Finding Your Voice. Affirmations. Benefits of CBD. The Grey Area.

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Cass up a little food for you. So life. Oh
it's pretty, but it's pretty beautiful. Laugh for a little mouth.
Your kicking with four. Okay, so this is a treat.

(00:33):
I have my friend Ali Fallon here and she's someone
I met. We met how many years ago? Do you
think that was? It's been a few I feel like
wronger than that because it is before the kids. Oh
my gosh, you were actually here. The kids have been
home over two years. It was that's crazy. You came
to the house party. You know. It's so funny as
we came to the house party with the with who's

(00:55):
now my husband, Matt, who's not my husband, but we
had just started dating. Yeah, he was brand new. I know.
I remember You're like, I read this guy. Man. I
was like, Okay, your kids and now you're all pregnant.
It's true. Congratulations by the way, and we have taken
yoga together, have mutual friends. You have been to Haiti.

(01:19):
So I think I have you in saved in my
phone because one day at yoga we struck up a conversation.
You're friends with Tracy Hamilton's who also adopted from Haiti.
She is just the most amazing, sweetest person or husband
happens to be Scott Hamilton's who's this Olympic ice skater,
which is totally lost on my kids when they hang
out with him, by the way, Like it's just I'm like,

(01:40):
I need to pull up YouTube and show you all
how legit Mr Hamilton's was on that ice. So I
think I have you saved my phone, like ali Um,
Tracy Haiti, Cracy, I have you ali Tracy Haiti Gracie
because also your friends with my friend Gracie. So I
want to make sure that you were the alley because
I have a couple of alleys in my phone and

(02:01):
at the time, that's how I associated with you. But
we've gotten to know each other over the years. But
I'm I'm on your Instagram right now, and this is
how you are described best selling author, shout out expert
writing coach. I can attest to that she's helped me
with writing um, which is what we're about to get
into in a minute. And founder of Find your Voice UM,
which there's even an Instagram for that at Let's Find

(02:24):
your Voice, and that is the name of your podcast
which you launched. And you are living in Nashville, but
now you live in l a true marriage. We miss you, yeah,
but you. The goal is, yes, helping people find their voice.
You've always been passionate about that, well as long as
I've known you, and you've helped me do that a

(02:45):
few times. And now you you're putting it out there.
Well you always have on your Instagram and you've written
about it. But the podcast and then trying to focus
on people actually writing and telling their story and getting
that out and what's good about it. I'm horrible at
writing and you know not, Okay, so I shouldn't say that,
right And the the next Ali is going to be

(03:07):
here for two things. On this first thing, we're to
talk about writing and finding your voice. But for the
second thing in this episode, we're gonna talk about affirmations
because Ali is really big on those, and a couple
of years ago I was because you inspired me to
do so. I was putting post it's all over the
place affirming myself and I kind of have stopped doing

(03:29):
it and I need to bring it back. Yeah. It's
such a great practice to be in, and the writing
and affirmation is fair really nicely together because it's good
to know. The writing kind of helps you to know
what affirmation is going to be most powerful for you
or going to have the biggest impact for you. So
writing is like one of the ways that you can
kind of dig in to figure out what information or

(03:49):
what affirmation is really going to be helpful for you. Okay,
so we'll tackle affirmations next. But you know, I was
just telling you before we went on about how Mary
and I created are four Things Gratitude Journal, And we
created it simple because we even wrote a note in
the beginning there's like a cute little picture of this girl,
this little Haitian girl at school because the journal's benefit

(04:09):
project met a share in Haiti and the education and
that's obviously why we do anything a squab but um,
we thought we should do the Gratitude journal because we
know we need to be journaling gratitude. And four Things
seems simple. It gives you structure, it's it's not an
intimidating journal. It's very fun and it's got four little

(04:29):
sections and boom, you just we put stickers in the back,
which are fun. So some days if you don't have
the words, you just use a sticker. So you're ali,
you're about to talk to the person who is now
a journal publisher. That is a thing with her friend Mary,
who both of us literally put it out because we
are intimidated by the whole process of journaling. So you

(04:51):
need to walk me through why maybe some of my
entries should be longer than a sticker. You know, some
it is a stickers just where you're at. No, I love.
I saw on Instagram that you released that journal, and
I was obsessed with the idea instantly, because You're not
the only person who feels intimidated by the act of writing.

(05:11):
In fact, that's part of why I do what I do,
because I really believe everybody is a writer, and writing
is one of the most powerful ways that we can
access our intuition and we can grow as a human being,
and we can figure out what we really think or
feel about a thing, and we can um find a
way forward in the world where we're feeling stuck. Um.

(05:31):
The research shows writing is a powerful way to improve
your sleep, but improves your mental and physical health dramatically.
Can improve your physical health that it strengthens your immune system,
It um reduces your likelihood of anxiety and depression. So
writing is this incredibly powerful tool that so few of
us tap into because we have this idea that it's

(05:52):
an elite activity that only certain people get to do. Right,
you have a gift. If you're you have a gift,
and you have to know. I think I was talking recently,
probably on my podcast with somebody about my trip to
Africa and how they said to bring a journal and
I took one, but like I sat there everyone night,

(06:14):
people got in their bunk bed and people are just
like they're just flow in it, you know. And we
were just talking about too, about the Taylor Swift documentary
and she talks about I mean, she has journal entries
from every year of like since probably she could write.
She's always been And I just read Jessica Simpson's book,
well I listened to the audio version, but she is
a big journal journaler. But in my mind, I'm like, well,

(06:36):
they're musicians, they're writers, they're storytellers. If they're writing music,
that's the same thing as being a writer, um of
of a book. And like I feel like if you
were on my Africa trip, you would have been over.
They're like, and I I don't even have I have
no journal from Africa to go look back and read
on because I just didn't enter anything because it was
I just was like, well, I guess I'm gonna write

(06:57):
down basically the date. I wrote down the date. Here's
what's so funny about that, though, is that to me
from the outside looking in, you're a woman who has
an incredibly powerful voice, and you're a public figure. You're
in the people know who you are. Your every single
day using your speaking voice to communicate things to an

(07:19):
audience of people. You're telling stories, you're talking about your life.
You're so you're using your voice all of the time.
And and I don't have the I want the benefits
like you were speaking of of the writing, because you said,
you know, everybody's a writer, and it'll grow me as
a human and it will help me be unstuck. So
and just to be clear, like you're talking about writing

(07:41):
now we've people maybe listen to last week's episode where
I was talking about all of the benefits improved sleep
and overall health and wellness of gratitude, because there's no
joy without gratitude, and practicing and rewiring the brain with
gratitude and positivity will give view the joy and just

(08:02):
a better life. But and have less anxiety and therefore
you sleep better but like you're you're also saying, because
I don't want people to be confused, you're not talking
about just jotting down things you're grateful for. You're talking
about taking time to actually um right well in journal
about your day, a practice of writing down simple things
you're grateful for. It is a great place to start.

(08:23):
But I think you can start there and develop a
journal practice from there, which is why I love your
journal idea, because so many people are so intimidated by
the act of writing that they just don't ever do it,
and so they don't ever really get the benefits of it.
And just like you're talking about, if someone tells you
to bring a journal to Africa and they don't give
you any direction for what to write in the journal,
you're gonna stare at that journal and stare at the

(08:45):
blank page and feel like, oh, no clue what to say.
Only I had known you, then then I would back
on all my because there was amazing things that happened
on that trip that now I felt like I would
remember forever. That kind of the details are a blur
to me now because I don't have anything to reflect
on other than to call some people that were there
and maybe run it by them. Um, so yeah, that

(09:08):
was a missed opportunity, which is a great thing to
keep in mind if people are which I'm sure is
what we can you can get into with what you
do is help people find out how to have those
prompts to know what to write and kind of in
a way the four things gratitude. Journal is like a gateway.
It is a gateway drug. It's a gateway journal, gateway

(09:28):
to get any other journal to sit together to come Okay.
So so let's say I wanted to you know, tonight
or use if I'm starting, I'm gonna let's start with
my journal because big ex steps. Let's be honest, like
I don't even have the other kind of journal yet
who I'm gonna jot down, but like I wanted to
be more intentional with my entry, not just um, you

(09:51):
know coffee and then or or you know, my kids.
But it's like, how can I expand on that? And
maybe right more like what are yeah have me do? Well?
I can teach you a quick prompt that I give
to all the writers that I work with to help
them kind of like keep generating ideas. I call it
the Infinity prompt. Because if you use this prompt every day,

(10:14):
you won't ever run out of content to write about.
So and it's super easy. Um and you just use
the events of your life, things that happened to you
in your life. But you start with and a circumstance
from your life that feels charged. And by charge, the
just mean that it's got some electricity in your body.
So it made you feel something. It could be something

(10:36):
as simple as someone cuts you off in traffic and
you feel suddenly angry and you're not sure why you
feel angry. So it could be something really small like that.
Or um, it could be something much bigger, like the
loss of a loved one, or maybe a traumatic event
from years ago that you don't feel like you've ever processed.
So it could be like a breakup or yeah, loss

(10:56):
of a loved one or something big that happens to
large have to be to me, those charges are kind
of negative. It doesn't have to be negative. It can
be positive. It could be you could write about your
wedding day. You could write about the day you found
out you were pregnant. You could write about so yeah
that I guess the first place my brain goes when
I think of charge as negative because sort of because

(11:18):
I think one of the great gifts of the writing
life is that it gives you a tool to process
the things that happen to you in life so that
they don't get filed away in your body and in
your brain as a trauma. So when something happens to
you get in a fight with a friend, and you
don't ever talk through that or resolve it, or write
about it, or think about what did that mean or

(11:38):
why did that happen or how did I contribute or
what do I really think or feel about what they
said to me in that fight, then those events get
stored in our body as stuck places, and then they
end up coming up for us later in our lives,
and writing gives us a way to process through I
always talk about I use the word metabolized because it's
like the same as putting it into our body. If

(12:00):
we're putting energy into our body food that we have
to have. But if our body doesn't metabolize the food,
if it doesn't break it down and decide what nutrients
to keep and then what we don't need and can
be flushed away from our body, then you would be
your body wouldn't be functioning properly. And the same is
true with all of the events that happened to us
on any given day. If we don't have a way

(12:21):
to metabolize what's happening to us, then we don't get
to take in what's good for us that can be
used for fuel, and we don't get to discard the
stuff that's not good for us or that's holding us back.
So sometimes we get to a place in our life
where a symptom of that would be you're just feeling
kind of stuck and you don't really know why. You
feel a little down or depressed, or you feel like

(12:45):
you keep bumping into the same problems over and over again,
so the same kind of conflict with people in your life,
or the same you've had the same breakup with the
same kind of person over and over again. Or you
really want to be married and you feel like you
can't find your partner, or you wish your career was
different but you can't seem to find a different kind
of career. You keep having the same issue with a

(13:06):
controlling boss or something over and over and over again.
If you have it and you like that in your life,
where you're like I'm feeling kind of stuck around this thing.
Then it's usually a telltale sign that there's some kind
of stuck nous, some kind of event from our past
that we didn't fully metabolize or process, and metabolizing those
events can help us clear the block and move forward.
And by writing about them, that's that's what we're doing,

(13:28):
metabolizing this. So it's breaking them down so we don't
feel that weight totally, and the infinity problem does a
great job of that. So when you have an event
in your life that feels charged, there's just three things
that you can write down about those events. So let's
just say, for the sake of an example, I'm gonna
pick like a middle ground event. Maybe you have a

(13:49):
conversation on the phone with your sister that doesn't go
the way you thought it was going to go. And
it's not a full blown argument, but it feels like
a tense conversation and you hang up the phone and
you're like, what on earth was that? That was weird?
So most of us would just kind of move on
and be like, oh, well, I guess unless something bigger happens,
I should just forget about it. But one thing you
could do is use the Infinity prompt, and the first

(14:10):
step in the Infinity prompt is to write the details
of the situation or the facts of the situation. So
but that I mean, right, exactly what happened. Okay, I'm
gonna need a whole new journal besides my fourth things,
which is fine, and I'm into that. I'm here for this,
But now that I'm hearing what you're saying, I'm like,
I just want to be clear for those listening to, like, yes,
this is this can be another thing that's in in

(14:31):
addition or I guess it could be one of my
things would be like I'm literally I'm thankful for my sister,
Like I have gratitude for my sister. But I can
expand on it in that section totally. So yeah, because
since I had teased that, I was doing like if
it was me in the journal and I'm intimidated instead
of getting something new, you know, or any old note,

(14:54):
any piece of paper or something just fine, or the
notes section, the notes section in your iPhone, yeah, just
electronically putting it into you have it to process. So
the point is to dump it from your brain onto paper. Okay,
So that's step one So step one, just write what happened,
so the details you could write like it was five
o two pm last night, my sister called. She said,

(15:16):
whatever she said, I said, whatever you said, And do
your best to try to remember the facts of the
situation as clearly as possible. And one of the things
that this step in the process will do for you
is it will make you realize that you don't really
remember what was said. You think you remember, but it's
really complicated to remember the details of the things that
happened to us in our lives. But with as much
sensory detail as you can, try to describe what happened,

(15:39):
where you were sitting, what her voice sounded like, um,
what yeah, what time of day it was, what you
could smell, what you could see, what you could touch,
So as much sensory detail as possible. And even just
that first step is it's gonna it's gonna keep you
busy for a little bit. So that step one, Step
two is to write your thoughts about the situation right down.

(16:01):
And one way to think of this as the story
I'm telling myself. So the story I'm telling myself about
this situation is my sister is really upset with me,
and I think it must be because I didn't fly
home for my dad's birthday or whatever it was. So
you start to realize that there are all these details
of the situation that you're making up about the situation

(16:21):
that may or may not be actually true. They're not
necessarily confirmed as truth. Um, you didn't ask your sister
if she was mad. You just assumed she was mad.
You didn't ask her if this was why she was mad.
You just assume that's why she was mad. But you
can write what you're all of your thoughts about the situation.
I think she said that, because I think she did that,
because I think she's feeling this. I think that. And

(16:43):
then the third step is to write your feelings about
the situation, so you can write that it made you
feel frustrated, it made you feel angry, it made you
feel guilty, whatever it made you feel. And as you're
working through that three step process, almost always you'll start
to get confused about what our thoughts and what are
feelings and what are facts, And that means the prompt
is doing its work elaborate on that. So so often

(17:07):
in life we make up stories about a situation and
we accept the mistruth. So if I have a conversation
with you and you're short with me, I might be
like Amy's piste, she's mad at me. I'm I'm queen
at this, like I did this with everybody in my life,
like everybody. Yeah, you're like, oh god, she's mad at me. What.
Then you start racking your brain for what you did,

(17:28):
and then you make up something that you think you did.
It must be because I forgot to text her back
last time she texted me. Oh man, that's the worst.
And then you start feeling guilty about the fact that
you didn't text this person back and they're mad at you.
You've made up this whole story and you've never once
confirmed with this person that that's actually what's going on,
And so then we carry the weight of the guilt

(17:51):
or the fear or the this conversation that's actually never
been had because we made up a story. And when
you sit down to write about it, you realize, oh,
she was short with me, Maybe she's busy, or maybe
she was late, maybe you had nothing to do with me,
And you start to realize that the facts of the
situation and the story you made up about them are
totally separate from each other. But it isn't until you

(18:11):
put the words on the paper that you start to
see that. But even there could be that the prompts.
It could be that you see there's something you need
to work on. It could be that you the fault
is right there staring you totally in the face, and
it's something you can work on. Or maybe a conversation
you need to now have with your sister because it's
something she needs to work on totally because it is truth. Yes,

(18:32):
okay there. That happens to sometimes when you'll be writing
about the facts of the situation and you realize, oh,
I actually raised my voice. I think I raised my voice.
So then you're like, I think my sister must think
I'm mad at her. And it might occur to you
suddenly out of nowhere, which wouldn't have occurred to you before,
to send a text to your sister and say, I
just want you to know I'm not upset with you.

(18:53):
I got frustrated on the phone. I'm sorry about getting frustrated,
but I love you and I want to work this out.
And that might not have occurred to you as something
to do in the past. You might have just gotten
up and walked away from the conversation and not done
anything different. So that's really the gift of writing is
its acts like a mirror and it shows you a
clearer picture of yourself and what's happening to you. Most

(19:17):
of us don't have a very clear picture of ourselves
and what's happening to us in the world. So we're like,
why does this always happen to me? If you ask
yourself that question a lot, writing is a great way
to get to the bottom of why does this always
happen to me? Why do I always end up with
a boss who I feel controlled by? Or why do
I always end up with a boyfriend who doesn't treat
me well? Or why do I always end up in

(19:39):
arguments with my family members? Or whatever? It is? Wow? Okay,
and so the infinity problept is a place to start.
But obviously this is just we're getting like a sample
of finding your voice. Yes, there's so much more that
you share on your podcast and and tell tell people
about your book too. Instruct Yeah, okay, so this is

(20:01):
let's I just want to make sure they know you
have an amazing book out there in a great story.
I wrote a book. Um, This is really where the
idea of find your Voice was born, because I've always
been working with writers and authors in a professional setting,
helping them outline their books and their stories. But I
went through a really hard time in my personal life,
a left turn I wasn't expecting. I went through a divorce,

(20:23):
and as I started to process some of the things
that happened in the marriage post after I was on
the other side of it, I realized there were a
lot of things about the marriage that I hadn't seen
clearly before, and so I started to use the tool
of writing about my story as a way to better
understand how I had gotten myself into this situation, because

(20:44):
I was asking myself that question too. I'm like, how
did I get here? How did this happen to me?
And so I started to use the tool of writing
to figure that out, and I ended up writing down
the story of the divorce and finding my way and
finding my voice after the US and that book is
called Indestructible. So it's the story of leaving a relationship

(21:06):
that was not good for me and finding my confidence
again and rebuilding my life from scratch. And it's my
I feel like it's just my story. But I hope
that it's an inspiration to other people that their stories
matter and are really important, and that there's something powerful
about writing our stories down. Yeah, well it it is.

(21:27):
It is a powerful book and it is a powerful story,
and I know that it is touching people that are
reading it. Um. So yes, check that out if you're
interested further in her story, which um also too. I
want to back up on the the five to ten
minutes a day because we did touch on you know,

(21:48):
if you just start there with writing these and if
you use the infinity problem, but it doesn't have to be.
That doesn't mean that you have to use your journaling
time with the infinity prompt. There could be something else
you write about. But what are what are the benefits
of writing? Like, let's start with five to ten minutes
a day? Okay, so the benefits of writing are It

(22:10):
would take me an hour to tell you all of them.
But um, the study that I like to start with
is that there they have done studies that show multiple
studies now to confirm the first one that show that
if you write for five to ten minutes a day
that you can measurably improve your immune system, strengthen your
immune system to the point where people who write regularly
will visit the doctor less often for upper respiratory infections

(22:34):
in blue. So the reason I like to start with
that example is not because I think that we should
write instead of getting the flu shot, but because I
think if writing can have that kind of an impact
on our physical like our physicality, our cells, and our biology,
then imagine the impact it has in other areas of
our life. And it's almost like, now I'm thinking, well,

(22:55):
you know, my kids have to have all their shots
before they enter school. Should almost be like now, sure, fine,
like immunity wouldever get at all, But also assignments for
us as humans should be like before you can enter
this building, to make sure that you've written every day,
totally processed your life. Yeah, And other benefits that have

(23:17):
been proven and demonstrated are people who write regularly are
more likely to get promoted, They're more likely to be
paid better at their jobs, they are more likely to
report being happy in their romantic partnerships, they are they
get better sleep, um, they are less likely less prone
towards anxiety and depression. And actually, you can improve your

(23:40):
mood tangibly by a regular practice of writing. So it's
to me, I think, Okay, we have this idea in
our culture that writing is this only activity that's only
for this certain group of people, And to me, it
feels insane and also kind of unjust that we would
not open the door of writing to everyone when we've

(24:03):
seen the positive benefits that can have across the spectrum
from physical, too emotional to mental health. So to me,
I'm like what. And also the other thing that's weird
is we would never say when a baby is born,
do you think he's going to be a talker someday? Like,
do you think he'll be a good talker? Like we talk?
Speaking is a regular part of cognitive development, So we

(24:25):
just expect that human beings will grow up and they'll speak.
They'll communicate through through spoken word, So why wouldn't we
expect the same about the written word. The written word
is just a form of communication. It's a way to
communicate an idea from one person to another person. And
some people are My sister is a beautiful writer. She
sure she is a storyteller. She is so good, And

(24:49):
I'm like, how are we related? Because she can write
a story that's compelling about her washing machine, and but
I guess here's where and this would be maybe we're
about to get into affirmations and maybe I should say
something positively about myself. Is she may not be able
to say it like I would say it, but she

(25:09):
can write it. And so. But so when it comes
to gifts, like I know that I should write more
and you're convincing me to do so. Don't get me wrong,
but you know you were talking about how I speak
every day and I have a voice. But yeah, everybody talks,
but my sister when she has to talk, gets like
she doesn't. She her next starts to itch, and you know,

(25:33):
she gets like a rash and she doesn't. She gets
a little bit nervous. And she's kind of broken out
of that a little bit. But a long time ago
it used to be worse, just as where maybe if
I started writing a little bit, I could break out
of that and not so nervous about it. But gosh,
I wish there was all these benefits just for talking everything,
because I, um, the Bobby Bone Show, I talked for

(25:54):
like five hours a day that except for her, I
don't know. I don't know that I have lessons. I
an you better sleep promoted, improved health, better relationship with
a partner. So all of those things, Yes, sounds so
um good, and it's almost like for you, it's probably
gonna be frustrating sometimes with humans humanity because you know

(26:15):
there's people that are doing it along with you, but
there's so many of us that are not, and you're like,
oh my gosh, like you don't you may you maybe
don't need that pill or that glass of wine, like
you might just need to write totally. It's so cathartic
to write out our thoughts. And the thing I'll say
about speaking versus writing is your right that there each

(26:36):
of us are gifted in different ways and some people
I get a lot of public communicators who come to
me wanting to write a book or needing to write
a book, and I can help them translate the spoken
word to the written word. And then the same thing
happens for authors who write a book. And then your
publisher wants to go on speaking to her and they're like,
you want me to do what and stand on the stage.
How So, there is definitely an element of having a

(26:57):
gift or a leaning one way or the other. I think, Um,
what I'm getting at is you're using two different parts
of your brain, and why not strengthen your brain. If
you're good at the written word, why not strengthen your
brain and strengthen your your skill set by learning also
to communicate through the spoken word. And then the same

(27:17):
vice versa, why not strengthen your skill set. And as
you're saying that, I'm like, yes, I do get paid
to talk, but I'm really I'm really not the best communicator.
So if I were to strengthen no, no, no, no,
It's true. I struggle with storytelling. I have a d
d um all over the place my brain. Nothing is
I say, I'm too much and like and I'm my
thoughts are not very concise, and but also too, that's

(27:39):
what are my The job that got me speaking the
Bobby Bones Show is very it's like we're just friends
having a conversation. There is and it's not that structure.
Well some some people don't. But but but you're saying that,
I'm like, oh, this could help me at least strengthen

(28:00):
that side of my brain. And even with audio books
that's just become so easy, which I think is great,
and podcasts and being able to listen, but also taking
the time to sit down and just read and totally
strengthen that muscle in the brain too, because that could
probably the trifecta speaking, reading and writing. Yeah, and it's

(28:21):
interesting because you've mentioned the A D D or just
having like scattered thoughts. I should look into to see
if there's any specific research on that on this topic.
But I can guarantee you writing regularly improves your working memory.
There's something about the act of writing that teaches you
how to follow a linear thought from start to finish
without getting distracted by rabbit trails. Because when you get

(28:42):
distracted by rabbit trails, you lose your reader. So I
bet you if you were to implement a regular practice
of writing in your life, you would feel yourself your
brain that it was easier for you to stay on
one track of thought until you finished it versus getting distracted.
We get distracted. We live in a world that distracts

(29:02):
us left and right with things and things and you know,
messages coming in and I feel like I can't even
get a three minute task done without getting distracted by
something else. So that's just the reality of the world
we live in. But writing does help improve our attention
span and our working memory and could be well find
your voices writing. I'm gonna I'm gonna start. I've got

(29:25):
my four Things Gratitude journal challenge coming up, and I've
got my writing. But I'll just I'm in a kind
of for the sake of time and just not totally
overwhelming myself. I'm going to try to combine the two
and make my journal entries for my gratitude with more
thought and processing more and writing them instead of just

(29:46):
some days. It may not be that, but that's going
to be my goal, and you've inspired me to do that.
So next thing we're going to get into is a
quick little thing on affirmation. So that'll be next m first, Okay,
so let's just tell people real quick why affirmations are

(30:07):
so good because Ali is ALI is affirmation ALI for you.
I love it. I'll take it. Um Well, I don't
know how I can start off simple and get more
complicated as we get into it. But affirmations are powerful
because they help us replace the negative voice in our
head with a positive one. And we might not even
think we have a negative voice in our head. We

(30:28):
might think of ourselves as a particularly positive person, but
for most of us, we have subconscious or unconscious tracks
playing in our brain that are are dictating our behavior
and we might not even realize it's happening. But you
might have an inner critic that's telling you you're not smart,
or you're not good at that, or you shouldn't try that,
or nobody's ever gonna listen to you, or um nobody

(30:52):
believes in you, or whatever it is that for all
of us, the inn our critics sounds a little bit different.
But when you can figure out what your inner critic
is telling you and replace that voice with a positive
voice that says, you're beautiful, you are confident, you have
everything you need to succeed, and we start to tell
ourselves those things over and over and over again, and
those become those new words, become the new tape in

(31:14):
our head. Then without much effort, you start to see
your life improof. And so you would you're a big
fan of the mirror, like in your bathroom, the post
it's every one time I was at your apartment and
I walked in your bathroom and they're's like there's airmations.
I was like, oh, hey, I'm already feeling better, So
like what that's a that's a one way to do it,

(31:36):
it's for is to put those so that you see
them in places where you are a lot, and that's
what you see, and it can be something you see
over and over totally. I put mine on my bathroom mirror,
inside of a book that I'm reading, on my dashboard,
in my car, in my wallet, places where surprise yourself with,
like you I do, Yeah, you're like well, or like
in the um visor in your car, you pull the

(31:58):
visor down, it falls on you. You're like, here's a
oh my gosh, I am having a great day. Thank
you for thank you for my surprise affirmation that I
put there that I forgot about a week ago. I
totally forgot about it. And so what about um You know,
affirmations from my love language is words of affirmation, so right,
And I'm horrible at affirming myself, which is you would

(32:21):
think I would love for myself because that's my love language,
but I want it for other people. Is it work
the same in our like in how we receive it,
like if say my husband were to leave me an
affirming type post it note on the bathroom like, is
that something we should also consider doing for others? Obviously

(32:43):
it's a kind gesture. But yeah, I think the power
of doing it for yourself. So doing it for others
is great, and there's there's absolutely nothing wrong that can
happen from doing it for others. But there's something about
doing it for yourself that helps you replace those tapes
that are playing in your head. It is more poignant
maybe than having someone do it for you. So if

(33:05):
you get a note from someone else that says, like,
I could tell you, Amy, you're an incredible communicator, you're
a great writer, you just don't think you're a good writer,
and you're like, no, no, no, no, I'm really a
terrible writer. So hearing it from me override that internal
voice that you have that tells you I'm a bad
writer and bad at grammar, whatever it is that you
think about. You know how challenging it is to get

(33:27):
words on the page, so or or whatever you've decided
is true for yourself. So you know, you might have
a dozen people in a day. That would be a
lot of people to tell you this, but you might
have a dozen people be like, you're so cute. I
love the way you dressed, You've got such great hair,
You're you know, you're an amazing friend or whatever it is.
But if you don't really believe that about yourself, then

(33:49):
it doesn't matter how many people tell you that it
actually falls on deaf ears. Yeah, that makes me think
of what we were. I think how many times we
brought up the Tailor Stoft documentary. Mean, I do it
every week, every day. It depends on who I'm talking to.
But Miss Americana on Netflix, you have to watch it,
even if you're not a Tailor Swaft fan. I think

(34:09):
you'll step away with something. But it makes me think
of I mean, she has to be told a million
times a day that she's, you know, beautiful and amazing
and talented and strong. And then she admitted it's a
scene where she like gott in the suburban, and I
remember it so vividly because there was all these fans outside.
I mean, she literally has screaming fans she outside of

(34:31):
her home and she gets in She's like, I realized
that's not normal. Um, And then you know, people are
obviously taking pictures of her, and that leads to a
conversation of her saying I had to stop looking at
pictures of myself every day because I would see myself
and or someone to make a comment that I looked
fat in a picture, which she was not fat, but

(34:53):
she would then starve herself, and that now that she's
in a healthier place and has more control over her thoughts,
she just tells her brain, we're not going to go there.
Ye stop, I'm not gonna look at the picture. We're
not going to go there. We're thinking positively, we're going
to go down that rabbit hole because we know where

(35:15):
that comes and it's not good. Yeah, which is an affirmation.
I mean, here's the thing. It's really hard to tell
your brain stop, don't go down that path unless you've
give it a new path. Even giving it a new path,
if you don't give it the new path over and
over and over again with tons of consistency, you'll find
yourself going clicking into the old path. It's this is

(35:36):
I mean, I could get into the brain science behind it,
but it's neuroscience. You're you have neurological pathways that are
carved in your brain. The more often you think a thought,
the more often you say a thing to yourself, the
more habitual it becomes. And if you think of those
ruts like ruts in a ski hill, like if you
ski down the same path hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
of times, each time you ski down the right your

(35:57):
ski carves is going to get deeper and deeper and deeper,
and then it's going to be harder to jump out
of the right you're in and carve a new path
down the mountains. So so the easy thing for your
brain to do is just keep going down the mountain
that same exact path it's always been. And what affirmations
do is they help us carve a new neurological pathway.
It's literally neurons firing cells communicating from one to another

(36:18):
in your brain. When you think a thought like I'm
that bat and ba ba, then you might you might
actually behave in ways that seemed bizarre to you, like
you're like, why am I starving myself? That makes no sense.
It's not a conscious thing that's going on for you.
But what's actually happening is your brain is stuck in
that narrow pathway and can't get out. And the affirmation

(36:39):
is a way to help you stop your brain from
going down that old path and actually carve a brand
new path by saying something to yourself like I'm beautiful,
I feel like I might need to have you be
a part of um this series that I'm doing on
disordered eating. When you're saying that I feel like you
might need I know you're not going to be here
when we record, I don't think, but I can call you.

(37:00):
You can be just a quick We have experts coming
on and doctors, and I'm doing it with my friend Lisa,
who's a dietitian. But she has her a program literally
called fork the noise because it's shutting off your brain
when you and I also read last year, I read
a book called brainover Binge where she said a lot

(37:23):
and I'm trying to get her on the author of
that book for people that and again, this is kind
of for that and that gray area similar to what
Taylor Swift went through, not for people that are clinically
we almost I think we're gonna have to put a
disclaimer at the beginning of it. First of all, we
don't want anything that we're saying to be a trigger
for anybody to start a certain behavior, because we're not
going to be suggesting it's actually an anti diet like situation,

(37:48):
So there's not gonna there shouldn't be a trigger of
like this is how you should eat and this is
what you should do, which can be a trigger for
people like, oh, I need to eliminate this and not
have it. And this is all a new way of
thinking for me, because I've always been someone that's been
on plan or a way or a juice or this,
and not that juices are bad. They're not. I think
they can bring you lots of nutrients to your body

(38:09):
immediately and be a great nourishment and help give your
digestion a break. I think they can be great, but
there's a I did it in an unhealthy way where
I relied on the juices to make up for over
eating or whatever, which was where I got interested in
the the brain over binge like having her on and

(38:30):
tell her story, but it's she it was for her.
The binging was real, really bad. She never threw up,
but she um. She exercised to burn it so and
I think she would have thrown up, she just wasn't
able to. But really the disorder was the eating, and
it was um. She had to rewire to where every

(38:51):
time she went to go binge, you stop and tell
your brain you're not doing this, but it has to
be over and over and over and over until your
brain never opens the pantry for that, it opens it
when it's hungry. And then, like she's she actually in
at the end of the book, she ends it with
I'm confident I will never binge again. She's like, and

(39:11):
I say that with She's like, I won't. I won't
and I haven't. And she's someone that has been to
therapist after therapist after therapists. It was like, dig into,
like what happened in your childhood that's causing you to
use food for comfort? Well, really, she in her case,
and this isn't everybody. In her case, she started dieting
too young, and it that created restriction when her brain

(39:35):
was developed and her body started thinking like, oh, we've
been starving, so we're now going to overeat and we
don't trust you and we don't know when we're going
to get food again, so we're gonna eat a need
and need and eat, and then it creates created a pattern.
She I really after I read that, I was like,
oh my gosh, you know, I started dieting at ninth grade,

(39:59):
which was not most people that don't diet, most people
with any sort of disordered eating or eating disorder Um,
some of it can link back to simply starting a
diet too young. Adults that have matured and start a
diet don't fall into the same disorder as as if

(40:21):
is more developed. Yeah, in our brains. It's crazy how
our brains work when you really dig into the neuroscience.
I'm such a geek and fascinating. But that's why I
want you to come on. And I know I took
a rabbit trail to talk about that, but I'm like, no, no,
you would be a good and we do have other
experts coming on, but I think you would just be
a good addition to that. So I'll be calling you
and that series will be out in in April. Every

(40:44):
it'll be four part series, so every every Saturday in April,
one will release. And it was going to be a
part of this podcast The Four Things. We decided to
make it totally separate and so you'll have to search
it out. It's gonna be called The Gray Area. And
now Ali Fellon will be joining us. UM, well, thank
you for coming on to talk about you know, the
first thing was find your voice and then affirmations here.

(41:06):
So hopefully after y'all listen to this podcast, you've got
two other things to listen to, um, but which will
be The next thing is on CBD oil and the
benefits of CBD because I decided to bring on an
expert because I don't know all the things. And then
the fourth thing is going to be um Aaron Opria. Well,

(41:26):
I already told you all this in the intro, but
I guess I'm just giving you a teaser now since
we've been talking for I think I told Ali. I
was like, hey, we'll probably make each thing like ten
fifteen minutes and now, but it's fine. So I just
you know, sometimes you get to talk into somebody and

(41:48):
it just rolls that way and it's better. So and
that's the beauty of a podcast. It's so good. Let
it roll. Okay, all right, um at Ali fallon on
Instagram and then check out her podcast Find your Voice
and a L L y F A L L O N.
But on your podcast, you're Allison Valen. True. I mean
it's Alison technically as like my but ever be a

(42:08):
running Alice. Okay. By popular demand, I got a CBD
expert on because I feel like we talk about CBD things.
I'm into them. I even endorse some products that I like,
and of course I like them for my body and
I've tried them and I know they work. But I'm

(42:29):
not an expert. And that's kind of why it's how
this podcast works. I bring on the experts, and I
would get so many questions from people. So, um, a
friend found you at Turnip Truck. Well, it knows you
from other things, but you do which I love shopping
at Turnip Truck. If anybody goes there, shout out. It's
a little health food store in Nashville that we love.

(42:51):
There's a couple of locations. And this is Aaron and
her instagram is at Innately Underscore Nourished and I see
here under your bio you're like you do holistic nutrition,
which I'm also fascinated by. Yes, so I went to
the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and I do some health
coaching type of stuff on the side. Awesome. And then

(43:13):
but and you also are a fan of CBD. Yes,
So I have quite the story. So when I was twenty,
I was diagnosed with cervical cancer and um, it actually
came back a total It actually came back a total
of four times. And so um it was with the

(43:33):
fourth diagnosis that I really started researching what is cancer,
why is cancer? Etcetera. And I kind of went into
a whole a holistic type of treatment program instead of
more of the medical paradigm with the fourth diagnosis. And
it was with that because I have been raised very
much in the dare mentality of you know, marijuana is

(43:54):
bad and everything along those lines is bad. I had
no idea that hemp and CBD was completely separate and
different than that. And so that was at that time
when I introduced hemp CBD to my life. And I've
now been cancer free twelve years. I cannot say that,
you know, it was the hemp and CBD that did it,
because I was I had undertaken several different alternative therapies

(44:20):
during that time. But I can definitely say that I
have continued using hemp and CBD during this time and
I have not had any recurrences. So well. So, my
mom battled cancer for five years and she passed away
in two thousand. Oh my gosh, no, it's been five
years since she died. Excuse me. She battled cancer for

(44:41):
two I was like, wow, five that sounds like a
long time. So she but during that time she was
receiving you know, the traditional treatment, and it wasn't working.
She got in some clinical trials, she was at MD Anderson.
We had great care. It went away, then it returned,
and then went away and show up another organ. And
so I was researching places in Mexico where can I

(45:04):
take you where they just you're on this very crazy
diet and you're doing coffee enemas and you're receiving all
these other very holistic type situation and you know when
you're you know, you can't. Also, let me back up
to now, I'm just thinking about the CBD. We had
heard from a friend in Colorado about these CBD oils,

(45:25):
but they were not at the time, and I don't know,
and again this was two thousand thirteen ish, so I
don't remember what was allowed in the state of Texas
or not. But we were gonna it wasn't okay. Thank
you for clarifying, because I remember us wanting to go
to Colorado and get it and we were going to
be like a mule and like bring it back across
to my mom so that she could try these oils

(45:48):
because people were swearing by them, and I just thought
and even at a time later in the her journey
when she was in a lot of pain and also
had no appetite and she needed to eat and Austin
we met up with people and illegally bought we'd and
she smoked it and we she was very she had yeah, her,

(46:10):
she didn't feel her pain. She went up and made
we put all these snacks out. We put on the
voice and we were watching it at a family friend's house.
Me and my sister did it with her, and because
she was so nervous, well yeah, we were like in
the laundry room trying to hide it from my mom's
best friend's husband, who we thought might freak out, but
then he knew and he did not care, but we
just didn't want him to be an accomplice. And you

(46:33):
know it. Yes, I love that we have that memory,
but it changed my perspective because I too had that
grew up in the dare, which I mean, drugs are bad,
but it's like what drugs exactly are bad? And we've
been told for so many years marijuana is bad and
it's a gateway drug. And when really, well, we won't
think twice sometimes about putting a synthetic pill in our

(46:56):
body that has been made that we have no idea
what it's doing to us. But because it's a pharmaceutical
and it's approved by whoever in the government needed to
approve it, then yes, we can put it in our
bodies and it may do something amazing for us. Uh.
But really it could do more harm than smoking weed,
and we could offer the same relief without the harm.

(47:18):
So that's the sidebar. But I'm glad you brought that up.
And but I'm what I'm telling people in that story,
if you haven't ever heard me tell it before, is
that you have to remain open minded, because even my
mom was closed off to the weed until it's like
it's it's your your life, and your thinking, is this
really that bad? And I guess if I do need

(47:38):
to eat and and in the hospital. By the way,
they gave her synthetic marijuana and that was legal, so
it has negative side effects. Whereas so yeah, we still
have my mom and vape pin thingy vaping. That's a
whole another thing. I'm not saying that's good and I'm
not even saying marijuana is for you, but for medicinal purposes.

(48:00):
I saw at work and it was almost like we
did my family did a one A D where we
were like, Okay, we're not going to be scared or
anti marijuana if we need to be open to learning
about what we can do. And now in the last
several years we've seen CBD take on the scenes. But
I do feel like some people put up their guard
like what no, I'm not putting weed in my body.

(48:22):
But it's different completely. That's where I want you to
explain that it's different. Okay. The best way to explain
the difference between marijuana UH and th HC and hemp
and CBD is to think of your first cousin. So
you and your first cousin have a lot of genetic similarities,
but you also have a lot of genetic differences. So

(48:43):
marijuana is high th HC, which is what gets you high,
and then its first cousin is hemp, which is high
in CBD, which is the healing mechanism. Um, there are
still medicinal uses with the th HC in the marijuana
because marijuana is high THC low CBD and hemp is
i CBD low THHCUM. But most of the medicinal uses

(49:04):
that have been found are coming from the CBD and
CBD by the way stands for cannabinoid, and humans are
born with an endocannabinoid system. We actually produce CBD ourselves
in our body. Um. One of the most abundant places
that you can find it is in human breast milk.
It's one of the things that really helps a baby

(49:25):
calm down, sleep, will have an appetite. All those things
that you probably saw with your mom when she took CBD,
she got an She just we never muled the CBD,
never did it. We thought about it, and I wish
we would have, but it just wasn't. We were like, uh,
it wasn't as popular it as is now, and it
didn't seem like do anything. But she smoked, yes, and

(49:46):
then they gave her the appetite, which is what we
needed because she was like nine, passionated herself. Yes. Yes. Um.
So really you just have to think of them as
first cousins and also think of the fact that just
because your first cousin and for instance, has some bad traits,
doesn't mean you do. Okay, So that's the best way
of thinking of it. Okay. So my husband, he was

(50:07):
in the Air Force for a long time, and I
would put I would make smoothies at home and I
would use a hemp protein or I would put himp
seeds in my salads or smoothies, and he would be like,
I can't have any of that. I can't have it
show up on my drug tests. Is that true? Would
it show up in that form? No, it doesn't show
up at So that's a that's a smith cb D.

(50:28):
It's not a myth. So he's not far off. But
that's again where there's a big misunderstanding. Um So, when
it comes to CBD, you have three different types. There's
full spectrum, isolate, and broad spectrum. Uh, the broad full
spectrum think of it as it has everything that that
plant has to offer, including the legal point three per

(50:49):
cent THC. That's what is federally legal in all fifty
states right now. And that's how recent is that since
two thousand and four late two thousand fourteen, the two
thousand fourteen Farm be past, and then there were some
provisions made to that in two thousand eighteen when the
two thousand eighteen Farm Bill passed, and that's when it
became wide spread, and that's when you really started seeing

(51:09):
and um So that full spectrum is going to contain
that point three THHC. Then the isolate means that they
have gone in and isolated out certain candid dials from that,
so you're not getting everything that plant has offered, but
you're still getting some of the healing mechanisms. And typically
when they isolated out, they completely isolate out the th HC,

(51:29):
so you don't have any chance of testing positive there.
And then there's also broad spectrum, which is my personal
favorite because it is everything the planet has to offer
with only the th HC removed. So there you have
all everything that will give you, but you're not going
to get high exactly, and you won't fail a drug test.
And then getting back to the drug testing part um,

(51:50):
it also comes down to what type of drug test
has done, because not even not even all of them
test for cannabdates what they sometimes test for our cannabi
dial act of it just in your blood, which it
will pick up on even that point three th HC
if it's one of those extremely sensitive tests. Or and

(52:11):
this is just a fact, the more body fat a
person has, the more they retain that th HC in
their body, because that's where th HC is stored is
in body fat. So I have seen um Yeah, someone
with nine percent body fat, like a competitive athlete, you know,
take a full spectrum CBD and not test positive. And

(52:32):
then I've seen someone with body fat take that exact
same CBD and test positive. Yes, so you have to
take into consideration when picking out a CBD for yourself
these types of things. Are you randomly drug tested for
work or for custody issues or for whatever um and
what is your body composition, or maybe just split it

(52:54):
down the middle and just go with a broad spectrum
to begin with, so you don't have any chance of
testing positive. That's probably what we'll recommend here. But so
what are the benefits of taking CBD and then what
so that where let's talk the oil form. I know
that I have used the creams and then in California
my friend had some for headaches and sleep and I

(53:17):
would drop some under my tongue and then so that
would be the drops And so I'm still learning to
My experiences have been great with it, but I want
you to talk about the benefits. Okay, So the endocannabinoid
system in the human body is our anti inflammatory system.
It regulates so many of our other bodily systems. Um
so it regulates our pain levels, it regulates our hunger,

(53:40):
sleep cycles. Um, it regulates any inflammation response. So that's
one of the main reasons I've seen people take CBD
is for pain or just general inflammation. UM, even things
up to rheumatoid arthritis, where it's almost an autoimmune type
of inflammation, and you'll see a dramatic, uh, dramatic difference

(54:03):
in someone's health very quickly. UM. So anything that has
an inflammation route, which is almost all disease if you
think about it. So that's where CBD has become so
popular because it can help with a wide variety of things,
everything from sleep too, if you need to eat a
little better. Um. It also spikes the metabolism, so yes,

(54:26):
so many people think, oh, I'm gonna just take this
and get the munch He's not so much. It's actually
now clinically proven that those who consume CBD on a
regular basis typically have a better body composition because it's
spikes metabolism, which means that you're burning fat faster. So
that's also interesting. And there are recent studies coming out

(54:46):
showing that it is also regulates hormones. So many things
I need that for sure. So I was showing you
my CBD cream from Stage Lee Naturals and you were
looking at the ingredients and you're like, oh, I love this,
like this has good stuff and this is for relief
and recovery. And you'll may hear me talk about sagely

(55:07):
but it You said you looked and noticed that it
does not have coconut oil in it and that that's
a good thing. And I thought, because you mentioned that
that is not hydrating, and I'm like, wait, what I
heard that coconut oil you should lather all over your
body because it is hydrating. So yes, so coconut oil
is very hydrating to our insides. So that's why it

(55:30):
is good for consuming as part of your diet. But
for topical use, it's actually it does the complete opposite
and it's drying. And some of the best oils that
you can use topically are hoba oil or that's my
personal favorite. You said that hooba and it's spelled j
o j o b a, which I mistakenly said jojoba

(55:51):
oil for a long time. Well that's how if you
would have said that, I would have known when you
were talking about but you said ho hoba and I
was like, well, okay, and this has a hooba in it,
so I love. Yes. And it's got an excellent uh
an excellent blend of essential oils in there too that
are that are medicinal as well. So I'm loving Okay. Well,

(56:14):
I mean and I never knew that. I mean, I
feel like so many of us have been told to
put coconut oil on the outside of our body. Yes, hydrate, Yes,
And if you were to do an experiment where you
put coconut oil on one leg for a week and
hohoba oil on the other leg for a week, You're
going to see the difference. Well, so, um, I do
have a CBD body oil from Sager that that has that.

(56:35):
But do they sell just tojoba lotion? They do? Oh,
that's good to know that truth. It goes a long way.
So you can get a fourteen dollar bottle that lasts
you a couple of months. Yeah, I am looking for
especially I turned forty well in a year, but I'm
about thank you. That's nice. I but I I'm mad

(56:57):
at myself for not hydrated. I mean, I feel like
the last few years I really started to focus on
my face, but I've ignored my neck and my chest
and my legs and my art everywhere, and I used
to see my mom constantly put lotion on it and
I didn't understand. And it's because yes, there is this
point you get in life where you're like, dang it.

(57:18):
And it also has so much to do with like
when our estrogen levels drop around and estrogen is so
so responsible for the moisturize of the skin. Yeah, so
when those levels start to drop, so does the moisture
levels of the skin. So it makes perfect sense. Aging
is not nice to us at no. I mean, and
I want to embrace it and be like, okay, this
is cool, like I can roll with it. But also

(57:39):
I just don't. I don't need to have my skin
as dry as it is and I don't know what's happening.
So it almost like how much water do I have
to drink? Oh? Yeah? And I have my my thing
this year was my work? Did you have a word
of the year or do you do that? What's yours piece? Piece? Oh? Okay,
I love that. Uh so did you like January one?

(58:00):
You're like every do you do that every year? This
is my first year to have a word and my
words started it last year? Okay? Perfect well, my word
this year, as weird as it sounds, was water. But
it was because it came to me while I was
skiing on ice, and that's water, and and I was
flowing down the mountain and thinking about how, for one,
I was thirsty and I need I know I'm not

(58:21):
hydrating my body properly, and I know that I know
how much water I need and I just wasn't doing it.
So I was like, this is gonna be my year
that I hydrate. And not only that, as I was
skiing down the mountain, I thought, also I am not
a very go with the flow person, and water flows,
and I want to be more flowy. And then also

(58:44):
water can leave a mark, and I wanna do be
more intentional about leaving my mark. So as weird as
the word water like, people are like water. Some of
my friends not, and you know they're loving friends, but
you're just like water. How's that award of the year?
But I was like it has some deep meaning to me.

(59:04):
That's beautiful. And and the non deep part because hydrating
is so important. I mean, and I've been getting my
hundred ounces or more a day, thank you, um, but
my skin still freaking dry. So I got to do it,
and I got to do it outside, got to do
all the things. So tell me about peace for you peace. UM.
I went through a lot of changes last year and

(59:26):
just in general in life, and I just felt upheaval,
it felt like in so many areas and so um
for me. Just it's very straightforward for me this year,
peace and finding balance and um. And I really feel
like I've already got a great start on it for
this year. A lot of things have just been falling

(59:47):
in place almost seamlessly. And yeah, So I think just
having that in the back of my mind every day
and um and daily affirmations that have to do with
peace has had such a positive impact. Awesome. Well, I'm
gonna put you on the spot here because I didn't
tell you to be prepared with this, but since we
talked about that. UM. We practice gratitude a lot on here.

(01:00:08):
It's big on the podcast. So do you have four things?
Because four things theme that you could rattle off that
you're thankful for. It could be you know, big, it
could be small, they can whatever. Yes, Okay, UM, I
am thankful for my family they are in Kentucky, UM,
but so not far. You know about four hours drive
and I make a point of going up there and

(01:00:29):
seeing them about every three weeks. Um. And just like
this morning, I've already talked to three members of my family.
You know. It's just I'm very thankful for my family
and the support that they've shown me. Um uh my dog,
Oh yeah, that is my What kind of dog do
you have? Minietrich Nowser And she's just my daily therapist.

(01:00:51):
And um, I'm really thankful for finding fitness. That was
something that came into my life in two thousand and eight. Team.
I had never been Um, I mean, I've been active,
but I had not been purposefully into fitness, and it's
something that I got into two years ago. Wait on
your Instagram, your picture is like you you're like a

(01:01:12):
fitness athlete or something. You Wait, that was only two
eighteen you got into it and you're like a miss
Muscle America. Here what Okay, go to innately underscore nourished
to see Aaron's photo because wow, Okay, she's very strong.
And that's the thing that I'm very thankful about with

(01:01:35):
fitness because it has taught me strength in so many
more ways other than physical strength. And it's that I'm
just so thankful that that came into my life. Um
and fourth and fourth thing, I know it's hard not
well food so good saved my life. And so I

(01:01:56):
have personal firsthand experience of um, what you put in
your body can hurt you or heal you, and I
am just so thankful for discovering the way that it
can heal me. I love that. Thank you so much
for sharing. I know I definitely put you on the spots. Okay, okay,
but I keep a daily gratitude journal. That's something that

(01:02:17):
I started along with starting the Word of the Year
January one of last year. And um so at the
end of you know, at the end of two thousand nineteen,
I got to go back and just look at three
hundred and sixty five things that I was thankful for
because I just write one thing at the end of
the day that I'm thankful for before I go to bed.
I love that. And I'm sure you already have a journal,
but for coming on my podcast, we make a four

(01:02:39):
things gratitude journal. So I'm gonna go grab you one
and I'm gonna give it to you as a guest.
Thank you so much. But yeah, you you can just
use it but that's one thing that Mary and I
she's um my partner, that we made it together and
for a splat. It's a business we have that supports Haiti.
And when we came up with it, we we wanted

(01:03:01):
it to be something that's like simple and not intimidating
because we wanted to do it for ourselves and we
weren't doing it at all, and we thought, if we
have this, it will help us at least get in
the groove. And like March oneet, we're starting a thirty
day challenge where we want to do it every day
to try to help with that. But I mean, I
highly suggested. I really think that it's part of what

(01:03:23):
got me through all the upheaval and changes going on
in my life last year is because at the end
of the day, I stopped and thought, what am I
thankful for that happened today? And you know, even on
bad days, there is something to be thankful for, whether
it is you know, I was stuck in traffic, but
this person let me merge. You know, there's just always
something to be grateful for. And when you put your

(01:03:43):
mind in that place, you're looking for things to be
grateful for instead of looking for things that have a
negative impact on you. Yeah, and you mentioned being able
to look back over the year and see that, and
that's that's what my original thought was about, Mary, was
that that's another reason why we I thought the journal
would be cool as if we started documenting it to
be able to go back and have a little book

(01:04:06):
that actually was dedicated to that and you could read
back and think, oh, wow, I remember that year and
this is what I did, and this was going through.
I'm looking forward to, you know, ten years when I have,
you know, thousands of entries that I can go back
and look over. That's so cool. Well, thank you for
sharing that, and Aaron, thank you so much for coming on.
And y'all can get her on Instagram and d m

(01:04:28):
her if you have any CBD questions having to help,
because even while you were talking sometimes I was like,
I think I know what she's saying, but I'm not
quite sure. But I was new. I would tell people
that they could d M you and you will set
them straight. I'm so happy to help, but this is
something that's really a passion of mine and I would
just I just want to see everyone living as happy
and healthy as possible. Love, that, thank you. Okay, So

(01:04:56):
for this thing, I have got my friend and trainer
Aaron opry on which errand's come on the podcast before.
But it's been a little minute. I know I got
to come back. No, I'm excited. And we just wrapped
a workout and we were talking during the workout about
Demi Lovado being on Ashley Graham's podcast it's called Pretty

(01:05:17):
Big Deal Podcast and in it she I have I
have full disclosure. I haven't listened to the podcast, but
I follow Scooter Braun or somehow I had seen that
he had posted a clip of it. And really, I mean,
Demmy was saying that she had a past eating disorder
and then she thought she was recovering from her eating disorder,

(01:05:37):
but really realized she was falling back into one. It
was just sort of in disguise something different, something different,
which I think when you're obsessing over food or you're
over exercising, that is a form of a disorder disorder
where maybe she wasn't doing something extreme like before. And
that's where that's what we call this gray area, or

(01:05:58):
at least what my friend Lease and I are talking
about and the upcoming podcast series that we're going to do,
which I've told you Aaron about, and you know we
both have previous eating disordered pasts. Mine was believe me,
but now I've learned. I mean I wasn't full blown
or clinically diagnosed. I struggled with that, but really I

(01:06:20):
had an unhealthy relationship with food and I had disordered eating,
but not clinically bliem. And That's what I'd say about
mine too. Mine would have been not believe me. I
didn't struggle with the throwing up I did um and rexia.
I just said, Okay, I just want to eat right,
and I would be able to discipline to do that.
I mean, that's not good discipline, not at all. But

(01:06:42):
I mean some people I don't think I would have
ever had I well, I guess that's I don't know
if that's right that I think that way, but I
used to think, Uh, if only I could just be
one of those people so terrible. I don't know. I'm
not saying it was right, but I had I was like,
I'm not disciplined enough to not eat, but I wasn't
just one enough to take but to the gym and
work out for two hours to burn off the slim

(01:07:04):
fast that I drank, you know, like it was messed up.
And it's only in my now very adult life. Sometimes
I still can't believe I'm an adult. Like I can't
put gas in my car, like I ride it all
the way until empty. Two children to care for I,
you know, when it comes to you know, making sure

(01:07:24):
I've got my new credit card all lined up in
my bills paid. You know, being an adult is not
fun sometimes. But like one thing that I have appreciated
about aging is learning to love myself and take time
for myself and really learn more about myself. And as

(01:07:45):
I dig into it, even all these years that I
thought I was being healthy and I wasn't engaging in
certain behaviors, my mind was not right and I still
was participating in some sort of gray area. Well, health
does not mean deprived, miserable. I can't have this. I
can't do that. Oh I ate that, So I need

(01:08:05):
to go work out for an hour. That's not That's
not a healthy relationship with food, with life. It's all
about balance. And I feel like it's such a big
thing and everyone struggles with it. Yeah, it's so crazy
how much everyone says I hate this about myself. I
hate this about myself. Nobody says, wow, I'm super hot.
I love myself. Now there's occasionally people like that, but

(01:08:26):
you really don't hear that very much. People are it's crazy.
I'm proud of people talking about it. I'm proud of
the podcast Lisa and I or the series that Lisa
and I are about to put out. I'm proud. Taylor
Swift addressed it in her documentary on Netflix's Americana. She
she someone made a comment about her body, or she
would see comments about her body when you know, pictures

(01:08:48):
of her everywhere every single day, and she would say, okay, fine,
I'm not eating and she wouldn't eat, and she would
work out too much. And you know, she said that
now it's not good for her to see pictures of
herself every day because she's not going to let her
brain go there. She's like, okay, brain, we're not going
there because so much of it is mental. But she

(01:09:09):
did she had that, for lack of better word, what
I called a minigo. She had that discipline to be like,
I'm not gonna eat and she got really thin, and
she said she would have at that time defended her
body and then like I eat I work out and
she's like, yeah, I guess maybe I kind of did eat.
Like the truth is I wasn't really and I was
working out like crazy. So you've got her. Uh. Jessica

(01:09:32):
Simpson's book, Open Book, just came out. She addresses that
when she signed her record deal, her label looked at
her and immediately said, and she was a teenager, that
she needed to lose fifteen pounds. And so you have
these very vocal people bringing this to the forefront of
like and Dimmi Lbado being the latest example, because the

(01:09:54):
podcast just went up and I cannot wait to listen
to it. But she said, you know, she's tired of
someone was telling her she had to look a certain
way and this was the standard, and she was having
to work out excessively to get that. And what's said
is who who decided these standards? Well, there is no
prefriend society. I always say, we're perfectly imperfect. It doesn't

(01:10:15):
matter what level you get to. Your say, well, if
only this looks like this, then I'll feel great. No,
then you'll get to there, and then something else you'll
be like, oh now this and now this there is
like where can we just say wow, I feel amazing.
I have worked my butt off, I feel good. I
take care of myself, I live a healthy lifestyle. I
still have fun, but I look good and I feel
good right. And I think you know, as a trainer,

(01:10:37):
you see all different types of bodies, and I know
that I can be guilty of telling you like, oh,
I'm struggling with this part of my body and I
hate it. And I know you every single kind of
yours you like. Trust me, nobody is happy with every
single part of their body. And I have to realize
too that just because I work out with you and

(01:10:57):
Kelsey Ballerini works out with you, doesn't mean I'm gonna
have Kelsey's legs. You're not gonna You're going to have
the best Amy Brown legs we can have. Because God
made us all special in our own way. We are
not meant to look like how boring would our society
be if we all had the same legs. And the
crazy thing is is similar to Taylor Swift and someone

(01:11:18):
giving a comment you're anorexia started with a comment and
that you took us hurtful, and you're like, okay, fine,
we'll fix this. I just want to, And then you
know you know what it's like for all the girls
that you train, or I don't even know if some
guys that the pressure that every some of our clients
have on them and things that are being said, and

(01:11:38):
it's just like, yeah, who made the standard of of
what we're supposed to look like? And that's why I'm
proud of Demmy for speaking out and Jessica Simpson and
Taylor Swift and people that other girls can look up
to younger girls and maybe we can change the next
generation and then it'll just have an effect, because somewhere

(01:12:00):
it's gotten so messed up. I mean, honestly to probably
with all the photoshopping over all these years. Now well,
I mean but even before social media, if you think
look at magazines and how airbrushed, and now magazines are
taking a stance against that and they're saying they're not
going to do it. But then we're so used to
seeing that that when we see something that isn't what

(01:12:20):
we're used to seeing, we're like, oh, what is that cellulite?
Is that? You know? Are those curves? Uh? And then
now we've got on social media all different kinds of
editing apps where I am totally guilty of using filters,
and even on the stories where there's like this subtle
one isn't all as little, but it does make your

(01:12:40):
skin look amazing, And I feel awful. If anybody ever
comments back, like your skin looks so good, I'm like,
that's the filter, but your skin does look beautiful. Well,
thank you, give yourself shout out. Both of us are
see the Nashville beauty girl cares, Oh my gosh, she's
so good. Tomorrow you get to see her tomorrow. I'm jealous,
but you know, I it's it's hard because then we

(01:13:03):
see ourselves without that filter, and we're so used to
seeing the filter that it's scary, and it is for
all of us, and so somewhere it's just got to stop.
So I'm I'm proud of all the people that are
speaking out, and I'm thankful for people like you in
my life that have encouraged me to have a strong body,
to love yourself my body, to not eat my body,

(01:13:25):
to eat food, because you know, there what when I
first started working at you, all I did was juice,
which there's a place I think juice can be very nutritious,
but there's that shouldn't be your main thing. You need
to be. You can have that in as a way
to get some nutrients, but you need to be eating
real food too, and it's eating too little calories can

(01:13:47):
have a bad effect on your body too. Yeah, we
need um Lisa who I'm doing the the series with
which I think, well, did I say the name? I
think we're calling it the gray area because it is.
It's kind of a a area of like, I'm not
clinically interrectic, I'm not clinically Bullie Mick, but I think

(01:14:08):
about food all the time. I sometimes miss out on
social events because of my food. I get anxious around food.
I don't want I'm scared of food. I'm working out
excessively or whatever it may be. Like that is not
having a healthy relationship. When my whole mind is consumed
with what you're going to eat, how you're gonna work out,

(01:14:28):
how you're going to do this, and how you're gonna
do that, instead of living in the moment, then there
might be something wrong, might not be clinically right. It's
just the gray area where maybe you don't even know
that you have that. But so I'm gonna read them.
This is the little thing that we wrote up about
it so I want to read it to you, and
it says Amy Brown, hosts of Four Things with Amy

(01:14:50):
Brown and Lisa hay I am registered dietitian and founder
of the Well Necessities and Fork the Noise, are breaking
the stigma and exposing the truth about disordered eating in
a new four parts series TVT title which we have
now given the gray Area, so I can add that in.
They'll expose the gray area of eating disorders, the subclinical
tendencies that many of us partaken but fail to get

(01:15:13):
help for. Both having overcome their own struggles with disordered eating,
Amy and Lisa want to make sure no one feels
alone in this journey and that freedom is in fact possible.
Throughout the series, they'll hear from real people with real
stories who found freedom after a fight, as well as
bring on experts to best guide and navigate this territory.

(01:15:34):
There's sorry. Their goal is to start a conversation, to
instill hope for those who are struggling, and provide space
for those going through it and those who have overcome it.
So in the stories we're collecting, we're collecting right now,
and we're we gave the about five minutes or less
like We gave like a word count and kind of
a guideline on how to tell your story, but not

(01:15:56):
too many guidelines because we wanted each one to be
their own raw and uh but I mean, I guess
me personally, I'm someone that needs parameters. But we've been
receiving them and it's they're good. The audience, it's powerful,
it's good. I'm proud of people for sharing their stories
because it's not always easy to open up for Some

(01:16:19):
people are anonymous, some people are not saying their names.
Some people are saying there. Uh. Two people that you
know are going to be sharing their stories, Caroline Hobby
and Hayley Hubbard. Love them both. That's amazing. I'm so
glad they're gonna come on. Ye. So I feel like
each one of these stories, somebody's gonna be able to
relate and be like, Okay, I struggle with the same thing.
I can do this, I can change. I can love
myself again, and I mean love yourself and then you'll

(01:16:42):
you'll be able to open up to love other people
better too. Yeah, and not look back on That's one
thing that I've a common theme I've gotten from some
of the stories we've been receiving is they we have.
We're also having them do a letter to themselves back then,
like if you could tell that you back then some things,

(01:17:02):
what would you say? And so many of them are saying,
I'm sorry for wasting so some of your time and
missing out on friendships and uh college years and having
fun because it can be so isolating because you you
you know. Anyway, I'm I'm pumped about it, and uh,

(01:17:24):
I think it's going to be something that's important. Obviously.
I think all the different people that are coming out
now kind of talking about it, it's great. And Aaron,
you know you have been. I think Mary even noticed,
probably a year after I was working out with you,
how I started eating differently. I couldn't be real proud
like I was doing eggs and oatmel and salmon and

(01:17:47):
really and even when you have events, even when I
had if I had a red carpet, I used to
just juice. And now it's like, oh, I'm about to
go on the red carpet. I'm gonna eat a full meal.
Who cares like I'm ready? Like I feel because I'm
taking care of my body. And that's what I was
going to say, Lisa. I thought about this earlier and
I forgot to say it. She calories. What does she

(01:18:09):
call calories? Um, life's force like your fuel, Like it's
your life force like calories. She doesn't even call them calories.
It's like if you look at stop looking at something
and counting all the calories of what you're eating. Look
at is like, that is my life force, that is
giving me what I need to survive. And every time
you eat, if you can think you're either feeding or

(01:18:30):
fighting a disease. To feel your body properly. Your body
is like a car. If you put bad athlete in
a car, it breaks down, right. It's the same thing
with your body. Feel your body, keep it moving, keep
it going, keep it feeling amazing. Feel your body properly.
But you have to give it that to give it
the energy. The same thing with gas. If you don't
feel a gas tank, it's going to break down. Your
car is the same way. Yeah. So you've been a
huge part in my season of recovery of what I've

(01:18:54):
been realizing about myself the last few years. And all
of this is new to me too. Listener was like,
You're not alone. I'm not someone that's coming you with
some expert, and like I have all this figured out
that I was saying, like with my adulthood and with
my years, like becoming thirty nine and growing into myself.
This is all something I'm just now figuring out about myself.
And so uh but Aaron, you know, she's got tools

(01:19:18):
that I used to keep me strong. Like I'm super
pumped about your new app that you now have. I
doubtloaded it. So I'm very proud of you. Which I
want to tell my listeners about two in case they
are looking to maybe find start their workout journey, or
they can't make it to the gym, or they just
want to start building muscle and taking care of themselves.

(01:19:40):
That's why I called it the Pretty Muscles Boom. That's
the name of the app, Pretty Muscles, And that's where
Guys Girls is for everyone. Muscles are absolutely beautiful and
the more muscles you have, the more calories you weren't arrest.
It's a win win, Yeah. And you just go to
um the app store and type in Pretty Muscles and
the workouts are about thirty minutes, so you don't even
have to drive to the gym. They're all workouts that
you can do in the convenience of your own home

(01:20:02):
with your kids running around. It doesn't matter. They're simple
yet super effective workouts, and they change every day for
the whole year. You will never repeat the same workout.
You might repeat some of the fun stuff, but none
of the workouts will be the same. Not only that,
but I have a full meal plan, so then you
can just learn how to live a healthy balance life.
It's not about taking this out and taking that out.
It's all about learning how to eat clean but still

(01:20:24):
love life. Get out, enjoy it, move that beautiful body
of yours, but have fun, have fun like I have
tons of workout games. You know I love those games. Games. Yeah,
you're all about the games, lots and lots of workout games,
lots and stuff. But look, it's minimal equipment. Now you
guys can train like all my amazing clients, but you
guys get to do it in the convenience of your
own home. So simple thirty minutes play with me and

(01:20:47):
I'll tell you exactly how to do. Oh and I
have modifications. It's for everybody. Yeah, really it is, and um,
I highly recommend you check it out. And then also,
I was something I've participated in a lot is your
bet game, which I know that there's one that is
going on basically now. But Sunday is the last day
to sign up, so if anybody wants to sign up

(01:21:08):
for step but the very last day to sign up
for step bed. Where it says it started March February,
it actually starts March first. That first week is a
warm up, so you can still sign up. The biggest
thing is you make sure you go into the game
code air in just E R I N. Make sure
you into the game code air and you'll be putting
my game. You're gonna pay forty dollars. Everyone pays forty dollars.

(01:21:29):
It's gonna pull your history off your fitness tracker. If
you don't have one, it's gonna take it from your phone.
How cool is that everyone can play and it's going
to give you a personal goal for the next six weeks.
Actually it's only gonna be five weeks because the first
week is a warm up week and if you hit
your personal goal, you're only competing against yourself. You get
your money back plus more. But the best part about
it is you move more, you feel amazing, you interact

(01:21:51):
with your kids because you can take your kids out.
What does keep you moving? For sure? It does. Your
furry babies are gonna love Cooper, My baby a Cooper
loves one step, beds going. It's like walks, extra walks
and extra walks. I'm sure. My dog car is like,
please play step bet let's walk. Okay, Yes, I'll do
it this time. Last time I did it, I think
I was out. Sometimes it just depends like what I

(01:22:11):
have going on in life, and obviously working in radio,
I sit behind a microphone, and so yeah, I think
there was something that happened. I was like, it was
like day two and I was like, dang it, I know.
I was like, how did you lose? All right, guys,
you are not going to lose. Let's all do this together.
Let's all move more. Feel amazing, and even if you lose,
it's still fun. It's actually more fun though, if you

(01:22:33):
can get a friend to play, because if you had
a friend to play, you guys have each other to
hold each other accountable, which my husband and I play together.
My son plays with me sometimes too. It's I love them.
I'm kind of obsessed. So in my Pretty Muscles app,
I tell you to move, get out and get your
movement into where you're thirty minutes of working out is
super important to make those pretty muscles. All day movement
is just as important. The more you sit, the tider

(01:22:54):
you get. The more you move, the better you feel.
So do both boom boom, eat clean small. I love life,
and we're all going to learn how to support each other.
Yeah I love that, and yes, I love being able
to support you. And thank you for always being a
cheerleader for me. And I'm biggest cheerleader. And I can't
be more proud of your journey. It's been really fun
to be a part of. And I actually truly thank

(01:23:15):
you for choosing to be a part of your journey.
Oh well, thank you, Aaron. I mean I kind of, um,
what's a long story, but I tricked Aaron into training me.
I did not trick me. I did, I did. I did.
It's it's kind of funny how it happened. But that
was like over two years ago, so now it seems
normal like that we're hanging out. But she did not

(01:23:35):
know me at all, and then I got her in
some auction for Haiti and then I'm sure she was like, Okay,
I'm just going to train this girl one and done,
get out of here and do the auction. And then
I was like, so you want to keep me around?
Oh my gosh, it's been so fun training you. We've
actually had lots of fun stuff like our event since
so fun. And we're working on an a SPUA event.
Like speaking, I love doing these events so much. Trying

(01:23:57):
to put that one together right now for like mid
to late April in Nashville, and it'll be another brunch
and burn but everybody better to give too many of
the details. But Nashville, Yes, we've done it here before.
But it's just a good central location where people love
to visit here for the weekend if they want to
make a trip out of it, or they can drive
in from lots of different in different places. Like it's

(01:24:20):
just a good It is a great central it's easy
to fly too easy to drive to. Yeah, so that's
another fun thing that we have coming up together. We
look out for that one. Yeah, it's gonna be great.
So at Aaron Opria is her handle on Instagram. Definitely
follow her. She always puts great stuff up in there,
Like you posted a salad recipe? Are you posted salad dressing?

(01:24:40):
I want to post addressing. Yeah you need to post
it because you sent me a screenshot. But I'm like,
other people need to know this, and I took up
so good. I took a sting shot of it. And
it's a ranch dressing. It said, Tahini ranch dressing. That's
actually really really really good. Yeah, it looks amazing, so simple,
very simple. Yeah, it looks like there's like one two,
three four, but like ingredient, it had oil and I

(01:25:01):
just took the oil out. Didn't need it, but if
somebody wanted it, that would be fun too, So I
took it out. Personally, I'll put it in the recipe
and i'll put optional. Yeah cool, all right, well, thank
you Aaron. Hey, thanks for having me remember pretty muscles,
baby step that

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