It’s the holiday season and this time of year, the only thing feeling stuffed should be the turkey! 

In today’s guest on The GlowJo Podcast is the amazing, Rochelle Christiane. Rochelle is a Holistic Health Coach and Gut Health Practitioner. She studied at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and is the host of The Emotional Mastery Podcast. Rochelle has extensive knowledge on gut health and human design. 

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In today’s episode, Rochelle and I discuss all the do’s and don’ts of gut health and the mind-gut connection. We talk about the microbiome, vagus nerve, nutrition, and listening to your body. We also chat about the impact stress, sleep, and foods have on the body and now to make better decisions for your health. 

If you relate to the uncomfortable, bloated, or overall sluggish feeling after eating, but you want to feel more in tune with your body, this podcast episode is for you! 

“When we’re feeling better, we want to eat better. When we eat better, we feel better.” 
~ Rochelle Christiane

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How’d you like this episode? Let’s connect on Instagram at @leannekallal and @theglowjo and remember to subscribe to The GlowJo Podcast to hear all the advice, have all your questions answered, and listen to some really amazing conversations. 

To stay up to date with everything happening at The GlowJo, join the weekly newsletter at www.theglowjo.com

Thank you for being a part of The GlowJo community!  ♥️

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[00:00:00] Leanne Kallal: Welcome to the GlowJo podcast. I’m your host, Leanne Kallal and every week I’ll be sharing thought provoking, soul soothing and inspiring conversations from personal stories to insider tips and tricks at the GlowJo. You can always find what you need when you need it most, this is permission. Permission to be you, permission to be messy, permission to feel all the feels.

[00:00:30] So what do you say? Let’s do this together! I’ll see you in the GlowJo..

[00:00:39] Hello, and welcome to the GlowJo, , I’m your host, Leanne Kallal and today I have a fabulous guest that I am so excited to introduce you to. And I must say today’s conversation is something that’s near and dear to my heart, or maybe a better way to say it is that it’s near and dear to my gut, because today we are talking all things, gut [00:01:00] health and how our guts and our minds are connected.

[00:01:03] And when I say we, I am referencing. My wonderful interview guest, Rochelle, Christian. Rochelle is a certified holistic and gut health practitioner. And she believes that we should all feel good in our mind, our body and our soul. Amen to that. I am 100% on board. She guides and supports people towards self-trust self-love and self-acceptance using food mindfulness and modalities such as human design and astrology.

[00:01:34] I love the work she does because it’s such a unique combination. She was an amazing guest to have on this was a really interesting conversation. And in my personal opinion, I think there’s so much gold and so much information that is waiting for us to tap into when it comes to guthealth, whether it’s allergies or auto-immune disorders, or just not feeling our best, but not quite [00:02:00] sure why.

[00:02:00] Anxiety, depression, different mood disorders. There are so many different health issues and symptoms that can actually be traced back to the gut. My hope is that you find this conversation today very interesting and supportive, especially as we move into the holiday season. This is a busy, stressful time of year.

[00:02:19] There’s lots of parties, drinking, food, stress. And so having some extra tools in our kit, as we move into the season so that we know how to support ourselves, that we can show up as our best, have a ton of fun, make those memories and really connect with our friends and loved ones is extra important. I hope that this conversation today helps you do just that as you’ll soon, find out.

[00:02:44] So many interesting points at the very end of this episode, I recap my personal top 10 takeaways to help summarize the gold that is in this interview. I hope you enjoy, and I will see you on the other side.

[00:02:59] Hi, [00:03:00] Rochelle. Welcome to The GlowJo Podcast. It is so good to have you here today. 

[00:03:04] Rochelle Christiane: Thank you. It’s so good to be here. 

[00:03:06] Leanne Kallal: For everyone listening, I’m just going to be honest and share what just happened.

[00:03:09] We started the interview and it was going so well. And then I looked up, I’m like, I forgot to record it. And so thank you for just being, going with the flow here. And I know that was a juicy conversation, but I trust that this conversation is going to be that much juicier. I’m excited to continue talking with you and for everyone listening, Rochelle Christiane is someone who recently our paths have crossed. We’re in a coaching group together.

[00:03:39] I saw that her podcast is the Emotional Mastery Podcast and I’m like holdup, who is this woman? I need to get to know her more. I was instantly drawn to her and as we connected one-on-one I realized there were many good reasons for me to be drawn to her. 

[00:03:55] You’ve studied with the, Institute of Integrative [00:04:00] Nutrition, you’ve studied human design, which I’m really getting into, and as we started talking more, you said you’re really passionate about the mind gut connection. I’m someone who has had a ton of gut issues throughout my entire life. And so selfishly, I’m so excited to interview you today to learn more about your expertise and your skillset in all these different areas.

[00:04:24] Before we really dive in to the whole mind gut connection and why this isn’t talked about more, because I really think that this is something that could be the missing piece and the answer and solution to so many symptoms like mental, physical, emotional that we experience. I’d love for you to take a minute to introduce yourself and share your story because it’s really, really incredible and inspiring. 

[00:04:47] Rochelle Christiane: Sure, thank you. Um, yeah, so I’m Rochelle. I am a holistic health coach. My story, I’m a 6/3 emotional manifesting generator and when I came into human design, completely transformed my life. [00:05:00] How I got here, basically going back to my story. I have been through a string of toxic and abusive relationships throughout my life. Part of my story too, is I grew up overseas. I grew up internationally and so I always kind of felt confused as to where I fit in.

[00:05:14] I was never in a place that I felt like was home which was really beautiful in a way because in human design I have an undefined identity center, so I can kind of just be a chameleon, a different situation. So I was able to really taste a lot of different situations, but because I was always questioning my worth, I was always questioning who I was, I was led into these unhealthy relationships.

[00:05:34] I was a mom in my early twenties and so I spent most of my twenties in serious relationships and you know, not really knowing where I fit in and just really confused and lost. And I found myself in an abusive marriage and literally, he went for a job interview a day and I packed up my stuff and I took me and my kids and I left, which was a hard decision because going from, I wouldn’t say I had support in that marriage, but just not [00:06:00] doing it alone, and then to being a single mom of two, which I was like, I don’t want to do that, but everything happens for a reason. 

[00:06:06] I really attribute fitness to being the catalyst for this change because when I started working out, I started to gain confidence. It was after my second child and so your body changes with kids and, you know, I was a little bit older when I had my second, so it didn’t bounce back the way it did with the first, so I was just on top of everything else and being unhappy in my marriage and my situation and I was drinking all the time and I was just, I was miserable. I was not happy. 

[00:06:28] I got to the point where I didn’t even know who I was and so for myself and for my kids, I just knew I needed something different and I always just had this fire. I just knew I was meant for more, but I just couldn’t see it through the fog of what I was sitting in.

[00:06:41] And so when I got myself out of that relationship, I really started my personal development journey with the fitness. I started eating better, being more aware of it, drinking less, journaling, meditating, doing all of the things. And I think we always want that like quick fix, right? Like when I started it, I was like, oh my gosh, it’s all gonna [00:07:00] change for me, like now and then it didn’t, which would cause more frustration and so it was just a long journey. And about a year, year and a half, I found human design and it just changed my life to be able to see who I was on a piece of paper and just be like, wow, all of the things I thought I was wrong for just to see that that’s who I am, and it’s not anything that I have to change. And it just kind of gave me that permission to be like, you know what, like I am worthy exactly as I am. If you’re not here for it, you’re not here for it. And that’s really hard from somebody who didn’t know what they thought, felt, should do, should act. I literally didn’t know how to make a decision if somebody wasn’t telling me how to make that decision. 

[00:07:36] Between years of therapy and all of these things, it really got me to the point where I found I I N and started my holistic health coach practitioner certification and about halfway into that, we did a couple of weeks on gut health and I was like, wow! The gut mind connection, the gut connection with the emotions and the solar plexus. In human design, the emotional solar plexus rules the gut so it was just all this was being put together for me. And so when that was done, I [00:08:00] started the emotional mastery podcast and it was a way to speak my truth, because that was a thing I felt like I was never able to do um, and yeah. I didn’t really talk about it for about a year cause I was a little bit scared of actually putting it out there. 

[00:08:13] It was a great outlet for me, but you know, the whole people listening to it kind of still made me nervous. Um, but yeah, COVID happened and it was a blessing in disguise. I don’t even know how to talk about 2020 it was so heavy and it was so deep, but I think for so many of us, yes, it was tragic and there was a lot to it and I think it also was a time where we could not ignore ourselves anymore. We had to sit with ourselves. A lot of stuff came up for a lot of people and you know, you can go with it and learn and I just felt like it was all for a reason and so since then last year, everything has changed for me. 

[00:08:46] Leanne Kallal: Yay! Wonderful. Well, thank you for sharing your story. I commend you because making those changes can be really, really difficult and I can only imagine what it would be like to be in those situations with kids and so thank you [00:09:00] for being an example and leading the way and sharing your story so openly. I really appreciate it. 

[00:09:05] Rochelle Christiane: Thank you.

[00:09:06] Leanne Kallal: Yeah, and so I know we’re going to talk about the mind gut connection, but really quick because human design has come up a couple of times for everyone listening who doesn’t know what human design is, how would you describe it super, super quick and then we’ll really dive into the mind gut connection cause I have a lot of questions for you. 

[00:09:24] Rochelle Christiane: So human design I look at it as like a permission slip, it’s kind of like a blueprint to who you are. It’s a combination of five different modalities, so it’s got elements of astrology, the Chinese Yijing, Kabbalah tree of life, the Hindu chakra system, and then quantum physics, quantum mechanics. So it’s a combination of all of these it, when you pull up your chart, you’ll see this body graph and it’s going to be nine centers.

[00:09:45] The biggest difference between human design and the traditional Hindu chakra system that has seven centers is the emotional solar plexus split into the emotional center and then the spleen and the heart center is split into the identity center and the ego center.[00:10:00] When you pull it up, it can be super complex so the biggest thing, when you first learned your design is always coming back to this type strategy authority, which you will hear over and over and over and over to the point where it’s really annoying because we want to know all of the, like all those little details that make us us, which is a beautiful and amazing thing, but it is so important to come back to those key core elements, because when you are flowing with your type strategy and authority, everything else just kind of clicks into place. Like you really don’t even need to know everything else. 

[00:10:28] Of course, we all want to know about ourselves in such a deep way, but I think it’s just such a great tool to get in touch with yourself, to get in touch with your higher being, with your intuition, and for me, it helped me see myself in such a beautiful way that I can come back to myself and stand firm in myself and it was really the catalyst for that for me, because that was the thing that was so hard for me to do in my life.

[00:10:52] Leanne Kallal: Yeah. Yeah. So interesting. Thank you for sharing. 

[00:10:55] Let’s dive into the whole mind gut conversation now.

[00:10:58] What is the gut? What is the [00:11:00] microbiome? And yeah, let’s just start talking about this. I’m really, really curious to learn more about the overarching, I guess you could say theory behind this or school of thought? 

[00:11:11] Rochelle Christiane: Yeah, absolutely. So the gut, I think so many of us think of just our stomach with the gut, but the gut is truly the entire process. It’s in to out. It’s the whole process there. I look at it from definitely a holistic perspective. So like you said, there’s so many different symptoms that can come about when your gut is unbalanced and so when we talk about having a balanced or unbalanced gut, that’s due to the microbiome. So when you think about having a universe within your body or a town or a city or whatever, it’s this symbiotic relationship. If you give your gut, if you give your microbiome the tools to flourish, you’re going to feel good. Things are going to run smoothly. Your emotions are going to be good. Your mind. You’re not going to have that fog. You’re able to think clear. You’re going to be able to sleep better. It’s literally, literally everything you can think of and within the U.S. too, I think like 90 to like 95% of illnesses are traced back to the gut because so many of them [00:12:00] are stress related and stress has a huge impact on the gut.

[00:12:03] So if you’re feeding your body incorrectly, if it’s not the right food, if it doesn’t make you feel good, and I will say that we are all bio-individual. So what works for me? I’m plant-based that doesn’t always work for everybody and especially as a health coach, I will never sit there and be like, ‘you need to eat vegan’, ‘you need to get plant-based’ because we’re all so different. Our bodies need so many different things. So I always urge people truly feel into what feels good for you. And the thing is a lot of times we don’t actually know what feels good because our body has never actually felt good. We have this baseline of truly feeling, not good that we think is good.

[00:12:37] I like elimination, diets, um, just short things just to kind of like get yourself in touch. And then it’s, I like struggle in saying that cause it’s hard, right? The elimination diet is, is hard and it takes a commitment and I don’t want anyone to feel like, if they can’t succeed in doing it, like there’s no shame in it. We all have to just do what feels right for us. I did the elimination diet and as being plant-based, that was [00:13:00] really hard. So I couldn’t fully do it. So, but it’s coming back to that baseline of actually what feeling good feels like, and really being intuitive with your body and knowing that because once you start feeling better and knowing what to put in your body, it’s, it’s incredible. 

[00:13:13] There’s so many things in your body can change from your skin to your emotions, to just like bloating, gas, you know, all these symptoms that we have overthinking and anxiety, all of this can truly be helped with having a happy thriving gut.

[00:13:27] Leanne Kallal: As I was listening to you talk, I was thinking of my personal experiences I’ve had over the years with food and my stomach. I was living in Malaysia and when I was over there, my allergies got really, really bad and I thought they were environmental. It’s really humid, there’s more mold, lots of air conditioning and I think there was definitely something to it, but it was when I moved back to North America from Malaysia and I was still feeling like absolute crap. My eyes were puffy. I was super puffy and stuffy [00:14:00] and I did an elimination diet and when I did that elimination diet, I cut out sugar, dairy, gluten. The first thing I added back in was dairy because I was a dairy nut. I love cheese. Don’t even put me buy a block of cheese cause it was not going to last. And it was instantaneous how horrible I felt. I’ve gotten muscle testing done. I’ve worked with natural practitioners for that sort of allergy testing and then I did do allergy testing through a MD like a medically western, medically trained.

[00:14:32] And yeah, I have allergies to a lot of foods and different things. And so for me, when I have dairy, I get extreme anxiety and I feel really low and it’ll be a range of emotions. I’ll be crying and then it’ll be angry and the tricky thing is that it doesn’t always happen immediately after. It might be three days after. Usually for me, I know that the week ahead is going to be really rough.

[00:14:57] Later on in life, same thing’s happened [00:15:00] with gluten and when I have gluten, then I get super, super bloated and I feel hung over for probably about three days without being hung over. 

[00:15:07] My allergies have been physical, but very emotional and I’ll share that with people and they kind of look at me like, I’m crazy, but it sounds like my body’s actually really in tune and it’s speaking really loudly to me.

[00:15:21] Rochelle Christiane: It is and a couple points that I want to touch on, but first of all, dairy, I always, whenever people come to me about whether they want to dip their toes in, like plant-based eating, or just want to clean up their diet, it doesn’t matter if you want to be plant-based or not. It really doesn’t. I always, my recommendation is if you can cut out dairy, do it because, and it’s so funny because every single time I have a conversation with someone, I want to say like 98% of the time, almost every single person is they say, ‘oh my gosh, I love cheese I know that dairy makes me feel terrible and I don’t like it, but it tastes so good.’ Most people are allergic to dairy are lactose intolerant on some level, but yeah. The way that it [00:16:00] metabolizes in your gut, it actually metabolizes the same way morphine does so you’re actually physically addicted to dairy. When I first gave up cheese, I would like sit and eat a whole block of cheese. Like I legit would sit and my friends would make fun of me cause I was just like shout out on it. But when I gave it up, I was making my daughter a grilled cheese sandwich once and I literally had to walk away because I was like shaking. I wanted to eat it so bad. There are so many things linked to dairy.

[00:16:21] I’ve read studies on people who have had chronic ear infections as children and when they gave up dairy, the ear infections went away. Allergy symptoms linked to dairy. So there’s so much linked to dairy and yeah, it helps us feel so much better when we do give up dairy and again, play with it. Some people can eat it and there’s not a single problem in the world for them. Some people can’t eat it and it’s just really trusting and knowing what actually feels good for you. So that’s a huge one and yeah, your body, like you said, you literally feel that on an emotional mental level, because our gut talks to our brain all day through the vagus nerve.

[00:16:56] There’s certain tools that you can do that will calm you down [00:17:00] because it’s activating the vagus nerve, but. It really, truly does trickle into our emotions. 

[00:17:04] I know personally for myself, if I drink alcohol the next day, I am so irritable. I am so moody. I just, I feel bad for my kids sometimes cause I’m just like go to your room, you know? and it’s not even their fault so, you know, the alcohol is an example, but it can come from gluten. If you have a bad reaction to gluten, it can truly affect your emotions and a lot of people don’t put that together because it’s like, okay, so I eat a pizza and then the next day I feel bad, but they don’t even have the correlation that it came from the pizza.

[00:17:31] It’s easy for us to be like, oh, well so-and-so pissed me off today. Instead of being like, my body was already in that state because of something I ate. So it does take a lot of intentionality and a lot of awareness to track how you’re feeling and so I commend you and I honor you for being able to see that, when you have these emotions and you can put it to what you’re eating and that’s.

[00:17:53] Yeah, it’s a powerful connection.

[00:17:56] Leanne Kallal: Thank you.

[00:17:57] I want to talk more about the vagus nerve, but before we [00:18:00] do that, what are some of the symptoms and things that can go on in somebody’s life that can be related to the gut? 

[00:18:09] Rochelle Christiane: So physical symptoms, you will bloating gas, constipation, diarrhea, depending on what’s off in your body. Again, anxiety overthinking, an anxiety in itself has so many symptoms that we don’t really relate to anxiety.

[00:18:24] Whether it’s feeling dizzy or shaking, or just having that, tightness in your stomach, the knots in your stomach, there are a lot of physical symptoms. If you are having dairy you can have joint issues so there’s so, so many actual physical symptoms that come back to the gut and when the gut is unbalanced, and just as an example, I feel like I’ve always eaten relatively well throughout my life, my mom has always told me like, ‘oh, you have a gut of steel’. Cause like I could pretty much eat whatever I wanted, and from a human design perspective, I have a defined spleen. So like, I don’t really notice that I feel bad until I’m like, [00:19:00] feel really bad, but I’ve done a lot of work with my body and so I’m really in tune with it now. But I did, I have even still always kind of suffered with gas and bloating. Those have always been the two things that I always notice and recently I started a new probiotic and it’s literally like night and day.

[00:19:16] Just that one change. I’m mind blown, like, wow. Always check with your doctor because there are certain health issues probiotics are recommended to stay away from them and I’m not a doctor, so be aware that, you know, if you are starting something new, if you do have auto-immune diseases, if you have cebo, if you do have some gut related issues, make sure you check with your doctor before you start something new, but probiotics can be a really, really great addition to your diet that can really help you regulate your gut and its symptoms.

[00:19:42] Leanne Kallal: Yeah. Awesome. Okay. So there was a slew of symptoms there, and then a couple more that I’m remembering, which is like, hey, it’s kind of funny I’m remembering cause brain fog. And I definitely will experience a lot of brain fog and difficulties focusing and concentrating and sleep. 

[00:19:59] Rochelle Christiane: Can we talk about sleep [00:20:00] for a second? 

[00:20:00] Leanne Kallal: Yes please, let’s do it. No, no, no you go. 

[00:20:03] Rochelle Christiane: Yeah. Sleep is so, so underrated. I don’t know how many adults don’t sleep. I will have conversations with people. They’ll be like, ‘oh yeah, I slept like three hours a night’. We are meant to as adults sleep between seven and nine hours and it’s so rare to happen. But when you’re not sleeping those amount of hours, solid sleep, a lot of people have disrupted sleep, but when you’re not sleeping seven to nine hours, you’re tired. So yes, your brain isn’t working properly. You can’t make decisions properly. You’re more inclined to reach for sugary foods because you need that boost of energy and your body literally craves it and we can go through a whole thing about your gut and cravings. Cause every single craving you have in your life has comes down to your gut and what your gut needs. I always always talk about if you are on my Instagram page, on my newsletter, client, anything it’s having these tools in your pocket that can really help you get a full night’s sleep and all the tools we talk about it’s it’s for overall holistic health, right? Because we want to balance everything out, but it [00:21:00] also helps you sleep and sleep is probably one of the top three things for gut health and it’s just, it’s not talked about enough it’s so, so life-changing to be able to get enough sleep. And there are a lot of different things, whether it’s wearing blue-blocking glasses during the day, just silly little things that we think aren’t that big of a deal, but truly we’re on our devices all day and that’s messing up our circadian rhythm, which just, it makes it harder to fall asleep too. So, yeah, there’s a lot. Yeah. 

[00:21:26] Leanne Kallal: Wow. Yeah, and I never would have thought that sleep actually helps the gut. I could see how the gut could throw off sleep, but knowing that by getting better sleep, it helps your gut. I mean, now that you said it, I can see how that would all come together and I know for me, I’ll say I spend a lot of time in bed. It’s just not high quality and I’m up and on at like, you know, and not a lot of deep sleep, thanks to the aura ring for letting me know that it’s kind of depressing, but it’s good information to have.

[00:21:51] If I wake up feeling really extra tired, I’m going to reach for caffeine. Which I’m sure that there is a lot of stuff we can talk about caffeine and it [00:22:00] maybe gives me those temporary boosts, but I’m sure it’s doing more harm to my gut, and then I just crave, heavy, carby, energy to keep going , and then you eat and then it’s like, oh, well, that doesn’t feel very good. And then my stomach’s upset and my energy is low, and then I’m like, ‘oh my energy is low. I want more food naturally to try to boost myself’ and so it’s this really unproductive cycle and I’ve definitely noticed when I’m not getting good sleep, I’m way more inclined to eat poorly and make poor choices. 

[00:22:29] Rochelle Christiane: Yeah, and carbs and processed foods break down in your body of sugar. So you essentially are craving sugar. 

[00:22:35] Leanne Kallal: Got it. Ah, damn. Oh, Jesus stuff is so tricky.

[00:22:39] Okay. So, oh my questions are growing, but okay. I want to go back to the vagus nerve. I’ve known about the vagus nerve, but I never actually knew that it’s the connection between our stomach and our gut and our mind. And so how do our mind and our gut interact with each other? How do they talk to each other? How does this work and how do they influence each other?[00:23:00] 

[00:23:00] Rochelle Christiane: So your gut and your mind through the vagus nerve are literally constantly all day just shooting signals back and forth all day so they literally are constantly in communication. And you know, like we’ve heard of the gut is like the second brain, and we’ve heard of following your gut, going with your gut, gut instinct, intuition and it’s literally so incredibly powerful. There are ways that we can regulate that vagus nerve, because it can get out of whack there’s between all the signals that are being sent back and forth, depending on what state your gut is in, how you’re feeling, right?

[00:23:34] There’s your mood, your emotions. There’s just a lot to it and so there are tools that we can pull out that will regulate that and kind of bring us back to ourselves. You’ll hear about things EFT tapping, breath work, meditation, humming.

[00:23:47] If I’m super stressed, I would just go “hmm.” Right? Even that just cause it’s vibration, it’s activating it. So humming, singing. I don’t sing in front of anybody, but my kids, but I tell you what, if I’m [00:24:00] emotional and I get in the car, I sing like there’s no tomorrow. It’s just, I’ve always done that and then when I learned that singing actually stimulates the vagus nerve to help calm you down and I was like, that’s why I did that! You know? Um, movement movement is incredibly and I always talk about movement and I think some people associate movement with fitness.

[00:24:20] There’s high intensity fitness, and then there’s movement. We don’t have to have super intense going to the gym, lifting weights, running 10 miles a day. Movement can be as simple as taking a walk in nature . Yoga is one of my absolute favorite. Yoga is so healing because it really works with your body getting in tune with your body.

[00:24:38] It brings you into your body, but not only that, especially for trauma, it really helps you breathe through stress, right? Cause you’re putting your body in these positions that can be challenging to hold. You don’t want it to be too challenging where you’re in pain, but when you push your body to a little bit to its point and you learn how to breathe through it, slow down, your breathing can be incredibly helpful because again, breath work really helps with the vagus nerve as well.[00:25:00] 

[00:25:00] So there are all these tools that we can pull out that can really stimulate that and just help bring us back to ourself, help calm our anxiety down a little bit and I think once we have these tools, if I’m feeling a little bit anxious or if I have trouble sleeping, I literally mentally go through my checklist. I’m like, ‘okay.. Did I move today? Did I have enough water? Did I have my probiotics? Did I meditate? Did I breathe? Do I need to go do a five minute meditation before I calmed down, did I read?’ It’s just all these things that I always go through because when we’re feeling better, we want to eat better. When we eat better, we feel better. 

[00:25:30] When one thing is disconnected, like you said, you notice when you don’t sleep that well. You’re not eating that well, but then when you’re not eating that while you don’t feel that well, so then you don’t sleep that well, right? 

[00:25:39] So it’s like taking the action to know you’re in this cycle. What is one thing that I can do to bring myself back in line with myself so that I can feel better and then want to eat better?

[00:25:49] Leanne Kallal: I am a huge fan of what is that one thing you can do to that’s really gonna help you, move in the direction that you want to go but when you’re down in the [00:26:00] dumps and when you’re feeling so crappy, whether it’s like physical pain, depression, you’re exhausted, your stomach doesn’t feel good, you’re super emotional, your energy is off, aside from that one thing, or maybe the one thing is this, but what would you recommend for people who are listening to this and they just feel like absolute do- do, and they don’t know what to do and it’s hard to even get motivated to take that step? What do you recommend to people who are just kind of being hit on all? Do you start with the mind, do you start with the gut now? There’s the Vegas nerve. Do we start with the Vegas nerve? Do we start with the physical body? What are your thoughts? 

[00:26:41] Rochelle Christiane: I have three responses to that one. I’m going to say journal. I always talk about journaling. I know some people are journal resistant.

[00:26:47] You can make notes in your phone. You can do an audio message in your phone, but I think journaling is so helpful because it really gets you in tune with yourself and to really know what you need in those moments. It just, it allows you to kind of [00:27:00] take everything that’s in your mind and put it on a piece of paper and it just kind of alleviates the anxiety, the stress, the sadness, the pain in some, some way being able to get out. Second is, what is the thing that you’re most resistant to in this moment, right? When you have that checklist in your mind, when you know the things that you ‘should’, I quote air quotes ‘should’, because I hate that word.

[00:27:19] But the things that you know would help you, let’s say, what is the thing that you’re most resistant to? For me, when I’m feeling really, really low, and I’m not just, I don’t want to, I don’t want to meditate. I don’t want to work out. It’s like, what am I feeling most resistant to? And that’s the thing that I do.

[00:27:33] Yeah, because that’s what my body actually really needs. So if I’ve worked out maybe, uh, or I have chosen not to work out, but I’m like, ‘okay, I know I should meditate should, but I really feeling a lot of resistance that,’ then that’s the thing that I know I need to do. 

[00:27:48] Leanne Kallal: How do you sit and go and meditate?

[00:27:51] I love that you shared that. I love journaling and I’ve been so resistant lately. I go through phases of being really on. I’m like, ‘yeah, this feels [00:28:00] so great’ and then I’m like, ‘oh, it’s the last thing I want to do’. And then same with meditating. That’s my relationship with meditating. How do you push through that resist? 

[00:28:08] Rochelle Christiane: Honestly, sometimes I set a timer, you know, there are so many different ways of meditation. So whatever calls to you is, you know, whether you want to do guided meditations, whether you want to do silent meditations, whether whatever form of meditation you want to do, sometimes in those moments, I’ll just set a timer for 15 minutes.

[00:28:25] I go into it knowing that my mind is just going to be spiraling but I think it’s just that stillness and having that space where I’m allowing it. I’m 15 minutes with myself. No distractions. Maybe I’ll get a pocket of stillness. Maybe you’ll get a pocket of silence, but it’s just like being with myself and even if my mind is spiraling, it’s getting the clarity of those emotions. 

[00:28:44] It’s getting, seeing my thoughts and observing my thoughts and not interrupting them and then I can journal afterwards and just write everything out that came out. So to me, that’s personally helpful. I’ve been meditating for four or five years, and it’s still not always that easy.

[00:28:57] There are still days where I will sit there for 15, 20 [00:29:00] minutes and have zero silence in my mind. It’s just go, go, go, go, go. But I think it’s just having that intention, having that practice is actually something that I do look forward to and it’s switching it up.  This was my last point to your question.

[00:29:12] Be intuitive with yourself, right? What works today, isn’t going to work tomorrow, you know? Like in fitness, one of my running instructors, cause I use an app for running just cause it keeps me motivated, but he always says he’s like ‘today’s legs are not yesterday’s legs. So if you can’t push yourself like you did yesterday, or if you feel more motivated than you did yesterday, it’s all different.’

[00:29:28] I love that saying because it can go for anything. Today’s mood today’s needs today’s emotions. Whatever you need is different than it was yesterday so have compassion with yourself, have grace with yourself and don’t beat up on yourself. If you do decide, ‘you know what, I’m not going to run, I’m not going to work out. I’m not going to eat right. I’m going to eat like shit and I’m going to not meditate and I’m going to sit in bed and I’m going to watch Netflix for the whole day’, then that’s what it is, there’s no shame in it. 

[00:29:52] Giving yourself that, but coming back to what you know, works and taking those small little steps to pull yourself out of it. [00:30:00] 

[00:30:00] Leanne Kallal: Yeah. I love that. And so just to recap, there was, and I’ll start at the end, be intuitive tune in, what do you need today? Don’t assume that what worked for you yesterday or what you needed yesterday is going to work for you today.

[00:30:12] And then it’s like, choose that one thing. And then set a timer. And so I know you said set a timer, sit down for 15 minutes when I do not want to do something, but I know I need to do it or if it’s something that I, you know, air quotes should do, but I have resistance to it. I set a timer and usually there’ll be like, hey, just do this for two minutes, do this for five minutes, and then I get going and it helps me to get over that resistance.

[00:30:35] So thank you for sharing. Those are all really, really great tips. 

[00:30:39] And so going back to the microbiome.

[00:30:42] What would you recommend to someone who’s listening to this and they’re like, wait a minute.. I have these things going on. I never actually thought it could be related to my gut. What next on the journey of learning about our microbiome and starting to actually play around and see is this something that [00:31:00] I need to spend some more time learning about?

[00:31:02] Rochelle Christiane: Yeah, I think the first thing is be honest, be honest about your diet. Really, really look at what it is, you know, are you just from a high level perspective, every single diet in the world basically has a base of, of greens, uh, vegetables of high quality protein. 

[00:31:20] We’re so busy in our life. Right? It’s really hard to meal prep. It’s really hard to take the time at night sometimes to actually cook a meal. I have two kids, I work, you know, I have a lot going on. I don’t always cook. There are some nights where I’m just like, hey, we’re getting Chipotle on the way home.

[00:31:34] It’s choosing the places that I know, even if I’m going to have fast food, I just have in my mind of the best choices, I guess.

[00:31:41] Leanne Kallal: Yeah. 

[00:31:42] Rochelle Christiane: I remove anything that I know is going to be bad. Just so that when we do have those times when we are reaching for snacks or have the chocolate covered almonds instead of ice cream. You know what I mean?

[00:31:52] It’s these little adjustments that you can have in your house to just make the better choices but I think the first step is really being honest about what you are [00:32:00] consuming and then again, nothing is going to happen overnight. Some people can completely transform overnight in what they’re eating and consuming, but also diets don’t really work because they are so extreme and they put us in this lack mindset and then when we’re done with the diet, we go back and we completely reverse everything. 

[00:32:18] So I like to make lifestyle changes rather than prescribed diets other than like the elimination diet. I think that’s just, but that’s not meant for long-term diet.

[00:32:27] That’s really just to get in touch with your body and know what’s what feels good and what doesn’t.

[00:32:31] Leanne Kallal:  Yeah, 

[00:32:32] Rochelle Christiane: It’s making the small changes and is this idea of crowding out so instead of saying I can’t eat this, let’s add something else in.

[00:32:40] So whatever your plate looks like, instead of saying ‘ oh, I can’t have the mashed potatoes tonight’. Let’s just add an extra bit of broccoli in there. 

[00:32:49] So that’s why I always say choose a green, choose a vegetable that you do like, and include that in your diet. That’s the actual physical diet health perspective of it, things that will help get your gut working properly cause once you [00:33:00] feel better in that, probiotics will help. If you get like a blood test, just to find out what your levels are. Maybe you’re deficient in vitamin D or B12. Uh, just these things to supplement in can be really helpful. Vitamin D is huge and I actually, I was having maybe like two years ago, really bad heart palpitations to the point I thought it was like going to have to go to the hospital or something.

[00:33:21] It was like really, really bad and I wasn’t feeling well. I was drinking a lot then too. Um, but yeah, so I went to the doctor and I’d had all this bloodwork done well, I’d worked on, I went to the cardiologist , I had the heart monitor for two weeks and one of the things they said was I was so deficient in vitamin D. And so it’s just vitamin hugely important 

[00:33:40] Leanne Kallal: I have my vitamin D oil right here. I was just taking a sip before we talked, actually. 

[00:33:45] Rochelle Christiane: Yeah, yeah, vitamin D is a really, really big one. So finding out what your levels are, being honest with yourself, just looking at it and being able to slowly implement these things. That will help you feel better.

[00:33:57] Leanne Kallal: Yeah. Great. Thank you. So it’s funny, cause you started to [00:34:00] almost like you were kind of answering the next question so I feel like you’re very intuitive and possibly reading my mind. One thing we haven’t talked about and this was one of the first questions I had, um, what is bad for our guts and what is good for our guts?

[00:34:15] I know antibiotics are not good for our guts. 

[00:34:18] Rochelle Christiane: Yeah. 

[00:34:19] Leanne Kallal: I would assume sugar and caffeine. You’re the expert here. So what are the kind of no no’s or things to try to stay away from? Or if we have them maybe be extra good after. 

[00:34:31] Rochelle Christiane: So I literally as you were asking that question in my mind, it was just sugar. Sugar. Yeah. Sugar feeds the bad bacteria in your gut. Like straight up. That’s probably the worst thing. 

[00:34:41] Antibiotics, so antibiotics, obviously in Western medicine, they’re beautiful because when we have these illnesses, it takes care of it. But we have to be aware that antibiotics not only destroy the bad bacteria, they also destroy the good bacteria.

[00:34:54] So especially for children, like I was on rounds of antibiotics when I was little. My daughter [00:35:00] had chronic ear infections, she was on rounds of antibiotics and it really does destroy the gut. So if you will, are going to be on antibiotics, like talk to your doctor about adding in, uh, prescription strength, probiotic. That can help replenish it as your, on the round of antibiotics. 

[00:35:17] You can have things like kombucha, which kombucha has sugar so maybe don’t drink a whole 16 ounce thing of kombucha, but maybe start with like six to eight ounces, but the sugar is natural. It’s straight from fruit. Make sure there’s no added sugar, read the brand, read the nutrition label.

[00:35:32] So that can be really helpful. Miso is really helpful. Sauerkraut is really helpful. Kefir is like, um, a dairy, that’s really helpful. Yogurt is really good because of its probiotics, but also again, make sure you’re reading the label and it’s not, you know, 12 added grams of sugar yogurt.

[00:35:52] Again, it’s good but, marketing.

[00:35:56] Leanne Kallal: If you can handle dairy.

[00:35:57] Rochelle Christiane: If you can handle dairy, if dairy doesn’t, yeah, [00:36:00] but you can also go get coconut based yogurt that also has probiotics and that’s cultured and also stuff like that. If you are into it, you can make your own sourdough bread.

[00:36:08] You can get the actual live cultures and make that at home. I tried to do that for a long time and it’s was like having another child because you have to feed it every day and it took up so much of my time, um, pickles, any fermented foods. That’s something you can make at home too.

[00:36:23] They’re all these like really, really great things and just in choosing what you like, so maybe you love pickles, maybe you love sauerkraut and just getting a dose of that per day. Like I like to end my night. I do have a little tiny thing of kombucha and I mix in some of my other supplements in there and it’s just kind of like my little nightcap 

[00:36:40] Leanne Kallal: cocktail

[00:36:41] Rochelle Christiane: yeah, exactly, exactly and again, alcohol. Everybody’s body reacts differently to alcohol and coffee to everybody reacts differently to coffee and so that’s why it’s really important to get to know what your body feels like, you know, what your body, how it feels on coffee. I can have one to two cups of coffee a day.

[00:36:56] If I have more than that, like I just don’t feel good. I feel like jittery. But some people [00:37:00] can have. One cup of coffee and feel terrible so it’s really just being in tune with your body and knowing what does feel good and what doesn’t. 

[00:37:06] When I was in corporate and the office, of course, we had the kitchen and because the way I run in like human design, I have a specific gate that doesn’t really allow me to sit for long periods of time.

[00:37:16] I get really antsy and it’s easier for me to focus when I’m moving and so I would drink probably five cups of coffee a day because it was the thing that got me away from my desk. I would go fill up the coffee and then talk to those few people and then go back and sit down but then on the flip side that was making me jittery and not be able to sit for a long time, but yeah, that’s a complete side note, but yeah, those are some of the things that are really good for your gut. I would just say as far as bad for your gut sugar, again, carbs processed food, all that breaks down is sugar.

[00:37:42] Obviously we need carbohydrates are our body’s energy. So it’s knowing the good carbohydrates. And as far as that, I always just say, my rule of thumb is five ingredients or less. And I like to know what every single ingredient is. If it’s got like a thousand ingredients in there and I can’t pronounce half of them, I [00:38:00] sometimes eat it cause it’s easy but most of the time I put it back, I’m like, I don’t need that.

[00:38:03] Leanne Kallal: Yeah. I love that.

[00:38:04] What would be good carbs? What are like, educate us on what good carbs are, because I feel like carbs are still misunderstood. 

[00:38:13] Rochelle Christiane: They really are.

[00:38:13] So rice is really great. Quinoa was really great. Bread as far as white is I would. 

[00:38:19] Leanne Kallal: Even white rice? 

[00:38:20] Rochelle Christiane: White rice is actually really great after a workout because it hits your body in a specific way and your body like eats it up. But if you’re sitting there, brown, brown rice is better. I think it’s just knowing when, I like basmati rice.

[00:38:33] You can do that. Again, it’s in moderation too, right? If you’re sitting there eating four cups of white rice, but if you’re having it with some veggies and, you know, mindfully eating it and slowly eating it, and that’s a whole other topic that I love too mindful eating, and that is incredibly helpful with your gut too making sure you’re chewing your food, making sure you’re slowing down, making sure you’re not eating while you’re driving, or watching TV, or on your phone, or scrolling mindlessly, because then we don’t realize that we’re actually full. Again, that comes back to being [00:39:00] intuitive with your body.

[00:39:01] But then as far as bread, I would say, make sure the bread is 100%, whole grain. Cause a lot of things, a lot of things say whole grain multigrain, but unless they say that 100%, it’s false marketing. So I would try and do that. Sourdough bread is really great because it’s got those probiotics in it. So make sure again, reading the label.

[00:39:21] There’s not a thousand different ingredients. You can find some sourdough bread, the bread that’s legit like three ingredients. That’s the one that I try and buy. 

[00:39:28] Potatoes get such a bad rap. I love potatoes.

[00:39:31] Leanne Kallal: I know they do! 

[00:39:32] Rochelle Christiane: Again, knowing your body, but I love potatoes. I have an air fryer at home, so I make my own french fries.

[00:39:38] I just chop them up. I put a little bit of olive oil in there, a little bit of avocado oil or whatever, salt pepper throw it in there and they’re really good. The problem with carbs potatoes is, chances are when you’re making mashed potatoes or a baked potato. It’s looking at what you’re putting on it more so than the actual potato itself.

[00:39:53] And then again, if you’re sitting there eating like three baked potatoes, that is a lot of carbs, so just [00:40:00] in moderation. They did a study. There was some guy who lived on only potatoes. I think he did it for 45 days or something. And it met every single dietary need he had. 

[00:40:09] Leanne Kallal: No way! 

[00:40:10] Rochelle Christiane: Yeah.

[00:40:10] Leanne Kallal: That’s wild. 

[00:40:11] Thank you for sharing because there are so many common misconceptions and I love that five ingredients or less. If you can’t read the ingredients, then stay away. That’s what I try to do. If I, if that’s, if it’s a word I don’t know, or I can’t pronounce, I don’t want to put that in my body. I’ll take a look at the five.

[00:40:28] The 100% multi-grain that is because I’ve seen lots of multi-grain. I don’t know if I’ve seen a lot of, 100% multi-grain so thank you for pointing that out. 

[00:40:38] And then really quick, going back to the mindful eating. I eat in front of my computer way more than I want to admit and am I actually enjoying the food? Am I paying attention as much? No. And then I probably overeat because of that. 

[00:40:53] I do believe the state that we eat in influences the impact of the food and what we’re putting in our bodies. So if we’re [00:41:00] eating in a really emotional state and maybe it’s even good food, but is the food going to like gurgle and not settle in our body? Versus what if we eat when we’re calm and we’re really like, wow, these nutrients, like really taking it all in. What are your thoughts on all this?

[00:41:15] Rochelle Christiane: Yeah. So our body can literally only stress or digest. 

[00:41:19] They’re like, you’re back in the day when we’re running from tigers and like trying to survive and we would like you know, kill a, uh, an ox and eat that. And that was the only thing, we have obviously evolved, but our body is still in that state.

[00:41:35] So that stress versus stress of eating while you’re on your computer, your body, your brain doesn’t actually know the difference between the two and so that’s why I talk about mindful eating because if you are in any sort of stressed out mode, you could be eating the most perfect diet ever, full of kale and high quality proteins and all these beautiful things and if you’re in a stress mode, your body literally does not know how to [00:42:00] digest or what to do with the food. So when we’re eating in a mindful state, when we’re calm and present, our body knows what to do and you can even think about one example that was given that always stands out to me is , think about eating a donut, right?

[00:42:12] Donuts aren’t good for us. We know they’re not good for us, but if I’m eating a doughnut and I’m stressing, cause I’m like, oh my gosh, I shouldn’t be eating this or I’m worried about a meeting that I have or whatever my body, it hits my stomach and my body’s like, ah, I don’t know. I’m just gonna grab onto the fats.

[00:42:24] I’m gonna grab onto the sugars because I don’t know what to do with it. As opposed to me being like, hey, I’m eating this donut, it tastes amazing, I’m going to be present with it. Then when it gets to my body, my body can be like, hey, we don’t need this fat. We don’t need the sugar. We’ll hold on to what we need and we’ll let go of what we don’t.

[00:42:38] So being mindful and being present and being intentional with your food, I almost want to say has more of an effect than what you’re eating. That’s like, obviously, obviously I say that, but it is so important to eat the right foods, just to make a point. It is so important to also be mindful because again, you can eat the best thing and that’s [00:43:00] why we look at health from such a holistic perspective, because you can eat the most perfect meal. But if your relationships are out of whack, if you’re stressed out, if your finances, your career, like if you’re just not healthy, or if you’re not happy in these other aspects of your life, your body just doesn’t know what to do and it’s going to be in this chronic stress mode, chronic inflammation, all these issues, which then lead to antibiotics, and lead to wrong food choices. So it’s so important to look from a holistic perspective and I can actually give it to you to share it with your listeners too, but they’re going to have this wheel, that I do.

[00:43:37] It’s the circle of life, the wheel of life and you place on it, where it has all these categories, like fitness, spirituality, career, finances, relationships, social life, joy, home, cooking, all these little areas and you can just map out what you need a little bit more love in and once you work through that and that becomes balanced, your body is just able to do what it needs to better. So, 

[00:43:58] Leanne Kallal: Wow. I love that and thank you for [00:44:00] sharing. That’s so nice of you. 

[00:44:01] I’m being reminded as you were talking this one fitness lady that I follow she’s like we don’t have cheat days, we eat what we want. They usually eat healthy, but for what people would consider, cheat days, she doesn’t have any charge around it. She’s like, if we want to have pizza, we have pizza and I enjoy it and then I move on. It’s not making a big deal out of it. I think that people will feel so guilty or so much shame.

[00:44:28] ‘ I shouldn’t be eating this. I shouldn’t be doing that’. And even just, when I say that word, I feel stressed in my body and so I can definitely see how, like, yeah, if we’re stressed, then our body’s not going to be able to do what it’s supposed to do and like you said, it’s going to go into fight or flight and our body’s going to store everything, even though it doesn’t need it.

[00:44:48] Whereas if we’re relaxed and we’re totally okay with it and we’re choosing to be present and enjoy it, it’s going to be a different experience because our body is going to be in different state. So, [00:45:00] yeah,

[00:45:01] Rochelle Christiane: Absolutely and I think it’s also, it’s easy to say too, but it’s also so hard in our culture and our environment because you have, especially in, so social media, you have people shouting at you from all angles.

[00:45:13] ‘You should be doing this, you shouldn’t be doing that.’ I think it’s so important too. I think that’s why the whole personal development in itself is so helpful too and like I said, journaling, just to get to know yourself so that when you’re in these modes of like, oh my gosh, well, this person, this fitness person is telling me that I should be eating this, or I should be eating that, to know, to come back to yourself and be like, wow, that actually doesn’t feel good for me.

[00:45:34] Like this works for me and this makes me in that space where yeah, I can have a piece of pizza on a Friday night and not feel bad about it because I’m actually legitimately enjoying it and not feel like, oh my gosh, I shouldn’t have had that. I think it’s so important to drown that out, but it’s also so hard because it’s just, it’s everywhere. It’s everywhere. 

[00:45:52] Leanne Kallal: Right? Yeah. I know. It’s interesting for me, if I have, let’s say if I have a glass or two of wine and I’m just really enjoying it, [00:46:00] I usually feel okay. Whereas if I’m having it, let’s say if I’m stressed or I’m annoyed or I’m almost using it to numb out somehow, I’ll feel like crap and so it’s so interesting. That’s the one I really notice for me. My state really makes a difference to how it impacts my physical and mental wellbeing. 

[00:46:19] Rochelle Christiane: Yeah, and to go a little bit into the woo with that.

[00:46:22] Abraham Hicks talks about being in the vibration, being in the energy of just it’s a law of attraction.

[00:46:28] Would you put out, you get back. It’s this thinking positive thoughts. I have thoughts about the getting to that level, because I think there is some groundwork that needs to be done before you can just be like the law of attraction, but one thing Abraham Hicks talks about is when somebody asked a question about alcohol and I thought it was really interesting.

[00:46:46] And they were like, okay, well, alcohol, is it bad? Is it good? Is it lowering my vibration? Is making me less spiritual? What’s the deal with alcohol? And the answer, of course, as Abraham answers to everything, it’s like, what is the vibration you’re at when you are drinking? Are you drinking to numb out? Are you [00:47:00] drinking when you’re feeling emotional? Are you shaming yourself when you’re drinking or are you actually legitimately enjoying the drink? The glass of wine, right? Are you, where are you at when you do that? And I stopped drinking over the summer. I’m kind of like often on a little bit, I kind of just do wine, but for me more so than anything else I drink now, when I actually just feel like it.

[00:47:20] I’m not drinking cause I’ve had a tough day. In moments like that, now I drink tea and I meditate. If I still want to drink after that, maybe, but that usually cures the anxiety of wanting to drink and so now, like last night I had a couple of drinks and I feel great today.

[00:47:34] I wasn’t shaming. I was literally just in a great mood and one of my coworkers was like, hey, want to grab a drink? I was like, yeah, you know I just enjoyed it and didn’t shame myself. I didn’t feel bad about it. So that’s kind of the space where I’m at but yeah, that, that just prompted me to brought that up in my mind. So,

[00:47:48] Leanne Kallal: I love it. Well, two other things. I know that we’ve talked for a while and we’ve covered so much ground and thank you for sharing so much information. I just want to circle back to two things that you said earlier that just keep coming to mind so I’m going to [00:48:00] trust that they’re supposed to join the conversation again at this point in time.

[00:48:04] So the first thing is you said 95% of illnesses in the U S can be linked back to the gut and this is in large part due to stress. 

[00:48:14] Let’s talk about stress and the impact and role it has on our health and I just have to say, I love how you take a truly holistic point of view and this wheel that you’re going to share with the GlowJo community, because you’re right. We can be doing something right in this one area. We can be eating well, but if we’re really, really stressed and if business isn’t going well or relationships, aren’t going well, it doesn’t make things right just because we’re doing one thing. Okay. 

[00:48:38] Rochelle Christiane: Yeah. I think America is very much in this hustle mindset, right?

[00:48:44] It’s like we have to push so hard. We have to do all these things to be worthy of anything. It is such a high stress environment to be in and yeah, stress causes so much of our gut issues. Almost every single [00:49:00] disease that you can think of can be linked to stress so it’s so important to reduce our stress levels here.

[00:49:06] And I heard I’m trying to remember what book it was. I think it was on atomic habits. I was listening to an audio book. Yeah. And in it, he was talking about how people who are seen as strong with willpower, they’re not putting themselves in situations that are going to tempt them every single day because even like our muscles, muscles, fatigue, when you work out and it’s so much about that in our culture. It’s like you go to the grocery store and even at the checkout lane, you’ll see the sugars, you’ll see the magazines, like the grocery store is built so that you are tempted by all of the foods in the middle.

[00:49:40] Theoretically, when you go to the grocery store, stay on the outside, don’t go on into any aisle in the middle because every single product in the middle has a commercial and that’s another rule, stay away from food, with a commercial because there’s something we’re trying to hide and it has promises all over it. And I just say that because when I think about like our culture and especially even [00:50:00] being like an entrepreneur in this space, like I have had to be very intentional about what I surround myself with, what I watch, even going out.

[00:50:07] Is it being strong or is it just not putting myself in situations where I am going to be weak? 

[00:50:12] Leanne Kallal: Yeah. 

[00:50:12] Rochelle Christiane: So I think that, I, I don’t know why that came up in response to that, but I just think in our culture, it’s just like this big, hustle, get it. We’re so constantly stressed out because we’re trying to reach the next point and we’re go, go, go.

[00:50:25] And from a human design perspective, we’re all taught to be manifesters. We are not all meant to just go and get the thing. We have to wait to respond. We need to rest. We need to take care of our body and I think here our body is not given the importance it needs to be given.

[00:50:43] There’s so much misinformation and that’s why I always come back to what feels good for you? Because there’s so many, even people who are on like low carb diets, right? Like keto, whoever created that, maybe it worked for them. Maybe that really made them feel [00:51:00] amazing.

[00:51:00] I have personal opinions on keto, but it only works for certain people. 

[00:51:05] Leanne Kallal: Yeah. 

[00:51:05] Rochelle Christiane: And so we’re constantly in this diet mode, this diet culture where people are preaching us, you know, to do whatever and I just believe there are so few people out there that are just being like, okay, here are the basics to what a diet should look like, take that and see how it feels for you and do what feels good for you, because that is going to help us reduce our stress. 

[00:51:23] Being intentional about even what we watch. That’s why it’s just, yeah, it’s this holistic approach to it and just really understanding what works for you and, and that can like help reduce the stress.

[00:51:33] I think coming back to yourself and being able to release all of the flashing lights that are around you. 

[00:51:39] Leanne Kallal: Yeah, I love that and so just to do a quick recap, cause that’s a really unique perspective on stress. Stress is all around us essentially I love what you’re saying. Be mindful of what you’re choosing to surround yourself with right from the get-go. 

[00:51:53] And then of course the healthy eating and food choices, and then paying attention to what makes you feel good and I don’t know if you [00:52:00] know this, but the GlowJo tagline is ‘fuel your feel good’ because I’m all about paying attention to what truly feels good for you. What fuels your soul, what fuels your being and do more of that. And then when you do more of that, the other things slowly start to fall away and it becomes a lot easier to get in that positive ripple effect in that positive cycle instead of being stuck in the other one that pulls us down. I love it.

[00:52:25] Thank you so much. Well, this has been so fun talking with you today. 

[00:52:29] Is there anything else that you think our listeners and everyone who’s joined us for our conversation need to know when it comes to gut health?

[00:52:41] Rochelle Christiane: I think we covered so much in this. I mean, like I said, I really truly believe that coming back to yourself, knowing yourself, getting to know yourself is the key piece to all of this, because I can tell you on paper, what works and what doesn’t work, but if it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work for you. If it doesn’t [00:53:00] feel good for you, it’s not going to work for you. So just always coming back to yourself.

[00:53:04] Finding these ways to nourish your gut, you know, whether that’s probiotics, whether that’s adding in the kimchi or the kefir or the kombucha or pickles, like just finding things that work for you, finding some sort of gentle movement.

[00:53:15] There are all these things that we’ve talked about, but really leaning into what actually feels good for you because when you do more of that, you will truly feel good. 

[00:53:24] Yay! Awesome 

[00:53:25] Leanne Kallal: and that just seems like the perfect way to end our conversation today. Before you go, where can people connect with you, learn more about you and your work, and continue this conversation?

[00:53:36] Rochelle Christiane: So I am on Instagram @Rochelle.Christiane. Um, Christiane is spelled C H R I S T I A N E and then my website is RochelleChristiane.net, and those are the two places you can find me.

[00:53:51] You can join the newsletter. I send out twice a month. I am opening a community space, a membership space for the new year because I really think it’s important to [00:54:00] start the new year in the space of community and supporting each other and I’ve found so much healing and community in the last year and so that’s when, my intentions in the new year is just to create the space where we can all just grow together and learn more about it and within that, there are all sorts of resources on the gut on human design, on spirituality, and meditation, mindfulness, all that stuff is in there so.

[00:54:20] Leanne Kallal: Amazing! Well, thank you and I’ll make sure to link to your Instagram and your website in the show notes. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining today.

[00:54:28] Rochelle Christiane: Thank you so much for having me on here. 

[00:54:30] Leanne Kallal: Yeah, you’re welcome. It’s been such a great conversation and I know I’m feeling personally more empowered and like I have some new tools in my toolkit and new information that I can apply to my life, like right away.

[00:54:42] So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye for now. 

[00:54:47] Rochelle Christiane: Bye. 

[00:54:48] Leanne Kallal: So, what do you think was this a winner? I know for me, I took so many notes when I relisten to this, I found it so interesting and I’m really inspired to learn more about this topic [00:55:00] and to be proactive in taking care of my gut and seeing how other things in my life start to shift. So as promised, here are my top 10 takeaways, starting with number one.

[00:55:13] The gut consists of everything from when food goes in to when food goes out, we all have microbiomes and the health of our microbiome impact our overall health takeaway. Number two, get to know what works for you. One of the ways you can do this is to do an elimination diet where you cut out common known triggers, such as wheat, dairy, sugar, alcohol, caffeine.

[00:55:42] In some cases you can cut out legumes, you let your body reset. And then you start to add the food back in one food group at a time. And you notice how your body responds for me doing an elimination diet was life-changing. It opened my eyes to so many [00:56:00] things that I was putting in my body that I was really sensitive to it then led me to go.

[00:56:06] Allergy testing with an allergy specialist. And I found out a ton of allergies that I had some of them pretty severe since then. I’ve made changes to my diet and it’s really improved my quality of life and my wellbeing in so many ways. Takeaway number three, I love this one. If you can’t pronounce the ingredients, don’t ingest it.

[00:56:27] How many times do you pick up a package? And read the ingredients and it’s either a hard to pronounce or B you have no idea what it means. Try to stay away from that as much as possible. Takeaway number four. Focus on adding in versus taking out. I love this because I think diet culture has totally conditioned us to deprive ourselves and take these things out of our life and out of our diet.

[00:56:57] So aside from doing an elimination [00:57:00] diet, and aside from intolerances and allergies that you may have, if you focus on adding. More greens, more fresh fruits and vegetables, more nuts, and things that nourish you. You’re going to naturally start having less of the things that aren’t the best for you. I just love this.

[00:57:22] Let’s focus on the good stuff instead of depriving ourselves takeaway number five. I never knew this before. So often in grocery stores, you’ll see whole grain bread, but in less it says 100%, whole grain bread. That is a marketing gimmick. So look for 100%, whole grain bread, because it’s better for you.

[00:57:45] Takeaway number six, practice mindful, eating mindful. Eating is really important. The state that we eat in matters, we are either in a state of stress. Or [00:58:00] digest when we’re in a state of stress, no matter what we put into our body, our body is going to react in not the best way it’s going to store food and it’s not going to work as well as it could.

[00:58:13] So make sure you focus on eating in a calm, present, peaceful, happy state so that your body is in a state of digest or relaxation. And then it can actually do its job. And it can keep the nutrients it needs and then it can expel the nutrients. It doesn’t need now takeaway number seven. I really liked this takeaway.

[00:58:35] There’s a reason you’re addicted to dairy. Dairy is something I’m allergic to. And, oh, my guy cutting out cheese was probably the hardest thing. I’m so many people I know, absolutely love cheese. It is a very addicting thing. And there’s a reason Rochelle shared in this episode that the way our body metabolizes dairy is actually like morphine.

[00:58:59] It [00:59:00] has the same response. That’s wild. So if dairy is something that’s really hard for you to control yourself around, especially that cheese. Be gentle on yourself and know that you are not alone. Takeaway number eight, sleep matters. It is so important. Adults are designed to get between seven to nine hours of sleep.

[00:59:20] That’s right. Focus on improving the quality of your sleep, prioritize your sleep, you deserve it. And when you’re rested, your body is able to do the things that it is supposed to naturally do in a really optimal way. Takeaway number nine, our Vegas nerve connects our gut and our mind and our gut and our mind talk to each other all day through the Vagus nerve.

[00:59:45] So learning how to support your Vegas nerve and keep it real. Is really important for your overall health takeaway. Number 10, I’ve heard this one before I think is really interesting and it can be something that is actually pretty easy to do. So I [01:00:00] want to share it again. When you go to the grocery stores, stay on the outside of the grocery store, walk the perimeters, shop the perimeters.

[01:00:09] This is where you’ll find the healthy, fresh stuff. Venture into the Isles with caution. When you start going into the aisles, that’s where it becomes the danger zone. That’s where a lot of the processed food lives. And it can be really difficult to read those ingredients. Yes. Sometimes we need to venture into the aisles, but when you do so, do so with caution and just stay connected to what makes you feel good, truly good in the long run and not just good in the moment.

[01:00:38] All right. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I’d love to hear from you. So connect with me over on Instagram at Leanne Kallal at the GlowJo., you can also head over to theglowjo.com. Get on the weekly newsletter list. When you sign up, we’ve created these really cute, inspiring, uplifting mobile wallpaper for [01:01:00] your cell phone.

[01:01:01] So go do that now. Let’s stay connected and let’s continue the conversation to live a more fulfilling, authentic, happy, healthier life. Bye for now.