Understanding Your Body Through Integrative Health & Body Image Resilience

Personally with.

Rynga Fuelsman. This week we are focused on the body and all in good ways, nothing to be concerned about. I'm hoping this episode empowers you to do things that are helpful for you and your body. First, I'm bringing on Kara Clark, who is an integrative nutritionist and wellness educator in integrative health, blood chemistry, and sports and clinical nutrition.

Then, I'm bringing on Lindsay Kite.

She's one of the co authors on the book More Than a Body and has a PhD in the subject matter. We will talk about body image, resilience, why body positivity is more than a movement, and how your body is an instrument not an ornament. I'm super excited this week to be joined by Cara Clark.

We were just talking about our love for the Midwest, for both Midwest girls. Hi, Kara, how are you?

Hi?

I'm good, How are you.

I'm doing good.

Thanks for joining me and being on here beyond you being a Midwest girl along with me. You are also an integrative nutritionist and wellness educator. You've done all types of clinical nutrition. You're just telling me how you were an athlete in college and now you have a book coming out, So walk me through your.

Story a little bit. How you got to the path that you're on.

Yeah, first of all, I love the name of your podcast.

I think it's really cute and catchy and I don't know, I'm excited to share personal things.

That's where we're going to go with this. We get things. We really want people to take this person. There's a reason for you.

Yeah, when I listened to podcasts, I want to know about people because I can find what they teach on their website or whatever.

But I'm like, how did you get there?

Yeah? I love that, and it gives background to who you are. Like, you're telling you what you want me to know. But why should I listen to you?

Right?

Exactly? What is your experience? Because you know, everybody has a story.

And you know, ironically, when I was getting into nutrition, it was still really fitness space, human calculator. So to speak, calories in, calories out, very calorie oriented, very number oriented, and everybody had this big weight loss testimony. And I was a college athlete, so I did not have a weight loss testimony. I had issues with weight because my coach waited us every two weeks. That's another story that

I reach people who are in this phase?

Because this is hard. I don't want to I didn't want to do that. I'm a faith based person. I didn't want to offend God and hurt my temple, so to speak.

So yeah, twenty two.

I started credentials to become a certified nutritious. But it was partly because in Bascala and college I knew like that level of performance was achievable, but nobody could guide me on how to get there.

I had to discover it on my own.

I was always sick during playoffs, like immune system breakdown? Why's my immune system breaking down? What am I supposed to be eating? Everybody's drinking gatorade and it hurts my stomach.

You're having these chronic issues. Yeah, chronic issues or something that often isn't talked about or able to be discovered in traditional medical.

Because they're invisible. Back then, seventeen years ago, people wanted this visible breakthrough.

That weight loss.

How do we easily fix this? Yeah?

How do you easily fix it? For sure?

So my thought process when I created my business, which you know this will tell you a little bit more so since we're taking it personally, I decided to start my own business officially right when I got married without telling my new husband.

Oh god, okay, what was that like?

And by the way, I was pregnant.

A lot happening in there, and now you're a mom of four girls, which again it just seems like there's this thing that has happened with you in your life where there's always been a lot happening there.

Always chaos is normal. I'm one of eight from the Midwest, like we talked about, so chaos has been normal for me, which is ironic because a couple of my breakdowns in my body were because of stress, but not because I was more stressed, because I never dealt with the stress at hand. So yeah, got married, got pregnant on her honeymoon, even though I text my mom from the Dominican asking her if I was fertile on day nine or whatever, and she said I wasn't.

She said you were, but she was. Did you already know at this point or no?

I had no idea, Like I only just started tracking like fertility and stuff when right when I was getting married, I didn't think anything of it. So yeah, I was fine, though, Like I wanted to be a mom my whole life.

I could have skipped the wedding. That wasn't for me. I wanted to be a mom.

But yeah, I never said to my husband do you care if I quit my well paying job to start my own?

It was just like, hey, by the way, and what was the well paying job?

I was working at a law firm.

I was like running a department I shouldn't have been running only because I was in Orange County?

Did I get the job? By the way, I looked.

Okay, wild but also crazy jump yes, athlete nutrition stuff.

You were broads journalism in college, and then.

You were working at a law firm and then you started your own business, which I'm assuming is this what you're doing.

Yes, huh.

Why?

What was like, I need to start this business and leave this.

Job the urgency to heal my own disordered eating. And that's what it always is.

It's our own chronic issues that we want to heal from. Like I said, disordered eating is very invisible and a lot of people don't go to the doctor to get a diagnosis. You know, but it controls your mind, It controls every part of your day, It controls your energy. And so when I was trying to figure out food, I wanted there to be a purpose involved, and I wanted it to be providing energy. I thought, as a

Yeah, you've evolved in a lot of that.

For you, What did the disorder eating look like?

Because that's another thing with it is it looks different for everybody.

Yeah, for you, what was that like?

It wasn't like binging or bolimia or anything like that. It was more like what they would call orthorexia, like overly working out and overly calculating calories and stuff like that.

And was that because you had mentioned in the beginning of this a coach who was weighing you.

Was that part of this? Were all this start?

I mean I didn't weigh myself then, but I did move from Oklahoma to California, so looking a certain way felt like it was a high priority for a twenty two year old.

A cultural shift, it's a huge culture shift.

And yeah, I was just finding myself and like my identity outside of being a student athlete and going into the work world. I was broadcast journalism in college. I fully thought I would be like a sideline reporter until I found out what their lives looked like and their hours looked like, and anyway, I wanted a family. I met my husband like five weeks after I moved to California.

Oh wow, okay, And so what was that like to your going through this? You had just made a big move, You just met your husband, well now husband, obviously he wasn't then.

But what was that like for you?

Like you were experiencing in your body as all of those things are happening.

I've always been somebody who goes with the flow. What do they say, ask forgiveness, not permission. That's kind of like the way I am, and it's not something I think about. So I do have to apologize a lot, and I'm really good at apologizing. I can, you know, say things I didn't mean or whatever. But anyway, it wasn't like this crazy experience, but I did know that

I was like, oh yeah, well and especially with your experiences that you had, and that probably was just such a powerful correlation for you. Yeah, So that was this shift then into this world the nutrition wellness. How long did it take you to get your body back to the track that you would feel was healthy.

The second I got pregnant, I was like, it's not about me anymore, and that was what healed me. And so for me, it was like circumstance when I don't know if that happens for everybody.

I still not like being weighed while.

I was pregnant, understandably, so you're growing another human that comes with.

Something story, yes, And I wasn't even somebody who gained a lot of weight being pregnant. But from the second I found I was pregnant, I was nurturing the baby. And that's when I really focused on my macros and not so much the calories, but making sure I was getting the combination of carbs, fat, and protein every time I ate, and eating real foods. So I was just really focused on nourishing the life growing inside of me,

Yeah, and that makes sense.

I don't think it's uncommon to hear you talked to a lot of parents and there's just a shift that happens, And it sounds like for you it was especially a shift in your health and wellness, but also what you were doing when it comes to nutrition and integrative health and stuff. It's kind of this I don't want to say untapped market, because people have been researching nutrition and diets for years, but the integrative health.

Is just a little bit uncommon.

It still is today as far as trying to really blend all things natural along with traditional medicine and just finding the.

Right flow for each individual person.

So when you were getting into this, how are you like, Okay, how do I figure out how to do this for myself and then start to teach people about this because you don't have a lot of studying material, right.

Yeah, And I wouldn't say I was integrative then. I was really focused on just nutrition, okay, and so learning how to be a nutritionist and help guide people on the energy of food and not so much like the calories of food, even though calorie is a measurement of energy.

Wow.

So that gave me so much purpose. That also helped me understand like human behavior. So huge part of guiding anybody on anything wellness is understanding human behavior and being patient and like being a good listener. Because in my argue that I'm a good listener, but I'm a really good listener for my clients.

That's different in clients versus marriage.

Yes, we're walking different territories there.

You were mentioning too, how everybody's very different and the body's different for everybody. And you're talking about listening to your clients.

How do you when you.

Get a client, what are some things that you're paying attention to about their lifestyle that's going to help you on the nutrition side of things.

Yeah, that's a really good question and comprehensive question at that. I'll just start with saying why I became an integrative practitioner as well as an integrative nutritionist and not holistic and not functional, okay, because I think, you know, there's natural paths, there's functional medicine doctors, there's Chinese medicine doctors, there's all these things. But I knew that at the root of people's food issues, they were coming most of

I'm not even kidding about.

Where did that come from?

Orange County House Life?

Okay, you got mentioned on there.

I got brought into the scene of celebrityism and I always avoided it, to be honest, and it was hard to avoid where I lived.

Yep, Well everybody there once to be everybody.

Yeah, everybody wants health health like it's just never ending in that area of the world. So overnight I had to build. I had to streamline something without any employees. So I built my challenge programs and those are seasonal, and then years later I built this membership so and I have this whole team of nine amazing women that

Does that make sense?

Yeah? Absolutely.

I didn't have the strategy in mind, but I worked my butt off.

Yeah, you were doing the hard work and it just paid off. You just didn't realize it was going to happen in that quickly, right, right, It was literally that part was overnight. But they say overnight success takes ten years, and in that case it was eight.

Yeah, it always does.

There's always everybody wants to look at the moment that it happened to all the years leading up to.

Me, right, And it is crazy how in a blink of and I like all that work paid off. But for me, I didn't have any intention of hiring a nanny or nout like my motherhood. So to have grown a business as a mom and then years later deal with some health issues with one of my kids and got pretty sick myself because, like you, I was waking up at three thirty in the morning so that I could get my work done before my kids woke up, and then I could get another three hour window while

In my house.

But I didn't realize like how much it was hurting me, and how much it was hurting my nervous sys some and my adrenals and my cortisol. And you know, first my skin broke out. You know, I'm in my thirties. I'm like three years post nursing my fourth child. I should be like in my prime, right, Like I did all the hard things, and now I.

Should be flowing.

My skin started breaking out, and then I got really lean, like to the point where I couldn't put weight on. And then so I'm like thirty three thirty four. Then I got insomnia, and I thought it was all spiritual, So I like did all the prayer work, I got the spiritual advisors again. For me, I always go to spiritual first. And so I have acne, I have insomnia, I have nervous system issues, like I'm on the brink of feeling like death all the time. And I'm a nutritionist.

And You're like, I thought I'm doing all the right.

Thing that was invincible. Yeah, I ate right.

I exercised, I did what I was told by the fitness industry and by my original credential. So I started working with a functional medicine doctor and a Chinese medicine doctor and started putting my body back together. Started to understand I had to I mean, if I was going to take care of for kids all day and run a business, I had to optimize my.

Sleep, not sleepless.

So started putting the pieces back together and then exploring further and the reason I became integrative rather than functional, quote unquote, which are similar. To be honest, I feel like functional tries to throw solutions at the problem, whereas I wanted this.

Root cause approach.

So even years later, I still had some madrinal stuff coming up. Like I was doing all the supplements. I was doing like thirteen supplements a day. For some people that doesn't sound like a lot, but I like my clients to be like five or under a day unless they're on a healing protocol. So for me, integrative is using aer vidic, which is ancient six thousand years old, like the original saunas and castor oil wraps and the Doscha body type and stuff like that. I like assessing

So I use little.

Chinese biomolecular is supplemental, but it's also therapeutics. It's botanicals, and herbs and that kind of so it's not just like vitamins and minerals. And I don't like to just supplement people based on their labs either. I want to find the root cause and help the body be able to activate.

That's so hard to do too, because the root cause, you're like, I've learned, the body's just kind of this onion that you're just constantly appealing back to be like, Okay, what.

Are we going to find?

Now?

What's next? We took care of this? Now, what's this well?

And especially because I sounded so invested, especially okay, we like them, especially because a lot of our root causes were brought to us by birth. Yeah, we came into the world with them, and so it's our normal and so any different, Yeah, you don't know any different. So about thirty three thirty four I did a bunch of integrative functional work, and then around thirty eight I did a bunch of root cause stuff and that really opened my eyes.

Talk about peeling back the onion.

You start to.

Not relive but see some of these like trauma experiences like I started getting hives at eight? Why did I start getting hives at eight? Well, once I started addressing the root cause. I figured out why I started.

Getting hives at eight. I'm not gonna go okay, okay, I mean it's related to trauma. Right, Kids forget.

Things and your body, but your body doesn't. Your body does keep score. I love that saying your body keeps score because it's so true. So when I started doing root cause through using bio energetic medicine, and then I use quantum so light therapy, pimp therapy.

Are these you have you heard of these?

Yeah? I'm just see. I wasn't sure how far it went.

I mean it goes pretty far.

I won't get too far into it, but I like incorporating all of it because it depends on going back to the bioindividuality of the person first, like what are their epigenetics, meaning their lifestyle practices?

Now, can they be compliant with the food because I can do.

Like a pull for a full pullback of all the food that they're eating, and like only put in food that their system can optimize.

With interesting, which would be super helpful for anybody.

It's super helpful for anybody.

I discovered it by working with autoimmune people and then I'm like, so, why doesn't this work with anybody inflamed. Okay, it does like this is a full body reset and you're not restricting calories or food. You're restricting certain types of food that are harder for the body to digest. So if the body if a food's harder for the body to digest, it's going to take energy to do it. So the energy is going towards digestion and not healing.

Add things in. I'm like, what can we take out?

That's true, but it has to be like mentally, emotionally, and physically available to the client.

And it is true because that's why I ask lifestyle wise, because so much of health and wellness where people struggle is convenience and accessibility.

And that's where you have a lot of people who are like, yeah, I want to do these things.

I want to take care of myself, but I don't have the tools, I don't have the time, and how do you start to do that? And then you start to do your own research, which you've been able to find your way through, right. But to the normal person who has no knowledge or any version of training, they go online and you have so many options. Which option do you go down?

Okay, this is they take They want to take something, and I always want to take stuff.

Everything is is just a different journey, a different battle that you have to go down.

So it's interesting to hear that perspective.

Not once in all of my research that I've personally done, have I ever heard somebody be like, well, let's remove some things.

But also keep stuff in. Yeah, that's just a different strategy.

Yeah, I want to go a few different areas here on some of the things you said.

One of them you mentioned supplements.

Supplements are very common, especially as people are trying to understand their bodies better. Supplements tend to be something that people go down, especially coming out of traditional medicine and into a more functional lifestyle. Why do you say five and under and what's this deal with supplements.

Because most of the time when people are coming to me, they've already been here or there, like five different other places, and typically they're loaded up with supplements and they have all kinds of gut issues.

So in order for a supplement to work.

It has to go through the gut and then get to the blood stream, and it gets to the blood stream from the gut. So if you don't have like pretty optimal gut health, then there's not a lot of encapsulated unless it's wrapped in fat, which is like a zoma. So life is almost a better option for somebody who's really trying to heal. So my rule of thumb is

So these are the three starting point. If you can only afford four dollars a day, that's where you start.

If you're somebody food is not pleasurable because it's like always disrupting, meaning like bloating gas. Everyone complaints they're bloated inflammation. We are going to do digestive enzymes with that foundations. If you're somebody super high stress or high strung like me, then we're going to do magnesium and optimize the body that way, are likely going to do an active bee because somebody like me is burning the adrenals out, so we're burning our bees, burning the bees.

That's five, right, five, And.

You had mentioned these and again you can go online and you say everybody.

Needs this like you can see it.

You got influencerschool, or you have so much content that's happening out there. But truly, is there supplements that every single person needs? Is there things that every single body is going to need? Does that actually happen or is it more so often that your body is unique and you need to treat.

It as such.

Yeah, I mean, if you have the resources to really do the bio individual approach one hundred percent tests, don't guess, but functional medicine testing and integrated medicine testing is going to be if you want to find out your biomarkers on all of your vitamins and minerals, it's going to be like twelve hundred dollars.

So that's not available to everybody.

Back to the accessibility.

See yeah, right, so I just general rule of thumb, I'm going to suggest, you know, an active multi like thorn or equolife. Right now, I really for somebody that is aware that they have MTHFR, I like this supplement called end Light for their active multi So if I have a little bit of data on them, I can make suggestions. But yeah, if we're just generalizing this, go with an active multi. Even Mary Ruth's vitamins, which are accessible on Amazon and most people can pay for them, are good.

Okay, that's good to know.

I think for a lot of people too, because just like I said, the accessibility thing is what is so difficult, and that's why I think people turn to the internet. They're trying to financewers the best way.

They can h and yet they end up burdening the body.

Yes, because it's often that a lot of things band aid. We're back to the root cause it's again onion.

It's all onion, and.

You're just there's so many different layers and a lot of complexities of human which is why health and wellness I think so much beyond understanding just your nutrition and the things that you're supposed to have in or not have in.

It's right, it's understanding things as a whole.

And I yeah, I love that's what you're practicing that you're also preaching that in your own life. Yeah, you were talking to of your high stress and you shared its and pieces of your story as a mom of four daughters and you have a husband, like you have all the reasons to not be doing health and wellness.

You're busy, you have your own business, Like.

How do you do it?

How is this working for you?

Well?

Part of it is I have to if I don't stay pretty straight and arrow on my choices. It's easy for me because I'm obsessed with feeling good. Let's face that, I want to feel good every single day.

I don't like feeling bad.

Ever, I'm a whimp when it comes to any symptoms. If my ring here is even Oh you're showing some mild symptoms, Like.

You're like, okay, great, I have to restart everything.

So I have to.

I chose this.

This is my dream life that I'm living right now. I'm not going to watch it fade away. So I being having four kids keeps you in the present moment. And that's the nice thing about the chaos of my life, as I'm always in the present moment, So I'm not having to do all this meditation work to get in the present moment because I'm in the present moment. My meditation work is to, you know, bring out my nervous system a little bit.

So the why do like, why do I do it? How do I do it? I think people should just come love with me and see. I don't know how to describe it, but generally I follow my food philosophy.

I eat within the hour of waking up. I don't drink coffee on an empty stomach. Those are two big ones that I think a lot of people don't do. I try to exercise every day for thirty minutes, and I don't like the only reason I say try, I'm obsessed with working out, like I mentioned from the beginning, but my day doesn't always a lot for it, and so by life style, I have a lot of meat movement.

Have you heard of that?

Tell me?

Exercise thermogenesis?

Okay, what is it?

It's tracking the movement of our body. I'm up and down the stairs.

We're talking about the stairs, you know, putting laundry, way, doing dishes. I have a lot of movement, walking my kids to school, walking the Dog's just a lot of movement. And I try to prioritize movement over going to a workout class because I know it's not realistic for me in my stage of life, and I'm okay with that, because when this is said and done and the girls move on, that'll be like the hard part for me.

You're like, there's a lot of purpose behind this side right now. So I'm just.

No. But that's also very real, right because it's easy to look at somebody like you who has all this knowledge and has the experience and be like, well, yeah, that's easy for her, but you have a very busy and full life and you've made it a priority.

But that's your drive.

So I think that's something for people to think of, is what's their.

Drive, what's their reason?

That's your reason, and this is why every day you're like, Okay, I have to do these things, right, you have your purpose, So finding a purpose I think will help people in attaining these goals. Yes, when it is you want to look at it and be overwhelmed and say there's no way I can do this.

Right, So I think that's a well I in.

My membership this year, I started the year off with the coaching session of having them reprioritize and not.

Just what's important what's not like, what's relevant to what you're aspiring to do? Why are you here?

You're in my membership for a reason, So let's lay it out with priorities instead of goals.

And I felt like that even helped me. Like I was telling my team the other day, I.

Don't have time to help in my daughter's school quote unquote, but that's what gives me great joy. So I'm reprioritizing that in my schedule. So I go do that every Tuesday for an hour or whatever. People think I'm crazy. I coach my kids' teams because that's a priority to me because it gives me so much joy. You know, I don't not do things because I don't have time. I restructure my schedule for my priorities.

Does that make sense?

It absolutely does, And it is.

It's something that is difficult, right because a lot of topics on this podcast in general has always been.

It's easier to do stuff that's not hard.

Yeah, that's just true, unfortunately, and it's easy to get stuck in ways where it's just you're taking the easier route or you're repeating the same cycle.

What you're talking about is a hard choice to make.

You have to make the choice to make things a priority and read structure your life to make that happen, which we love to think that we can do, but when we're faced with.

That decision is often I'm okay, yeah, mine.

It's true to cook dinner, grab dinner, for sure, it really is.

And then back to the convenient side of things and understanding all of that. So understanding that things are a priority is necessary. I also want to mention to you, so on my side of things, you're gonna probably have a lot of tips in this area. I've been a vegetarian since I was eight years old.

It was a decision that I made.

Very in the middle of Kansas, no less, yeah, very young.

My sister told me where my McDonald's cheeseburger came from, and I said, I am absolutely not eating this anymore, and declared right then and there too, my parents very strong opinion of me not to, but I did, and I've stuck with him.

I'm not thirty one years old. It's a long time of being vegetarian.

But one of my biggest struggles, and I think so many people's struggles, regardless of vegetarian, vegan, or eating all kinds of meat, is getting protein in all the time.

That's and it's so important, but it's so hard to do.

Yeah, it is.

I don't know why.

I mean, that's why I think it trends to say prioritize protein, because really I prioritize all three macros.

But it is the one thing that you don't naturally grab.

Fat's easy to get fat as twice as nutrient dense, you don't need as much, so by looks of it, you eat half the fat as you do carbs. And protein. Yeah, protein is not a natural thing for people to grab. You're one hundred percent right. I wonder what's involved in that human nature and evolution.

I'm with you.

It's hard to think about the animals. And I have actually a friend from Kansas who found out where her pet pig went oh no and never eat meat again.

So no, that would traumatize me.

I know it is traumatizing.

And I went through a stage where I was vegetarian and it was so inflammatory for my body that I had to make the hard toste to like but yeah, and like when I'm working with somebody, there are emotions, and there's physiological things, and there's physical things and there's mental things, and so I have to help the person build back regardless of my beliefs.

Does that make sense? So anyways, what was the original question?

Oh?

Protein, Well you can also talk about too, because you had mentioned that you do the three groups together than just protein too.

So if that's better, feel free. This is just the hot.

It's because it's hard to get. It's not natural. Even like my daughter that came home early today, she made herself a huge and.

She's I just don't know a protein to add. So it's just not natural unless we're like deferring to dairy. Everyone wants cheese and yogurt.

But yeah, oh yeah, as a vegetarian, that's the one reason I can't go vegan.

I've tried, and it is to that point.

And because often like when people think about protein, when they think about a healthy meal, it'd be like veggies, rice, protein.

Yes, and people are so tired of doing that right again, indoctrinated by the fitness.

World exactly, and they're tired of that.

So they're like, Okay, well, how can I find other ways to get in protein? Then you start looking like, well, maybe there's really not all that many options here.

Well, there's not like very many pure complete proteins for vegetarians. That's just the truth.

Dairy is one, So you're right on that, and even how she is like my best friend.

Yeah, I love cottage cheese.

I did a bioresonance scan with physics measuring my voice, so I do all the testing and cottage cheese came back perfect. I was like, all the wavelengths matched cottage cheese in my body, which is ironic because I don't do well with most dairy.

Okay, so cottage cheese though, was the same one.

Huh.

I need you keep telling me all these things, and I'm like, okay, I do eggs?

Are you pascytarian?

I do eggs.

It's like a weird I have a weird relationship with eggs. Sometimes I'll be like, yeah, let's eat them.

Nobody can have a relationship with eggs. Anymore. They're just confiscated permanently, they're gone.

They are there.

I saw a place what was doing in New York.

They were doing like lucy eggs where they're just telling like one, I'm like, imagine you just go and buy five lucy eggs and you're trying to make it home with these lucy eggs. You're like back in high school when they gave you that as a baby to take care of.

Oh my gosh. Yeah, And I'm like, what are you going to put your lucy eggs in now? Because you don't get a carton, it's a whole eggs.

That's funny. I didn't know that.

Yeah, And then like when you take the deeper dive and I know we don't have all the time in the world, but vegetarian protein is plant based, and a lot of these plants are not organic and they're not grown enrich soil, and they're high in arsenic, which is a heavy metal. And so then you're like where do I turn. And then the nut milks and stuff they're unless you make your own, which like who has time for that?

It is getting to the point where you're like, I might as well just have my own garden, my own things. Don't go to the store.

I know, never need to go to the store.

Hope we end up in an apocalypse. I suppose that would help everybody else.

Every time I hire instacart and ship, they put me over the edge with their replacements, so we're lack thereof yep every time.

Well, well, that is like a big topic. But what is something to do for you?

Because you've been in this so long you personally, maybe it's something for other people. However you want to walk down, you can, But what's something you wish you had known sooner about, whether it's nutrition, health.

Yeah, the biggest thing I wish I had known is about adrenals and.

Taking this more integrative.

Our dreanals are on top of our kidneys, and our kidneys and Chinese medicine are heart so American women our understanding. The kidneys are the air filter to the body, and so if the adrenals are down, it affects the kidneys, which affects your dreamage pathways, which you know, and then

I know.

So that was that's one thing. And then obviously the nervous system.

I think that, like I said, we define things as normal for ourselves because we're used to it and because it.

Became our normal.

But having balance in the body and regulation of the different systems is what we should be seeking, not keeping our normal.

That's really good information for other people to to have. But crazy I the adrenals I learned about too when I also had went into some You said, the supplemental side. What would that be referred to as in medicine, Oh, biomolecular, Yeah, more supplement And one of the biggest things high stress. I had bad adreanal because I had such a like high stress job, and I was.

Like I didn't even know those existing, No, what are you talking about?

And it seems like a loose term, like a drenal fatigue, because for me, I was hyper. I wasn't tied like I couldn't even go to sleep.

Yeah, you're like, this feels like that's not Yeah, didn't.

Sound right until I really started the path of discovery.

Yeah, well I could listen, Kara, we could sit here all day. No, because I love everything that you're doing. Your story is amazing. But I do love to end the podcast with a motivational tip if you will, or something that you feel like can help other people, or something that you just feel like on your.

Heart to share.

So something motivationable to end us here on a high note.

Yeah, that's awesome that you always share motivational things. I think for most people when they do start health journeys, it's fleeting that they don't see results.

So really tap into how you feel. How do you can measure how you feel? Do you have energy?

Do you feel good? Rather than what the scale says or what your clothes say. If you feel good, change will come.

That's a really important one, especially right now because the impact of social media has a lot of us seeing ourselves differently and thinking that the scale is still one of the most important things when it.

Really isn't right. It has a lot to do with how you feel. So, Kara, thank you for joining me. Thanks for being here sharing your story. You do have your new cookbook that's coming out.

I did want to mention too, because weird connection by way country music.

You have a forward in there from Carrie Underwood. Yeah, what's that connection?

We went to college together in Oklahoma.

Okay, now this is making sense. So been friends since college?

Well, well, yes, there was a window of time where we lost touch, but we moved here because they were very welcoming to us.

Wow.

Okay, And have you guys worked together at all on the nutrition tye because I know she's also huge.

Yeah.

I was a contributor to her book, and I'm the nutritionist on her app. I developed the recipes for her fifty two app. But yeah, we try to keep our relationship super like friendship and you know, personal and not so much work. Nice thing with somebody like her is you're not even working with her, you're working with her team. So you know, we always keep our relationship friendly.

No, that's a good thing.

Well, I love that, and it's friends supporting friends. You've helped in some things, but also the core.

People always say, oh and Carrie Underwood's nutritionist, I'm like, we're just French.

She doesn't listen to me.

You're like, well, I mean, Karena was in great shape.

I know at some point you just be like and.

I can't even claim it.

It takes her five years when after I say something for her to follow through.

Well, hey, Karena would just like the rest of us. You know, we're all learning.

But I'm really excited to see your cookbook take off, just like everything else has happened for you.

But again, thank you for being here you.

I am joined by Lindsay Kite. She is one of identical twins. They are two twins who promote body image resilience after getting their PhDs from the University of Utah in the study of female body image. But they also have a book called More Than a Body.

I'm just so excited to have you on. How are you, Lindsay, I'm good.

Thanks so much for having me. Morgan.

Yes, I'm excited to get a talk with you because your book is so powerful for so many people. I'm shocked how I hadn't heard of it until I stumbled upon you guys on social media and I was like, these guys are perfect.

I need to have them on the podcast.

So tell me a little bit how you guys got into this line of work.

Sure, yeah, thanks for this invitation. Whether or not you had heard of our book or our work or whatever, I'm glad you stumbled upon us. So love that, And I can fill you in on the whole background. I would say Lexi and I first got started in this work because we had been so affected by our culture's really crazy, harmful ideals about bodies and weight and beauty growing up, and so we were kind of primed to

It's so cool that you guys, as identical twins, had planned we're going to have our own lives and we're going to do our own thing, and somehow it still panned out that you guys ended up studying the same thing, coming together and really focusing and understanding this stuff together.

I think that's awesome.

So, yeah, isn't that wild? We wanted to be different so bad and just couldn't do it. We just couldn't. We have the same interests and had such similar experiences that we decided we were just going to use our powers for good instead of evil, and stop fighting so much and being in competition and instead focus on the same thing and try to do some good. Thinks it's

I think that's super cool.

And sometimes you just got to let life work out how it's supposed to work out instead of fighting it.

So it sounds like that's what happened totally.

I don't think that we can really start the conversation about why the work you guys are doing is so important without discussing the root cause of body image issues. You know, before you came on, I also had a friend on Kara Clark who's an integrative health really is focused on you feeling good in your body, and that's the focus rather than focusing on the diet and trying to change your body, how do you feel good? Let's

But there's something behind that. So can you share a little bit about what that might be.

Yeah, definitely the root of all of this, and the research that Lexian I have done has really pointed to the objectification of women's bodies. So in our culture, all of the media images that all of us have been surrounded by since we were growing up has been really curated so that women look one particular. So think of the media images that you were surrounded by growing up.

You mentioned so many different details here that I want to get into. I am one of those people, much like most women are. I watched so many Disney shows, I watched all of them. I loved consuming media. I loved looking at magazines. I was a young girl that was so fun to me to do. But now, as an older woman, you look back and you see the things that you were consuming, and now I'm having to

Yeah, that's such a good question. And I just want to acknowledge how amazing it is that so many people are even thinking about that, Like, how incredible is it that we are in this day and age our generation is starting to push back on these ideas about what it means to be desirable or healthier, normal, or whatever. And we're doing that not only for ourselves, but for the generations to come, and even for the generations before us.

I'm really glad you brought that up. I love that saying that you guys came up with. And I'll get into that a little bit more here in a second, but something that weighs super heavily for me and I'm sure for other people, I have struggle striking this balance between I know that I want to love my body and I want to be comfortable in my skin, and I don't want to listen to things, but I also want to be healthy and what does that look like?

And we balance the two of those things.

Is such this very delicate area because when you start to get into the health side of things, you start to look at yourself in a certain way and you're obsessed with a scale or you're trying to focus on what your body looks like.

But so much of what I think is important.

Is again striking that balance of I'm comfortable in my skin, but I want to be strong and I want to be healthy, and I want to feel good because I feel good and I'm.

Nourishing my body in the right way.

Yeah, but how do we do that?

Because I know for me that's a daily struggle.

I know that it's a lot for everybody else, And we're constantly inundated on social media with so much content on multiple levels of this. So how do we sit there and find that delicate area where we're honoring the fact that we don't need to change, but also we want to be healthy.

Yeah, your question is great and it reflects one that everybody in especially our society, asks when they start to be confronted with these these topics. And it's actually what my whole dissertation research was based on. My research was on how women define health and fitness for themselves, how they understand it, What does it mean for a woman to be healthy and fit, and how do we fix it?

I'm so glad you refer to it as a relationship to gravity, because that's really all it is. It's right and it always it is, and something that's really helped me in this area I have focused on. When I say I want to be strong, it's not to look a certain way. It's I'm a single woman. I have to take care of things by myself, so I want to be able to lift things. I want to be able to take care of stuff by my own, so I got to be strong to take care of myself.

Do I need to do this?

Or you can get so derailed so quickly because of everything that's out there, And that was something I would love for you to share your input on because I work in social media. I love social media for the fact that it can bring people together, and it can bring people like us together who may never come together.

I think it's a beautiful tool.

But it's also a place that people have used to really, gosh, just hate on women in every way in which they do something. They could do everything correctly, and they're still hatred toward them. There's still this insane goal of making a woman feel worse about herself. Yeah, and I don't

Yeah, well, it comes back to what I said at the beginning about it being profit driven and sexist. Really, these beauty ideals are a way to keep women in our place. Women aren't really able to progress as much personally in our individual lives and in society collectively when we're so fixated on how we look, and when we are measuring ourselves against these really unattainable and really hyper sexualized, out of reach images that we're comparing ourselves to, often

I love that I put myself in the position then to have you share that, because again it's back to what you're saying, where we all have these feelings.

We're human and this is a real thing that we're experiencing day in and day out.

And so as much as somebody can be so well versed and so you know that the right things and you know the right way to see it, it doesn't mean it's not going to creep in and try and come back at you all over again. Something that I really feel that has helped me because it's also in this all these beauty trends and the fashion trends, and

I look really good low.

Rise, or you feel great because you decided to get botox.

Cool.

I love that for you.

If you chose that for you, then I think that's what helps us a lot.

To take the power away from it and say I like this because I do not because they're telling me to not because I'm seeing it on somebody else and it looks really good, and oh, I'm gonna make it work on me. There are so many trends that come down I have. I learned this the very hard way, especially in my early twenties. So much does not look good on me that is not built for my body. I say that often, especially when it comes to the fashion industry. I have a very short torso I'm very short.

I like that.

Yeah, there's so much freedom. I think sometimes that comes with age a little bit, where it's like I remember the last time that trend was around, and it didn't look out on me then and when I was in seventh grade trying so hard. I don't have to do that. Now I'm thirty nine years old. I get to wear Guinea jeans as long as I want to, or I wasted jeans even when low rise jeans are coming back, because I know that I physically cannot withstand another round of low rise jens.

I can't exactly.

And I hope that having conversations like this and grains it even sooner for people in their lives we've had to. Your point is it comes with age, it comes with wisdom. But I hope that us talking about it and grains it even earlier and continues that, and maybe someday we finally push it all the way back and there isn't this lingering thing that's existing.

Out in society. Long game. I love a long game.

So we are here for that totally.

Yeah, we're fighting that hard, Vive, But lindsay, thank you for joining me, thank you for being on.

Is there anything else.

You want to make sure you want everybody to hear that you feel is so so important.

I would say that I would put this all in this model of body image resilience. I mentioned that word, and I just want to point out that the last things we were just talking about, you know, wanting to be able to feel good and make choices that help you feel more comfortable rather than more at odds with your body, All of that fits in this model of

No, it's perfect. It's a testament. You're not only preaching it, you practice it. You're living the lifestyle that you want other people to be able to also live. I love the work that you guys are doing, and thank you for shouting all those things out and sharing just all the different pieces. I think it's helpful in our journeys as we continue to fight the good fight and keep fighting for ourselves. I think that's very important. So thank you for being here, Thanks for talking with me.

Of course, thank you if.

You're new to this podcast.

Every episode features a different topic that I've found are very important to discuss through ways of experts to give us tools and and understanding and then friends who share their journeys of hardship. We've talked friendships, careers, dating, grief, therapy, relationships, mental health, confidence, you name it as always, thank you for being here, and I'll talk to you all next week