[00:00:00] Cynthia Garcia: If we don’t evaluate this and really look at what the reason is behind feeling resistant or defensive toward. We’re going to continue to do the same thing over and over and over and getting the same thing over and over and over.

Welcome back to the transformation on nutrition podcast. The podcast that is redefining. Anything to physically, mentally and spiritually. I’m your host, Cynthia Garcia, the founder and CEO of ITF. In today’s episode, we’re talking about how to know when you need to make a change in your life and how to be okay with doing.

So look, I am a creature of habit. I really am. I love sticking to a routine. It feeds me. I have a morning routine. I do the same work around the same time each day. I have an evening routine. I love it. I really do routines, rhythm and habits. Make me more productive. They also allow me to manage my time more wisely.

They give me more. And they take away the stress of having to make decisions constantly. And the same goes for my wellness routine. So once I figure out something that works for me, that makes me feel good. That gives me energy. I love sticking to it. And again, I don’t have to think about what I’m going to do that day.

I just show up and I do this. It’s really easy. However, there was something a few weeks ago that I noticed that gave me the idea for this episode. So here’s a little glimpse into my life. I wake up at the same time every morning I get out of bed. I do my same morning routine, which usually involves first stop coffee.

I have a specific workout to do, depending on what day of the week. I started work. I eat lunch. I continue work. I get through the day, I make dinner and hang out with my family. So on and so forth. And I have everything blocked off on the calendar. I know when my mind is fresh and my energy is high and I schedule the things that I need to do accordingly.

I also know when it’s not so high and I have scheduled that time. I also schedule my time based on my priorities. So I won’t get into all of the time management stuff. But if that interests you let me know. Cause perhaps we can do a whole episode just on that. And here’s the. When I created this routine a few years ago, it really worked for me.

And the majority of it still does, I could map it out to the minute, but when it came to my health and my wellness, I did the same exact thing to. I have the same coffee every morning. I would have a lunch that was very similar. If I ate lunch, if not, I would just fast. And that has been a huge part of my routine.

It was just all very consistent. And then dinner, we have the same things that we would make in my home night after night after night, just because we like them. They’re familiar. My Instacart already loaded with the ingredients I need. So things are just easier then. And I also noticed that these past few weeks, I haven’t exactly been feeling the best.

I’ve just been really, really tired, feeling, really drained, and I’m still showing up, I’m doing the things for my health that I need to do to feel healthy. But if I’m being really honest, Something was off. I couldn’t figure out why I was doing my same routine. It has been working. And I thought, well, maybe I’m just in a rut.

Maybe I’m just not getting enough sleep. Right. Maybe there’s more stress than normal. And that’s true. There was more stress and here’s the thing. What I came down to realize is that our routines, our habits, our rhythms, they serve as sometimes for a moment, sometimes for a lifetime, right. They’re here for a season, a reason or a lifetime.

And for me, my life had shifted, but my routine had.

We love spotlighting the stories and transformations of our students here at ITN. I’m especially excited to share Jared Fisher’s journey from being told he had a debilitating disease and suffering a horrific accident to being a certified transformation or nutrition coach with his own thriving product based businesses.

Let’s meet Jared now.

[00:04:48] Jared Fisher: I was in an accident when I was 17 years old and I woke up or I regain consciousness underwater. And I remember thinking at the time, like, this is how my life’s going to end. I’ve been a huge surfer my whole life. And I was involved in a surfing accident. I had several surgeries to repair the injury after.

I was always a really small kid growing up. I never really had a growth spurt. And so that was really a source of, I would say, insecurity for me and contributed to an overall lack of confidence. And then when I had this injury to my face, that just kind of made it worse because they had these horrific scars on my face.

I would say that really started this downward spiral. And it turned into alcohol and drug abuse and really just living a lifestyle that was not supportive of good health. And then I found myself in my late twenties and I started having really bad, lower back pain. And I saw a couple of doctors and they’re looking at my MRI and they’re like, whoa, this looks hard.

They diagnosed me with degenerative disc disease. There’s really no cure. And basically I was told, yeah, your spine looks like that of somebody in their sixties. From there, the daily drinking continued, I was put on prescription pain medication. Things just kind of continued to spiral and get worse from there.

[00:06:24] Cynthia Garcia: So a few months ago, I got really clear that the time had come for me to start another school. One that’s separate from the Institute of transformation. And one that focused on life coaching. Now I’ve been a life coach for 17 years now. I bring a lot of life coaching schools into ITN, which is why our students say they love it so much.

We’ve really integrated that in a huge way. In addition to the three pillars that we focus on at ITN, which is physical health, mental health and spiritual health. So I knew the time had come and we’d been through a lot. A few years, there is a lot of changes in our world that, you know, we didn’t really have to deal with so much before.

And just things are brought to light in a different way as of late. So we’ve dealt with things like, so I don’t know, a global pandemic to start racial issues and concerns. We have dealt with identity revelations, and we are charting new territory. There there’s just been a lot going on. And what I came to realize was.

Life coaching the way it has been traditionally taught was created for a world that no longer exist. So anyways, I decided to do something about that and I did now, what that meant was my schedule was different. I was focused on different work. I was working much, much harder, really diving in deep to get this new company off the ground.

And while I had a steady routine and I was still managing to batch things, according to the schedule that I’ve had now for a couple of years, I noticed that I was still exhausted. And what I realized was that for me, it came down to what I was eating or rather what I was not. So, as I said earlier, I get up in the morning, have my coffee, I’m in it.

I’m ready to go. And I usually fast through the day, unless I’m really hungry or something is going on. I typically don’t eat. I might have bone broth with some collagen protein in it, but essentially fasting really works for me. It allows me to stay focused. It keeps my energy high, and then I had a great dinner and so on and so forth.

For her, because of all the work I was putting into this new company, into this new project, my brain was working overtime. I was using so much energy. My body was just like, what is going on here? But I realized I wasn’t fueling my brain. The way I needed to you see, I hadn’t accommodated for this change in my life with a change in my diet.

And so I really had to take a look at what I was doing and change some things up and I did. And here’s the thing I don’t mind change. I actually love change. The rive off of it. I just had to figure out what to change because I had no idea. And that’s what I want to talk about today, because change can sometimes be scary for some, most of us love sticking to routines, but eventually we outgrow things that used to work for us.

That’s a big statement. I know, but it’s true because that’s okay. We can learn how to navigate and move forward in a better way, a way that serves as, and our needs. Whether it’s our physical needs, our mental needs, our spiritual needs or could be the needs of our job or our communities or churches or families, whatever that is listening as Jared shares his turning point and what spurred him and his family into action.

When it came to their health.

[00:10:15] Jared Fisher: I remember one day I was literally laying on the couch. I could barely move. And my kids, they were young at the time and they came up to me and they’re like, Hey dad, you want to go outside and play? And I was just like, it just kinda hit me. I’m like, I can’t even get up and go play with my kids. And so it all kind of came to a head.

I actually went to see a doctor and he told me that I had Andrew paws, which is basically the male equivalent of menopause me going through that. My wife come to find. She’s had Hashimoto’s, which is an auto-immune disease. I was experiencing what I was going through, which included drinking every day, eating out every day, taking pain medication every day, my daughter was having allergic reactions to a lot of the things that she was eating.

My son was having anxiety. So my wife was the one who really took the bull by the horns and initiated change for the family. You know, starting to make all of our food. We stopped eating out every day. And it just went from thinking that we were healthy or doing things that were supportive of good health.

But in reality, we weren’t to making this shift where health became the focal point of both of our lives. And it was no more eating out. It was making every meal that we were eating from scratch and really reinforcing these health habits.

[00:11:43] Cynthia Garcia: So let’s talk about how we can know if we actually do need to make a change in our routine or lifestyle. And then we’ll get into how to do that. There’s a couple of things I mentioned already that are warning signs that I needed to make a change. So, first of all, I was feeling very tired. And honestly, just kind of, my mind was numb.

And again, I was getting the same amount of sleep, like doing the same exact things, blah, blah, blah. But I was finding it really hard to get out of bed in the morning. And honestly, my brain wasn’t working as well. I wasn’t thinking as clearly I would stumble over my words or I would say things wrong. It’s interesting because I’m dyslexic.

And so I see things backwards and upside down and it’s interesting, but I noticed during this time I was saying things backwards. I was putting words in the wrong order, not to get. And so I had to look at what is the real reason here. If nothing has changed, then maybe that’s the problem. Right? So a great way to tell whether or not you need to change is just when you start feeling like you actually aren’t living your life.

In the best way possible. So if you feel like something is off or there’s something abnormal about, again, your physical energy, your mental energy, your relationships, your spiritual connection, then pay attention to that. Oftentimes we just decide that that’s our new normal and just keep pushing through when, if we just took a moment or two to shift some things in our lives, we’d be back on track and potentially feeling better than.

So take the time to do that. I want you to really be aware of your body and how you’re feeling your mind, how you’re thinking your spirituality and how that is playing out in your life. Right now, if you don’t do this, you’re likely going to keep going through the motions. And if you don’t change you, you’re going to start to change other things around you.

And it may not be for the better, and you may not be changing them intention. Your relationships can be damaged in a real way. Your career, your work can be damaged in a big way. And of course your health, right? So pay attention to those warning signs that you need to change, that you might be stuck in a lifestyle that you’ve outgrown.

Right. And that was my case. I wasn’t bully beading. I’d outgrown the diet that before had really worked for me. Now, another way you can tell if you need a change. If, if you’re getting too comfortable, we love to feel comfortable. I do too. Listen. It’s great. You’re just relaxing. You’re just hanging out.

Like it’s a good time, but when we’re too comfortable, we’re not stressing ourselves anymore. We’re not growing. We might get a little rusty in the skills that we once had. We’re not hungry anymore, but that get a little set in our ways. And then that leads to us getting a little bored and let a little more bored.

And then we’re stacking. All right. So it’s important that we don’t get that way. So I also noticed in my workouts, I was doing the same thing over and over and over and truth be told it was just phoning it in. I really was, I was kind of over it. The workouts worked, but I was like, eh, all right, I’m getting it in.

I’m checking off the. Now moving on. And the thing was, I needed a different type of workout, right? I needed something more restorative at the end of a long day because I was working so much and I just really needed that time to come in to myself, to not necessarily being a ton of cardio and weight training, but rather to be more gentle with my body in that moment.

But I didn’t realize that because again, I was comfortable in that world. Right. So you got to ask yourself, when did you do something that was out of your comfort zone, right? When’s the last time you remember really pushing yourself to where you didn’t feel comfortable anymore, right? Doesn’t have to be anything crazy.

Could just be something new or different. Now, if you can’t even remember, well, that’s a sign. And finally, if you find yourself actually feeling resistant or defensive toward change, that that’s probably when you need it the most. So you think, well, gosh, Cynthia, does that make any sense, like if I’m pushing it away, maybe like why would, what, how does, how does that mean that I need it the most, what great questions.

So here’s the thing, there’s something behind that response of pushing. And that thing is fear. We were afraid, listen, we know how things are now. We’re comfortable. I knew my routine. I knew my workout and he, my diet, I was good. But if I need to change that, then it’s unknown. Right. And that can be scary. It really can.

You see, we might be losing something or having to let something go and that something might not just be a workout or a meeting. Could it be a relationship could be something really dear to us. Now, if we don’t evaluate this and really look at what the reason is behind feeling resistant or defensive toward change, we’re going to continue to do the same thing over and over and over and getting the same thing over and over and over.

So explore that resistance when it comes, ask yourself why wonder why I’m feeling this way. I wonder what it is. That I’m afraid of sometimes just asking those questions and really being open and present for the answer will surprise.

Jared is leveraging his certified transformational nutrition certification in a different way than many coaches who become certified do. And we not only encourage that, but we love it when our students use their education in a way that inspires and motivate them to go out and impact the world and a better, healthier way.

[00:17:57] Jared Fisher: I would say I’m definitely not using it in the traditional capacity. A lot of people probably think that this program is designed for somebody who wants to work with clients one-on-one or in, you know, a small group setting. And I would say this is a great program for those who want to do that. But I would say it’s definitely not limited.

To those who want to work with others, one-on-one myself being an example. So my wife and I, about a year ago, we decided to take one of the recipes that she’s been making, which is a pancake and waffle mix. And turn that into a food company it’s called organically foods for me, the way I’ve leveraged, that is part of the program was.

Dedicated to nutrition aspect. Part of the program was dedicated to a psychology spirituality, but there’s also this running a business component. And although I’ve been running a business in a completely different industry for the past 16 years, you know, it was really looking for some guidance there to help leverage.

Nutrition and health knowledge and translate that into the business that my wife and I have launched. There’s so much of what I’ve taken from that program has been applied to what we’re doing with organically foods, the whole business incubator, part of the CTNC program. There’s some amazing resources there.

[00:19:41] Cynthia Garcia: Alright. So if you are related to any of this resonating with you and you think, okay, I can see some things that I really need to change. How do I do that? Well, let’s make it a little bit easier on ourselves. The first thing is expected. Any resistance that might come a hundred percent, right? Like I said, resistance is fear.

Our brains see change as a safety issue. They see something new and unknown and they think, whoa, this might kill us. I don’t know. I don’t know their jobs like your brain. If not there, our collective brains, the brain’s job is to protect us. It’s to keep us safe. It’s to keep us alive. It is wired to keep us away from change because change is unknown and that’s a little scary.

So your brain tries to keep you in the routine of things that it knows won’t hurt. Even if the habits and the routines that we have are no longer serving as even if the relationships we have are no longer serving as even if the work we have is no longer serving as you get the point, our brains also see change as a drain and your inner.

Listen to your brain who likes to go on autopilot? It’s just cruising. It’s good ride. It’s like to be on high alert. Nobody likes that your brain knows what to expect. It can just relax. It can use less energy change on the other hand. Well, that makes our brain work harder. It drains our energy. It coaxes us back into doing things the same old way.

So once you start to realize that you need to make a change in your wellness routine or really in any area of your. Here’s some things you can do to help ease your brain. First of all, you want to focus on the positives. Okay. So for me, I dunno. I think that’s just great life advice in general, but when we find out that we need to make a change, we immediately start to get a little bit anxious because again, things are different.

Our brain kicks in. It’s like, whoa, well, what are we doing here? I don’t know this. We focus on the negative. Usually we get a little freaked out and then we start thinking of all the reasons why we should have. Change why we should just stay comfortable. So no, their resistance is going to hit you up and then focus on the positives, turn your attention to the advantages of change, to the good things.

So for me, I had to remind myself that needing a change was serving. I focused on the fact that I was growing, I was transforming, therefore my needs were growing and transforming. I was making improvements in my life. And that was a great thing because honestly, at first I was like, I don’t want to think about this.

Like things have been going so well, what’s the problem. And then I just realized it was a different season in my life and that these things were for. That I got to be in charge of creating something new that would serve me. That would give me more energy. That would make me be more present with everyone around me.

And that was a beautiful thing. We asked Jared what he would say was his favorite aspect of the CTMC program. And I love his response. Let’s listen.

From

[00:23:04] Jared Fisher: the curriculum to the faculty. I really feel like Cynthia has just pulled together some incredible resources to create a very comprehensive program that you can follow at your own pace. What I also really liked about the program. It’s not just focusing on nutrition. It brings in and ties in the psychology component, as well as the spirituality committee.

This program specifically, it’s such a comprehensive well-rounded program and it’s so well done and well put together. I would say it would be nearly impossible to go through this program and not come out with some amazing ideas and have at least a sense of direction as to what is it you want to be doing?

[00:24:02] Cynthia Garcia: Now really what it comes down to is shifting your mind. So with that simple shift, looking at the positives, you can get the courage to keep moving forward, play out what will happen after you make the change and find the advantages. Find the great things about doing that and that’ll help keep you moving forward.

Next maintain the routines in your life that are still working for you. Like we very rarely just throw our whole lives out the window and start over. And it just, it just typically doesn’t happen and it doesn’t have to happen that way necessarily, unless there are some, you know, really intense extenuating circumstances.

So I’m not saying that can’t have. Everything can happen, right? Everything is possible. But for the most part in our regularly scheduled lives, that doesn’t happen. So maintain what’s working for you. Right. Remember what’s working and then just don’t change that. Just hone in on that. So I knew that something wasn’t serving me and when I realized that it was my diet and my workout, that didn’t mean that I had to throw everything out the window, just scrap my entire calendar and start over.

I kept doing the things that worked for me, kept waking up. Early because that’s when I’m most productive, kept eating healthy, but just add it in more food now to sustain the energy levels that I needed and try different workouts. Like I have to tell you, I never thought I do yoga on YouTube and I’m loving it.

It was a good time. I’m here for it. Something that I never thought I was resistant to it. I’m telling you. When I first started looking for a class, I couldn’t find any near me that I love and I travel a lot. And so I didn’t want to have to find, you know, different locations in different places. So I thought, man, what’s it going to hurt?

Let’s see what YouTube has in store. And I’m so glad I did. I’m so glad that I shut down that resistance and just open myself up to new possibility. Now, what I want to say to you is it’s also important to realize that progress isn’t always linear. It’s not always linear. You might find something and your wellness routine that you want to change and you change it and it still doesn’t work for you.

Right. Or it works somewhat better, but not great. That can be difficult. It can be disappointing. It can be frustrating. You can start to lose motivation and just be like, man, I’m not even doing this right. It’s really simple. However, to remember, to focus on the positive, which is you’re doing this for you, and yes, it’s frustrating, but you’re growing and you’re learning and you’re transforming and failure.

So to speak is required for success. You cannot have success without failure. It doesn’t happen. So know that you’re just paying in to that account so that you can take the rewards out of it at the end. So, whatever area you are exploring, changing, just know that these are the things that we’re going to come, and now you have a way to move through them.

We are hearing from Jared one last time as he shares his, Epiphanes not only from his journey, every claiming both his and his family’s health, but also from his personal journey of becoming a certified transformation or nutrition coach with ITM.

[00:27:28] Jared Fisher: The realization that I’ve come to, at least for myself, is that health above anything else is my greatest asset. I really truly believe it’s the foundation for happiness, for fulfillment, for a better life. I feel like good health just makes everything else in life. Better. You talk to somebody that doesn’t have their health and what is it that they want more than anything.

It’s just want to be healthy with good health. I’m able to be a better father, a better husband, a better leader. It’s made such a big difference in my life. I’m so passionate about sharing that with other people, because I see so many people struggling. Not knowing what to do, not knowing where to turn. My name is Jared Fisher.

I live in orange county, California. I’ve been married for 13 years. I have a son Jackson about her JC and involved in the health and wellness space. I would say that’s really become like the centerpiece or the focal point of my life as of about eight years ago.

[00:28:44] Cynthia Garcia: All right. So finally, I want you to consider what it is that you’re really hungry for in your life. And then what really doesn’t feel. My diet literally did not feed me. I needed some food I did, and my workout certainly wasn’t feeding me. It was draining me, starving me really. And so I needed to shift that.

Now we talk a lot about what feeds you here at ITN, because we are fed by so much more than just food alone. We feed ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually to be the best versions that we can to show up for the other people in our lives that are important for us. So ask yourself as you start to change, whether it’s your wellness routine or anything in your life, ask yourself, what am I really hungry for?

My really hungry for waking up at 5:00 AM and having my day mapped out, doing things that I don’t really love, or am I hungry for a morning routine that prepares. For the day and sets me up to do something I love. Am I hungry to feel good through movement? Am I hungry for quality time with my family or my loved ones?

Am I hungry for more structure in my life? Am I hungry for consistency? What is that for you? Because once you figure those things out, then you can really start to make the changes in your life that matter whether it’s to your wellness routine or anything else. So my days now look a little bit different than they did a few months ago, and I am truly feeling better.

I still do all the things that feed me and keep me sane, but I just needed to make some tweaks to have it represent who I am today. Not who I was a couple of years. And I hope that this episode helped give you some clarity and reassurance about changing your own life. Maybe you’ll ask yourself, what are you really hungry for?

And maybe that will move you in the direction of changing up your. If you want more resources and you want to interact with people who were just like you, who are on this journey of discovering what feeds them, then head over to Facebook and search on transformation generation. That is our private Facebook community.

And we share all sorts of tips and resources and tools. There’s an amazing community. That’s really coming together there to, again, beat themselves. And what they’re really hungry for. So check us out there. Thank you so much for joining me today. If you loved this episode of it served you in some ways, please rate and review the show so we can get the word out to more people.

If you’re listening to the show posted on Instagram or Facebook and make sure you tag us, I am at I am Cynthia. And then our school is@transformationornutrition.com. And then finally you can see all of the show notes and other resources for this episode over@transformationornutrition.com slash episode zero one, or thanks so much for tuning in, and I’ll see you back here again next week with a brand new episode.