198 Allison Melody: How Food Heals

You know, where's the broccoli lobby? Where are the lobbies for healthy, fresh food? Because right now we are in a space that is controlled by Big Pharma, Big Agra. And when those people are controlling what you see and what you believe and what you're eating, then you don't know to look outside of the bubble you're in. And that's how I think it was for my parents and that's how it is for so many people today. And I understand that. And so I want to help break them out of their bubble.

That was Alison Melody, and this is.

Episode 198 of Wellness Force Radio. What's up, my friend? It's your host, Josh Trent. And welcome back to another episode for your weekly access to global experts in all things wellness as we discover the physical and emotional intelligence we need to live life well in this podcast, my.

Great friend Allison Melody of of the Food Heals podcast. Stop by live and in person for.

Our Facebook live right here in Encinitas.

In the Wellness 4 studio to talk.

About the power of healing that food.

Truly has in our lives. This was really a fascinating and compelling conversation because in order to create Food Heals Nation and serve so many people across the planet, Allison first had to go through the loss and the hardships on her own journey of personal health issues as well as cancer and disease that plagued her family. This is real talk on the podcast today. We're not beating around the bush, we're we drop deep real quick with Allison where we learn about the connection she's made with herself and her following between emotional and physical health and food.

The impact that her parents cancer had.

On her and how it drove her to a different path on a quest for deep answers around nutrition and health. How Allison believes a whole food plant based approach can transform the body and transcend acne, depression and chronic fatigue. And how you can activate your own new path in using food to heal your body. No matter where you are, no matter how old you are, today is the first day where something can be new, honestly, because you say so. And there doesn't have to be any other reason besides that. So if you're currently in a food camp or you're feeling like your results aren't matching what you know is truly possible. Take a deep breath. This is your breath break. Fill your belly with air. Let it go. Not only is everything gonna be okay.

But you're exactly where you get to be.

Take an assessment here. Are you in a paleo camp? A keto camp? Are you emotionally attached to an identity around veganism or vegetarianism, pescatarianism. Wherever you are, stop, drop and roll. This conversation is perfect because we're going to talk about this. Being in a camp does not mean that you're embodying the knowledge. That's right, because fitness and nutrition challenges or being in a camp can sometimes actually feed the very addiction, personality and the perfectionistic tendencies of the human mind that are actually holding us back rather than helping us create the healthy lifestyle we desire. It's truly about finding the balance between moral eating and having a compass based on your health. What actually makes you look, feel and perform your best. This is so different for all of us, right? It's why I'm so excited for you to drop in with Allison Melody. Such a heart centered human being and really practices what she preaches between emotions, food and healing. And check this out. I know you've heard how big of an impact Organifi has made in the life and the growth of this podcast, its supportive wellness force and our mission to continue on this discovering process of the physical and emotional intelligence that we're all learning to live our life so well. And I want to read this quick message I got this week from one of our listeners, Sherry in Florida. Sherry says, Josh, I heard about Organifi Red juice with the episode with Aubrey last week and at first I didn't believe that drying nutrients would allow them to still keep their nutritional value. But based on your advice, I received my first shipment over Granafi Red three days ago and all I can say is wow, capital letters. I never enjoyed a juice this much in my entire life and at 45 years old, the challenge has been to take less trips to the grocery store. So thank you for introducing me to the juice. I am in love, Sheri. I feel the same way. I'm actually completely obsessed right now with Organifi Red and almond milk. You can test drive this too. Just go to Organifi.com WellnessForce Enter code WellnessForce to trim 20% off your entire cart. That's Organifi.com WellnessForce Use code WellnessForce to get a 20% deep discount because you're part of our WellnessForce family. Use that code WellnessForce to get the hookup and stop wasting veggies. Stop throwing away veggies and fruit. I just threw away some cucumbers last week and I was just like, ah, pretty much gonna focus on the powders moving forward. Now let's move forward together and learn about the power of healing through food with Allison Melody. So you are such a beautiful soul.

Thank you.

I got to meet you. Oh, thanks. I got to meet you last year at this event, the New Media Summit, and I just feel like right now we're doing this Facebook Live. This is Josh Trent, Wellness Force with Allison Melody from Food Heals podcast, otherwise known as Food Heals Nation. How are you doing today? It's a beautiful day today.

I'm doing great. I'm so happy to be here in sunny San Diego. Such a nice day. I'm just on vacation and hanging out. Happy to be hanging out with you.

And you look like you could be on a boat right now. Have you guys visited San Diego? If you've ever been to San Diego or if you're here right now, just tell us you're here. Like, let us know where you're watching this from, because so many people are in San Diego right now. There's traffic and conversion going on. There's podcast meetups and everything else. Like what. When you think of San Diego and health, like, what comes up for you when you think of San Diego and health?

Well, number one, I have to say, is the Eve restaurant, because I ate there yesterday and I ate there today, and it is absolutely phenomenally fabulous. They have healthy smoothies, healthy food. It's all vegan. It's just my people and my place, so that's number one. But in terms of, like, healthy relationships, too, there are so many podcasters out here, there's so many wellness experts out here, there's so many entrepreneurs out here, which is kind of the space that we're in. And so I love driving over here. It's such an easy drive or an easy train ride from LA and getting to see my people.

Who are your people? Who do you identify with?

Well, you're one of my people now.

Obviously, I'm one of Allison's people. Thank you.

My people are just people who love life and are driven and want to make the world a healthier place, starting with themselves.

Yeah. And you've done that, too. I'm so excited to dig into your story. I've done some research on you. I always prepare for people. No, in a good way, because we. We talk about so much this physical and emotional on Wellness Force. And when I think about you, this Food Heals Nation, literally, like, you're creating a nation of people that. That understand the power of food.

Yes.

So food. You know, we were up in Ojai a couple weeks ago with Josh Tickell and his work with Kiss the Ground. People that know you. What do you think People know you for right now, when people think of Alison, who do they know?

Probably the chick that's just on a roll to make everyone a healthier person. And, you know, I try really hard to lead with love and kindness and to be an example of what you can do and that the fact that you can heal yourself and show people that a healing miracle is possible. And then I try really hard not to be put. And if people don't want to hear it, then I say, no problem, I'm not going to talk about it. But if they do want to hear it, they can list my podcast.

So it's like aggressive politeness. Almost like what I'm hearing from you.

I think that is such a good term. I am aggressively polite.

Alison, Melody, aggressive politeness. But you, you've actually been in the Hollywood area in show business for quite some time. How many years have you been producing actual content?

12 years. I've been. I own a film production company, and we do primarily documentaries, Social justice work, public health, holistic health, that kind of thing. And that's been my baby 12 years. And then three years ago, I started the food heels as a business instead of just like a side hustle, writing a blog that no one was reading. So I was like a failed blogger on the side. And then I discovered podcasting, and it opened up my world to the fact that I could really have an make an impact. Yeah.

And there are people across the world. What's one of the most exciting places that you've heard one of your listeners writing in from?

Oh, my gosh. Germany, Canada, Australia. I don't know. They're all over. It's incredible.

The world now. It's like the new media summit we met at last year. Everything's moving so fast in regards to information.

Oh, yeah.

And it honestly, like, I feel it in my body right now, it makes me take a massive deep breath because I think people, Allison, are just so freaking overwhelmed with all the information. I mean, there's a freaking ocean out there of info. What's your podcast known for as far as cutting through that bs like, what's the core mission of Food Heals?

The core mission of Food Heals is to awaken people to the fact that a healing miracle is absolutely possible. The body can heal itself if given the tools that it needs to do so. The problem, just like you said, is that people don't know where to start. And I know that because I've been there. When I was 25, I lost both of my parents to long, devastating battles with Cancer. And at the time, there weren't resources, there wasn't YouTube videos telling us how to eat green. And, you know, there wasn't green juice on every corner. Like, where I live in la, I can get greens outside my door. There's three spots to get a green juice in five seconds. And there wasn't any awareness. And so I feel like now there is so much awareness, which is wonderful. But at the same time, how do you cut through?

It's like the first step, you know, self awareness. Gretchen Rubens talked about this. I mean, I think everyone in personal development talks about self awareness as the very first thing. So looking back, like, when did that really start for you? I know for me, it was kind of like feeling a body that I wasn't happy in.

Yes.

Where did it start for you, this self awareness part?

Well, it started with my mother had multiple sclerosis before she got cancer. And so I started to realize that the body could fail because I was a healthy, you know, 50 years old. I can do anything I want. I can run, I can jump, I can, you know, go all day, not get tired, not have chronic fatigue. I felt like a million bucks all of the time. And then here's my mother, who's, you know, older but not that old. You know, I don't know how old.

Was she at the time?

She died before she hit 60, so I think maybe 56 or 57, I actually don't remember. But before that, for years before that, she's suffering from multiple sclerosis. So she's probably in her 40s and her body is failing her. And I just thought, how can the body just fail? And the doctors would just say, we don't know. Here are some drugs. And I never liked that answer, but I didn't know of any other answers out there at the time. And then when she got cancer is when I really started to question the model that was being presented to us, that there was only one way. Drugs, surgery, chemotherapy, et cetera. And so I was still too young to truly question it. When I said to the doctor, does nutrition matter? Does the food that we put into our bodies matter? He said, no. So I believed him. And then my dad got sick after my mom died, and same doctor who treated my mother treated my father. Still no awareness. Does nutrition matter? No. He said, they can smoke if they want to. So this is the amount of awareness that was happening in North Carolina at the time when they were going through this. And now I look back and I just can't even believe that I accepted any of these answers. But when my dad got sick, I was on a mission. Finally Google was out. There was finally YouTube videos and books talking about organic food. I was like, what the heck is organic? I mean, I was clueless, you know, in my 20s, like, I'm just like, I want to be a filmmaker. I don't care about health. Well then I was forced to find out about health. Then I started suffering from depression and chronic fatigue and all of these things. Well, that goes back to the emotions. I didn't deal with my mother's death. So here I am sick father. I'm sick because I don't feel good in my body. I'm sleeping till 1pm because I'm so depressed. But I don't know what's wrong with me. Doctors are like, here's some antidepressants, you know. And I started discovering green juice and smoothies and the fact that I had to change my eating habits. I couldn't go to McDonald's anymore. You know, I was in college, all we did was go through drive thru, Taco Bells, you know. And so I had to slowly start changing that and see the results that my body felt. Then I tried to convince my dad. When my dad's old school, he's like my doctor, whatever he says goes. So he didn't want to listen to the garlic concoction that was going to whip up that was going to cure his cancer, you know. And so unfortunately he didn't make the connection in time and we lost him as well. So I'm on a mission. I will never get cancer. I want to tell as many people as I can, listen, this is healable, this is reversible. Because after that I've met so many people who have done it. And that's what I do today. I share these stories with others of people who have reverse stage 4 cancer or just acne. It can be as simple as that. Fatigue, depression, all of these things are reversible and healable.

I took like two big breaths when you were talking there because I felt like we went really fast over, you know, losing the people that brought you into the world.

I know I do that.

That's a big no. I mean this is live, this is real, this is food heals. Like this is, you know, you're talking about how food can heal the human condition if people are aware, if they actually take hold of that power. And I think so many people in these kind of food deserts and disparate conditions in the country, they just first of all don't know, they don't have that self awareness talk. They don't do the deeper inventory. And it sounds like that was the case for your mom and dad. And I know that people watching or listening have had this happen. I mean, your story. And this is why I feel like you have such a powerful voice in the food space, in the nutrition world, because you've actually gone through it. Like, this isn't something where you've been healthy your whole life and, you know, you were like a collegiate cheerleader and everything was perfect for you. No, like, I just. I want to acknowledge that because I feel like. And please tell me the connection here. Does that drive you today, like, in this moment, losing them?

Yes. It's made me who I am. I don't know who I would be if I hadn't gone through that. So I can have. I can reframe it and have gratitude for it. Even though it's the most devastating thing I've ever been through. The only way that I can be grateful for it is because I know that now I'm on a massive mission to make such a difference in the world that maybe I would have been some dumb, you know, cheerleader, smoking, being looking at the good old days if I hadn't gone through something so traumatic. And. And that mission is what fuels me every day in honor of their memory. Because I don't want this to keep happening to people. It's. It shouldn't be happening.

The amount of weight, emotional weight, that. That must have felt like in. In my life, I've lost grandparents. I've never lost parents, but people that have things happen for them, to them. I'm thinking about Liz Germain and I sitting on this couch, and she was like, you know, things happen for us, and it's up to us what happens next.

Yes.

And I think a lot of people try to mask this emotional pain with food. Like, food, it's the number one drug out there. I'm sure that you and your co hosts talk about it on your podcast all the time. The way that people are, like, literally pushing down emotions by eating Twinkies and all this crap food. How do people even begin the process of knowing that it's time to change? It's a really big question, but I think everyone kind of gets there in a different way.

Yeah.

What was that point for you?

It's like most people hit their rock bottom, and it can be very different for everyone. Someone's rock bottom might be. I gained five pounds. Someone else's rock bottom might be, you know, they're on drugs, on the floor, dying, and they have to go to the hospital. It could be anywhere. Your rock bottom doesn't matter. It's when you hit that point where you go, oh, I can't do this anymore. I've got to make a change. And that was when my dad was sick, and I was, like, in fear of losing him. And I said, I've got to make a change, and I've got to do these things. And what I learned through that process, I can only change myself. I can't help someone else until they want to help themselves. And that was the biggest learning experience from that.

This is, like, the little boy and girl inside of us all, though they want what they want. And in that moment, you were probably, please tell us, like, where you were then. Like, there was. There was a child inside of you that wanted your parents to, like, be here, to stay.

There still is. She's not gone. I give her love every day. That little girl is devastated, and so I have to constantly give her love and say, it's okay. I'll take care of you. But, yeah, at the time, I was just like, dad, you're gonna do what I say. Because I had discovered that all of these things were reversible, but I didn't know what I was doing. But I had to talk to a holistic doctor who had brought people back, helped people bring themselves back from stage four cancer. So I'm whipping up garlic concoctions in the kitchen, and I'm like, you're gonna drink this Tastes nasty. Okay. And it's disgusting. I'm like, you're gonna drink this, and it's gonna heal you.

Yeah.

And he would pretend to be asleep so he didn have to drink it. And, like, he would just, like, be like, oh, thanks. And he would fall asleep. And then one day he sat me down, he said, I don't believe in this, and if I don't believe in it, it's not going to work for me. And that was the hardest conversation we've ever had because I had to accept his.

He didn't believe that food had power to heal.

Yes. Yes.

Why didn't he believe that food had power?

I think it was just his upbringing, and I think they grew up in a generation that all the commercials were, smoking cigarettes is healthy. And then it was, take these drugs and, you know, you won't have heart problems. And there's beautiful people running on beaches and, you know, rowing and doing celebratory things on these drug commercials. And that's how that's how they saw the world, drugs heal. And, you know, when my father started smoking, doctors were smoking. So that's where they grew up.

I think back to Ronald Reagan being in ads and doctors, like your doctor recommends Chesterfields. And I am totally in the camp. I completely believe that at some point we will see big food, multiple craft. You know, all these big businesses go to court because there is billions, not just, not just a little bit of money, but like billions, hundreds of billions of dollars that are spent for food scientists to trick our palate to think that these foods are the great thing for us, but it's tricking this ancient software in our bodies. So in the work that you've done and the conversations you're having right now, what's fresh for you around this palette to decision fatigue, to bombardment, to hopefully these people being in court in our lifetimes? I know they will. Is this something that you guys explore on the show?

Yeah, absolutely. You know, we were controversial, but not that controversial. So it kind of goes back and forth. But I will say that I think, you know, where's the broccoli lobby? Where are the lobbies for, you know what I'm saying? For healthy, fresh food. Because right now are in a space that is controlled by. You have to follow the money. And that's, you know, big pharma, big Agra. And when those people are controlling what you see and what you believe and what you're eating, then you don't know to look outside of the bubble you're in. And that's how I think it was for my parents, and that's how it is for so many people today. And I understand that. And so I want to help break them out of their bubble. But I do think we're going to see a lot of changes coming up. For example, right now, a huge problem in the US and abroad is factory farming. And we don't have to factory farm anymore because there are clean meat initiatives where meat is being grown in labs that tastes the same, has the good health benefits, and doesn't have all the nasty shit that you don't need.

Ooh, tell me about this. It's called, like the new wave burger. What's the name of it?

So this meat that's grown in a lab isn't quite out in the public yet. It's not at McDonald's, it's not at restaurants yet. But a lot of people that work for like Humane Society organizations and Mercy for Animals have tasted tested the meat and they're still developing it. But soon this is going to be at our grocery stores. So people have a choice to choose. Not humane raised meat, which is a crock of shit, by the way. Sorry. But actually to have meat grown in a lab that no animal is harmed for, not pumped full of hormones, not fed a diet of corn and garbage that we don't need in our body, you know, right now you can have grass fed beef that where there are tumors inside and they just cut around. There's still tumorous shit in your meat. Like, it's not okay. It should not be like this. So for those who aren't like, I'm a vegan, as you know, but for those who aren't vegan and they never want to be, there are going to be actual clean meat sources that they can eat coming in the future. And I think, I don't know how long it's going to take. I believe that we will see the end of factory farming in our lifetime and that's going to change so much.

Yeah. So then CAFOs, controlled animal feeding operations. These are the things that are really like, I think, a bane of our existence. Yeah, it's disgusting. You know, animals that are being treated as if they weren't even sentient whatsoever. But then there's also people like Joel Salatin and this food movement around, you know, humane raising of animals. And what are your thoughts on that?

I am not a fan of that. It's not. I don't believe that we should be murdering animals for food. We don't need to do it anymore. People can argue the health benefits all day long, but I would argue back that there's no reason to murder a sentient being for us to eat when the plants have more protein than the meat. And all of these myths out there about protein. You know, there's a book called Protein Aholic which is great by Dr. Garth Davis, and he just busts the myth. No one's dying of protein deficiencies. Meat Is for Men is like all of these commercials and things like, you know, real men eat meat and all this stuff. It's all just like the drug companies. It's all just smoke and mirrors. And I think that once the clean meat initiatives start happening and we can have that clean meat grown in a lab, not slaughtering an animal, then everyone will actually be happy and everyone will get what they want.

Yeah. And this is the beauty of podcasting because, like, you can have a completely different opinion than me and we're still friends, right?

Oh, yeah.

There doesn't have to be a war. It's like, so we Know that there is a mindset where when we take one way of being or one way of eating and try apply it to everyone, nothing ever works. We all have a different thumbprint, right. So you know this vegan lifestyle, like it works for you and it works for millions of people. Like this is not a fad that's going to go away. But I also think that we got to meet people where they are.

Yes.

So on this wheel of choice, right, having somebody have, you know, taking the Twinkies and putting the Twinkies aside or just not having the soda, I mean that's the first step. Whether they're going to be eating a paleo diet or a vegan diet or whatever it is, that's really where it's at. So how do you take people through that? Because I'm sure in your past you've done coaching. I don't know if you've still do coaching now.

I'm not a nutrition coach, never claimed to be, I'm not a nutritionist. So my goal is really to share the stories of people that have healed themselves. Share the stories of nutritionists and doctors who are treating patients and what they're doing. So people realize that there are a few things that you can start with such as taking out the sugar, taking out the dairy, which I know we both agree on because those are things that can really cause inflammation in the body and really cause our bodies premature aging, all of this stuff. And we know that inflammation is how disease starts and, and coagulates in our body. I don't know the right word, so I don't start with people. I'm not the person to say take this probiotic at 5 o'. Clock. That's not what I do. But what I want to do is be able to be that referral that I can say, here is the functional medicine doctor who will take all your labs, find out what vitamins are you deficient in, find out what are you have too much of and you need to get rid of how are your hormone levels and then take a really customized approach because we're all different. We have different blood types, we have different DNA, we have different heritages, we come from different places. Food that grows in our neighborhood is different than the food that grows in someone else's neighborhood. And so we have to eat what's best for us. And that's a self discovery journey that we all have to go on. There is no perfect diet.

When did you make the shift from eating the standard American diet to being a vegan? Was There like some gray area in there. Was it overnight?

Absolutely. No, it wasn't overnight. No. I still ate cheese until like two years ago. Like it is. Look, it's such a journey. I mean, my dad died 11 years ago and it's been an 11 year journey. And of figuring out. First I said, I'm going to eat all organic. Okay. I thought that was great. I still felt like shit. Then I said, all right, I'm going to eat all raw, okay? Still felt like shit. So then I just slowly had to figure out what was going to work for me. I hadn't. I haven't eaten meat since I was a kid. I just haven't.

Did you always have a tendency to just take meat out of your diet from an early age?

Yeah, I never eat cow's meat since I was like 15 or something. And then I slowly gave up chicken and turkey and dairy and then I got to where I am now, which is like totally plant based. But that took over, you know, that was 11 year journey.

So when you were 15, you always had this tendency to not even feel in any way like your body wanted meat.

I didn't feel that my body wanted it. And I saw some, it was actually on the news, which I know they would never show now, but it was a cow. It was a documentary about how they treated the cows. And I said, I'm never eating a cow again. But for some reason it didn't translate over to the chicken and the pigs and blah blah, blah, you know, it just didn't. But now it does.

So do you feel like it was an emotional hook for you then? Cause I find this with a lot of ways of eating. And it's funny, earlier we were talking about how people mask their emotions by eating junk food. Right. And so I even felt in my life like, should I go towards eating more plants and then some meats? Yeah. And that's kind of where I'm at now. I've shifted from eating a lot of meat all the time to eating less meat and making sure it's from awesome sources and then just having so much more fiber through my vegetables. And it's something that I'm noticing too. Backing it up with a ubiome test and just seeing like what's going on with all my microbiota and just hearing more and more and more, you know, these fads that come up, there are fundamentals, there are nutrition fundamentals and they typically revolve around plants. Now don't get upset here. I'm not saying you shouldn't Eat meat. Like, there's, in my opinion, some great ways to eat meat. But for people that are beginning the journey, you know, before we get these big food companies in court, how do they even start this process, you know, of understanding where they're at just eating more plants?

I mean, smoothies are such a great way to get plants in because they taste delicious and you don't feel like, oh, I have to drink some disgusting green concoction. You know, smoothies are a great way to start salads. I know that that sounds so boring, but if you make a salad well, all the flavors are so good, you can add all of these different colors, you know, and you're gonna have this amazing.

How do we make a salad sexy? Because I'm kind of bored with salad. I don't like lettuce. I like spinach.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to find which, which greens do you like and which don't you like? And take the one if you don't like kale, don't eat kale. I don't give a fuck. You know what I mean?

Sorry. Yeah, no, it's cool.

But it's like, what colorful vegetables can you add? Have you tried beets? Have you put apples? Like, there's all these cool, colorful, you know, things that you can add to make it flavorful. And then you can make your own salad dressings and make it so delicious that it's just like melting in your mouth. Because if you have a good dressing, that's all you need, right, to make it so delicious. But people are using like ranch, which is thickened with emulsifiers, which is, you know, got dairy and sugar and all these things that our body doesn't need. So as long as you make it with some clean sources, you can make delicious salads, smoothies, juices. I love, like watermelon juice mixed with some grains. You know, you can make juices taste just as sweet as the juices that you had as a kid or that you're giving your kids in the sip ups, you can make, make really good juices that are actually healthy for you. So that's a great place to start. And then you keep eating the regular food you're eating, but when you add that stuff in, you start to feel better and you go, oh, can I have more? How can I get more of this into my diet? When you do it consistently, you start wanting it more.

It's so interesting. I didn't know that there was a zero tolerance for you to have meat in your diet, which is an interesting thing to explore because a lot for.

Me, but not for everyone.

Right. And a lot of people might go that route and they might do it for 5, 10, 15 years. And then we see, see, you know, the work of Lierre Keith and the vegetarian myth and her exploration of that. It doesn't work for everyone in the same regard where a paleo diet doesn't work for everyone either. So how does someone find what diet works for them? That is a bombshell question. Go ahead and just unpack, you know, millennia of nutritional science in a question. But seriously though, this beginning step of like, what's best for us? What does our body actually want? What's our body hungry for?

Yeah. And I can't speak from a scientific or nutrition nutritionist perspective because I'm not one. But what I will say from my own experience and from all of the people that I've interviewed up until now, which we've done over 200 interviews, is that you have to figure out what works for you. And I know that's really hard to say, but there's a few ways to do that. You could start with an elimination diet. So if you are feeling chronic fatigue or something like that, and you're like, you know what? I eat a lot of dairy. Take that dairy out for a week and see if your symptoms change. If they don't bring it back in and see how you feel, then maybe you want to do gluten, maybe you want to do meat, or maybe you want to do sugar. When you eliminate things, you can see what your body is feeling better about. You can also do a detox. That's controversial too, but a five days on juice will change your life. And I do it like every six months.

What have you felt from doing a five day detox? What's that been for you?

I feel phenomenal. Your brain clears up, you lose weight, you feel better, you have more energy. It's fabulous. Now, when you are going through the detox, if you have a lot, a lot of stuff that you have to detox out, you're going to feel bad, you're going to feel sick. So it's not all rainbows and sunshine. When you do a detox, it really depends on where you're at, but it's a great place to discover exactly where you're at and see if you feel better after that time. And then once you have a little bit of money that you want to invest in your health, you got to go to a functional medicine doctor. What they're going to do is they're Going to test your hair, your stool, your spit, your pee, your skin. I forget what else. Your blood. Right.

I think you pretty much covered everything.

I don't even remember. But they test all these things and they tell you exactly what's going on in your body. You have the labs in front of you and you go, oh, my gosh, I am completely deficient in vitamin X, whatever it may be. So then you know what vitamins to bring in. And oh my gosh, my hormone levels are totally out of whack. Well, your doctor can balance those, can help assist your body in balancing those. Tell you your food allergies, your food sensitivities, a lot of. I don't have any food allergies. I'm lucky. But I have a lot of food sensitivities. Sometimes it's even things like avocado. So we think we're doing right and eating avocado and tomato. We may have a food sensitivity to. To them. So once you discover that, you can change your diet accordingly. And mine is totally different than yours, you know?

Yeah, this sensitivity thing's hard because there's metametrics, there's biohealth, there's all these different tests. And some of them when there's been like a double blind placebo, it's like the same person doing a split test and the results come back different from each company. Now, I know you're not a nutritionist. I know we're not giving people advice. We're just having a conversation around this discovering process, you know, around what our relationship with food is and how do we listen to our body's signals about how food makes us feel? Because if we're not feeling in our body and we don't kind of know how we're showing up in the world, how are we supposed to use food to heal? How are we going to use food to heal if we're not actually in tune, if we're not attuned to the signals in our body? So when you were at that point, you know, 15 and then, you know, you lost your parents, it's like at that point, the body signals must have been muted. You must have just been kind of hanging on. How did you get back in tune with what your body wanted?

Yeah, so. And I lost them when I was 25. And I was in shock. I think I was just. I just kept going like nothing was wrong. And that was a huge toll. It takes such a toll on your body to pretend like everything's fine, to slap a smile on your face every day. And, you know, I don't. I don't even remember what I was eating. I know I was trying to be way healthier, but I was also just, like. I just kept going, and I was like, all right, I'm gonna work on my career now. Like, that's over. And I was absolutely devastated. But I wouldn't let myself feel the feeling. So the only way that I was able to get my body back into it, it did not matter if I was drinking green juice all day, if I was faking it. Those emotions, they cause, they wreak havoc on your body. And this can chronically lead to disease if we don't deal with our emotions. So I had to start dealing with them. I had to start a meditation practice. I had to start inner child work. I had to start therapy and counseling. I had to start tapping. I had to discover all of these healing modalities for healing my emotions and feeling my feelings. Because when we feel our feelings, feelings, it creates space to release and heal and creates more space for greater things in our lives and greater happiness. But when we push it all down, that's the tragedy that may cause cancer before all of the food does and all the processed food does. Right. So the emotional healing is what made me get back into my body, I think, was the question you asked. That's how I got back there. And food was a part of it. But the emotional healing was huge because I was in denial.

Denial, wow. So many questions I have for you. There's, like, five things I wanted to ask you, but the one that rose above the surface for me was when you talked about getting back into the signal from your body only because you allowed yourself to feel your feelings. And this is like divine feminine wisdom that you're bringing to Wellness Force right now, because the narrative around feeling feelings right now for men, it's popping up a little bit. Like, men, like, we're starting to feel our feelings more. And I talk about it all the time because I've felt in my journey, and I don't know if you can attest to this. The more we can explore the sad parts, the more we can kind of go there to the shit that sucks, the more powerful we can be in joy and expression and connection and love and intimacy. And that's the parts where it's interesting timing that you're coming to my house today, because in three days, I'm going to Rythmia, which is an advancement center where there's plant medicine. And I'm gonna go into those sad parts and figure out what the hell's the there? So I want to know for you, like. Like, where did. Where have you gone beyond just the food? Obviously, you know, food heals. This is your whole world now. This is your life's work to heal people through food. But what about the emotional stuff? What about the healing that occurred for you? Where did you go? What were your trainings? What was that like?

Absolutely. And I'm really glad you're doing that. I'm so happy for you.

I'm kind of nervous and scared at the same time.

It's so scary. It's not easy. Like, I hope I'm not sitting here acting like it's easy to. Like, it's hard now.

You, like, you have a tendency to breeze over things. I know.

I'm sorry.

And people know you as, like, this, like, positive, bubbly woman. But, like, you've also been through some shit.

Yeah.

So I think people can really connect with you on this because that might be why they respect you on your podcast, too.

I mean, I hope so. But for me, it was just like, okay, you have to deal with this. And what happens when you go back? It's not only do you go back to what you think you're there to deal with, you're like, oh, like, for me, it's like, I have lost, so I'm going back to deal with this. But then you find out you're also going back to deal with some childh when that teacher said X to you or that kid made fun of you. And that stuff sticks with us. It sticks with us if we don't heal it. And so we gotta feel it to heal it. Okay, I'm gonna be cheesy right now, but when you feel it, it creates that space. And so my journey was, I went to a school in Santa Monica where it's basically, you get a master's degree in spiritual psychology. But all it was is learning love and forgiveness, loving yourself, loving others, forgiving yourself, forgiving others. And when you do that, you can thrive again. You can come back. You can get over depression. You will start to make healthier eating choices because you want to. And you're not eating Ben and Jerry's after. I mean, look, you can eat Ben and Jerry's after a breakup, whatever, but once you've done it after. After a week or two, then you're going to get back on your feet because you're thriving and feeling wonderful because you're dealing with those emotions. And that's all. It's all related. It's mind, body, Spirit.

How long was the spiritual psychology?

Oh, so that was two years. So then I graduated. I was like, I'm better.

No, no, it's like, just began.

Yeah, I have. Exactly. It has just. The healing has just begun. Now I have the tools. It's up to me to practice them. Do I practice them every day? Hell, no. Do I practice them as much as I can? Yes. Do I practice them when I'm. Okay, you're driving in the car, you're like, get out of my way, you asshole. What are you doing? Am I mad at that guy? I don't know that guy.

Yeah.

No. There's something unresolved within me.

Yeah.

Maybe I'm mad at my husband. Maybe I'm mad at a friend. Maybe I haven't forgiven someone from my past. I. I don't know. That means I got to work on me. When we take things out on other people, especially that have done nothing to us except, oh, sorry. Like, we all do it. We all drive like shit, too, so you can't get mad at that person, you know, that means there's a reflection. It's always a reflection of what's going on within us. And so once you recognize that, you can go, oh, all right, I gotta go in. Let me go in. And when you go in, you can discover, and then you can release, and then you feel like a million.

What have you discovered most by going in? Like, what's on going.

You know, I still. I still go in and I tell my little girl I love her. I play. I have a playlist. I play all my songs I did at JJ's last event for everyone so that they could heal their inner child. And sometimes it's old stuff that you think you've healed and you haven't. And sometimes it's a memory. I had a memory of when I was in. I don't even know what grade. And we were playing hockey on the. In the gym, and I scored on my own team. Okay. Like, I guess I thought I was on their team. I messed up.

Yeah. This is like everyone's nightmare to score against your own team.

I scored on my own team, and I was little. I guess I just forgot. I don't know. I didn't know what I was doing. And the teacher singled me out and was screaming at me and, like, what a moron I was. And I forgot about this. I completely forgot about this. But how is that translated into my present life? I didn't even realize that it had until I'm in a deep meditation, and I do A lot of guided meditations that help you go back in time and find memories to heal and things like that. So there's all these tools out there. It's incredible. So I found out that I had that issue. I was like, I got to heal, heal that I have to forgive myself for scoring on the wrong team, and I have to forgive that teacher for screaming at me, and that will help my present life heal.

How much do you think food plays a part in pushing down people's lack to forgive?

Oh, you asked the best questions. Okay. They're lack to forgive. I think that if we don't forgive, it's only a reflection of ourselves again. So if we're holding something against someone else, it's not affecting them, it's affecting us. That negativity in our body is something that will more likely lead to making poor food choices because we feel down and we're like, oh, where's that, you know, cookie or ice cream or whatever? I go to dessert. But, you know, whatever your vices, rather than picking a healthier choice because you're thriving and feeling good about yourself and good about your relationships, it's all related.

Yeah.

I don't know if I answered your question.

There's a clear connection there between forgiveness being really honestly a skill set. So, you know, relationship with food is a skill set. Relationship with our emotions is a skill set. I can't think of of something more powerful than forgiveness. I mean, it's something that, like, I can raise my hand and admit, like, I'm still in the process of doing it. That's why with Wellness Force, we're discovering physical and emotional intelligence. We haven't discovered it yet. I love that we're in the process of it, right? So for me, forgiving, like, forgiving my dad, forgiving my mom, truly having love for them, not just pretending that I have love for my parents, that's a big one. Because I think about David Zapposzoti, one of the guys, he wrote Immovable Heart, Unstoppable Mind. And he gave this example of a woman who went home, she had a super busy day at work, and a lot of people can relate to this. And she had her ice cream in the freezer, and she ate the whole tub. And when she closed the freezer, she started to feel all the emotions about what was going on through her day, how she didn't take time for herself, how she didn't love herself. And he said, actually, this avoidance that she had throughout the day, the aggression, the seesaw between avoidance and aggression, was her eating the ice cream. So her eating the ice cream was actually anger. It was unprocessed anger and stress from her day day. How does that come through for people that you have on the podcast? I'm sure you've interviewed some incredible human beings around this relationship with, like, anger in food. What's a gem that you've pulled from that?

I think a lot of it is suppression, suppressing our emotions. And like you said, she ate and then she felt all the feelings. So a lot of times when we don't want to feel our feelings or we are angry or we are sad, we'll turn to food. Because food gives us that instant comfort, gives us that serotonin. We're enjoying ourselves. And. And the truth is, is that for me, and I, and I think it was Katie Kremitzos who was on the podcast and said that she does this and it's something that I do as well. So I was like, this is awesome. It's like, okay, when I'm craving this food and it's not dinner time or it's a terrible food that I know I shouldn't have or what have you, and you know, okay, let's go journal for a few minutes. Let's see what comes up. And if you just go, how am I feeling today? And you just start writing, well, today, you know, my boss said this, or my friend said this, or I was remembering when my mom did this, whatever. Something comes up and you write, write, write, write, write. Just that fact of writing it down and releasing it onto paper can be, well, much more healing than eating the food, but may release what the reason that you were craving the food in the first place. So then, okay, let's journal now. Are you still having that food craving? Many times it's going to be no. If it's yes, maybe you give in once in a while, not every time, you know, so it's a balance. But if you allow yourself to feel the emotion, if you choose the emotion over the food and allow yourself to go through through that, then you can have a healing in a short amount of time and then not go eat that, you know, terrible thing you were going to eat.

It's like in that moment, I think people feel alone. So if you're listening or watching, like, take a deep breath, you're not alone.

Yes.

There are millions of human beings that are dealing with food, food addiction, poor relationships with food, using food as an outlet for anger. I almost feel like in a way, the only way to really succeed in this food relationship is to just constantly be curious and to never stop learning. Because the amount of healing that you've done and these massive thresholds of, like, loss of life. And there's a choice. There's a conscious choice that has to come in there. And that conscious choice is not always some obvious beacon of light.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like. Like, you get to do a lot of work to choose your relationship with food, to choose to have food be something that heals the body. How do you continually choose? I mean, this is the narrative that I think everybody wants to know is, like, I have the knowledge now. How do I just trust and do the damn thing?

Well, and you know what? I can't even answer that, because I'm an exploration of that myself every day. I'm not sitting up here on a mountain doing yoga every day, going, I'm perfect. I be everything. No, I'm figuring it out. Sometimes I do my journal, and then I go eat that cookie or whatever it was that I wanted. What I want to do is share that I've overcome some stuff, and so can you. But we're all always evolving, always changing, always trying. I mean, I'm always trying to better myself, get more knowledge and be stronger in my convictions. But, hey, I've eaten the Ben and Jerry's a million times. I'm sure I will still do it in my life sometime. But it's choosing the better option more often than not, and you just get better at it, and you realize how much better you feel when you make the better choice. You know what I mean?

Yes. But as long as the trend line is going up, and I think this is why, like, I'm so appreciating just, like, your ability to go there today. Because so many people pretend, especially in health and wellness, like, they have it all figured out. And you know what? Like, they might, and that's okay, but it's just not relatable. It's like, how do you approach somebody that's perfect?

No one's got it all figured out, okay? If they do, they're bullshitting you. Sorry.

Cool. Allison, drop the mic. We're done. No, but really, it's like, when. When people have this mindset of perfection, I'll tell you this. Like, perfection for me, it's come up recently. I'm really sure what's gonna happen. I don't even know what's gonna happen in Costa Rica. But, like, this perfectionism thing, it's the way that I want to be perfect in myself. If somebody else I see isn't perfect, I'll judge them. Which then turns into disappointment and sadness and anger. So it's this negative feedback loop. So, striving to be your best when it comes to your relationship with food versus perfection, I kind of wonder sometimes, are these 30 day kind of Nazi esque challenges the best? Are these sprints for 30 days where you eat zero sugar for 30 days, is that actually the best thing for people?

It depends on the person. For someone like me, because I've come so far, if I could probably do that in no problem. But if someone is just starting out, that's a terrible idea because they're going to fail, then they're going to judge themselves, they're going to feel like shit and they're going to start their unhealthy patterns all over again and say, I can't do this. So it truly depends on the person doing the challenge. I think that they can be absolutely valuable for some people. For some people, it's going to make them worse. So it's really curating. Whoever's leading the challenge has to curate the people who are participating and make sure that it's a good fit for them. You know, depending on the strictness of the challenge, if the challenge is just add one vegetable to your plate a day, most people can handle that. If the challenge is you eat ice cream every day and then you have to go zero sugar for 30 days, you're gonna fail, most likely. Unless you're amaz. I mean, some people. But also then is that going too far to that perfectionism of restriction and then that creates an eating disorder in the future. So I mean, I don't even know where the line is, but that has to be really carefully done and curated by the person leading the challenge.

Well, this is what Melissa Hartwig talked about on the show. So it's like she had an addictive personality where, you know, the drugs filled something about her personality type, her tendency type. And so people that go from one challenge to the next and they always have to have a challenge to be well and they have to have a challenge to be in good relationship with food. Like, I'm not, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we can't have challenges because we just did one in January and it was about pushups, right? Like push ups and squat challenge. So occasionally challenges are great, but if people find themselves going from challenge to challenge to challenge, and they always have to have the exterior flow framework, what are they missing? What are they missing there?

I mean, I think it's just like you said that people with addictive personalities or just issues with perfectionism in general, that can actually feed that addictive personality and that perfectionism rather than help them create a healthier lifestyle that they're trying to create. So I just think it's finding a balance. I don't know if I answered your.

Question or maybe the balancing. And by the way, for the record, I love Melissa Hartwig, and I think that Whole30 works for millions of people. So in no way am I saying that you shouldn't try it. You feel compelled to it. And I love the fact that you brought up whoever is organizing a challenge or whoever's the creator or the facilitator of a program. Their audience likes their language and likes their kind of zest and personality. Like, that's what it's all about. So there's always room at the table. Like, there is always room at the table. This is why you and I, we have such different methodologies around food, but yet we're all centered around can we make the best choices on our wheel of discovery at all times? Can we take a deeper emotional inventory? So then, what's the next chapter of Food Heals look like? You've run programs, you've had a ton of guests, 200 plus podcasts. What's next for you? What are you most excited about?

I'm really excited. We are working on a film, and it's called Food Heals. And so we follow some really incredible people who have healed themselves through food and an alternative medicine. And no one's story is exactly the same. So that's the great part is, like, you may resonate with someone, you may not resonate with the other one, but at least you can see what they've done and the transformation they've had. So you can be inspired that you can have a transformation, too. So I'm really excited about that. It's been. We've been working on it for years.

When does the film come out?

Well, I know I can't answer that question because every time I answer it, I'm wrong. And so if I say it here in theater soon. Yeah. In theaters? No, we're still in process because we keep discovering new characters and new stories, and so it's just an incredible. I think it's a series as well.

How much of your story and your relationship with food are you putting into the film?

I'm putting a lot of it in. You know, it opens with my story and pictures of my family, and I went, and it was wonderful. I went and interviewed all my Family and friends from North Carolina who loved and were friends with my parents. So I have all these wonderful interviews of their perspectives and them telling stories on my parents. So that's not all in the film. That's a lot of. It's for me. But the film opens with a lot of those bites of them talking. So you can really humanize why I do what I do and why I care so much and why I want to make this difference.

Yes. And then what's the ultimate goal with the film? Like a million people's lives changed or do you have something on paper?

No, I should. Like your vision board. I saw out there. I need. I need to put something out.

I left gaps on my vision board because I don't want to have 2018 be complete yet. Like, we're still.

That's great.

So I did leave some gaps in there. But yeah, it's like sometimes I've just found that putting something down, like you said, journaling before we go to the food that we know isn't the best choice for us. The act of writing and the act of declaring glaring, is that going to be in the film, the mindset aspect of food, or is it more focused on food quality and food style?

Yeah. So this is another reason it's taking so long, because at first I was like, it's all about the food. And then I, like, had to let go of some of that crap like that perfectionism.

There's more than just the food.

Exactly. And then I was like, okay, this is going to be about the food, but it's also going to delve into the spiritual and emotional. However, the follow up to Food Heals will be the film called Love Heals, and that'll be more on the emotional.

Have you talked about that on any podcast yet?

Yeah.

Okay. I was going to say exclusive here. You already have the URL. I'm sure it's.

Well, actually, I don't know if I've talked about. On other people's podcasts. I've talked about it. So it is exclusive to you.

Exclusive. And it's live on Facebook. So this has been such a great conversation with you.

It's been so much fun.

I've so enjoyed getting to know you today. I feel like the circles that we run in and the people that we respect and interview and we love the work they're doing in the world. I feel like in your own way, with your own voice, to your own kids community, you're really creating change in people's lives.

Oh, thank you.

You're really doing your life's message, which is to heal people with food. So where can people learn more about you? Dig into your work? Do they have to be a vegan and vegetarian to learn from you?

No, no, not at all. That's the thing. I feel like sometimes maybe I come across as like, I, because I am this way. I think everyone should be and I actually don't. I think this is what works for me and I want to inspire everyone that there are so many healing modalities out there and they just have to discover what works for them. And so we have people on the podcast that are absolutely vegan and vegetarian. We've people on the podcast that are absolutely not. But they're all talking about different, whether it could be talking about acupuncture, it could be talking about chiropractic, it could be talking about emotional healing. And it has nothing to do with food in that episode. But the next episode might all be about, you know, eating more plants and juicing and things like that. So we go all over the place. And it is plant based. But you don't have to be plant based to come on the podcast.

So this is a really powerful question I want to ask you because if you what it's like through the lens of loss, but also through empowerment now, like, you've taken these events that I think would have sidelined a lot of people for a long time, and you've put your flavor to this. How do you see wellness now in your life? What does wellness mean to you? What do you define as wellness?

Wellness is my number one. I mean, every day I have to choose my health, because if I don't, that's going to affect my career, my family, all of the things that I'm trying to achieve. And all of that we have have to put health first. Wellness is number one. Mind, body, spirit. I don't do everything perfect every day at all, but I do try to exercise a little bit each day or a lot. And then if I skip the next day, so I try to keep that balance. I'm always doing my smoothies, my greens, every single day. I'm always trying to get enough sleep. Now, that's one that sometimes you don't, but then I'll catch up. So I'm always trying to make sure that there is a balance so that I'm not overworking myself or overeating or under eating and all of that. So if I put wellness first, if I put myself first, I do my meditation, I do my journaling, all that kind of stuff, then I can be a better person in the world and I can affect more people, help more people, and just be a better version of myself.

I visualize you balancing multiple plates at a time and with all that you're creating, I know it's challenging because I feel the creation process myself. So I just want to acknowledge the amount of work that you put into your craft. And thank you. How much dedication I see in everything. I was. I was doing some research and the videos in the studio and this film that you're coming, coming out with, you're really doing an amazing job healing people through food.

Thank you. I try.

So the podcast and foodhealsnation.com is the website. Leave people with something that they can do right now. You know they're done. They're gonna click stop on Facebook or they're done listening to us. What do they do when they're done? What's something that they can breathe into right now?

I would say if we're talking about food, add some fruits and vegetables to your plate. Even at dinner. I've eaten a plate of fruit and vegetables for dinner, and I felt fantastic. The next day when you start feeling, you'll start doing better. And look into if you want to go to the emotional, like, meditation people think is like, you just have to sit there in silence and you're gonna. You're like, I can't do this. But look for a guided meditation that really resonates with you. And just relax a little bit each day. Just let yourself go calm. Because we're bombarded with our cell phones and all that stuff, like, all day, people emailing us and they want to be in touch with us all of the time. Sometimes we just need to turn it all off and take 10 minutes to ourselves, 5 minutes to ourselves, 3 minutes to ourselves, and that'll make a huge difference in your day.

Foodhalesnation.com Keep watching here we're gonn Facebook lives because these are so fun. It allows me to look at questions people have asked. And I would love to do a Q and A with you in the future. I think having like, a rapid fire Q and A because there is this narrative, there's a polarity between the paleo camp and the vegan camp. And you guys, as we talked about with Ronnie Landis on the show, we don't have to be in a camp. Like, what about just being a Joshua or an Allison Atarian? Like, find what works for you. Hopefully I know not hopefully I know that from this conversation, you got some amazing gems. So Let us know what you learned. Keep tuning in to Wellness for Radio and also check out Allison's podcast, We're Saying Goodbye from Encinitas. Josh and Allison, if you don't watch these on Facebook Lives next week you get to we'll do another one next week. So thanks so much for coming to my house.

Thanks so much for having me.

That was so awesome.

That was so fun.

Hey my friend, thank you for hanging out and growing with me on today's show. Remember to hit subscribe Share this podcast with somebody you care about that you think gets to hear this message. Support the show by leaving a five star review for the podcast right now simply by tapping on your show artwork. On your iPhone, click that purple link that says review this podcast. It helps the show reach more conscious and smart people like you and your voice will attract more world class guests that want to come on the show. So let them hear your voice. For all the downloads, videos, links and free resources mentioned on the episode, go to wellnessforce.com radio. And while you're at my house on the web, join us in the Wellness Force Community newsletter on that page and I'll send you 44 free guides around staying healthy with your eating, moving and sleeping while you travel. But don't let this conversation stop here. Join a group of people like you over at the Wellness Force Community Facebook page. This is where we talk about the things that really matter. We share our wins, inspirations, struggles and a lot more. So join us. Tap on the show artwork on your phone and hit that purple link that says join the Facebook group and I will welcome you at the door. Okay. Now you get to go out into your world and create impact for the people that you you care about. So until I see you again real soon, I'm wishing you love and wellness.