157: Take Back Control of Your Life with Cynthia Garcia

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up? We aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback. On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. Cynthia Garcia grew up extremely poor. Now when I say extremely poor. She had no running water, she had no indoor plumbing. And to make matters worse, she was in a very abusive family, being abused. From the age of five on, she was super poor, abused, and felt no love. And Cynthia didn't believe she really had anything working for her except for one thing, and that one thing, as she calls it. She was given a great earth suit. What does that mean? She was beautiful, physically beautiful. And she viewed that as a gift. So she moved to LA and she worked as a model in the ever competitive entertainment industry. And she was quickly broken down again. Constant feedback about her looks, too skinny, too overweight, whatever the Los Angeles competitive pressure and the crazy hectic work environment, it was wreaking havoc on her stress level and her health. She was stressed out. Her skin was reflecting it. She was sick, she was depressed. She felt like she had no real friends. And then that moment happened. She was in the shower and she found some very scary lumps in her breast. Now she was ready to end it all. She was broke, depressed, suicidal, no one to talk to. And then she finally surrendered. And that's when it all started to turn around. Today, join in as Cynthia Garcia, who now today is a celebrity nutritionist, transformation expert, best selling author, in demand speaker, TV and media personality and philanthropist. She's also the founder and CEO of the Institute of Transformational Nutrition, a company that makes it easy for health coaches to do the work they love by teaching them a proven coaching process that leaves them confident and credible so they can be a powerful force in the world. Join in today and learn exactly how Cynthia Garcia went from those total rags. Two riches in every meaning of that word. I am so excited. Today I'm talking to Cynthia Garcia and she's got quite the stories. She's the perfect guest for leveling up today. She has created an eight figure business. She is the founder of the Institute of Transformational Nutrition, which we'll get into. But she's got a crazy story that got her here. And a friend, a mutual friend of ours, introduced Us. And I was dying to interview her. All she told me was she was suicidal, broke, living in a crappy apartment in Hollywood. And she went literally from that to creating an eight figure. And I had to know, who is this woman that did this and how does she go from there to this? So thank you so much for being on, Cynthia. I can't wait to chat with you.

Yeah, it's such a pleasure to be here, Natalie. And honestly, with that introduction, we can only go up, right? Yeah. Yeah.

So I'm dying to know because I can Google you and you have credentials out the wazoo. People know who you are. You've got this fantastic business model that you've created. I know that you're co founder of Unicorns. You've got a lot of things happening and you're, you're extremely attractive. You look like you have it all put together. So who are you before all of that? And how did this happen?

Wow. So I guess the short and long of it is right before I decided to go into health, which I had no interest in, by the way. Like, you just exemplify health and are such a great spokesperson for that. But I had no interest. I didn't know the difference between a protein and a carb. And I honestly didn't care. It wasn't something I was interested in until I had my own health struggle, which I think is so many people's stories, right? So, yes, as our mutual friend said, I was living in this little tiny studio apartment in Hollywood, California. I was working at the time in the entertainment industry, just hustling, trying to make it work. And I had got really sick. You know, like most people, I was out there pounding the pavement day in and day out, working all day, going to events and parties at night, trying to get my foot in the door. And all of that caught up with me really, really quickly. So I was about 35 pounds or 30 pounds overweight. I had cystic acne on my face, my neck, my back just wouldn't go away. Cellulite in places I didn't know you could get it. Even more concerning, I had. I was exhausted from morning to night. I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and was suffering from short term memory loss. And I, you know, I tried everything, like, and I, I used to hear people say that and think, you know, if you tried, everything would have worked. So did you really. But the truth did. I mean, I tried every. I went to doctors, trainers, nutritionists. I was hypnotized. I did energy balancing. I popped the pills, drank the Shakes. And nothing worked. And so the morning I got up and hopped in the shower and found lumps in both of my breasts, that was my breaking.

Now, how old were you when this was happening?

I was in my early 20s.

Okay, early 20s. Wow. And you were in the entertainment industry. Like, what were you doing in that? And what was so stressful about it?

So I was a television host, and I was modeling. And the stressful part was really, you know, it's a tough industry to be in. It's interesting. I remember this day. I'll never forget this. I went to one go, see, which is where, you know, you try to book a modeling job, and they said, oh, we love your look. It'd be fabulous if only you were five pounds thinner. I went to another one. I'm not even joking. It was a little bit more than an hour later, and they said, oh, love your look. You'd be great if you were just five pounds heavier. So swear to God, I was just like, this is crazy. So you're always hustling. It's a very cutthroat industry. And just, you know, there's people vying for those spots every day. So it's tough.

Yeah. And it's just comparison mode, I'm sure, around the clock. And that. That's stressful in itself. Just feeling you have to look a certain way or be a certain way, and you almost had to be a chameleon in that. Like, who do I need to show up and be for this person? You're not really yourself, I'm assuming.

No, no, no, no. I think. I mean, I think most of us in general lose touch with. With who we are because we try to become who others want us to be. Found that to be more true than in this industry or in that industry. I'm no longer in it. Yeah, it was tough.

So when you say you tried everything, were you and you weren't really interested in health, did you consider that you were eating healthy? Did you think you were doing that at the time?

Totally. And I was eating, you know, all the greens and, you know, drinking the green smoothies, staying away from a lot of fruit. No processed sugar. No processed junk food.

Following the rules. Yeah.

Following all the rules. Yeah. And I thought, well, this should fix. And then it didn't. So I thought, okay, well, maybe I need to see someone. And that's when I sought out a nutritionist who said, nope, you're doing the right thing. So I thought, oh, it's my workouts. I'm just not doing the right Things working out. I'm doing too much, too little. And my nutritionist at the time said, maybe you're working out too much. And luckily she was a friend of a friend, so I could afford to see her, but I was spending every dime I had trying to fix my body. And then the trainer didn't. That didn't help anything. I was just more. More tired than I was when I started. And, yeah, I mean, nothing. Nothing worked. There were. There were things that I would feel better for a few days or have a bit more energy, but then it would just cycle back to the way it was before.

So you obviously had something underlying going on, and. And obviously you were stressed. You probably didn't. You just didn't know the stress was a big part of that. So you find these lumps, and then what happens? I'm sorry, you find the lumps and then what happens when you're in the stress?

Yeah. So that was. As I said, that was the breaking point. I. I was in the shower, and I just. I just sank to the floor. I just sat down in the tub and put my arms around myself. And I remember just sitting there and just rocking, just like rock a baby. And I don't know how long I sat there. I mean, I was just done. I was so broken in that moment. And the next thing I remember was just I was shivering because the water had gotten cold. And so I get out and I wrap myself in a towel and I just. On my couch and I just sat there all day. And that led to the wee hours of the night. And I remember just being a zombie. And I've never felt so hopeless and so worthless in all my life. And there were a lot of those times, and we can talk about those if you want, but this was it. And so I somehow found myself in the corner of this little tiny studio apartment. The light from, you know, the street lights coming in my one window. I had one window, and I decided that I was done. I had a handful of pills And a diet Dr. Pepper, which was my only indulgence at that time, and just decided that this was my way out. And I thought, you know, they can't say that I didn't try. They'll find the things. They'll see the money I've spent. I mean, I had no money left in my bank account, basically, in a city where I had no real friends, no family members at all, and no real prospects. I wasn't working because you know what I looked like. I kept losing all these jobs, and it just. I really felt like this was the end for me.

And so did it occur when you had these lumps? So did you automatically assume, okay, this is breast cancer? Were you, like, I just don't even know what this is. What was going through your mind? And clearly you must have been depressed before that's even happening. But what was, like, the conversation you were having in your head?

Yeah, so I've dealt with depression and anxiety my entire life. I've been diagnosed with clinical depression at a really young age. And obviously, my. The state of my health and my financial situation, the fact that I had no support system at all certainly didn't help that I had no idea what the lumps were. I mean, I had heard stories and read the books, but I didn't know. And to be quite honest, I didn't care. I just thought, you know, I just. That was it. I just. I've never. And it's not even that I was sad or upset. I was just numb. Just 100% numb and completely.

So you didn't know if it was breast. You didn't go to, like, it's breast cancer. You just took it more like a sign, like, it's just one more thing.

Yeah, one more thing. And worst case, it's breast cancer. Who knows? But I just cannot continue to live my life this way because, you know, I just felt like I had been fighting my entire life, and I was just so sick of fighting. I mean, my childhood had been an uphill battle. Everything I had tried to do was. Was tough and hard was just. I was just done.

So was that a pattern you sort of learned in your childhood? Everything was tight. Because I believe that we form our. Our beliefs around from our childhood. Like, if we think life is tough and hard, we typically got that from childhood. Is that. Was that your experience?

It was. Because things were tough and hard. Yeah, it was. It was difficult. And I felt like it was so hard to overcome the things that I had been kind of served up throughout my childhood. But I had done it. You know, I'm very much a survivor, and I think there's a lot to be said for that. There's a lot of things that I've brought with me into my current career because of the challenges I went through. So, you know, looking back, I wouldn't. I wouldn't trade that, but it definitely wasn't easy.

Yeah. So when you said you were as a child, and I want to come back to this moment where you were at the pills, you didn't want to live, but when you were A child and you were diagnosed with depression. What was hap. What happened then? Did your. Were you put on pills? Were you told to manage it? Like, what was what. How was that treated when you were diagnosed then?

Yeah, so we were very poor. Like, I grew up in extreme poverty. We had. There was no running water in our home. We had an outhouse that we used and a bucket in the corner where we went.

It was extreme poverty. It's not like what we typically see in this country.

Yes, no, it wasn't like, oh, we were poor, but we knew we had love.

We really didn't have a bathroom or indoor plumbing or water.

No, no, no, no. And to go into our kitchen, we had to go outside. There was no heat in our house. We had an old wood stove in one of the bedrooms that we burned wood and coal when we could afford it and that, you know, the heat would sort of dissipate into the other rooms. But, yeah, we had. I mean, I remember night after night going hungry. My dad would steal food because we didn't have the money to buy it and we had nothing to eat. I mean, we would have gone hungry way more often had he not done that.

So. And what was the conversation from your parents that time? Did they. Would they tell you you're going to amount to something? Were they telling you that you wouldn't amount to something? Like, what did they believe about you? Or what did you believe that they believed about you?

So it was a very volatile household. My parents fought all the time. And when I say they fought, I don't mean that they had arguments or disagreements. I mean literally tried to murder each other on a daily basis. I never knew what I was going to wake up to. I never knew what I was going to come home to. I was constantly anxious, just walking on eggshells for the ball to drop. So it was pretty extreme. And, you know, they had their backgrounds and their upbringing wasn't exactly ideal. It was very traumatic as well. So I believe that they were doing the best they could with what they had, but they just, they had no idea how to be parents. So in terms of motivating me and encouraging me and saying, hey, I know it's bad, but it's going to get better. You can make something of yourself. It just wasn't an option. I mean, no one left this town. No one got any better. Everyone got government checks and that was it.

So it's starting to make sense to then why you come to LA with these dreams like, I'm going to be in the Entertainment business. I'm going to be this. And when there's the setbacks happening, you had no proof of being able to break through of that before. Because for raise was like. That was our. That was like your chance of success. And it wasn't working right now, is what I'm imagining.

Yeah. I mean, and there was time after time of that happening. I mean, I remember I was always an entrepreneur from a really young age. It's a really funny, quick story, but I remember when I was, I don't know, maybe seven, I decided that I was going to start a printing press. Secret story. Because somehow I actually know where I got this book. It was a little book that I got on, like, businesses kids could start. And they had the lemonade stand and that sort of thing. And another fun fact, I actually got it from the trash dumpsters, which were just like right across the way from our house. That was sort of our treasure trove. We would literally dig in these trash cans to try to find toys, something like, you know, a book that we could read or anything. And so. So I had this little book, and the idea was that you carve letters out of potatoes and you dip them in a stamp pad, not that I had one. And you make. You can print things.

Okay.

I decided I would make a town newsletter. And this was going to be amazing because potatoes. I was like, I could find a potato. I don't know what I'm going to use for ink, but I'll deal with that when I get there. Much like we entrepreneurs do.

Yeah, yeah.

And so I ended up carving out one letter, and it was a complete disaster. And that was the end of my first business. But. But no, I mean, there was. I never saw anyone being successful. And actually my family, my aunts and uncles would say to me, you're nothing. You're nobody. You'll never amount to nothing. You're, you know, you're useless. And everything that I was surrounded by only reflected that, you know, that I was in. I was physically, mentally, emotionally abused. I was sexually abused starting at the age of five and then continued. So, yeah, I mean, there was no, you know, setting yourself up for success.

Wow. Okay. So how do you. That's a lot. That's a heavy amount. Did you have siblings, too, with this?

I did. I have a younger sister who's four years younger.

So you were almost. I'm assuming you were almost mothering her through all of that same experience, too.

I wasn't. No. You would think there was so much, so much pain in my home. And so which contributed to just anger. Everyone was angry all the time. My parents were always angry. We were always angry, angry. My sister and I fought all the time because that's what we learned from our parents. That's what we saw. There was no hugging. There was no loving gesture. None of that ever took place. So I didn't know what it looked like to mother anyone. I had never had that example. And my parents, you know, they have a troubled background, and we can talk about that if you want. But one of the things that I think really contributed to this pain that they were going through is they had had a son before me who had died in an accident when he was just two. I think that was, you know, obviously, really, really tough for them. My mother's family, her dad had died when she was, I think, six or seven. And her mother was an alcoholic and, you know, sold herself for money. And they were homeless, and the kids would live in while she was in wherever with the man. And so she didn't have family close. And when their son died, my dad's mother essentially blamed them. And she was afraid the same thing would happen to me when I came along. So I actually spent a lot of time, basically lived with my grandmother for maybe the first five years of my life after I was weaned from nursing with my mother. Yeah, so it was a really. I mean, there was no. There weren't any examples of being great parents or loving or, you know, helping you get through the hard times or encourage you totally. That just. It didn't exist.

You know, it's so amazing as I'm talking to you here, and I can't wait to get into, like, where it pivoted after your. That moment of wanting to take those pills and all of that. But what's so interesting is I've interviewed so many people, and before I even started interviewing people, I've always being curious in people's stories and what makes them up, and it's. What's really interesting. And it's confusing as a parent, what to do, because if you are the parent that believes in your child, gives them love, thrive, take care of them, give them all the things, they're not the ones that end up so successful. But the more broken a child, it's bizarre. It's like. And then the broken children go one of two directions. Like, either they stay broken or. Or they thrive and create these massive results. And it's so. And as a parent myself, I look at my daughter and I'm thinking, okay, my daughter has four Parents, like, four parents. She's got me and her dad, and then we're both remarried. So she's got four loving parents. My daughter has more love than she knows what to do with, and I worry about it. I'm like, do we believe her too much? It's like, will she have that entrepreneurial spirit or will she. So it's just, you know, as I'm listening to you, I'm like, this isn't uncommon where I'm talking with people that have had these horrible childhoods where they didn't have the love or the belief system. And then it's just amazing to me that it turns around from that.

It's so interesting. I agree with you. It's funny, because the next book that I'm writing is about this topic. You know, how do you turn your adversity into your advantages? How do you really leverage these painful trying childhoods and learn from them and leverage that into success? And while I was doing some research for the book, I actually found this statistic that 7 out of 10 entrepreneurs who make 7 figures or above experience some form of extreme childhood adversity.

Isn't that crazy?

Yeah, I was just crazy.

Like, because you think as a parent, what do you do? Like, my daughter, adversity so she could thrive. Like, it doesn't. It's just. It's just unbelievable. Okay, so you're on. So let's go back to this moment in Los Angeles. You're in your apartment, you find the lumps, you've got the pills, you've been depressed. You're not leaving your apartment right now. What happens then?

Yeah, so I. Like I said, I had really sat through the whole night. I mean, I was just all day sitting there into the night. I got the pills. I remember just emptying them all into my hand. I came back, I sat down, I had the drink, and I was.

Are you sleeping pills? Or what was. What were you going to take?

So it was a mixture. There was a bunch of sleeping pills, mostly because they kept saying, oh, if you sleep, we'll restore your Got it. So there was that. So I was just ready. And I remember sitting there and I was fine with it. I was feeling very numb. But then I started just looking back over my life and I started thinking about my childhood. And because I thought, how did I get here?

Yeah.

Like, how. How did this really happen? And the more I sat there and the more all these things just kind of replayed in my mind, I thought, why? Like, why has this happened to me? Like, why is it just time after time after time. And there's so many things we haven't even talked about yet. You know, my. I mean, my parents literally trying to murder each other. My grandfather murdered his wife and then committed suicide on my gosh birthday. I mean, there's so many things I could go on and on and on. And so I'm replaying this and I'm just thinking, why. Why me? You know, like, what. What the. What, you know.

Yeah.

Is going on? And I started to get really angry in that moment, Natalie. And I just thought, I mean, the tears are just streaming and I am just broken wide open. And I'm just saying, why me? Why me? Why? And it was just this voice that I heard, and I don't, you know, call it a divine download or the word of God, I don't know, but it was just this voice that said, it hasn't happened to you. It happened for you. And it's funny because I hear people say that all the time now, but I'd never heard that. I had no idea. That doesn't happen. No, no, I never heard. I had no idea. I wasn't spiritual. I didn't read any development. I didn't know any of that. So I thought, well, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Like, what if it's happening for me, then what is it all for? Like, for the love of, you know, little naked baby, tell me already, Cynthia.

How did you even. So I'm just trying to understand. I want to do this because especially people listening that might be in that spot right now, and I want to really. I want to understand this more. So, yeah, when somebody is in that spot and they reach out for help, whether it's through religion, through. To me, it's surrender. Like when they, when you actually surrender, they're like, I'm at the bottom. I don't know what to do. I'm here. Help me. Then. You could go a lot of different directions. It can be either religion, which a lot of people find. That's what we spoke before we started recording about a podcast. You would listen to a mind where his was religion. We can be through a therapist, an amazing therapist. It could be through personal development work, lots of different sources. But are you saying so like there was really no source? You just were in this spot and this just came to you? Sort of this idea came to you?

Yeah, I mean, it was, it was clearly. And it's. It's interesting because I, you know, suffering from short term memory, I couldn't Remember anything. Everything was jumbled. I had crazy brain fog, nothing clear. But that night, it really was about surrendering. Because there was nothing else to do, Natalie. I mean, I had tried, I had fought, I had put in the work, I had spent the money. Nothing was working. So I just was like, I'm done.

Yeah.

And that. That openness, that surrendering, that just breaking open, that's when. I mean, it was a voice, as if it would have spoken to me. I mean, I didn't hear it out loud in the room. I heard it internally. And it just said, it hasn't happened. Because I said, why has this happened to me? Why is everything happening to me? And it was like, oh, it hasn't happened to you. It's happened for you. Which, again, was just super, you know, just mind boggling. And so my question was, well, then, what is it for? And the next thing I heard was, so you could do something. Great.

Now I just got chills, Cynthia, because every time I'm like, this is a theme with everyone. And it's that point of surrender that. That's the turnaround. And I want people to know that surrender does not mean you give up or you're weak. Surrender means you're there, like you are asking for help.

It's the hardest. I fought it for so long. It wasn't until my physical condition and coupled with just my terrible mental health and my depression just brought to my knees I. Because like I said, I'm a fighter. I mean, I have fought tooth and nail, you know, to get everything that I. That I'd ever got in my life. And so surrendering felt weak. It felt like giving up. It felt like I was just, you know, I mean, it contributed to my feeling of worthlessness. But when you're so broken and you get to that point, you just don't care any. There's. There is no caring. There's no feeling. You're just empty.

And the other side of surrender is so amazing, like, when people get there. So I. What I. What my fear for people is, is they stay in that control, control, control, never getting to surrender. And then they start with the. The drugs or whatever else it is to cover up and soothe, and then they never get to that point. And I want people to know that it's the feeling, the feels, it's going through that to that place is where there's something amazing on the other side. But if we stay masking it, or alcohol or all the. Or even just sleep sometimes, if we stay masking it, or in workaholic we never get to that point.

Yeah, I mean, true words have never been spoken. Just preached. Natalie. Because it's so true. And it's interesting, you know, I'm a big control freak, and I always have been, because for me, control meant safety. If I could control what was going on in my home, then things wouldn't get just batshit crazy and I wouldn't be afraid for my life. So control was very much safety. And it's funny, you know, flash forward, years and years later. This was just a few years ago, I was at a retreat with Gary Zukoff, who's such an amazing heart, and I was talking to him about this, and, you know, I said to him, you know, I just. I like to be in control. And he said, why? And I said, it's safety. And he said, no, it's fear. Right. He was so right. It was 100% fear, because I had done the control. I had done the numbing with the drugs and the alcohol and the meaningless relationships and all of the things, and it just. It didn't work. So. But control, that was my lifeline.

I have a theory, too, around this, and I don't know if you put this together, too, but you guys can't see Cynthia right now, but she's like, drop dead gorgeous. Like, there's no joke. Of course, she was a model. But what's interesting is when you. What forced you into surrender was when the one card you were dealt that was in your favor.

Yeah.

The way that you look was challenged now. And that's what's so interesting, because you went to. Which I've done, too.

Why me?

Why is this one more thing? But it was. I believe it was to force you to the spot of surrender because nothing else was going to get to you until your one card was now not your card.

That's right, 100%. And, you know, I mean, look, it's dumb luck, right, that I ended up in this earth suit and you got in that one, and, you know, I see your little doggy, you got in that one. Like, it's just random that we are so up in these earth suits. But, yeah, you're right. It was the one thing I had. And when I realized, because, you know, and I was getting my education, I'd always worked to kind of pay my way through school, but certainly wasn't, you know, finished and had a long to go. But, yeah, you're right. It was the one thing that I thought, okay, if I can leverage this and I can make some money, and then I can Build a life for myself. And when that was taken away, I was just like, wow, totally got it. Nothing.

Yeah. And I think everybody. It could get to that point. It might not be that for somebody else, but when that one within that final thing that you had that. So I do. I fully believe that things happen for us. So you had this epiphany and you had this awareness. Did it flip like that? Or what was the process after that awareness?

So it took a moment. It wasn't just immediate because I was in a really bad place, but, you know, did I want to die? No. I mean, yes and no. If there was a shred of hope. Of course not. You know. Of course not. And, you know, this wasn't my first time considering this option. I had been in this place before, but never quite to this. To this darkness, this level of darkness. But when I heard, you know, because you're meant to do something great, I thought, well, that's a little. I mean, it just. It was a pattern interrupt. Do you know what I mean? Because I'm sitting here and I'm wallowing in this horrible situation that I find myself in. And then for some to hear, like, oh, you're meant for greatness. And hearing all the while growing up that you're worthless, you're hopeless, you're stupid, you're ugly, you know, you're a horrible person. You'll never amount to anything. For this moment, for that to be the message that I heard, it just jarred me out of this situation I was in and this mindset that I was in. And I just essentially was like, tell me more. And I just thought about this and I realized what was happening was that I was meant to go through these journeys. I was meant to go through the hard times, the few ups, the lots of downs. And even in that moment, even my health was meant to struggle for a reason. And I thought, well, maybe if I could figure that out, maybe that's the key to this great thing that I'm supposed to do. If I can figure this out and then I can help others who. To not be in this horrible position. If I could do that, if I could. What if I could overcome all of this and just show people what's possible, maybe that's where the great thing would be. Because if I could show them that I could do it, then, wow, that's amazing.

I love that because I do believe that any and people get triggered when I say this. I know I'm going to trigger people right now, but I so believe this, that when we think we're chronically fatigued when we think we don't have motivation, when we think we don't have energy. It's not that those things are facts. What those things are is that we don't have a passion or a purpose. Because when you have passion and purpose, there is no fatigue. There is no foggy head. There is. We are clear. The energy is there. So to me, that's. What's so cool, is I feel like sometimes we think it's the problem holding us back from our dreams, but it's. We don't have our passion or purpose yet.

That's right. I mean, it's ourselves holding us back from living that dream and from doing the things that we really want to do. And I meet people every day that say, you know, Cynthia, I'm just stuck. If I could just walk out the door and start a new life tomorrow, I would. And my question is always, well, then why don't you? Because you can. You can totally do that. And I'm with you. You know, and it's funny. I didn't. Purpose. I know what that is. You know, I didn't know what that was.

Yeah.

No idea. No. And so I didn't realize it in that moment, but you're 100% right. That's the. That's what it was.

Yeah.

Because what happened was I thought, okay, well, I essentially ended up making a pact with God, the universe, whatever you want to call it. And I said, all right, I'll give this one more shot, because I think there's something here. So if you'll open the door, I'll walk through them.

Total surrender. I love it.

That's why there was no other option. Right. Like I thought. I know. There's actually. I told you before we started talking, there's a picture on my wall that says surrender, and it's a woman holding a baby. And that was another one of my big signs of surrender was when I had my daughter. So it's a lifelong lesson that, you know, we learn over and over, but it definitely got to that point, and I thought, okay, well, if I'm. If I'm agreeing to do this, let's do it. Because, again, I'm a survivor. I'm a fighter. Let's go. So I got up and I went to my computer, and this was back in the day, right? So I pulled up Google and I searched on nutrition program. Like, get a nutrition education. I had no idea. And I found a program. I enrolled the next day. I put it on three credit Cards because I didn't have enough of a limit on one of them to pay for it. It was all the money I had, but. But that was okay because I knew that I was investing in the only thing I had left, and that was me, right? And now I read things from Warren Buffett who's like, you know, the best investment you can make is investing in yourself. I didn't know who he was at the time, but it's true. I believe that to this day, I believe it. And that started me on this journey of healing my own body, working with clients, understanding that we are fed by so much more than what on our plate. And because I had gone through so much of my own mental health issues, I thought psychology, like the psychological components of how do you heal trauma? How do you get through these adversities? How do you really turn it all around and leverage those things? That was critical. So I started studying that. And then, just like you said, my purpose started coming through.

Right?

I started so amazing and connecting spiritually. And I thought, we are so disconnected from who we are. Like, forget your purpose. We don't even know who we are every day. You know, we want to be fed by others, and that just. It doesn't work. All we have is these empty voids that are left inside of us that are unfulfilled. And that's why we do things like overeat or drink too much or have meaningless relationships or gamble or shop or a million other things. So I pulled all of these components together and I called it Transformational Nutrition because it was a certification program that quite literally saved my life. That's what I wanted to use to pay it forward for others. And so that's when I founded the Institute of Transformational Nutrition.

So awesome. I have so many questions about that, but here's what I want to share, too, which is so cool. You just. I just wrote down several words that you said, and it's funny because I just started my aging in reverse community. That's like, I feel that that's my path purpose now. But the main themes of it, check this out. Connection, getting over, people pleasing, fear of judgments, finding your passion and purpose. All those things. Because everything you just mentioned is. That's in anything. I think those are so critical. And I think what stops us so many times are like, what's somebody else going to think? Or someone's going to be unhappy with me? Or we see our own heads not connected. We become these, like, hidden introverts. And then that's the opposite of healing. Right there. To not be connecting and be in.

Tribe and be with other people 100%. And that connection is so critical, by the way. So when I say spirituality at itn, that's what we teach. So I'm not talking about religion here, although you could choose that if you want. Spirituality is about relationships. It's about connection. It's about the relationship you have with yourself, your relationship with others, your relationship with the planet, with something higher than you, your divine purpose. It's that. And we are so disconnected these days. You know, we hide behind computers and screens and, and, and we don't have that intimate relationship that we once had. And that's a deep hunger and most of us are starving to death from it.

So when you figured this out and you started diving in, I'm assuming that your energy, your mood, everything started shifting because now you had a purpose and you had. You're clear on your vision.

Yeah.

How long did it take? And did things just start working in that or were there like up and down battles? Like what was the tactical. Was it your obsession over it was your. What was what made it work?

I definitely think having a bigger purpose because now I was able to put the mission before the me. It wasn't about me anymore. And so for people who say, like, you know, well, I want to do this, but what will they think? You know, people know me as this thing, not as this thing, like what will they think? And we have this fear around that. My thing is you put the message and the mission before the me and then that's no longer an issue because it's. The truth is it's not about you. You know, we like to think it is. And we all have egos. I do too. You know, and sometimes my ego gets pulled into it. And then the beginning, I was very triggered around, what will people think, what will they say? You know, but, but there's something bigger than me. And that was the bigger mission, the bigger purpose. And so even to this day, when I get, you know, like even getting on this, this interview with you, anytime I do TV or anything like that, I always am just like, oh, a little nervous. Like, yeah, resonate. But I quickly flip that by just focusing on the mission and what needs to be done and know without a doubt that I'm here. So that was the big thing. But to answer your question, it didn't happen over overnight. True transformation doesn't. Change can happen overnight, no doubt, but transformation doesn't. It happens over time. So that's what I really focused on. And I didn't give up because like so many other people, you know, in my life, you know, especially my early years, I would diet and then fall off the wagon 13 minutes later, you know, something I think that we all tend to do. And we learned through that to not trust ourselves. So it was really about taking baby steps, stepping my way to health and healing. And everything I tried didn't work. There were some things that would fail and I would take two steps backwards, but I learned from that. And then I would take another step forward and try something else. And so I really became a guinea pig for essentially what I teach today. It was just that trial and error, taking three steps forward, two steps, steps back. And eventually when I coupled, you know, the physiological with the psychological and the spiritual, that's when the big change really happened. Because I could tap into any one of those at any given moment to feed myself what I was really hungry for. So awesome. Yeah.

So did you ever see. So here's what I want people to know about too. About a vision, too. This is interesting. It's not that people get misled with thinking they have to have all the answers of where they want to end up. I just want people to start, figure out, like, what are they purposeful about, what are they passionate about and what do they want to feel like, be around, be engaged with. Because I'm assuming you didn't have this vision. It was going to be this eight figure business. You just knew your vision was, you were called to this direction.

Yeah, I had no idea what it looked like. And if I could be really transparent, if I knew what been what I knew now and knew everything it would take to get to this point, I wouldn't have done it. And that's the honest truth.

Oh, I could say that about my stuff too. Yeah.

It was just. Yeah. It would have been like so overwhelming and I would have been like, I've never done that. Who am I? I'm just this small town girl with no real education. I don't know proper etiquette, I don't know anything about nutrition. But I'm going to start a school that educates tens of thousands of people all around the globe. Right. You know, there's no way I would have done it. But what you do is you just. I have a friend named Vivian Glick and she has a foundation called Just Like My Child.

I've interviewed her on here.

Yeah, she's amazing. Such a tremendous story. But she always talks about just taking the next right step, and that's what I did. It was just the next right step, the next right step. Just baby stepping my way forward. And there was a lot of missteps, too. You know, don't get me wrong, it wasn't like success isn't just a straight line up the axis. You know, it's up and down, up and down, whether it's with a business or with your health or whatever the case might be. But for me, throughout this process, too, and honestly, through my childhood, because as I said, I'm writing this new book and the research that's going into it, I'm looking back to see how did I really do this? Like, what was it that I pulled on when I had nothing to really hold to? What. What was it? And what I realized was that I had always set higher standards for myself. I live by this motto of higher standards. And what that means. It's not about money. It's just about. It's just about moving yourself forward. And so I would look at people who did have money, and I would think, how do they act? How do they speak? What do they read? What do they eat? You know, where do they get an education? And I would start to mimic those things. And I essentially acted at if. Right? So I created this version of myself that I wanted to be, even at a young age, just because my situation was so. So rough and so bleak that it was a survival mechanism. And so I created this version of the me that I would want to be. And then I pulled in traits of people who were successful in doing the things and having the things that I wanted, and I began to that, yeah, what books do they read? I'll read those books. I read books. And in those books, I would see characters who were wealthy or living a great lifestyle or had great friends and relationships. And I would say, how did they do that? What did they say to the man to get the relationship? You know, all of those things. And that's how I learned. Like, that was a big part of my education. It's something I still do today.

I do it, too. The reason I started this podcast was this reason. That exact reason, like, to me, I was going through another downturn in my business, and I was in that mindset of, how do I create when I feel like this? And so I wanted to know, how do people that have massive success create? And literally, that's where my podcast was born from. I'm going to interview those people.

That's amazing.

I believe that wholeheartedly. Okay, so I want to know more about your school, because I know people are going to be interested in that. But before I get into that, I do have a couple questions that I just want to know how you, so I know how your mind works. Did you get any personal help? Like did you ever see a therapist? Did you go to any transformational work? Like, how did all the breakthroughs through your own research? Did somebody help you? Did you hire a coach? Like what, what helped you figure all this out and process?

All of the above. All of the above. So my, I didn't have, I was broke, remember, I didn't have any more money to do that, but I was getting an education. But all it focused on was nutrition, food nutrients. Right, right. You need to know that wasn't healing me, that wasn't fixing me. And so like you said, I didn't have the words to put to it at the time, but it was finding that bigger purpose. And so I thought, okay, there's more to this than just health. I need something to hold on to. And I had been raised in religion. Some members of my family, extended family, had gone to church and had taken me. My grandmother had taken me when I was younger. And that, that wasn't resonating with me at the, at the point that I was at in my life.

But I thought watching how your family was treating you, I mean, let's be honest.

So I thought I need something because I didn't have, you know, the friends that I did have, quote, unquote friends went away when I didn't go out every night anymore and when I wasn't making any money and when I wasn't working. And so it was literally just me. So I thought, how do I get through this? I have to have a higher power. So what does that look like? And I remember walk to the bookstore and I walked in and I found this great book called Be Here Now. Okay, Random man named Ram Dass, who today is one of my greatest teachers. He's my ultimate teacher. But at the time I had no idea. And I took the book back and I thought, Natalie, here is my plan. I thought I'm going to get enlightened. Because once I'm enlightened, then I don't have to worry about the spiritual stuff and the personal growth and the work. I'll just be good and then I can focus on this whole health thing.

Totally.

Little did I know that, you know, once you start, it's a never ending process, right? And then once you know, you can't unknow, so you're just kind of screwed.

That's true.

I Took it back, and I sat down to read it, and I couldn't understand a single word. I had no idea what this man was talking about. So I go back to the bookstore, and there was a book called you'd Can Heal youl Life. And I thought, well, if I need anything, it's that. And it was Louise Hay. And I took it back and I read it, and that kicked off my spiritual journey. And she talks about, you know, how your parents were just doing the best they could. And, you know, I read the whole book, and it really resonated, and I was really. It gave me something to hold on to. I was able to explore that deeper purpose. But I still thought, you know, I'm a skeptic, because that's what I needed to survive my whole life, because there was con artists and shady people on every corner. And I thought, okay, well, this is all great, but what does she need know? And, you know, she's never been through, like, what I'm going through until I read the very back of the book where she shared her story of having breast cancer. And I thought, what she had been through it. So then it connected. I was like, health, spirituality, purpose, meaning, I get it, right? And so that's what really, really forged my path onward. And then from there, I was able to, you know, I read all the books at that point. I did all the personal growth. I started, you know, after my education, working with clients. Actually, before I even finished, I was working with some clients and making some money. And I took some odd jobs here and there, doing, like, random promotions and just whatever I could to get money. And then when I had enough, I found a therapist that would work on a sliding scale. So I paid him $35 to try to help me. And that took me so far, but not where I wanted to go. So then I started seeking out coaches. And to this day, I still work with coaches. I think if you're. You're going to coach, you have to have a coach. I think we all have. Yeah, we all have blind spots. So, yeah, all of the above.

Okay, my next question is about those lumps. I want to go. Did you ever figure out what that was? Was it breast cancer? Was it not? And how did you get through that?

Yeah, so I did find out. I was. I was actually diagnosed with just fibrous cyst and my breast, which they don't really fully understand the extent of all of the causes. Stress is a huge one. Caffeine is another one. But you were doing both.

You were having caffeine and you were stressed?

Totally. 100%. Yeah. I thought coffee was good for me. It's an antioxidant. Like, I didn't know what I was doing. So that's what it ended up being. And I was able to correct those with just diet and lifestyle factors alone, which, years later, I remember just being brought to my knees in gratitude. Gratitude is another thing, by the way. Live and die by. But I remember I answered the phone one day, my mom called, and she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. And so I thought, whoa. I just felt like I had just dodged a speeding bullet. But no, mine. Mine were fine. Turned out to be fibrous, and.

But it was the perfect scare for you because that's what brought you to that surrender place.

Yeah, for sure.

If somebody's listening right now and they're in their own personal rock bottom, maybe they're with the pills in the shower, the same thing. Whatever their personal rock bottom is to them. And if you were to give them three pieces of advice on how they can start shifting out of that and creating everything from nothing, what would you tell them?

Yeah. So let me just say that I don't give advice anymore because I've been a coach and been in this field long enough to know that advice is what people ask for when they already know what to do and just don't want to do it. So I don't want to give advice. What I do want to say is that you have everything that you need inside of you. And trust me when I say that that is true. If you need help and you need guidance, by all means, go to the sages on a mountain. Seek out the gurus, you know, find the experts, you know, listen to this podcast. But I believe that you have everything that you need inside of you. I believe that you're here for a reason. There are no extra humans. And if you weren't meant to be here and you weren't meant to go through these things, then make no mistake, you wouldn't be here. So the fact that you're going through this is for a higher purpose, and it is within these struggles that we find our true strength, that we really understand our gifts and that we realize what we're truly made of. And I think if we focus on that and you can focus on the goodness in those moments. So, for example, for me, growing up poor taught me to be really resourceful, because if clothing tore, you learned how to sew because you couldn't buy another one. And so in my business now and in my Life that has served me well. I'm always like, I'm the resourceful one. How do we fix it? How do we get through? So start to explore what you've learned through those adversities, and look how you can leverage them and turn them into your advantages, because I assure you, that's what you're meant to do.

I love that. Tell us about transformational nutrition and what that stands for, what that means, and if people are interested, how do they find it?

Yeah. So happy to. So transformational nutrition is currently the only scientific study of health and human wellness on the biological, spiritual, and psychological areas of life. So it's currently the only science that's backed by over 1400 studies that focuses on all three of those areas for permanent change and true transformation. So, as I mentioned before, you know, for the people that are like, I could just walk out the door and start over, this is the path to doing that. And I still practice this every single day. Every single day. In my journal, I have a wellness journal and a planner. I write down, what am I doing physically, what am I doing mentally, what am I doing spiritually to feed myself? So what we really seek to do with transformational nutrition is help people understand what they're really hungry for so they can start to fill those voids. Because as you talked about earlier, disease isn't just caused by food and lifestyle. It's caused by past trauma. It's caused by your beliefs. It's caused by your disconnection from others, from yourself, from something bigger than you. And so what we're trying to do is put together all those pieces to really feed those hungers. And so we certify coaches in that area of transformational nutrition, and then they choose specialties from there. So if they want to be a diabetes coach and apply these principles to that, they can. They can specialize in cancer, holistic health, autoimmune disease, digestive health, and a bunch of others as well. Weight loss is another one. So that they can really have the impact that they want to have on the world that relates to their own personal story and mission.

I love that. So for those of you that have asked me, because many people have reached out to me before, like, how do you get started in fitness or nutrition or all that? This is a good. That's a great way. It's a great way to start there.

Yeah. And we take you from knowing nothing. You know, you can be just like I was. And again, I built this for my own personal struggle. Right. Like, everything I tried to find and wanted to find and couldn't. I built into it. So it starts at the basics with you know, biology and anatomy. Really builds you up everything you need to know including how to coach people. Because being an expert in coaching is totally different. So we teach you how to coach people and also how to build a business. Business before I started the institute. So if you want to write a best selling book, if you want to create supplements, if you want to have your own product or program or podcast like Natalie, then we teach you how to do all of that with a tremendous faculty of people like Dave Asprey and J.J. virgin and Sean Stevenson and the Wellness Mama and so many others that have also been students of our school.

Yeah, I just realized now that you're saying this, I think was I. I think I taught something on there because I now remembering when you said Shawn Stevenson and you and Sean.

So yeah, so Sean was a student. He came through ITN and got his certification and then went on to get his master's with us which was really got it. Yeah. And really wanted to give back to his audience through.

Okay, so that's what that was.

Yes, I remember with you. Yeah, that's right.

I remember now. So awesome. So awesome. Well, where can people find that school? Where can they sign up for that? What's the website? And then where are you on social media?

Sure. So the school is just transformationalnutrition.com so you can go check it out there. We have a free guide if you want to know what kind of coach you would be best at being. You can go to transformationalnutrition.com quiz and take this really fun quiz. Yeah, it is great. It tells you what kind of coach that you are which is always fun to learn about ourselves. And then me, I am on social media at just I am Cynthia Garcia.

I love it. Thank you so much Cynthia.

Yeah, thank you for having me. Nadalie. It's always great to sit down and talk with like minds who are trying to get the bigger message out in the world.

Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram at nataliejlfit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.

Sam.