Well with Arielle Lorre - 23: COURTNEY SWAN - Getting Real with Integrative Nutritionist @realfoodology

Episode Date: September 18, 2019

In this episode I talk to Courtney Swan, integrative nutritionist and founder of @realfoodology, about her balanced approach to healthy living, including not letting health choices dictate how we live; how to stay present in the moment; avoiding the "perfect health" trap; dealing with anxiety with therapy and supplementation; and the great hormonal birth control debate.  We also talk about life on the road with several bands and with pop star Tove Lo, how to stay healthy while traveling, and US food practices vs. those in other parts of the world.  I LOVED talking to Courtney it's reflected in this juicy episode that is jam packed with information and laughs.    Follow Courtney on Instagram: www.instagram.com/realfoodology  Follow Arielle on Instagram: www.instagram.com/ariellelorre www.theblondefiles.com         See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I'm Ariel Lori and this is the Blonde Files podcast where I talk to experts, influencers, and inspirational people in the world of wellness and beyond. Okay, welcome back to the show. Welcome to the show if you're new. I am really excited about today's episode. I know that I say that every week and I mean it every week, but sometimes there are just certain conversations where we were really viving and this was one of them. So my guest today is Courtney Swan. Courtney is an integrative nutritionist and traveling real foodist on a mission to change the way America eats. She received her Masters of Science in Nutrition and Integrative Health from Maryland University of Integrative Health. On a mission to help people, Courtney has built a following over on social media. She posts daily

about the real food and organic movement on her Instagram account, Real Foodology. She aims to educate on the dirty practices of the food industry and how to eat healthy with real food. She doesn't believe in diets and she promotes a real food approach to eating, hence real foodology. Courtney also tours full-time with international pop star Tovlo, but when she's not touring with Tov, she resides in L.A. where she is spreading her message for the health of it. And I just adore her. I had such a great time talking to her. I learned so much. I think you guys are really going to love the episodes. So as always, if you enjoy this, please rate, review, subscribe, share, do all the things. I really appreciate it. And without

further ado, Courtney Swan. Okay, so I'm here with Courtney. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for coming. Where did you drive here from? Actually, I was working just nearby in Culver City, but I live in Echo Park. So it's like, you know, for some reason, I'm not a stalker, but I thought that lived far away and this is like the worst time to go anywhere in LA so we're all kind of I mean I do live far away if you're driving during traffic hours yeah oh my god I just look at yeah it's like an hour away for me right now but if I go at night it's like 30 minutes oh that's not bad yeah it's not too bad so there's a lot that I want to talk about um why don't we just kind of start with rewinding and talking about like why you decided to be an integrated

of nutritionist. That's what your title is, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It actually all started with my mom. It's funny, I kind of resisted the whole healthy living when I was younger because my mom was very into healthy eating. Like we were always shopping at the little like crunchy granola, like health food stores that I was little. And this was before Whole Foods even existed. And I was very resistant of it as a kid and I was actually like pretty, I was pretty like angry at my mom when I was little because for this, because I had a real, I had a best friend who would like eat at Burger King every night and I wanted the toys and I wanted the, you know, chicken nuggets from McDonald's or whatever. But looking back in it, I'm so grateful because it put me obviously on the path that I'm on now.

So I, so growing up, I didn't eat a lot of fast food and get a lot of junk food. And then I went to college and I went crazy. I was like eating Taco Bell and like just going for it. And then I gained like, oh, you know, good, like 20 pounds. And at that point, my mom was like slowly starting to, she would like mail me like cookbooks and like health food books in the mail in college. And then that kind of started to spark my interest. And then I remember my, the last class I took senior year I was going to school in Boulder was a nutrition class. And at the time I remember thinking, oh my God, why did I not study nutrition?

because all of a sudden I was like really into it. It started eating healthier. I was able to lose the weight that I gained in college. And then that was kind of where I started like my love for healthy eating. Because I realized it made me feel better. I felt better my skin. I looked better. And yeah,

I just started like seeing a correlation between what I was putting on my body versus, you know, and like how it affected your body. I listened to another podcast that you were on today. So it's kind of fresh in my mind. But I think after you went to. undergrad, then you ended up on the road, right? With 303? Yeah. Okay. So can you talk about that? How did that happen? So they were, so 303 are, it's a band out of Boulder, Colorado, if you aren't aware of them.

And when we were in college, they were just really good friends of mine, Nat and Sean. And we, yeah, so basically, they started playing shows. And then when we graduated college, they started getting national recognition. And they had known, so the whole time I was in college, basically, I thought I was going to work in music. It was like really, what I wanted to do. And I've been doing music internships and I was kind of like working in the industry through this record label called Epitaph Records. So they really knew that I wanted to work and like go on tour. So when we graduated and they started getting national recognition, they got asked to play Warp Tour, which was, it's now it's dissolved at this point, but it's like a music festival for like email alternative kind of music like that. I remember. Yeah. So I ended up going on

tour with them. And I worked with them for like two and a half years. And that's kind of how I got started. Because once you get in that industry, it's pretty easy to like, you know, make connections and bounce around with different bands and stuff. So what was your role exactly? So was their tour manager. So it's actually, it was, it was. I loved it when I was doing it. But when I was done, I was like, I am so done with this job. Because you're, you're basically kind of on call 24-7. Like, you're really there. I always called it like a glorified babysitter. You're like a glorified babysitter plus like their, their manager on the road because their manager doesn't tour with them. So you're like a representation for their manager. So you make sure they get to interviews on time. You make sure they

get to the show on time. You coordinate shows. You work with the promoter ahead of time, book flights. I mean, it's like all encompassing. And then you're also the person in charge and the one that gets called if a band member is out missing at like 3 a.m. and it's bus call. Yeah, it's a lot. Oh, my God. It was really fun, though. How did your lifestyle, because if you were kind of getting into, like, healthy living, wellness at the end of college and then you go to that lifestyle, how did that evolve if it did?

Yeah, it did. I mean, I just kind of, I've always been really good at adapting to my environment. So it was just kind of one of those things where I was like, all right, challenge accepted. Like, this is what I'm going to, you know, I'm going to make it work. So when I was touring with them, we were on a bus, thankfully, which means it. we had like a, not a full kitchen, but we had access to like a refrigerator and like a little mini kitchen. So I would just go grocery shopping a lot. I always had like healthy groceries on the bus. I was buying like a lot of, you know, organic healthy foods. And then later when I started

touring with another band, we were in a van and trailer and we were spending the night in hotels every night. And that one was really tricky. I was basically like only, I only allowed myself to eat like Panera, Chipotle or Whole Foods. I would basically just drag the band Whole Foods every day. And then I just had like a box of food in the back that would just like supplement like snacks and stuff like that. It was hard. And were you the tour manager for that band too? Was that third eye blind? No. So third eye blind was later. So that was this band called the summer set. And then when I was done with the summer set at that point it had been five years of touring. And I was like, it was getting really into health and wellness. And I decided that I wanted to

get off the road and go back and study nutrition. So then I quit. And then a year into my studies is when I met third-day blind and they were like, hey, we're looking for a tour manager. We'd love to bring you out. So then I got dragged back on the road. Interesting. Because I know that now you work with Tovlo, right? And you work with her on nutrition. Yeah. So I'm just interested in like how it went from like tour managing, like having these two separate lives kind of to like where you are now. Because it seems like you were able to like meld those two worlds. Yeah. I mean, it's it's really cool. I'm so yeah. I'm just it it's it's funny. is it kind of, I made it into a job for myself, but I can't take full credit because basically

what happened was I have a friend, Brian, who's like one of my really close friends and I've known him since we were 18. And he was touring with other bands. And when he got this offer with Tov, he wrote me an email and just said, hey, we're looking for somebody who could help her stay healthy on the road, like make smoothies in the morning for her and just kind of like maybe like just keep her accountable a little bit for like eating healthy. And he's like, I know that you're out with third eye blind right now, but I also know that you have this nutrition background. And we kind of just wanted to see like how we could make this work. And obviously, I'd never done anything like this before. And she never hired anybody like that. So the first day I sat down with Brian and he was

like, just do what you do. And we'll just kind of like go as we go. And we'll just make this end into a job position for you. So yeah, it was cool. How long have you been doing that for? Four years. Wow. Yeah. And so you got your degree when you were on the road. Is that correct? Yeah. And you got, so why did you decide to not go the RD route? Because that's kind of the traditional nutrition route, it seems like. I have RDs in the family. Yeah. You know, I mean, I will say this looking back, there's a part of me that's like, man, I should have just gone for it anyways because it is like, it's still to this day the most widely recognized credentials for nutrition. However, I really. had I done that, it would have had to do further training for what I wanted. And essentially, I went to Texas State and I was like on the track to start doing that. But I was having a really hard time because everything that they were teaching us was so outdated. At the time, we were being told to tell our clients to eat low fat diets. And sugar wasn't even, you know, really of concern and they weren't really worried about trans fats. And that's changing. But the problem is that the education

system hasn't fully caught up with all the research yet. And I was having a really hard time with it. And I just hit a point where I was like, I'm about to go into like four plus years of this. And it's really not what I believe in at all. And like like I had said earlier, had I maybe thought about it a little bit more, I could have just like, you know, bared through it, gone the RD credentials and then I could have done whatever I wanted with it. But at the time I was like, you know what? I just, I really want a more like holistic integrative approach. So I took a year off. And I basically just researched everything. I possibly could and I landed on Maryland University of Integrative Health. And initially I was going to go to school there, but then I started the online course and then I got dragged in. Well,

not dragged in. I gladly went to work for third-of-line, but I say I got dragged in because I had sworn off the road and then they gave me an offer. I couldn't refuse. It's like you're being pulled in a few different directions. Exactly. Yeah. That's crazy about the like the education for an R.D. I feel like it's probably the same way in med school. Like it's just so outdated. But if you get the med school degree or the RD in other people's eyes, unfortunately, it's kind of validating. Absolutely. Yeah.

Absolutely. And I think, I mean, hopefully it will change the problem, too, is that the thing that I also didn't like about the RD. And I haven't looked into it honestly in the last couple years. So maybe it's changed. But it's so infiltrated by like big agriculture, big food industry. every year they put on these events and they're sponsored by Coca-Cola, General Mills, and it's just stuff that I really didn't want to align myself with because it was basically everything I don't believe in when it comes to food.

So I just was having a really hard time with that. So what do you kind of believe in with food? Like how did your own journey with wellness evolve as you were going through your education and just having these different experiences? Oh, that's interesting. I'm trying to think how I got to the place that I did. It was a combination of a couple different experts that I found just along my journey. I started out, it's so funny to look back, I started out kind of in like the beach body community where it was like drinking the Shakeology once or twice a day.

And then it evolved into I found Mark Hyman. I love him. Yeah. I am such a Mark Hyman groupie. Oh, me too. We should make a fan club. We really should. It started today. We're starting now. I think I saw somewhere on your like maybe on your Instagram that you were talking about meat as a condiment, a condom meat. And I was like, Mark Hyman.

Exactly. Oh, I love that. Yeah. My husband better watch out. I'm kidding. I just think, I mean, he has a really good approach to it. Yeah. It's really well balanced. And it's just, it's all about getting back to just eating real food. And that's just, yeah, so I found Mark Hyman. I found the food babe. I know she's been really controversial, but I still, like, overall love her for what she's done as far as, like, the food movement in general. I'm trying to think of, oh, and I read a couple books from Michael Pollan about, you know, just like the past of how the food industry got to where it is today. And it really sparked, like, a passion in me for wanting to change the food industry and, like, how we produce food today. So was that kind of your goal going into school? Like, I mean, it seems like you kind of carved out this career that you've, or the path that you've been on for the last few years.

But what was your goal going into it? Was it to like kind of disrupt? Yeah. It changed as I went through school. So when I first went into school, I really thought that I envisioned myself having a private practice just with clients. And then as I got more and more into the food industry and the dirty practices and wanting to change it, it started feeling like that wasn't big enough for me. And I mean, I want to say that, like, honestly, the mentality I have is if I can help one person, like that's amazing and good enough for me. But it just felt like it was such a big task to take on that I wanted to be able to reach as many people as possible in order to spread the message about it.

And so it kind of evolved into wanting to take more of like an activism side to it, which is funny that I've like ended up now working with just like one client, which is, I mean, she takes up so much of my time that I don't really do anything else right now. but I am back on the track of trying to do more of like taking on the food industry and wanting to really change practices. I would love to get more into the politics. And you have your Instagram platform. Absolutely. And that's what I use it for a lot. And when did that come to fruition? So I started, I actually started out with a blog.

So I started my blog, Real Foodology in 2011. And then I was writing on that for a couple of years. And my Instagram was just, you know, my name and it was just nothing. It was funny. I was posting just like the, like if you. scroll back really far. It was like the ugliest grossest pose of food. And I'm like, I can't, I'm like horrified that I even post them. Like with the old school Instagram filter and that's it. Yeah. I did that too. Horrible lighting. Like you can't even tell what I'm eating. And then it just

kind of slowly evolved. Like as I got more and more into blogging and then as Instagram started taking off and as I started getting more excited about Instagram, it kind of just like happened. I just started learning how to take better photos, posting more photos every day, getting more passionate about talking about things and then it just kind of like took off speaking of instagram i i was going back in your posts and there were a few things that stood out so one of them was um having health and wellness fatigue yeah and i'm really curious about that and like if instagram has played a role in that or if it's just from so many years of school and then being in that environment you know that's interesting

I haven't really thought too much about the correlation, but if I was just to, yeah, like go off now, I would think that it's kind of a combination of both. I've kind of gotten to a space where, I mean, when I was really, really in it with Instagram, I was posting two to three times a day. And it was literally my, it would take up my entire day. Like I would basically just be, you know, going from one meal, like cooking one meal, making it beautiful, taking a photo. then taking the next photo and it was just like nonstop every day. And then I got to a point where I was like, okay, I cannot live like this anymore. I'm going to do one a day because, you know, it's a lot. Like people, I don't know if if you don't have an Instagram account that you run as a business,

people may not understand everything that goes into it, but it's commenting everybody back, writing back to everybody that DMs you. And I mean, I love it. That's like my favorite part about it, but it takes a lot of time and energy. And I just got to the point where it was taking so much energy out of me that I started to kind of resent it in a way. And then, yeah, and I think I also just got to a place where I just, I think that I was a little bit too, I'm careful to say obsessive because I don't think that it was like an unhealthy obsession, but I just think that it ruled too much of my life. Like I was

thinking too much about the next meal and too much about the photos that I was going to post on Instagram and it just, it got to a place for me where I needed to take a step back because I was getting so overwhelmed, fatigued by it, and then honestly just like over it. And so I kind of had to take a step back and be like, okay, I need to like find my passion for this again and figure out how to get to a space where it's healthy and manageable for myself. Yeah, it is so overwhelming. And I mean, I envy people who have like a day job, quote unquote. I used to. Like I didn't start doing this full time until last year. And it's like when it's the, only thing that you have. It's just so hard not to get obsessive about it. And yeah, and another

thing that you said was that you were overseeing perfect health. So I can relate to that so much. Like I know for me, I've kind of gone through like being really relaxed and then having to heal my gut. I had all these gut and hormone issues. So then I was super, super strict. And then I was putting too much stress on my body and then I was like fuck it and now I've like kind of found this like middle ground and I feel like I had to go through what all of those different phases to get to where I am and it's funny because you can recognize other people when they're like in like where they are in their own um but yeah I'm curious how your kind of philosophy has evolved and how you've gotten to that point yeah I mean I think part of what helped me get to a more balanced place was touring with toe. Because when I, I remember when I first went out with Tove, I was feeling very nervous because I was like, oh my God, how am I going to know if my food's organic? You know, how am I going to be able to plan out all my healthy meals and all this stuff? And looking back on that now, yeah, it was just like it was just trying to obtain this like constant state of like, how can I stay the healthiest that I can possibly stay? And it was taking up so much of like my brain power too that there wasn't much space to think about anything else.

and it just, yeah, I don't think. It's like the opposite of healthy. Exactly. I was going to say I don't think that's healthy either. It's just extremism. And it just got to a point where it was like overtaking my life. And then when I started with Tov, I slowly started being like, okay, I'm not going to stress about if this meal is organic or not because there's literally nothing I can do about it.

I'm going to eat organic when I can. And the cool thing was is that I was like in charge of finding all the places for us to eat. So I would find good healthy places to eat. But again, if I couldn't find anything. that was, you know, like, quote unquote, the healthiest or whatever. Like, I just started to relax around it. And as that happened, it was lucky for me because it was a gradual thing. So I didn't have like this full, like, panic or anything about it.

You know, it was just like, it gradually happened. And then one day it kind of dawned on me. I was like, oh, I feel like now I've gotten to a really healthy place with it. Where I can, I try to eat as healthy as I can. If I have some days that I don't eat as healthy, then, I mean, we're human, you know? There's only so much you can fucking do. And if you're stressing about it all day, it's not healthy either. Yeah.

And there's, it's, you have a physiological reaction, right? If you're thinking in your head, like, oh, my God, this isn't organic. Oh, my God, there's gluten in this. And this is going to make me so bloated. And I'm going to feel like shit. And then, of course, you're going to have a reaction. Whereas, like, if you can just, I don't know, not be in that heightened state, like, it probably won't affect you that much unless there's, like, a serious issue.

Yeah, exactly. Well, and that was the other thing, too, is the only serious issue I have is I just can't have gluten. But I was stressing so much, like I said, I'm over trying to seek perfect health because every day it was like, oh, my God, how can I eat? Like, super healthy because I don't know, it was just like I was chasing this like perfect health that doesn't really exist. Right. And then I also. Like it's never enough. Yeah, exactly.

It's never enough. And in that case is not healthy because then you're never going to obtain, you know, because you're just going to be constantly chasing something that's like perfect that's not obtainable. And also, like for me, I mean, I was doing this while I was traveling all the time. And I just finally took a step back and I was like, I mean, I'm in France right now. And I'm sitting here like freaking out about what I'm going to have for dinner. And it's not even breakfast yet. Like I need to chill. Be present in the moment where I'm at.

And then just like take it as it comes, you know? And it's just having that relaxation around it has changed my life. Now I'm not running around all day trying to plan every meal. It's like if, you know, whatever I'm presented with, I will make do. And it's just like, it's so much better. Yeah. I feel you. So I am really curious, though, because going back to like politics and quality of food and big food companies.

Yeah. You were in Europe. Like, I know for me, if I'm traveling, there are certain places where I go where I can eat gluten and I'm not affected by it. So did you experience that at all? Absolutely. Yeah. So I've noticed, though, it's funny, I've noticed in certain countries I still can't. Like if I eat gluten and we were in South America last year, I got really sick.

Really? Yeah. So I couldn't do that. And then in the UK as well. So it really depends. It depends a lot on like pesticide usage for that country and also the kinds of wheat that they're using as well. And a lot of European countries use like the more ancient wheat varieties than we do. And yeah.

So I've noticed like I was eating. I was in Italy. like two months ago just having an eat, pray love moment, like just eating all the positive bread I could. And I was fine. Yeah. But then I come home and actually I talked about this on my Instagram recently too. When I came home, I had a really hard time readjusting because I kind of, I really just kind of really let loose in that sense and was eating whatever I wanted. And then I came home and was like trying to do that again. And I got really sick. And it's just the unfortunate reality of the American quality food versus Europe. Yeah. It was crazy. We were in Africa last year. And I thought you were leaving. I was like, bye. I'm here. We were in Africa last year. And I was talking to, like, we were in the Maasai and we were talking to, like, village people.

And, you know, for the most part, they drink cow's blood and drink milk. And that's it. Like, they have barely any food, maybe some corn and stuff like that. But, and so I was talking to them about disease and, like, mortality. and they didn't have like any cancer or anything like that. Like, yes, they're very poor and they don't have like basics, but also they weren't dying from diseases that we die from over here until they started getting some of their food from the UK

and getting more like preservatives and stuff like that. And now they're seeing that village people and, you know, they're starting to get really sick and heart disease and cancer and stuff like that. Yeah, I mean, it's really crazy. It's interesting to see the countries that have kind of adopted, like the U.S. food practices and kind of like, you know, the more they import from the U.S. and stuff, it's kind of like the sicker they get as well. Yeah.

And then you look at countries like, for example, in most of the Scandinavian countries, I know for, like Sweden, for example, for sure, they have so many additives and stuff that they don't allow in their foods that they can't even sell a lot of American food there. Yeah. Because it's just banned. It's crazy. Or what's happening, too, is a lot of American companies are having to change their formulations. in order to be sold in other countries. It's crazy. It makes me, like, my blood is boiling, just thinking about it right now.

So I'm like, if you're changing it for other countries, why not change for us as well? You know, it's just, yeah, but it's money. It's all about profit. Yeah, I was going to say I follow the money. Yeah. So what is, I know it's different for everybody, but what is kind of your food philosophy? Like, I know that it's not one size fits all, but in a perfect world, what would your perfect day of eating be, say.

Okay, so my philosophy is I try to keep it as basic as possible because I want it to be accessible for everybody. So what I always say is if it was alive at one point, then it's fair game. And obviously you can apply that to plants, animals, everything. If you want to get more specific, well, and again, also I just say like real food. But it's easier to say like if it was once alive because then you can kind of apply that a little bit better because people are like, what's real food? less stuff in packages.

And then if you want to get more specific, especially if you're eating in the United States, I try my hardest to eat organic. And then if it's meat, it's got to be pasture raised, grass fed, antibiotic-free, hormone-free. But if it's organic, it's already going to be antibiotic and hormone-free. And then as far as like overarching, yeah, I mean, I just, I like to, like I said before, I don't want to be too strict about it.

So unless if you literally have, you know, gluten allergy or something like that, I try to say that like everything is fair game as long as it's real food. Try to cook more, buy less things in packages. If you're going to buy things in packages, make sure that if you look at the ingredients, it's something that you could make in your kitchen at home. It doesn't mean you have to, but it just means like if you see all the ingredients on there and it's, you know, almonds, sea salt, blah, blah, whatever. And you're like, oh, I could buy all of these if I wanted to and make it at home, then buy it. Not something that you make in a lab. Exactly. Yeah, with a bunch of preservatives and crap. So I want to kind of talk about the other aspects of wellness. I'm curious, like, how you practice self-care and took care of yourself, especially with all the travel that you were doing and when you're responsible for taking care of other people. Oh, interesting. You know, my biggest form of self-care is exercising. I mean, I feel like everybody probably says this, but it's, you know,

It's like therapy for me. Actually, and also therapy. So the biggest things for me when I was touring is making sure that I would get a workout every day, either going for a run, walking around the city, just getting some sort of sweat in. And then I would FaceTime my therapist from L.A. once a week while I was on the road. And those were kind of the things that I really did to just take care of myself and hold myself accountable. Can you talk about your anxiety a little bit too? I know you're pretty vocal about that. Yeah.

So I've had generalized anxiety most of my life. I was diagnosed with it when I was, I feel like I was in middle school. And it's so funny because this is such a testament to how I am now. And I was so young back then to even like, no, but it still just like was ingrained to me, I guess. But they tried to put me on Zoloft. And I remember telling my mom, like, I mean, it was literally like four days in or something. And I was like, nope, I don't know what it is. I'm not doing this.

And I never feel different. Yeah, it did. And it was like not an okay different for me. Right. And so I've always tried to. And look, this is not, I'm not like, I'm not trying to preach against drugs or anything like that. It's just this is my own personal journey. I didn't want to take any sort of medication for it because, like I said, the time that it did, it just did not make me feel like myself.

And I've always been a believer that, always been a believer that there's always going to be a root cause there. and I'd rather get to the root cause and just like put a band-aid on it. I want to address it head on and figure out what's going on. That way I can mend it and then move on. So I started going to therapy to address my anxiety because it got really bad when I was in my like early 20s. I was having panic attacks every day. And so I started going to see a therapist talking it out. And that like really is what helped me the most.

And I found a couple different herbs like Ashviganda, Holy Basil. And the combination of that and just like talking it out with somebody every week and kind of like addressing the things. that were really bothering me is what has literally changed my life. And it's really helped. Yeah, I've struggled with anxiety too. I skipped the SSRIs and went straight to the benzos. Yeah. And I was heavily addicted for 10 years.

I've been sober for almost six years. Wow. It was not just benzos. It was a lot of other stuff. But they all like played off each other. Yeah. And it's hard going. I mean, that just basically like mutes you.

Like all of that. So when you go off it, it's like through the fucking roof and it's crazy. Yeah, because it's like a scale, right? And like so it's weighing it down and then when you take it off. Did you come off cold turkey or did you like gradually? Well, no. So I went to rehab three, two times and I went to detox. And then by the end of it, I was having seizures like all the time because I would run out and then, you know, not have it for a day or two.

And I wasn't even taking very much. I was taking maybe like a milligram a day. Wow. And your body was just like just needed it. Yeah. It was addicted. For whatever reason, people I guess just metabolize it differently. And yeah.

So I was having like people having seizures coming off of that. Oh yeah. And I was drinking. So I was coming off alcohol as well. But it was, but I could skip days of drinking and not seize. I could not skip a day of Xanax or clonopin or whatever it was. Wow.

Yeah. So by the end of it, I mean, it was like I was in a blackout for like a month and my family had to fly out here and intervene on me. And I went to Cedars for like five days because they couldn't stop them. And then I went to treatment. So how, I'm so curious. So how after having the seizures, like how did you get to a point where, like, how did they stop the seizures then without giving the meds? Was it just a waiting out period?

I don't know exactly what they gave me at Cedars. Like I know that when I went to detox, it's kind of weird because they. would give you a benzo that had a longer half-life. So, like, if I was taking Xanax or Clonabin, they would give me Valium. So they're giving me the same thing, but just at a lower dose and with a longer half-life. So that I was, like, tapering really slowly. Yeah, just like less and loss. And, like, Deppocote, which is like a mood stabilizer, I think, but it also has anti-convulsive properties.

I don't know. It was gnarly. Wow. That's wild. And that was six years ago? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Crazy.

But so, you know, it's been, I love talking to people about anxiety. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I think it's so common now. Absolutely. And I just love hearing how other people deal with it because it can be such a struggle. I also go to therapy. I love it.

I cannot stop talking about therapy. That's another thing that I loved it because I just, I want to normalize it because I feel like there's still, it's getting better. It's definitely getting better. But I think even still with our parents' generation, there's a. mentality of like, well, there's nothing wrong with me. I don't need to go to therapy. And I'm kind of like we're human beings and living is really hard. And I kind of feel like everybody could benefit from from zing a therapist. You know, we all have things that we should work on in a dress. And yeah, it's just. I know. It's so funny. Like some weeks I'll go in there and I'll be like,

yeah, everything's good. Like nothing. And then by the end of it, I'm like, my mind is like blown. I've had like one revelation after another. Yeah. It's really powerful. I'm curious. She's too about Oshuaganda. So you are a big proponent of supplements, right? You take a lot. I do. I take like 20 a day. It's insane.

Okay. I need to know. Give me the breakdown. No, I'm kidding. But, I mean, what do you look for in supplements and what do you think we can get from food? And then what do you think we need to, like, fill in? Well, it really depends. I mean, I also really believe in bio-individualized nutrition, which just means, like, everybody's different.

Your body's going to be a little bit different than anybody else is. And so I really, I'm a huge proponent of doing lab work first, just to kind of see where you're at. Because I don't want to just like throw a bunch of vitamins at you and be like, well, let's just see what sticks. I'd rather like actually know what you need. There's a couple that everybody is pretty much deficient in that I always would, that I like to recommend. B12 is one that just across the board pretty much all Americans are deficient in one way or another. And then probiotics, I really recommend just because, especially for a lot of, lot of our generation. If we have like a past of taking a lot of antibiotics, we've disrupted a lot of

the microbiome, the gut flora. And so taking probiotics just helps like rebuild that, that, um, gut flora. And then vitamin D is another one because as we wear more sunscreen, um, we're getting less vitamin D because we get vitamin D from the sun. And then besides that, yeah, I would say like, well, in fish oil too, because a lot of people are, um, we're lacking in omega-3s and which is what we normally would get in our food, but now we use more canola oil than we use like anything else. And so we're getting less omega-3s. I mean, I could go off on a tangent to the heavy mega-3s. But like grass-fed, I'm sorry, corn-fed cows have way less amegas in them than grass-fed because they're converting it from the sun, essentially. And they're, when they eat corn, they get sick and they're producing a

different type of fat in their body than they would from grass because they're meant to be eating grass. that's what their bodies were designed to consume. And so when they're not eating grass and they're eating corn, they're getting sick and producing. Their studies have been shown that, yes, so they get fatter when they're in corn and they produce a different type of fat. It's lower in omega-3s. So we're across the board, like, getting less and less omega-3s. And then another thing, too, so when I first got into nutrition, I was really, I was a huge proponent of just like, get all your vitamins and minerals from your food. And I still believe that that you can and that we do, but you'd have to eat so much.

much of certain kinds of foods in order, like more than you could probably consume in one day to get the recommended vitamin dose. And then on top of that, the more that we use pesticides and herbicides, we're depleting our soil. So we're getting less minerals and vitamins from our food as a result. So we're not consuming as much anymore. So, and I mean, I think if you're, if you get a good, um, quality vitamin and supplement, then why not? Why not supplement it when you can? Mm-hmm. Something that we haven't touched on, but when you were talking about the animals and being sick, we didn't really talk about hormones, but I know that you've had your own journey with hormones as well. And I know that we might not have time to get into all of that.

But I think, you know, I was, I think I heard you talking about it in the podcast that I was listening to. And you were given a copper IUD, right? Can you talk about that a little bit? Because I'm having Dr. Brighton come on the podcast. I love her. I love her. That's amazing. She's like a wealth of knowledge for women's hormones.

Yeah. And I actually recently was at a point where like my hormones are all over the place. I was diagnosed with PCOS, but I haven't taken the pill in years. And it got to a point where I was like, I just need the fucking pill. Like I need a bandaid. I don't care. I know the side effects, the ramifications. And I tried one and I was like, nope, nope, not happening.

It's a nightmare. now I feel like things are a little bit better because I've been going the more natural route. That's good. But the copper IUD is kind of like the safe one that people promote. Well, it's interesting because the copper ID is promoted as a non-hormonal birth control. And on paper, that's true because you're not actually getting hormones. But what I discovered in my research after I got this put in was that as copper levels rise in your body, so does estrogen. so it can still have a hormonal effect on your body.

And again, everybody's different. I have two friends that both have a copper IUD that are fine. They love it and they have not had any effects from it. I started feeling the effects of it within like three months of having it in. And it's funny because I didn't even make the correlation at first. Like I got it and I was like, yes, like no hormones because I've never been able to do hormonal birth control. It literally turns me in a monster no matter what kind. I mean, I've tried like I've tried everything across the board.

And so when I got this, I was like, oh, this is great. I'm not, you know, no side effects, no hormones. And then I started like maybe a month in. I started feeling a little weird in my body, but I didn't think anything of it. And I didn't make any correlation with IUD because at this point I had no idea that there could even be like an effect. And then I remember just, you know, maybe being like month two in or something. And I mean, my anxiety was through the roof.

And I was going, I remember telling my boyfriend at the time, I was like, I feel like I'm reverting back to when I was in my 20s. when I was having the panic attacks every day. And I really had gotten to a good place and I hadn't had them for like 10 plus years. And I was really getting anxious again. But again, I made no correlations. And then it was maybe like a third month in. I was just, you know, I was just trying to Google anything about my symptoms.

And as I was Googling, I came up, I basically came across an article that was talking about the correlation between rising levels of copper in your body and then it, you know, causing anxiety and causing hormonal issues and all this stuff. And then I just started Googling everything that I could. I found all these articles about it. Unfortunately, there's not any scientific research about it because if you try to look up any scientific research about birth control in general, it really doesn't exist.

And this makes me really mad. And this is where the feminist comes out of me. And I'm like, if this was a male problem, we would have so many studies we wouldn't even know what to do. So that makes me really angry. So there's not, and that's the problem is it's all. And if men had periods, they wouldn't be able to fucking deal with that. No, they would not.

Well, did you hear about the whole issue with the male birth control? Hi, I'm Kennedy. I wasn't even like, no what? I've been silent over here. I love it. We keep her mic on just in case. Just in case I have some input. But there was a, they started producing a male birth control.

And then within like two weeks of the study, like the headline of the article I read was like, the male birth control was causing moodiness, weight gain. And they're like, we don't want this. And I was like, oh, boohoo. Like what? Like, no, they stopped it in a month. They literally stopped the same. the study after like a month or something. So there we have it.

You know, I will say... I know he's like... I know. I know. But you know, I will say, and this is maybe controversial for some women, but I also don't believe in giving men hormonal birth control either because then we're just going to be back in the same page again and the same issue of now men are going to have the issues that women are dealing with right now. So I want to find something that is, like maybe there's like this new gel that they're talking about that they can inject and that will just like block sperm from being ejaculated, which that I'm like, okay, that sounds like a

cool viable option because I don't also, because basically the pill and all the hormones are putting women's health at risk. And now I don't want to switch it and just like put it on to men. You know, I don't think that's fair either. I think we need to find. I mean, because I think, you know, ultimately I care about humanity. I want everybody to thrive. And I think there has to be a solution to where we don't like put our health at risk. Right. And then there's also a couple of condoms kids. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

The man in the room is just like, what are he talking about? I didn't know if I was getting like a signal like it was time to stop. No, he was just having opinions. Oh, wow. He doesn't have a mic. He doesn't have a mic. Okay, so that's really interesting. So I'm sure you ended up having it taken out and how long did it take your body to go back to homeostasis?

It was probably, I mean, it took me a while. It was probably a good, like, four months or so. Oh, this is so interesting and I love telling this too. So I see an integrative doctor. And she's actually a medical doctor and then also has holistic training. And I went in to see her during that time when I was on the IUD. When I started thinking it was maybe the IUD. And so we did all these tests. And she got my blood work back. And she was like, you are literally a case study for the IUD. She was like, your copper is so off the charts that it's insane. My copper was off the charts and then my inflammation markers were like scary through the roof and they'd never been that high before. So she was like, let's just watch you. I want to up your zinc because zinc and copper kind of work in tandem together. So like if you have really high copper and you take zinc, usually it will balance the two out and bring the copper down. And that's ultimately what I did. So I took the IUD out. I started taking glute thion and calcium Dglucrate, which bind estrogen and like help just flush it out of your body.

and had to wait it out like four months and then I finally started feeling better. Oh, God. It was also like one of those experiences where like in the moment I didn't even like I mean I was in pure agony and then looking back on it like really realized how bad it was

because now that I'm like back in like a normal state it's like, that was like not okay. Is there anything? I don't know if you can speak to this at all but if you have if you're dealing with somebody who has a hormone imbalance, is there anything that you suggest they tweak in their diet or anything that they can do naturally or supplements that they can take to help that?

Yeah, I mean, you know, to be honest, it really depends on what it is. So like, for example, if your progesterone is really low, I would recommend taking, you know, like doing easier using a progesterone cream or like taking a progesterone pill that you would get from through a compounding pharmacy. For estrogen, if your estrogen is really high, I sometimes recommend dim or like glutathione, like I said, in calcium. deglucrate because they bind the estrogen and help your body like flush out the excess estrogen. It just, to be honest, it's like case by case because it really depends on what hormone is high. And then you kind of address it from there. I want to get to listener questions. Yeah.

Let me, I didn't write them down because they've kind of been coming in throughout the day. What is the craziest thing that's ever happened on the road? Oh, God. I might have to think about this for a second. Okay. God, I mean, I feel like there's so many stories with Tov, but I can't. So maybe I'll think of another one, but I can think of one with this band, The Somerset. Actually, yeah, this probably is the craziest thing that's ever happened.

So hopefully I haven't told this story before. I can't remember. But so I was working for this band, the Somerset, and we were driving from L.A. to San Diego. We had had a show in L.A. the night before, and then we had a show in San Diego. And we did not time it outright with traffic. we ended up in really crazy traffic and we were so late to the show that we literally showed up like 10 minutes

before the band was supposed to start playing and normally you show up oh like four or five hours earlier and you get to sound check you set up all your gear because it's a whole process it usually takes like at least an hour just like to set up all the gear. So we show up really late we basically just load everything

out of the van and trailer directly onto the stage and we were playing at House of Blues and the thing with House of Blues is that they don't just take your credentials. So we usually have like credential that we travel with and then every venue just uses that to let you in and out of the venue. House of Blues, however, likes to make it really hard on you and they give you specific wristbands. So if you don't have the wristband, they don't recognize you as being on the tour and they won't let you in. So we play the show. Even if you're the band? Oh, no. Oh, yeah. No. I mean, it's honestly crazy. And I wonder if they've changed it

now since this incident because it was really bad. But so the band plays, everything's great. then my singer Brian jumps off stage into the crowd on the last song and breaks his leg he comes off stage and he is in so much pain that he's barfing everywhere we have to like carry him off stage like it was really bad

we're in the basement and there's no phone service so I run upstairs to get phone service because I need to like call someone and I was trying to get a hold of a friend or we're going to call an ambulance whatever I was like trying to figure out what to do so then I get a hold of somebody and we literally have a car waiting

to like drive him to the hospital and they won't let me back in the venue. And there's two different doors. So I'm going back and forth. And mind you, everybody else, including the singer, is downstairs in the basement. So I cannot get a hold of anybody because none of them have service. And I told them I'd come back. So they're all waiting for me.

So I run in between two different doors. And both of them, they won't let me. And finally I was just like, fuck it. I'm going. I'm run. And I just bolt and I make it all the way down the stairs around. And I'm almost to the green room. And these two huge security guards come and pick me up.

And they drag me outside. and they literally threw me on the ground. I had so many bruises all over the place. And I was like, oh my God, I get so mad when I think about the story. And afterwards, like, there was a higher tour manager that was, like, in charge of the entire tour. And she completely bitched out the venue. I think she, like, got the money back.

And, like, it was, like, this whole thing. But, yeah, that was crazy. Wow. That's crazy. Oh, my God. Wait, so how did they get the guy? So I caused, like, so much commotion that I finally was able to, like, get a hold of somebody. Yeah.

And then, like, they all came outside and we were able to, like, take him to the hospital. But it was, like, this whole stupid ordeal. That's brutal. Okay, switching gears. Yeah. Completely switching gears. What? I can't even ask this.

What are your favorite sugar alternatives? Like sugar-free? I know. Seriously. Like, sugar-free or just, like, in general, like, sweeteners? I think instead of, like, sweeteners or if you use sweeteners or? So my favorite is monk fruit I use it for everything

I use it for baking I have a monk fruit syrup That I put on my pancakes I love it It's sugar-free I do well you know They just send me stuff right now I don't do like any branded work with them

But I just I love them They're the best They are literally the best Yeah What are your favorite ways To manage stress and anxiety Kind of talked about that

But yeah a little bit I mean like I said Therapy Taking herbs and supplements exercise. So making sure I take time for myself, too. It was a really big one, checking into myself. Do you drink coffee? I do. I love coffee. I have to have it every morning. I just love it. Natural birth control methods and resources. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of them. I mean, like we said before, the condom, which is the obvious, something that I'm starting to do again, I stopped for a while,

but the basal thermometer. And actually, I don't know if a lot of people know this, but there's an app called Natural Cycles, and it is actually approved by the FDA as a form of birth control. Wow. If it's used correctly. That's not the one that sent all the data to Facebook, is it?

I'm not sure. Yeah, it was like a horrible. A couple days ago. There was a, really? I just know that it was a menstrual app. I don't know which one it was. There are so many. Yeah, I mean, I was speechless.

I wonder if it's that or maybe it's clue. I'll look it up. Or like flow, maybe. Yeah, or flow. But the one you're talking about is not that one. I don't know. That's what we're saying. So it's called Natural Cycles, and it was developed by a Swedish woman, actually,

and it's recognized by the FDA as a form of birth control. And essentially what you do is you just take your temperature every morning before you actually get out of bed and then you record it in the app. And as it gets more like used to your body over like a course of a couple months, it starts like learning when you're ovulating and when you're fertile. and not fertile because you're you can actually only get pregnant in like a six to seven day window so sorry i was going no you're fine reading this article you're fine i'm like just talking while you're no i love it tracking apps like m ia menstrual oh i've never heard of that one them no natural cycles isn't part of it okay good good good good good and mya shared information including when the user logged contraception use monthly periods and menstruation symptoms so weird

creepy yeah that's really creepy but like why like why do they need like yeah it's so weird maybe they maybe they'll know like when to like show like food ads to women like when they're being messing that is so insane but yeah you're right probably like that's probably why oh she's about to start her period all right bring in all the chocolate and cookie there's also like something way more sinister, but I'll totally butcher it. But it was on Rachel Maddow and it was about how like the administration are tracking detained

teenager girls periods and yeah. Oh my God. Why? Just to like keep them from getting pregnant or? I don't know. Oh, that's so... I don't remember what like the end game was but it was

really fucking creepy like handmade's tail kind of oh my god I can't I know. I know I can't be too. I'm like literally getting uncomfortable. You're like, squirming. Oh. Well, what is next for you?

So I haven't even announced this on my Instagram yet, but I'm actually as of like a week and a half ago done touring with tow. It was a beautiful, sad breakup. So it's all good things and we're still really close friends. But it was just that I have a lot of things that I want to do. I can't talk about any of them yet, but I have a couple plans of things I want to do, and it just required me to be home, especially because Tov is going out on a new record cycle right now, which means that she's literally going to be gone for the next year.

And I just didn't want to be gone from L.A. for that long. So, yeah, so sad. We cried, like, a lot. I've been with her for four years. But I'm really excited, and I will be probably announcing stuff soon on my Instagram about what I'm doing next. That's so exciting. So where can everybody find you? Yeah, so I'm real foodology across the board Instagram, Facebook, and yeah, that's about it. That's where I'm most active. Thank you so much for coming. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Thank you