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Dominica Roszko started making changes to her life 10 years ago. After getting in tune with her body through meditation and suffering an embarrassing rash on her face, she got real about what she was putting in her body through her nutrition. Her journey is inspiring. Learn how she got real about her food and in the process, lost close to 45 pounds in less than a month. You can find her website here: http://www.vegerasta.com/
Transcript:
Hey, everybody, Happy Wednesday, I want to kick off a series that I’m going to be starting today, that is three different interviews. So you’ll get this one this Wednesday, and then there’ll be two others on the subsequent Wednesdays. So, let me tell you a little bit about the story and sort of how this came to be. So thank you for indulging me for a minute while I share with you kind of what happened. I if you followed along with me on my journey and, and been part of my little tribe of friends here for the last couple years, you know that I have been a competitive weightlifter. And I love that it’s one of my passions, and I owned a CrossFit gym, and I sold that gym and just focused on building this business and, and, and lifting. And so I competed in the pan-am masters, it was about two years ago this June. So just coming up on two years ago. And during that time, I really, really super honed in on my nutrition. And I wrote a book called become a nutrition Ninja, that’s helped thousands of people to be able to cut weight and compete at a weight that they wanted. And when you’re a competitive weightlifter, your weight actually matters because when you when you sign up for a competition, you sign up in a weight class. So you have to hit that weight class to be able to compete. So there is that pressure of your weight, where is the typical person that I talked to you that just wants to look good and feel good and have energy, I usually tell them just don’t look at the scale, we’re going to focus on other factors. But when you’re a weightlifter, it’s your weight. So I did that. And I competed, I got a bronze medal, and then time went on, and I stopped lifting as much I started writing my second book called start small, live big. And that just came out in December. And so I was really focused on that. And during that time, I had a coach and a mentor. And I was really focused in on learning like endless, long, long days of learning. And literally, I would meet with this mentor for like three to four hours a day and go through my belief systems and how I thought about things, like really intense stuff. And during that time, I think probably a combination of like high stress, you know, intense time and not lifting as much I started to gain some weight. And I actually felt okay with that, like, I felt like I was being a little bit more balanced about my life. But then it got to the point just a couple months ago, where I just was feeling like, I don’t really feel that good anymore. Like I gained some weight. And I was okay with that. Because I didn’t necessarily need to be as lean as I was. But I felt good. And now, since I had clothes that were at that old weight, I didn’t really you know, it, you know that feeling where you’re just like, Oh, I’m just not myself, I’m not myself is really what it came down to. Now I’m a big meditator, I really enjoy that I get a lot out of that. And so one day when I sat in meditation, and I just asked my body and I asked many times, I’ll ask like my guides around me. And I said, like body, what is it you want? Because you’re not acting the way I want. And so I must not be giving you what you want, what is it that you want? And there are times where I ask myself things, I’ll ask my intuition, or my spirit guides or my body, and I don’t hear anything. And then there are other times where I hear things so loud, and it becomes so obvious to me, in this particular time was one of those times and I heard vegetables.
I know that sounds so silly, because we all know that you have to eat vegetables and fruit to be healthy, right? But I realized that in all of my buisiness I really wasn’t like slowing down enough to really focus on eating fresh vegetables. And I love vegetables. Like I could eat vegetables all the time. So that wasn’t an issue for me. It was a speed thing for me. Does that make sense? So I just didn’t have the time. Like I’m busy, I need to just grab something and many times, I would just grab something not to nourish me as much as to just get my stomach to not grow so I could keep doing the work I was doing. And so many times that would be like a high fat high carbohydrate meal because that would that fills you up fast as right. So that began sort of a process I decided the next day I was going to go get a juicer because I’d heard about juicing and that seemed like something, again, would fit my speed thing. And which I don’t necessarily think is healthy. I’m not saying the speed thing is healthy. I’m just saying that’s where my mind was and so I got to do, sir. And then one night I am, I have been trying really hard to not work as much. And in that effort to like, slow down and do other things that bring me joy. I never, I rarely, rarely will watch TV. But I decided to watch a show on Netflix, and it was fat Sick and Nearly Dead, that documentary. And in that he juices, and it was fascinating to me, like, I became obsessed and like, like two days later, I started doing a juice fast and got somebody to come on my podcast, you’ll hear them not this week, but next week. That is an expat juices and has a really great story. But I got really focused on like nutrition, not for the scent, not for the sake of being lean, not for how you look. But for really how your body feels like what would make me feel really good. What would give me a ton of energy, and what would make me feel like I was taking really good care of myself. Because now I can hear myself, I can ask my body questions. And I know it has a preference. And so in that whole drama, no situation that I’ve been going through, it has been endless learning. And it’s been fascinating. I have read so many books, I have researched and looked up research online, I found a really great book, and you’ll hear me talk about it in several of the interviews, but it’s called the China project. No, The China Study, I’m sorry, The China Study. And I’ve, I’ve got it and I’ve listened on Audible. And if you’re interested in it, the audible version is makes so much more sense. It is a lot about research. And so having somebody read it to you makes a lot more sense. So I’ll link to that in the show notes. But in my effort of just finding other people like you know, finding my tribe, who are the other people that live like this, that eat like this, I have discovered a whole world. And so I want to just invite you into the world, it doesn’t mean you have to do what I’m suggesting. But it might be interesting to you. And maybe you could make a small shift, there could be something little that you start to do, or you change one small thing maybe instead of having you know mashed potatoes with tons of butter on your plate at night, maybe you switch it to some broccoli with with garlic and sauteed garlic, and maybe you just start switching little tiny things that you might not even notice. So that you start bringing more vegetables into your life because maybe your body is like mine and it wanted some vegetables. Now, let me give you an update on that. It told me I wanted vegetables and I gave it vegetables. I started juicing a lot of green juices. But I did put some fruit in there just for taste, especially in the beginning. Now I can eat much more or drink just much more green green juice. But I followed along with the movie, fat Sick and Nearly Dead Joe cross is the one that was in that movie. And he has a book and an app. And I actually just downloaded the app since I have purchased the book. But I downloaded his app, which is the juice reboot. And I did that and and it’s been transformative. So it’s been about three weeks since I started a juice fast. I did a five day fast and then I added in food again. And for me that just changed my palate, it changed the kind of food that I was craving. I haven’t had any junk since I started. Not because I won’t allow myself drunk. But just because I haven’t really wanted it. I’ve lost a little over 10 pounds.
And I’ll tell you that I haven’t I only know that because my pants started feeling really loose. And so I got on the scale. So it has been completely thousand percent effortless. I just gave myself more vegetables. And so anyway, I’m not gonna keep talking I’m gonna let you listen in to the very first part of this interview. And be Stay tuned for the rest of the series. I hope that you learned something I’d love it if you jumped in on the group at SS lb community calm that stands for start small, live big community.com and share if you’re going to start or ask questions that the guests will be in there and I’ll be in there and I can certainly answer any questions and kind of help you along if this is something that you’re interested in exploring. So All right, here we go. Thanks for listening. Welcome to the art of living big. My name is Betsy Pake entrepreneur, author and personal success coach. This is the show that brings you stories and small ideas to help you live a big life. I hope this once a week podcast will inspire you, motivate you and encourage you to think differently about what could be possible for your life. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let’s go live big. Hey everybody today I have with me Dominica, Roscoe Dominica thanks so much for being here.
Thank you for the invitation. Thank you for having me.
So tell everybody, and because I’m, I’m fascinated by you in so many ways, but tell everybody a little bit about yourself and what you do.
And hello everyone, and I’m in integrative nutrition health coach,
and I
had a people to identify their bad eating habits and find new ways how to incorporate healthy foods into their diet. But I also look at the lifestyle to help them make small lifestyle changes, because even if we eat the, you know, the entire broccoli in the world, but we’ve got a stressful job, we won’t be helpful. So we need to look like that at every aspect in our life, to ensure that we are healthy, that we are supporting our immune system that you are supporting, supporting our mind, body and soul. Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to do.
I like that I like that integrated approach. Because I think lots of times, people move forward and they make changes, like with their food, for example. But if they’re not paying attention to the other areas of their life, then they slip back into bad habits that got them unhealthy in the first place.
Yeah, it’s exactly what happened to me.
In 2012,
actually, at the end of 2011, a
friend of mine,
invited me to his meditation meditation session, and being interested in forest culture and Indian culture. I decided to draw to join the session. And I have never ever tried meditation before. And for me, it was incredible experience, I cannot even describe it. Because at some point, I, during this first session, I had a feeling that actually I am living my body, and I am looking at myself from the above. And it was, I know it sounds weird.
But for me, it was kind of like the
wake up call in my life, to actually look at everything what I’ve done so far. And I started meditating daily, because it helped me during the day to be more focused, and avoid negative emotions. So over the time, of course, it was tricky. You know, at the beginning, there are so many, I would call them environmental issues, a some kind of like the pressure or stress that are affecting us that sometimes it’s difficult not to react, and not to release that negative emotions and look at everything positively. But over the time, it gets easier because you’ll start understanding yourself.
Tell me, tell me what kind of meditation did you do?
Is it very, very, very, very basic guided meditation guided meditation? Okay.
Yeah. So I that doesn’t sound weird to me at all. I meditate twice a day, usually early in the morning. And then I meditate again, when I transition from work to like my daughter coming home from school, so that I sort of helps me get out of work mode and into like, being able to focus on something else. But I have had some profound experiences during meditation. So to me, that doesn’t sound weird at all. But you know, one that I experienced often, and I think I’ve talked about it on the show, and I have googled it. So I know I’m not the only one. But we’re I feel like a giant giant person. Have you ever had that happen? It’s like, you’re like the Michelin Man like the big puffy person like giant?
Yeah, yeah. That’s that’s how I feel. It is like,
from the inside, you feel like you are growing? I yeah, it’s difficult to describe it to like, experience it after some time. Ah, but it’s just incredible. And I remember then the evening when I came back home, and my husband picked me up from the station. And I started you know, killing Kim, you know about my experience and he was giving me you know, that kind of like the weird look,
yeah,
I keep talking about Ah, but I convinced him to join me and for Sandeep, my friends, a three day meditation workshop, and he agreed to come with me. And for him, it also it was like, you know, a turning point in his life. So we started meditating, you know, together. And I think it is very important that we have a supporting partner, or someone from the family or a friend who actually understand us.
Yeah.
Because our lifestyle, I originally come from Poland, and in Poland and Eastern Europe, it’s kind of like the, you know, not sure if it’s, um, you know, very, like, spread across the world. That’s Paul’s like to, you know, drink heavily and you know, going from one party to another. Yeah, yeah. Even our lifestyle.
Yeah, different. Yeah. Different kind of lifestyle. Sure,
yeah. Ah, so ah, we were like meeting friends for the entire week. And pretty much every day of the week, a war we were ending up either in a pub or somewhere drinking. And eating, you know, crap food. Fast board. Yeah. And Polish diet. Polish cuisine is very rich in the meat and fatty foods. Yeah,
yeah. So, um,
I was struggling for most of my life, with being overweight. And you know, I was dieting, if you ask me about the diet, I think I, I’ve tried all of them. But I’ll tell you a little bit about that later. Um, so when we started meditating, we really started looking at life completely different. And I am glad that I’m I had my husband with me. Because suddenly, we didn’t want to go to the, you know, partying, you know, every day of the week. And we started losing friends. Because they thought, okay, they are doing some weird hippie stuff. Yeah. And we don’t really want to, you know, and you know, to have anything in common with them anymore.
Um, so I think that’s a,
that’s something that a lot of people experience when they start to make changes in their life, whether whatever area it is, they start to lose some friends, but you’ll gain you probably found this to that you gained friends that were into the same things that you’re into. And yes, and sometimes I think we think that’s like, a really awful thing to, to lose are some of those friends, but I always think, like, it’s that’s like part of progress, and they’re moving on to other people that will influence their lives, too.
Right? Yeah,
definitely. I think that, you know, I was, what is quite a mate for some people, I think, for most people is quite, you know, painful is that sometimes you lose friends, like you’re, you know, from your primary school. And you’ve been together, like, you know, we’ve been in touch for your entire life. But on the other hand, we need to look at it that you know, those people, and they were in our life for a purpose. So everyone who comes into our life is there for purpose. And when they leave it, just, you know, another stage, they are living they made, you know, what they were supposed to do, they were either our teachers, most people are our teachers, and to be honest, because we learn from their actions. And,
you know,
it shows up, it shows us things in our own life, I always think that even, you know, people that I have really negative experiences with, I always am so grateful, because I think like that helped show something inside me that I needed to work on. Yes,
yeah, I absolutely agree. Yeah. It’s like, you know, the mirror for us. negative negative experiences, and we shouldn’t be really open to them, and in some things, you know, will make us cry. And they are very painful. But it’s just, you know, part of discovering ourselves.
So tell me a little bit about because I kind of I found you online. And I think we were like tweeting each other or something. Um, but tell me a little bit about how you change. So you were in Poland. And I know now you live in the UK. So you you started changing your diet from this meaty, rich foods when you lived in Poland or after you had
a I’ve been already in the UK? We moved to the UK with my husband in 2007. Okay. And it was 2011
when
the end of 2011 when we went to that first meditation session and workshop, okay. Yeah.
And so then, how did you make that transition because many times people eat what they’ve eaten their whole life and it’s hard. To get them to change or to even want to explore changing
what happened actually, when we started meditating daily, I Sanji, our friend who was teaching us, he was vegetarian.
Ah, and
we started at some point making the connection between what is on our plate, and actually, what is on our plate plate and our values, because we didn’t want to cause the whole the harm to anyone, either, you know, human beings or animals. And we really started looking and researching, you know, the farming process yours and everything, because you hear sometimes you hear about, you know, they are very bad conditions on this farm or another, and we’ve got industrial farming, and we’ve got that free range eggs, they are not really free range and chickens, and hence they are not really happy living outside, on the grass.
And but,
you know, if you really, if you lead the lifestyle, where you are only focused on going from one party to another and making friends, even if you kill this kind of thing, so you are kind of detached, and especially if meat is you know, so strongly in your culture. And Britain is also an very, I would say, rich in meat diet. Um, so it was even, you know, more difficult. But after that, you know, maybe keeping your own meditating daily, we really started wondering if it’s right to actually eat meat. And we started researching. And looking online, for the, you know, for fun conditions in the UK and abroad. And we came across off, you know, came across so many videos and documentaries, showing, you know, how animals are treated so badly.
And that at some point,
we just said, No, we can’t take it anymore.
We don’t want it. And so do you find
So? So you really did it for ethical reasons, you really switched your diet?
Yes. He were the ethical reasons,
because I’ve been going through a bit of a transition with how I eat, and which is you know why I was really fascinated with you and what you’ve built with vegetarianism. But I, you know, I grew up in the United States, and, like, my husband loves me, like, my daughter loves a steak. And I wonder now I hadn’t, I had not made the connection with my meditation. But as you were saying that I wonder if that’s, that’s kind of the catalyst. So I, when I’m in meditation, I feel this deep, deep connection for everybody. And usually at the end, I imagined myself flying around the world and like seeing animals, and do you know what I mean? And just trying to feel this connection. And, and I now I can’t help but wonder if that’s why but for me, I really. And I’ll, I’ll tell my little story here real quickly. But and I haven’t really talked about this much on the podcast or my blog, because I’ve always been Protein Protein, Protein Protein is what I have preached to people. And, and so yeah, so I was going through this sort of intuitive thing where I had gained a little bit of weight. And I thought it was weird because I hadn’t noticed I had done anything different other than I’m a big weightlifter and I had eased off of the weightlifting. And so one morning after my meditation, I laid there and I asked my body, I said, body, what do you want, and really loud and clear, I heard like vegetables and ice. And so I went out and I bought a juicer, and I started juicing and I started eating way more vegetables, but what that turned into over a few weeks was just eating a lot more vegetables to the point where I would get full from my vegetables and I wouldn’t really eat the meat. Now in that amount of time like literally like under three weeks, I lost almost 10 pounds. And I wasn’t trying to at all I was totally full and I was having fun like trying all this new food. But I wonder if that was the catalyst for me because now I’m starting to research and I don’t want to see the videos of animals stuff like that. I if I see something I turn my head or I you know, I shut it off. Like I don’t want to see it. I know it happens. So I for me it’s like too painful to see it but you actually sought that out. To so that you could make a real decision, because I think my decision has been more based on what I think is the right thing for my body. Mm, consciously, I think that’s what I’ve been hearing. But I wonder if unconsciously I’ve been doing making the changes, and that was the catalyst because my body knew we were all connected.
Initially for us, we really wanted to
find out what is happening. So initially, they were a ticker of results. And we went, we but we both went vegetarian in 2012, I would say almost vegan, because their milk or eggs, they weren’t very, very occasional, but still, so it will, it would make us vegetarians, ah, but we started eating, you know, enormous amount of, you know, Whole Foods, a, you know, grains, pulses, and vegetables, fruits. And for me, it was also a big learning experience, because I always loved cooking, but I got, I got to got used to a little bit of different cooking, you know, preparing meats, and you know, this kind of stuff. So for me, it was very, very exciting to actually start creating something new in the kitchen, about the henebry zones, and followed the ethical reasons very soon, at the end of 2012 was very, very stressful year for me. When I moved to the UK, I started running my marketing company here.
And
as the business grow, I started getting very, very dizzy when not having enough sleep, working till you know, 2am 3am 4am I’m so and eating because I was constantly either on the meeting or doing something else or doing dealing with the team in the office,
I was I
didn’t have actually time to cook. So even though I was you know, preparing all this, you know, meals and trying to you know, cook at home as often as possible. I was still having some, you know, kind of like the vegetarian fast food, the kind of,
you know, takeaways,
because simply, I didn’t have time. And the end of 2012 was really, really stressful year for me, both in terms of the personal life and business life.
And
early 2013 I one day, I woke up very, very itchy. Nothing with my skin. But I was you know, I was just, you know, scratching myself, you know, on my face and all over my body, and I wasn’t sure what was happening. Um, and it lasted like, you know, the entire day. And I think, if I remember correctly within two or three days, and I woke up covered in eczema, and my eyelids, my face, neck, elbows, pretty much the entire body was covered in a red. He kind of you know, rough skin. And it happened overnight. And I was like, Oh my goodness, what is happening? What is this? And
I basically I was trying to remember that first day
I was trying I had some meetings and training shedule during the day, and I was trying to actually put the makeup on it. And I called it because the skin was so rough that you know when I put the powder or something it was you know, dust. Yeah, fuck off me. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, I washed my face and you know, just your I had no choice. I didn’t want to cancel anything. So I went to my meeting. And people were giving me this kind of strange look. Again, what happened. In the meantime, I asked my husband to actually do the research what could be happening? And I came back home quite annoying, actually. Ah, because when I was doing the training, I remember that day. You know, there were like 20 attendees and they were all looking at me I and maybe you know, they they maybe they weren’t even wondering what happened. It was just my perception that you know, I have this all over my face. It’s painful and he and they could see it and probably they are thinking that I am you know seriously ill or something. So it was giving me that kind of like the discomfort. So I came back home very annoyed and Martin, my husband told me you know, it looks I did the research, but it looks like you’ve got the eczema. Ah. And I said, I checked the I checked them traditional, you know, medicine treatments and saw it was your know all about a kind of the steroid creams. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, lots of side effects.
So I said, No, no, I’m not going,
I’m not going to my doctor, and we’re gonna treat it tall. So I made a list of all the, you know, natural natural healing methods from the coconut oil, essential oil apps. And nothing really helped. Ah, some some days it was you know, getting slightly better. And some days it was worse. So even though I had a relatively much better diet than before, I looked on a lot of vegetables, a season festivals, of course, but you know, lots of vegetables and as much as I could, I was trying to cook at home. The stress got me and got me that condition.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ah, and he didn’t, basically all those, you know, amazing mixtures didn’t really help.
And after, I think five months,
I decided to go to the doctor. There was like, no choice. And to be honest, if I was getting depressed, I think first time in my life, I just wanted to height I started concerning my meetings.
And
it was just getting to know difficulty. No, but in terms of the in terms of the cash flow, because my marketing business was like the main business school. That was when I was bringing money into our household. And so,
yeah, so you think like you were the main breadwinner? And so that was just super stressful. And you think your body was just reacting to that?
Yes. Yeah. Basically, we have we we have the business. We had the business with my husband, but he was mainly responsible for doing like a, kind of like the graphic designs and videos. Yeah, but it was me who was actually getting clients and going through their meetings. And yeah, not the rest of the team. Um,
have you ever seen Have you seen that movie? Fat Sick and Nearly Dead?
Yes.
Yeah, that that was so good. And that guy, the guy that he talks about juicing, but he did like a radical change to his diet, because he had a rash to like, he had eczema where he was on, like, tons of prednisone and all kinds of stuff.
Yes, it was the movie that I watched after my visit to the doctor. I went to the doctor. Yeah. And she said, Yes, it’s eczema. And to give you the prescription for the corticosteroids, steroids. So okay, I got the prescription, I bought the, you know, the cream, and I started, you know, applying it, you know, on my face, actually, face neck and eyelids were the worse. So I think it was, I think, because if you have it somewhere on your body, and you can hide it, and it wouldn’t be so painful for me and so depressing, but I couldn’t really hide it. Um, and I started the guy in that cream, and within a week,
you know, all the,
you know, the rash started disappearing. And, but I suppose it is, but as per doctor advice, I could only take it for a week and then make, you know, some period of, um, because it was very, very strong. So, it started disappearing, and it definitely started looking, you know, quite okay. But after like a week or so, after stopping the, you know, applying the cream on the skin, it reappeared again, even worse. So basically, it was still like, you know, read for, you know, what, Ash, a very rough skin, but this time, we’ve kind of like the blisters.
And I was like, Oh my goodness,
I don’t know what to do, because it’s like, I really thought that my life was ending and it was really bad. I remember that. When that happened. I can set a very important workshop that I was supposed to run a for the government institution. I cancelled meetings.
And I just want To stay in bed
and my husband
was trying to help, you know, he was still researching and trying to find a, you know, some way some natural way. So maybe some case studies of, you know, some medical treatment that could help. And he came across fat Sick and Nearly Dead. Ah, we wanted that movie. Then we came across a few different movies as well. There is a guy, they call him a juice master Jason Vale. He’s from the UK. And he had very, very severe acne all over his body for most of his life, and he wanted to put him in in the hospital for the treatment for like three months or so. And they were they wanted to wrap him in something I can’t remember what kind of substance it was, but he was supposed to stay in the hospital for like three months wrapped, you know, in something. And I at the moment and he’s a he has a kind of like the juicing a cleansing juicing programs. Ah, so at that time, when I found out about him and about his story, and I watch them, the food matters movie, a Foxy Canary that
I decided to do the juicing program
created by Jason Bateman. So we bought all the yopu we bought the juicer we bought the all the fruits, veggies, and we ordered the program from him and we bought the recipes. And my husband said that you know, so I don’t feel alone. He’s going to do it with me. And for me, it was like, I just couldn’t believe because within less than a week everything was gone.
Wow, no way.
I just couldn’t believe it was you know, it was 28 juicy 2828 day juicing program, right? And within a week I was healed. I felt so energized I remember the first two three days it was really difficult because you miss you miss on chewing something actually like the real food.
Yeah, I did a I did a juice reboot. I did it with Joe. Joe the juicer. Yeah, Joe cross, and I didn’t five days. And I that feeling of like you want to be able to choose something and eat something but it went away pretty quick for me. Like I didn’t. I had that. Like maybe the second day it was bad but then it kind of went away.
Yes, I think for me, it was like two free days. Yeah, really? And then I was okay. And I was okay with my juicing.
I guess when good Did you feel so so good when you were doing it? Like I start today? I just started another three day juice fast and it’s not I say fast but it’s really not I mean, I’m getting so much nutrients and my calories are still really high.
Yes, I wasn’t hungry at all. And I had so much energy and also my main motivation came back after a week when I saw you know, all those blisters and the redness disappearing. So I decided to do it for you know, till the end to ensure that you know, I you know, cleanse myself
and
I really enjoy it. And
really after 28 days Ah, during during this time. We watched even more movies. We started looking at Dr. Neil Barnard is like the plant based doctor. Yeah, so looking very precisely into his research on everything. And after the juicing. I remember the first meal. We had the juice in the morning of small fee. And I remember that we even made too much because we thought we’re gonna be hungry. But we could even finish the you know one glass.
Yeah. Don’t you find I found even after five days that my taste buds totally changed. Like I tried. Gosh, I don’t even remember now what it was something Oh, it was coffee creamer. I decided that first day off I was gonna have a cup of coffee and coffee creamer. It’s like coffee made that I love. It tasted so full of chemicals to me. I Literally spit it out. And I haven’t had it since and I haven’t had sweets. Like I don’t want any of that it changed really like my palate and what my taste buds wanted.
Yes, I have, I have pretty much the same.
The same reaction,
I never really craved sweets. Like, you know, the big amount of chocolate or cakes, that never was the case. But after juicing I was really craving, like the natural sweets. Yeah, so have some strawberries or banana. And it was enough for me. And during the juicing program, when when we were still doing our research, we decided to actually go fully vegan. So ditch, you know, all the cheese and milk. And after the juicing, it wasn’t difficult at all, because I think we managed to clean our body out of you know, all the toxins and everything. So what our body was craving really.
were, you know, the
fruits and veggies and seeds. Yeah, we wanted to eat really, so it wasn’t difficult. Um, it’s so good that you that you
had somebody to, to go through that with because I think a lot of the people listening wouldn’t wouldn’t have that kind of support. I mean, I know for myself, I have a daughter and her husband and they literally, I make them a different dinner than I eat every night because they don’t they you know, and I don’t say I’m vegan, because I will have I don’t know, I guess I’ve had a little tiny bit of cheese on something. But mostly I just say I’m plant based because it seems less. Like if you say you’re vegan, then people, all of a sudden, they’re really concerned with how much protein you get, which when you’re not vegan, and you’re eating fast food every day. Nobody cares how much protein you get this, you say you’re vegan all of a sudden, they’re a dietitian, right. Yeah. And so I found for me just saying like I’m plant based, because that’s really how I see
it. Yeah,
but North Oh, right, I think that I’m not really into labels. And so like labeling people, you know, you are a vegan, you are a vegetarian, so you will eat cheese, you are bad. Or there is also another movement, which is getting very popular in the UK. flexitarianism. So basically, these are people who are eating mostly veggies. But if they do crave meat, they eat meat from time to time. Yeah, yeah. And I really support it, because I really want people to start looking what is on their plate to start making like the conscious choices. And that, okay, I’m getting more fruits, more veggies. And even if they don’t eat meat, I would really support it that, you know, ensure and find out where your meat is coming from. Even though like you know, I basically I am vegan, because I don’t eat any animal products. And I also I am very conscious about all leather products, animal testing, especially the different methods know now nowadays and the science is getting you know, is developing every single day and we don’t really need to use animals for testing anymore,
right? And
but I do not really like like, you know, labeling people Ah, that, you know, you eat meat, so you are worse or you are a vegetarian and you are having x and you are worse than us. Because sometimes you can notice some kind of this kind of like the behavior in some groups, I think it happens in every community or group that, you know, kind of like that being to that too judgmental. And I don’t like I would describe myself as a compassionate human being and living on planet planet Earth. And I don’t want to cause any harm to another human being. Or the animals or you know, the plants the air.
Annoying fromage
Yeah, I like that a lot. You know, I feel like when I look and I don’t think people realize how much better they could feel, and how much more energy they could have if they started switching even one meal or just switch your snack. My my daughter, like I was saying is a big meat eater and probably eats too much sugar, right. So as a mom, I take responsibility for For that, but I know that I can’t just say, because she’s 15, I can’t just say, okay, we’re totally changing the way you eat because she’s her own person. So yeah, instead, and if somebody’s listening, and they have a family that doesn’t want to do this, but they do, I’m in that camp where I’d have done it on my own. And I’ve made other things for my family. But what I noticed was, yesterday, my husband said, I’ll have a juice in the morning if you make me a juice. So that’s a huge change, huge change, I didn’t do anything, all I’m doing is being an example. And my daughter said, I don’t think I could have a juice in the morning because I don’t I think I might be hungry, which I understand because her day isn’t her own. She can’t just go into the office and get a snack. And so yeah, she said, instead of my snack after school, make me a juice. And so then it got to be really fun, like, what kind of juice What’s your favorite fruit, like, it got to be more of something they could really be involved in. And so I think, when you show people as an example, you don’t have to, because part of me wants to push it on them, you know what I mean? Like, do this, you’ll feel so good. But if I just show them what I’m doing, then they start to come along, which I think is really the best way to do it.
Yeah, I absolutely agree. I think that he we do not have a, you know, a supportive family in our chosen, you know, way of living. And the main way to actually, the, the best way to actually show them that, you know, whatever you are doing works is to be an example, and do not push because it turns them off, and they will get angry, and that we are forcing them to do something. Yeah, yeah, we absolutely don’t want it. They want them to make their own choices, right. And we can, because we both know that, you know, it works for us, we feel better, we are more energized and the skin is glowing, and we feel Ah, we get we focus much more much better during our work or writing or just you know, it works. So we both know that it works. But for some other people, some people will never, you know, agree to to try a truce. But some of them they just need a longer, longer time. I have a friends and co I thought that they never ever try vegan food. Ah. And just last week, I sold them attending the vegan Festival, which was like, oh, my goodness, what is happening?
Yeah, well, I think people have an idea that it’s not very flavorful, or it’s too hard to go to a restaurant or any you know, this past weekend I went, my husband wanted Mexican food. And so we went and got Mexican. And on the menu was a giant vegetable plate with grilled vegetables. I mean, it was amazing. And I think sometimes we just even if you if even if you don’t order it, just look at the places you usually go and see what the other option is. or see if you could switch out you know, steamed broccoli for your french fries. Like that small step would go a long, long way to just making you feel better and actually giving you food that’s like true fuel. Yeah,
yeah, absolutely. And I think that you know, 20 or even 10 years ago and it was more difficult to be an fully vegan there well you know, vegetarians definitely have it easier because you know, they can grab it, you know, the sandwich we’ve actually we’ve cheese or you know, coffee with milk. But for vegans like 2015 years ago, it was quite tricky because there weren’t too many you know, vegan friendly restaurants. Yeah, at the moment restaurants, even the big chain restaurants they are trying to accommodate so they are getting you know, an alternative store of milk. We’ve got you know, huge choice of plant based milks. There are many many options you know, we even the pizza places in the UK,
they are replacing
they are replacing like the you know, traditional cheese with the vegan options, which is great.
Yeah.
So, the places the restaurants, the coffee shops, they are becoming more accommodating, they understand that there is a need, there is some kind of like the shift happening. Ah and that people will To try different things, and it is great, because I think that’s, you know, lots of people fail if they go plant based or vegan. And because we are getting used to the flavors we use to eat as a skeets or even later in our adult life. And most flavors, especially the meat flavors, they are very easy to add. They are very easy to replicate with herbs and spices.
You know, yeah, we’ve got ingredients.
Yeah, yeah. And there’s so many good options now, so much stuff you wouldn’t even know sometimes all. Last week, my family wanted Fettuccine Alfredo. And so I switched out the milk with almond coconut milk, and they didn’t even know. And so there are little ways you could make start to make changes just to add to your health without it even being a taste difference.
Yes, yeah.
Yeah. Well, this has been fascinating. I so appreciate you coming in and coming on and talking a little bit. I’m gonna link inside the show notes, your website so people can find you. And also some of those movies that you watched, because a couple of them you mentioned, I haven’t seen yet. So I’m gonna check those out. And I think this was just such great information. And I appreciate you coming on and sharing with us.
Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.
So don’t go yet, after our interview, finished, Dominica, and I kept talking. And it was some good stuff. So I hit record, and I’m going to share it with you here. So here’s the after party after the interview.
You know, I got in 2013 it was January. So it’s just four years ago. And but it seems like you know, it’s been a you know, it was ages ago.
Yeah. Yeah. You’ve really changed your whole life around it. Yeah. Yeah. And I think to like, now, when I go to eat something that’s animal, I think like this animal was so stressed out, like, do I really want to put something in my body that, like was so stressed, like, the hormones in it are, you know, like you’re taking in this like, stressful thing? I don’t have energy, the bad the bad energy, and I don’t want that in my body anymore. Yeah,
yeah, I had a friend and she’s vegan now.
But
her family, her, her mom and that day, because they became a plant based many, many years ago. But she was like, you know, walking her own path and chose to eat meat. And just, you know, when the began a couple of years ago, but she told me the story the other day that she had a very, very difficult night. She couldn’t, you know, sleep. Ah, even if she managed to fall asleep, she literally woke up within 10 minutes. And she was so by 5am she was so stressed and you know, exhausted that, you know, she only wanted to, you know, to cry. And she found her mom in the morning. And she told her, you know, Mom, I don’t know what happened. But I had had such a bad night. I hadn’t really slept. And the first question her mom asked was, did you beat enemies? In the evening? Yeah. And she said, No, Mom, I’m vegan. You know, what kind of question is that? And her mom said that. It always it often happens when you eat very, very late. And you eat like lots of meat, lots of your especially fatty meat. It’s how your body reacts. And you have you come you may have insomnia, and you know, digestive issues. Because of course, the first reason is that you ate too late. It’s too late. Right, right. But also it’s the energy that meat brings. Ah, and you actually took the energy of that animal. Yeah. Cat Do you know this type for the entire night? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was like, I made the connection that Okay, so that’s what I was thinking. When I started meditating. The connection I was making that something is not really right here. We want to be compassionate human beings, but we are still eating animals and not really even taking care of Taking care of, you know of the previous life, let’s say and how they were kept. And I know that UK has apparently has a most better you on a welfare animal welfare stand up stand. Well, you Yeah, but it’s still you know, they are still, you know, investigations in animal farms coming up. And sometimes you really start wondering, is that really that bad at better?
And do you think we like trick ourselves into thinking like it’s okay because we’re humans and it’s part of the food chain. But yeah, but really, like, I have found some incredible people on Instagram who are have built like beautiful bodies and muscular bodies by eating plants their whole life. There’s one bodybuilder guy out there that’s never had a meat product in his life. And I think that we think we’re supposed to it’s part of the food chain like to become big and strong and healthy. We have to eat meat, but I actually I don’t think that’s true anymore.
No, definitely not. We’ve got different choices, the different you know, choices. And even in a, you know, exercising bodybuilding, there are so many amazing athletes living on, you know, plant based diet
and triathletes, like there’s some amazing triathletes like World Class triathletes that are completely vegan.
Yeah, exactly. So it’s, you know, definitely possible, and it gives you more energy. I have like the, you know, the real comparison between what used to be, and, you know, what I’m experiencing right now. And it’s like, you know, enormous change. I feel like, you know, unstoppable, actually, yeah,
yeah. And the thing that I’ve noticed too, is that, like, I can eat and make choices. And I’m continuing every day to lose weight, like, which I didn’t really set out on this to lose weight other than I knew my body needed something different because I had gained a little bit of weight. But it’s weird to me how like, every three or four days, I’m down another pound in I haven’t done that I’m eating a ton, you know, and I’m having fun. I’m not like so many times when we go on a diet, we’re like, stressed out, we can’t wait for it to end, you know, but it’s not like that. It’s like when you give your body what it needs. It does what it’s supposed to do.
Exactly. You know, I think that you know, another benefit of my juicing was that I lost 20 kilos. Oh, wow. Yeah. My weight was a pro my, since my 15th birthday. I was always a little bit overweight child, and not obese, but a little bit more than you know, I should have. But from 615 16 it really like started, you know, going up. So I think I went on my first diet when I was 17 or something be just before my prom. Ah, so, uh, it was my first diet. I can’t remember what it was, but I could hardly eat any food. It was like a starving diet. This kind of stuff. Yeah. And my weight really was always fluctuating between 80 to 60 kilos. Huge difference. Yeah. So but I managed to lose, I was gaining more and more and more. And when I got eczema. I really, I think again, because before because of the stress and everything and I had enough for life ready. Ah, I gained, I was like 62 or something. And I gained 16 kilos. I was 78 when I started the juicing program.
So you asked like for the people listening in the US is like 44 pounds. You lost in that? 28 days? Yes. You say
yeah. Yeah, it was like, you know, amazing. It was just you know, the weight was disappearing. Yeah. What is the best back the way it never ever came back?
Great. That’s what I found. When I did my five day juice. I lost about five pounds, but it never came back on.
Yeah, it just, you know, state your own way where it stopped. And so I’m now 58 kilos. And I think that’s my ideal weight and I feel very, very well with this weight and I keep exercising At the moment, I’m even doing the level four personal training program. Because we’ve all my holistic approach the diet and the lifestyle changes, I believe that the you know, the daily exercises should be part of our life as well. So I want to learn a little bit more about how I can help my clients to incorporate even, you know, simple exercising every single day stretching, some kind of like the weight training, I want to know more simply to expand expand my knowledge and advice further, because it all works together. Yeah. Yeah. You know, sitting in front of the TV all day and hoping that you know, the strawberries, bananas and kale will save us.
And I think what we actually do, at least in the United States is we, we, we sit in front of the TV, and then we drink like a slim fast, you know, like a pre packaged shake, and all kinds of things. And then, and then we think, like, I shouldn’t eat fruit, it’s got too much sugar. And I’m like, oh, my goodness, like, No, you got it all wrong. And I’ve had a friend that said to me, like, and I don’t eat, I feel like my fruits, pretty much imbalanced. I’m gonna eat a whole variety of foods. But I actually had a friend that has her nutrition certification. And she said to me, You really shouldn’t eat fruit. And I’m like, You’re crazy. Like, I didn’t want to say You’re crazy. But I was thinking like, yeah, you’re not. That’s not right. Like you. And you know, her thought was like, apples and bananas don’t have that much sugar. You could have those. But I was like, No, I mean, I have a wide variety of stuff. Yesterday, I had a salad that I made with mango, and cucumber and tomato, and carrots, and it was so good and filling and like, you can’t tell me the mango was bad. You know, you can’t say that’s too much sugar. Like,
like, no,
yeah, I think we’re just so diluted, and it’s not her fault. I’m just saying like, we’re so we’ve been lied to, for so long that we don’t even know what’s real anymore. And we’ve lost touch with like listening to our bodies, like your body will tell you what’s real for you. You don’t need somebody else to tell you how to eat or what to do. You know, I mean, your body will tell you, but we are so far away from listening to our body at this point.
Yeah, it just, you know, kind of, you know, grab something quickly, and you know, eat it and we don’t even chewing so actually swallowing Yes, the food without even appreciating what you have on your plate. Ah, because I am also against the diet and kind of like, it shouldn’t be the lifestyle change and because the diet if we only, you know, go plant based, but we still have lots of stressful situations, we are not working on our on the ways how we can decrease the stress, daily stress in our lives. If we are not exercising, or at least going for a walk every single day. After the time it’s gonna the same is gonna happen the same as with any kind of like the diet we just gonna give up. Yeah, because the body is getting the nutrition. But we are not making enough changes in our lifestyle to actually accommodate our company, our body to adjust and change and feel the best it can be. Yeah,
yeah. Yeah, I think that’s so true. And I think a lot of people say it’s a lifestyle change, but they’re not really changing their lifestyle. They’re just, like, you know, short bursts of focus on what they’re doing. And then they go back to sort of being blind to things.
Yeah. Yeah, that’s what I noticed. That’s why it’s like I think lots of people laughs You know, quick solutions, like the magic pill. Yeah. You know, I take this or even with the herbal medicine, and you are getting the herbal tea for some like, I don’t know, to decrease your stress levels, and it doesn’t work and and then you are blaming like, you know, the antibodies and anti herbal medicine saying that it doesn’t work. And but maybe you never really believed in the solution. Maybe you just you know, go to the herbal tea because your friend told you, you know, buy it
and it’s more
like we need to work on our boat. holistically, it’s body itself, it needs the your nutrition and exercising, but also our mind. So our thoughts
at
the end how we respond to stress and just situations, but also also our soul, it’s part of us. So we need to explore it somehow. And I always encourage my clients to create some kind of spiritual process. And of course it depending on if you are religious or not, it for one people, it can be the prayer in the morning for other people, it could be meditation. And but for other people, what I found also it works really well, for me, it’s part of my morning routine actually, is writing the gratitude statement.
Yeah.
So I’ve got an old notebook. And every single morning, I write
a three to five
points,
and expressions of what I am grateful for. So I usually review the previous day, and look through the day and search for the positive situation, something that brought smile to my face, something that made me happy,
something that I really appreciate.
Because, you know, we are all busy, and life can be difficult, and it will get difficult at some points. It’s just how it is. But it is really how we respond to these difficult situations.
If we,
if we managed to notice those small things that actually
mean that now It wasn’t that bad, really,
I
it was okay. And I’m grateful for it. And after this gratitude said that statement about the writing part in the morning, you feel like you know, positively, you’ve got the positive attitude for the entire day. And you are like, positively charged, and it just makes you feel happy, where it
changes your brainwaves. When you do that, yeah, I do that I have a notebook. And every day, I fill out one page of the notebook. And it’s always silly things, you know, because it’s the small things to be grateful for. But it’s actually like a really fun part of my day. Just to see how many new things I can be grateful for. And it might be something silly, like, you know, my slippers. I’m glad I have comfy slippers and I was able to get a good night’s rest. And I have a like a roof over my head and a comfortable bed and I was warm last night. I mean, there’s so many things that we like overlook that are really profound and incredible in our lives. Yeah,
yeah. And also sometimes, you know, I remember the other day, I went for a run. And the winner was Sol Sol. And basically when I left house, it was Loki you actually looked at it’s gonna, you know, pouring rain in a minute.
And yeah, it happened. So
I basically what I did, I finished my 10 k run anyway, and went back home completely soaked. But I did it didn’t even feel it because it made me happy. Yeah, and it’s, it was last year, and it was a I think beginning of April. So it was still a bit cold. But you could see you know how the spring you know, is awakening, you know, all the plants and everything. And it was raining, but you could see, you could feel and smell you know, the ground the grass. And it was so beautiful. It made me so happy. So even though I was like, you know, soaked completely.
Yeah,
I didn’t complain, because there was nothing to complain about. It’s just, you know, appreciate what happens. appreciate how the planet air is actually, you know, awakening to the life to bring, you know, more plants and you know, beautiful beds and flowers, you know, into our life
so we can look at them and
appreciate the beautiful place that we are living in.
Yeah, it changes like your whole attitude about everything. Yeah, yeah. That’s cool. Well, thank you so much for talking to me today. It was really nice to get to know you.
Thank you so much. All right. Talk to you soon. Take care. All right, bye.
Thanks for including me in your journey today. Remember, you can find me all over social media at Betsy Pake I’d love to Hear what you think. And, as always, here’s the little message from my husband.
That’s it.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
