium and maybe phosphorus, depending what you’re combining it with. I prefer combining food groups. The apple with peanut butter. The banana, same idea. We’re getting sustainability and more nutrition, and it’s moving a little closer to being a meal.

That’s what I’m figuring. With entrepreneurs, I’m noticing, “I didn’t have breakfast,” or “I did, but it wouldn’t be called that. It’d be called a snack.” “I had lunch, but I was eating at my desk and then I put it aside because my client came in.” It’s supper time that we eat our main meal. We’re going long times without proper eating, which leads to another set of questions called intermittent fasting. Is that good or bad or otherwise, but is it another thing we elaborate on?

It’s not working if we’re tired. It’s not working if we’re having cravings but we’re trying to fix a boat that’s broken, so we go to those remedies first. Carbohydrates and protein. It could be a trail mix that is made up. That can be high in calories. Depending on who you are and what your goal is, my suggestion then is to dilute that down with other items pretzels.

I add an iron-fortified cereal to it because it is lower calorie and I’m also getting iron. There are tricks up my sleeve. Usually, what I’ll do is start looking at your actual sugar intake. Are you adding a lot of sugar? Is it masking as if you’re eating? The brain might be thinking, “All is good. I don’t need to stand the hunger cues anymore.” Part of this, I’m going to be gifting ways of looking at sugar and curbing it and step-wising just as I described where we look at five tips, which is asking the question, pause and breathe. Am I actually hungry? Am I dehydrated? Have a cup of water.

Wait five minutes or so, a song’s worth. Is this truly something that I’m craving? What else is going on? Ask those questions and move into potentially having a carbohydrate-protein snack. Still hungry or still craving? I have the suggestion where I help you label read to understand how many sugar cubes equivalent you’re having in what you’re craving. I’ll usually suggest, “Have that item. It’s the equivalent of about three sugar cubes.” You might ask, “How do I know how to do that?”

I was like, “How do you measure that?”

We’re fortunate we have information on labels. If you go and look at the total carbohydrates, don’t just look at the sugar. You’re missing a lot of information if you look at the sugar. Look at the sugar amount and divide that by five. Round up the number and round down the numbers. If the label says 10 grams of sugar or 10 grams of carbohydrate and divide that by 5. It’s equivalent to two cubes of sugar. I’m lying a little bit.

You’re not allowed to lie on my show.

The lying is I divide by five because it’s easy. It should be divided by 4. If we’re splitting hairs, it’s divided by four, if you wish. If I’m in a grocery store, I want to see how many cubes of sugar that is quickly. I’m better with my math to round the number up to 15 or 20 and divide that by 5. It’s quick, easy and accurate enough. If the label says 20 grams of carbohydrate, divide that by 5. It’s four cubes of sugar.

That’s a good place to begin. It’s not the be-all and end-all because we haven’t talked about other parts of that label, but it is a great place to begin. If those M&M’s, you’ll see how many that would mean you can have in terms of the equivalent of three cubes of sugar. That’s about three cubes of sugar, so it makes it safe to have the fruit as well by using that.

I never look at the back of a candy package. I have to admit that. You have two new programs coming up, the Domino Diet Formula and Cracking the Craving Code, which sounds like I need to go back to school with Cracking the Craving. Is there someplace where people can reach out and find out? I know you’re not quite ready to bring those up yet, but to get on a waiting list, how can they contact you to find out more about those things that are coming up? What are those programs like? What do you do in them?

I have a variety of programs and it’s meeting me where you’re at as to what program you might launch into. If sugar is not your problem or craving isn’t the issue, maybe look at the whole world of dieting. I love to tell everyone, “That true meaning of the word diet comes from the Greek word Dieta, which means a way of life.”

Heal In Health: The true meaning of the word diet comes from the Greek word, diaeta, which means a way of life.

I help create your way of life. I say that because we have Christmases, job losses and other things. We have celebrations. We want to work into it as opposed to pretend revering away from it. That’s one. To make it simple for anyone reading, I’ve created the landing page. It’s KarieCassell.com/sugar and you’ll find a resource there, but also all walks of life in terms of my courses. Anything The Domino Diet, which is pretty easy to remember, you’ll find me.

That’s an amazing book. I don’t think you know this, but in the end of the year episode, your book is one of the top five must-reads for 2023. I hadn’t told you that yet. I want to mention that to you because it’s not your typical diet book where you’re bored to death with, “How am I going to do this?” Karie has this wonderful sense of humor. It’s funny. Some of the antidotes in it are very funny, too. They’re very compassionate because there are people having problems. You make fun of your own husband and drinking. She transformed her husband’s life with this diet. She knows it’s something that works. It’s been tested.

Karie, thank you so much for being on. Go grab Breakthrough Author Magazine. Karie’s going to have tips for us every month in 2024. It’s going to be a stressful year with all that’s going on in the world. Get beyond and figure out what’s triggering you and how you can get rid of that trigger and not eat your way through 2024.

We will discover you’re not as flawed as you might think. There’s something else going on. We can fix that. Thanks so much for having me.

You’re welcome.

Important Links

• www.BreakthroughAuthorMagazine.com
• BAMagTraining.com
• The Domino Diet: How to Heal You From the Inside Out
• KarieCassell.com/sugar

About Karie Cassell

Karie Cassell brings “Nourish to Flourish” message as a sought-after speaker and #1 Bestelling author of The Domino Diet-How to Heal You from The Inside Out. Combining her life coach certification, alternative and non-alternative medicine as a dietitian for 30 years, Karie’s unique formula unlocks patterns of self-sabotage while putting the HEAL back in HEALTH.

Look for her soon to be released courses on The Domino Diet Formula and Cracking the Craving Code for your Full Spectrum Wellbeing.

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