Struggling to Prioritize Health with Marisa Moon

By February 4, 2025

Transcript

Marisa Moon [00:00:00]

If I could wave a magic wand and take one thing off of your plate that would make everything else in your life work easier, what would it be? And they can usually answer that very quickly. And I have to remind some of them that do not hold back your true answer because you feel guilty or ashamed for the answer. Because the answer might be if you could make my 5 year old daughter go to sleep and stay asleep, or if you could drop my kids off to their activities and pick them up for me. A lot of parents would feel ashamed for saying that’s the one thing that would make my life better. But you need to admit that, because once you put it out there, more possibilities are going to arise.

Leanne Vogel [00:00:42]

Hello and welcome to another episode. I’m so glad to have you here. Today we have a really special guest. Her name is Marisa, Marisa Moon. She’s a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, Master Primal Health Coach and Intermittent fasting coach@marisamoon.com Ranked as Google’s number one intermittent fasting coach since 2018, Marisa recently published a number one new release and Amazon bestseller titled not so Fast. The Smarter, More Gradual Approach to Intermittent Fasting benefits that last. Marisa is recognized as a leading expert in the fasting community, especially when it comes to flexible intermittent fasting strategies that work for real life. Her website is marisamoon.com that’s M A R I S A moon.com today we’re chatting about navigating life on autopilot and prioritizing health.

Leanne Vogel [00:01:37]

The discussion really explored how many people function on autopilot and I share some of my stories on that too. Going through the motions without like truly engaging with our health and well being or what’s going on with our day. We chat about self image and identity and overcoming self sabotage as it relates to our health goals. The conversation delved into the challenges that people face with self image, identity, and particularly around how these factors contribute to self sabotage. We also chatted about the role of creative thinking and controlling our health. We covered the importance of creative thinking and taking control of our health journey by listening to systems like therapy and taking the time to explore available resources. The conversation really focused on how individuals like you and me can regain control over our health by actionable items and thinking outside the box. I’m really excited for this conversation and how it can empower you to achieve your health goals again.

Leanne Vogel [00:02:38]

If you want to connect with Marisa after today’s show, you can go to marisamoon.com okay, let’s cut over to today’s episode with Marisa Hey, My name is Leanne and I’m fascinated with helping women navigate how to eat, move and care for their bodies. This has taken me on a journey from vegan keto high protein to everything in between. I’m a small town holistic nutritionist turned three time international bestselling author turned functional medicine practitioner offering telemedicine services around the globe to women looking to better their health and stop second guessing themselves. I’m here to teach you how to wade through the wellness noise to get to the good stuff that’ll help you achieve your goals. Whether you’re seeking relief from chronic ailments, striving for peak performance, or simply eager to live a more vibrant life, this podcast is your go to resource for actionable advice and inspiration. Together we’ll uncover the interconnectedness of nutrition, movement, sleep, stress management and mindset, empowering you to make informed choices that support your unique health journey. Think of it as quality time with your bestie mixed with a little med school so you’re empowered. At your next doctor visit, get ready to be challenged and encouraged while you learn about your body and how to care for it healthfully.

Leanne Vogel [00:03:56]

Join me as we embrace vitality, reclaim our innate potential, and discover what it truly means to pursue healthfulness.

Leanne Vogel [00:04:14]

Hi Marisa, thanks so much for coming on the show. I’m so excited to have this conversation with you today.

Marisa Moon [00:04:19]

I am pumped. I have been following you for so many years, probably feels like a decade. Leanne, let’s not admit how long we’ve been doing this. It really is such a pleasure and honor. Thank you.

Leanne Vogel [00:04:30]

It’s so true. It’s like we were texting the other day and you told me what you did and I’m like, wait a minute, we need to have you on the podcast. This is awesome. So I’m so glad. I love that I get to have this job where when I meet interesting people, I get to just sit down with them for an hour and pick their brain on things. It’s quite nice.

Marisa Moon [00:04:47]

Awesome.

Leanne Vogel [00:04:49]

So why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself? I know that I did like the official bio, but do you want to tell us a little bit about what lights you up and why you do what you do?

Marisa Moon [00:04:58]

Yeah, I think it’s funny. I never imagined I would be a fasting coach or that, you know, I could have pictured where I’d be in my life at this time. I was a career bartender, my family’s from the food and restaurant business and I suddenly went through a discovery of a gluten intolerance, which was, like, pretty earth shattering at the time. It was, you know, around my late 20s, which is 12 years ago. And it’s like looking back, thinking, how did I make it through that? But that really just sent me on this trajectory to find my love for nutrition and figure out how you love food but still love healthy eating and make it a part of your lifestyle so that it’s so rewarding you want to keep doing it. And I think that’s where intermittent fasting surprised me, because initially I thought, why would I ever go without food intentionally? I mean, as someone who, like, ate nonstop all the time, it was like, literally just our way of life. We’re Italian, and we just ate nonstop. I just thought, you know, I’d always be a slave to my appetite and I would never turn down a meal.

Marisa Moon [00:06:06]

But then I realized how freeing it was, how incredible. From the first time I tried it, it really worked for me so that my brain was better able to focus, so I felt more comfortable in my body and that. So I was freed from this constant obsession with food. Who would have known that when you do it right, you could actually be less hungry when you’re fasting? So it was really quite a gift. And it’s been, you know, eight years or so since I’ve been teaching this kind of stuff, and it’s evolved, and I’m excited to talk about, you know, many of the other things along the way that have become important to me after coaching for so many years.

Leanne Vogel [00:06:43]

And we’re definitely going to get to that evolution, and that usually when I’m interviewing a guest, I’m, like, writing down ideas, and I wrote, definitely dive into the evolution piece. But I got to ask for an Italian. You said that your father was born in Italy, so you were probably around a lot of gluten. What was that like when you were told that you couldn’t eat gluten anymore? Because a lot of people get stuck on that of just, like, the. The culture aspect and the, you know, the history around that and getting together and family, and that’s what stops a lot of us from moving forward with our health. What was that like for you, and what was the breaking point in your mind to kind of make that shift stick?

Marisa Moon [00:07:24]

Yeah, it was. It was something I wasn’t told to do. I was just getting suspicious that that could be what I’ going through. I was listening to podcasts and these nutritionists I was listening to talked about how many more gluten and dairy Intolerances were on the rise. And the more I heard their patients calling in to talk about their relief after removing gluten or dairy, I thought, oh my gosh, sounds like they have the same IBS type of symptoms. Diarrhea, bloating, gas and discomfort. And I said, maybe I should just try it. I didn’t tell any.

Marisa Moon [00:08:04]

I didn’t tell a soul because I was like, I cannot even believe I’m giving this a chance. But really I was like, I might as well just try. I’m so miserable right now. So I make my own food anyway. I’ll just try to eat gluten free for a week or two and see what happens. And it was immediately rewarding. So my IBS symptoms basically went away entirely after just stopping gluten. And so that’s really how I did it.

Marisa Moon [00:08:31]

I just really needed to learn more about it in order to share this information with my family. But when everybody heard what I was going through, they all just immediately accepted the fact because everybody knows how awful it is to have gut wrenching pain or, you know, running to the bathroom and not making it in time kind of stuff.

Leanne Vogel [00:08:53]

Yeah. And I mean, it’s so it’s such a blessing that when you approached your family and said, hey, I can’t eat this anymore, they accepted it. I think it takes a lot of courage also to be an advocate for your own health and just say, I can’t do this anymore. I think people get really stuck up even on that step or they move forward. They say, hey, this is my boundary. And their family doesn’t respect it and they push back. Have you seen that also?

Marisa Moon [00:09:18]

Well, I think it just depends how serious it is for you. It was so serious for me that anytime I made an exception, like, I’m going to drink a couple beers, you know, beers have gluten in them. They’re made with grains that are gluten containing grains. And so, but it’s fermented and I’m a non celiac gluten intolerant person. And so I knew I could have some beer and not be sick. But whenever I crossed that line and had too much again, I’d be curled up in a ball crying myself to sleep on the bathroom floor. And so it was enough, you know, of a detriment to my life and well being that I had to be strict about it. And my family desperately wanted me to feel better, you know.

Leanne Vogel [00:10:07]

And at what point of your process, like as you’re removing gluten and you’re realizing that this is a big issue. What were you doing for work then and at what point did you decide that you wanted to do this work with other individuals?

Marisa Moon [00:10:21]

Well, I was still a career bartender at the time and I was going to culinary school just for fun. So I had to change my curriculum in culinary school to have gluten free ingredients. And the cool thing was at Kendall College Chicago, the culinary school, they were really open to it. They even brought like all these other chef instructors to our classroom to talk to me and look at my gluten free cookbooks because they need to learn that it was kind of ahead of its time in the culinary space. And so they were encouraging me to experiment and bring in my own ingredients. And so it was the perfect time when I look back and think about it, because I also was discovered on social media for sharing my gluten free recipes. I was making a lot of paleo recipes and one of them was gluten free Paleo granola. And so I was discovered on Instagram by this up and coming juice bar in Chicago.

Marisa Moon [00:11:23]

It’s called High Vibe. I love this place. It’s amazing. And it’s like a paleo vegan fusion. And he’s like, I’m going to do acai bowls and I want everything to be Paleo. Can you make me a Paleo granola? And I was like, absolutely. So that just changed everything for me. I started becoming a recipe developer for this juice bar.

Marisa Moon [00:11:39]

I started blogging at my old blog, mylongevitykitchen.com and I’m. I’m so surprised at how receptive people are being and how I’m like meeting other people. And I was going to the Paleo conferences and I realized like, there’s a whole world out there of other people either going through something like this or passionate about improving our relationship with food and our food system. And so I just totally nerded out on it and found my way into a new industry quite naturally.

Leanne Vogel [00:12:10]

That’s so great. And when did you kind of shift to the coaching? Because at the time you were more doing like recipes and things like that. What was that transition then towards working one on one with individuals?

Marisa Moon [00:12:22]

Yeah, back then, I mean, we’re talking 2015, there wasn’t really health coaching. If there was, there weren’t known certifications. Maybe IIN existed then, but I never heard of it before. And so not until Mark Sisson, author of the Primal Blueprint, came out with the Primal Blueprint Expert certification, which eventually became the Primal Health Coach certification, did I even know that such A profession existed back then and I was already reading all of Mark’s books and all of his stuff. And so my husband’s like, you should just get the certification. Why not? You’re doing this for fun. You might as well like give yourself the chance to turn it into something else. And I just never looked back.

Marisa Moon [00:13:01]

I mean, I became certified in 2017 and I, you know, started writing for the Primal Health Coach Institute blog and mentoring up and coming health coaches. I think just having a food blog and then being a recipe developer, I kind of had like a jump start in the industry compared to new health coach graduates. Like, I already had a website and a following on social media and I was used to kind of telling my story already. And that’s a big thing when you’re first dipping your toes in this industry. You can be so intimidated by what others are doing and think like, why me? Why would anyone listen to me? Or what? How am I going to take this all on and start a business? So I really just had a lot of things aligned that gave me the confidence to just have fun with it and see what happens.

Leanne Vogel [00:13:48]

Yes, that’s actually what you gotta do and just keep the blinders on and just stay focused on your lane because it’s so easy. I know that even when my books were launching and things mentors would say like, how many books have you sold? I’m like, I don’t know, don’t care, wrote it. People are gonna buy it or they won’t. I’m just gonna keep on promoting it. And so it’s crazy when you’re sharing your story too. Like how was 20, 2015 back then and how was that 10 years ago? I what is time now? Doing the one on one coaching. What do you see as the top issues affecting your clients and what’s really lighting you up in that space where you, you just, you really want to help people understand X.

Marisa Moon [00:14:29]

Well, nobody has time for anything and it’s driving me nuts as an individual and it’s somewhat taxing as a coach because people want change to occur with their body, with their habits and with their health, but they don’t want to prioritize their health. They don’t want to make changes or sacrifices. And that sounds so cliche, like they don’t want to make sacrifices. I mean like we cannot all keep going at the pace we’re going and just keep adding things and adding things and expecting to have positive results. It’s totally unsustainable the way that we’re living. And this is like A cultural societal problem. And we’re like really waking up to this post pandemic. It’s like, we can’t just go back to the way things were, plus everything that we took on during the pandemic.

Marisa Moon [00:15:22]

It’s just really become so burdensome to run a household, have a full time job, raise kids, and also care about your health or be knowledgeable about your health or, you know, make your own food. What a laughable thing. Who’s got the time?

Leanne Vogel [00:15:38]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And do you think, do you think it’s a not wanting to prioritize or is it like just not seeing that they’re not prioritizing, like even, not even seeing that it can’t be prioritized because there’s so much like, is it an unwillingness or is it just like absolute overload?

Marisa Moon [00:15:56]

The answer to that question depends on the circumstances during which you’re asking it. So if I ask my client or this rhetorical question is answered now, when they’re really busy and overwhelmed, they are already capped. They, they don’t have anything left to give and everything is sort of like getting half registered and half over the top of their head. It’s just how they function. They’re kind of on autopilot and there cannot be any more expectations or obligations added to the plate. But if I would ask that same person when they’re on a two week vacation or a yoga retreat, what they can or are willing to do, the answer would be so much different. Because they finally had a moment to breathe and not have 25,000 things that are expected of them and just feel like a ro. Like a lot of people just feel like a robot or a slave to their own circumstances.

Marisa Moon [00:16:51]

And it, it absolutely will change. I just wonder when people will start to take that control back in their own lives and realize, you know, it’ll be okay if you cancel that thing or stop hanging out with these people or, you know, tell your kids they can’t be in three activities at one time.

Leanne Vogel [00:17:13]

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Leanne Vogel [00:18:06]

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Leanne Vogel [00:18:25]

Absolutely. And do you think most people wait until something knocks them down, like, I don’t know, an illness or a diagnosis of some sort or something to just. Usually it needs to get really bad before people wake up. Or are you noticing that individuals start to realize, okay, actually wait, I am taking, taking on too much.

Marisa Moon [00:18:45]

I think it’s a very gradual thing to realize or admit that I realize I’m taking on too much is a conversation we have a lot. It’s very easy for people to say that about their job, about being overworked, about it being too much to take care of the house and they can’t keep up, especially if they’re a caretaker for anyone in their family or extended family. They know that they can acknowledge that and articulate it, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to actually do something about it. Even that conversation feels like very threatening. I’ve noticed. So of course I’ve seen people who waited until rock bottom to do something about it. That usually looks like a pre diabetes or type 2 diabetes diagnosis or getting over the 2 on the scale, like you’re now over 200 pounds and before you were under 200 pounds, like just something about like going from 195 to 200 is a wake up. Or if it’s someone who’s been sick for so long, they realize they like are relying on chronic antibiotics because they keep getting the recurring strep throat, recurring bronchitis.

Marisa Moon [00:19:53]

Some people end up coming to coaching because of that or because a family member has a heart attack or cancer and it scared them and they realize they need to do something now.

Leanne Vogel [00:20:04]

Yeah, absolutely. And so earlier you were talking about autopilot and I noticed myself sometimes in those zones, well where I’ll realize I put away the whole dishwasher and I didn’t even, I wasn’t conscious to it. Or I’ll like be in the shower and I’ll be like, how did I get here? You know, are there other signs that we’re on autopilot? Are those signs that we’re on autopilot?

Marisa Moon [00:20:29]

Well, let’s just understand that your brain is doing that to conserve energy. So the brain is doing that all the time. It’s trying to take the most well worn path and do things that are automatic or effortless because it needs to save its computational energy for the other demands or this lack of energy inside your brain cells. And so when it’s like we’re blacking out when we get into the shower or put something in the fridge, it’s because your brain is like, that literally does not need my energy and so I’m not going to give it to it. So unless you are intentionally trying to mindfully shower or mindfully put things away in the kitchen, it’s a very good chance that you are like only going to realize you’re doing it half of the time.

Leanne Vogel [00:21:15]

So when we’re talking about this conversation of just not having enough capacity to change, who is the type of person that this conversation is for? Like you mentioned, you know, if you’re hitting rock bottom, you’re getting, you know, a pre diabetes or even diabetes diagnosis or the scale hits 200 plus. Are there other signs? Is it, is it like everybody, everyone needs this or what are some of the individuals that are most struggling with these things?

Marisa Moon [00:21:45]

I see this a lot in education and nursing. I would say especially people who work in, I don’t even know what the terminology is, but like higher education or universities, nurses and any like high traffic medical and healthcare industries, I see they’re totally overworked and underappreciated and their days are filled up with meetings and so they don’t even have time to get done what they need to do. And these are the ones who feel like there’s not much they can do to change it and they just need some support to get through it. And I say that because when you’re integrated in a system that’s that dependent on you and then furthermore your family’s dependent on your income, it is a really tricky situation to be in that can only be, I guess, navigated in a healthful way if you either A, have time to think about it and contemplate it, which would look like a vacation or a sabbatical or B, if things get so bad that you literally like blow up your situation so that you’re forced to change it.

Leanne Vogel [00:22:58]

Okay, so how do we navigate this in a helpful way? Give us time to think about it. Do you suggest the blow up situation or not so much or like what do we do?

Marisa Moon [00:23:11]

I think A lot of us need to wake up to the amount of control that we have. I don’t work in corporate systems or more complex workplaces like I’m describing, but I have been coaching enough people in those systems and seen some of the solutions they’ve come up with. So when I say exercise control that you do have first, sometimes that looks like finding out what your benefits are and what the legality is around how much extra work you’re taking on. If they have support benefits that, for instance, you can get therapy paid for, or they’ll pay back for coaching services to support your mental health or to support your physical health so that you can keep working. Or maybe you have more vacation days you’re not using, or maybe you’re allowed to take a sabbatical if you’re also doing something that is aligned with the work that you do. A lot of people have passion projects on the sidelines because they’re too busy doing all the busy work at work for other people. And then also just whiteboard thinking. I think because we’re so burdened by our responsibilities.

Marisa Moon [00:24:25]

No one is doing whiteboard thinking. And what is whiteboard thinking? It’s when there’s no bad ideas. You are literally thinking of imaginative, ridiculous ideas and scenarios. The more ridiculous the better, because that is what opens up doors for creative thinking and outside the box solutions. And so if you’re like, there’s no way I could cut back my hours. They don’t have anybody else to cover them. You’re already shutting yourself down from any possibility of changing your situation. So if instead you say, okay, what if we’re just in a magical world and there is a possibility? And so you just start whiteboard thinking where you just shoot out answers like, what is possible? What if they hired someone else? What if we got an internship? What if I hired someone? What if I paid an assistant out of my pocket? What if I used an AI assistant? Like, blah, blah, blah.

Marisa Moon [00:25:14]

You’re just like thinking like, there is no wrong answer. Can you imagine how suddenly this kind of opens up the gates in your cognition to maybe not now, but tomorrow or next week, ideas will start coming to you of what is possible. We need space in order to make that happen. And so time for contemplation needs to be incorporated?

Leanne Vogel [00:25:35]

I love that approach. And I’ve probably shared this story on the podcast before, but it was around, I would say, 2014, and I was at Disneyland with a friend and her husband, and I was like, man, it must be so nice to just live in a place where it’s always warm and isn’t it nice to live in California? And her husband looked at me and said, it’s a choice. If you want to live here, you can live here. And I’m like, but I’m Canadian. There’s no way. And he’s like, oh, there’s a way. You’re just limiting your thoughts. And I was like, huh, you’re right.

Leanne Vogel [00:26:06]

I mean, people move. I could probably do that. And that was my first introduction to that whiteboard, thinking of maybe, maybe that is possible. Like, what else? And so, yeah, it’s very possible. But I think too, your point on needing time and space for this. I know that there’s a lot of individuals, I have a couple of close friends that even the thought of taking one vacation day or one sick day is terrifying to them. Like, they are just terrified that they’re going to lose their jobs, that somebody’s going to replace them. Any advice for those individuals that are just.

Leanne Vogel [00:26:42]

Even the thought of taking that time or digging in to figure out what the benefits are, the resources available to them just brings so much nervousness.

Marisa Moon [00:26:50]

Well, this is something that, off the top of my head, would probably require you stepping out of yourself and thinking of it more objectively. So you would paint an imaginary scenario, like, you’re helping a friend who’s in this job and stuck and really exhausted and needs a break so badly, but her anxiety is so bad she can’t imagine taking a break. You might have to. For a lot of people, it’s hard to imagine that without being emotionally attached. So you’d have to make it another person. Like, what if your teenage niece was in this situation or your college son was in this situation? You can also draw parallels, like analogies to different industries to help them get out of their head and into this imaginative scenario. Because what’s happening is your emotional centers in your brain are stopping, your creative centers and your logical, analytical planning and, you know, complex centers from communicating effectively. You’re, like, not utilizing all the centers of your brain.

Marisa Moon [00:27:52]

So if you’re that afraid, there’s obviously other work that needs to be done. But just you need to somehow paint a like scenario that’s parallel to yours that is not yours, so that you can think of this more objectively. And there’s expressions in coaching, like the magic wand scenario. You know, I sometimes have to bring that into coaching. Like, if I could wave a magic wand and take one thing off of your plate that would make everything else in your life work easier, what would it be? And they can usually answer that very quickly. And I have to remind some of them that do not hold back your true answer because you feel guilty or ashamed for the answer. Because the answer might be if you could make my 5 year old daughter go to sleep and stay asleep, or if you could drop my kids off to their activities and pick them up for me. A lot of parents would feel ashamed for saying that’s the one thing that would make my life better.

Marisa Moon [00:28:49]

But you need to admit that because once you put it out there, more possibilities are going to arise. Like one of my very busy clients has such a great relationship with his kids and runs his own business out of his house, but while his kids are at school all day, he doesn’t get to see them and he’s running his business and then it’s time for their activities. That might be the time that he spends with his kids, but it also interferes with any chance he has of making a healthy meal or exercising. And so some days now he sends the kids in an uber because they’re 12 years old and he has Uber drivers that he knows who he, you know, specifically calls. You know, some parents listening right now might be like, oh, I could never do that. Like they’re already shutting down to this idea. But like some few like key details here are that it’s some of the nights he’s not doing it every night and it’s a driver he’s comfortable with. And you know, whatever you have to do to make it make sense for you is until he was able to do that, he couldn’t fit in any exercise.

Marisa Moon [00:29:53]

And he also felt burdened. He was ashamed to admit that, but he felt resentful towards his children, constantly needing to be dropped off and picked up when they’re different ages and have different activities. Start and end times. He was just literally in the car like the whole evening. And that would make him binge eat at night to just exercise some freedom. And so there were a lot of reasons why his life would improve if he didn’t have to drive the children every night.

Leanne Vogel [00:30:20]

I love this example. Do you have more? I know that listeners are like, give us more.

Leanne Vogel [00:30:26]

That was fabulous.

Leanne Vogel [00:30:27]

Do you have another example? Because that was just aces.

Marisa Moon [00:30:31]

Well, I think the only other example that comes to mind right away is that I had a client who was a caregiver for her live in mother. And she had teenage sons in a lot of traditional upbringings. The sons aren’t doing as much around the house. The daughters are doing more and the wife is doing more. And the Husband is, you know, just traditional gender roles in the house. Right. But these were teenage boys. They could definitely help make their own food, and they can definitely help grandma with some of the caretaking.

Marisa Moon [00:31:03]

And this idea to my client was crazy to ask the boys to help. It wasn’t crazy. It was just laughable. Like, she was like, yeah, right. And I was like, I’m sorry, are you the parent? Are you running this house? Why is this so laughable? What are they going to say? You know? And I’m not talking to her like that. I’m just kind of, like, surprised. And I’m just being natural with you right now about, like, I really was surprised that to her, it was just such a preposterous thought. But we worked through some ways that they could help, and gradually they started making their own food.

Marisa Moon [00:31:37]

It was shocking because they never made anything, like, in their whole life. But what she started with was it wasn’t Blue Apron. It was one of those meal kit companies that has pictures for every step. Maybe it was Blue Apron. Not all of them do that. But the recipe cards have a photo step by step of how you make the recipe. So she started cooking those to make her life easier so that she could cook faster, didn’t have to grocery shop and didn’t have to figure out what to make or think too much. That autopilot thing is important when you’re overburdened.

Marisa Moon [00:32:11]

Taking care of your family and taking care of someone else, like, like your mother who’s now living with you, you need to take some things off your plate. But I understand you still want to cook, and that’s important to you and your family. So let’s outsource the grocery shopping by getting a meal kit. Let’s outsource what’s for dinner by getting the meal kits in advance. And you just follow the recipe instructions and you don’t have to think as much. And so her sons started helping out a little bit here and there. At first, she had to literally make them do it. And then turns out one of them actually enjoyed it.

Marisa Moon [00:32:42]

And then turns out the other one liked helping grandma with her medication. And so it turned into where Grandma was asking for the older son and to where they ended up having a bonding experience and had, you know, a preference for each other. And it really took some of the load off for the client that I was working with.

Leanne Vogel [00:33:03]

That is just such a sweet story. And who knows where that will end up in their own lives as they become part of society and what jobs they even choose. And all of those things to just be challenged in that way.

Leanne Vogel [00:33:20]

Convenient food generally equals trash ingredients, and the health food bars today contain just as much sugar as a candy bar. If they’re labeled as high protein, the source is generally low quality whey and they lack nutritional support of any kind. 92% of the population is deficient in at least one nutrient, which can contribute to fatigue, brittle hair and other annoying symptoms and an increased risk of disease. And maybe you’ve thought about this conundrum of wanting to boost your nutrients, but having healthy snack and making sure that you’re having enough protein and making sure that it’s a healthy snack and everything tastes like gunk and you’re just confused. Well, at Paleo Valley, they’ve combined all of these problems to come up with the perfect solution to the trash snack nutrient deficiency situation into one perfect snack and that is called the Superfood bar. It’s a combination of 10 certified organic antioxidant rich superfoods plus bone broth to help you cultivate optimal health and sustain energy no matter what life brings to you in the day. Now the dark chocolate chip bars are my go to pre workout snack and a perfect balance of macros before I give it my all in between client sessions running between Bible study to the sermon of the day. It’s a good snack.

Leanne Vogel [00:34:40]

They also have apple cinnamon, lemon meringue and red velvet cake flavors. But I am a dark chocolate chip bar girl for life. All natural ingredients, all whole foods, nothing artificial or synthetic. They’re gluten free, grain free, soy free, non gmo, dairy free, no added sugars, artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohols. With just 4 grams of sugar or less in every bar, head over to paleovalley.com leanne for 15% off your order and use the code leanne for 15% off. Again, that’s paleovalley.com leanne and use the code leanne for fifteen percent off. Happy snacking.

Leanne Vogel [00:35:20]

What do you see as being the prohibiting factor for doing this? Is it fear or is it just that simple, like lack of time not making it a priority?

Marisa Moon [00:35:31]

If we took out the fact that nobody is stopping to think, like literally nobody is stopping to think. They just don’t have the time or headspace. And when they do, they don’t like being alone with their thoughts. So unless you are someone who’s already in a journaling habit or likes to, you know, work through your thoughts here or there throughout the day by meditation or reflection or journals, if you’re not someone like that and you’re extremely busy, then you’re probably listening to a podcast in your free time or watching a TV show in your free time, watching YouTube in your free time, scrolling on social media in your free time, answering phone calls in your free time, texting your friends in free time. So all of these things are still external in inputs that your brain has to process. Your eyes have to process and turn into information. And so we think that it’s passive because we don’t have to do the work. It’s being, you know, something we’re taking in.

Marisa Moon [00:36:25]

But really you need to pause and get stuff out or witness the things that are inside of you. So that’s what contemplation is like. It’s like allowing thoughts to come through your mind and ask yourself, are they something that needs more thought? Is it something I need to get out of my head? Externalizing it by writing it down can be so helpful because your brain is repeating things over and over. That’s why you’re ruminating, staring at the ceiling at night, having anxious thoughts when you’re trying to go to sleep. Your brain is trying to remind you of stuff that it’s afraid you’re going to forget. And so if you don’t write it down, your brain is still going to think that it needs you to remember this. So it’s going to keep repeating it and drive you insane. So just like having a pad of paper next to the bed, I call it a brain dump pad because brain dumping is no obligation to journal or write complete sentences.

Marisa Moon [00:37:20]

It’s literally just like bullet listing things that are on your mind. You know, tomorrow, groceries, when, you know, question mark, like, when am I going to grocery shop? I don’t know when that’s going to happen. Like, we cannot have these conversations in our head and expect them to just go away and shut off. They need to be externalized. So it’s kind of like you’re delegating that to the notepad and then you just give a little message to your brain. Thank you. I know you were just trying to help me. You’ve done your job for today.

Marisa Moon [00:37:47]

Now you need to sleep so we can tackle tomorrow or. I’ve got it all. I wrote it all down. You’ve done your job. Now it’s time for you to sleep so you can kick some tomorrow. And so that’s really like, if you do take the time here or there at bedtime in the morning to just. Brain dump can be so revealing and such a relief. But I think besides that, what’s underneath all of this is an outdated self image, like identifying traits that we are attached to.

Marisa Moon [00:38:17]

Like I do all these things for my kids, I’m such a loving mother, or you know, I put others first, or I work so hard for my family. That might be what you think you mean, but it might actually be limiting you and causing a lot of self sabotage. I can go on, but I want to pause for a second to just like let you respond.

Leanne Vogel [00:38:38]

Yeah, I was going to say tell me more because just keep on going, girl.

Marisa Moon [00:38:44]

Self sabotage comes up in coaching a lot, especially people that are into this like self development type work. They’ll say, I don’t know why I do this. I always self sabotage. I don’t know why I keep blah, blah, blah at night. It’s self sabotage. I, until I recently heard someone speak at a conference, I never really had a meaning or definition for self sabotage that rang true to me until I heard this. And this man said that the root of self sabotage is an outdated self image. It’s our subconscious mind holding onto an old identity, an old pattern, an old self image.

Marisa Moon [00:39:24]

And your subconscious mind or your ego aims to sabotage your current self or your future self because it wants to prevent change. It wants you to stay the same. So if you were a mom that always put her family first and you know, always did everything for your sons, it’s going to be really hard for your ego mind. You know, that’s kind of like our identifying mind is our ego. It’s telling us we have to be this way because that’s who we are. And so you’re going to keep doing things that keeps you that way. And this can be very conflicting for people because they still want to put their kids first and they still want to do everything for their sons, for instance. But what if the things that they’re doing is making them less capable of fulfilling this role? What if it’s eating away at them and making them snap at their sons more often, making them lose a fulfilling bond with their sons and instead just feeling like the maid or someone they take for granted or, you know, we never really spend quality time together except maybe like on Sundays.

Marisa Moon [00:40:35]

What if all the reasons that you were, you were doing that and holding onto that identity are actually not your reality? How do we reframe or re challenge and refresh your self image so that it is something that actually achieves what you want it to achieve?

Leanne Vogel [00:40:52]

So we’re really not seeing our situation rightly is kind of what you’re saying. Like we’re looking at a situation we’re thinking it’s one way, but it’s not. Or we’re thinking we’re somebody that we’re not, or we’re thinking we’re somebody that we don’t want to be anymore, but we’re kind of stuck. Is that kind of what you’re saying?

Marisa Moon [00:41:09]

Yeah, it’s a story that you’ve been telling yourself about who you are that may no longer actually be true or may no longer be actually what you want. So let’s just give an example that listeners might be able to relate to. A lot of moms will have to make whatever food their kids will eat because they’re so picky when they’re young. Right? And so moms are just used to so that they don’t have to make five different things for dinner. They are just eating what the kids eat. And eventually over time, this means they’re not making very many vegetables and they’re barely making a half pound of meat and they’re serving of meat on their plate and their, you know, rest of their plate is all white like Mac and cheese or pasta or rice or potatoes, whatever. The kids will act.

Leanne Vogel [00:41:58]

Crackers?

Marisa Moon [00:41:58]

Yeah, crackers. Yeah, just a handful of goldfish. So over time, this mom realizes the kids are older, but she’s still cooking this way because in her mind she puts the kids first and she’s a mom first. Above all else, that’s most important to her. But she doesn’t realize that that has self sabotaged how she cooks for herself. Because she thinks she just needs to keep making super simple stuff, even though her kids might eat more stuff now they’re 12 years old. Or because her kids are going out to eat more or after activities they’re eating at school. So mom doesn’t even realize that she has a choice to cook for herself.

Marisa Moon [00:42:43]

Her outdated self image is self sabotaging her because it’s thinking like she still needs to just stay in her old ways and do what she’s always done. Little does she realize is nobody in the house is going to complain if you make extra vegetables or other people might actually start eating them. Or maybe being a mom and putting your kids first looks like you making healthy foods so that everybody gets to try new things or so that they see mom eating healthy foods. I mean there’s just like reframes that you can do that make you realize, whoa, I was really limiting myself by staying stuck in those old ways.

Leanne Vogel [00:43:21]

Do you think the idea that there will be conflict on the other side of those interactions stops a lot of People from moving forward because they’re exhausted.

Marisa Moon [00:43:30]

And cooking sucks when nobody appreciates it. Like, can we just all acknowledge that cooking sucks when nobody in your house actually tells you how good it is or that they appreciate you taking the time or putting energy into that. It’s a shame that people in our family, in our household, don’t even know how much work or time or energy was put into that because they’ve never tried to do it for themselves.

Leanne Vogel [00:43:59]

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely it does.

Marisa Moon [00:44:03]

There’s sort of like this fear and unwillingness for certain cooks in the house to try new things because they are scarred, literally from traumatic early experiences where nobody ate what they cooked or everyone made sour faces at their food, like, ew, this is gross, I’m not eating it. That would make anybody want to stop cooking. So we need to, we need to sort of like give ourselves a little sympathy here and acknowledge that that totally sucked. And we need to decide what’s most important next. That I get to cook what I want and they can be the ones that have to deal with it. Now, I’m talking about when your kids are already old enough. Now, fine, you don’t like it, you can go heat up pizza pockets in the freezer if that’s what you want. Because a lot of parents that I coach have 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old kids who have never touched anything except a microwave.

Marisa Moon [00:45:01]

And there’s an opportunity there, a huge opportunity.

Leanne Vogel [00:45:05]

So I remember it was first grade and so what do you, like, five years old when you go to first grade? Seven. I don’t even know between five and seven. And my mom said, okay, it’s time, you’re making your lunch. And I was like, what do you mean, Mom? What? And still, like every day I made my lunch, she showed me how to make my lunch. That was something that I did. And then she showed me how to make my dinners. And even to this day, it’s funny, I just went to go visit my parents in Canada and. And it was time for lunch and all of us kind of just did our own thing.

Leanne Vogel [00:45:38]

We just knew we wanted to have lunch together. So my mom made a salad, I made this rice bowl, my dad made pasta. We’re all just in the kitchen making our own meals. And I sat down and I’m like, we’ve kind of been doing this since I was really young. And my mom’s like, I didn’t have time or energy. Like, you gotta learn how to prepare food for yourself. And it was such a blessing to learn as a child. How to put together meals for myself.

Leanne Vogel [00:46:02]

And I am forever grateful for that. And I even told my mom, you know, as we’re all sitting there with different meals, like, this is such a blessing, like. And I’m sure that took so much pressure off my mom and also equipped me to be a better human in the long run, I think.

Marisa Moon [00:46:16]

Oh, yeah. I mean, it really empowers us to know how to make our own food. And your kids will surprise you half of the time. And if they have zero interest in it whatsoever, it really starts with them being involved in deciding what to make or choosing something in the produce section that they’re curious about cooking, or going to a CSA or local farm or gardening, and getting the kids involved in growing something or picking something from the farm, because that’s when they’re curious and they want to know what it tastes like. The more they can get involved, the more it opens up their palate and their mind to trying new things. So the earlier the better. It just gets so much easier. And it’s not about pressuring them to eat something that they don’t like.

Marisa Moon [00:47:03]

It’s just about getting them involved with food and exposure to food and hands on food so that they start to become more comfortable with all different types of food in different forms. I mean, cooking is really one of the only hobbies that involves all of the five senses. It’s really such an incredible experience. I mean, if you think about it, you’re seeing the bright colors of the food and using your vision to build or. Or shape something into what you want it to look like. And we’re chopping and using our hands, we’re smelling the basil, we’re smelling the garlic when it hits the oil and we get to eat it. I mean, it’s such a full circle experience and hobby. I think it just takes all the fun out of it when you try to do it at the end of a long day and when no one appreciates it.

Leanne Vogel [00:47:52]

Absolutely. So if we could kind of pull like one thing that you notice your clients really struggling with or through our conversation, you feel like you want to dive a little bit deeper into it so that ladies listening today can kind of walk away with something. Is there something you feel like we didn’t touch on that you really want to drive home?

Marisa Moon [00:48:10]

Well, one of the things that we mentioned was just that no one has any time. And I want your listeners to sort of take an assessment of how real that is for them right now and ask yourself if you are insanely busy and don’t have time for anything or have this story in your mind like, I don’t have time, I don’t have time. Is that a badge of honor that you wear? Which can be okay, Some people function that way. So if it’s something that makes you proud and like feels good and that’s how you live by choice, that’s one thing. But if you are out of time and pushed to the max and feeling resentful about that, this is your opportunity to start thinking about change. We forget that we can say no to rsv, to the rsvp, to the baby shower, we can send a gift in the mail. We can, you know, like if you got sick and suddenly had Covid, you could cancel this, cancel that, you don’t go to the meeting, whatever. The world still turns.

Marisa Moon [00:49:19]

Your kid might even have more great experiences if they don’t have one more activity. A lot of times we think that we’re going to not only break our kids heart if we say no, they can’t also do soccer while they’re doing basketball and I don’t know, baseball, whatever. If we say no and we’re like, but it’s a team sport and it’ll be good for them, they can make friends. Well, they’re making friends on the other teams, they’re making friends at school. And there’s also plenty of theories that have been proven that children need downtime in order to develop socially and mentally healthy strong minds. Because we need to be bored in order to be creative and in order to be self sufficient. And so without any downtime, your child is actually going to learn to be more anxious and learn to be more of a slave to time, just like we’re living right now. And so think about whiteboard exercises, brain dumping and brainstorming how you can take back some time.

Marisa Moon [00:50:17]

You might have to collaborate with other people in your workplace or outside of your family to say, how can we change the way we’re doing things? I’m trying to do that right now in my journey as an author, in my journey as a health coach. I’m saying I cannot do it all anymore and I shouldn’t feel the pressure to. It’s tough when you have financial pressure to do these things, but maybe the financial pressure can be relieved in other ways. How do you know? Unless you take time to explore this without trying to be right or trying to be realistic, you have to allow yourself to be unrealistic, to open up the doors to possibilities that weren’t even within your grasp. So I hope that’s helpful.

Leanne Vogel [00:51:03]

So helpful. Marisa, thank you so much for coming on the show. Where can people find more from you and connect with you and learn more?

Marisa Moon [00:51:10]

Yeah, well, I mean, it just so happens the name of my new book is not so Fast. Not so Fast is the smarter, more gradual approach to intermittent fasting benefits that last. And throughout this book are themes like overcoming self sabotage, you know, reinventing your relationship with nutrition and prioritizing sleep. I mean, that’s probably the number one thing that everyone needs to do to handle the busyness and the stress of modern life or to improve their health in ways that diet and exercise haven’t helped them achieve. A lot of times it’s because we’re not getting enough deep sleep and restorative sleep. And so please do check out my new book if it interests you. And everything can be found@marisamoon.com including how to work with me. I do single sessions so there’s no obligation.

Marisa Moon [00:52:01]

I love meeting new people and just helping you work through your own stuff.

Leanne Vogel [00:52:04]

I love it. I will include all of those links in the show notes so people can click over if they’re not sure where to go. Marisa, thanks again for coming on. It was such a great conversation and I know that at least a couple ladies are walking away feeling far more empowered than they then they were when they started listening. So thanks again.

Leanne Vogel [00:52:23]

I hope you enjoyed our time with Marisa and you were encouraged by some of the step by step strategies you can use to achieve your health goals. I always love these conversations because it really helps me think about what drives me and how to move forward with goals that I have and how to challenge myself and get out of my own way. Again, you can go to marisamoon.com to connect with her and I will see you back here next week for another episode.

Marisa Moon [00:52:47]

Bye.

Leanne Vogel [00:52:52]

Thanks for listening to the Helpful Person Pursuit podcast. Join us next Tuesday for another episode of the show. If you’re looking for free resources, there are a couple places you can go. The first to my blog, healthfulpursuit.com where you’re going to find loads of recipes. The second is a free parasite protocol that I’ve put together for you that outlines symptoms, testing and resources to determine whether or not you have a parasite, plus a full protocol to follow to eradicate them from your life if you need to. That’s available at healthfulpursuit.com parasites and last but certainly not least, a full list of blood work markers to ask your doctor for so that you can get a full picture of your health. You can grab that free resource by going to healthfulpursuit.com labs. The helpful pursuit Podcast, including show notes and links, provides information in respect to healthy living recipes, nutrition and diet and is intended for informational purposes only.

Leanne Vogel [00:53:48]

The information provided is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, nor is it to be construed as such. We cannot guarantee that the information provided on the Healthful Pursuit Podcast reflects the most up to date medical research. Information is provided without any representation or warranties of any kind. Please consult a qualified health practitioner with any questions you may have regarding your health, health and nutrition program.

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Hi! I'm Leanne (RHN FBCS)

a Functional Medicine Practitioner, host of the Healthful Pursuit Podcast, and best-selling author of The Keto Diet & Keto for Women. I want to live in a world where every woman has access to knowledge to better her health.

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