Overwhelmed by Wellness? How To Get Healthier Without Drowning In Stress | Kerstin Lindquist

If you start to feel overwhelmed by your supplement stack, your biohacking stack, then you're not doing it right. You need to dial that back.

Now women are getting inundated with, try this product, do this, do that.

When you have somebody who's a really good salesperson like I am, ask the questions, is this really me? Because we're all bio-individual. People hold this a badge of honor. Oh, I'm so exhausted, I'm so stressed out.

Everything should feel So as a chef of 20-plus years, I've always been about taste, but it was becoming a father that made me really start to think about function, because I want my kids to thrive and I want to be around long enough to witness it. And it was when my daughter became ill, my wife and I, we struggled to get the right nutrients into her. It was a true wake-up call. That experience is why Pluck was created. So Pluck is a superfood seasoning made with 100% grass-fed beef organ meats blended with organic spices and herbs. The beautiful thing is it doesn't taste like organ meats. It just tastes like the seasoning. It's the seasoning you're already using, but better, because when you add it, you're adding these bioavailable nutrients that your body can actually use. If you can salt it, you can Pluck it. Learn more at eatpluck.com and save 15% off your first order using code EA15. So many women are trying to get healthier, but the wellness world Can start to feel like one more thing to manage. It's just another product, another protocol, another routine, another way to feel like you're falling behind. Well, Kirsten has spent years inside television, QVC, health storytelling, wellness. So today we're asking a bigger question. When does wellness actually help us build resilience? And when does it become another source of stress? Kirsten, welcome to Everyday Ancestral. So, now, you have spent years in television, QVC, and wellness. What have you learned about the way that health gets sold specifically to women?

Oh, what a great question. Thanks for having me. I love being here. I love how you teed that up because it's such an important, important topic, because right now, we're bombarded with everything from the internet, from social media, from television, QVC, which I'm still there as a wellness this expert for certain brands from time to time, it can be very easy to say, I, I got those symptoms, I'm like that, I'm just going to take that, I'm going to do that. And I think that no matter where you are consuming your health and wellness, when it comes to what you're buying or what you're looking at or what you're trying to incorporate, you have to listen to your body first. And sometimes all the noise out there Prevents you from listening to your own body because we're all bio-individual.

You know, before we started, you were mentioning perimenopause, and that's the new trend right now, right? Perimenopause. Let's not only like be able to talk about it, so the freedom to talk about it, because that previously wasn't really talked about, kind of taboo, but now we're talking about it. And then now women are getting inundated with, try this product, do this, do that. And it's now potentially causing yet stress during an already stressful time.

Yeah, that's so true. You know, I make my living on supplements and products. Just a little backstory to kind of give your viewer and listener where we're at, to level set everything. I was on QVC, which is the number one home shopping channel in the world, uh, for 14 years. For 10 of those years, I hosted the number one show on the network called Saturday Morning Q. I mean, this was a space in which we could make upwards of $10 million in 4 hours in retail sales. So it was very, very successful. I was the number one host on the network for a very long period of time. And while I was there, I went from focusing on selling everything, 'cause the good Lord gave me a gift to be able to I call it closing doors when it comes to either what you sell or in life, the things that aren't serving you. I started to feel this need to just focus on health, wellness, faith, being of service. So I started to help nurture and develop the wellness space at QVC. We didn't have a big fitness or supplement category, and I kind of became that girl, and I helped bring in new products, and I helped with the buying and developed my own shows like The Balanced Kitchen with Kirsten and Get Fit with Kirsten over time. So that became very, very successful as well. And the way that I would do it is I would always understand that this might not be right for me, but it's always right for somebody else out there. And that's how I would sell and present something on the air. And it's still how I do it today. So when you see me on TV talking about a product, I will be talking to the person that I think this is perfect for. What is lost there sometimes is that that might not be you. And when you have somebody who's a really good salesperson like I am or somebody else, you start to believe it is right for you. So you have to, when you're watching somebody sell something to you, ask the questions, is this really me? Not just, oh, is this a good salesperson? And this seems like a great product, 'cause I'm sure the product's great, but is this specifically right for me? About 3 years ago, I really felt a calling that I needed to leave QVC full-time, not also sell jewelry and wind spinners, but just focus on health and wellness and faith. And that's when I left QVC for the podcast, for to be a wellness expert. And now I'm back and I just present 4 products that are all health and wellness based. So that's where I'm coming from now. as a salesgirl, but also as a health coach and a wellness expert.

It's really powerful. I mean, what I hear you saying is that you had a journey of, you know, what does it mean to sell? Like, you're good at this, you're good at selling, you're good at supporting people's lives with these products, but do the products represent what you believe and what actually works? Which begs the question, How can a woman, you know, tell the difference between a product that supports her health and a product that's just selling her hope? I mean, you mentioned she's got to look inward, but is there a kind of a deeper, deeper way for her to assess, is this product legitimate for what it's promising?

I think you have to do your own research. People are like, oh, the internet and ChatGPT is just a scary place. Okay, true. But it also, we have so much more power than we had a decade ago or 20 years ago, where, and I know you've talked about this a lot on your podcast as well, where it was just like, you just trust the doctor, whatever the doctor says, that's what you just trust. Now, we can do our own research. You have the ability to look up PubMed articles. You have the ability to deep dive. You can take a course. You know, you yourself could spend a year and get certified in nutrition just for you. I mean, there's so many resources out there. So you have to be able to, let's say there's a product that you see on the internet, look at it and go, well, this sounds really good. All of the claims that they're making are really good. Let me dive deep a little bit. And it's at your fingertips on the internet, but also cultivating your trust circle. Cultivating who you trust. That's what I love about podcasts, finding the people. I'm sure James is one of them. I would hope that my podcast Stress would be one of them for you. There's other doctors and people that you trust, trusting them that they are going to lead you in the right direction as well. That's what happened at QVC. I still, to this day, QVC has the most stringent quality assessment Legal guidelines. I mean, to the extent where I was really trying hard to get melatonin products to be on there, because I think that there are certain people who do need that type of sleep supplement, and I'd rather them taking melatonin than take, you know, NyQuil. We couldn't say that melatonin helped with sleep on QVC. Like, that's how strict the legal guidelines were because they didn't have their own study on it. So, If you find the places that you know and that you trust, the brands that you trust, then I think that that helps you get to, how do I make the decision to buy? If you're just seeing anything and everything, you've never done a background check on the company, you've never looked at their claims, you've never looked at their studies, or you don't know the people behind them, then I say wait a little bit before you make that decision.

To your point though, it is, it's, it's, Challenging because a lot of the natural products don't have testing. Right.

Well, that's where you do go to the people that you trust. Right. Even that word natural scares me a little bit. You know, the only thing that I necessarily 100% consider natural are whole foods from quality soil. Like, you know, where it moved, you know, we're talking about meats and organ meats and things like that. Animals, eggs, Or, you know, exactly where it grew, you can visualize it. So sometimes when you have a product that comes out and it says natural, but you turn it over and there's more than 5 ingredients, I don't know if they should actually should be saying natural.

Yeah, no, very true. The industry does not regulate that label, that term. It has been co-opted and, uh, and manipulated in, in our marketing world.

But you can do it yourself. So, you know, I have that rule of 5s that I use all the time for people. If you're, if you're eating from a package or you're eating something that isn't Literally, you went and picked the egg, got the side of beef, you know, that type of thing, picked the apple. Although, we also know that produce can be, oh, these days. But, if you didn't do that yourself, when you're looking at the back of a package, you know, that rule of 5, 5 ingredients or less, or 5 grams of sugar or less, kind of holds true unless you're in, you know, there's certain spaces where you can— have more ingredients, but, you know, as long as they're regenerative organic or organic, or, you know, you know where those ingredients grew or mooed or moved, then you're pretty safe.

Yeah. So you've been open about infertility, adoption, miscarriage, and having 2 daughters born 5 months apart. How did that experience change the way you think about control, stress, And healing.

You know, I wish— I'm 48 years old now, and I wish that I could go back to that 20-something and then 30-something girl, and I could share with her what I know now, because I don't regret anything. The Lord put me on this path, and every single step has been to get me closer to him and to do his work. But there's so many things that I would do differently or that I wish that I knew then. But I think that that for everybody, at least when it comes to the health space, when it comes to stress, when it comes to how we treat our bodies, it's the same story with my mother who died rather young, at least to me, of dementia. She fought it for a very long time. She, in what we know now, made every single mistake when it came to how you eat, how you sleep, how you move. All of that, but she didn't know any better. You know, we were fed this low-fat diet. We were fed this diet, diet is important, right? We were fed the different, you know, drugs that we took to stay skinny or things that you ingested, then you didn't know any different. You didn't know to regulate stress in the '70s or the '80s, really. From my own health journey and what I went through, I wish that I could go back and talk to that girl and tell her some of the things. And, and really the root of all of it is control and fear. And while years down, I was, I was considered unexplained infertility. We got pregnant multiple times. We miscarried multiple times. One round of IVF, and actually it was a fertile embryo transfer, worked, kept, and I have one biological child, Georgia. And then I have 2 beautiful adopted children who are on either side of her. So my first and my last were both adopted. Um, but I did end up getting and staying pregnant once, which was a miracle in and of itself. Fast forward 14 years, I was diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis. Why on earth they couldn't have caught that when I was trying to get pregnant and probably saved me heartache and the loss of children. I have no idea and I can't control that, but that is what my story is now. But while I did have an actual reason why I couldn't get pregnant, I truly believe that so much of what was stopping me and which made that season of my life so hard, and I talk about even going through the adoption, which was really, really hard, kind of having this dark cloud over my head, is that I was trying to control. And I was stuck in fear. I was stuck in this fear cycle of never becoming a mom or how this was gonna work out and trying to control it all. And if I had been even half as good as I am now about letting it go and surrendering it to the Lord, I can't say that it would've changed the outcome, but the season wouldn't have been so dark.

I mean, control and fear are the drivers for so many of us. What would you say to that younger self about controlled fear? Maybe it's something that our listeners need now in their lives at the age they're at.

Yeah. I don't think you can talk anybody out of being fearful of what's happening next, and especially women because we are the nurturers. While we're not traditionally the providers, we are in the way in which we manage and control everything so that everybody gets provided for. Right? So it's very inherent to us to have that fear and want to control. But I think logically, you can talk to yourself and say, you will not be able to heal when you are stuck in fear. Truly, the primal desire to stay healthy, because your body tends towards healthy. We know that biologically, your body wants to be healthy. So when you talk to yourself and say, listen, you can't heal and be in fear at the same time, so you have to figure out how to get out of this. That can help you with that control and that fear piece. If you are in a chronic condition, if you are constantly unhappy, if you have the breakouts in your skin, the joint pain, whatever it might be that is keeping you unwell, if you are dealing with fear, fear of the future, fear in that I'm gonna lose control, fear of, you know, overworking can be fear. Addiction can be fear. Emotional pain can be fear. If you're stuck in any of those things, your body is gonna prioritize that as opposed to healing. So understanding that you have to let go of that control and you have to let go of that fear, and for me, what that means is laying it at the feet of Jesus, laying it at the feet of your whatever, whoever your higher power is. That's what it means for me. That's how I work through it. That can sometimes help you get to that place a little bit more. I can't say that everything's gonna work out the way that you want it to. That's not how this works. But understanding that there is a peace that can surpass your understanding, that you can still have peace even in the hard, that's what can help you get outta that control-fear cycle. And I also think time. I mean, I look back at that girl and I go, you know, I was 31 when I had my first baby finally. And then we went through another really rough time of infertility and trying to adopt. Until my last son was born when I was 38. I had some reps under my belt. I was getting a little bit older. But if you can do the practice of remembering, of remembering when it all worked out, writing that down, it's a practice that I have people do all the time, is tell me about that time when the call came and everything was great. You survived what you thought you weren't gonna survive. Because we often remember the bad better than the good. And if you can remember when it all worked out and continue to write that stuff down and dwell on that, as opposed to what could happen that was bad, that teaches you to believe in God's goodness for your future because he's done it in the past.

Now, a lot of the outcome of the control and fear is stress. So is there a difference between Good stress and bad stress?

Yes, I love that. And there's actually like a 4-quadrant on stress. There's stress and eustress, and there's chronic and acute of both of those. So eustress can be considered kind of your good stress, and chronic and acute stress, so think of your major fight or flight stress that allows a mom to lift a car off of a child, right? That is an acute traumatic assault on the body and the brain. That's the kind of stress that isn't necessarily good for you, but can also, You have really good outcomes. You can get away from the bear, you can protect the child. And then there's the kind of stress that can be good for you, which is like a cold plunge or going into the sauna, or you're about to cure cancer. And so you're up all night studying, and then you get to that. It has a good impact on your body, your brain, and even the community. So there is good and bad stress, and sometimes we think of it as stress and resilience. building resilience as opposed to building stress into your life.

Yeah, I love that distinction. So what are the warning signs though when stress is starting to damage your health?

Great, great question. Sleep is going to be the first one. So your body and your brain are healing during deep and REM sleep, and if you're not getting those, then your body and your brain are under stress. And so, your sleep will be disrupted if you're under too much stress. It's different for everybody, 'cause every, every body is different as well, but your gut health can go, which can then have an impact on things like your skin, or your joints, or, um, the midsection weight that is, uh, definitely a stress belly very often is, is a result of that. Personally, when I'm under extreme stress, I am weepy all the time. Like emotional regulation. I mean, stress has a negative impact on nearly every major mechanism within the body, and it has a negative impact on almost every single chronic condition and can lead to chronic conditions. I mean, it can impact your nervous system, your endocrine system. Every single thing that we know about how our bodies work can be impacted by stress in a negative way.

What do you think most people misunderstand about stress though?

I think that there is a badge of honor that maybe is starting to wane a little bit, but then I question whether or not it's just the circles that I'm in. I'm looking for it. Perhaps it is still just as rampant as it's always been. Think about like a venti coffee, right? That lack of sleep, which is stress, people hold as a badge of honor. Oh, I'm so exhausted. I'm so stressed out. You know, if I could just get to the next thing, and they run around with their venti coffee and I'm just gonna, it's okay, I'll sleep when I'm dead, that type of thing. Those weren't created for, you know, farmers in Greece. Venti coffee doesn't exist over there. Like, that was, that was, that's definitely a very US-based, production-first, holding my stress and my lack of sleep as a badge of honor type of thing. You, you definitely see the difference when you go abroad or you travel overseas or you go to a different country where they aren't as stressed out as we are, because here we kind of idolize that. We think that we have to have the stress in order to sit at the table with all of the leaders, to get the, um, the job promotion, to make more money, to get the corner office. You know, for women it's even worse cuz we think it's what we have to have to sit at the table with the men. It's all of those things that we think are going to make us happy, but they don't. And actually when you get there, oftentimes they've made you sick. But we've been programmed to think that that's what we need. So unfortunately, I think that people think that stress is even subconsciously what they need to be happy.

You have a support method to help people get better sleep. Could you share that?

Yes. My 3-2-1 rule, which I love. And it's easy thing that you can take away right away. We have a problem with circadian disruption. It's a huge problem. Some doctors and experts will say that it is the number one kind of threat to our health. Is the fact that all this forced unnatural light, especially after dark, is mixing up day and night in our brains. And we're not getting the sleep that we need to do the healing that we need to have the glymphatic drainage system in our, in our brains and our bodies. That's super, super important. So this helps support that by 3 hours before bedtime, kind of trying to retrain your body. So 3 hours before bedtime. You're going to stop eating. I'm a big fan of fasting. I use it as one of the number one tools that I use for healing for people, but it's very bio-individual. Not everybody can do it. But, what everybody for the most part can do is not eat for 12 hours. So, 3 hours before bedtime, you stop eating, and that is because you cannot create melatonin and also digest at the same time. And, we need that melatonin production, that sleep hormone to come as opposed to your stress hormone. Which is cortisol, and which is part of what's happening when you're digesting. So, 3 hours before bedtime, you stop eating. 2 hours before bedtime, just to rule out the middle-of-the-night bathroom breaks as, I drank too much, you stop drinking. That's super important. You can still have sips of water and things like that. I usually use that piece kind of as a diagnostic to see, okay, why are you waking up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night? Is it as a result of cortisol? Because cortisol can wake you up to go to the bathroom, or is it because you're actually drinking too much. So stop drinking 2 hours before bedtime, but also stop making major decisions. I was finding, especially in women in the age group that I work with, that 8 o'clock at night is when the phone call with mom or sister, or sister about how mom is doing, because we're caring for her because you're in the sandwich generation, that's when it's happening. It's happening at 8 o'clock at night. Oh, let's recap how mom's doing. And that is Super anxiety-producing. Or here's the other thing, and this is also my life. It's at night when the teenage kids come in and they wanna talk about everything and you want to talk to them, but it's so stressful to you. Or it's the only time when you see your spouse and you have to talk about the bills, or you have to talk about this, or the one that you really have control over, it's 9 o'clock at night and you're still working. You're making decisions for your job and your career. So, This might be the hardest one, is 2 hours before bedtime, stop making decisions. Stop it. That means you're not having these major conversations, and you're starting to allow your body to, and your brain, to decompress. And then, 1 hour before bedtime, it's the light. So, you're turning off overhead lights are the worst, because it tricks your brain to think that it's daytime, and the sun's out. I love a good circadian rhythm glasses. I use Viva Rays. They have different lenses that are fantastic. Blue light blocking glasses are great if you know you're still gonna be around forced unnatural light, but even better, change your light bulbs in the places where you're gonna be the hour before bedtime to red, 'cause that's gonna help with kicking in that melatonin. Turn off all your screens. You're not watching television, you're not doing work, you're not looking at your phone, and if you have to, it's on grayscale. So that's 1 hour before bedtime. I think one of the most impactful things that you can do is get, you know, like the red lenses for your glasses or the light bulbs, because it's amazing how as soon as you turn off all that bad light, you start to feel tired.

3 hours before we stop eating, 2 hours before we're limiting liquids, and then 1 hour before we're Basically shutting down lights, computers, or putting on some blue light blocking glasses and just preparing our bodies and our minds for sleep. I love that. I so identify though, when you talked about making sure you're also mindful of the conversations you're having 2 hours before bed. I remember growing up, my mom would be on the phone with her, with her mom who lived— we were on the West Coast. She was on the East Coast and it would just be screaming. Screaming all right before we're going to bed.

I'm sure you're the same way, James, with everything that you do, because you're so deep in this, this health and wellness space that we're still practicing and learning even the things that we're preaching about all the time, right?

It's so true.

It's not like we're masters of this. And I, I can't tell you how many times something will happen at night that it, it's like, it feels like the house is on fire, right? Or this kid has this problem, or, you know, there's a hawk in the chicken coop, or, you know, something's happening and I I feel it. I'm like, oh, there goes the sleep tonight because my cortisol's spiking, my melatonin's tanking. And I'm like, this is not the— can this happen at 2 o'clock, please? Not at 9.

Yeah, I have those conversations a lot with my kids. When life gets busy, you're moving through your day, it's not always easy finding real food. That's why I've been keeping these with me. Our sponsor, Prima, makes protein bars using simple, Additional ingredients like grass-fed collagen and whey, organic raw honey, beef tallow, cacao, coconut, sea salt, and they're offering 25% off for listeners of this show. Look, I have a simple test when it comes to protein bars. First, I have to recognize all the ingredients. Second, it's, it's, it's gotta not wreck my gut. Well, Prima passes that test. Each bar has 21 grams of animal-based protein and all 9 essential amino acids. Look, go give them a try. Go to eatprima.com, use code ANCESTRAL25 and get 25% off. What I hear you also saying is that, you know, you, you're learning what works for you. How do you decide what wellness habits are worth keeping simple?

So I think everybody, everything should be rather simple. If you start to feel overwhelmed by your supplement stack, Your biohacking stack, whatever it might be, your ring, that happens a lot to people. Their tracker, whatever it might be, starts to stress them out. You need to dial that back. Everything should feel simple if you're in flow and in balance with what you're supposed to be doing with your body. So start slowly, add things slowly, and cycle, cycle, cycle. There is There's a cycle to the moon. There's a cycle to our lives and the seasons. There should be a cycle in the wellness habits that you're doing. And the same thing with how you eat. Your body needs change. Your body needs variation. So staying very close to how you're feeling, and if you're getting overwhelmed by the things that you're supposed to be doing that are supposed to be helping you not be overwhelmed and be less stressed, Then you're not doing it right.

How do you keep though, that kind of awareness perspective? Because I think that's what escapes people a lot is they're in the overwhelm and they don't even realize it. You know, they're like, oh shoot, this thing that I thought was going to help me is now stressing me out. So is there a mantra? Is that, what is the practice that kind of helps you kind of being mindful of, am I getting stressed from this or am I keeping it simple? How do you gauge that?

I have a saying, change your morning, change your life. Everything you do can hinge on morning. And it's also somewhat biblical when you look at it. When we talk about first fruits, like you give the Lord the first of everything, that to me includes the first of your day. And so having a good morning practice in which you are checking in within your faith practice, you're checking into your body, you're checking into your mood, And I have a list of questions that I have everybody ask themselves first thing in the morning. You can do it in the form of a devotional, which is kind of like, I love it. I pair it with my time with the Lord and being in the word. But you can also just go through this list of 10 questions or 8 questions every single morning in 5 minutes to kind of level set your brain. What we're doing is we're creating new neuropathways. And gonna give you an example of that. If you're somebody who doesn't sleep well, What has happened is that your brain looks at your bed and it goes, oh, I know what happens when we get here. We toss and turn, we ruminate, we think of all the things that we've done wrong all day long. This is gonna be fun. That is a neural pathway that you've created, and your brain is remembering that with, with looking at your bed. It's like that in everything you do. So there's brain training that has to happen. So if you start a morning practice in which you are asking yourself questions, You, your brain starts to learn, okay, great. This is where I check in and I know how things are gonna work during the day today. So one of the questions that I have you ask yourself every single morning is, what's gonna stress me out? And it could be one word. It could be like, I got a meeting, or I, you know, I have a child that's doing this. But once you recognize the stress that's gonna come for you today, the next question you act— ask yourself is, how am I gonna react to it? So you're already creating a plan for how you're gonna react to that stress, which makes it less stressful, just like it is. In and of itself. When you're checking in with yourself every single day, one of the questions that you have to ask yourself is, how am I feeling? And not just fine. The answer can't be fine. You have to actually have a couple of sentences about how you're feeling. You will be more in tune with your body and whether or not something that you're doing is overwhelming you without you knowing it.

One thing that I do, as I'm saying something, I'll notice or take a breath after it and see where What the energy of what I just said, where is that in my body? And I'll, a lot of times I'll notice, oh wait, I'm holding my breath or, or I'm feeling stiff, you know, in my shoulder as I talk about XYZ. And then what I'll do is I'll just take a deeper breath and then release it and see if whatever I was holding onto in that energy of that thought or that exercise or whatever I was doing, that I can release it. But a lot of times I'm finding that it's all in the energy and we can hear it in our voice when we talk about it, if we're flowing with the energy or if we're not.

And that breathing piece that you talked about, I love how instinctual that is for you because it's so important. People are holding their breath so much more than we think. I encourage, especially if you know you're somebody who does this, Because that's a stress, consistently holding your breath and not breathing enough. I encourage people every time they walk under a doorway to take 3 deep breaths. You'll find yourself breathing more and regulating your nervous system and getting out of fight or flight and getting into a more parasympathetic state if you just take 3 deep breaths every time you walk underneath a doorway.

I love that because you're connecting it to something very concrete and specific too that will remind you of the act.

How do I know if like these health practices are actually stressing me out and I'm not even aware of it? I think taking an inventory of your core values, and you can just look that up on the internet and you can go through and kind of see like, what are core values? What are the most important things to me? And really being kind of connected to what your identity is and what your purpose is and your calling. Because if you're kind of aligned with those things, when you're not aligned with those things, that's when the stress and the overwhelm can creep in a little bit So asking yourself, where does my identity lie? What are my core values? What's most important to me? What's my purpose? Which I don't think changes a lot. And what's my calling for this season in life? Which does change from time to time. That can help keep you out of that stress cycle and can keep you from doing things just because you think you have to do them, or because you— back to what we were talking about at the very beginning, I saw it on the internet, I should buy this or I should do that. Asking yourself, okay, well wait. Is this aligned with my calling right now? Is this aligned with my purpose? Is it aligned with my core values before I start this new modality or start this new supplement or start this new practice?

You did just answer this question, but I'm going to ask it in case there's even more. What should families stop overcomplicating when it comes to wellness?

Food, 100%. And let me ask you, what do you think the number one stress is for people in the United States?

You know, it's interesting how I would answer that question is that I think one of the biggest issues is that people don't realize how much stress affects their health. So, they're feeling stressed, but they're not realizing that that's actually the biggest mover of your health. And, there are bigger mechanisms that will support the stress like sleep, for example, right?

Yeah.

Ultimately, everything is decided off of stress, how you digest the food. If you're stressed out, not going to digest it. The food choices you make, if you're stressed out, you make different choices. It's dictating every decision we make. And I think if anything, we're underestimating how dominant stress is in our decisions.

Ah, I love that. That was a, that's a perfect, and I haven't had anybody answer it that way. And that's absolutely Amazing. Because you're right, I don't think we understand how negative or positive stress can be in your life. It can do both things. I don't want people to have a lack of stress either. You know, stress is like the good stress, the resilient stress. It's what's going to keep our brains strong and sharp as we age. It's a longevity tool. So, you need a little bit of both. That's a great answer. People usually say, when I ask them, they say, oh, it's screens. Or it's relationships, you know, it's money, which it's true. Like, I think the latest research shows that the biggest stressors in people's lives are relationships and finances, and that makes complete sense. These days though, I answer that question, which I think food is the biggest stress in specifically United States in people's lives because it's Twofold. One, food, bad quality food, which is a lot of the standard American diet, is literally stressing out our cells. Every time we put it in, the cells are fighting, causing inflammation, literally stressing out our cells. But also, food confusion and food preoccupation is stressing us out. It's taking so much brain space for these families to figure out how to eat healthy, or maybe they don't even care, and it's just— You know, when can I get to the drive-through? Or, what can I just get into my kid? Or, you're constantly thinking about food because you're so metabolically inflexible, so your mood is so dependent on what you put in your mouth that the primary thought in your brain most of the day is food, and it's taking space up for you to be able to be creative and have relationships and be able to pay your bills. So, I think that food is such a major stressor that if families could stop overcomplicating it and also understand that it's okay to go without for a little while. I don't want anybody to be hungry. I'm not talking about starving. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the idea that we have to eat every 2 or 3 hours. We have to get that snack in the child. We have to make sure we all sit together and eat at this certain time. Letting it be a little bit more intuitive to your bodies, Is going to take away some of the stress.

Well, and anyone that's been around a while like us knows that we are now all of a sudden, we are in, well, not all of a sudden, it's, we've been gradually co-opted into this snacking culture. But in our childhood, I don't remember snacking all the time. I remember having very concrete meals. And if you didn't eat those meals, you were kind of Out of luck because that's when dinner was, or that's what was for lunch. They didn't make 3 different types of lunches or dinners. They didn't entertain so many like diet specifics. It was just like, this is what we're making. You eat it or you wait till the next meal.

And that's awesome. I literally had this conversation at dinner with my entire family and then my daughter's boyfriend. It's interesting when you have like a new significant other in the family and they start to Listen to the conversations, especially when, you know, mom is a health coach and is on TV talking about this stuff, and they're like, what? And, we were having this conversation about, listen, you could go a pretty long time without eating. We're not starving you. Your body will adapt. We are meant to fast and feast ancestrally. That's how, you know, there wasn't always food available. And your brain actually got sharper when you had lack of food because your body knew that it had to get out there and find the animal. I think going back to that a little bit, we've, we've definitely been slightly brainwashed by marketing to think that you got to kick that hunger. Hunger pains are bad and you just got to, you know, make sure you eat all the time. You don't have to.

I'm curious if being in front of the camera, being in the public's eye, How has that shaped your own relationship with your body?

Oh, that's a great question. I didn't really get to feeling super comfortable in my body until I was probably 39. I think in my 20s, when I was a newscaster, I was chasing skinny and that's how we were raised. I mean, my generation and the generations before were raised skinny. Like, that's what you need. That's the most important thing. I, I remember having a grandmother that walked in and she said to me one day in the kitchen, I can still visualize it. I might've been 14 or 15. And she said, oh, you've lost weight. You look skinny, never change. And that's like burned into my brain that that's how I should be. And it wasn't until I went back to school to become a certified health coach and really dove into nutrition that I start to make the changes as opposed to chasing skinny, chasing healthy. That made me feel so much better in my body. But I think that it is a day-to-day, not struggle, but opportunity or awareness for me to understand when I'm feeding my body, when I'm moving my body, when I'm choosing to take a breathing break in the afternoon or saying yes to this or knowing that, that I'm doing it so that my body is healthy, not so that my body is skinny. 'Cause I can still fall back to the 38 years of, Kirsten, you have to be skinny or nobody's gonna love you. Like, your grandma loved you 'cause you were skinny. And so that's some deep work that I think I'll continually have to fight against. And I think everybody needs to understand that in their own brains, 'cause I think a lot of women are like this, why it's the skinny that you're going after or what it is. And for me, I think it was that deep-seated root that I wasn't gonna be loved if I didn't look a certain way. And now after being in the public eye and on television for, you know, 20-some years, in the beginning it was a little bit harder, but I've gone through everything from being, you're too fat, to you're too skinny, you look like a boy, to, you know, you're anorexic, to you're obese. I mean, it's laughable at this point. It's laughable. I have to feel good about myself and I have to make sure that I'm checking in with me and my Lord. And that's the only thing that matters because what other people say about me, they're always going to say things.

You know, as we get older, I feel like the biggest injustice any of us give ourselves is to continue to be hard on ourselves, to continue to invest in what other people think. Because as you mentioned, they're always going to have an opinion and it's usually not even about you. It's about themselves. We treat people how we feel.

Yeah, that's so true. And, these days, I mean, for the last over a decade, it's been about longevity. And, I know my why, that the reason that I'm in this industry is because my mother left me early to dementia. I don't want that to happen to me. Specifically, I don't want that to happen to my kids. I wanna be around for them, strong and smart, and be a really great, wonderful grandmother, and maybe be a great-grandmother as well. So, that's my why. And, if I have that in my head all the time and I'm focused on that longevity and cognition piece, I can't focus on the skinny piece, because that's not it. It's not skinny, it's strong, it's muscle, it's clarity. And, if I'm chasing skinny and the things that you have to do to stay skinny, then I'm not going to be able to fulfill my why, because I won't be healthy. That's the most important. thing. No, don't get me wrong. I'll look in the mirror sometimes and be like, um, what is that? I don't like that. But I, I course correct pretty quick.

Oh, that's good. Yeah. I mean, and that's what it's about. It's not about being perfect, right? It's about that course correction and just being present.

For many years at QVC though, being like, okay, I will not be on the air when I am 65 years old or 70 years old. 'Cause a lot of people stay on the air. Like they just, they keep going. And I was like, one hard part for me is the, um, like plastic surgery, Botox, all that piece. I can still be hard on myself for wrinkles and things like that, and I don't want to have to justify myself on television as I age because I just want to be able to age gracefully. I want to be able to look at myself and say I'm beautiful without getting adjustments. I don't begrudge anybody that. So many people I talk to want to do that because they just, they want the outside to reflect what they feel inside. I just personally am afraid of needles and knives, so I can't do it.

I see what you mean though. It's a real like tug and pull because you want to age naturally, age gracefully. But if no one is aging naturally in media, then what's the comparison? You're just going to look old and they're going to look, you know, it's like in contrast, it's, it's just going to potentially make you feel worse. You'll be Stuck justifying your choice instead of it just being natural. Like, no, this is how we all age. What are you talking about? Well, it has been fantastic talking to you. I'm so grateful that we met at Seeking Whole Health. What a fantastic event. If no one's been there, it's in Ohio, in Wooster, Ohio. It's annual. You got to go. It's a fantastic event. I always ask people this last question on the podcast and It goes, if you could wave a magic wand and bring back one ancestral practice, what would that be and why?

So, this just popped into my head, so I'm just going to go with it because I feel like that's the right answer. Walking around barefoot. Grounding is super important, I think, especially for regulating circadian rhythms and just being in touch with the earth. My daughter, she's like my most earthy daughter. When she's not feeling well, I always know it because she's— I'm like, where's Georgia? She's out laying down on the grass. Our bodies need that, right? They need the soil, they need the bugs, they need the connection to earth, they need all of those things. And so her body, like, she understands. Her body's like, you gotta get outside and lay down on the grass. So I feel like if we were walking around barefoot more, We not only be getting some of the great nutrients that come into our skin, but also posture and the way that, you know, we hold ourselves. And I don't know, I think that that would be a great one.

Yeah, I love that answer. And now that we're in summer, I hope people are more and more getting outside and walking barefoot. I mean, just, it's a beautiful time to start doing that. Thank you so much for joining on the podcast, for sharing your light. for sharing your learnings. How can people connect with you, work with you? Where shall they go?

Yeah, absolutely. My website's the best place to look. It's kerstin-lindquist.com. That's K-E-R-S-T-I-N. And actually, if you subscribe to my newsletter, I send out a great newsletter once or twice a week, a lot of real, true, vetted news you can use. Also products that I love, who's on the podcast, things like that. If you sign up for that newsletter, you will get a PDF of those questions that I have everybody ask themselves every single morning. So that'll come right to your inbox so you can maybe start in the daily practice of changing your morning and changing your life. That's again at my website, kirstin-lindquist.com. And then on all the social medias, I'm really active on YouTube as well as Instagram, but everywhere else as well. It's kirstin.lindquist, K-E-R-S-T-I-N. And you can also find the podcast Stressed, S-T-R-E-S-T. Oh, it's back here. Alexa says it's Saint Rest, and I'm like, I'm not even upset by that, but it's actually Stressed. That's on all the platforms as well.

I actually thought that that maybe was why you used the lettering like that. It's for the saint.

And it's so funny because we, I mean, with my team and with marketing, we went all the way down to Everything was done. The pictures were set, the typeface, and somebody said, does it look like St. Rest? And we all went, oh, but then we didn't get upset about it because it makes sense because it's health science and biblical truth.

Exactly. That's why it's, it's like a perfect mix of everything you are and do. That's great. Well, thank you again. Thank you for joining us, and thank you all for joining us in this conversation. As always, stay curious, and we'll see you next time. Thank you so much for joining me on Everyday Ancestral. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one. You can find the show notes, links, and resources mentioned at eatpluck.com. That's E-A-T-P-L-U-C-K.com. And hey, if you know someone who'd get something out of this, share it with them too. Stay curious, live well, and keep it ancestral.