October 6, 2025 • 36 mins
Imagine being told that the key to healing your body is to eat ultra-processed junk food. In episode 820 of the Savage Perspective Podcast, host Robert Sikes sits down with Lexi Noel, a 19-year-old entrepreneur who shares her incredible story of overcoming an anorexia diagnosis at age 13. Lexi discusses how she rejected a dietitian's advice and instead found healing and mental clarity by researching ingredients and embracing a diet of nourishing, whole foods. This conversation explores the deep connection between nutrition and mental health, her journey to becoming a viral social media influencer, and how she built a life of freedom and confidence by changing what she eats.
Ready to build a powerful physique with a nutrition plan that works? Join Robert’s FREE Bodybuilding Masterclass to learn the proven strategies for gaining muscle and achieving your fitness goals. Register here: https://www.ketobodybuilding.com/registration-2
Follow Lexi on IG: https://www.instagram.com/lexinoelv
Get Keto Brick: https://www.ketobrick.com/
Subscribe to the podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/42cjJssghqD01bdWBxRYEg?si=1XYKmPXmR4eKw2O9gGCEuQ
Chapters:
0:00 - A Dietitian's Shocking Advice for Anorexia
0:45 - Why a 19-Year-Old Is Obsessed With Nutrition
2:12 - The Truth About Junk Food & Mental Health
4:11 - The Unexpected Cause of Her Anorexia
5:10 - Surviving on 500 Calories a Day at Age
13 7:00 - The Mental Toll of Extreme Calorie Restriction
8:26 - Using the Scale as a Proxy for Progress
9:23 - How She Weighed 68 lbs at Age 13
10:18 - How Her Parents Handled Her Eating Disorder
12:42 - Why "Everything in Moderation" Is Bad Advice
13:41 - The "Lexi Diet": Her Current Nutrition Philosophy
15:15 - What Her Friends Thought of Her Anorexia
16:37 - How to Shift Your Mindset & Embrace Eating More
18:53 - When She Started Her Viral Social Media Journey
19:52 - What Are the Best Grocery Stores for Healthy Food?
20:44 - Where to Find High-Quality Raw Milk & Meat
21:22 - The Healthy Ingredients in Her Baked Goods
22:27 - What She Does for Fitness Now (Running, Rucking)
24:06 - The Future of Her Viral "Grocery Swap" Videos
25:22 - Does She Have Her Life Figured Out at 19?
26:16 - Her Future Goal: Opening a Raw Milk Latte Shop
27:29 - Are Her Siblings Also Focused on Nutrition?
28:59 - Why She Chose a Health Coach Certification Over College
29:52 - Dealing With Alcohol & Peer Pressure at 19
30:51 - Which Social Media Platform Is the Most Brutal?
31:51 - Has She Swapped One Eating Disorder for Another?
33:34 - How She Manages All Her Social Media by Herself
34:28 - Why She Knew She Wasn't Going to College
35:28 - Where to Follow Lexi Noel
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
When I was 13 I was diagnosed with anorexia.
They took me to a registered dietitian.
They were, she was essentially like, you have to eat ultra
processed junk food to heal yourbody.
And even with like how little mybrain was functioning at the
time with no fuel, I was just like, that just doesn't sound
right to me. So then I went down the rabbit
hole of researching ingredients and basically, you know,
everything in the grocery store is just ultra processed junk
(00:22):
food loaded with harmful ingredients that would not be
taking care of the only body that we get, the only body that
God gave us. Because I don't think you can
heal your mindset eating the ultra processed junk food
because whatever we eat is goingto impact us mentally and
physically. You know, I fueled my body with
nourishing foods that God created and designed us to heal.
And that's how I heal My body iseating the foods that he
(00:44):
created. And we are live.
Lexi, how you doing today? I'm great.
How are you? I'm doing wonderful.
I'm excited to chat with you. I'm I'm like way booked out in
my podcast. I think you scheduled with me
like in April or something. Here it is in September now, but
I jumped on your Instagram and I'm like, you're doing all kinds
of cool stuff. You're like blowing up on
(01:04):
Instagram and you're putting outall kinds of content.
Like how do you manage all that?Thank you so much.
I appreciate that. Yeah, it's really fun.
I really enjoy posting. It's really like a passion of
mine alongside nutrition, so I really love it.
Just posting what I enjoy and help.
Hoping to help others while I doit.
Where? Where did the 'cause you found
(01:25):
your passion for fitness nutrition pretty early on?
How? How old are you now?
I'm 19. 19 OK, so you've been putting out content when you
were how old? I really just started so I
started my Instagram account when I was 151415 but it was
originally just like healthy recipes and then I started
making the grocery store swap videos about two years ago.
(01:49):
And those like went Uber viral, the swap videos.
So a lot of people 19 years old,like they're drinking, they're
getting ready to go to college or in college, they're partying
up frat parties, sorority parties, eating, you know,
Domino's Pizza for 5 bucks for alarge.
Why in the world did you start getting into quality nutrition
(02:10):
at a young age? And what was the catalyst for
that? Yeah.
So it's kind of a long story. I'll, I'll try to summarize, but
basically when I was 13 years old, I wanted to be healthy and
I started, you know, diving intojust, you know, I was looking
online for kind of information and I felt on the opposite, I
(02:31):
would say way to get healthy. I basically just was looking at
the lowest amount of calories and eventually when I was 13, I
was diagnosed with anorexia. So my parents, you know, they, I
wouldn't be healed without them,but they took me to a registered
dietitian. They were, she was essentially
like, you have to eat ultra processed junk food to heal your
(02:51):
body. And even with like how little my
brain was functioning at the time with no fuel and I was just
like, that just doesn't sound right to me.
I'm also a Christian. So I was like, you know, I don't
think God wants us to be fuelingour body with ultra processed
junk food. Like I think we should be eating
the food that he created and designed us to eat.
So then I went down the rabbit hole of researching ingredients
(03:12):
and basically, you know, everything in the grocery store
is just ultra processed junk food loaded with harmful
ingredients. That would not be taking care of
the only body that we get, the only body that God gave us.
And as we know, 70% of serotoninare feel or well now more
research has LED that like 90% of serotonin or feel good
hormones made in our guts. So if we eat bad food, we're
(03:34):
going to feel bad mentally and physically and eating disorders,
they're mental disorders. So, and I think that's a huge
reason why, why so many patientswho go into like eating disorder
clinics, they are force fed thisultra processed junk food and
then they gain the weight and then they get sent back out and
then they relapse because they never healed their mindset.
Because I don't think you can heal your mindset eating the
(03:56):
ultra processed junk food because whatever we eat is going
to impact us mentally and physically.
So you know, I feel my body withnourishing foods that God
created and designed us to heal.And that's how I heal My body is
eating the foods that he created.
Now I can totally get behind then what, what do you think the
catalyst for you developing anorexia was in the 1st place?
(04:16):
Like were you heavier early on and trying to like, you know,
counteract that? Like what was the catalyst for
then? You know, I think about this
kind of like every time I tell my story, I always try to think
because I really don't know whatcaused it.
I had a an amazing family growing up.
Like I had a great childhood. It was nothing like that.
I was not overweight. I was normal.
(04:37):
I played like every sport growing up.
I'd really think it's just that type A personality that a lot of
us in the nutrition field I guess have.
But yeah, there's no specific point in my life that I grew up
eating, you know, I would say better than average standard
American diet. Like my mom would make Susan the
(04:58):
are nurse and she would make homemade bread and like make
non-toxic bug spray. But then when we went camping,
we'd have like, you know, the little dummies and stuff.
So nothing that I can think of that really just caused it.
What do you like when? When did you recognize that you
had any sort of like, what was the the point at which you
(05:18):
realized, OK, this is not healthy, not optimal, not
sustainable? It's really months into it.
I would I would say I was one trip me and my mom were taking
with my grandmother. We were like driving to Texas.
So it was like a 12 hour car ride and it's, it had been
months since I, you know, gottendown to a super low weight and I
(05:40):
was watching videos of people who had anorexia and I was like,
wow, that's just not me. Like, like I don't have it.
But you know, I obviously did. I was sickly thin.
And then on the way home from Texas, my mom was like, if you
don't eat, we're taking you to this inpatient center that was
just, you know, in Texas. So it's a it's even after I was
(06:01):
recovered and I went to the registered dietitian, she was
like, she diagnosed with anorexia.
I was like, I still didn't believe I had it.
And you know, I guess I just disassociated myself with being
called anorexic. Yeah.
Were you like tracking like withan app or something like
calories consumed as early as like 1314 years old?
(06:22):
Like were you how, how far down the rabbit hole were you going?
I don't, I don't think, I don't think I was using an app.
I was just not, I was probably, you know, maybe I get, I don't
some, I guess some people get triggered by numbers, but it was
just like probably like 508 hundred calories.
Yeah, which is crazy. I mean, like, I look at what my
(06:43):
three-year old son eats and he probably eats and he probably
eats more than most people walking around nowadays.
I mean, he's 1500 calories, probably no problem.
So like 500 calories as a teenager.
That's that's not much at all. No, no, it's pretty bad.
Were you feeling like the effects of that impacting your
sport performance and sleep and like, bone density, Like, were
(07:06):
you seeing like legitimate ailments starting to arise
because you weren't feeding yourself fully?
Yeah, for sure. And well, I wasn't playing
sports at the time, actually right before something crazy I
do think about right before I kind of lost all the weight I
was going from. I went from being like a point
(07:27):
guard on my basketball team playing, playing all the whole
game basically. And then by the end I was like
not playing hardly 1/4. And I don't know, I had to feel
like that took a toll on me justlike my mental health.
And then really like soon after that, I kind of fell down the
route that sports season ended and I just kind of, I, I think
(07:48):
that played with me mentally andhadn't an effect slightly to
just me wanting to get better atsomething.
And I guess that's my mindset. And then also to your question
about like how I thought that the what caused it.
There was another situation where I was in youth church and
they were doing a series of all the all these young adults, like
(08:10):
20 year olds telling their storyabout how they found God.
And I was just like, oh, my story.
I have no story because my life's just been, you know,
great. I've had a great childhood.
And then quickly, like a probably a month later, then I
went down that rabbit hole. Yeah, a little bit of adversity
kind of does its wonders in someform or another.
Oh yeah. What like were you fixated on,
(08:32):
like the scale weight or like your image in the mirror?
Like what was it that you were using as your proxy for
progress, so to speak, during that time?
It was a scale, so I guess you could say another thing that
maybe have could have led to it.My parents had just gotten to
scale because my aunt and uncle were doing this, I guess weight
(08:53):
loss challenge. And so I randomly got on the
scale and I was like, and then, you know, that was probably
November of 20, 18. And then I started losing weight
really quickly in January. So and I was getting on the
scale then and I think I got that high from watching a drop.
(09:16):
Eventually I did get so low, like I just stopped weighing
myself, but I continued to lose it.
And what? How low do you think you got at
your lowest even though you weren't weighing yourself?
Like if you had to guess. So that trip to Texas, I told
you about, you know, I started losing weight in January ish.
And then we took that trip to Texas that June and I stepped on
(09:38):
my cousin's scale while we were in Texas and I saw 68 and that
kind of just made my like heart sink.
But then I didn't do anything about it.
Like, you know, it was just kindof like I, I knew my mom was so
worried about me, but it's stilljust, it was kind of like my
heart sink. But at the same time, it was
like, wow, I'm actually, you know, getting somewhere.
(10:01):
Yeah. And how old were you at that
point? 13. 13 Then what?
What is your walking around weight now at 19?
I'm about like 100 lbs. OK, you're not super tall.
That's pretty healthy weight foryou.
Yeah, I'm, I'm like 411 so. Yeah, so that that's a good
healthy weight. What what was your like for your
parents? I'm kind of diving super deep
(10:22):
into this because I get a lot ofquestions on eating disorders
and whatnot because I, I've beenopen about having some of the
past and I don't know, it's likewhen you're open about it,
people come out of the woodwork because a lot of people struggle
with it and they're not vocal about it, but they have
questions. With you being so young going
through all this, like how was that impacting your parents?
(10:43):
Like what were they trying to doto correct course and fix
things? Like what did they do from a
parenting standpoint for you, recognizing that you had the
eating disorder? Yeah, so like I said, I wouldn't
be healed without them. My mom, she's a nurse.
Like I said, she took a leave ofabsence from work, so she was
staying home with me. I think my dad, me and my mom
(11:04):
were talking about this actuallylike a few months ago.
I mean, I think my dad kind of disassociated myself himself
with it. He didn't want my dad.
He takes pictures of literally everything and there's probably
like 4 pictures of me during that time.
I think that he was just so against it.
So he kind of distanced himself from just, you know, he would
always when he picked me up fromschool, he would bring like a
(11:27):
smoothie or like a protein bar or something like that.
He'd always have snacks with me.But that was just because my mom
like was forcing him to take it,tell him to take me stuff.
But I don't think he he hated seeing me like that.
He didn't really want to look atme because he was just scared.
And then my mom, she took a leave of absence from work.
And then they, of course, they took me to the registered
(11:48):
dietitian, which she, they said that that helped them because
when we were in the office for that time, we, you know, we went
back weekly. But I probably said 2 words to
her the whole time we went to gosee her.
I never talked to her. My parents, she's, they had
meetings privately. So they said that she helped the
(12:11):
that my parents said they helpedher.
She helped them just with like, you know, telling them how to
help me. And she did say I had to eat
ultra processed junk food to heal.
But quickly my parents when I was like, I'm not going to do
that. They, my parents didn't make me
eat, but like one junk food meal.
And then, then, and then my mom went to get like, you know, the
(12:33):
healthy food and that's what I ate to heal my body.
But yeah, that's what my parentsdid so.
I feel like with with the registered dietitians and nurses
that are seeing patients that have, you know, that midnight
notes with an eating disorder, it's like they often times fall
into this everything in moderation philosophy and any
(12:55):
exclusion of any type of food isseen as an eating disorder by
them. That's why they like push having
a little bit of everything, including junk food.
But like everybody that I've talked to that is struggle with
an eating disorder and been forced to eat junk food, like it
typically backfires on them. So it's just a strange
phenomenon that that's the standard of practice.
Right. I don't believe in everything in
(13:16):
moderation. I truly think that if I went to
go have some Oreos today that I would quickly relapse because I
just think I, I just, I don't think that you can heal your
mindset eating the junk food. I feel like, you know, we
shouldn't be eating little, we should be eating better, you
know, eat the real food. I think it's just, I don't know,
(13:36):
everything in moderation. I just don't believe it.
Yeah, no, I'm, I'm in the same, same camp as you on that one.
What, what did you do like from a dieting standpoint, like from
a dining philosophy, nutritionalphilosophy, I know you're
wanting to like eat the food that's natural, wholesome,
single ingredient quality stuff.Like do you subscribe to any
specific type of dietary protocol now?
(13:56):
Like, you know, paleo, keto onlyanimal based, like what?
What do you kind of gravitate toin that regard?
I would say I eat the like Lexi diet because I'm not against any
whole real single ingredient on processed food.
Like, if it's a real food, I'll eat it.
My diet does tend to fall. I guess you could categorize it
in the animal based. I just love animal products.
(14:19):
They're my favorite. And like, I did go through the
period of, you know, after I was, I would not eat any red
meat. You know, red meat's sad for
you. So I did do that for a while.
And even when I was anorexic, like, I wouldn't eat meat at
all. I was eating like a veggie
burger or something. But yeah, I guess you could call
my diet now more animal based. Nice nice.
(14:42):
What was the the reason for avoiding the red meat when you
were going to that chapter? Just the the old hell beliefs
that it caused cancer and stuff like that.
I think it was that just like red meat's bad for you.
Or I saw red meat as fattening. I know, I don't know, 'cause my
parents, my family is huge meat eaters.
They would eat all the time and they would look at me with my
(15:04):
veggie burger and think that's crazy.
So. Yeah, veggie burger is not near
as good as a big old steak. I'm a real cow.
What? What?
What were your friends thinking throughout this whole chapter?
Like, were they concerned? Were they understanding?
Like what? Where were they at in the
equation? Yeah, so So what happened
(15:25):
towards, you know, I was saying like it was about to start.
We went to Texas in June. So I had lost most of the weight
in like when school was ending of my 8th grade year or no 7th
grade year. So I wasn't really taught.
I was talking to maybe 1 friend I had at my old school and then
went after that summer I went toa new school so I was barely
(15:48):
talking at school. I talked to her.
I sat by her lunch. She never really said anything
about it. I think she said something to
her mom because her mom said something to to my mom about it.
So she knew that I guess I was struggling, but then I moved
schools so I didn't see her and then I went to a new school and
then they hadn't. We I live in a small city.
(16:09):
So I remember like one person was like, Lexi, what happened?
You used to look good. And I just remember that one
person saying that and just kindof being like, Oh, maybe my
parents are right. That was like the very beginning
of the year. But of course there's a few
people knew me at the new schooland they knew me like what I
looked like before, but nobody really said anything other than
(16:32):
that person to my face. So I don't, I don't know what
most people thought. Well, it's definitely a shift in
mindset. What, what do you think?
What, what do you think led to the shift in mindset?
And like, how did that manifest for you?
Like, did it happen pretty quickly or did it take quite a
bit of time to embrace eating more, seeing the scale weight
increase? Like what was that transition
(16:53):
like? So I never got saw my weight
increase because they wouldn't let me look at the scale.
But so I don't worry about that.But I, I don't know, I think I
just switched my type A personality.
I think I switched it from one goal to another.
So honestly it was kind of, I did slowly increase the food I
(17:14):
was eating, but I don't rememberit being so challenging.
I think the challenging part wasthe seeing the registration.
And she did make US1 at 1:00 appointment right before I
switched my mindset to I was only going to eat like whole
real foods and heal my body. She made my parents bring in
(17:37):
Chick-fil-A and she made my brother cum.
And she was like, we're all going to y'all all going to eat
Chick-fil-A in my office. And she just kind of asked my
brother these questions and I was like, what he thought what I
was going through and I was like, that's awesome.
Thank you back. That's like the most
traumatizing experience I ever had because it was just so I
don't know, like I already, I feel like eating disorders are
(18:00):
selfish looking back, like I made my mom take a leave of
absence from work. My dad was like definitely
worried about me. And then my brother got out of
school to come eat Chick-fil-A in this lady's office.
And he was, she was like, what do you think about what you're
supposed to go through? And it's just like, that was
just a traumatizing experience. But then quickly after that I
(18:21):
was like, I switched my mind. So I'm just kind of went head
1st and and my mom would go to the grocery store and she like
came back with a whole bunch of just healthy options.
So that's good. Nice.
What, what did you change your your goal to?
Like when you said you you switched to a different goal and
had that to focus on. What was that new goal
materialized? Like getting healthy and
(18:42):
nourishing my body through food.Cause eventually I knew that I I
had no other option but to gain weight.
My grandparents were going to put me into a inpatient clinic
so I had no option. When did you start documenting
all this stuff? I got what phase of this journey
(19:03):
did you start putting it all online and you know, doing the,
the Instagram, the videos, all that good stuff.
So I've always wanted to open a bakery growing up.
And then I switched the bakery to being like a healthy bakery.
So I started posting my recipes.I started gaining weight at like
14 and then I wanted, I was say I was at a healthy weight by
(19:24):
like 15. And then I started posting my
healthy, healthy recipes at 15. And then the grocery store swap
videos when I was 1617. Nice, nice.
And was your growth on social like was it pretty rapid or was
it just slow and steady like howthat how that transcend?
(19:44):
I would say when I started making the grocery store swap
videos, it was pretty quick. Yeah, I'd say it's pretty good.
What's your what's your go to grocery store now?
Like where do you go? And like OK, I can find plenty
of good options here. OK so I don't have any grocery
stores, good grocery stores where I live.
But so I would say I shop mostlyat like Costco and Publix.
(20:07):
But my favorite grocery store isprobably Sprouts.
Yeah, Sprouts is pretty good. We got a Whole Foods here that's
pretty decent. In Washington, where I lived
there, they had all kinds of like weird, no name, non chain
grocery stores that had all kinds of good options like
huckleberries, I think was the name of one.
But it's funny to go and like once you switch gears and food,
(20:27):
you know what you're looking for.
You actually start reading ingredient labels and stuff.
You go to like a standard Krogeror, you know, Walmart or
Albertson's and there's just man, there's not really many
good options at. All right, right.
Yeah, My Whole Foods closed downlike 2 years ago.
Very sad. Yeah, it's frustrating.
What about like local farmers, ranchers, farmers markets,
(20:49):
things like that? Do you have any of those in your
area? So we don't really, we have one
I would sell my desserts at, butthey didn't have much Like there
was no, you couldn't go and stock up on your produce or
meat. And then we had to have this one
place you can get quality meat about 30 minutes away.
But mostly I would just order and like ship from Miller's Bio
(21:13):
Farm or White Oak Pastures or something like that.
Yeah, White oak pastures are good.
Do you like still produce stuff?You still bank stuff and
distribute that? Or how do you have that set up?
Yeah, so I sell to a local coffee shop and then just local
orders. Nice.
Very cool. What is primarily like baked
goods? Yes, I do like muffins, cake,
(21:34):
really anything. What's your standard ingredients
for a muffin? Is it like an almond flour base
or what do you get going there? Yeah, I use almond flour,
coconut sugar, monk fruit if it's keto, Maple syrup, eggs,
just real food. Are you are you a fan of
Allulose or no? OK so I started researching
(21:56):
Allulose probably a year ago andI I I'm a fan.
You're a fan. I am.
The research is pretty compelling.
Like it's, it's got a good argument going forward from a,
from a, you know, hormonal standpoint with the GLP one and
all that jazz. But it's like, for whatever
reason, Allulose kind of messes with my gut.
So I'm I'm always gravitating towards like stevia or monk
fruit because those seem like pretty foolproof options.
(22:17):
Yeah, yeah, I guess just individuality.
Yeah, I do not like the erythritol and all that stuff
that, that definitely must be like a, but everybody's so
different when it comes to what they tolerate from AGI
standpoint. For sure.
So what are you doing sports wise now?
Do you have anything that you'retrained for doing from athletic
standpoint? So I started running in high
(22:40):
school. Like after I went through all
that I started, I did cross country, which I still love
running a lot. I kind of cut back when I
graduated high school. Now I'm really just like, I go
on my morning rucks with a weight vest and then I lift
weights. So I've really gotten into
lifting after I graduated too and love that.
Yeah, lifting is the way to go. I have been wanting to get more
(23:02):
into the rucks though so I bet it's just it's like way better
than walking from an expenditurestandpoint and you can
progressively overload it but you're not at near the risk of
injury of running. So I feel like weighted rucks is
like low hanging fruit for anybody that wants to build more
muscle and be more active. Yeah, I do it like every day.
I love it. You have one of those actual go
(23:23):
ruck packs or what are you usingfor the weighted vests?
It's like it's just it's when you put over your head and then
it has weights on the front and the back.
OK, so it's like a vest instead of a backpack then?
Yes, yes. Gotcha, gotcha.
What? What weight are you using on it?
I'm doing 20s and then I have wrist and ankle weights I wear
(23:43):
that are 5 each so it makes it 40 lbs total on my rocks.
That's a lot. If you're weighing 110 lbs, you
got 40 lbs. You can't around how far you
going. Like 2 to 4 miles usually.
Is it like pretty flat or is it pretty hilly terrain?
It's flat. We don't have.
To. That's pretty impressive though.
You're in, you're in Texas, you said Alabama, Alabama.
(24:06):
OK, gotcha. Gotcha.
From a content standpoint, wherewere you taking it going
forward? Like what's the trajectory
there? Are you going to focus on the
the food swap videos or what's your big picture plan in that
regard? I guess so.
I mean, people seem to, I feel like it's much needed.
I started making the grocery store stop videos because I had
(24:26):
friends and family asking me like, is this healthy?
Is that healthy? And it's like really eye opening
when people are like, oh, our Cheerios aren't a good option.
And I'm just like, oh gosh. So I feel like, I feel like
everybody, you know, can continue to learn from the
grocery store stop videos. So I don't plan on stopping
those. Yeah, I, I don't know.
(24:46):
I'm a who knows what to get old so.
It's kind of wild. Like we take for granted what we
know about nutrition, but then you like talk to family members
or friends that are wanting to get healthier and ask questions
and it's like so many people don't even know what macro
nutrients are. Like they don't know what a carb
is in food, What foods contain carbs versus protein.
I mean, it's, it's crazy, like people think of peanut butter as
(25:08):
a good protein source and it's like, it makes no sense.
No, I get that all the time. If I'm not having like a bowl or
a fruit with in my full day of eating, they're like where's the
carbs? Yeah, yeah.
It's wild when it comes to you having kind of like established
the content you're putting out, the trajectory you're headed on
(25:29):
all at 19. Like, that's pretty wild.
And when you stop and think about like a lot of people
flounder about throughout their 20s.
I mean, I've got friends that are the 30s and 40s even and
have no clue where they're goingin life.
Do you feel like you've got a pretty good handle on who you
are as a person and kind of solid and where you're headed?
Or do you still feel like you'rediscovering a lot still?
(25:53):
I mean, I don't know. I always feel like I can be
doing more. I like, I feel like I can be
further in life to be honest. I don't know sometimes stress me
out like I I don't know but I don't I don't think I know who I
have goals and I want to accomplish them.
So I don't really know if I knowwho I am yet I guess.
(26:13):
What are what are the goals? It's just lame on out there.
Oh, gosh, like, I don't know, like I want to move to Florida.
That would be great. I do plan on doing that.
I want to open. I feel like opening a storefront
would be so much fun, just selling.
Like, I don't know if I thought I was having like a coffee shop
where I can sell raw milk lattes.
(26:34):
I feel like that would just be so cool.
Yeah, those are two huge ones, Ifeel like.
Is Florida pretty chill on raw milk or they like a stickler
about that? I don't know, every state's
different. So that's actually where I drive
to get my raw milk. It's like an hour, OK, But I
feel like, yeah, I feel like because there's a super cute
(26:56):
shop where I want to move and they just sell it right up and
they sell like sell raw chocolate milk with honey, which
I think is so cool, but. Nice.
Yeah, We've got like a a local, We got like an egg lady.
We got a raw milk lady, We got aguy that I get my beef from.
I hunt a lot. So it's like you got to have all
these connections. But like with raw milk, it's
(27:17):
like some states, it's like a freaking drug deal.
Like you gotta, you know, go undercover and like be all
discreet about where you're getting your milk from.
They'll be like a drug bust on it.
It's it's wild. It's crazy, crazy.
Makes no sense. Makes no sense.
You have any siblings or just you?
I have. Two older.
Yeah, 3, two older. Yes.
(27:38):
What? What are they interested?
Are they putting an emphasis on nutrition as well, especially in
light of seeing you go through all this, or is it kind of like
an after top form? So my oldest brother, he's done
carnivore for a few times, he did it with me once, but and
then my other brother, he eats pretty healthy.
Just what we have at home is healthy.
(27:58):
So he eats healthy at home. But then I'd say they go out and
eat, go eat out sometimes. So they care about it.
But I guess not, it's just me. Yeah, it's siblings and family
are oftentimes the hardest ones to get on board.
I mean, like my, my mom's on board with it all.
My dad's kind of, he eats good food, but he eats a mixed diet.
And then my brother, pretty surehe just lives off of gummy worms
(28:20):
and gummy bears. No matter how much I talk to him
about it, it's like he's super active and he's skinny, so he
feels like he's healthy and doesn't need to worry about what
he's eating. But it's like, man, there's the
compounding effect of that over lifetime is going to catch up
with you for sure. Right.
Yeah, my mom's super into it too.
And then my dad just eats whatever she cooked.
So, well, she's, I mean, I thinkif you just control what's in
(28:42):
the home, that makes the massiveimpact.
I get questions all the time about, you know, how do you keep
your kids eating a certain way? It's like you're the one to the
grocery shop and like just bringin good foods and then solves
the problem right there. Yeah, they'll eat what's in the
house. Yeah, exactly, Exactly.
What about are you studying anything?
Like are you going to have like a specific trajectory as far as
(29:03):
like schooling and stuff goes orwhat are you leaning towards
there? So I did Mark Sisson.
Do you know him? Yeah, I did Mark Sisson's Primal
Health Coaching Institute. So I technically, I'm a primal
health coach. I don't practice one-on-one, but
I just like to have it. I would like to do a few more
nutrition courses. I'm not going to college, but
(29:26):
yeah, that's what I. Planned.
What was your take away of the Primal Health coaching?
Was it pretty solid? I enjoyed that.
Yeah, I'm trying to think of I there were some things I don't
agree with. He was kind of like the alcohol
in moderation. I'm pretty anti alcohol.
(29:47):
But yeah, overall it was pretty.The foundations were whole, real
single ingredient foods. So I like, I enjoyed that.
That's good. Do you get a lot of pushback
from your friends at 19 when it comes to alcohol?
Like that's like, that's when I started drinking probably 19.
And then I stopped drinking whenI was 21, more or less.
Yeah, so I don't really I, I don't hang out with any of the
(30:09):
friends that I have that I went to high school with.
I don't most of them went to college.
Most of them either went to the College in my small hometown or
they went to like University of Alabama or Auburn.
So I don't hang out with them. But the friends that I do have
are, you know, social media influencers.
So we kind of are all aligned. But most of that my friends I
(30:31):
went to high school with do drink and I content some of them
so probably just goes in one earnot the other.
But. Yeah, it's all about like who
you're spending time with and interacting with.
Like when you change your friendgroup and circle, it makes all
the difference to what it makes sticking to whatever it is
you're doing much easier or muchharder if you're depending on
who you're with for sure. Right.
(30:51):
Like, yeah, sure. When you're doing all the social
media, are you primarily on Instagram?
Like what's your main platform? I do them all.
I think I do like basically every social media there is, but
Instagram's primary. Instagram what from like a video
standpoint, have you found that the same kind of content does
well on both YouTube and Instagram or is 11 audience
(31:16):
demographic more receptive to content in the shorter form on
Instagram? Yeah, I would say not really.
I can post the same video on allplatforms and one goes viral on
TikTok and then doesn't get muchinteraction on Instagram and
vice versa. Comment wise, I would say I feel
(31:37):
like Tik Tok's me and like TikTok is brutal over there.
A lot of the comments I get on TikTok, I feel like it's a
younger audience and it is like,oh, you're causing eating
disorders and blah, blah, blah. Which I I get that a lot or that
I've switched one eating disorder for another.
And I do want to make the point of the on that because I get
that a lot. Is that how I know it's not a
(31:59):
new disorder? Because when I was going through
that, I was so trapped, like I was so isolated.
I didn't want to do anything. I had no energy.
I didn't want to. I didn't want to go to travel.
And now like I travel so frequently, I go to any social
event that I can and then I get invited to.
And then like I feel like my life is just so free now.
And speaking from experience, like I know what an eating
(32:21):
disorder feels like and how of isolating it feels.
So I can confidently say that I know that I haven't switched it
for another one. It's just because like I, I've
never felt more free. I've never felt like as
confident. And yeah, I don't, I don't think
my life right now is what an eating disorder feels like.
And I don't think you can just diagnose that over what you see
(32:42):
on social media. Yeah, no, I totally agree.
I mean, I'm the same boat as you.
Like I had an eating disorder and then eating real food.
I think a lot of eating disorderis triggered by having a sense
of guilt associated with the foods you're eating.
And if you're eating real high quality food, like you don't
really feel guilty for it. Like there's no sense of guilt
(33:02):
associated with it. And if you don't feel guilty,
it's like you, you're less proneto fall into that negative
downward spiral. Exactly.
And I'm just like into our greatgrandparents have an aiming
disorder, 'cause they didn't eatany junk food, like it just
wasn't around. They had no choice, like.
That's crazy. Yeah, 100 percent, 100%.
I'm not on Tiktok though. That's like the one platform I
(33:24):
haven't really scratched the surface on, but I probably
should 'cause that's where a lota lot of people's eyes are.
Yeah, there's a lot of people over there, but we're prepared.
It's hard to manage it, althoughhow?
How are you keeping track of those?
You have like a team? Are you doing all this yourself?
It's all me. I'd say I spend like 2 hours in
the morning before the gym just posting all my videos and
(33:46):
answering messages and editing and stuff like that.
But I love it. Like I wouldn't trade it.
It's really fun to me. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's cool
too that like you can have a passion, put out content and
value around it, develop a following of loyal, like a loyal
audience that that values your content and then all the
(34:07):
opportunities and doors that opens for you.
I mean, it's like, you know, when I was growing up, if I
didn't go to college, it was like taboo.
And plus my my family was in academia, so it just kind of
like expected. And that's just what all my peer
group did. And now it's like if you get the
ability to hustle and work and do something that you're feel
good about and make a meaningfulimpact, like the world is your
(34:28):
oyster. You can do anything.
For sure. I started making my videos in my
senior year and I went to a college prep school.
So we would have college counselors come to our classroom
like once a month and I was justlike, and they would like make
me do all these things for college and like send
applications to college. And like I knew I wasn't going
to college. I was like, I'm not doing this,
but I would just kind of make itlook like I was sending
(34:50):
applications and stuff, but I was just like college is not for
me and I didn't go and I don't Idon't plan on it.
Yeah, yeah. Living off no regrets is a
thing. I mean, everybody's past going
to be different. Some people make perfect sense
to go. Some people not so much.
You know, you gotta it's it's anawesome blessing, though, that
you had the hardship early, recognize the trajectory that
(35:12):
that was putting you on, corrected course and then
developed, you know, a calling for the stuff you're doing now
at such a young age. I mean, like that is super
impressive. And I don't know, like you can't
even take that for granted. Like that's, that's freaking
rocking him. Thank you so much.
I appreciate that. Well, where do people go to
follow you and check out all thefood swap videos and just dive
(35:33):
deeper into your world? Yeah, so all of my social media
is at Lexi Noel V. At Lexi Noel V And that's on
Instagram, YouTube, Tiktok. What else you got rocking?
Sub stack X Snapchat. You do have them all.
(35:53):
Yeah, I'm probably forgetting some, but.
Is Snapchat in like Tiktok? Are they different enough to
warrant having each platform? Are they pretty much a lot of
the same audience? I would say doing both, I mean,
why not? Because apparently what I've
heard is Snapchat is becoming really, really great for
influencers and it's a great wayto reach people because now they
(36:16):
have like the you know, I didn'teven know.
I thought Snapchat was just for sending pictures to friends and
you know, posting on your story for your friends.
But they now have this for you page so you can scroll just like
Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. So might as well do them all.
Yeah, I guess I'll follow you just so I can stay up to date
with all the social media happenings for sure.
Awesome, Lexie. Well, I'm super stoked for what
(36:39):
you got cooking. And it's it's awesome.
Like, I have no doubt that you'll be opening up your raw
milk latte, coffee shop and bakery in Florida whenever you
so choose. Thank you so much.
I appreciate it. Appreciate you keep doing what
you're doing, keep fighting the good fight.
Thank you. You too.
When I was 13 I was diagnosed with anorexia.
They took me to a registered dietitian.
They were, she was essentially like, you have to eat ultra
processed junk food to heal yourbody.
And even with like how little mybrain was functioning at the
time with no fuel, I was just like, that just doesn't sound
right to me. So then I went down the rabbit
hole of researching ingredients and basically, you know,
everything in the grocery store is just ultra processed junk
(00:22):
food loaded with harmful ingredients that would not be
taking care of the only body that we get, the only body that
God gave us. Because I don't think you can
heal your mindset eating the ultra processed junk food
because whatever we eat is goingto impact us mentally and
physically. You know, I fueled my body with
nourishing foods that God created and designed us to heal.
And that's how I heal My body iseating the foods that he
(00:44):
created. And we are live.
Lexi, how you doing today? I'm great.
How are you? I'm doing wonderful.
I'm excited to chat with you. I'm I'm like way booked out in
my podcast. I think you scheduled with me
like in April or something. Here it is in September now, but
I jumped on your Instagram and I'm like, you're doing all kinds
of cool stuff. You're like blowing up on
(01:04):
Instagram and you're putting outall kinds of content.
Like how do you manage all that?Thank you so much.
I appreciate that. Yeah, it's really fun.
I really enjoy posting. It's really like a passion of
mine alongside nutrition, so I really love it.
Just posting what I enjoy and help.
Hoping to help others while I doit.
Where? Where did the 'cause you found
(01:25):
your passion for fitness nutrition pretty early on?
How? How old are you now?
I'm 19. 19 OK, so you've been putting out content when you
were how old? I really just started so I
started my Instagram account when I was 151415 but it was
originally just like healthy recipes and then I started
making the grocery store swap videos about two years ago.
(01:49):
And those like went Uber viral, the swap videos.
So a lot of people 19 years old,like they're drinking, they're
getting ready to go to college or in college, they're partying
up frat parties, sorority parties, eating, you know,
Domino's Pizza for 5 bucks for alarge.
Why in the world did you start getting into quality nutrition
(02:10):
at a young age? And what was the catalyst for
that? Yeah.
So it's kind of a long story. I'll, I'll try to summarize, but
basically when I was 13 years old, I wanted to be healthy and
I started, you know, diving intojust, you know, I was looking
online for kind of information and I felt on the opposite, I
(02:31):
would say way to get healthy. I basically just was looking at
the lowest amount of calories and eventually when I was 13, I
was diagnosed with anorexia. So my parents, you know, they, I
wouldn't be healed without them,but they took me to a registered
dietitian. They were, she was essentially
like, you have to eat ultra processed junk food to heal your
(02:51):
body. And even with like how little my
brain was functioning at the time with no fuel and I was just
like, that just doesn't sound right to me.
I'm also a Christian. So I was like, you know, I don't
think God wants us to be fuelingour body with ultra processed
junk food. Like I think we should be eating
the food that he created and designed us to eat.
So then I went down the rabbit hole of researching ingredients
(03:12):
and basically, you know, everything in the grocery store
is just ultra processed junk food loaded with harmful
ingredients. That would not be taking care of
the only body that we get, the only body that God gave us.
And as we know, 70% of serotoninare feel or well now more
research has LED that like 90% of serotonin or feel good
hormones made in our guts. So if we eat bad food, we're
(03:34):
going to feel bad mentally and physically and eating disorders,
they're mental disorders. So, and I think that's a huge
reason why, why so many patientswho go into like eating disorder
clinics, they are force fed thisultra processed junk food and
then they gain the weight and then they get sent back out and
then they relapse because they never healed their mindset.
Because I don't think you can heal your mindset eating the
(03:56):
ultra processed junk food because whatever we eat is going
to impact us mentally and physically.
So you know, I feel my body withnourishing foods that God
created and designed us to heal.And that's how I heal My body is
eating the foods that he created.
Now I can totally get behind then what, what do you think the
catalyst for you developing anorexia was in the 1st place?
(04:16):
Like were you heavier early on and trying to like, you know,
counteract that? Like what was the catalyst for
then? You know, I think about this
kind of like every time I tell my story, I always try to think
because I really don't know whatcaused it.
I had a an amazing family growing up.
Like I had a great childhood. It was nothing like that.
I was not overweight. I was normal.
(04:37):
I played like every sport growing up.
I'd really think it's just that type A personality that a lot of
us in the nutrition field I guess have.
But yeah, there's no specific point in my life that I grew up
eating, you know, I would say better than average standard
American diet. Like my mom would make Susan the
(04:58):
are nurse and she would make homemade bread and like make
non-toxic bug spray. But then when we went camping,
we'd have like, you know, the little dummies and stuff.
So nothing that I can think of that really just caused it.
What do you like when? When did you recognize that you
had any sort of like, what was the the point at which you
(05:18):
realized, OK, this is not healthy, not optimal, not
sustainable? It's really months into it.
I would I would say I was one trip me and my mom were taking
with my grandmother. We were like driving to Texas.
So it was like a 12 hour car ride and it's, it had been
months since I, you know, gottendown to a super low weight and I
(05:40):
was watching videos of people who had anorexia and I was like,
wow, that's just not me. Like, like I don't have it.
But you know, I obviously did. I was sickly thin.
And then on the way home from Texas, my mom was like, if you
don't eat, we're taking you to this inpatient center that was
just, you know, in Texas. So it's a it's even after I was
(06:01):
recovered and I went to the registered dietitian, she was
like, she diagnosed with anorexia.
I was like, I still didn't believe I had it.
And you know, I guess I just disassociated myself with being
called anorexic. Yeah.
Were you like tracking like withan app or something like
calories consumed as early as like 1314 years old?
(06:22):
Like were you how, how far down the rabbit hole were you going?
I don't, I don't think, I don't think I was using an app.
I was just not, I was probably, you know, maybe I get, I don't
some, I guess some people get triggered by numbers, but it was
just like probably like 508 hundred calories.
Yeah, which is crazy. I mean, like, I look at what my
(06:43):
three-year old son eats and he probably eats and he probably
eats more than most people walking around nowadays.
I mean, he's 1500 calories, probably no problem.
So like 500 calories as a teenager.
That's that's not much at all. No, no, it's pretty bad.
Were you feeling like the effects of that impacting your
sport performance and sleep and like, bone density, Like, were
(07:06):
you seeing like legitimate ailments starting to arise
because you weren't feeding yourself fully?
Yeah, for sure. And well, I wasn't playing
sports at the time, actually right before something crazy I
do think about right before I kind of lost all the weight I
was going from. I went from being like a point
(07:27):
guard on my basketball team playing, playing all the whole
game basically. And then by the end I was like
not playing hardly 1/4. And I don't know, I had to feel
like that took a toll on me justlike my mental health.
And then really like soon after that, I kind of fell down the
route that sports season ended and I just kind of, I, I think
(07:48):
that played with me mentally andhadn't an effect slightly to
just me wanting to get better atsomething.
And I guess that's my mindset. And then also to your question
about like how I thought that the what caused it.
There was another situation where I was in youth church and
they were doing a series of all the all these young adults, like
(08:10):
20 year olds telling their storyabout how they found God.
And I was just like, oh, my story.
I have no story because my life's just been, you know,
great. I've had a great childhood.
And then quickly, like a probably a month later, then I
went down that rabbit hole. Yeah, a little bit of adversity
kind of does its wonders in someform or another.
Oh yeah. What like were you fixated on,
(08:32):
like the scale weight or like your image in the mirror?
Like what was it that you were using as your proxy for
progress, so to speak, during that time?
It was a scale, so I guess you could say another thing that
maybe have could have led to it.My parents had just gotten to
scale because my aunt and uncle were doing this, I guess weight
(08:53):
loss challenge. And so I randomly got on the
scale and I was like, and then, you know, that was probably
November of 20, 18. And then I started losing weight
really quickly in January. So and I was getting on the
scale then and I think I got that high from watching a drop.
(09:16):
Eventually I did get so low, like I just stopped weighing
myself, but I continued to lose it.
And what? How low do you think you got at
your lowest even though you weren't weighing yourself?
Like if you had to guess. So that trip to Texas, I told
you about, you know, I started losing weight in January ish.
And then we took that trip to Texas that June and I stepped on
(09:38):
my cousin's scale while we were in Texas and I saw 68 and that
kind of just made my like heart sink.
But then I didn't do anything about it.
Like, you know, it was just kindof like I, I knew my mom was so
worried about me, but it's stilljust, it was kind of like my
heart sink. But at the same time, it was
like, wow, I'm actually, you know, getting somewhere.
(10:01):
Yeah. And how old were you at that
point? 13. 13 Then what?
What is your walking around weight now at 19?
I'm about like 100 lbs. OK, you're not super tall.
That's pretty healthy weight foryou.
Yeah, I'm, I'm like 411 so. Yeah, so that that's a good
healthy weight. What what was your like for your
parents? I'm kind of diving super deep
(10:22):
into this because I get a lot ofquestions on eating disorders
and whatnot because I, I've beenopen about having some of the
past and I don't know, it's likewhen you're open about it,
people come out of the woodwork because a lot of people struggle
with it and they're not vocal about it, but they have
questions. With you being so young going
through all this, like how was that impacting your parents?
(10:43):
Like what were they trying to doto correct course and fix
things? Like what did they do from a
parenting standpoint for you, recognizing that you had the
eating disorder? Yeah, so like I said, I wouldn't
be healed without them. My mom, she's a nurse.
Like I said, she took a leave ofabsence from work, so she was
staying home with me. I think my dad, me and my mom
(11:04):
were talking about this actuallylike a few months ago.
I mean, I think my dad kind of disassociated myself himself
with it. He didn't want my dad.
He takes pictures of literally everything and there's probably
like 4 pictures of me during that time.
I think that he was just so against it.
So he kind of distanced himself from just, you know, he would
always when he picked me up fromschool, he would bring like a
(11:27):
smoothie or like a protein bar or something like that.
He'd always have snacks with me.But that was just because my mom
like was forcing him to take it,tell him to take me stuff.
But I don't think he he hated seeing me like that.
He didn't really want to look atme because he was just scared.
And then my mom, she took a leave of absence from work.
And then they, of course, they took me to the registered
(11:48):
dietitian, which she, they said that that helped them because
when we were in the office for that time, we, you know, we went
back weekly. But I probably said 2 words to
her the whole time we went to gosee her.
I never talked to her. My parents, she's, they had
meetings privately. So they said that she helped the
(12:11):
that my parents said they helpedher.
She helped them just with like, you know, telling them how to
help me. And she did say I had to eat
ultra processed junk food to heal.
But quickly my parents when I was like, I'm not going to do
that. They, my parents didn't make me
eat, but like one junk food meal.
And then, then, and then my mom went to get like, you know, the
(12:33):
healthy food and that's what I ate to heal my body.
But yeah, that's what my parentsdid so.
I feel like with with the registered dietitians and nurses
that are seeing patients that have, you know, that midnight
notes with an eating disorder, it's like they often times fall
into this everything in moderation philosophy and any
(12:55):
exclusion of any type of food isseen as an eating disorder by
them. That's why they like push having
a little bit of everything, including junk food.
But like everybody that I've talked to that is struggle with
an eating disorder and been forced to eat junk food, like it
typically backfires on them. So it's just a strange
phenomenon that that's the standard of practice.
Right. I don't believe in everything in
(13:16):
moderation. I truly think that if I went to
go have some Oreos today that I would quickly relapse because I
just think I, I just, I don't think that you can heal your
mindset eating the junk food. I feel like, you know, we
shouldn't be eating little, we should be eating better, you
know, eat the real food. I think it's just, I don't know,
(13:36):
everything in moderation. I just don't believe it.
Yeah, no, I'm, I'm in the same, same camp as you on that one.
What, what did you do like from a dieting standpoint, like from
a dining philosophy, nutritionalphilosophy, I know you're
wanting to like eat the food that's natural, wholesome,
single ingredient quality stuff.Like do you subscribe to any
specific type of dietary protocol now?
(13:56):
Like, you know, paleo, keto onlyanimal based, like what?
What do you kind of gravitate toin that regard?
I would say I eat the like Lexi diet because I'm not against any
whole real single ingredient on processed food.
Like, if it's a real food, I'll eat it.
My diet does tend to fall. I guess you could categorize it
in the animal based. I just love animal products.
(14:19):
They're my favorite. And like, I did go through the
period of, you know, after I was, I would not eat any red
meat. You know, red meat's sad for
you. So I did do that for a while.
And even when I was anorexic, like, I wouldn't eat meat at
all. I was eating like a veggie
burger or something. But yeah, I guess you could call
my diet now more animal based. Nice nice.
(14:42):
What was the the reason for avoiding the red meat when you
were going to that chapter? Just the the old hell beliefs
that it caused cancer and stuff like that.
I think it was that just like red meat's bad for you.
Or I saw red meat as fattening. I know, I don't know, 'cause my
parents, my family is huge meat eaters.
They would eat all the time and they would look at me with my
(15:04):
veggie burger and think that's crazy.
So. Yeah, veggie burger is not near
as good as a big old steak. I'm a real cow.
What? What?
What were your friends thinking throughout this whole chapter?
Like, were they concerned? Were they understanding?
Like what? Where were they at in the
equation? Yeah, so So what happened
(15:25):
towards, you know, I was saying like it was about to start.
We went to Texas in June. So I had lost most of the weight
in like when school was ending of my 8th grade year or no 7th
grade year. So I wasn't really taught.
I was talking to maybe 1 friend I had at my old school and then
went after that summer I went toa new school so I was barely
(15:48):
talking at school. I talked to her.
I sat by her lunch. She never really said anything
about it. I think she said something to
her mom because her mom said something to to my mom about it.
So she knew that I guess I was struggling, but then I moved
schools so I didn't see her and then I went to a new school and
then they hadn't. We I live in a small city.
(16:09):
So I remember like one person was like, Lexi, what happened?
You used to look good. And I just remember that one
person saying that and just kindof being like, Oh, maybe my
parents are right. That was like the very beginning
of the year. But of course there's a few
people knew me at the new schooland they knew me like what I
looked like before, but nobody really said anything other than
(16:32):
that person to my face. So I don't, I don't know what
most people thought. Well, it's definitely a shift in
mindset. What, what do you think?
What, what do you think led to the shift in mindset?
And like, how did that manifest for you?
Like, did it happen pretty quickly or did it take quite a
bit of time to embrace eating more, seeing the scale weight
increase? Like what was that transition
(16:53):
like? So I never got saw my weight
increase because they wouldn't let me look at the scale.
But so I don't worry about that.But I, I don't know, I think I
just switched my type A personality.
I think I switched it from one goal to another.
So honestly it was kind of, I did slowly increase the food I
(17:14):
was eating, but I don't rememberit being so challenging.
I think the challenging part wasthe seeing the registration.
And she did make US1 at 1:00 appointment right before I
switched my mindset to I was only going to eat like whole
real foods and heal my body. She made my parents bring in
(17:37):
Chick-fil-A and she made my brother cum.
And she was like, we're all going to y'all all going to eat
Chick-fil-A in my office. And she just kind of asked my
brother these questions and I was like, what he thought what I
was going through and I was like, that's awesome.
Thank you back. That's like the most
traumatizing experience I ever had because it was just so I
don't know, like I already, I feel like eating disorders are
(18:00):
selfish looking back, like I made my mom take a leave of
absence from work. My dad was like definitely
worried about me. And then my brother got out of
school to come eat Chick-fil-A in this lady's office.
And he was, she was like, what do you think about what you're
supposed to go through? And it's just like, that was
just a traumatizing experience. But then quickly after that I
(18:21):
was like, I switched my mind. So I'm just kind of went head
1st and and my mom would go to the grocery store and she like
came back with a whole bunch of just healthy options.
So that's good. Nice.
What, what did you change your your goal to?
Like when you said you you switched to a different goal and
had that to focus on. What was that new goal
materialized? Like getting healthy and
(18:42):
nourishing my body through food.Cause eventually I knew that I I
had no other option but to gain weight.
My grandparents were going to put me into a inpatient clinic
so I had no option. When did you start documenting
all this stuff? I got what phase of this journey
(19:03):
did you start putting it all online and you know, doing the,
the Instagram, the videos, all that good stuff.
So I've always wanted to open a bakery growing up.
And then I switched the bakery to being like a healthy bakery.
So I started posting my recipes.I started gaining weight at like
14 and then I wanted, I was say I was at a healthy weight by
(19:24):
like 15. And then I started posting my
healthy, healthy recipes at 15. And then the grocery store swap
videos when I was 1617. Nice, nice.
And was your growth on social like was it pretty rapid or was
it just slow and steady like howthat how that transcend?
(19:44):
I would say when I started making the grocery store swap
videos, it was pretty quick. Yeah, I'd say it's pretty good.
What's your what's your go to grocery store now?
Like where do you go? And like OK, I can find plenty
of good options here. OK so I don't have any grocery
stores, good grocery stores where I live.
But so I would say I shop mostlyat like Costco and Publix.
(20:07):
But my favorite grocery store isprobably Sprouts.
Yeah, Sprouts is pretty good. We got a Whole Foods here that's
pretty decent. In Washington, where I lived
there, they had all kinds of like weird, no name, non chain
grocery stores that had all kinds of good options like
huckleberries, I think was the name of one.
But it's funny to go and like once you switch gears and food,
(20:27):
you know what you're looking for.
You actually start reading ingredient labels and stuff.
You go to like a standard Krogeror, you know, Walmart or
Albertson's and there's just man, there's not really many
good options at. All right, right.
Yeah, My Whole Foods closed downlike 2 years ago.
Very sad. Yeah, it's frustrating.
What about like local farmers, ranchers, farmers markets,
(20:49):
things like that? Do you have any of those in your
area? So we don't really, we have one
I would sell my desserts at, butthey didn't have much Like there
was no, you couldn't go and stock up on your produce or
meat. And then we had to have this one
place you can get quality meat about 30 minutes away.
But mostly I would just order and like ship from Miller's Bio
(21:13):
Farm or White Oak Pastures or something like that.
Yeah, White oak pastures are good.
Do you like still produce stuff?You still bank stuff and
distribute that? Or how do you have that set up?
Yeah, so I sell to a local coffee shop and then just local
orders. Nice.
Very cool. What is primarily like baked
goods? Yes, I do like muffins, cake,
(21:34):
really anything. What's your standard ingredients
for a muffin? Is it like an almond flour base
or what do you get going there? Yeah, I use almond flour,
coconut sugar, monk fruit if it's keto, Maple syrup, eggs,
just real food. Are you are you a fan of
Allulose or no? OK so I started researching
(21:56):
Allulose probably a year ago andI I I'm a fan.
You're a fan. I am.
The research is pretty compelling.
Like it's, it's got a good argument going forward from a,
from a, you know, hormonal standpoint with the GLP one and
all that jazz. But it's like, for whatever
reason, Allulose kind of messes with my gut.
So I'm I'm always gravitating towards like stevia or monk
fruit because those seem like pretty foolproof options.
(22:17):
Yeah, yeah, I guess just individuality.
Yeah, I do not like the erythritol and all that stuff
that, that definitely must be like a, but everybody's so
different when it comes to what they tolerate from AGI
standpoint. For sure.
So what are you doing sports wise now?
Do you have anything that you'retrained for doing from athletic
standpoint? So I started running in high
(22:40):
school. Like after I went through all
that I started, I did cross country, which I still love
running a lot. I kind of cut back when I
graduated high school. Now I'm really just like, I go
on my morning rucks with a weight vest and then I lift
weights. So I've really gotten into
lifting after I graduated too and love that.
Yeah, lifting is the way to go. I have been wanting to get more
(23:02):
into the rucks though so I bet it's just it's like way better
than walking from an expenditurestandpoint and you can
progressively overload it but you're not at near the risk of
injury of running. So I feel like weighted rucks is
like low hanging fruit for anybody that wants to build more
muscle and be more active. Yeah, I do it like every day.
I love it. You have one of those actual go
(23:23):
ruck packs or what are you usingfor the weighted vests?
It's like it's just it's when you put over your head and then
it has weights on the front and the back.
OK, so it's like a vest instead of a backpack then?
Yes, yes. Gotcha, gotcha.
What? What weight are you using on it?
I'm doing 20s and then I have wrist and ankle weights I wear
(23:43):
that are 5 each so it makes it 40 lbs total on my rocks.
That's a lot. If you're weighing 110 lbs, you
got 40 lbs. You can't around how far you
going. Like 2 to 4 miles usually.
Is it like pretty flat or is it pretty hilly terrain?
It's flat. We don't have.
To. That's pretty impressive though.
You're in, you're in Texas, you said Alabama, Alabama.
(24:06):
OK, gotcha. Gotcha.
From a content standpoint, wherewere you taking it going
forward? Like what's the trajectory
there? Are you going to focus on the
the food swap videos or what's your big picture plan in that
regard? I guess so.
I mean, people seem to, I feel like it's much needed.
I started making the grocery store stop videos because I had
(24:26):
friends and family asking me like, is this healthy?
Is that healthy? And it's like really eye opening
when people are like, oh, our Cheerios aren't a good option.
And I'm just like, oh gosh. So I feel like, I feel like
everybody, you know, can continue to learn from the
grocery store stop videos. So I don't plan on stopping
those. Yeah, I, I don't know.
(24:46):
I'm a who knows what to get old so.
It's kind of wild. Like we take for granted what we
know about nutrition, but then you like talk to family members
or friends that are wanting to get healthier and ask questions
and it's like so many people don't even know what macro
nutrients are. Like they don't know what a carb
is in food, What foods contain carbs versus protein.
I mean, it's, it's crazy, like people think of peanut butter as
(25:08):
a good protein source and it's like, it makes no sense.
No, I get that all the time. If I'm not having like a bowl or
a fruit with in my full day of eating, they're like where's the
carbs? Yeah, yeah.
It's wild when it comes to you having kind of like established
the content you're putting out, the trajectory you're headed on
(25:29):
all at 19. Like, that's pretty wild.
And when you stop and think about like a lot of people
flounder about throughout their 20s.
I mean, I've got friends that are the 30s and 40s even and
have no clue where they're goingin life.
Do you feel like you've got a pretty good handle on who you
are as a person and kind of solid and where you're headed?
Or do you still feel like you'rediscovering a lot still?
(25:53):
I mean, I don't know. I always feel like I can be
doing more. I like, I feel like I can be
further in life to be honest. I don't know sometimes stress me
out like I I don't know but I don't I don't think I know who I
have goals and I want to accomplish them.
So I don't really know if I knowwho I am yet I guess.
(26:13):
What are what are the goals? It's just lame on out there.
Oh, gosh, like, I don't know, like I want to move to Florida.
That would be great. I do plan on doing that.
I want to open. I feel like opening a storefront
would be so much fun, just selling.
Like, I don't know if I thought I was having like a coffee shop
where I can sell raw milk lattes.
(26:34):
I feel like that would just be so cool.
Yeah, those are two huge ones, Ifeel like.
Is Florida pretty chill on raw milk or they like a stickler
about that? I don't know, every state's
different. So that's actually where I drive
to get my raw milk. It's like an hour, OK, But I
feel like, yeah, I feel like because there's a super cute
(26:56):
shop where I want to move and they just sell it right up and
they sell like sell raw chocolate milk with honey, which
I think is so cool, but. Nice.
Yeah, We've got like a a local, We got like an egg lady.
We got a raw milk lady, We got aguy that I get my beef from.
I hunt a lot. So it's like you got to have all
these connections. But like with raw milk, it's
(27:17):
like some states, it's like a freaking drug deal.
Like you gotta, you know, go undercover and like be all
discreet about where you're getting your milk from.
They'll be like a drug bust on it.
It's it's wild. It's crazy, crazy.
Makes no sense. Makes no sense.
You have any siblings or just you?
I have. Two older.
Yeah, 3, two older. Yes.
(27:38):
What? What are they interested?
Are they putting an emphasis on nutrition as well, especially in
light of seeing you go through all this, or is it kind of like
an after top form? So my oldest brother, he's done
carnivore for a few times, he did it with me once, but and
then my other brother, he eats pretty healthy.
Just what we have at home is healthy.
(27:58):
So he eats healthy at home. But then I'd say they go out and
eat, go eat out sometimes. So they care about it.
But I guess not, it's just me. Yeah, it's siblings and family
are oftentimes the hardest ones to get on board.
I mean, like my, my mom's on board with it all.
My dad's kind of, he eats good food, but he eats a mixed diet.
And then my brother, pretty surehe just lives off of gummy worms
(28:20):
and gummy bears. No matter how much I talk to him
about it, it's like he's super active and he's skinny, so he
feels like he's healthy and doesn't need to worry about what
he's eating. But it's like, man, there's the
compounding effect of that over lifetime is going to catch up
with you for sure. Right.
Yeah, my mom's super into it too.
And then my dad just eats whatever she cooked.
So, well, she's, I mean, I thinkif you just control what's in
(28:42):
the home, that makes the massiveimpact.
I get questions all the time about, you know, how do you keep
your kids eating a certain way? It's like you're the one to the
grocery shop and like just bringin good foods and then solves
the problem right there. Yeah, they'll eat what's in the
house. Yeah, exactly, Exactly.
What about are you studying anything?
Like are you going to have like a specific trajectory as far as
(29:03):
like schooling and stuff goes orwhat are you leaning towards
there? So I did Mark Sisson.
Do you know him? Yeah, I did Mark Sisson's Primal
Health Coaching Institute. So I technically, I'm a primal
health coach. I don't practice one-on-one, but
I just like to have it. I would like to do a few more
nutrition courses. I'm not going to college, but
(29:26):
yeah, that's what I. Planned.
What was your take away of the Primal Health coaching?
Was it pretty solid? I enjoyed that.
Yeah, I'm trying to think of I there were some things I don't
agree with. He was kind of like the alcohol
in moderation. I'm pretty anti alcohol.
(29:47):
But yeah, overall it was pretty.The foundations were whole, real
single ingredient foods. So I like, I enjoyed that.
That's good. Do you get a lot of pushback
from your friends at 19 when it comes to alcohol?
Like that's like, that's when I started drinking probably 19.
And then I stopped drinking whenI was 21, more or less.
Yeah, so I don't really I, I don't hang out with any of the
(30:09):
friends that I have that I went to high school with.
I don't most of them went to college.
Most of them either went to the College in my small hometown or
they went to like University of Alabama or Auburn.
So I don't hang out with them. But the friends that I do have
are, you know, social media influencers.
So we kind of are all aligned. But most of that my friends I
(30:31):
went to high school with do drink and I content some of them
so probably just goes in one earnot the other.
But. Yeah, it's all about like who
you're spending time with and interacting with.
Like when you change your friendgroup and circle, it makes all
the difference to what it makes sticking to whatever it is
you're doing much easier or muchharder if you're depending on
who you're with for sure. Right.
(30:51):
Like, yeah, sure. When you're doing all the social
media, are you primarily on Instagram?
Like what's your main platform? I do them all.
I think I do like basically every social media there is, but
Instagram's primary. Instagram what from like a video
standpoint, have you found that the same kind of content does
well on both YouTube and Instagram or is 11 audience
(31:16):
demographic more receptive to content in the shorter form on
Instagram? Yeah, I would say not really.
I can post the same video on allplatforms and one goes viral on
TikTok and then doesn't get muchinteraction on Instagram and
vice versa. Comment wise, I would say I feel
(31:37):
like Tik Tok's me and like TikTok is brutal over there.
A lot of the comments I get on TikTok, I feel like it's a
younger audience and it is like,oh, you're causing eating
disorders and blah, blah, blah. Which I I get that a lot or that
I've switched one eating disorder for another.
And I do want to make the point of the on that because I get
that a lot. Is that how I know it's not a
(31:59):
new disorder? Because when I was going through
that, I was so trapped, like I was so isolated.
I didn't want to do anything. I had no energy.
I didn't want to. I didn't want to go to travel.
And now like I travel so frequently, I go to any social
event that I can and then I get invited to.
And then like I feel like my life is just so free now.
And speaking from experience, like I know what an eating
(32:21):
disorder feels like and how of isolating it feels.
So I can confidently say that I know that I haven't switched it
for another one. It's just because like I, I've
never felt more free. I've never felt like as
confident. And yeah, I don't, I don't think
my life right now is what an eating disorder feels like.
And I don't think you can just diagnose that over what you see
(32:42):
on social media. Yeah, no, I totally agree.
I mean, I'm the same boat as you.
Like I had an eating disorder and then eating real food.
I think a lot of eating disorderis triggered by having a sense
of guilt associated with the foods you're eating.
And if you're eating real high quality food, like you don't
really feel guilty for it. Like there's no sense of guilt
(33:02):
associated with it. And if you don't feel guilty,
it's like you, you're less proneto fall into that negative
downward spiral. Exactly.
And I'm just like into our greatgrandparents have an aiming
disorder, 'cause they didn't eatany junk food, like it just
wasn't around. They had no choice, like.
That's crazy. Yeah, 100 percent, 100%.
I'm not on Tiktok though. That's like the one platform I
(33:24):
haven't really scratched the surface on, but I probably
should 'cause that's where a lota lot of people's eyes are.
Yeah, there's a lot of people over there, but we're prepared.
It's hard to manage it, althoughhow?
How are you keeping track of those?
You have like a team? Are you doing all this yourself?
It's all me. I'd say I spend like 2 hours in
the morning before the gym just posting all my videos and
(33:46):
answering messages and editing and stuff like that.
But I love it. Like I wouldn't trade it.
It's really fun to me. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's cool
too that like you can have a passion, put out content and
value around it, develop a following of loyal, like a loyal
audience that that values your content and then all the
(34:07):
opportunities and doors that opens for you.
I mean, it's like, you know, when I was growing up, if I
didn't go to college, it was like taboo.
And plus my my family was in academia, so it just kind of
like expected. And that's just what all my peer
group did. And now it's like if you get the
ability to hustle and work and do something that you're feel
good about and make a meaningfulimpact, like the world is your
(34:28):
oyster. You can do anything.
For sure. I started making my videos in my
senior year and I went to a college prep school.
So we would have college counselors come to our classroom
like once a month and I was justlike, and they would like make
me do all these things for college and like send
applications to college. And like I knew I wasn't going
to college. I was like, I'm not doing this,
but I would just kind of make itlook like I was sending
(34:50):
applications and stuff, but I was just like college is not for
me and I didn't go and I don't Idon't plan on it.
Yeah, yeah. Living off no regrets is a
thing. I mean, everybody's past going
to be different. Some people make perfect sense
to go. Some people not so much.
You know, you gotta it's it's anawesome blessing, though, that
you had the hardship early, recognize the trajectory that
(35:12):
that was putting you on, corrected course and then
developed, you know, a calling for the stuff you're doing now
at such a young age. I mean, like that is super
impressive. And I don't know, like you can't
even take that for granted. Like that's, that's freaking
rocking him. Thank you so much.
I appreciate that. Well, where do people go to
follow you and check out all thefood swap videos and just dive
(35:33):
deeper into your world? Yeah, so all of my social media
is at Lexi Noel V. At Lexi Noel V And that's on
Instagram, YouTube, Tiktok. What else you got rocking?
Sub stack X Snapchat. You do have them all.
(35:53):
Yeah, I'm probably forgetting some, but.
Is Snapchat in like Tiktok? Are they different enough to
warrant having each platform? Are they pretty much a lot of
the same audience? I would say doing both, I mean,
why not? Because apparently what I've
heard is Snapchat is becoming really, really great for
influencers and it's a great wayto reach people because now they
(36:16):
have like the you know, I didn'teven know.
I thought Snapchat was just for sending pictures to friends and
you know, posting on your story for your friends.
But they now have this for you page so you can scroll just like
Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. So might as well do them all.
Yeah, I guess I'll follow you just so I can stay up to date
with all the social media happenings for sure.
Awesome, Lexie. Well, I'm super stoked for what
(36:39):
you got cooking. And it's it's awesome.
Like, I have no doubt that you'll be opening up your raw
milk latte, coffee shop and bakery in Florida whenever you
so choose. Thank you so much.
I appreciate it. Appreciate you keep doing what
you're doing, keep fighting the good fight.
Thank you. You too.
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