Transcript
Speaker: Today I'm talking with my friend Kate, but you may know her from Instagram as the wild nutritionist. She's a holistic nutritionist and certified gaps practitioner who specializes in working with mamas and babies. I've been following Kate for years now and the work that she does with moms and babes is truly extraordinary. Today we chat about everything from C -section birth to building a strong microbiome to food literacy and family values. I know you will enjoy the conversation just as much as I did.
Speaker: Well, Kate, we're so excited to have you here today. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, what you do, and kind of guide us through how you got into what you're doing now? And then we'll just go from there.
Speaker: Totally. Thank you for having me. So, Hey everyone, I'm Kate. I'm wild nutritionist on Instagram and I am a mom of two. I am a former private chef. I worked as a private chef for a billionaire for five years.
Speaker: And then during that time, I was getting antsy. Like, I need to help more people. I want to talk to more people. I really want to work with moms. I want to work with babies. That was really a clear mission for me.
Speaker: throughout my whole life, actually. And so during that time time, I used my salary as a private chef to go back to school. And I went to nutritional therapy school and I became a GAPS practitioner and did the GAPS training. which GAPS is an acronym. It stands for gut and psychology syndrome or gut and physiology syndrome, and it connects.
Speaker: all diseases of the body back to the state of the gut health. And it's created by Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride, a doctor and surgeon who i neurosurgeon who I really admire.
Speaker: And now she works as a regenerative farmer in England. So I did that training and. I had the birth of my son. which was unfortunately by Cesarean.
Speaker: And unfortunately, fortunately, I guess I can say now at this point, because I've made enough peace with that, that I.
Speaker: um i yeah i guess i don't have personal regrets around my situation and at the same time unfortunate because it was not a necessary procedure in my opinion and while it can be something life -saving we're up to a 33 cesarean rate in the united states higher in other places up to almost 50 to 80 percent in some some countries so you know that is not something i take lightly um So I took time to heal from my cesarean on all levels emotionally, spiritually.
Speaker: physically and then when I was brave enough about a year after that I started to barely speak out about this that I had a c -section with my son And the feedback feedback was just mostly all about like, I did that. That happened to me too. And so I really started to educate the public around.
Speaker: What happens? when Why is it different when you have a cesarean, even though it's widely published in the literature literature, that it impacts the microbiome? You have a higher rate ah percentage of allergies, a eczema. asthma. Most people think it's no big deal um And there's also like implications.
Speaker: you know, just in how we are born, no matter how.
Speaker: you're born there's obviously implications and so This was a really tender spot for me and it wasn't like a moral right or wrong bad, although personally I did feel it was quite barbaric. It's more about just helping moms to rebuild. their bodies and their lives after this and help to prevent, now do the work of prevention for a child's immune system and overall development. And what was really interesting. was that when I started talking about this like gut dysbiosis that can come from a cesarean.
Speaker: it actually was really coming up for a lot of children who were vaginally birthed as well. Like people were having symptoms, even though they were birthed vaginally, people were having, you know, a lot of people say to me like,
Speaker: But why would my child have eczema if I'm exclusively breastfeeding?
Speaker: and so that led me to this conclusion that you know Well, the microbiome is inheritance. So we inherit our microbiome. We inherit our genes from our parents and their parents and so on. And so there's an intergenerational. wealth that comes with our health. And if we have a slow degradation of this over time, then eventually it's going to get. to a generation, which we are at now, where the children are sicker born more sick than the parents, meaning the children have a smaller...
Speaker: shorter life expectancy than the parents. And that is really widely where we are at right now. And so it was almost like the birth of my son. catapulted my work and while I don't view it as martyrdom like that I martyred my birth to speak And to share this with the public, I do feel like it put me in a unique perspective to, you know, just because I've experienced the the hospital birth. the cesarean and I've experienced a home birth.
Speaker: feedback like it allows me to speak in a way that is uniquely mine and also um yeah, just touches on what a lot of people have been through. So. My life up to the point of the cesarean offered me just so many tools for healing. And um I really have healed a lot.
Speaker: from i feeled from my birth. I'm a healed woman. I feel so good in my life. I love my life. And I really credit that to my food and lifestyle and the choices that I make.
Speaker: when my body is fueled up and empowered by incredible nutrition. I love that. There's so many directions I want to go with this because I think that this is a topic that...
Speaker: I don't personally, maybe you do, but I don't personally see this talked about enough, which is the importance of almost re -inoculating the gut and re -establishing, rebuilding a microbiome after something like a cesarean section. Because, you know, we do get I... huge influx of flora and everything from a vaginal birth. So are there things that you did with your son to help?
Speaker: rebuild his flora after cesarean that kind of you know laid this foundation of the work that you're doing now and then tell me a little bit more as you're doing that tell me a little bit more of what you were seeing with these people that were birthing vaginally like what they were experiencing that kind of led you down this path of okay it can't just be we're focusing on the children we need to focus on the mothers as well in restoring their gut microbiome to
Speaker: really build this foundation of, like you said, generational health and coming back from what has been lost in our generations of crappy food and to say the least.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Crappy food, toxins, pollutions really were carrying the weight, the toxic load of our grandparents um because they, you know. and That's things like lead, heavy metals. like we We do carry that. And then glyphosate in the 90s. So that was glyphosate works like it's an antifungal. And so that wiped out a lot of our good flora. And you know you can track that on the maps. like You can see the overlay of the highest cancer rates with the highest um rates of glyphosate and those kind of things. So like I said, it's well -documented. But just because it's well -documented, it's actually in the literature, doesn't mean it reaches the people.
Speaker: And that's why I really viewed what I am doing as like, I'm a messenger, you know, I'm just like, okay, I have this information. I had this personal experience and now I'm bringing it to the people who really need to hear it. And so personally to rebuild. so At the time, I didn't
Speaker: I was like going back and forth on vaginal seeding, which I actually think is a great thing. And I think that's a great thing. You can like take a swab, you can put it in your baby's mouth. And I i would i would recommend that to people. I didn't do that, and I don't know exactly why I didn't do that. Like, just intuitively, like, I just didn't go there. I thought of it, it crossed my mind, and I didn't follow through, and I trust that because just moms are intuitive. For whatever reason, I was like, no.
Speaker: So anyway, I did start building my son's gut, um obviously breast milk. You know, I have to say, number one, like I was so excited to breastfeed. It was. a Pretty straightforward journey for me. And breast milk is like the number one thing you can do to inoculate your baby's gut after birth.
Speaker: No matter of the birth, breast milk is baby's designed food. It is. god's food it is so miraculously created It's dynamic. It's living. It's microbial.
Speaker: There is a microbiome in your milk, and this is the best thing that you can do for your baby. after birth especially after cesarean right i know that's not accessible to everyone but It is... um you know one way to support the gut In addition to breastfeeding, I did infant probiotic, just a clean infant probiotic that I knew about, and I started taking it myself.
Speaker: and giving it to him. And I also got myself on the GAPS diet, which is what I was introducing myself as a GAPS practitioner earlier. and ah Basically, that is a specific gut rebuilding protocol. So it rebuilds the tissue with animal foods, specifically meat stock, and then you inoculate the gut with trillions of probiotics through food. And because I already had done the GAPS diet before, and I had done this 18 -month preparation for my for my body for pregnancy.
Speaker: um I was really accustomed to fermented foods and so was my body's ecosystem, aka so was my baby. So in utero, when he was in my belly, I was eating and drinking fermented foods. If you're new to fermented foods.
Speaker: When you're hearing this podcast and you had a cesarean. The only thing I want to say to you is welcome and... Just go slow. You have to go slow because there's a thing called die off. And I teach about this at length on my page and in my courses. But when you add in beneficial strains of yeast and bacteria.
Speaker: That's going to kill pathogenic ones or opportunistic ones. And that shift can look like symptoms like the flu or um it can make skin rashes get worse temporarily. It can even cause something like constipation. So there's lots of ways to mitigate this, but it is a real. part of the healing journey.
Speaker: So we had some die off, of course, because we had the antibiotics and we had the medications in birth. And I just was really accustomed to seeing those things. And really, I was so amazed. and like in awe of watching my son.
Speaker: heal and his like just his development and just seeing how beautiful he was and I was So proud of him and who we were. We were kind of like in our little survival bubble, just chugging along. But I was having these great discoveries, especially when I it came to starting solids with him.
Speaker: Talk to me a little bit more about.
Speaker: die off. Tell me about how that can Like what we can do to mitigate that and kind of, I feel like a lot of people that would go into this, what I've seen personally is when we start introducing new beneficial bacteria, people will look at this and say, oh, it's not working. I'm getting worse. And so they'll stop, right? I've i've seen that a lot with my personal clients or just with people that I've. talked with and so What can we do to help maybe mitigate some effects of die -off and what would your encouragement be to people who are starting this journey?
Speaker: Yeah. So one of the things I always say to people is like, you can slow down. Sometimes people are loving it. Like they feel so good. They're craving the foods and yet their body's having this reaction.
Speaker: And so it's hard to like. figure that out because you're like, but I really want to drink more because, but it made me have diarrhea instantly, you know? And so that is real. And that really does happen. So just, just know that like acknowledging that, like, yep, that's die off. It basically becomes where you're just sort of like, everything becomes die off, which maybe that's not helpful, but it kind of helped me because I just sort of was like, yeah, I'm just going through something right now. Like, I'm just, I trust my body. Honestly, it comes back to like trusting your body and
Speaker: The problem with Instagram is that like there's so many different schools of thought, meaning we're just information overload. And so. It's a very common thing for people to like jump ship and be like, no, this isn't working. But like, I really encourage, especially the people that work in my sphere, like.
Speaker: Put your blinders on. Go ahead and go forward. This will pay off. like even just three months, you will be a different person. And I can attest to that because I've been doing the GAPS diet on and off for six years because of like childbearing.
Speaker: And so, yeah, like die off can really look like a bunch of different things. And one of the best ways.
Speaker: is slowing down so if it's too much too fast i always tell mom like the only way that you can really like gauge is just your level of stress is this like causing your baby like it's like crazy and it's so stressful then you're doing way too much you just need to do a drop or a diluted drop like We're talking sometimes micro doses of these fermented foods when we have a really heightened immune reaction that's very uncomfortable. um You know, something like looser stools, if it's not really causing much pain or discomfort. like that's totally fine. That's just like, let it come out. Like I always say better out than in, let the poop come out. Like that's a really good sign. Um, we want the body to be releasing things. And so when I see that, I'm always really encouraged, even though it might make mom nervous. They're like, they've been having diarrhea for like a week. And you're like, it's really okay. Like you're doing all the good foods. You know, you obviously need to use your eyes. Like if they're like rapidly losing weight or something like that, like
Speaker: you know, take them to the emergency room like that's not what this is but That's not really typically happening. You know, it's not I don't I don't have situations where it becomes emergent very often. And so we are just going a slow titrating. with the healing foods, going as slow as the body allows. So the thing about die -off is that it is important to trust your body and there are things you can do to make it easier. And what I was saying is that like...
Speaker: A lot of times it's too simple. So people need to slow way down. You know, I can talk to someone just for five minutes or one minute and hear how their nervous system is. Just going, going, going. They're not able to stop. They're not able to slow down. They're not able to rest. So that's a big...
Speaker: Lesson that's a big hard Good lesson to learn, slowing down. getting off the dopamine hits. um stopping to scroll, stopping the rabbit hole, the late night rabbit hole. We're trying to evolve from the symptom fixer to the mother healer. And that is a big leap.
Speaker: for a lot of people And you just got to get there with baby steps. And sometimes, you know. And personality wise, people like to just dump in the deep end. And that's when you just get the situations where it's a little bit more.
Speaker: Oh, I feel like I'm drowning. You're not drowning, but your body is having real responses to. The changes that you're making and that requires rest and what I was, I love to suggest things like grounding, sunshine, magnesium baths. We do a magnesium bath every single day in our household. So we just neutralize the toxins in the tap, either with a home water filter.
Speaker: or a solution that you can put together to help mitigate the toxins in there. And then you add in things that will help your body. So apple cider vinegar, magnesium, baking soda. It's really fantastic. Just a way to slow slow it down.
Speaker: pull toxins out of your out of your body. Your kids can get in together. You can all get in together and just make that a daily habit. You'll be feeling so much better. I love that. And I love the philosophy that it really is a lot more simple than you think. I think that's where like you and I differ a little bit in the concepts or the philosophies that we teach from, but it always comes back to the same.
Speaker: the same general concepts, which is your body is intuitive and nature is intelligent. And so if you can. trust your body, if you can trust nature, then...
Speaker: It really doesn't matter. Like there's no quote unquote perfect diet for every single person, right? Like there are things that are going to be more beneficial for one person than another. and I think what you said is so good because it's so missed today. This idea that.
Speaker: Your body is smart and healing is a lot simpler than you think. I i get it. I'm with you. i I talk with so many people that I'm like, oh, I actually know exactly what's going on, but you're really not going to like my answer. And a lot of times my answer is you need to slow the heck down. Like you need to stop doing everything like it's an emergency. It's not. I tell people all the time, literally just saying out loud to yourself.
Speaker: This is not an emergency. This is not a big deal. Your kid needing water while you're trying to make dinner, that's not an emergency. But the fact is your nervous system is shooting up because you're like, oh, I got to stop everything I'm doing immediately to go get this kid water. And it's like.
Speaker: No, you don't. Just calm down. like that's going to That's going to do more for you than any protocol, any diet, to any, you know. whatever that you can do to heal, you have to slow, slow the heck down. And I think it's interesting what you're saying about die off because.
Speaker: i I suspect and I don't know, but I suspect with my son, we had something going on with his microbiome, something going on with his gut because he just.
Speaker: for whatever reason, went through a phase where he was not eating.
Speaker: anything I could not get him to eat whatsoever and so I just got creative with like whatever he would eat right like he would only eat noodles which I was like okay well if that's what you're gonna eat because he was losing weight rapidly like he was losing weight he was so small even with breastfeeding you know he was like 18 months old and it just wasn't enough to sustain him so I was like I'm gonna bulk up this you know rice pasta with meat stock and egg yolks and beef liver and like salt and butter and anything that I could to bulk it up and The only thing that changed is...
Speaker: When we saw a shift in him was after we moved out of. Our apartment in... Florida and we moved to live on some property living in in ah in a camper actually and it was the weirdest thing because we moved into the camper and our first week there my son had like
Speaker: almost like breast milk poops again. Like, you know, those infant breast milk poops for a whole week. And I was just like, this is so weird. Like he's acting normal, but he's just got these breast milk poops. And then after that, he never had trouble eating ever again. Like just never had any issues whatsoever. We didn't change anything other than our environment. Like I did what I could when we were in the apartment, just you know trying to make sure that he ate and stayed bed and was getting nutrients more than just.
Speaker: pasta, right? but It was that move to a different environment. that we had one week of, I'm assuming that it was probably die -off of some sort, because now we were on well water and we were like outside.
Speaker: you know, nine hours a day. Like we were, we were outside a whole lot more. um Even though we were already outside a lot, we're just outside a whole lot more going to sleep and waking up with the sunshine. Cause you know, we're living in a trailer.
Speaker: And then he was fine after that. And I just think that. It's kind of fascinating looking back on it because people would ask me, like, what did you do differently? And I'm like, I honestly have no idea. We just like we moved and it was a different environment. And I just assume that.
Speaker: Whatever was in the environment in our apartment was just working against him. You know, maybe there was mold. Maybe there was more toxin exposure than we were aware. um I know that they were like spraying the grass at the complex with glyphosate. So I was really anal with my kids about like, don't run on the grass, even though they're always barefoot. and You know, I want them to be, a yeah but it's just. yeah Anyways, so I just think it's fascinating because really, truly.
Speaker: It can be a lot simpler than we think and people want to overcomplicate it when you give the body food, sunshine, rest, and... You know, you you chill the heck out. You can see a lot of changes pretty quick, right? So can you walk us through this idea of the mom and baby biome? Like the the connection between the mom and the baby. and How?
Speaker: I think we've talked about this before but I love the idea that you heal the mom you heal the baby and that's just something that
Speaker: I don't think, again, enough people talk about. So can you talk a little bit about that connection, what that looks like? in practicum So the interesting thing, well, first of all, I just want to say about your. family situation that's so cool it's so amazing that he responded so well and I feel like that's like a perfect example of the mom and baby biome because probably something with you and your husband shifted like when you guys got there like it seems like it was a positive move and then like he was able to like
Speaker: process all these things and just
Speaker: yeah, like I do, I am leaning towards like something in the apartment being not right. And, um, like you guys just knew to follow that and life is a mystery. Like we forget that, you know, it's like everybody wants to know everything and we don't know everything and we can't know everything. And healing is a mystery too. It's a beautiful mystery. It's a, it's a. Like. amicable one right it's not it's one to befriend you like that is I think that's like one of my main messages is like
Speaker: We have to start to trust our bodies. We have to. And that's why the C -section was such a betrayal for me. Because it was... I never would have made that decision. Like I. i I never would have made that decision and yet that's what happened and so then it becomes me having to take responsibilities for the parts that I'm not very proud of or that I'm even ashamed of and like digging into all of that was absolutely a part of my healing And.
Speaker: I... know that I've healed because I'm just, it's like people think about when you're not, when you haven't like gone through the portal of the healing yet, you're like, you see it as like these big things that need to change or that will change. And actually it's these moments of resolve that are kind of surprising and so fast that you almost don't remember. the past anymore because you truly transform. I mean, that is what healing is. It's a transformation. and so
Speaker: When you're in the midst of it, it can feel really chaotic. And you're like, I don't know what's happening. And that's how I always know with my people. I'm like, you're in it right now. You're not supposed to know what's happening. Just keep going step by step, bit by bit, bit by bit.
Speaker: And when you're on the other side, you're going to either not remember what the heck you were like before. And that's where I can tell you. Remember, you were like super fatigued and constipated and you're like, oh, yeah, because sometimes like another thing will will come up to the top. Right. But you literally change your brain when you change your microbiome, you change your brain and you have amnesia about how you were before because you're not that person anymore. And that's the beauty of it. And so sometimes we have to just go on our impulses of like, I have to move. I don't know why, but we're moving, you know, or like.
Speaker: And it gives me chills because I hope someone listening to this can be like, I've been. having this digging thought for so long and I haven't been following it for whatever reason. It doesn't have to be moving. It can be your own thing and then you follow it.
Speaker: And so this answers in a long -winded way, what is the mama baby biome? The mama baby biome is a literal connection between the mother and the baby's microbes. And we know a little bit about the microbes, but we don't really know.
Speaker: everything about them because how could we we know we've co -evolved with them and we know we need them when we don't have them things. Go.
Speaker: in a bad direction they're they have a lot of roles so they're cleansers they help us detoxify they're communicators they build all of our neurotransmitters which means like that's how you feel good that's how you don't have depression because you have good gut bugs working with the foods that you're eating and sending feel -good chemicals to the brain when there's dysbiosis the opposite happens and you have outbursts and your liver gets overburdened and you have all these things that are the downgrade and the degradation of the microbiome and so we're passing on to our children the state of our microbiome we're passing on our mitochondrial health we're passing on you know the the mother i mean it's complicated with the genes who's passing on what with the mother and the father but ultimately the mother carries a lot the father does too i'm like my you know, sperm is super important, healthy sperm. I mean, how many cases I'm sure you can think of this Cassidy, like have you have come to you when the mom's done all the things and she still can't get pregnant or something. It's like, okay, well, what's the husband doing, you know, and he's done nothing yet. And it's like, and then that's just the medical model too. They're like immediately going to put the woman on IVF when they actually see the data that says it's the sperm that's the problem. But still the only solution we have is the putting the woman on IVF. Well, that's not the case. We have to work with both the sperm and the
Speaker: the mom. the egg but when it comes to carrying a baby and birthing a baby that is your vaginal microbiome like you are the baby is going through your portal not your husband's And the thing is, we share microbes. There's a healthy home microbiome, right? So you and your partner. like have a shared microbiome because of contact through sex. And so his microbiome has informed yours, but still.
Speaker: The baby's coming through you. and so There's that literal connection. But there's also this, it's also like a concept that I want moms to understand that our children are us. They are the mirror. they they There's nothing really separate from what your child is experiencing.
Speaker: And what you're experiencing, right? And we, it's so much easier. And I've seen this in my work because I, I have a.
Speaker: a program and a concept called mama baby biome. And then I came out with baby biome first foods plan. And it was so easy, much easier for people to jump into the first foods plan because we want it to be outside of ourselves. And there's really nothing wrong with that. It's really not that I'm blaming the mom. I'm not blaming the dad. I'm not really blaming anyone. Like I mentioned before, it's not a moral right or wrong. It's a matter of taking responsibility and remembering human experience and being like, Oh,
Speaker: Of course, my child's symptoms are related to mine. How could they not be? Because we're humans and I birthed them and I grew with them. And so, and you made them with your husband. So yes, this is a family configuration. And I find the best way to work with a child's symptoms is really to work with the whole family system. This is the family ecosystem. So how are we looking at the microbiome of the home? What's going on emotionally, spiritually, physically within the whole family unit?
Speaker: Because that symptom that your child is expressing. is related to what's going on there. So. that's really the concept of mom and baby biome and
Speaker: That motherly intuition that you have, that strange thing that you can't get out of your head to do, even though it doesn't have anything to do with what you've heard the experts say on Instagram or at your doctor's office. Probably that's the thing that needs tending to because it's not just physical. I mean, I love to work on the physical realm. I love the body. I love that I can change my body. I love that I can, you know, birth these amazing babies and I can like really focus on like.
Speaker: you know, In the first trimester, like there are nutrient needs. If you don't get them, there's no going back, right? Like there is. We do, nature has rules, right? And so I want people to be informed and to meet those standards and to meet those needs.
Speaker: But beyond that, I also want to have fun and enjoy my life and enjoy my children. And so that means like I need to be fueled up and I need to have the energy to mother in the way that. is ah really about me, honestly. Like I'm just like, I want a mother.
Speaker: The way I would a mother. I want to have fun. and I'm not giving any... Like, of course, mothers this motherhood is a sacrifice. You change. You're no longer a maiden. But... I enjoy my life more than I ever have before. I'm fulfilled completely by my life. and i do credit that to my own energy. so Long tangent there, sorry.
Speaker: No, I love it. And I love that because it's not about shaming the mother. And this is I talk to my people about this a lot. When I talk about this, you know, heal the mother, heal the child. It's really from a place of. I feel like it's the most empowering thing that you can do because you can control yourself.
Speaker: Right. You can't control everything that your kids do because they while they are. a reflection of us they are also their own separate human beings and so can't control everything that they do it's not our job to control everything that they do but you know what you can control is yourself and so when we can realize Hey, actually. oh it's me hi i'm the problem like when i see something in my kids it is almost always just a reflection of me and people don't.
Speaker: again talk about this enough but just when you look at
Speaker: you know, neuropsychology, neurobiology, children up to the age of seven, they operate on mirror neurons. That's how they built their sense of self. That's how they operate in this world is they are reflecting their primary caregivers. That's why it's so important. The health of the mom, the health of the dad, the health of the home, because Everything that a child experiences is a direct reflection of their attachment with their primary caregivers, the, like you said, ecology of the home. It's not just the food that you eat. And I think that that's where our Western society has gotten so out of touch with just nature is we want to. chase all of the symptoms. And we want to, you know, we see, I know you deal with eczema a lot. So we see eczema and we want to just like put a cream on it or start a new diet or do, you know, something to fix it immediately. And it's like, okay, yes, these things can be beneficial. But...
Speaker: There's a whole nuanced, complex, beautiful system that's at play here that is impacting and informing your children's systems, your your children's symptoms. Whenever I see something with my kids, it's almost always not immediately. But.
Speaker: I hope I get to a point where it's immediately. It takes me some time. Sometimes, sometimes. To be like, oh, wait. No. I am not getting enough fuel. I am not rested enough. I am the one that's snappy. I am the one that's on edge. I am the one who's... Energy is.
Speaker: out of balance in the home and they're just reflecting back to me what ah what's going on inside of me. They're not the problems. And whenever I can adjust that and whenever I can address that.
Speaker: Our home has so much peace. My children don't deal with issues like mouth breathing and diarrhea and you know, whatever. normal childhood symptoms people talk about it just changes right and so it's cool to see how much power we really do have it's not a thing of shame it's empowering because we can change ourselves if we're willing not to Take the victim.
Speaker: crown put that on our head and and sit on that throne of oh I'm the victim this just keeps happening to me this is just my life like there's nothing that can change this well there is you just have to Put on your big girl panties and decide, you know.
Speaker: ah Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, like the, someone might hear that and just feel like, oh my God, just that whole concept that it's, that it it has to be me to change is like absolutely exhausting.
Speaker: And that really is a. very uniquely modern. thing like women are coming into pregnancy exhausted women are told to have careers and to raise children and to do all of the things and you are probably doing all the things I mean just thinking about my schedule as like a little girl which I think my personality was built for it, but it was jam -packed. And so when I was in my 20s, I was like...
Speaker: Gotta pack my schedule, you know, like everything has to be like, you know have to do all the things and then I like
Speaker: come back into that like original essence of myself eventually through the healing, through the fueling. And so I do just want to speak to that piece of like, yeah, we're kind of, we're dancing in the esoteric realm and there there's like amazing things that I've done that that have like surprised me. Or even like if I'm trying to get my child to unlatch while breastfeeding at night, I'll like literally do my own jaw. Like I'll relax my own jaw, put my own jaw back and like get them to let go so that like they can roll over to the side, right? Like that's just a really practical example. of how I'm using like my body to talk to theirs. Like I can. communicate with them like that.
Speaker: And at the same time, I am. very focused and very diligent on getting all of us, the nutrients that we need, not in a... neurotic way.
Speaker: Just in a way that's this. No, no, no. This is our value. This is our life. We live it. We don't compromise
Speaker: And that doesn't mean that we're not flexible. It means that the foundation and the soil that we're constantly tending every single day involves prioritizing nutrients that make us feel our best. It doesn't mean we don't go to Italy. We don't go and eat ice cream occasionally and go out for sushi and stuff like that, which is all fine and good food. It means that we prioritize the nutrients that are going to build our guts, our immune systems, our brains to be tip top functioning so that I don't have to sift through. Is this a physical problem? Is this a mental problem? Is it emotional? problem because i can just say like well i know we had breakfast so i know they're fed like i've okay we had liver pate this week so like i know they have their b vitamins like okay we wait oh we need to drink some more sauerkraut brian let's go there right now so i'm just you know i'm just
Speaker: there with that physicality, with the bodies. so clear, so part of my value system, so integrated into my life that it's really not a question for me um whether or not my kids are physically well, if that makes sense. and i think the The word there is integrated into your life. It is a part of.
Speaker: who y 'all are,
Speaker: It's not just something that you're just striving and chasing after to do. it is so intricately connected to how you live and I think that's important right I talk about this with my clients all the time when we are implementing new things it can feel like a lot but the whole point of habits is habits you don't have to think about right they just they are a part of who you are and so we're very similar we I'm very strict I think people would say strict
Speaker: But it doesn't feel strict to me, but I'm very strict at home with what comes into my house, what I feed my children. I pay very close attention to what they're getting. They know, like my oldest, she's in she's in school now. So she, I mean, school, she goes to school twice a week. So she's doing like a a homeschool hybrid, whatever. But I pack her food and she knows like this is. going to fuel my body so that my brain is strong so that I have the energy to play and so whenever I pick her up at the end of the day she's like don't worry mom I ate all of my butter and all of my meat and like took care of that and I'm like that's great like I'm so glad and she even said um I think I like I sent her with...
Speaker: some electrolytes in her water on Tuesday. And she was like, mom, that helped my brain so much today having the extra minerals. And I was like, Baby, I am so glad you're recognizing this because when you speak, when this is part of your language in your home, then it I think it becomes easy for them to recognize when they do feel good and when they don't. and yeah being able to communicate that, like.
Speaker: I'm not as, I'm not very anal. Like when we go out or if we go to someone's home, I'm a little bit more flexible. Like you said, I still pay attention to certain. values we really try to make value -based decisions wherever we go right so there's still kind of um a framework that we follow, but I'm a little less.
Speaker: anal. With that, but I always tell my kids. I want them to be reflective with how they're feeling. And so if we go somewhere and they eat something that maybe they don't normally have, I just ask them questions like, how are you feeling? What's going on in your body? what's happening right now. And usually they can pinpoint like, oh, my head kind of hurts or, oh, my tummy is you know not feeling right. Or maybe they're a little bit on edge and they can't communicate it. I usually point it back to, well.
Speaker: Hey, like you, you actually ate. a ton of fruit and you didn't eat any protein, like, of course, you're going to feel a little shaky right now. We always want to eat protein with our food. We always want to make sure we have healthy fats with our when we consume carbs, because if not. You're going to you're going to feel this way. and So I feel like having those little seeds of information for the kids is really helpful because they're shored up with knowledge as they go out into the world to make decisions.
Speaker: by themselves. it's It's... who they are. It's not this crazy. anal thing That maybe the world says is anal. It's just... It's a part of, well, yeah, I mean, people put on too. me, strict, restrictive, this kind of thing. And it's like, that's just not it. It's just not that, you know, it's just clear. It's clear. And it's.
Speaker: It's um structured and it's... loving and it's compassionate and it's educational you know there's it's precise right there are so many words that I could use to describe how I create the food values in my family and with my children. That has nothing to do with strict a restriction, but people see that way because we grew up in diet culture. So it is very hard to unsee a diet when you are still living in that.
Speaker: place of i have to restrict myself to be a certain way to look a certain way to be approved to be loved all of that like i have to unwind that with most of the moms that i work with i'm like we are no longer doing a diet for someone else for an image we are nourishing we are reclaiming our health and we are setting the tone for how our children will interact with food for the rest of their lives. and this is
Speaker: amazing. This is so badass. It is the coolest you guys. Like it's not like if you, if you came over to our house, we eat like Kings. We eat, we have access to everything. Like it's really, literally wild. I mean, we don't eat watermelon in winter, but we do eat salmon. We do eat.
Speaker: beef. We do eat lamb. We eat chicken eggs. I mean, all of it. We eat cream. We eat butter. We eat all the seasonal vegetables, all the seasonal fruit. I bake things like it's so not restrictive. And if a child needs to heal something, we have to be.
Speaker: specific, precise, disciplined in what we are giving them in order for their body to heal and be open to the mystery of what else is there. What else does the mother need to follow? What does the mom need to come into to hold the largeness of the expression from the child? How do you need to evolve? So it's all a part of it. And that really is the encompassing mama baby biome, the concept that I birthed into the world with.
Speaker: The birth of my son. I would never say.
Speaker: that your kids are going to say, oh yeah, I was so restricted growing up. Like it makes sense to me that, I don't know if you said this before we started the recording or after, but that, you know, your husband was a butcher and you were a private chef for five years, which so cool. What what a cool experience. Like I'm trying to be in the mindset to learn how to be more creative with what I cook because I want to like the spreads that y 'all share. I'm like, oh my God. this is eating like kings like and when you look back at all of history like this is what
Speaker: kings were eating. It was not grains and and low fatt diet low fat diets. No, like that whenever, like you look in the Bible, whenever there was a celebration, they killed the fattened calf. Like that is what they were eating. and so These are the most nutrient -dense foods that we could get in our bodies. And I really don't think...
Speaker: Like, I don't think your kids are going to look back and be like, oh, yeah, it was so restricted. Like, no, you're eating oysters and liver and like the most nutrient rich foods on the planet. I don't think that my kids are going to look back and. be like oh yeah I was so restricted I'm like I mean you're eating you're eating steak and potatoes and even though when we go to friends houses they act like they don't eat anything they're like so starving when we go to a friend's house and they see all of the like you know little snacky packaged foods I'm like I swear to you I feed my kids like they ate eggs and steak and and whatever else this morning like they're fine yeah Well, it's tantalizing. I mean, that the marketing is for the kids. I mean, it's for the children. It's like that's why they they're they're responding appropriately to to that.
Speaker: you know, treasure in the package, right? Like that they, I mean. It's just a wild, wild world out there. And what I can say is that if you are genuinely connecting your heart.
Speaker: And you're loving hands, right? Like hearts to hands. touching the food, preparing the food, sourcing the food, doing your best. It doesn't have to be The...
Speaker: The... perfection right it's just better than like if you want to improve like let's just get a little bit better than i did before right a little bit more variety a little bit of local food right just a little bit and a little bit a little bit and you connect it to your hands and you really start to engage with your children in the kitchen and you form your food values, you don't have to worry about your child.
Speaker: because you know, like you see them evolve and start to speak to people. Augie tells, he asked. all the time he's four years old he always says okay is it local is it seasonal is it organic like he wants to know and sometimes we'll say it's organic but it's not local it's seasonal but it's not organic right and so he's just like processing all that and he went to surf camp it was the first time he was like oh with random adults
Speaker: It was amazing. And I went to go get him, like, walked over from the other part of the beach and said, hey, we're, like, picking you up, buddy. his um He immediately says, I had a banana. And I'm like, oh, cool. And the surf. later she was like Yeah, Augie told me your family only eats organic, so he didn't have any chips. He had a banana.
Speaker: And I was like... Yes. You know, it was just like so cool because there's the fruits of my labor. There's him being so stoked to have a banana. not having Doritos, not having Cheetos, just his own. He didn't know. but I didn't prompt him. I didn't say, and buddy, if they're eating, got it and and and like you better not. not but No, I didn't say anything. I dropped that boy off. Like, have fun in the waves.
Speaker: And I came back and. Lo and behold! My son, four years old. knew what he wanted. And that's exactly what you're speaking to about your body, their your children's bodies as well. Like they can start to see like.
Speaker: oh this made me feel that way you know like this always makes me have this you know and it's just cool it's it's it's a shame that we're still at that place of like people have to feel a certain way about that, but that's actually just.
Speaker: their own hurt still on the inside. Well, and... Like you said. If we can be making value -based decisions, like the decisions that you're making for your family are based on your values, those are instilled in our kids. and then What your son did, that's literally the definition of wisdom. Like he had enough wisdom to say.
Speaker: These are my values. And so I'm going to walk in the integrity that my family has instilled at me in me, even at four years old. And I'm going to make a values -based decision, even when my mom is not around to tell me what to do. That's what we want for our kids, right? Like we don't want to have to. tell them like, oh, be sure that you don't do any of this and blah, blah, blah. We want them to know our family's values and be able to make wise choices even when we're not around. And that's part of growing and them developing and becoming. you know, their own people is we set We set the values, we set the standards in our home. And then when they go into the world, we want them to make wise choices and we will be here to guide them as they grow and develop. But at the end of the day, like they're going to make those decisions. And I i love it so much. Have you read?
Speaker: You might have. It's a children's book. It's called The Army Inside of You. Have you seen that book? Okay. I haven't read it. it's It's a really simple children's book on... the microbiome. And we got it. when we was...
Speaker: maybe one and a half. And that made it really easy for me to discuss the microbiome and discuss food choices with my kids because it just basically talks about like, there's good critters and there's bad critters. Some food - The good critters, some feed food feeds the bad critters. And now like when we're making decisions on food or we go to the store and there's a really like bright packaging that. ah Obviously, the kids want.
Speaker: My answer is usually, hey, that feeds the bad critters.
Speaker: And we feed the critters in our family. And when they're out, um I need to give them more words because they'll ask people like, does this feed the good critters or does this feed the bad critters? And they don't, other people don't understand, but they'll ask me like, is this, does this have good critters or does this feed the good critters? And I'm like, yes, this can feed the good critters or yes, you know, this is going to be the bad critters. So we want to make informed decision, whatever. but I just found that book really helpful. when they were little and I was like trying to figure out. parenting and discussing. you know, food values and things like that. Cause I don't want to create shame around anything, but I just want my kids to understand like some food will. Feed.
Speaker: the good army inside of you and some will feed the bad army inside of you and when we are introducing lots of food that's going to feed the bad critters you're going to feel bad you're going to be tired your head's going to hurt your tummy's going to hurt these are just a result these are for lack of a better term the consequences of eating food that's not biologically appropriate it's just the real It's not that we're trying to.
Speaker: be super strict or create shame. Like this is just, this is just how our bodies are designed. We are designed to do better on food as close to as God designed it as possible and not on the highly processed prepackaged crap that is very accessible in the grocery store. So we're going to, you know, do what we can to.
Speaker: Eat locally wherever possible. Eat seasonally. We love watermelon, but we don't eat watermelon in winter either. Like even though it's super nourishing and it's so full of minerals, if my kids see it at the store, I'm like, it's not watermelon season. We're not going to eat it. Right. It's it's not I don't know right now what's what else is in season or whatnot off the top of my head. But I have a general idea so we can be like. you know, this isn't, yeah I mean, melons in summer and melons in summer, tomatoes in summer, like it's just green beans in summer, the start of summer, it changes everywhere you are. So, you know, it's just a general gist. And again, like you don't have to be perfect. And I, we buy frozen broccoli sometimes. And, you know, it's just like,
Speaker: Just once, it doesn't even matter. Like, I think that's the part of getting out of the dogma. It doesn't matter when you truly are aligned with your own. self and like you've fueled yourself enough to be like, no, I know myself. I know our choices. I know with the downstream effects of this. And I'm strong enough now to say no to it. Like that's a huge part of maturing as a mom. And as a woman, for me, it's like, I know how that actually makes me feel food wise.
Speaker: Scroll wise. Television show wise. not waking up at the right time wise, like it doesn't matter which realm of wellness quote it's in i would like to call it the realm of humanness but i can I can make decisions now that actually honor my true well -being because I'm fueled enough to know myself.
Speaker: to lead my family in that way. Whereas before I might just like sabotage because I didn't value my own self as much as I...
Speaker: Do now. Or that was unconscious because I was keeping myself from the treasures that were ahead of me. you know And that just also comes back to this. just absolute fulfillment in motherhood it's like enough is enough I don't need to sabotage I don't need to carry on these family patterns like my husband and I used to have fights that would last three days You know? It's like, that's just immature. That's immature. I don't do that anymore. That's a leak. I'm not doing that. We, yeah we are beyond that. And it's beautiful. It's such a relief. And it's like, so I treasure our love because, you know, he matters to me. I matter to me. and
Speaker: I know it matters to our kids. But. Like we're at the center of that. And so just like our union matters and like we want to grow and evolve. And that's why I chose him as a partner. and Hey, it's working out. yeah Yeah. I love it. I love it. oh We could talk forever and ever and ever about all of this. And I think this is the problem that I run into when I interview people on my podcast. Cause I'm like, I literally could have these conversations for like the whole day, but we don't have time for that. so
Speaker: We can land the plane and wrap up a little bit here, but can you tell us where people can find you? Tell us a little bit more about the Mama Baby Biome, the Baby's First Food or Baby Biome course and programs that you have. and
Speaker: let's Let's lead people to how they can get the information that you share because I think it's so valuable. Totally. So... Right now, the best way to work with me, come to my Instagram page, check it out. There's tons of free resources there. We post every day. We've posted Instagram showed me. It was like, congratulations, 108 weeks in a row or something crazy like that. I was like, yeah. So there's a lot of information there and you can just binge the page. Tons of free stuff. Tons of great. You can check check out my guides. Like my meat stock guide is a great place to start. There's going to be some new offerings coming out this fall, which I'm really excited about. um More ways to work live with me. Right now, the best thing to do if your baby's starting solids, I have a first foods plan. It's called Baby Biome First Foods Plan. First Foods Plan is step -by -step solid food introduction, week -by -week plan, cooking demos, videos, the research um in a concise and easy -to -digest form, recipes, all that. in it's
Speaker: good for every baby good for every baby but especially suited for babies with allergies eczema digestive issues i work with extreme allergies like f pies um so it's It can be a lifeline for you if you're struggling and drowning and like, what do I need to do to help my baby? What's going on?
Speaker: I have a companion course to that, which is called Milk Magic. And that's a really, it's a new course. It's concise and it helps you how um to take your magical breast milk and make it that much better for your for your baby. if you're If you're experiencing, you've had to eliminate foods, a lot of people are doing that. So I'm trying to guide them back to more foods and healing their body so they can digest. So Milk Magic is where you get that information. So yeah, I think that's that's pretty much it.
Speaker: Thank you so much. I'm so excited for people to get their hands on your information, get their hands on your Instagram page, because it really is so informative. You give so much information, so much value freely. I have learned so much from your page. And so I'm really excited that people are going to get to go and.
Speaker: just absorb all of the good knowledge that you have to give the world but thank you so much for your time thank you for coming today and I know that everyone listening will benefit from this conversation Thank you, Cassidy. It was great to be here.
Speaker: If you found this podcast helpful, I'd love for you to take literally two seconds hit the subscribe button and leave a review. Doing so helps to get this podcast seen by more people who need to hear it. Thank you so much again for listening and we'll see you next week.
