078: How Your Archetype Affects Your Body with Dana James

Namaste, it's Sahara Rose. And welcome back to the Highest Self podcast, a place where we discuss what makes you your soul's highest evolvement. I had the loveliest conversation with my friend Donna James last week here at my house, and I'm so, so excited to share it with you guys. Donna James is an expert in functional medicine, but what makes her approach really special is she found that the right kind of diets for us depend on our archetypes. So in this conversation, we talk about what her archetypes are. She has four archetypes, how they're related to the doshas, how they're not. You know, we're always trying to draw parallels back to the doshas around here on Highest Self podcast. And it was a really amazing conversation because it shows just how interconnected the mind and the body are and how we actually end up depositing fat in areas related to stress. And if you guys heard me in the episode that I spoke about adrenal fatigue and how I dealt with that all of last year, I noticed it because I was gaining weight all around my midsection, which is cortisol, the stress hormones. And I found out on this episode I was for sure the wonder woman, which is the one who's doing it all and doing all those things which is related to cortisol.

So.

So in this episode, you're gonna find out what your archetype is. And first, a note from our sponsor, Splendid Spoon. Splendid Spoon is a vegan gluten free, GMO free, super ayurvedic food delivery company that delivers food all around the country. They have incredible breakfasts, like different smoothies that are low glycemic, that contain ingredients like rose water and flaxseeds. Their lunches are incredible. They have cauliflower, tikka, chenn potato stew, different kitcheries, all sorts of delicious things. You can check it out by going on splendidspoon.com Sahara and you'll receive $25 off your order. Without further ado, let's welcome Donna James to the Highest Self podcast. Welcome, Donna, to the Highest Self podcast. It's so great to have you here.

Hi, Sarah. I'm super happy to be here to chat with you.

Yay. Well, the first question that I would love to ask you is what makes you your highest self?

Great question. I should have been prepped on this.

Let it flow.

Really, it's when I feel graceful, when I feel very balanced. And so that, to me, is a state of feeling physically in tune, mentally and emotionally in tune. So that's when I'm eating in alignment with the way that I know feels really good to me. And that will vary. It will vary depending on what is going on in my life. I'm meditating either once or twice daily. I'm doing the practices that I know are really supportive for me. I'm catching up with girlfriends, I'm connecting with my partner. Like I'm really allowing all of that to flow. That feels like my higher self and self awareness.

Yes.

When you are aware, when you have clarity that enables you to get to your higher self because you're not caught in this downward spiral of confusion that is overridden with your fears and your insecurities. And far too many of us get caught in that. And then that's when our behaviors go into a spiral and we have these adaptive coping patterns. And that's when food and alcohol in and you know, you know.

Totally. Yes. And I'd love to know what was your history with, you know, coping this, with this, with food that brought you to write about it? How did that happen?

Well, I've been in practice for over 12 years and I wrote the archetype book based on the struggles that I saw my clients having. And it was really an evolution. So my background is in functional medicine and nutrition as well as cognitive behavioral therapy. But I was really principally focused on the biochemical side of things. Like if the body was physical, body was out of balance and I would match that with something physical because that was, that was more where my training was. And I realized it just got to a point where it tapped out. There was only so much that you could do with food and supplements before that person could no longer get to a point or they just fell back to these old patterns. And when I really looked into it, I realized that it was where we sourced our self worth from that caused us to have these very distinctive behavioral patterns. And they were in the subconscious, so they weren't conscious to us and therefore we couldn't change them. And then once I realized that it was like a sparkling diamond, like it was, it was as clear and as brilliant as anything could be. And then I just saw the model repeat, repeat, repeat itself until I was like, this is really robust and this is something that I'm going to put out there. Because once you identify with a particular archetype, whether it's my female archetypes or whether it's the doshas, there's a really great understanding of who you are, who you are, where you're going to get tripped emotionally and also what's supportive for you from a dietary perspective, you know, where you may go out of balance. And that's what I wanted. I wanted a model that people could use and they could very quickly say, this is what I need to do. Because as you and I know, there are so many people out there who have differing diet theories. Women read them, educated women read them and get utterly confused about what it is that they should be doing. Should they be going vegan, paleo, get ketogenic, like, what should they do? Or Ayurvedic? And they're like, oh, you know, Ayurvedic food is cooked foods. And yet I want to go on the raw diet, like, what should I do? Totally. And so here was this model that I created to give them some direction. And to me, it's really interesting with Ayurvedic doshas, which is not my area of study, although I'm quite conversant in it, is that there's a really beautiful crossover with it. And that's what I like. I like that when something has been around for 5,000 years and today that still holds relevance and there's just some little tweaks, there's crossovers and then there's. There's differences because they weren't modeled on it. They were actually modeled on where do you source yourself worth from? But I think it would be a really good conversation for us to talk about the similarities between the doshas and the archetypes and some of those differences.

Yes, and I'd love to know. So did you just sort of like download the information or were you reading about the doshas and other archetypes and then come across your own?

I wasn't reading about the doshas. So I had done a lot of study on Jungian archetypes and Greek mythologies. And at that time I was on a year long priestess training program of the goddesses. So there were 13 priestesses involved in that. So the archetypes were very much in the forefront of my mind. And I had originally started to write a book called how to Eat Like a Woman. I'd written the proposal for it, got six months into it and sat on it for six months. And the reason I sat on it was I was like, I'm really good. I'm really good at writing to one type of archetype, which was what I would call today my Wonder Woman and my nurturer, and probably from a revvedic perspective, the kafir and the pet. And I said, how can I possibly write a book when it's called how to Eat Like a Woman. When I'm not really addressing all of the women. Like, there's a plan that I was going to put in place was not going to be appropriate for these other archetypes. And then I was going, do I use avatars? And things like that? And then really, it was a download. It truly was a download to say, here are the archetypes. And I had more. And then it was filtering it down to something that's really concise, that I can't tell you today what the other archetypes were, because it's. Now this is really where they are. And like the Ayurvedic doshas, there's. I call overlays. And I don't. Is there a term for it in.

Overlays is part of the Michael teachings, which is another kind of archetype structure. So I'm very familiar.

Yeah. So. So, yeah, so you might be pita vata. Exactly.

Well, in Ayurveda, everyone's all three doshas also. So we tend to be more of two, but we are all.

All three.

So in yours, are we all four.

In yang amounts, we have all four of those attributes. But what you want to do is find your dominant archetype, because the dominant archetype is where the wound is, and the wound is where those adaptive coping strategies are. And the goal here is to go back and heal the wound so that you no longer need those adaptive coping strategies. And then you get to cultivate all of the other positive attributes of the other archetypes so that you move up to be. Up to the crown to be a complete woman, which you would say Tridosia, I think. So that is the goal. And I had the overlays in the book, but my publisher actually felt that it was too complicated. Right. So we just took that out. But I talk with that language when I'm talking on podcasts, because people who are interested in the archetype model have an understanding of that. Yes. Yeah, I get that. I'm a Wonder Woman femme tell, or Wonder Woman nurturer. Right.

So were we born with this archetype.

Or does it come from the developed. Okay, yes. And so typically, it will happen from the age of 36 to 9 and maybe a little bit older up until the age of 12. So it becomes a wound because we look at it through the lens of our childhood emotional state. So it's only up until what's about the age of 21 that they believe that that's when we develop our fully develop our prefrontal cortex, and that's where our rational mind is. So prior to that, we are really looking at all of our experiences through an emotional picture. And particularly when you're a younger child and you see the complete perspective. So part of the healing process is to go back to those memories and reinterpret them. That and often when I'm working with someone in practice, it means going back to your parents or somebody like that to give you a broader perspective because it's very siloed and it's painful. The reason we have memories is because there's an emotion that's elicited at that point in time and it's the emotion that imprints the memory totally. So and so this is really wonderful. If you are experiencing today a really beautiful situation and you want to remember it, tap into those emotions, because it's those emotions that will imprint the memory. And the same thing is why we remember the negative.

Definitely. Well, there are so many things I want to already ask you, but I want to hop into the archetypes. So can you tell us what the four archetypes are?

There's the Wonder Woman, and her self worth is based on success and achievement.

Okay, so we would say this is Pitta.

Yes. Yes. There is the nurturer. And her self worth is based on caring for others and being really kind and compassionate.

And she's the Kafa.

Yep, that's exactly right. And then there's the ethereal. And so the ethereal is she gets her sense of self worth from being intuitive or being different. And she would be more like the.

Yes.

Then there's the fourth one, which is the femme fatale. And the femme fatale gets her sense of self worth from her physical appearance. Now, the first three archetypes have a very specific body shape, like the Ayurvedic doshas. The femme fatale doesn't because it really depends on her mindset. Is she restricting food? Is she overeating? Like what's happening there? And that will then shape her body. And so she could look like any of the other three archetypes, just depending.

On what body type is in vogue at that moment.

Yes, she'll model herself towards that. Yes, that's exactly right. And really what that is because she's not all, let's say the ethereal is in vogue.

So what do they each look like?

So what's the real. Has very long, thin muscles. She doesn't tend to develop a lot of body fat. She has a quite a fast metabolism and can really and for her carbohydrates, like rainbows, bowls and so be. Noodle balls and lentils are really great for her. They're really grounding as are nuts for her. And actually red meat. And she's one of the few archetypes that can tolerate dairy. I don't know if that's the same with the vata.

Ayurveda doesn't recommend red meat for really anyone, unless you have like an autoimmune disease or you really need it. But if anyone were to need it, it would be a very vata imbalance.

Okay. So that very lean type of body. Now she can gain weight when she's using, like, junkie carbohydrates to really numb her sensitivity to the world because she's very. She's. She's highly sensitive. Highly sensitive to other people's emotions and to her environment. And that's part of the issue, is that she needs to learn which emotions are hers and which are somebody else's. And that's going to be part of the challenge for her.

Interesting. Because in Ayurveda, that struggle would be more of a kapha struggle.

Yeah. So there's. And that's where it's not the same.

Right.

But there is a little bit of a crossover there, and it seems to be mostly with what the body types look like. Then the Wonder Woman. So the Wonder Woman, if success and achievement is your way, you get your value from what are you going to be doing? Your energy is going to be channeled down that like, whoa, whoa. Work, work, work. And so your dominant hormone is going to be cortisol.

So I'm this one, you're this one.

Okay. So. So cortisol will make you store body fat around the abdominal area here. And so if you want to lose body fat from the abdominal area, then it's rebalancing those cortisol levels, which ultimately changing your perception about where your value comes from.

Right.

Because if you. If you truly believe that you are valued because of your achievements, well. Well, that's going to be very challenging to crack the. The. Or to reset the cortisol rhythm because it's constantly. Output, output, output, output.

Yes. And the types of exercises that these warrior women are attracted to. Like we met in a boxing class. Yes. Like, I was like hardcore boxer last year until I got adrenal fatigue, because I literally was just burning myself crazy coming home, working, staying up, like, trying to do all the things. And I was like, why am I gaining every day doing all the right things? But it was Because I had so much cortisol and was all around my midsection.

Yes. And that is the typical Wonder Woman. And that's where the issue is for her. Like she gets adrenally fatigued and she gets tapped out and if she doesn't pause then, then a thyroid goes and then she develops food sensitivity. So out of all of the archetypes, she's the one that needs to be really particular about avoiding common food sensitivities like gluten and dairy because she's more likely to react to it. That doesn't mean that the others aren't going to react to it. But she's more likely because she's so stressed. And with that stress it creates leaky gut. The small intestine becomes a little bit more porous and then it sets her off a whole host of other things.

That's interesting because in Ayurveda they do say pitta are the most sensitive to like you know, foods, allergies, pollution. But the symptoms tend to be different. It's more hyperacidity and heartburn versus like leaky gut and poor digestion would be more of a vata issue. So it's like interesting how there's like some things and others are different. But hypersensitive for sure.

Yes. To foods and things like that. Yes. Then the nurturer. So the nurturer is because her self worth comes from making people happy. She can fall into that people pleasing aspect. She puts other people before herself. And again it depends where she is on the spectrum. Some nurtures are really good that you have boundaries. A lot that I work don't have boundaries because they're coming to me with physical manifestations of not having those boundaries. And so I can tell an out of balance nurturer as soon as she walks into my practice. Like I know exactly what is going on. And there's. It will start with a layer of body fat all over her which looks like protective padding. And the reason for that is she becomes insulin resistant principally because the foods that she goes towards are more carbohydrate based or sugar based or it could be nut based like the paleo vegan balls and things like that. They are not good for her at all.

No, exactly.

And she also forgets, she forgets that she's eating that way, which is, can be really challenging for the nurturer to grasp. It's like, well, why aren't I losing weight? And there's little things that are coming in that she's just not counting. And so she has that really insulin resistant type of body, then if that continues, it can interfere with her estrogen levels. And so when somebody has elevated levels of estrogen due to the way perhaps the liver is not detoxifying it appropriately, or the gut microbiome isn't processing it appropriately, then she's going to start to store body fat on her upper thighs. And so then I know that she's even more out of balance in the person than the nurturer that's storing body fat everywhere because it's been going on for a longer period of time. And then sometimes I will notice with the nurturer that she has these bigger arms here. And I cannot tell you from a biochemical perspective why that's the case. We just don't know. From a more intuitive, energetic perspective, it's because a nurturer feels like she's got to hold the world. And so if you have these skinny, runty arms, you're going to be able to hold the world. Hell no. I mean, look at, look at the healers that you know out there, like the real healers, most of them are carrying some solid weight, right? It's like I've got to get grounded because they're actually carrying the weight of other people just to stay there.

This is true.

That itself needs to be adjusted because it, I really believe that's, that's sort of an imprint from the lineage. Like, like Ama the hugging saint is.

That's what I was thinking of, Amma. Exactly. But it's almost like, you know, maybe it's in our heads from society, but it's like you don't trust the skinny person, like that fat person you consider to be loving and grandmother like. And then, you know, part of it is like the, the things you mentioned about this nurture are very kapha, especially gaining weight in the hips and the thighs and having that very estrogen dominant like body. But happens that can turn from curvy Kim Kardashian to flabby grandma arms really, really quickly when you don't know that boundary.

That's exactly right. And I completely concur with you that it's a flawed assumption that the healers need to carry extra weight. And it's letting that go and saying that they actually don't need the body fat as protection for themselves to be robust and to remind themselves that they have a physical body and an energetic body. So it's. So it's in that energetic body that they can really start to protect themselves.

I also think of Oprah with this one you know, giving, and she's very kapha in nature and always like providing for other people. And her weight was her all the time.

Yes. Although now it looks like she's resolved it, which is so wonderful to see. Just to me, she's like, she's a nurturer. That's very balanced the crown.

Totally. So would you say that then if we're not born this way, then something that happened in our young childhood lives dictates the way that we hold on to body fat?

Yes. So it's the behavioral aspect that comes from that. So you can intercept the behavioral piece without going back to the childhood wounds to resolve it. Because not every person will use food as the coping strategy. So. But I'll clarify that point a little bit more with these female archetypes. You have your body shape, which is genetic, which doesn't have to do so much with body fat. Like, you may. You may be hippie and you're a wonder woman, or you may naturally be lean and you're a nurturer, but you start to store body fat that way. So the way that you store body fat is from hormones. Those hormones are influenced by your food choices and your mindset. And so if you go all the way back, it will link back to the imprint of self worth. Because when you say your self worth or you not really say that, but if you believe your self worth is based on an external factor, you're going to continually move in that direction because that's where you get the reward from.

So for the first one, the ethereal type, if they're not holding on to fat, is it because they're not looking for self worth outside of them?

Not necessarily so, because for them it's. Their self worth is coming in from their intuition. So if you think of a healer as a great example here, or somebody in this spiritual space, and so if they've really tapped into their intuitive self and they can read people, then they can get a high from that. They really will get a reward from that. And that's a sense of self worth. Now, if that intuitive ability shuts down, that is absolutely devastating for them. So we don't want anybody to have their self worth based on that. That to me is still an external factor. It's something outside of truly who they are, just knowing that they are worthy because of their own presence. So we want to crack that there. Now, the interesting thing about the ethereal is the ethereals have always felt really different. So they were the kids that people perceived to be just like super weird. And they often end up.

See, I'm that one.

They often ended up retreating into their own world. So they became more focused on their inner self. And they may choose to stay there, or they may choose to wear the mask of another archetype. So I most commonly see it by wearing the mask of the femme fatale or the wonder Woman. Because those are the two that are culturally really rewarded in society today. So if you're a pretty woman, then culturally you'll get rewarded. And if you're a successful woman, culturally, you'll get rewarded. It's. Although that belief in itself is not correct.

Right.

Because there are many other facets to that.

So naturally they probably would not have gained weight. But because they're trying to achieve, but it's not really in their DNA or care for others, then they start gaining the weight.

Yes. And they will gain it. If they have moved into Wonder Woman mode, they will gain it on their stomach area. So the ethereal can really be split into three. Which is the ethereal that owns her etherealness. And then she's the one that doesn't really gain that much body fat. Unless she truly is eating in a way that because she doesn't have other tools to release the sensitivity of her emotions that she's feeling. And then there are the ethereals who wear the mask of the other archetypes. And so, like, it could be the femme fatale archetype mask that they're wearing. And then there's a lot of body dysmorphia and eating disorders that come there. Because the ethereal is not only disowning her naturally intuitive self, but she's taking on the negative attributes of the femme fatale, which is so body focused and actually really out of alignment with who she would normally be. And I have one client who is an ethereal and a dancer and took on that mask of being the femme fatale. And she talks about just wanting to be completely invisible. That in the end, an eating disorder overtook her life for a number of years. And it was like just eating away at her. And that's because she didn't feel like her parents accepted that she wanted to dance. So she was a dancer. And her parents didn't always turn up to shows yet her friends parents were there and she wanted to just disappear. So these memories can be really tragic and they can be true traumas in the sense of the word, but they may not be for the vast majority of the woman that I work with. They aren't these true traumas. They aren't coming in, they're not coming in from childhood abuse and neglect. It's just more these things, some sense where we felt not loved. Right. Or that our attention was given to us for something. It was conditional.

Totally. Yes. And I think a lot of us can relate to wanting our parents approval and you know, coming with the good grades. And look, I did this, I did that, Love me so that you are definite Wonder Woman.

If that's, if that's where you went to.

Right. That's totally what I went to. So that, that. But then I also think like, well, my dad has like belly fat, so I got it from him. But you know, he's also an achievement minded person. So it's probably an intergenerational thing at this point. So I'm wondering then if you change that paradigm. Let's say I'm like, I want to have bigger hips and thighs. Can I act more like a nurturer to gain it there and be less of a wonder Woman? Can you, can you change the way your body stores fat?

Yes, you can change the way your body stores body fat because the reverse is true. You can completely get rid of that body fat there. So part of it can, can be genetic. So you might have on your upper thighs, that's where the estrogen receptor cells are. And there's significantly more there than on the abdominal area. And if you have a lot more estrogen receptor cells, then when you have a level of estrogen in the body, you will probably gain more than somebody else that has a fewer levels of estrogen receptors. So it all depends. I would say to that Wonder Woman. I don't normally get that from a wonder woman, but I'll get that from an ethereal. Okay. The ethereal will be like, I want boobs, you know, and I want a butt.

So they have to move into the nurturer.

They move a little bit into the nurturer way. But it's more that I would suggest to them that they start to build up the muscle instead. So that that would be a better way of doing. Because it's only when we move into that way of thinking that those behaviors change, that our food choices change, that really influence it. Okay. So it's not that there's not a direct line from I think this way, therefore I'm going to start to look this way. There are a number of steps in the process. So I think this way and therefore my behaviors change. And because my behaviors change, my food choices change and then I move into that. So there are A number of points of interception there.

Got it. So it's really the behaviors and the foods you're eating that are dictating it more so than the thought.

That is exactly right. It is the foods that you are choosing which changes the hormones, which then changes the body shape. But if you want to change the foods that you're eating, you have to change your behaviors and how you're using food. So if you use food as a reward or a comfort or a distractor or a pacifier, that needs to be altered. Now that's where the struggle is for most people. And that's what I was working with, with my clients and then identify that it was where they sourced their self worth from that was creating these behaviors and distinct from habits. So habits are very conscious brain programming. You know, it's maybe at 3 o' clock you're grabbing the M and M's. That's not a subconscious driver, which is really what I'm referencing here. That type of it would be more in the evening. You're having chocolate every night because you feel like you need it to make it through the day or the reward for the day.

That's a very Wonder Woman. Yeah, that's a Wonder Woman.

I Wonder Woman too. I. I totally get it.

Like, I've tried to go without chocolate, but then I'm like, what is life worth living?

Exactly. That is the typical one. And it's like, well, well, actually, no, why don't you pause there? It's okay to have a little bit of chocolate, but if it really feels like you need to have it every single night and it's like deprivation, if you don't have it, something's off. It would be like looking at your life to go, oh, why am I living life in such a way that I now need to reward myself and have chocolate every day? Because as you said, right. You ended up adrenally. Fatigued. Having that chocolate every day might be a nice little high, but it's not going to stop the adrenal fatigue for sure. So because women come to me principally for body fat loss with a whole host of other symptoms, no one's ever coming to me just because I want to lose body fat. They're very complicated by the time they get to me. I like to look at body fat as the first sign before the body goes out of balance. And to not shame yourself for wanting to lose weight or body fat or change the shape of your body or whatever word you want to use. Because you know, weight loss these days is a negative term around it. It's to not be shamed by that, but instead just look at it and go, wow, you know what? I've got this, like, little pudgy belly now, and I don't really like it. What's going on?

Right.

And to pause then, because if you can do that, and this is where I hope the archetype diet helps you with that. It's going to give you guidance so that you don't go down this track and then end up on your bed. You're not able to move because your adrenals are so tapped out. Y. So it's like that's like the tip.

That is like the warning sign.

It's the warning sign because it's the most innocuous warning sign. Like, we can all live with some body fat like this. It's not stopping us from doing anything in our life. Maybe except for the femme fatale who's freaked out and doesn't want to go out and be with her friends, but it's not really stopping us from doing anything. So I like, applaud women for having a little bit of vanity to be able to go, well, I don't like this. What can I do to change this? Provided they don't get obsessed with it. That's a femme fatale page. Totally.

Yes. Because I feel like a lot of it, you know, it went from obsession with weight loss to, like, super body positivity, which is great. But then there are health risks of being, you know, really overweight. And now that's become such a touchy subject. And if you're, like, overweight and it's not healthier, it's stopping you. It's important to address that because it is a symptom of a deeper underlying cause.

Yes. And the good thing on that is what they've noticed from the studies is that there's a higher percentage of people who are overweight and obese who don't have these other health symptoms than the people that do, which is positive. I don't know how they're doing what they consider overweight. Correct. Or not even what they consider overweight that they can mark off, but it's what they're considering health symptoms. So, as you know, when you go to a traditional allopathic doctor, you might have a thyroid issue. I would consider a thyroid issue from a functional perspective, but it's not showing up on the lab work. And so they will. I'm almost certain that they would be using that as the end point.

And if it's a self diagnosis sometimes that like, really fit people are like hypochondriacs and are like, I have gut issues. I have this, I have that. It's overweight. People are like, I'm fine.

Like, my, my dad's like, so in.

La, he's like, I'm good.

No, I'm great.

Yeah.

And to respect that, and that's okay. So I, I certainly have some clients who are just completely happy with their weight, but maybe something else is going on. And, and that's where the body positivity is really helpful on the negative aspect of the body positivity movement, which it's for women now, there's a shame around wanting to lose weight.

True. Yeah.

Right. So now you don't feel good about yourself and then you feel ashamed for saying that you want to lose weight. And so then you're like, well, what the hell do I do? And, and you're stuck in this horrible cycle of trying different diets and, and calling them a detox. And, and so. True. Yeah. On and on it goes. And so one thing I really want women to, to do is just to not be ashamed of it. It's just to go, oh, like I'm carrying this extra body fat because this has been going on in my life right now, and now I'm going to do something about it. Because when you have that, it then becomes empowering. So, like fat loss, there's a science to it. Like, we really do know what to do to get the body fat down. But it's complex, right? It's not food and exercise. It is the food that you eat. It is how you move. It's inflammation in the body, it's the gut microbiome, it's hormones, it's medication, it's genetics. And I will also unexpressed emotions. So if you don't look at all of those things, then it's unlikely that you're going to see complete success with the weight loss equation. If you're stuck with something, if you've tapped it out on the food and the exercise and you're not looking at unexpressed emotions, well, then you might think that, well, I'm never going to be able to achieve this weight loss. And that's not the case. You just haven't looked at some other areas, or maybe you are not looking at some hormonal imbalances and gut microbiome issues. And so that's when women come into my practice, we're really looking at all of that because these are major inhibitors to weight loss, particularly the Gut microbiome. So I will see, and I've experienced this myself, like rapid weight gain if somebody's picked up a certain type of parasite. And for me, I think I gained like six pounds in six weeks. And I'm little, so that's a lot for me. And I was like, whoa, what is going on here? My diet totally hadn't changed. And so we ran a gut microbiome test on my myself. I'd also just spent time in Mexico and I had a parasite before. So it was clicking in my mind that something was off. And lo and behold, I had a parasite. I had some pathogenic bacteria and I had a little bit of yeast. But within two weeks I was able to clear them out and my weight just dropped.

What did you do for that?

So, and they were all, they were all at a very mild level. I want to make that clear because sometimes I work with people who have a severe overgrowth of yeast and there's no way they're going to be able to clear it out in two weeks. Weeks. So I use a product called Candida Control, which is by a company called Enzyme Science. And it's an enzyme that eats away at the cell wall of the yeast and is really powerful at getting rid of Candida. So most of the other antimicrobials, the Candida becomes resistant to it within about three days because it changes its shape. That's why Candida is notoriously difficult to get rid of. But I found a lot of success with the Candida Control. I'm also experimenting with some black cumin oil right now. So I'm intrigued to see how that works with some of my more severe cases of people with Candida. With the parasite that I had, which was called Blastocystis hominis. I did various colonics and I work with an amazing healer in New York City. She's an Ayurvedic practitioner as well as a colonic hydrotherapist and a shaman and the real deal. And so she had some anti parasitic treatment that she had from Brazil. She's Brazilian. And I use that and it worked like a treat.

Wow.

You cannot get it in this country. And then for the bacteria, I actually took an antibiotic because I was getting such extreme bloating. Now I could take the antibiotic because my own gut microflora was at a. Was topped up. It was at a really high level. So that when I took this antibiotic, it sort of ate a little bit into my gut microflora. And then I spent six months repopulating it. And still today I'm taking a probiotic because I get freaked out about these shifts in the gut microbiome because I've experienced it on a number of occasions and every case is different. So the, for some people, an antimicrobial route to get rid of that bad bacteria is the best case for them. So particularly with somebody with C. Diff, we're never going to put them on an antibiotic with what C. Diff, which is like a type of bacteria that comes in that is very challenging to the your somebody's health.

Okay.

Which will have them completely knocked.

And you do a stool test. Is there a stool test?

You recommend stool test. So there are various functional medicine labs that will run the stool test. And the lab that I use is called Genova and we just call it the GIFX test. But there are other, there are other labs out there and other functional medicine practitioners or naturopaths will use those particular labs. But the testing is very similar and it looks at the DNA of the microbes to see if something is there. So it is specific is what is good about it. It takes a little bit of time to get the lab work back because they are looking at the DNA takes about three weeks to get the lab work back.

Okay, well I'll definitely link to that. So we talked about the diet for the ethereal, which is very grounding and then for the nurturer you said more detoxifying foods.

Well, for the nurturer because she is a little bit more kapha and a little bit more grounded. So we need to keep things much lighter for her because of the excess estrogen and the insulin resistance. Then I suggest that once a day she puts cruciferous vegetables into her diet to help regulate those estrogen levels and the insulin levels. So that could be half simple, half a cup of cauliflower as a cauliflower in a smoothie is going to do it. Or maybe it's adding some kale into a salad. I take nuts from her diet and suggest that she replaces them with seeds because they're energetically and chemically lighter for her.

That's exactly what Ayurveda also. Yes, all the cruciferous no nuts. They also say no oils.

Oh, I'm okay. I do encourage the plant based oils for kapha.

They say this just they hold on to oils and body fat like a very, very tiny amount. But they shouldn't like, you know, dousing coconut oil on foods.

Oh, definitely not. I see that too often these days because like fat is in Right now. And for a woman, you don't want too much and you don't want too little, because if there's too much coming in, there's a sluggishness that happens. There's a lot for the lipase, which is an enzyme to be able to break down those fats. And the liver has to tell the gallbladder to release the bile and emulsify those fats. And there's a whole host of things that needs to happen. So we don't want to overwhelm the body with that.

And it's so energetically rich.

Very, very. So I. Two servings of fat at lunch and at dinner, and they're. They're about a quarter of an avocado or maybe ten nuts and then.

No, two avocados a day.

Definitely it's a quarter. That's the serve. That's the serving size. Yes. And. Or like a tablespoon of dressing, which would be. Which would be. Half of that would be oil and half of that would be lemon. And the lemon is coming in to help emulsify those fats as well. So. And that's across all the archetypes, actually. The ethereal can have a little bit more because she's. She's like. Needs to be a little bit more grounded. And I lift the car. The starchy carbohydrates for the nurturer because she is the one that is more challenged to lose body fat. So really replace that with more vegetables and I increase the little. I increase the protein because otherwise she'll be super hungry. So she just has an ounce more than what. What the other.

So would you do like, like chicken breast and like, like white, like very like bodybuilder diet. Would that be sort of.

Oh, no, definitely not. The thing would die. And I actually suggest that you try to get 50% of the protein choices more in a seafood so that again, that's a little lighter. So if you think from an energetic perspective, like, like the fish is floating, right? And. And like she. She wants to float. Like, she's really that. That opposite there of what she can feel like at times, which is like, I'm really stuck. I feel like a cow. So that's why, like I say, once a month, like red meat, but not often for that purpose there.

How many times a week would you rec. Given like all the mercury stuff.

Will you be particular about that? So you want to have fish that is not high in mercury. And so that means taking out Chilean sea bass, tuna, orange roughy. What else do people eat on a regular basis. I don't think anybody eats swordfish these days. When I look at swordfish on the menu, I'm like, oh my God.

I know.

So it would be other things like wild salmon and trout, Halibut's fine lemon soul. And, and then she could certainly go towards shrimp if that's something that she likes, or scallops. So there's a lot of choice.

What about legumes?

No, I do not put the legumes into the same category as the starchy carbohydrates because they are more of a carbohydrate than a protein. So for her, because she is challenged to process those carbohydrates, I pull that out for her once a week. What about eggs? Eggs are fine. Eggs are actually a really good choice for her. What does Ayurveda say about that for the carbs?

Well, Ayurveda is a vegetarian diet, so they don't recommend really egg, the karma and that sort of thing. So they would recommend legumes still.

Legumes.

Yeah. Cuz that's kind of the only source of protein.

Okay, yeah. So if somebody is, if a woman is a nurturer and they are vegan, then. And I do address this in the book because a lot of nurturers like to follow a vegan diet because it's so kind.

Yes.

And it's, it's the nurturers, funnily enough, like would love to look like the ethereal. And the ethereals can really get away with following a vegan diet because they have this great advantage, tolerance for these, the carbohydrates like the legumes and the grains, they can handle it more than what the nurturer can. And so I say to the nurturer, you can do that, but you've got to limit it to between half a cup to three quarters of a cup of those, say legumes at lunch and.

Maybe find the sprouted or something instead.

Of cooked, which has a little bit more of the protein in it, just a little bit more. But that, she just needs to be conscious of that there, because she will be. It will slow the weight loss a little bit for her. So but not to worry about that. It's just to be patient with it. Follow your preferred type of diet, but just be patient with that.

And then what about the wonder Woman?

So the wonder Woman and the femme fatale share a very similar diet. So whereas the nurturer has to pull those starchy carbohydrates out, but the ethereal gets to have them. The wonder woman and the femme fatale can have a quarter of a cup of those at lunch and at dinner. And again, this is for weight loss. So if we move out of the weight loss paradigm, then they can certainly have more than that. So I don't want people if they're not interested in weightlift. I think, oh my goodness. Is all that I can have.

Right.

This is designed for fat loss and they go to about 4 ounces of protein just depending on the size of the palm of their hand. So for you and I, we both small, it's probably going to be 4 ounces. So for somebody who's a little bit taller, it might be like 5 ounces. And somebody who's 5ft might be like 3 ounces. So I give them that, that guidance there. And they can vary the nuts and the seeds and depending on what's going on with them. And I also link all the archetypes into a chakra imbalance. So the nurturer tends to have a first chakra imbalance. So I suggest eating the red foods to help with that. And the wonder Woman has a third chakra imbalance. That's where the story of my life is. And the color of that is orange as yellow. The third.

Oh, okay, Sorry. I was thinking sacral.

Yeah. So yeah.

Cuz all the hormone stuff, I'm like.

Yeah, so that's the fem. So so is. I had to think about that when you said that, I was like, did I just get the wrong. No, no, no. Yellow is.

I am the mantra. Yeah.

And so the yellow for her. So she could do have a pineapple smoothie in the morning. Pineapple plant based smoothie in the morning before she's got a presentation or something. Which may be a little bit destabilizing for her because she's like worried about if she's going to say something wrong. And so that would be a great way to, to give her some Brazilians. And the femme fatale, it's out on the second chakra and that's orange. So the funny thing about the. The femme fatale is that she often doesn't want to eat the orange foods. So it's like a mango. Right. And they're like, oh my goodness, there's too much sugar.

Too high in sugar.

Exactly.

No, that's my whole thing.

I'm like, no, it's like we can't have you looking at fruit through the lens. Exactly. Of just sugar. I use the analogy of that. That's like somebody assessing your worth based on your number on the scale like that's not there. The plant contains significantly more, more beneficial properties than just sugar. Sure. Use sugar.

Sweet potatoes.

Right. And that in itself is a whole other area. Yeah. So she could use sweet potatoes or butternut squash and something like that to help rebalance her. And then for the ethereal, she's in the super consciousness here and she's in the 6th, 7th and 8th chakras. And so that's the purples and the whites. So concord grapes for her would be great as well as blueberries. And what's intriguing, and this happens with all of them is that that's the natural match for them. So we know that blueberries are really good at increasing cognition, which is that, which is the partner to intuition. So so the ethereal can get really scattered. So getting sort of enhancing that cognition is the match for her there. So she can, they can really use their color spectrum to, to support themselves energetically. Doesn't mean you only eat those foods. And if you find yourself that you're feeling this is second chakra and back balance and it's feeling a little femme fatale today, by all means, use, use the yellow.

Okay. Well, that is amazing. And I'm so excited for people to check out your book. And I also need to send you my upcoming book because I have a section that is soups with the chakras. And as you're saying this, I'm like, oh my God, yes, we're on the same wavelength here. That's fantastic. So stoked on that. Well, where can people connect with you and find your book?

So they can find me on Instagram, which is under my name, name Dana James. I pronounce it Dana, but when I speak to Americans like Dana D A N A James. And that's my author website as well. So, so people can go there. And I'd love people to go to the author website, danajan.com and take the female archetype test to see what they are. It's a 20 piece questionnaire and it's, you know, it's fun and light hearted. It's like really looking into the subconscious of, you know, when you go to say moon juice, what, what tonic do you choose? Yes, right. Because it's so imprinted into your subconscious. Totally. That's what I wanted to find out. And it's amazing how accurate this test is. I'm excited, waiting for somebody that I know to do it. And I go, that was, that wasn't working. But it's like, no, I'm like That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Exactly.

I'm sure now when you see people, you can just instantly tell what archetype they are.

Quite, quite commonly I can. The femme fatale is the one that I, that I don't always know because they have that different body type. And, and so one, one media person that I met, I was absolutely certain she was a nurturer because she was like so kind and compassionate and welcoming. And I felt like I just wanted to hug her as soon as I met her. And I think she was pretty positive. She was a femme fatale. And I was like, oh, wow, you actually could be. But that I said. And we didn't get to talk much.

We'll have to have you on to talk more about the femme fatale. But just quickly, Femme fatale is trying to basically, can you explain it?

Kim Kardashian. I think, like, think of that. That's in the amplification too. The femme fatale in the withdrawal is like thinking that a photograph of her on social media is totally disastrous. So because the self worth is just based on, is based on body, it just becomes very complicated with that. She will tend to have a distorted relationship with food. But not always. But if you. Marianne Williamson has an amazing quote here and it's. If you think about you are your skin, how can you ever be comfortable in your skin? And to me that wraps up the. The femme fatale. And so if she wants to be comfortable in her skin, it's breaking the belief that she is worthy because of her physical appearance. And I really go through that in the book. There's a. There's a 6R reprogramming process that, that I take people through. Part of it's physical and then the rest of it's on the mind.

I love that. Well, we'll have to have you again to speak more about this. So everyone check out her book, the archetype Diet. And thank you so much for sharing this knowledge with all of us.

Thank you so much.

Namaste. Bye. Oh my God, I could talk to Donna forever. Wasn't that episode amazing? If you loved this episode, I would love to share with you a free gift. I would love to send you the first half of my unreleased book. It's called Eat right for your Mind body type. It is not available for sale anywhere. Never will. Because now it is Eat right for your mind body type 12 week guided program infusing Ayurveda with modern nutritional science. So as a free gift for review, viewing this episode in the itunes store. You just head over to itunes on your phone, on your computer, click Write a review, write a nice review, take a screenshot of it and email it over to me before you hit submit. My email is Sahara S A H A R aattfeelfresh.com and I will send you back the first half of my unreleased book Eat Right for your mind body type. I hope you love this episode and I'll see you on the next one. Now Must Day.