Cynthia Garcia: Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. 

This is our very first podcast episode here at the Institute of Transformational Nutrition or ITN as we are affectionately known and my team and I are so excited to bring you the same cutting edge information and tools that we deliver to our students and coaches, because while we educate and we certify the best nutrition coaches in the world, there are still so many people who reach out to us wanting our help.

They’re looking for a modern day solution to get clarity and truth around what really feeds them physically, mentally, and spiritually. People want more these days, they want to feel healthy and happy and fulfilled. And that’s where this podcast comes in, because what we know here at ITN is that food alone will never fix us.

The old school method of nutrition was created for a world that no longer is. We are fed by so much more. But before I move on to that topic, let me introduce myself. I’m your host, Cynthia Garcia. I’m the founder and CEO of the Institute of Transformational Nutrition. And today I’m going to share with you a deeply personal story that I haven’t shared before in this much detail.

In fact, I’ve only mentioned it in passing. So I’m going to tell you about how my own health struggle ended up leading me to the Transformational Nutrition Model and how you too can work to redefine nutrition in your life. So without further ado, let’s just dive right into it. Let’s get this started.

So if you’re not familiar with me, I grew up in a very small Appalachian town, the kind where Main Street was a two lane road, and everybody knew everybody’s business where people had gardens, had babies– had a hard time making ends meet. The kind of small town where someone might have a little too much to drink on a Saturday night, get out of hand and wind up, sleeping it off in the county jail. Fact. My dad was one of those people. Except instead of ending up in the county jail, he almost ended up in the morgue. 

So one night he was out and after having a few too many my dad hopped into the car with his best friend and started speeding down this dark curvy country road. If you ever been on these country roads, you’ve know what I mean.

There’s no street lights or nothing around to light them or to light your way. Creedence Clearwater Revival was blasting from the radio, the hot summer air smelled of honeysuckle. He was living wild and free with very few cares in the world. Now it wasn’t long on his joy ride before he drove right past a county deputy who was just lying in wait, pulled off over to the side of the road. 

As the deputy pulled onto the road and he switched his lights and siren on. He could never have known how this night would end. Sure, my dad heard the siren. Sure, he saw the lights, but instead of pulling over, he pressed the gas pedal further toward the floor. You see, my dad loved driving fast cars and living on the edge. He considered himself somewhat of a rebel.

Still does. The liquid courage that was coursing through his veins, told him he was invincible. He decided that that would not be the night he went to jail. Instead it would be the night that he would outrun this old county deputy and maybe tell his friends about it the next day. He held tightly to the steering wheel, pushed a little harder on the gas pedal.

His eyes were focused dead ahead, narrowing in on this small country road that stretched out in front of him. He had driven this road for as long as he could remember, and he probably could have driven it. Blindfolded. Let’s be honest, which is what made it all the more surprising when he didn’t slow down enough for the curve that he knew was just.

Instead, he held tight to the steering wheel and he drove straight into a tree going at least 60 miles an hour. When the sun rose the following day, the tree would no longer be standing. And my dad’s friend would be dead. They believe he died instantly upon impact. My dad would be in a coma clinging to life in a hospital about an hour.

That joy ride that he thought for sure would end with a good story. So good. He’d probably end up telling it for years. It ended up changing his life forever. He was termed disabled from his injuries that he suffered. He had second and third degree burns from where the car had burst into flames on impact.

He had a fractured skull in so many places. It would require a metal plate. He had complete loss of one arm and inability to use his legs. My dad ever, the jokester, the rebel. The life of the party would go home in a wheelchair and it would take a long time before he would learn to walk again. To this day, he has trouble getting around.

Now, the reason I share this with you is what it meant for our family and what that meant along with a lot of other things is that he couldn’t work. He couldn’t provide. And so my mom, she was at home to care for him and she would find work where she could, you know, she would clean people’s homes in this little town, or she would work in factories that would open and close just a few months later in the small area that we lived in.

Speaking of living. We lived in a little three room house, four if you count the kitchen that you had to go outside and walk through another door to get into the house was heated by a furnace in the basement until that broke. And then an old wood stove took its place for the remaining years that we lived there.

There was no running water or indoor plumbing in our house. So I would make the Trek, rain, snow, or shine straight out, back to the drafty, dark outhouse. In fact, we were so poor that we didn’t always have money for food. I’d look back on this years later and I’d see this as the beginning of my very distorted relationship with food.

And let’s be honest, my many eating disorders now, in addition to living in these tough conditions, which were trying at best. I was surrounded by domestic abuse and domestic violence. My parents fought. Constantly over anything and nothing but mostly over my dad’s drinking and drug use. And I never knew what was going to happen.

I never knew when a gun would be pulled. We’d have to flee our house in the middle of the night. On top of these things, I dealt with emotional, physical, and even sexual abuse that started when I was just five years old, but I held onto hope because I had a dream that I could get out of this small town.

I had a dream. That I could make something of myself. So I started working and saving money when I was 14 years old. I worked as a server in restaurants as a one woman show and a little video rental store back. When that was a thing, then I later would start doing photo shoots and modeling for local businesses in a slightly larger town.

About an hour away. In my early twenties, I had saved enough money and enough courage. And I got on a flight to Los Angeles. I had four suitcases and two cats. Now, my cats, they were the only real friends I had and I couldn’t leave them behind. Now I’ve been traveling back and forth to Los Angeles for modeling jobs and some photo shoots.

And I met a few people there who promised to help once I actually moved there. So that was my plan. One of these people was a talent manager and he made a lot of promises. The plan as he shared, it was that I’d be staying in his guest house until I could get on my feet and get my own place. He’d help me find jobs,and I could create a really good career for myself. I remember he said, “if you want to retire before the age of 30, I’m your guy.” All I had to do was get myself to Los Angeles. So I did. 

 

Victoria Kliensmen: Eating disorders, poor body image, low self-esteem has been a theme throughout my life growing up. So I started dieting when I was nine years. I remember using my mom’s a Weight Watchers, cardboard calculator. It wasn’t all about the iPhones then.

 

Cynthia Garcia: That’s Victoria Kliensmen an ITN graduate. And the incredible story she sharing is that of her own transformation. 

 

Victoria Kliensmen: I’ve learned since nine years old, you control your food because that manipulates the size of your body. So I just took that too far. So started over achieving with not just food. And when I say overachieving, we’re given set points on Weight Watchers, I would go under that on purpose. Then if it was Slimming World, I’d be following you’d have so many sins that you’d be allowed a day and I’d go under that on purpose.

So whether I was following calorie counting or whatever it was, I would do it to the extreme to try and do it the best that I could, which actually was in detriment to myself. I just developed anorexia nervosa. I was diagnosed when I was 13 years old. My mom noticed it very early on. So I owe my life to my mom really, she saved my life.

It was a really difficult time for the whole family, as well as myself, because of course it has a massive effect, not just on yourself. Now, I’ve been able to reflect back on that time. It really did affect my family in such a huge way. 

 

Cynthia Garcia: We’ll hear more from Victoria later in the episode until then, let’s get back to today’s topic.

When I landed at LAX, my manager was nowhere in sight. I took a deep breath and I made my way through the crowds of people to get my luggage. And I thought, that’s okay, he’ll be here soon… traffic. Right? I’d heard traffic was bad. So I took some deep breaths. I got my luggage together and I picked up my cats and I found a place in a corner where people wouldn’t bother me too much because listen, I was blown away by this new existence, by the people around me, by this intense energy that I felt everything moved quickly and people had places to go. And I was just a girl from the back woods of the Appalachian Mountains. I had no idea how I was going to fit in. So I pulled my hood over my head and I tried to make myself as small as I could.

I didn’t know anyone here and everything was so loud. As I said, like the people were loud, things were moving fast and I was pretty terrified. I tried to call my manager, and I use that term loosely, but there was no answer. And I thought maybe he’s on his way. Maybe his cell phone died. And again, maybe there’s just a lot of traffic.

My thoughts were racing and my palms were sweaty. As I sat under these fluorescent lights in the airport, listening to announcement, after announcement, come through those overhead speakers. Two hours after landing I finally saw him pull up in his car outside and I didn’t realize how tense I was or how tight my muscles were, but I breathed the huge sigh of relief.

When he finally came into sight, I grabbed my cats and their carriers, and I left my bags inside. I hurried out to the curb and he stayed in the car, which I thought, okay, that’s odd. But you know, he was here and I didn’t have time to think about anything else. I just wanted to get out of there. So I ran back into the airport.

I grabbed my bags and I tossed them into the trunk that he had popped for me. I put the carriers with my cats inside this very cramped, very tight back seat, ignoring the stains on the upholstery and I hopped into the front. I got to tell you right away, I could tell something was off. Right. I could feel it.

And I could see it. He was sweating profusely and his behavior was erratic. His shirt was wrinkled. His pants were outdated by a few decades. Now I told myself, you know, don’t judge, this man is doing you a favor, be grateful. And besides my new life was about to begin. It was finally my time. So we drove along and as we did, he rambled off some random questions.

Like how long was the flight? Did I have a favorite color? What was my sign? But again, I stayed focused on the opportunity that I thought lay in front of me and how things would be better from here on out. I’d finally done it. I’d finally escaped. We drove through Los Angeles and I felt that warm California, sunshine on my face.

And I saw the Palm tree swaying in the breeze. And I took in those giant billboards, lining the streets, my mood lightened up. My nerves started to calm down. Everything will be fine. I thought I was just overreacting. And I felt this way until I heard this manager, we’ll call him. Bob, say, “We are here, welcome home.”

I looked up and I immediately laughed because I thought he was joking. You know, remember he lived in this great place in Los Angeles that had a guest house. That’s what I thought I was going to be ending up at instead of laughing back and responding with the gotcha. He narrowed his focus and turned into a dark underground parking garage.

His Hollywood home turned out to be a small, outdated apartment that had last been updated probably around 1960 and the quote guest house turned out to be a small furnished guest bedroom with black mold growing in the closet. There was only one shared bathroom in the whole place he turned toward me and his eyes were wide and his pupils were dilated and he said, I’ll let you freshen up.

So I closed the bedroom door and I looked around taking in the space. There was a queen bed in the middle of the room that sagged down in the center and it was covered by this bright fuchsia green and blue flower pattern quilt that had a yellow tinted pillow on it. That was missing a pillow case. The air felt tight in my lungs.

And there was that musty smell that just permeated everything. It felt like the room hadn’t been aired out and smelled like the room hadn’t been aired out in years. There was an old wooden bedside table that was missing a leg and a window that was boarded up from the outside, the blue carpet on the floor, which was almost worn threadbare, had stains all over it.

And I was just almost afraid to step on it. Even in my shoes, I felt my eyes started to sting. And, you know, I had lived in some pretty rough conditions all my life, but I had this dream. That I was clinging to, and I had convinced myself that things were going to be better, but as I stood there, tears in my eyes, I thought, what have I gotten myself into?

What am I going to do? How would I get out of this situation? My heart was racing and I tried to take deep breaths. My cats were afraid to come out of their carriers and I got it. I wanted to climb in with them and hide for three very long days. I would watch as Bob’s behavior grew more and more erratic and his drug usage increased.

I could smell this pungent smoke through the apartment from whatever it was that he was smoking in this clear pipe. He would sit and ramble on and on and on about how he was going to help me create this hugely successful career. But needless to say, there was never any action in that direction. He’d sleep all day while I huddled in the guest room, trying to find modeling work on Craigslist.

I had no other contacts, no resources, no other means for help and it was all I knew how to do. Now, after he almost burned the place down, when he passed out cooking hot dogs on the stove I knew I had to get out of this situation. So to make a long story short, I called the one other person I knew in Los Angeles that I knew would actually come and pick me up.

And I snuck out of Bob’s apartment in the middle of the night. I had nowhere to go, and I was officially homeless. And while in that moment, I felt completely defeated and broken and not very smart because I let myself get into this situation. And now I had nowhere to go, but I was free. So as I raced out into the night air I now saw the city through a completely different lens.

Yes, it was beautiful and full of hope and possibility, but it also had an ugly side. 

So after a good, hard cry and feeling the fear finally released from deep down in my muscles had to make some decisions. The friend who picked me up said, “You can stay with me”, but well, fool me, once I knew that wasn’t going to happen, I was not going to put myself back in that situation again.

So I had him drop me off at a motel and I rented a room by the day. So I wouldn’t be on the street. And I didn’t have a lot of money and time was running out. So I had to figure something out. And I remember night, one night to these nights went by. The money is dwindling. And I just sit there feeling like giving up.

I’d sit on the bed and I’d hear the noises from the streets with my cats curled up next to me thinking how stupid I was to have thought I could make it out. I ate fast food from the one restaurant that would deliver to the motel because I was scared to walk outside. I was terrified day after day, but I just kept telling myself that you’ve been through a lot in your life and you’ll get through this.

So using the power of the internet, which is nothing like it is today, I found a small unfurnished studio apartment in Hollywood that was in my budget. So I went, I took a taxi, Über wasn’t a thing. I looked at the apartment and I signed the lease and I moved in all on the same day. It wasn’t hard because I only had four suitcases.

And I remember that first night I slept on the hard floor and on top of the clothes that I had pulled out from my suitcase. I had gone to Target and bought two blankets and I put those over the clothes just so I would have. A little bit softer of a place to sleep. It’s a far cry from the mattress and the bed I sleep in today, which I never take for granted.

I have to tell you every time I climb in, I’m so grateful, but I slept this way for a few weeks until I could finally get a bed from Ikea. Again, it wasn’t like it is today. They didn’t have online shopping where I could shop and they would deliver it. Slowly, I started finding my way. I made friends with other struggling models and actors who lived in my apartment building.

One introduction led to another, and I found myself living the life in Los Angeles. I thought this is what I came here for. Look, I was hanging out with celebrities, I was working and auditioning during the day and I was partying my pain and my fear away. Now, needless to say, this lifestyle caught up to me pretty quickly and I became very sick.

And this is the one aspect of nutrition that I believe most of us universally understand. And that’s physical nutrition. See, physical nutrition, which is the first pillar in the Transformational Nutrition Model that I discovered along my journey, includes components of health that deal with what you physically do to sustain your wellbeing.

Think like food supplements, exercise, habits, morning routines, sleep, the environment that you’re in and so on and so forth. And that was the first thing I leaned into. It was the only thing I knew to lean into when my Hollywood party girl lifestyle came to cash in. 

So what did I do? I. I started seeing trainers and nutritionists and doctors and other health practitioners, but none of them were able to help. My condition got worse.

I was overweight. I was clinically depressed and I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. I had horrible acne breakouts and no one would hire me. So I wasn’t working. And when I say I was desperate, I was desperate,I tried everything. Diets, workouts, pills, shakes, you name it, nothing worked.

Alright. We’ll be back in just a moment right after we hear a bit more fromITN student Victoria, Kleinsmen about her incredible journey of transformation in her own words. 

 

Victoria Kliensmen: So when I was a teenager, to two to three years I would say I was fully recovered from a medical standpoint. And then life just happened as normal. I left school at 16 years old, got all my qualifications, but wanted to work with horses. So I started a job in the horse world. And I don’t know if you know about horses, but it was a very active job. So I was riding nine horses a day, mucking, stables out.

I was on my feet all the time. So in regards to my relationship with my body and food at that time, I could pretty much eat what I wanted because I was so active and my body didn’t really change. So I was happy with that. So this is a theme that if my body was how I wanted to it, then that means I was okay.

So then therefore I could be happy. And then moving on from that time when I was 19, I thought I fell in love with a man who was 15 years older than me. It happened very gradually what I found myself in a physically, mentally abusive relationship. 

I turned to food because that’s all I ever had that was there for me. I distanced myself from my family, from my friends. My mom was doing everything she could to reach out to me, but it’s like, you’re in this little world, not in the real world. And I was hidden from the real world by him. I turned to food and because of the extreme dieting I had done in my past with anorexia as well, my body was still craving all the things I’d always craved.

And that was the first time in my life that I allowed myself to just eat whatever it was I wanted to eat and more so because it was just comforted me when I did manage to leave.I kind of rebuilt my life. And so I did leave. I rebuilt my life. He had unknowingly left me in thousands of pounds, worth of debt that was put in my name with his daughter’s signature, pretending to be me.

We went to the police, we did all the legal things, but because there was no proof, it was my word against his and I had to pay the debt or I’d be blacklisted. So then I got a job with horses again. I just worked really hard, paid all the debts off, rebuilt my life again, because I was working with horses.

The weight naturally came off. I was so overly active and I could more or less eat what I wanted again. However, I definitely noticed this time, I wasn’t nourishing myself. I noticed it was, more processed foods. I wasn’t nourishing myself from a place of self care like, maybe you should have some proteins and fats.

And it was just, I’m going to eat the foods. I never allowed myself to have, I’m going to eat the foods that when I was in the abusive relationship caused me to gain all this weight, but now I can eat them, but then also not gain the weight. So even though I was happy with my body image at that time, because I was smaller again, my relationship with food was not in a good place.

And then not long after that, I started the. And this is another chapter of my life that opens me up to developing bulimia because I would ride horses all day and be really active all day. And then after that I would go to the gym and my body changed quite quickly. I got muscles very quickly. The amount of external validation that I got from the outside world, I was like, “Oh my gosh! You look incredible.”

How do you do it? So then my obsession came from the gym. I was doing fitness modeling on, in the background though behind closed doors, I was starving myself all day until I literally physically couldn’t not eat anymore. And then I would go to the supermarket on the way home from the gym and buy the whole lot of the chocolate section and the ice cream section and just go home and binge and secret.

And then repeat it over and over again. I remember one time I was going on a girl’s holiday. And I got up at three in the morning to fit in a 10K run before the flight, because I would’ve been sitting down for an hour on the plane. So it was a very, very, very unhealthy mindset. I looked like the picture of health from the outside.

I was in the fitness magazines and behind closed doors, I was starving, purging bingeing, and just basically hating on myself. So just that’s why comparison isn’t helpful because you just don’t know what’s going on.

 

Cynthia Garcia: So how does Victoria’s story lead her to ITN and the path that she’s on today? We’ll find out a bit more later.

You see the dictionary defines nutrition as the act or process of nourishing or being nourished, which sounds great. But that simple definition doesn’t actually apply to the real world. We aren’t just nourished from food. Yet, that’s what most of us think, it’s what I thought when I heard the word nutrition.

So I’m trying all of these nutrition things, nothing worked, and I finally hit rock bottom. And so one night when enough was enough, I decided to take the sleeping pills that I had been prescribed and use them to end my life. I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back now, I understand that the problems didn’t have anything to do with the way I looked or the things I was eating or the supplements I was taking or the shakes I was drinking or the workouts I was doing.

I was fixing those things and I still felt completely empty. I still felt completely out of control and depressed. And I was still very unhealthy because I was neglecting my mental health. I had experienced so much pain and trauma. In my past, I had witnessed violence. I had been abused, I experienced tragedy after tragedy thinking that I would just ignore these things and act like they just didn’t bother me.

But the truth was they did. Of course they did. Mental nutrition describes the psychological and emotional state of being at a specific point in time. It involves your emotions, your psychological state, your social wellbeing, and it affects your feelings and thoughts. And ultimately the actions you either take or don’t take to live your life.

Now I was definitely not caring for my mental health. And again, it caught up to me. And that night on the floor, I was just done. I was ready to just end it all. I thought they can not say I didn’t try. And I remember shaking. And I was crying and the floor was cold and it was hard. And I was aching, just my body was aching.

My heart was aching. My soul was aching. And I was done. I was completely done. But I started wondering why, like, why have I gone through these things? Why, why me? Right. I was mad at everybody. I was mad at myself for thinking I could do this thinking I could make it out and create a great life. I was mad at the people I went to for help, who couldn’t help me.

I was mad at God. Like I was mad at everybody. And so I kept saying why me? And that’s what I heard this voice inside say, look, this isn’t happening to you. It’s happening for you. And you know, it’s funny. I hear people say that a lot now. I had never heard that back then. And I’ll save this full story for other episodes of this show cause we’ve been going on for a while now, or you can check it out over on our website. But what I realized in that moment that I heard this voice from inside was that I wasn’t alone. It wasn’t just me. There were so many people out there struggling and suffering, just like me needing answers, just like me.

So I decided I would figure things out. I thought I’ll give it one more shot. This is it, but I’ll give it one more shot. And I realized that I could die that night or I could make my life mean something that I could help others who were in my situation. That I could give people hope and maybe even solutions that I didn’t have.

I knew that I had an opportunity to share with others how important health truly is to our overall wellbeing and specifically mental health, right? Feeding our mental body, her mental thoughts, our minds. So mental nutrition became the second pillar of theTransformational Nutrition Model… I’m building this as I’m going.

Now I also knew that the core of my health issues was my physical body and what I was putting into it. I knew that, and it was also what I wasn’t putting into it. Right. I wasn’t doing the right things because listen, I didn’t know the difference between a protein and a carb. So if I was going to get past step one, physical nutrition and move on to mental nutrition, I needed information.

I needed an education. So I hopped on Google. I found a nutrition certification program. I went back to school and the rest, as they say.is history. Except it wasn’t quite that easy. You see, I put my education on three credit cards and I dove in base first. I mean, I was willing to do the work. I’m not afraid of hard work.

I started making changes, but I quickly found out that all of the diet and nutrition education that I was getting it still wasn’t moving the needle. Now sure, I would see small changes here and there, but nothing impressive. No, like total body make over or huge transformation. Now I also started working with clients by that time.

And unfortunately, they also weren’t seeing the results they had hoped for. So here I was thinking, I’m going to fix this. I’m going to fix myself. I’m going to save all the people I’m going to help everyone. And I felt like a failure. And I thought there’s gotta be something I’m missing and I’d sit up at night searching for answers.

I would question who I was and I would struggle to find the courage to keep going. I thought, what are you thinking? And then I let go of thinking about me and I just focused on the mission of helping other people. And so I kept going to school. I kept studying, I kept working with clients and one day one of my clients changed everything.

She helped me to see what I was missing. And I’ll tell you that story in a different episode for sake of time. But essentially what I realized with her help is that just because you leave a bad situation, a bad relationship, a bad environment, a bad home. It doesn’t mean that it leaves you. In fact, no matter where you go, there you are.

You see, I tried to run away from my past pain and trauma. And when that didn’t work, I tried to drown it with alcohol and numb it with drugs. When I hit rock bottom, I knew that the only way out was through. I had to go through a healing process, not just physically, but mentally, as I shared before and spiritually.

Now it’s at this point that the third pillar of Transformational Nutrition, spiritual nutrition, comes into play. At least in my story. Now you might be thinking at this point is spiritual nutrition, even a thing. And how does that differ from like religion and spiritual practices that I do now? And it’s a great question, Christina who is the director of the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health contends that spirituality is the aspect of humanity that refers to the way individuals seek and express meaning and purpose and the way they experience their connectedness to the moment to themselves. To others, to nature and to the significant or sacred. That’s spiritual nutrition and there’s three types. And that’s what we study and teach here at ITN.

I’ll go through them really quickly. So, you get the gist of this. The first one is personal spirituality. This is a person’s relationship to and connection with themselves. Now, many people are afraid to be alone in silence and solitude with themselves because they don’t accept and embrace their thoughts feelings. 

And they’re just really weird quirks, right? ] Let’s be honest, we all have them. Now type number two of spirituality is communal spirituality. This is the quality of a person’s relationships with other people, right? So relationship with others. And the third type is environmental spirituality, right?

This includes a relationship with the physical environment. Like a connection with the earth, with the planet that we live on, as well as the universe and something higher, if you so choose. Now, there are many ways to build and develop connection. An easy way is just to step out into nature and get lost in your surroundings.

It’s easy to slow down and find peace when you’re taking in all the beauty that the outdoors have to offer and get back to basics. So back to that life changing appointment with that client, it was here that I realized that spiritually I wasn’t whole and mentally I wasn’t healed. I noticed that many of my clients weren’t either they didn’t have healthy relationships.

They didn’t feel connected to themselves or other people around them or something higher. They were hungry. They were hungry for fulfillment and meaning and purpose. They were hungry for more. I was hungry for more and that’s when I had the breakthrough that changed everything. I realized that we are fed by so much more than food.

So I asked myself a question that forever changed my life, my work, and the nutrition industry as a whole. And that question was what are you really hungry for? Once I did this, I felt a relief just wash over me and knowing, of a feeling that I finally understood. I realized that I was hungry, sure for good food, but also good friends.

I was hungry for purpose and meaning outside of myself, which was why I was brave enough to go on this journey and try to figure this out in the first place. I wanted a life where I felt like I mattered where I could help others, not struggle. Like I had, I was hungry for love and companionship. I was hungry for comfort and security.

I realized that nutrition as it had traditionally been defined, was created for a world that no longer existed. I believe that now more than ever. So I decided to create a new model of nutrition. I thought why not? Somebody gotta to do it. And for people like me and people like you who see the value and necessity of combining physical nutrition and mental nutrition and spiritual nutrition for those real long lasting changes, I was so excited.

So I called this new model of nutrition, Transformational Nutrition, because to me and the clients I was working with, that’s what it was. I took it to them and at first, you know, I was worried about what they would think. You know, why were we talking about mental health and spirituality? They just wanted to fix their body.

No, they wanted to lose weight, they wanted to balance their hormones. But I have to tell you the thing that surprised me the most is that they too knew something was missing. They knew there was a missing piece. They just didn’t know how to find it. Many of them, most of them had experienced so much in their life as we all have.

And they knew that their mental health impacted their ability to do the right thing at the right time. Whether that’s eating food or working out or hanging out with friends, connecting on a deeper level, listen, when you’re dealing with anxiety attacks or depression or other mental health concerns it becomes very difficult to make the right decisions for physical health. The same can be said for spiritual health. People knew that it was important. When I talked to them, they just didn’t have a model or framework for integrating it into their lives outside of the traditional practices like meditation or church or synagogue or temple, or what have you.

They had heard, oh, “mind, body spirit,” but they didn’t have a model for actually putting all those things together. They were hungry for a solution and I could provide that for them. So needless to say, they welcomed this new approach. And I was so excited. I got my second wind. I was ready. Let’s do this. 

So now that you know how this new model of nutrition came about, let’s explore more of what it actually means. I like to think of it as a three legged stool. So if you have a three-legged stool and one of those stools are off, you’re going to be a little wobbly, right? If one of them is missing altogether, you might just fall over. But that’s how it is with transformational nutrition. With nutrition in general, we must be balanced.

So you might be thinking, well, how are mental and spiritual nutrition connected back to physical nutrition? How do they help me to look and feel better? Well, when you’re in balance. You can live a great life. You’ll have the energy to pursue your dream. Your physical nutrition, will support your mental ability to stay calm under stress, to alleviate anxiety and to help with depression and other mental health concerns.

You won’t have health issues holding you back or slowing you down your limiting beliefs. Won’t hold you back. And your newfound self-awareness as a result of looking at your past trauma and how it serves you, that’ll give you the confidence to live the life that you want, because you think I can do anything after making it through that.

And you don’t have to live the life then that others want for you. And finally, because you’re so deeply connected to yourself, to others and to the world around you, you’ll be supported in creating the life of your dreams. Now, this is not hard, butit is powerful. It’ll change your life if you let it.

And you think, okay, I’m sold Cynthia, but who supports this idea of Transformational Nutrition? Well, in fact, Transformational Nutrition is supported by some of the world’s top experts, including our own faculty here at ITN people like Shawn Stevenson of the Model Health Show. Dr. Kellyann Petrucci, she’s a Doctor Oz regular and a best-selling author. JJ Virgin, health expert in four time, New York times bestselling author. Doctor. Terry Walls, a researcher and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa. Dr. Srini Pillay, professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and many, many more. It’s supported by over 1400 studies. We now have thousands of certified coaches in the world helping others. And the practice of Transformational Nutrition has been featured in television shows like the Doctors, the Dr. Phil Show, and even on the highly popular show, Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian, in a nutshell, the Transformational Nutrition Model focuses on nourishing yourself in a way that truly feeds you. What you’re really hungry for. And yes, sometimes that’s food and other times it’s your relationships.

And so on. Look what you put on your plate is important, right? I’m not gonna dispute that sleep and rest are important. Healthy supplements and movement are important. We’re not downplaying that here at ITN. We’re just saying there’s more to it than that. Nutrition covers everything from our relationships, with others to hormone health, to movement, to emotional wellness and everything in between.

So as I started to include transformational nutrition in my coaching practice, my clients saw tremendous results. I saw tremendous results. My skin cleared up my weight dropped off. I had energy to workout everyday and not have to take a nap before my short-term memory was completely shot. And after transformation or nutrition, I was so clear.

I just felt like I had it together again, if you know what that feels like. I had clients who didn’t just clear up digestive health issues, but they left careers that weren’t fulfilling them and relationships that they weren’t happy. They referred their friends and family. And when I got too booked up to take on new clients, I started teaching other coaches, the Transformational Nutrition Model, eventually opening the school to educate the masses on this game- changing method of health.

And that school, is ITN and we are committed to redefining nutrition and changing the way the world feeds. 

I’ve done a lot of healing since sitting in that musty guest room and everything that we teach at ITN is because I’ve lived it. It hasn’t been easy, but then nothing worth doing ever is.

 But you should know I’m not special. There’s nothing remarkable about me. I’m a survivor, just like you. I spend my days figuring things out. Just like you. There are still days where I’m afraid and I don’t get it right. Just like you. I don’t know everything. What I know for sure is that you’re capable of so much more than you think. I know that you too can change your life forever all by asking one simple question.

What are you really hungry for? 

Let’s hear from Victoria and allow her to answer the questions about what led her to enroll at ITN and how ITN’s program helped her to get through the past traumas she’s faced to truly create a life that finally feeds her.. 

Victoria Kliensman: So, I can’t remember having a normal relationship with foods in my adult life, to be honest until recently. Four years ago, I went to Egypt on holiday with a girlfriend and met a Dutch man, Valter, who I’m now with and that’s why I live in the Netherlands. And he introduced me to personal development.

Well, I didn’t know that that was the start of my spiritual awakening or my personal development journey. I had no idea. Now I’ ve explored all of this. It’s 100% my path, my intuition that led me here. Because when I moved in with him, I could no longer hide my food behaviors. He cared about me. So he would see that I wouldn’t eat all day.

He was trying to encourage me to like nourish myself from a place of love. Now I know what intuition is and how we’re so guided in this lifetime. I didn’t know at that time. So after that night of me just collapsing the floor and just being like, I don’t, I don’t know what to do. I remember thinking to myself, I’m scared of my own thoughts.

I’m scared of myself. I’m scared of being in my own head. And at one point I literally thought I needed to go to a psychiatric hospital because I’ve never felt that way before. And I was at rock bottom and at that time, actually in the Netherlands, and I’ve got a job cleaning student toilets and showers because of the language barrier.

We’re in the middle of nowhere. We’re not near the city. When I did move here, I just kind of jumped in with both feet and was like, “oh, I’ll learn the language. It will be fine.” It’s not easy to speak. So at that time I was cleaning toilets. So the next day I went to work, cause obviously I had to have to work, to pay the bills and to share my part at the house.

And I was listening to a podcast and that was the model health show, which is Shawn Stevenson. And he had Cynthia Garcia on as a guest. And I mean, if this wasn’t aligned, I didn’t know what was, of course it was aligned and I was cleaning the toilet. I remember it so vividly. And Cynthia shared her story. And something inside me just stopped and was like, “oh my God, there’s another way.” I can actually use what I’ve been through all the pain to help other people.

And that hadn’t even been, I thought that of mine before. It just, all of a sudden dawned on me. So, Cynthia sharing her story. I went home after my shift at work and said to my fiance, I know what I want to do. I want to be a health coach. I mean, at this point I wasn’t better myself. I haven’t even started my healing journey.

So not only did I think, okay, well, I can help all those with theirs. I could also help myself going through this. So hearing Cynthia’s story made me realize that, okay, if she can do that, maybe I can do that. I was not full of self-confidence in any way, shape or form. It was like a little, it was like how I was saying adopt and then Cynthia had bought a torch and it just shined it very, very, and have this big, long tunnel.

So that was the feeling that I had. Like, maybe this could be something so more so when I signed off, I thought, right, I can get myself healed first and then be a health coach and then do it that way. 

So I didn’t realize that my niche would have been, ironically exactly what I struggled with most of my life. I just knew I wanted to first heal myself and then I just want to help other people.

So I found out my me through the ITN program. And through Cynthia’s… the amount of self belief, Cynthia gives to you throughout the program of promising that it will just all work itself out. If you’re exploring ITN and your heart is saying, yes, fear is going to be there. Let’s not pretend it’s going to be a 100% yes, and everything aligns up to make it work. That’s not how life happens. If you feel like it’s a right thing to do, allow your fear to be in the backseat or the passenger seat, not in the driving seat, because what I’m thinking of as I’m describing this, and this is a quote, I’m not sure who it’s from. What’s the worst thing that can happen?

And what’s the best thing that can happen? Because you only regret the choices that you do make and the chances that you don’t take. So just go for it. You could be here sharing your story. Like I have. My name is Victoria Kliensmen and I’m a food freedom and body image coach. So what that means is, I help women to feel normal around food, actually like their bodies andfall madly in love themselves. 

Cynthia Garcia: Alright, so what we’ve learned here today is that we need a modern day model for nutrition. So you ask, well, what am I doing this outdated and not modern? Well, the answer is quite simply that you’re focusing on physical nutrition, alone diets, workout, rest. It’s a great first step, but it won’t get you to where you need to go.

Cookie cutter diets. They’re also outdated ignoring our past trauma and mental. Also outdated thinking our relationships with others, with ourselves or with a higher power, like God or universe or source doesn’t matter, is outdated and relying on other people for answers to what really feeds you… that’s outdated.

 So if you’re doing all of those things, transformational nutrition can help. If you’re doing any of those things, transformational nutrition can help. It is the new science of nutrition. It is the study of what feeds you physically, mentally, and spiritually. It redefines nutrition. It is backed by science and shown to be effective.

So, what do you do with this information, right? Now that you know, how do you implement this in your life? Now? I’m big on taking action, right? I love hearing great information and resources, but they don’t work unless you put them to work. So this week, I want to invite you to take a few moments out of your busy schedules and think about your own wellbeing.

How is your physical health? What about your mental health? What about your spiritual. Are you struggling in any of these areas? Get quiet and ask yourself, what are you really hungry? And then start to find ways to feed those hungers. Start with baby steps every day. We’re not looking to overhaul your entire life here.

What I do is I keep it really simple. I have a planner and I list one thing for each pillar of transformational nutrition that I’m going to do every day. So I’ll have physical and usually that’s my workout. Mental is usually something like meditation or some deeper trauma work that I’m doing. And spiritual is something like, connecting with friends that day and just really making them feel supported.

Or it could be a date night with my husband or a fun activity with my kiddo. There’s lots of different things that you can do. And you can do this too. Just three simple things every day. There’s a quote that says sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life.

Tip toe, if you must, but take us. Naomi Calloway said that, and I just love it. It’s so juicy. 

All right. That’s what we have for this first episode.

 Listen, if you enjoyed this episode, please follow and subscribe to the show. You can expect new weekly episodes published every single Tuesday. And as we move forward in these podcast episodes, I’ll share more stories of transformation, mine and others.

I’ll also share practical ways that you can feed yourself what you’re really hungry. Together, we’ll explore how we can live healthy, happy fulfilled lives. If you want more resources and you want to interact with people who are on the same journey of discovering what feeds them, you can head on over and join our Facebook community.

We’ll link to it in the show notes. Or you can just head on over to Facebook and type in transformation generation and it’ll pop up. 

You can see all the show notes and all the other resources that we have for you for this at trasnsformationalnutrition.com/episode001. And I’ll see you back here next week for another fun episode.