Realfoodology - My Senate Speech + I'm Engaged!! | Solo

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

EP. 216 In this episode of Realfoodology, I’m excited to take you behind the scenes of my transformative experience giving a speech to the U.S. Senate. This pivotal moment truly highlighted the importance of advocating for health and wellness at the highest levels. I’ll share the powerful highlights from everyone’s speeches, as well as the grounding exercises that helped me navigate such an impactful day. You’ll also learn how you can join the fight, including details about a petition we’re delivering in person at Kellogg’s on October 15. Plus, don’t miss a special announcement and a recap of my recent adventures in Telluride! Courtney’s Speech Timestamps:  02:20 - Introduction  04:32 - Strategizing speaking topics   07:45 - Staff briefing prior to speaking  08:54 - Senator Johnson’s office 09:17 - Fear of public speaking 10:40 - Walking into the senate floor  11:33 - Grounding exercise before speaking  13:24 - “Generally Recognized As Safe”  15:16 - Monsanto/Bayer  19:31 - Additional speeches  21:36 - Join Us at Kelloggs 24:35 - How to join the fight   26:47 - Reflecting on the experience 31:24 - SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT  35:51 - Telluride trip  41:01 - The proposal  Show Links:  Calley & Casey Means Interview Part 1  Calley & Casey Means Interview Part 2 Calley & Casey Means Book Vani Hari Interview Vani Hari’s Kellogg’s Petition  JOIN US AT KELLOGS RFK Jr. hosts American Health Crisis Roundtable with doctors and nutritionists Max Lugavere Books Hu Chocolate End Chronic Disease Website End Chronic Disease Instagram Alex Clark Podcast Sponsored By: Organifi Go to www.organifi.com/realfoodology and use code REALFOODOLOGY for 20% Off and from 10/11/24 - 10/13/24 you get a free red juice 15ct with orders over $80 Cured Nutrition Go to www.curednutrition.com/realfoodology and use code REALFOODOLOGY for 20% off Seed Go to https://seed.com/realfoodology and save 25% your first month with code 25REALFOODOLOGY LMNT Get your free Sample Pack with any LMNT drink mix purchase at drinklmnt.com/realfoodology Paleovalley Save at 15% at paleovalley.com/realfoodology and use code REALFOODOLOGY Puori Go to Puori.com/realfoodology and use code realfoodology to get 20% off Check Out Courtney  LEAVE US A VOICE MESSAGE Check Out My new FREE Grocery Guide! @realfoodology @realfoodologypodcast www.realfoodology.com My Immune Supplement by 2x4 Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter EWG Tap Water Database  Produced By: Drake Peterson

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Hello, friends. Welcome back to another episode of the RealFoodology podcast. I'm your host, Courtney Swan, and today's episode is just me. We're going to do a little Han Solo action because I have a lot to update you on, actually. If you follow me on Instagram at Real Foodology, you probably know that I had the pleasure of going to the U.S. Senate last week and speaking to Congress. And I wanted to talk a little bit about how this happened and my experience, because this was truly, I'm so grateful I got to be a part of this. This was such a crazy thing that happened. So I have a really good friend, Kelly Means, and his sister Casey Means. You probably know the names because not only have they been all over the podcast circuit, they had an amazing episode with Tucker Carlson recently.

If you have not listened to that, I highly recommend going back and listening to that. But Callie has actually been on the podcast twice. And Casey joined us for one of those episodes. And both of those episodes were incredible. So I highly recommend going back and listening to those. Callie actually got a group of people together and we had this opportunity to go and have a round table in the U.S. Senate with Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Callie lived in D.C., grew up and lived in D.C. for a long time. He has a bunch of friends that work in D.C. and we got connected through Senator Ron Johnson through Callie because this senator in his own life, actually behind closed doors, started really paying attention to the food system and what he was eating.

He started filtering his water and we had the pleasure of sitting down with him and talking to him about this before the roundtable. awareness because he's starting to see in his own life how much better he feels when he started eating organic and cleaning up his food in his own home and learning about what was happening with our food system. He felt like it was his obligation as a congressman to, or senator, sorry, as a senator to bring this to the world stage because Americans need to know. So I get a text from Callie asking if I want to go speak in front of the Senate with Jillian Michaels and RFK Jr. And as you can imagine, I was very excited by this text message, but I was also so freaked out. Kind of had one of those, like, I just kept thinking of Wayne's World and they're like, we're not worthy. We're not worthy.

But I very much, I don't feel like I'm not worthy of it. It was just, you know, a funny joke that I was making with my friends, but I was very grateful to be on this journey. So we were asked to do this round table. We had a call with the Senator a couple of days before we flew out to DC and we figured out what everybody was going to tackle. So each of us have different things that we're focusing within the realm of the food system. So for example, with Vani Hari, who's otherwise known as the food babe, I've also had her on my podcast, highly recommend going back and listening to that episode. She right now is really focused on trying to get artificial dyes out of children's food. So she has

this petition going on right now, which actually, if y'all want to go check out her website, go sign the petition. I'm going with Vani, along with a bunch of people that spoke with us at Senate, including RFK Jr. We're actually going to go to the Kellogg's headquarters in Michigan and deliver all these signatures to them of Americans, specifically parents that want to get these artificial food dyes out of Kellogg's cereals. So that was really what Vani Hari spoke about at the Senate. If you have not listened to mine yet, the full Senate speech is up on YouTube. We'll leave a link in the show notes for that. I was specifically tackling my favorite subject, which is Monsanto, which is now owned by Bayer,

and how Monsanto and Bayer have completely infiltrated our food system. They own about 80% of our food system right now. And they have patented seeds that contain, some of these seeds contain a pesticide that is very similar in chemical makeup to the same chemicals that they created during the Vietnam war for Agent Orange. And then even darker than that, actually there was another chemical company by the name of IG Farben that was a parent company of Bayer during the Nazi Germany during World War II.

And the chemicals that they were creating to use as nerve agents and also in the gas chambers, they're now using on American farmlands in the U.S. And if that doesn't piss you off, I don't know what will. So I hope all of us are pissed off. We should be incredibly angry about that because why do we have a food system that is primarily owned by an agrochemical company? Why are we all eating these chemicals in our food? So that was what I spoke about to the Senate. I highly recommend just going and checking out. We'll leave a link in the show

notes, everybody's speeches. They were incredible. Alex Clark also gave a speech to Senate as well. And I'm actually going on her podcast today. So hopefully by the time y'all listen to this, that episode will be out as well. And if not, out for it, because I think it's coming out soon. Also Jason Karp, he was the co-founder of Hugh Chocolate spoke with us. Jillian Michaels was also on the panel who was absolutely incredible. She gave such an amazing speech and she's been in this fight for a long time. And then of course, RFK Jr. spoke and it was just such an honor. When we walked in that room, I'll back up a little bit because I kind of want to share my experience to give you guys a little like insider scoop on it. So we show up to the U.S. Senate building earlier in the day and we had a talk with the staff. So

we had a staff briefing. There's about a hundred of them in there. And essentially what we wanted to do was just spread awareness about what we're talking about in the Senate today, where a lot of these people that came are staff for certain senators and congressmen in the U.S. Senate. And we're hoping that we get enough people talking about this that they will start talking to their senators and their congressmen about this so that we can start hopefully making real changes with policies in America because that's what we truly need. And we're kind of taking a two-fold approach right now

where we are trying to approach it from the policy standpoint where we can get in there and start changing some of the policies. And we're also doing a grassroots movement. So I will share with you guys at the end a little bit more about how you personally can be involved as well, because we need all hands on deck. We need all boots on the ground because it's going to take a lot of us to turn this ship around. So we spoke to the staff. And then from there, we went to another we went to Senator Johnson's office. We sat down with him and it was me and all the panel speakers and him. And we basically came up with a plan about who would talk when we all were given about five minutes to give our

speech. And then we were going to have about five minutes where Senator Ron Johnson gave us questions. So at this point, I'm really starting to get nervous. I think if y'all have been listening to this podcast for a while, you know, my feelings around public speaking. I have never considered it to be my strong suit. I've always been really scared of public speaking. When I was younger, I had some experiences where I completely blacked out. There's one time where I almost passed out on stage, like quite literally. Somebody had to catch me because I was like mid-passing out on stage. So I don't have a great track record of public speaking, but this podcast has actually really been helping me a lot and helping me find my voice. And my producers over there like

cheering me on because he's the one that helped me, helped me find my voice. And yeah. So it's been quite the journey. And so I was super nervous going into this. And we weren't really prepped about what the room was going to look like. We had no idea because we had not gone to the room. So we're walking down the hallway and I'm walking with Jillian and my fiance Hector is there. He's so amazing. He came to support me. I was so grateful because I don't think I could have gone through this day without him. And we walk up to this room and it's just this massive, high ceiling, beautiful Senate room.

I mean, honestly, you should see the videos. It was actually really stunning. And I have never in my entire life been so scared. I walk in, Hector said that his stomach dropped because we walk in, there's about 2000 people in there. Shout out to anybody listening who was there to support us that day, because that was absolutely incredible. And I could feel the energy from everybody in that room. And we go and we sit down in our places. And there was a moment there when RFK walked in the entire room, just exploded in applause.

Everybody stood up because everybody is so grateful for all the work that he has done for not only our food system, but also cleaning up our environment, cleaning up all the toxins in the Hudson River and so many bodies of water. Like he's done so much work for America. It's actually insane. And he sits down and then there was probably about 30 minutes there where I'm just sitting there like looking at the exits being like, okay, I can just say that I got food poisoning. I'm just going to leave because I mean, I was peeing point to, I always remind myself when I'm really scared about something that I'm going to speak on, I remind myself that this is not about me. I'm simply the messenger. This has nothing to do with me. Who cares about me? Who cares about the way I present it? As long as I'm getting my message out because the message is what truly matters and the work is what matters

because I'm trying to help people and I'm on a mission. And so I reminded myself of my mission and I said, look around the room right now. And I was looking around at all of the faces of the people that came to support us. And I was like, I am a voice for every single person in this room. I'm a voice for Americans that don't have this voice. I'm in a very unique position right now where I get to speak to our U.S. Senate and it gets to be streamed all over the United States for anybody to watch. So I'm a voice for all these Americans and I owe it to them. And I was like, I'm not going to let them down. I'm not going to let down the American people. And maybe it sounds a little bit cheesy, but it was honestly what made me feel better because I was like, you know what? I'm a voice for everyone else that wants a cleaner food system. And I'm in the unique

position where I actually get to use that voice. And then I just envisioned myself planting myself super deep into the ground, just like the most grounded and just had like my armor where I was just like, okay, I've got this, I'm gonna do it. And it really calmed me down. And then I just sat there and I listened to everybody speak. It was so incredible feeling all of the power and the energy in that room. Just, it really felt monumental to hear everybody speak about what is going on in our food system right now.

A perfect example, I mentioned Jason Karp earlier. He made the point to talk about the fact that in America, we practice something called GRAS, or generally recognized as safe. So essentially what the FDA and our food system does in America is we just err on the side of it's a free-for-all. We're like, okay, everything is fine until we prove later that it's actually harmful. So what that means is that any food company, all they have to do is present paperwork to the FDA, the USDA, or just to the FDA to say that their chemicals or whatever product or ingredient that they want to use in their food is safe. So it's the fox guarding the hen house.

They quote unquote prove that it's safe and okay. And then it's not until later that we find out that these things are harmful that we then take them out of our food system. But then it takes so long to do that. Even after we recognize that it's a problem, when we recognized that trans fats were a problem, hydrogenated oils, it took, I can't remember the exact timeframe. I should probably look this up. It was between five to eight years, I think later that these food companies were required to take

these trans fats out of their food. So it takes a long time. Whereas in places like Europe, they do, they err on the side of caution. And sometimes they don't allow food ingredients in their food for 10 years, for up to 10 years while they have time to actually make sure that it's safe and that it's not harmful. So why don't we have that in America? Why are we just allowing a free-for-all and saying that anybody can put anything they want in our food system? And then later, if we decide and we figure out that it's actually harmful, then we take it out. Why are we not erring on the side of caution like Europe is doing?

So that was one of the points that was brought up. The artificial dyes was another big one. My whole point was, why are we allowing Monsanto and Bayer to be completely in control of our food system? Why are we spraying all these toxic chemicals that we know are causing cancer in people? Monsanto, who has been since been bought out by Bayer, has spent billions of dollars paying out to Americans and more specifically farmers and farmhands that got non-Hodgkin's lymphoma from glyphosate. They have spent billions paying this out now. And do you

want to know the most insidious thing about this of all? Bayer, who is creating these chemicals that these farmers are spraying on the farmland, after they get sick, after they get cancer, the chemo drugs that they are getting, guess who makes the chemo drugs? Bayer. It's disgusting. It's absolutely insidious. It should be illegal. It's disgusting, it's absolutely insidious, it should be illegal. It's crazy that we don't have more people sounding the alarms on this. You know, there's nothing worse

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Michaela Peterson, Jordan Peterson's daughter. There's an amazing doctor, a John Hopkins, John Hopkins doctor. I don't know why that was so hard for me to say was there. Dr. Marty McKay, highly recommend looking him up. He just came out with an amazing book. He spoke about his experience as a John Hopkins doctor and just sounding the alarm saying like, why are we not paying attention to our food system right now? We also had a Stanford trained Dr. Casey Means, who's Callie Means' sister. She was absolutely incredible. Highly recommend looking her up. She also has an amazing book out right now. And I would go and watch her YouTube video from Senate. It was super powerful. It was really cool. Callie Means obviously spoke.

RFK Jr. spoke. Alex Clark spoke. Max Lugavere spoke. And I'm sure many of you listening know him and know his work as well. He also has a great book out. And then a doctor by the name of Chris Palmer, who's a Harvard-trained doctor. And he is an actually he's a psychologist. And his main focus is on the mental health crisis that we're seeing right now, which has just been absolutely skyrocketing at the same rate as all of these chronic diseases that we're seeing. And he talked

about the connection. I mean, we know if you guys have been listening to this podcast for a while, you know, that there's a direct connection with our gut to our brains. And when our guts are messed up, our brains are going to be affected as well. If our guts are inflamed, our brains are going to be inflamed. There's a direct connection in something called the vagus nerve that goes from the gut to the brain. And if our guts are not healthy, then our brains are not going to be healthy either. And so I think that was a really important talk that he gave as well. And it was just an incredible experience. I am so beyond humbled and grateful to be a part of this movement right now. I cannot even believe it. We have more stuff coming up and

I can't announce it yet, but when I can, I will, I would definitely recommend following me along on at real foodology on Instagram. And I'll share as much as I can as it's happening. Also, if you guys want to join us, everybody listening is invited to go to the Kellogg's headquarters with us. I'm pulling up my calendar right now because I cannot remember the date. We are going to Kellogg's on, we are going to be giving the petitions on the 15th of October, and that is in Battle Creek, Michigan. So if you guys want to join us, go to Vani Hari, the Food Babes website, and you'll be able to get more information. Also go and just follow her on Instagram. She's posting about this a ton right now. We just want to get as many people there as possible to rally around this cause so that we can hopefully get Kellogg's to

actually pay attention. You know, I mean, if we're not going to be able to get our policymakers to protect us, then we need a grassroots from the ground up movement, because if enough people rally around this and enough people show that they are no longer going to be buying these products until they change it, then we have the ability to make real change. And I will tell you all something that is really maddening. And Vani Hari talked about this in her speech. The reason why she's going off after Kellogg's specifically is because what they are doing right now is just plain wrong. These artificial food dyes are banned in other countries like Australia, in the EU. They have

recognized that these artificial dyes cause hyperactivity in children. So they have banned them. There's also really concerning links to cancer. And like I said, they err on the side of caution, unlike in the United States. So they ban these kind of things. So these artificial dyes are banned in other countries and they are making these formulas for other countries, for Europe and for Australia here in the United States, but they are making the harmful ones with the artificial dyes that get the children more addicted to this stuff. Because think about it. Kids are attracted to bright colors. That's why. And in fact, Jason talked about this in his speech when they reached out to Kellogg's and said, why would you create these healthier for you

products in other countries where they are using things like watermelon juice, carrot juice, turmeric, real spices, and real fruit extracts to color their products in other countries? And he said, why are you guys doing that? And you're creating these products and selling them in other countries, but why are you not selling that to American children? And they said, because we are not legally binded to change this. And also the children prefer the brighter colors. Well, yeah, of course they do. They're little kids. They're attracted to bright colors. It's just so insidious what's happening right now. And so we are trying to get Kellogg's to completely take out their food dyes and we're going to show up on their doorstep and see what they do about it. So I hope y'all will join me. I also said at

the very beginning that I was going to give you a little bit more resources on if you want to be a part of this fight. So I would say first and foremost, the number one thing that you can do as a consumer, and you actually have so much power in this, is stop buying these products. Stop buying them. They will see a hit in their pockets. And Jason also talked about this at Senate. He is the founder of a company called Hugh Chocolate. I'm sure all of you guys have Hugh Chocolate in your pantry right now. So he knows with these corporations, he said, if they see even just a drop of 5% in their overall sales, they will be moved to make change. That's not even that much, but they will freak out that much that if they see just a 5% drop. So if we all today decide we are no longer going to put our money into any of these products until they decide that they actually want to put

our health first over their profits, they will make a change if they see enough people stop buying their products. So first and foremost, we need to boycott buying these products. Put your money into companies and farmers and people that actually care about your health. So that is first and foremost. There's also a group that Cali Means started, which I'm looking up right now. I just

want to make sure I have the name right. It's called End Chronic Disease. You can find them on Instagram, End Chronic Disease. We'll add that in the show notes. And then there's also a website that they have. It's called endchronicdisease.org. You can go there. You can sign up. I am in a group with everybody that spoke on the Senate right now. We are all actively working on real things that you guys can do to get more involved. And any information that we, anything we come up with is going to go through endchronicdisease.org. So go sign up there. We are currently working on a resource for y'all to send out to everybody so that we can have more boots on the ground and get more people involved because we need everybody in this food fight.

So that's how you can get more involved. And yeah, I feel like, Drake, did I miss anything on my updates? Oh yeah yeah. Oh, my gosh. I have really big news. Okay. Before I get into that, I just want to end on this. I think I already said this, but I really want to just say I've never been more humbled by this whole experience. After I was invited to speak at the Senate, I pretty much spent just a week straight crying to all my friends about how grateful I was to see this being talked about on a real like world stage on an actual platform, because I feel like I have been talking about all these issues for the last

15 years into a void. And I know a lot of y'all have been paying attention, but I feel like on a large stage, I've never seen a senator talk about this before. I've never seen a presidential candidate talk about this before until RFK. So I just, I'm so grateful. And I'm just, I've been just so emotional and completely moved to tears about all of this because I cannot believe that this is really being talked about on such a large stage. And yeah, I'm just really grateful to be a part of this movement. And I'm just so happy that real people are starting to talk about this so that we can actually create real change. Snacks. Let's talk about snacks. Everyone loves snacks. And I

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and use promo code real foodology to get 20% off your purchase. That is P U O R I.com slash real foodology. Don't miss this chance and use promo code real foodology at Peoria.com. Okay. Onto a really exciting update. So I realized, yeah, that I have not actually shared with y'all that I'm engaged. It's been a couple months now because we got engaged back in August. I can't even believe this. I can't even believe that I'm announcing on the podcast that I'm engaged. I feel like this time last year, well, this time last year I was with Hector, but it was not even that long ago that I was talking with y'all about how I was losing hope about my dating experience. I really struggled in the dating world and I was so ready to find my person. And I felt like I was doing everything I could.

I was going through therapy, doing shadow work, like really just like working on myself, trying to figure out the role that I was playing and possibly blocking my person from coming in. And I just feel like these last couple of years I've been doing so much work on myself and I found my guy. So if you are still struggling and you're listening right now, I'm here to hopefully be a beacon of hope for you because your guy's out there and he's coming, or your girl, or your girl. So don't lose hope. Yeah. So Hector is the sweetest man I have ever met in my entire life. I love him so much. And he wanted to make our proposal very special. So our story starts a couple weeks before the proposal because Hector wanted to make sure that he got this right. So he starts asking me little things like,

hey, so my friend is proposing to his girlfriend soon and he's wondering like, should he take her ring shopping? Should he ask her girlfriends? Should he use a prop ring and then take her ring shopping? Should he ask her girlfriends? Should he use a prop ring and then take her afterwards? And I'm very opinionated about this. And it's funny because the first time he asked me, I kind of was like, oh, I wonder if he's like doing that to ask me or if his friend is actually proposing. And I was still kind of on the fence of whether I believed that he was actually going to be proposing. So I'm going along with it and I'm like, oh my gosh, I think that he needs to reach out to her best girlfriend, get an idea of what ring she wants, or just take her ring shopping. In my opinion, I think take her ring shopping, let her pick out the ring that she wants because for a prop ring, like she's going to want to be

able to post about it on Instagram, show all of her friends immediately, FaceTime her family. Like personally, I think that you should take her ring shopping because I feel like a prop ring kind of takes away the fun of being able to then share it in the moment afterwards. Oh, the times that we live in, our parents didn't even have to worry about this because they didn't have Instagram to post on afterwards or FaceTime to like FaceTime their families with, but here we are. So then he starts digging a little bit more about a week later and he's asking me a little bit more questions about that. And then shortly afterwards, he's like, do you want to go ring shopping?

So at this point I'm like, okay. So he was definitely asking for us. So he takes me ring shopping. I find the most stunning, gorgeous ring. And, um, then we leave and he's like, okay, well that was fun. Like little practice run, you know, just kind of wanted to get an idea of what you like. Then maybe about a week later, we're laying in bed and he's like, babe, how do your nails look now? A couple of months ago, he and I had been talking about, cause we were candidly talking about how we wanted to be engaged by the end of the year. And he was like, what are some things that are really important to you? What are your, what's your like dream proposal? And so I'm kind of telling him things like, Oh,

I hope that my nails are done. And I hope that there's somebody that can document it. Cause I would love to have that to like have for the rest of our lives. And, and so about a week or two before we're going to tell your ride, he looks at my nails in bed and he's like, how do your nails look? And I was like, oh my God. I texted all my best girlfriends and I was like, y'all, he's proposing. He has never in my life asked me about my nails ever. He's never concerned about when I'm getting my nails done. And oh, and mind you, I had also kind of already been feeling like it was maybe going to happen because we had gone to visit my parents who live in Telluride. And we come back home and he's stressing because we'd been gone for a long weekend. He's like stressing about work. And he's

like, man, I have so much work to do. And we have so much travel coming up. And then not even like an hour later, he's like, babe, we should go to Telluride this weekend and see your family. And I was like, what? You were just telling me how stressed you are and how like you need to be home for work. And he was like, I know, but I just really feel like we need to go to Telluride this weekend. And I was like, okay, something is up. So at that point, I'm already thinking that this is happening. And then the nails thing happened, which fully puts me over the edge. So I'm immediately making a nail appointment. I'm making a hair appointment before we leave for Telluride. So I'm getting my hair done. I'm

getting my nails done. I'm texting all my girlfriends being like, I'm going to be so embarrassed if I'm wrong about this proposal. And I show up to Telluride with like fresh nails and like a blowout because Telluride's a very chill, like low-key mountain town. Like you don't do your hair. You really don't wear makeup. You wear jeans. And I'm showing up with like a fresh blowout and like brand new and like nice nails. Turns out I was right about the proposal. There was also a really funny text that I got about a day before we left. And I was like, oh my God, this is so on. My dad sends me and Hector a text message and he's like, hey, on Friday night, we're going to drive your mom and Helen. Helen is one of my mom's best friends. And her boyfriend

and my dad, we're going to drive them up to Bridal Veil Falls. So if you are not familiar with Telluride, Bridal Veil Falls is actually the tallest waterfall in Colorado. And it also happens to be at the end of town in Telluride. You can actually see it. If you ever go visit Telluride, you can see it at the very end of town in the canyons. And it's called Bridal Veil Falls because they say that when you get kind of up close to it, or not even up close, kind of from town, you can still see it. They say that the waterfall looks like a bridal veil. How aptly named, by the way, for our proposal. So my dad sends us a text and he's like, we're going to celebrate your mom and Helen's birthdays together. We're going to drive up to Bridal Veil Falls. So bring something nice to wear. We want to be able to take family

photos and we want to have this like pretty, you know, fun celebration for your moms. Now, I'm immediately like, hmm, it's August, and their birthdays were in April and May, but okay. And then my mom chimes in and is like, yeah, we've been talking about for months how we wanted to do a joint birthday, and we've just been traveling so much, and this just happened to be the weekend, so we're going to do that. And I'm like, okay, sure. So we get to the day of. so we get to Telluride, we get to the day of,

everybody is being so weird. Hector is pacing the bedroom, like so nervous. So I'm nervous because I'm like, Jesus, what is going on? Like, I think I know at this point what's going on, but I'm feeling his energy. I'm nervous too. Cause I'm like, oh my God, like I think I know at this point what's going on, but I'm feeling his energy. I'm nervous too. Cause I'm like, oh my God, like I think I'm being proposed to today. I happen to walk up to my parents. So we go to the farmer's market in the morning. I walk up to my dad and Hector, as my dad is whispering to my dad, like, yeah, we're going to, we're going to park here and then you'll be able to go up to there. And I pretend like I don't hear it, but I'm like, oh my God, they are fully planning this right now. So I'm also like a little bit bummed because something about me and

something that I told Hector right when we first started dating, and I've reminded him this many, many times since, I'm the type of person who loves surprises. I love, love, love, love surprises. They're like my favorite thing. And, but I understand for him, it was confusing because he was also like, I know you want your nails done. I know you want your hair to be nice. I know you're going to want to be in a cute outfit because you want photos. And so he kind of felt like caught in the middle where he was like, I didn't want to

just fully blindside you because I knew that you cared and you wanted to look cute. And so I was grateful that I was giving the heads up, but it was kind of a little too much. Like I, I wish that I had gotten more of just like a subtle, like, okay, this might happen, but I could be like really wrong, but it was so obvious. Um, like everybody's being weird. He's being nervous. But anyway, so we get through the day and I put on like a nice dress, but it was funny because we also were told like, wear something nice because you want to take photos, but also like wear shoes you can like sort like semi hike in. So I'm like, what are we doing? Anyways, so the time comes and my dad and Helen's boyfriend drive up a little bit earlier. And I

find out later that they were going to pick up the photographer that Hector had hired. They drive up and they drop her off at this designated spot. And then they go to like set up and they just tell my, me and my mom, like, they're like, we're going to go up a little bit early. We're going to set up. And they just tell me and my mom, they're like, we're going to go up a little bit early. We're going to set up a cute table so we can have drinks and yada, yada. So we're driving up a little bit after them. We get up to the top. And my dad and Rick had set up this really cute table with flowers. And they're pouring drinks. And it's just this beautiful setting with this backdrop of just the most incredible mountains you could ever envision in Telluride. We immediately get out of the car. I think Hector's like antsy to get it over with because he's so nervous. And so we basically get out of the car and I'm like, oh my God, this is so beautiful. And he's like, Courtney, do you want to walk up to the waterfall?

And I'm like, oh my God, it's happening. It's happening. So we walk up. Now here's the thing. We were initially supposed to park up higher up, but a week before or like the week of like going up to this date, it had been raining like absolutely crazy in Telluride. There's all these mudslides and we were only able to park at a certain point and had to walk up a lot further than Hector had anticipated because initially we're going to park up a lot further and we weren't gonna have to walk that far. So I'm in a dress. I mean, granted it was a denim dress, but I'm still in a dress and thank God I wore like sneakers and we're walking and we're walking. Now, Hector being in Denver while my parents are in Telluride coordinating this with the photographer, um, he didn't actually know where he was going because the photographer had

scattered it out and was like, okay, we're going to drop you off at this point. You're just going to keep walking until you see, it's called a Quran, which is like a stack of rocks that like hikers leave for, you know, like signals or, you know, where to turn or whatever. And so that was his signal. So we're hiking and we're hiking and we're hiking. And at one point he's like, I mean, like he's going on and he's saying the cutest stuff. And he's like, I, you know, knew when I first met you that this was something really special.

And he's telling me all this really cute stuff. And then I can also tell that he's panicking. I'm like just kind of along for the ride, but also like I feel bad for him. So maybe it was kind of like empathetically panicking for him because he's like stressed out and we don't know where we're going. And there was at one point where I was like, oh my God, this is happening. And he was like, yeah, I think you probably know what's going on right now. And we're walking and we're still walking. And he's kind of like, oh, and I can tell he doesn't really know where he's going. And he like is checking his phone. And I find out later he's like texting with the photographer. We hit this certain point and I see a photographer. Now, granted, she's set up and she's like pretending to take photos of the mountain. And so there is a part of me that's like,

maybe this is just like a weird coincidence. And then I is a part of me that's like, huh, maybe this is just like a weird coincidence. And then I'm like, no, she's definitely here for us. And Hector stops us and he starts talking to me and then he gets down on one knee. And I mean, he starts crying. I'm crying. I was like, I was the cutest thing. I mean, it was honestly like the most romantic thing that I've ever experienced. And the fact that, oh, I feel like I'm gonna get emotional and cry about this right now. The fact that Hector went through so much trouble of planning this really elaborate, like beautiful proposal.

I also am such a mountain girl. I'm a really big nature girl. I'm actually like, I'm a triple earth. So I'm a Virgo Capricorn Taurus. And I know this maybe is a little too woo woo for y'all. I don't even really pay attention to astrology that much if I'm being perfectly honest, but I will say that that part of me actually really resonates because I'm very, very, very into nature. And so the fact that he took me on a little mini hike, I love to hike, and then proposed to me in this beautiful, stunning mountain backdrop was just like, I was just like, this man knows me.

Like, this man knows me so well. And he said just the most beautiful, sweet, wonderful things and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. And it was the ring that I loved that we found when we were shopping, which was just, I mean, it was unreal. The whole, the whole moment was so surreal. So we're both crying. And then the photographer comes up to us and like take some photos of us. And then we get to walk down with her. And then something that really touched me too, is that Hector involved my parents. And I thought that was really, really sweet because my parents got to be there and kind

of be involved a little bit. So we're in basically my hometown. I wasn't born in Telluride, but I've explained this to y'all before. We have been going there since I was a little kid, since I was four years old. I learned how to ski there. We've spent every Christmas there since I was little. We've lived out there every single summer since I was, I don't even know, like six. So it's a really special place for me. My brother and my sister are buried in a cemetery in Telluride.

So Telluride is considered like to be my home. And the fact that he planned all this in my hometown with my parents, my parents got to be there. there we walked down that hill my parents were there they popped champagne for us they facetimed in hector's family so his parents were on facetime with his brother and his sister and it just was so special and so we sat up there just like reveling in the moment had some drinks and then we drive back down into town and my mom's friend, Helen had hosted a little mini engagement party for us. And it was so unbelievably stunning. Helen is a interior designer. So her house is stunning already. And then she just had every little moment thought of like printed out little menus with our food. She had gotten a private chef to cater for us, had invited all of our close family friends there. So it was just this small little intimate dinner

and it was just stunning. All the food was locally made. She has this little Moki electric car and they had decorated the electric car. so we got to take really cute photos in it and kind of like drive around a little bit it was just it was unreal it was so special and i just felt so loved i basically cried the entire night because it just was really nice it was nice to have my parents there and have them be a part of it i know it meant so much to them my dad started crying when we came down and he was like, I'm so happy. And it just was, it was an amazing experience. So I'm just so grateful. And yeah, I'm grateful I got to share that experience with y'all. So that is my proposal story. And I feel like we are getting to the end

of this episode because I actually am going to the grocery store to film some videos with Alex Clark. And you guys will see those very soon. If not, maybe they're already up on Instagram by the time you listen to this. So depending on when we release this episode, but yeah, I am so grateful for all of y'all being here. I hope that you guys love the personal updates. Write me on Instagram. Let me know if you like hearing the personal updates about my personal life. I like to do these periodically just to kind of give you guys an insight into my life and what's going on. There will definitely be more of these because there's a lot going on right now with the Make America Healthy Again movement. I've been invited to a couple of really

key big events that are coming, that are happening within the next couple weeks. So when I can speak more about those, I will keep you guys tuned in. Watch my Instagram. I will be posting whatever I can there. And then we'll give you guys updates whenever I can on the podcast as well. But yeah, and please make sure that you're following at Real Foodology podcast, because we're posting videos there that you will not see anywhere else. And yeah, please, if you could take a moment to rate and review the podcast, it means so much to me and it really helps this show. And I'm just so

grateful for your support and thanks for listening along. Love you guys. Till next time. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to the Real Foodology Podcast. This is a Wellness Loud production produced by Drake Peterson and mixed by Mike Fry. Theme song is by Georgie. You can watch the full video version of this podcast inside the Spotify app or on YouTube. As always, you can leave us a voicemail by clicking the link in our bio. And if you liked this episode, please rate and review on your podcast app. For more shows by my team, go to wellnessloud.com. See you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always,

talk to your doctor or your health team first.