Cynthia Garcia  00:03

Welcome back to the Transformational Nutrition Podcast, the podcast that is redefining nutrition as anything that feeds you physically, mentally and spiritually. I’m your host, Cynthia Garcia, the Founder and CEO of ITN. And I am so excited to be back today. In today’s episode, we’re talking about the overrated and overpriced culture of wellness. So this is a juicy topic, it might rub some people the wrong way. But I think that there’s some really great takeaways here for you. So let me first start off by sharing a story with you about one of my clients. We’ll call her Margaret for her privacy. 

Cynthia Garcia  00:45

So Margaret calls me up one day and she wants me to come over. She’s working on some different health goals and she’s heard that I can help. So I show up, I go to meet her at her place. Now Margaret was in her mid 40s. She had started to experience some weight gain, some hormonal issues, and just kind of a general lack of interest in life. And she was desperate for a solution. And so I said, Okay, you know, tell me what’s going on. And so she walked me through her home.

Cynthia Garcia  01:20

Now, this home was absolutely breathtaking. She had these floor-to-ceiling windows and the light from Los Angeles was just streaming through. It was that buttery, yellow light that just makes everything feel nice and safe and warm. The house was spotless. There was white Carrara marble throughout, just a beautiful, beautiful place. And so as she walked me through her home, she wanted to point out all of the things that she had invested in just to get her health back on track.

Cynthia Garcia  01:52

So we walked into her kitchen, again, marble countertops, so many cabinets, absolutely stunning. And she opened up one of these large cabinets and there was, it was floor-to-ceiling, a cabinet of supplements. We counted eight different types of protein powders. On her counter, she had a juicer, she had a Vitamix to make her smoothies. She opened the fridge. In addition to more supplements there and a bunch of stuff like chlorophyll, she had a juice cleanse that she had purchased. There was about I would say maybe 20 bottles of fresh pressed juice and the food.

Cynthia Garcia  02:31

As we went through her cabinets, she had gluten free, she had organic, she had vegan, she had keto. You name it, she had different foods for about eight different types of diets. We walk into her bathroom and there’s this, again, big, beautiful tub, steam room and the shower, absolutely gorgeous. And as we looked around, I noticed she doesn’t have one, she doesn’t have two, she has three different scales in her bathroom. One for measuring body fat, one for body composition because after she bought the first one that measured body fat, she heard about this new one that could measure not just visceral fat, but subcutaneous fat as well. And then she had a third one just kind of as a failsafe for the other two.

Cynthia Garcia  03:16

We opened her drawers. She had a whole drawer full of essential oils that she had bought. She had organic tampons, two different types. And then we left the bathroom and went into the guest room. Now this guest room she had actually turned it into a wellness room. And this was like a playground. She had an infrared sauna. There was a PEMF mat. She had a red light machine, an infrared mat for when she didn’t want to get into the sauna. She had non-toxic yoga mats, three different types of weights, foam rollers, a treadmill, a Peloton. I mean I could go on and on. It was just everything you could imagine.

Cynthia Garcia  03:54

We went into her bedroom. She had a journal by the bed, she had sleep devices, she had a chilling pad on her mattress to keep her cool at night, she had a white noise machine, and she had a diffuser. And that is far from all. I mean, this woman could have turned her home into a spa, that’s how much wellness stuff she had. And she was so motivated. That was the thing. She was on the verge of tears as she told me about all of the money and the time that she had invested in her health and her wellness. But yet she found herself right back in the same place: unhealthy, unhappy, and unfulfilled.

Victoria Kleinsman  04:38

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 old. I remember using my mom’s Weight Watchers cardboard calculator, it wasn’t all about the iPhones then.

Cynthia Garcia  04:56

That’s Victoria Kleinsman, an ITN graduate. And the incredible story she’s sharing is that of her own transformation.

Victoria Kleinsman  05:04

I’ve learned since nine years old, like oh, well you control your food because that manipulates the size of your body. So I just took that too far. So I started over achieving in 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 a 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.

Victoria Kleinsman  05:41

And 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  06:12

We’ll hear more from Victoria later in the episode. Until then, let’s get back to today’s topic. So let’s talk about this idea of wellness. Because, you know, you would think that with all of those things in place, she wouldn’t have any issues. So what is wellness? Let’s just maybe start there. On a 1979 episode of 60 Minutes, Dan Rather declared, ‘Wellness, there’s a word you don’t hear every day. It means exactly what you might think it means: the opposite of illness. It’s a movement that’s catching on all over the country.’ And, boy, he wasn’t wrong.

Cynthia Garcia  06:54

Today, wellness is a $4.2 trillion industry. So when you hear wellness, what do you think about? Really, what pops into your head? Do you imagine morning routines and facial scrubs, or maybe a big salad and hot yoga? What about green drinks, smoothie bowls, adaptogens, CBD? The truth is, we all have different ideas of wellness, because wellness is incredibly individualized. After working with Margaret, it was really clear to me that her idea of wellness was pretty different from what I classify as wellness in my own life, and that’s okay. We, again, each have our own definition.

Cynthia Garcia  07:37

On a broad scale, wellness is often defined as the act of practicing healthy habits daily to reach better physical and mental outcomes, so that instead of just surviving, you’re thriving. Now, at ITN, we believe that we achieve wellness when we prioritize all three pillars of health, not just the physical and the mental, but physical, mental, and spiritual. And it really doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that. But unfortunately, with the help of social media, wellness has become a trending topic that has led to a very skewed, very unhealthy, and very expensive hobby. Just ask my client, Margaret, right?

Cynthia Garcia  08:19

So let’s talk about that. You know, I mentioned social media and sometimes we like to act like social media is somehow our enemy. And I don’t feel that way, for the record. I think that there’s a lot of good that can come from social media. I think it’s a tool, just like many other tools, that all comes down to how we use it. So let’s talk about that, though. The media and society, how do they skew this perception of wellness?

Cynthia Garcia  08:42

Think about where you get your information and think about where you learn about what is healthy, or how you can achieve wellness? Do you hop on Google, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, podcasts? One of the questions that I asked Margaret that day is where she’d heard about all of these things, because that’s what I wanted to know, right? She seemed well-educated. And so I said, Gosh, where’d you find out about this? And her immediate answer was the internet. She told me that it mostly came from Facebook. And once she stumbled on to one ad for one thing, the others just followed. She went down this wellness rabbit hole full of gadgets, potions, and self proclaimed experts.

Cynthia Garcia  09:27

We are getting information from so many sources every single day, and we’re trusting the people we follow, even if we don’t even know them. One study found that in 2019, there were 210 million conversations on social media regarding health and wellness. And that’s just in the US, France and China. We are following wellness regimens that were created by people who don’t have the same physical, mental or spiritual needs that we do. And then when they don’t work, we feel defeated. We feel like something is wrong with us. And oftentimes, we’ll just throw money at something else, right? We go outside of ourselves. We think the tool, the gadget, the thing is the fix.

Cynthia Garcia  10:09

This especially happened during COVID, when everyone was stuck at home, you know, everyone was talking about their wellness routines and what they eat in the day and binge watching videos. And all of that became really popular, which made the desire for being well even stronger. And we’ve been led to believe that things like, ‘drink this to lose weight’, or ‘the five simple ways to achieve a healthy life’ are realistic and believable. But spoiler alert, they aren’t.

Cynthia Garcia  10:38

In fact, a global review published in The Lancet in 2017 found that more physical activity was associated with longer lives and fewer heart attacks and strokes. Now, this included not just formal gym going and exercising, but also walking and housework. So there’s a lot of information out there. How can you filter the trendy aspects of wellness? How do you know if something works? And I also just want to say, look, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be healthy, to be well, to stay well. It just doesn’t have to be so complicated, or expensive.

Cynthia Garcia  11:20

Often, the most impactful things you can do are the basics. I mean, look, feel free if you choose and you have the resources to buy the vampire repellent, yoni eggs, and candles that smell like vaginas, go ahead and buy ’em. You can even throw in some moon dust if you choose. Do what makes you happy, play full out. I am not judging you. I am just saying it’s not necessary to be healthy and well. You do not have to spend your whole paycheck to enjoy whole health, right? Just maybe consider bringing back the basics first before you start throwing money at pills, potions, and equipment. Because if we’re all telling the truth here, isn’t that really what we’re doing? Aren’t we just throwing money at the problem?

Cynthia Garcia  12:05

I mean, think about it. You get a Peloton, you get a treadmill, you get some other device or gadget or workout machine. And then I know for most people, and this has happened to me too, it becomes another closet in your bedroom and your clothes go on it, right? We buy these things, we throw money at the supplements, but do we take them, right? We pay our money to the gym memberships, but do we go? Now I know with COVID, things have been a little bit off and you haven’t been able to get out and about. But you spend things on money, oftentimes, we all spend things on money, thinking that that alone will solve the issue. But if we don’t put those tools into place, because again, that’s all they are, then nothing is going to change.

Cynthia Garcia  12:50

So all I’m saying here is before we do that, let’s get back to the basics. You can enjoy those things if you want, but they’re just not necessary. The basics include things like eating whole foods, real foods, moving your body in a way that feels good to you, and building high quality relationships with other people. Now, interestingly enough, my client, Margaret, she wasn’t focused on any of those things. She did eat a lot of whole foods, but she dreaded her workouts. And because she dreaded her workouts, she’d find really convenient ways to delay them or just cancel them all together.

Cynthia Garcia  13:26

And her relationships, they were pretty much in the gutter because outside of focusing on her health and wellness, she either didn’t have time for her friends and family, or she wouldn’t go to dinners or events because her diet and wellness trends were so limiting. The other thing is she tried so many different things. She didn’t stick to one thing long enough for it to actually have an impact. She would just stick to it for a moment, decide it didn’t work, and then be on to the next thing.

Cynthia Garcia  13:53

So let’s be clear, there are a lot of amazing practices, supplements, dietary information and other tools out there that work. I’ve used most of them, I’ve studied the rest. There is absolutely some great things or some great practices, but only if they’re personalized for you, not just what worked for someone else. And only if you’re not investing your life savings while staying up at night worrying about how you’ll pay the rent so that you can partake in these wellness trends. And look, if you do want to try the trends, do it wisely, right?

Cynthia Garcia  14:24

Here are some tips that you can ask yourself before you start a new wellness trend that you see. First of all, is it time worn? Have people been eating, drinking, or doing this for a long time? Or is it brand new and untested? What’s the current research around it, if any? Have its health benefits been documented in a peer reviewed journal? What are your specific health and wellness goals? And is this something that will actually help you reach them? Are you looking to build muscle, support your immune function, or smooth out your digestion?

Cynthia Garcia  14:58

Does your body respond well to it, right? This is another thing. I have clients all the time who will say, Yeah, I tried this, it doesn’t feel good. Man, I dread it, but I’ve heard it works. I saw it on Instagram. This woman was having great results. You know, but your body isn’t responding well to it, right? Does it energize you? Or does it make you feel ill? But again, let me repeat, you can be healthy and well without spending $200 on yoga pants, investing in a crystal infused water bottle, and chugging chlorophyll like it’s going out of plants. So how?

Cynthia Garcia  15:34

Well, I’ll tell you the same thing that I told Margaret: focus on Transformational Nutrition. There are three pillars of Transformational Nutrition that are accessible to everyone: physical, mental, and spiritual. Now, if you listened to episode one, you should already be familiar with what I’m about to share. And if you haven’t yet, definitely go check it out. It’s a good one. All right, we’ll be back in just a moment right after we hear a bit more from it and student Victoria Kleinsman about her incredible journey of transformation in her own words.

Victoria Kleinsman  16:12

So when I was a teenager, and that happened two to three years, I would say I was fully recovered from a medical standpoint. And then life kind of just happened as normal. I left school at 16 years old, got all my qualifications, thought I wanted to work with horses. So I started my job, a real job in the horse world. And I don’t know if you know about horses, but it’s 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 in 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.

Victoria Kleinsman  16:55

So this is a theme that if my body was how I wanted 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 fell– well, I thought I fell in love with a man who was 15 years older than me. It happened very gradually, but I found myself in a physically, mentally abusive relationship. And in that time, there were six years that we were together, 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. It’s kind of like, you’re in this little world, not in the real world.

Victoria Kleinsman  17:39

And I was hidden from the real world by him, but I turned to food. And because of the extreme dieting I’d done in my past with anorexia as well, my body was still craving all the things I’d always crave. 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 comforting me. And when I did manage to leave, I kind of rebuilt my life.

Victoria Kleinsman  18:10

So I did leave that, I rebuilt my life. He had unknowingly left me in thousands of pounds worth of debt that were 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.

Victoria Kleinsman  18:30

So then I got a job with horses again, just worked really hard, paid all the debts off, rebuilt my life. Again, because I was working with horses, the weight kind of 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. So I noticed it was more processed foods. It wasn’t nourishing myself from a place of self care, like oh actually 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 

Victoria Kleinsman  19:13

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 gym. And this is another chapter of my life that opened 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.

Victoria Kleinsman  19:38

And my body changed quite quickly, I got muscles very quickly. The amount of external validation that I got from the outside world of 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. In the background, though, behind closed doors, I was like starving myself all day, till I literally physically couldn’t not eat anymore 

Victoria Kleinsman  20:06

And then I would go to the supermarket on the way home from the gym, and buy the whole of the chocolate section, the ice cream section, and just go home and binge in secret, and then repeat over and over again. I remember one time, I was going on a girls holiday and I got up at like three in the morning to fit in a 10k run before the flight because I would have been sat down for an hour on the plane. So it was very, very, very unhealthy mindset.

Victoria Kleinsman  20:32

I looked like a 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, nothing was good enough. So just that’s why comparison isn’t helpful because you just don’t know what’s going on.

Cynthia Garcia  20:58

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. So physical, what are we talking about here? Well, you just want to eat a healthy diet for your body and your needs based on your stage and phase of life, move, rest and recover, sleep, right? It’s super important that you do these things, these basic things, to lay a solid foundation for health and overall well being.

Cynthia Garcia  21:30

Let’s talk about mental health, mental nutrition, right? Happiness is overrated. I said it, I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again, if you didn’t hear me clearly the first time. Happiness is overrated. It is just not possible all the time to be happy. And yet, we tend to feel like failures, because we don’t walk around with smiles on our faces. Mental health concerns affect all of us. And when we feel like everyone else is going through life skipping and dancing with smiles on their faces, that makes it even harder for those who do struggle with mental health concerns. Embrace your mental health needs and get the help that you need. Focus on what you can control and use the rest as a tool for learning and growing.

Cynthia Garcia  22:22

All right, and then third of all, there’s spiritual. And by the way, you know, mental nutrition, there’s lots of ways to feed yourself mentally. You can work a puzzle, you can read a good book, you can have a great conversation, you can meditate, you can journal, I could go on and on and on. And you can find more resources in this week’s show notes. We’ll toss in some links for some things that you can do. But there are a lot of things.

Cynthia Garcia  22:45

Now let’s move on to spiritual. Spiritual, you want to create deep relationships with others and with yourself. Do some work that feeds your soul, that gives you meaning, that helps you live your purpose. Okay, so physical, mental, spiritual. Do one thing from each of those pillars every single day. If you remember from episode one, I talked about it being like a three-legged stool, right? There’s like three legs: physical, mental, and spiritual. If one of them is a little short that week or that day, or just missing all together, it’s gonna be a little wobbly, right? So focus on those three things.

Cynthia Garcia  23:24

So I started working with Margaret, just on the basics of those three pillars, just making sure again, she did one thing for each pillar every day. Now, she wanted to go further faster, and it’s likely that you will too. And if you’ve been on this wellness journey for a while, and you’ve been practicing, and you’ve been doing the things, feel free to do that, that’s okay. But don’t feel like you have to because oftentimes, we become so overburdened and overstressed, that we negate any benefits that we’re actually getting by doing the workouts and you know, the supplements and the journaling, and all of these other things that we’re trying to do to be healthy in the first place.

Cynthia Garcia  24:04

So again, Margaret wanted to go further faster, but she trusted the process. And once she had those basics down, then I took her through the Transformational Nutrition coaching method. Now this is a coaching method that we teach exclusively at ITN and it’s used by all of our certified Transformational Nutrition coaches. Essentially, what it does is it removes the guesswork from coaching and it creates a personalized protocol for your clients with no guesswork.

Cynthia Garcia  24:31

Now, using this, Margaret got great results. She lost weight, she balanced her hormones, she feels better than she has in years. Now listen, she still uses some of her wellness goodies. And there’s nothing wrong with that, right? It’s just that now she’s not throwing money at a problem and hoping it gets fixed. She’s strategic, she’s intentional. And that’s how she gets and keeps results, and that’s how you can do the same. 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 Kleinsman  25:17

I can’t remember having a normal relationship with food 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, Wouter, 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 would try and encourage me to like nourish myself from a place of love. 

Victoria Kleinsman  26:06

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 on the floor and just being like, 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 I, at one point, I literally thought I needed to go to a psychiatric hospital or something, because I was so–I haven’t got the words to describe. I’ve never felt that way before. And I was at rock bottom. And at that time, actually, in the Netherlands, 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.

Victoria Kleinsman  26:50

When I did move here, I just kind of jumped in with both feet and was like, oh, I’ll learn the language. It’ll be fine. It’s not easy to speak, actually, at all. So at that time, I was cleaning toilets. So the next day, I went to work because obviously I had to work to pay the bills and to share my part of the house. And I was listening to a podcast and that was the Model Health Show, which is Shawn Stevenson, which I believe he’s in ITN. And he had Cynthia Garcia on as a guest. And I mean, if this wasn’t aligned, I don’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 I just something inside me just stopped and was like, Oh my god, there’s another way.

Victoria Kleinsman  27:37

I can actually use what I’ve been through, all the pain, to help other people. And that hadn’t even been a thought of mine before. It just all of a sudden dawned on me. So Cynthia sharing her story on that, I went home after my shift at work and said to my fiancé, 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 hadn’t even started my healing journey. So not only did I think, Okay, well, I can help others with this. 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.

Victoria Kleinsman  28:20

I was not full of self-confidence in any way shape or form. It was like I was sat in a dark tunnel. And then Cynthia had got a torch and had just shined at the very, very end of this big, long tunnel. So that was the feeling that I had, like maybe this could be something. So more so when I signed up, 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 

Victoria Kleinsman  28:57

So I found out my niche through the ITN program, and through Cynthia’s, oh my god, the amount of self belief Cynthia gives to you throughout the program of promising that it will just all work itself out. After going through the program, and Cynthia always shares her personal experiences, that helped me to understand that there’s nothing to be ashamed of. So I brought all of this shame that I had around how I felt in my body, what I was doing in the background around my relationship with food.

Victoria Kleinsman  29:33

I just very courageously, I don’t really know where the courage comes from, it’s in each and every one of us, but I just knew if I could–because I heard Cynthia’s story and that inspired me to change my life, why can’t I inspire somebody else? My name is Victoria Kleinsman, 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, and fall madly in love with themselves.

Cynthia Garcia  30:09

All right, so what did we learn today? We’ve learned that wellness is whatever feels good to you. Wellness is the act of practicing healthy habits daily to get better physical, mental, and spiritual outcomes so that you’re not just surviving, you’re thriving. We’ve also learned that social media can be skewed and can skew the true definition of wellness into a one size fits all type of mold.

Cynthia Garcia  30:32

Rather than doing what everyone else is doing, focus on your own needs and how you can feed yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually. Make sure you analyze those wellness trends and really look into them before you just jump on board. We’ve also learned that no one’s wellness can be optimized by just throwing money at the problem. You actually have to show up and do the work.

Cynthia Garcia  30:57

So this week, let’s do the work. I want to challenge you to look at what you’re doing for your body, mind, and spirit to achieve wellness. Are there any things you’re doing just because you saw them online, even if it hasn’t been working for you or you haven’t been getting results? You’re still doing it just because you’ve seen your favorite influencer or expert do it? I encourage you to get back to the basics of wellness, practicing healthy habits that help you thrive in life.

Cynthia Garcia  31:25

If you want to learn more about this, go deeper, and talk about some of these trends that we’re seeing and whether they’re healthy or worth it or not, you can join me and so many others in our Transformation Generation Facebook group. Our certified Transformational Nutrition coaches are there and they can help support you and also give you some other ideas, advice, and information on what you can do to really transform your health and practice wellness tips that really serve you and your needs. I’ll toss the link to that group in the show notes.

Cynthia Garcia  31:57

And I’m going to be in there live this week also to dive more into this topic and for us to have just a really open, honest, candid conversation. So you can see all of the show notes and other resources for this episode at transformationalnutrition.com/Episode002. We’re just getting started. I’m having so much fun with this podcast. I will see you back here again next week for another episode.