How This One Change Brought Callie Revell More Energy, Productivity, and Motivation in Her Writing

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message. Create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Welcome to Author Audience, where I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's time to let your light shine. Today I'm rolling out the red carpet and inviting you to join me for this expert interview with Cali Revill. Hey, Callie. Great to have you. So excited to introduce you to Callie. I met Kali at the Naqui conference. Naqui stands for national association of Christian Women Entrepreneurs. Quite a mouthful, right, Callie? Yes. And I heard her incredible story. Like, it gives me chills. Like, even now thinking about, like, sitting in that conference listening to her. And it was just spontaneous, right, Callie?

Yeah.

I mean, Diane just said, callie, I want you to tell your story. And I was like, you have to be on my podcast because I really think that many of you may also have similar symptoms, and you may be able to relate to what Callie's going to share. If not, maybe somebody you know may benefit from what we're going to talk about today. It's a kind of a different topic, but I'm really excited to share with you because Callie has had amazing results, and it's about her health journey. So my name is Shelly Hitz. I'm the owner of Author Audience Academy, and I'm a true believer that success. Success leaves clues. Therefore, I'm always excited to introduce you to authors and experts who have amazing success and are willing to share their tips and strategies with you. Now, disclaimer. Callie is not a medical professional. Right, Callie? This is not medical advice. She's not an expert in the medical field. We do recommend that you, you know, consult your own doctor. But she has a story of transformation and has gotten amazing results, and so that's why I wanted to have her on the show. So I just want to share just a little bit about you, Callie. Is that okay?

Yeah.

All right. So Callie is. She's kind of an amazing detail person. Would you say that's true?

Yeah.

Yeah. Like, all the things that she's good at. It's, like, detail oriented. The things I'm not good at. So she's a writer. Well, you know, I'm a writer, too, but she's a writer editor, so she deals with editing if you need that for your book. She's a professional, professional organizer, which I've seen some crazy neat before and afters lately of people that you've been helping. So that's Cool. But her editing services include book manuscripts, even blog posts, websites, articles, and more. Like, she even, like, messaged me on Facebook the other day and let me know one of my social media graphics had an edit issue on it. And I was like, oh, no. So, you know, that's. But that's what editors do, right? They're good at catching those things that just fly over our heads sometimes. But her goal is to help clients successfully communicate their professional and personal ideas and reach their goals through organized thoughts and environments. So that's awesome. And she has tons of other things in her bio. We'll put that in the show notes. But she. I love this. She loves bright colors and office supplies and has way too many books. Can anyone else relate? Look at all those books behind her. I think my audience can relate to that. You know, we love our books. So welcome Callie. And her website's callirevel.com c a l l I E R E v e l l.com so welcome.

Thank you. I'm excited.

Yeah. So in this week's Center Stage Spotlight training, I'm going to have her, you know, really focus on the topic of health. And the reason is the title of this episode is how this One Change Brought Callie More Energy, Productivity, and Motivation.

Could anyone benefit from that? Would you benefit from having more energy, productivity, motivation for your writing? You know, I think we all could. So, Callie, welcome. And I want you just to kind of start with kind of the story that you shared that I heard at the Naqui conference.

Sure. Okay. So I want to start by saying that I am a writer at heart. That's why I put that first on my business cards, because I love to write, and I always have, ever since I was a little kid. I used to write books when I was in elementary school, and in middle school and high school, I kept very emotional journals. I would fill them up, they'd be like, this thick. Yeah. So I've always loved to. Right. So I wanted to tell you about a period of time that I call my writing drought, which was about a period of four and a half to five years of my life. And I'm young. I'm 26. So that's a huge chunk of my life in which I really struggled to put pen to paper.

I struggled even to write a single sentence. It was really hard on me. And a lot of that was a physical manifestation of, you know, what was happening in my body. So I'll start by saying that a lot of my problems have to do with, like, my female body, but these symptoms can happen to men too. This is a lot about what goes in your body and how it affects you. So I guess In June of 2010, I was having a lot of trouble with my reproductive cycles. And so I started hormonal birth control. And at that point, that was just an easy fix. It acted like a band aid. And over the next four and a half years, a lot of things happened. First of all, I gained 60 pounds, which was insane.

Yeah.

And I didn't change my diet at all or my exercise routine. It was all of my hormones that were messed up. Second, I started having serious symptoms, mainly sickness and fatigue. Not sickness like a cold, but just like body aches and pain. And my fatigue was really serious. When I started as an entrepreneur, I quit my job in an office and started working from home. And for that first year, my fatigue was so intense that I would sleep from about 11pm to 7am I would get my husband sent off to work, and then I would go back to bed until 2 or 3pm and I would still be tired. I just slept all the time. So that was really physically hard. And I was also dealing with a lot of depression, partly from the hormones and partly because that's just something I've always dealt with. But the depression also contributed to that too. So life was really kind of dark. Like, literally, I kept the house very dark because the light kind of hurt, if that makes sense. So through all that, besides the weight gain, I also had a breast reduction surgery because the hormones had caused my cup size to go from double D to H, which was called crazy. So I had to have surgery for that. And I guess I thought that would kind of fix everything. And it did fix my back pain, but the weight gain didn't change.

So I went to the doctor several times, tried a few different pills. Obviously, none of them made a difference. And so I finally got fed up. And In November of 2014, I just quit mid pack. I was like, I'm done. We're gonna have to figure something else out. So that's what I did. And when you quit hormonal birth control pills, your cycle is supposed to kick back on its own the next month. But mine didn't. It took six months for anything to happen. And after that, my cycles, which are supposed to be 28 days, they ranged from 40 days to. I even had a period of 200 days of nothing. And that's very scary when your body stops doing what it's supposed to do.

Yeah, something's not working right.

Yeah, exactly. Something was really wrong. So I read that sometimes weight gain can cause irregularity like that. And so I decided to start losing weight. And the only way I knew how to do that was to exercise a lot. So I did five days a week, four an hour a day. And I also cut my calories way down to about 1200 a day. And I thought that would work. And it's supposed to, like, mathematically calories in, calories out, that's supposed to work. And that's when I started to understand that I probably had some sort of metabolic disorder going on, because I did that for a year and I lost about £10, which was great. I mean, that was great, but that wasn't the results that I should have been seeing. And those were very, very difficult to lose. So at that point, I had gone from 205 pounds to about 195, 193. But I was still so unhappy.

And I knew that something needed to change. So after a year of that.

I finally decided to visit my doctor, which I really should have done in the beginning, but I'm a very stubborn.

So. And I'm also really, I guess, scared of the doctor. I don't like going to the doctor, but I finally. And that's when I kind of got my wake up call, because I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is basically a hormonal disorder that also has a lot to do with the way your body processes insulin, but it manifests itself in cysts on your ovaries and other, I guess, hormonal symptoms like hair loss, weight gain, all kinds of stuff. And it also causes infertility, which is a big deal for me right now because we're getting ready to try and start a family. So I was just devastated to hear my doctor say that because of the state of my body, which it was broken, it wasn't working. I wouldn't be able to start a family like I wanted to. And that just broke my heart. And I just could not understand how it had gotten this far. And keep in mind, in all this time, I wasn't writing at all. And a lot of that had to do with how I didn't want to remember what was happening. Because everything, like when I used to journal, which I did daily for many years, a lot of it was expressing joy and celebrating life. I felt like I had nothing to celebrate.

So after that, I went to several support groups online and I kept seeing over and over.

The idea that people with PCOS really benefit from a low carb, low sugar diet.

And that was A very hard pill for me to swallow. And I'll tell you, because.

Not only have I always been a writer, but I've always been a baker. Yes, I love to bake, especially cupcakes, cookies, birthday cakes, everything. Sugar was my biggest tool. I used it in college. My first night in the dorms, I made a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies. Everyone was my friend.

Yeah.

Yes. I did that all the time. And I was known as the girl who always had something sugary to offer because that made people like me, that made them want to be with me, and that made me really happy. Like, friends would come over to our house, and they would immediately go to the freezer because they knew there would be ice cream waiting for them there.

And so sugar became kind of like my medicine, which truly was devastating to my body. Now that I understand the effects of what happened to my pancreas and just everything that my body uses to process the sugar. But I was definitely, definitely addicted to sugar. And I don't use the word addicted lightly. I really mean it. I had to have sugary cereal for breakfast. I would have an apple, maybe two a day, which, I know fruit seems healthy, but it's also very sugary. I had a bowl of ice cream every night. Like, not kidding.

Wow.

And I, like, since I work from home, I spend a lot of time alone in my house, and I would just walk laps around the house telling myself, don't eat the sugar. Don't eat the sugar. But sometimes I would even cry because I wanted it so badly, and I was so frustrated that my body wanted it. And I would get terrible, like, withdrawal headaches if I didn't have it. I mean, I needed it. And so to read that cutting out sugar and cutting out carbs, which are basically sugar, was the way that I was going to get better, that was so hard for me to understand and process. But I looked at my life, I looked at the people around me, and I knew how much they would benefit if I could lose the weight and start processing all of these chemicals in my body correctly. So I did. I quit cold turkey. Just overnight. I boxed up all of the sugar and the carbs, and it's sitting in a box in my closet because I don't know what to do with it. Still? Yeah, it's still there. And that was in February.

Do you have the support of your husband?

Yes, I do.

He loves potatoes and pickles and stuff, and so he's sort of gone in halfway with me. Like, he'll do it with me during the week. And then on the weekends, sometimes he'll splurge a bit. But he's very supportive and I think for him it helped a lot to see the results, which the results came so quickly that he noticed them right away. And so it's been. Oh, gosh. I don't have count, but I know it's been over three months. Just a little bit over. And I've lost £30.

Wow. And before it, you only lost £10 in a year?

Yeah. Mm. Yeah. So it came so quickly. It's like my body finally understood what was going on and everything fixed.

So let me see. First of all, my mood is fantastic. I don't feel bad.

So happy. I have my notes here. Okay. No sugar crashes. I used to, after every meal, I would just, like, doze off and fall asleep, but I don't feel that anymore. My cycles every 28 days, like clockwork, like that, they just kicked on.

I'm ovulating regularly, which never happened before.

I have energy, I'm not bloated, and I don't really feel a craving for the sugar anymore. Since February, a bunch of our friends have had birthdays, and I'm still the one that makes their birthday cupcakes. But I didn't want a single one. I just didn't need it. And once I knew the benefits of quitting the sugar, the sugar just wasn't important. Like, the temporary sweetness just paled in comparison to all of the benefits of leaving it behind. And so I just want to encourage your audience to set higher standards for themselves and respect themselves, because my standards are so much higher now about what goes in my mouth and what goes in my body. Like, sometimes I'll be grocery shopping and actually have to say that to myself out loud. I'm like, no, my standards are higher. As I walk past all of these things.

Oh, I know. It's everywhere.

It's everywhere. Especially sugar.

It is. And it's in everything.

And absolutely.

One of the things I remember you specifically saying at the Naqui conference is that it was like you're walking around in a fog.

Yes.

Like a brain fog. Can you explain, like, the before and after? Like, before and after, like, sugar and carbs and stuff? Like, how that felt for you? Because I have felt that before. And, you know, you motivated me and my husband. I'm going to talk about that in just a minute, but to, you know, decrease our sugar, but talk about that a little bit.

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. So for the last five years, I mean, obviously I have a lot of great memories. We went to Australia. We moved around. We've made a lot of new friends. Like, lots of great memories. But when I look back, it feels like those memories are from someone else. I feel like a completely different person. And at the same time, I feel like myself for the first time since high school. Um, and a lot of that had to do with that brain fog. Like, when I look back, everything is kind of fuzzy. And I remember just, like, being in the moment, maybe playing a game with our friends or something, and being there, but not quite being there, because my brain would either be completely, like, curtained off with fatigue, or I would be anxious about when I was gonna get my next sugar fix.

Yeah.

Just wasn't there. And just the difference that I feel now is so astonishing that, I mean, I just can't believe how different it feels. Like, I feel like I was watching a movie of my life, you know, and now I feel like I'm actually there. And I had no idea that sugar was doing that to me, but it was. It kept me in this kind of, like, behind a veil almost. And when the veil was lifted, suddenly everything was brighter and everything was prettier. And so the thought of, like, putting the veil back on over my eyes, as in, like, going back to eating sugar and everything, I mean, it just doesn't make sense. And even if the sugar feels good and tastes good, I mean, there's other things that taste good and feel good that I can do that are better for me, so.

Yeah. And, you know, you mentioned, like, it's just giving you better clarity, more energy, more motivation, and. Are you writing again?

Yeah, I am, actually. I've started my journal again, and I've started writing poetry again. It's just great.

Yeah. So it's even overcome, like, what some people might call writer's block, but, you know, and every person is different. Every person has different situation. I mean, you had a very specific diagnosis as well, But I think it's really encouraging to hear. Like, I mean, it was night and day, and if just simply. That wasn't like, medication or surgery or anything, it was just simply changing the food you put in your body.

Right, Right, exactly. The fuel that you use. It was like going from the regular unleaded fuel to super fancy stuff.

Now you can't go back, and anyone can do this. It's not out of your reach. It's not too expensive. It's not anything. I mean, anyone. If you're feeling a lot of these symptoms, you could just simply give it a try. See how it works for you. There's a book called Whole 30, and I know a lot of my friends have really gotten great results from that. And it's also a similar thing, like eliminating certain things for a seat. But after I heard your story, I came home from Naqui, and my husband and I have been in this health journey for years. But we always keep coming back to sugar. You know, it's just so easy in our culture. And it's almost like it's what you do for a date or what you do for celebrating.

It's such.

It's a reward, you know, it's so social. Yes, yes.

Like, when everyone is eating sugar and you're not. That's such a hard situation.

Yeah, I just experienced that recently because.

Sugar is used as, like, a reward. It's used to celebrate things like birthdays. It's used to make people happy, and people don't really remember other ways to do that.

Yeah. And so I came home and I was like, I told my husband your story. Because he's actually said this to me recently. He's like, shelly, I honestly think I'm addicted to sugar. Like, he had the same thing. He had to have his sugar cereal in the morning. You know, we had to have, like, treats, or he'd have to have something, some sort of cookie or cake with his coffee. You know, it was just like, sugar was such an integral part. And I didn't feel it quite as much as him, but I know it was affecting my body.

Right.

You know, those crashes, you know, the ups and downs in the day and you're home. But anyways. And, you know, if he was eating it, I was eating it, too.

So I told him your story and I told him. I was like. She was just like, you know, came out of this fog, you know, really felt better. All this stuff, you know, lost weight, you know, helped, you know, her female stuff, you know, everything. You know, all the results. And so we watched a couple documentaries. One of them you recommended, what was the name of that one again?

There's a couple that I like. There's one called, like, Carb Loaded. There's one called Sugar Coated. There's. There's a ton of research that's been done.

Yeah, I think it was the Carb Loaded one, but it was on. We watched on YouTube. You have to pay a little bit. And then there was one on Amazon prime on sugar that we watched. And we watched this, those documentaries, and we know enough. And yet it's like, sometimes the information alone doesn't, like, sink in. It was just like, it was the right time. So we decided not to give up all carbs, but to really give up processed sugar and sweets. And so it was like, okay, if we're doing it together, we can do it. And at the same time, my husband is a. He's a. He's a sponsored runner. Like, he. Like, he's very good runner, and he has companies that sponsor him to run for them. And so he gets all this really good nutritional stuff, and yet I didn't even realize everything we had access to. And he told me, like, after one of the. Oh, no. After one of the. One of the documentaries, they were talking about all this stuff that was really good for you. And I went and I looked. We had this little thing. It's called Perfect Food Berry. It's from Garden of Life. And I looked at the ingredients. I was like, those are all the things they're saying in this documentary we were supposed to be eating. So I started. I eliminated the sugar, and then I started adding this into my. My protein drink in the morning. And then my husband also has these things. It's super beets. Like, he's sponsored by. So I'm like, I started adding a scoop of the beets and a scoop of this other. Like, it's fruit and vegetables, basically green. Anyways, by eliminating the sugar and then adding in the nutrition that I needed, I mean, literally, like, it was almost like a battery that's being charged up. Like, I can almost instantly feel this energy, like. Like in the mornings when I have my protein drink with good stuff in it that my body was probably not getting, most likely because I'm a carb girl. You know, I was, you know, toast and sandwiches and sweets and all this stuff. And so, I mean, we've just been doing it, like, it'll be a month next week. But it's just, like, I already feel such a difference in my energy level, and I'm getting to the point I'm not craving it anymore.

Yeah. And that's the fun part.

Yes. And so thank you. I just want to say thank you for sharing your story and thank you for motivating us. And I think it's only going to help my husband's. His performance in running, too. His sports performance. I mean. And we keep watching the documentary. I'm like, I think we need to watch a different documentary once a month just to remind ourselves why we're doing this, because it is hard. But I love the love. Love that, you know, it's just. It's simple. It's something so simple. And it's not easy. That doesn't mean it's easy because it probably will be one of the hardest things, you know, you'll ever do if you choose to go on this path or. But it's so worth it. Like, most of my audience are Christ followers, are Christians. And so, you know, the Bible talks about honoring God with our bodies.

And it's. Our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Our bodies are creations that he has made. And yet so many times I have not treated my body very well. And I think that so many times we could be even more effective for the Kingdom of God, more effective in our writing, more effective in what we do. And I'm getting chills just saying this because, like, we could just do so much more just by this one little simple change. And already, like, my husband and I are joking because I on the Strength finders, I'm an aa, which is Achiever Activator, which means I'm a go person anyways. And since I started doing this and I've been adding these extra things in.

He'S like, it's the beats.

Like, he's just, you know, joking about it's the beats. Because I almost feel like I'm even more productive. I'm like, how is that even possible? Because people already asked me, like, how do you get everything done? But it's just such a great feeling to have that energy to know you're feeding your body something good and the body rebuilds itself, itself every so often, you know, you know, it takes longer for bones, but, you know, probably, you know, in the neck, you've probably already rebuilt most of your. Yourselves and your body, you know, at this point. So we could talk forever on this. This is so exciting. And the results can be, I mean, so dramatic. And it's different for everyone, you know, but what I like to do in these times is just to give a take action tip. So if you had a take action tip for our listeners, what would that be?

Okay, so what I want to reiterate here is that for me, what was controlling me was sugar. But you need to find what is controlling you and you need to figure out how to control it instead. So for my journey, it was sugar, but for you it might be, I don't know, television, cigarettes, whatever it is.

Social media.

Yes, social media, whatever. The first step is just to start, like, if I had just started four years ago, I can't imagine where I would be. I would probably be on my way. I mean, I might have a Baby, by now, I mean, there's so much that could have happened if I had just started when I first thought about starting. So I just encourage you, whatever you need to do to take care of yourself, to take care of your body, do it today, do it right now and get started. Because you only have one life, and there's no reason to waste five years like I did suffering from a health issue that can be solved just by simply controlling what you put into your body and what you allow your body to be affected by. So nothing stopping you but yourself. And if you need support, find it. It's there. You just have to find it and just have the self respect. And once you learn how to respect yourself and respect your body, that comes out in everything you do, you become more confident.

Yes.

Writing becomes more confident, your words are more confident, and your words come easier. At least for me, I express myself so much easier when I'm not in that fog of being controlled by sugar or whatever controls you. I just want to say, like, you deserve it. You deserve to live a healthy and productive life.

And whatever you're using as a band aid, just rip it off and start actually healing yourself. Because the benefits of that are just unimaginable. They've been wonderful.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Like, this could literally be life changing for some of you that are listening, you know, and it's gonna be different for everyone. We're not saying that everyone has to go on the same path, you know, But Kelly and I have both gotten really good results. A lot of people are just, I mean, and the research is there, you know, it just shows it. But I just know that this could really change things for a lot of you. And that's why I wanted to bring Callie on and share, have her share her story. But Callie, if people want to connect with you, maybe even more questions about your health journey, or maybe hire you as an editor, an organizer or something like that, where can they connect with you?

Have it written down. You can go to my website right here. It's calirevel.com and then if you do Health Journey, I'll be posting some resources, videos, all kinds of stuff, and I'll tell my story in a more detail there. But on my website, there's a contact tab. Just feel free to reach out. Like, I'm happy to answer questions and just connect with you because like I said, support's important and I'm here to be your support if you need it or if you want to be my support, we can do.

Yeah. Yes. And Callie is an amazing person. She is also a Christian and an entrepreneur and she's just talented in many areas. She's created a speaker video promo for me. So thank you, Callie. And so, you know, she may be able to provide a service that you need, but also just the inspiration on your own journey. And so thank you so much, Kali. I'm so excited that you joined us today and and thank you to everyone that is listening and thank you for joining me on my podcast. I truly appreciate you and I want to continue to help you, not just in your writing and marketing, but in life. And so I hope that you got a lot out of this episode and I'll see you next time. Bye.

Bye.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her Six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.