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In today's episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Katie Wells, the powerhouse behind wellnessmama.com. We dive deep into Katie's personal wellness journey, the importance of self-care, and the role of mothers in shaping the health and well-being of their families.
For the complete show notes and links visit inspiredliving.show/106
For the complete show notes and links visit inspiredliving.show/106
Creators and Guests
What is Inspired Living with Autoimmunity?
The podcast for high achievers who want to stay sharp, focused and full of energy despite their diagnoses. Those who know there has got to be something better than simply accepting decline.
Hosted by Julie Howton, a National Board Certified Functional Medicine Health Coach who used to suffer from crippling Rheumatoid Arthritis until she learned the tools and strategies to take her power back from autoimmunity.
In this podcast, Julie brings you interviews with thought leaders in the Functional Health and Wellness space. You will get actionable recommendations to Take Your Power Back and catapult your health. No fluff, just concrete, useful steps to improve your health!
Welcome back to the inspired
living with autoimmunity podcast.
I'm your host, Julie Michaelson.
And today we're joined by Katie Wells,
whom you probably know as wellness mama.
Katie is the founder and CEO of
wellnessmama.com and wellness.
She's a mom of six with a background in
journalism who took her health into her
own hands and started researching to
find answers to her health struggles.
Her research turned into a blog and a
podcast, and she now has written over
1500 blogs, three books, and was named
one of the hundred most influential
people in health and wellness.
In today's conversation, Katie
shares about her journey with
autoimmunity, and we discuss how we
can prioritize self care while also
raising a family and successfully
running a business or businesses.
Katie, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to chat with you again.
I am as well.
And I would love to have
you share with listeners.
If there are any that aren't already
familiar with your journey, um,
how did you go from, you know,
being a writer to all of a sudden
a leader in the wellness space?
Oh, well, I'll try to give the short
version, uh, for the sake of time.
But the short answer is that this was not
at all the path I planned for my life.
I was, um, in high school and
college, very academically focused
and thought about a career in law or
international relations of some sort.
And that's kind of the path I was on,
um, in a very type a way with taking
about 28 hours per semester and really
pushing myself hard in a lot of areas.
And, um, In about the end of my college
career, I also realized that I for sure
wanted to be a mom and to have kids.
And as things often do, it happened
very quickly and serendipitously for me.
And it was the most beautiful way
that my life took multiple turns.
I think looking back, we can probably all
see times in our lives that we at the time
thought were very difficult that ended
up leading to the most beautiful things.
And that certainly was the case for me.
But the short version is that I...
Looking back to tell people, if you
want to get autoimmune disease, you can
do what I did, which is to be really
stressed, not eat very much, and when
you do, eat really poor food choices,
and not sleep enough, and that'll get
you a lot of the way there, and that
had been most of my high school and
college experience, and then, when I
got pregnant with my first child, It
was sort of that metaphorical straw that
broke the camel's back slash last marble
in the bucket, to use the autoimmune
analogy, however you want to explain it.
And after he was born, I started
having all these strange symptoms,
which were of course written off by
my doctor as normal for postpartum,
and that's just what you're going to
experience and everything is fine.
And you know, just try to sleep when the
baby sleeps, which is probably the least
helpful advice you can give a new mom.
My background to that point in
my, my college experience had been
around journalism, and I ended up
not pursuing graduate degrees, but I
leaned on my research side to try to
figure out my own health answers when
I couldn't get answers from doctors.
And at the same time, at my six week
follow up appointment after having my son.
I read in Time magazine that for
the first time in two centuries,
the current generation of American
children would have a shorter life
expectancy than their parents.
And it was just such a stark contrast
to look at this tiny, perfect newborn
and read all these statistics about
what his generation was going to face.
And I decided in that moment that
wasn't good enough for him and it
wasn't good enough for anybody's child.
And I had no idea how, but I wanted
to be at least a small part of
shifting that tide and changing that.
So, those two things lined up and I
dove head on into PubMed and that was
my research and bedtime stories for
years, was reading through studies.
And using myself as a test subject, which
long term led actually to my philosophy.
Now that I say on almost every podcast,
which is that at the end of the day,
we are each our own primary healthcare
provider, and we are each our own healer.
And while we can get outside help, and
hopefully we do from great partners, which
I also eventually found in the form of
some incredible doctors at the end of the
day, that responsibility lies with us.
And that's awesome news because that
means we have the ability to shift things.
And so I started.
Making these changes in my family and
because of my journalism background, just
writing about them to help myself process
them as much as anything else and realized
that there were so many women and families
facing similar things, maybe in their
own different ways, and this beautiful
community formed, and I really realize
and I'm so grateful now to realize it.
Moms are one of the most incredible
forces on the planet, and when
you have moms on board, that's
when society really does shift.
I know the running joke is that
a concerned mother can do better
research than the FBI, and I think
it's actually true, because a mom...
When a mom trying to
take care of her child...
We'll almost stop at nothing and do the
research, do the work, make the changes.
And I think that's what
we're seeing in society now.
Certainly not at all just because of
me, but because of all these amazing
moms across the country and across the
world who are taking ownership for their
health and for their family's health.
And I think we are starting to see
the ripples of those things starting
to create change, at least in those
families that are really, um, you
know, invested in, in doing the work.
So it's been an absolutely
beautiful journey.
That was like the whole health side.
And then I realized about 10 years
in, I was a slow learner in this,
that there was a whole other piece
that I had not identified yet.
And so I had done all the physical things.
I literally had spreadsheets
to track my supplements.
I had labs all consolidated
into a dashboard.
I knew to tiny granular percentages.
What was affecting what and how to
tweak those things, but I still wasn't
getting all the way better and it wasn't
until I addressed the mindset and the
inner emotional side that I really saw
the big paradigm shifts in my life.
And so now that's also a big part of
what I talk about, um, the way that
we speak to ourselves, having such a
big impact on our health, the way that
we feel about ourselves if we have.
Like I had really traumatic past
experiences that I thought I had let
go of and it turns out I had just
ignored them and repressed them.
And when I actually stopped resisting
them and actually allowed them to be felt
and thanked them for keeping me safe and
let them go for real, that's when I saw
everything that I had been doing for all
those years foundationally really pay off.
I'm in a place where I no longer have
any of those conditions that I was
struggling with in the past and I feel
like I'm much more in alignment because
I finally got all the pieces in place,
not just the physical one, which I do
think is also important, but I think
the others can't be ignored either.
I, I, I love that.
I say this all the time.
You can do all of the physical things
and not heal if you haven't done the
mindset work and the, and even when I was
code first coaching the first few years.
I started with the physical things, right?
Those were the things that started
to move the needle for me and that
you can learn about and, and it's
kind of the low hanging fruit.
And then we would get to mindset.
And then one day it was like,
wait, I'm doing this backwards.
This isn't serving my clients.
We're just going to start with
mindset so that the rest will
just exponentially work faster.
Better all the things.
Um, and so I love, it's one of my
favorite things that you talk about
because people may not expect that
from the wellness mama, right?
Like,
Well, and I love, I love that.
That's your approach.
I think that's so wise and so
helpful to your clients because
I realized the hard way that you
cannot punish your body healthy.
You cannot shame your body thin if,
but if you start with the inner peace
and it comes from a place of actual
authentic self love, it becomes easy
to make the good choices because that's
what you naturally want to support
this, this body that you're living in.
And that was so shifting from like.
What I felt like was taking a ton
of willpower, those things became
essentially effortless and fun and
joyful once I worked on that inner piece.
So I love that you start there.
well, again, it was an evolution.
And when I say I start there and I
know, you know, this from your own
work, you can change diet overnight.
We can't change our self talk overnight or
find all of those big T, little t hidden
traumas that we thought we let go of or
maybe we don't even remember, you know,
so it's a, it is genuinely a process.
Um, and again, we get to share
from our own journeys, which
is, is priceless for people.
Fast forward, I want to talk a little
bit and for if there's is maybe a
listener out there who's not familiar.
I mean, you've got to check out Katie
is just she just puts out such not only
incredible information, but the abundance.
which is going to lead us to where we're
going to go today of information between
your books, your podcasts, your blogs.
I mean, it's, it's incredible.
Um, and, and I love, as you
said, you're an open book.
I love that because I really believe that
we can all read a lot of information.
We can all do a lot of research, but it's
finding those shared pieces of stories.
That really get us a we're not alone.
You know, the autoimmunity
feels this can be really lonely.
And so, um, thank you as somebody who
enjoys everything you put out that for
just always being really genuine and open.
Um, and being willing to do the
research and share it right is amazing.
So I want to for so for
those that aren't familiar.
You mentioned your 1st
child, you now have 6 now.
Do you do it because, you know,
when you talk about everything that
you mentioned to me is a classic.
If you don't already have autoimmunity,
you're going to get it right that type
A for all the things that, you know,
put myself last type A perfectionist.
Um, so how, but it's not like you
decided, okay, I'm not going to
make a contribution to society.
I'm just going to sit home and
eat the good food and make my
cleaning products and take care.
I don't know that that's
not what you're doing.
So how on earth do you manage?
And I, I'm trying so hard not to use
the word balance because it took me
a really long time to realize that
balance wasn't this like finding static.
Equal like balances were always shifting.
Um, so I'm guessing that's a part
of it, but I know that you really
prioritize your health and wellness.
And I know you really prioritize
your family and you really prioritize
your contribution to the world.
So, how are you doing that and
getting healthier as you go?
Well, I love it.
To your point, I think
balance is a moving target.
So it's never much like
everything in life.
It's never a thing we
figure out perfectly.
And then it just holds.
Um, you're right.
It's a constant adaptation,
which is also a beautiful thing.
And I think for me, this
also was a journey and a
process in that my motivations
drastically, or at least my, um.
I guess motivations shifted throughout
the course of the last 15 years of
running Wellness Mama, in that at first
I still had some of that amazing trauma
driven compulsion to do things and to
do them at the best level possible.
And I do think there are always
silver linings, of course, to
everything, including trauma.
And I'm grateful that for so long I
had that sort of compulsive motivation
to do that because it really did
help me to build Wellness Mama and to
connect with all these amazing people.
But I also think.
That long term that probably contributed
to some of the sources of stress,
at least from a health perspective,
because you can only run in sympathetic
dominance for so long before your
body's going to have some struggles.
Um, also, since we've mentioned
autoimmunity, I just want to briefly
say that I think from the mindset side,
an important realization I had there
that is helpful, I think, to anyone
with autoimmunity is just remembering
that your body is still on your side
and that just like a scab or a scar.
That autoimmunity is serving a purpose
in your body at that time to help you.
It's not, like, often I hear in
the autoimmune world, you know,
my body's attacking itself.
And I try to reframe that because our
bodies are never trying to kill us.
They're never attacking us.
They are always on our side and
they're always trying to heal.
So if we can help support them in that
process, the body already knows how
to do that and it wants to do that.
Um, I think the trauma piece you
mentioned is also a big key here.
And like I said, that was Unraveling
that was the shift for me from that
compulsion to now what feels like
a just joyful integration of being
able to connect with people and to
hopefully help the world in some way.
Um, I think in that trauma journey, it
can be tempting or easy to slip into
identifying with your trauma just as we
can identify with a condition and say,
I have Hashimoto's or I have trauma or.
you know, really making
that part of our identity.
So I try to, as a starting point
for, to your point, that journey of
changing our self talk, to be very
careful about anything that comes
after the words, I am, or I have,
and just to ship that into saying,
my body is healing from Hashimoto's.
I am releasing trauma because I do
think our body listens so intricately
to the thoughts that we feed it.
And so I just always like to
throw that in as a caveat.
Um, all that to say, I, at the
beginning, had that benefit of
that compulsiveness to help me get
everything done and check all the
boxes, but at the expense of my health.
Now, that process in my life and that
moving target of balance looks much
more like taking into account the
entire person of everybody involved in
that, whether it be my kids at home,
my team members with Wellness Mama,
and co creating things that allow.
Each of those things to thrive
as much as possible without
them all being dependent on me.
I learned in my type A ness at
the beginning that I was often the
bottleneck because I was operating
from a place of thinking that I
could do it better than anyone else.
And while maybe I could have done
one piece of it better, I certainly
couldn't do all the things better than
anyone else could do them all the time.
And that was a kind of
unreasonable story I had in
well,
So at home that meant shifting to And
of course with little babies it's a
little different, but shifting as my
kids got older from I do everything
for everybody and everything is
my responsibility, um, to a much
more co creation mindset of that.
And I also realized even just the
subtle shifts of how I thought
about that made a huge difference.
So in the beginning, I would, Assume it
was my responsibility to do everything.
And if someone else was working with me on
that, I would assume they were helping me.
And what I realized was, it was much
more empowering for me and for my kids
when we shifted to a, we're all co
creating our family culture together.
They are making actually very
valuable contributions to our
family and helping it run smoothly.
And it wasn't then strictly an emotional.
labor for me.
I didn't hold the emotional
responsibility for those things either.
So on a practical level, one way
I do that is that with my kids, I
don't do things for them once they're
capable of doing it themselves.
Short of ways to connect with
them, of course, like they
can all braid their own hair.
I love still braiding their hair because
it's a time to bond with them, but when
they can do their own laundry, that is no
longer my responsibility to do for them.
It's theirs.
Or when they're capable of helping in
the kitchen or Handling the kitchen
entirely and doing the dishes that
now becomes their responsibility.
And the beautiful thing is when that
energy shifted and I tried to always
keep the top of my mind that they were
each their own infinite autonomous
beings that were incredibly capable.
They have exceeded my expectations
in every possible way.
They even, um, about a year ago.
Totally reinvented the kitchen
system without me even there.
It was actually on a podcast day.
I came home and they had written a charter
with all of these guidelines of how they
were going to entirely manage the kitchen.
And they were like, mom, we got it.
You're not allowed to do dishes anymore.
And they have without missing a
day for the last year, they all
have different meals that they
totally handled the kitchen.
There's a schedule.
They have it done by a certain time.
They help cook dinner and they
enjoy it because now it was
their problem and they solved it.
And so they feel ownership for it.
And the same thing with Wellness
Mom, I have an incredible small but
incredible team that are each amazing
in the areas that they work on.
So I, for me, it's been a process
of letting go of the things that
I didn't need to be in charge of
so that I could focus my creative
energy both at home and at work on
the things that really did matter.
I think for moms, the other piece of
that that can be really difficult, even
if we understand its importance, is
on the health side, prioritizing self
care and not just in the way we think.
Get told in the media of self care
with bubble baths and spa days.
But what are the things that really bring
you energy and give you joy and putting
those things on the schedule first?
And so we do operate with.
that again.
Like find, I, for women, I say, find
your top three to five things that
light you up and that give you joy
and that you would do like all the
time if you could, and they give you
more energy when you're done with them
than you had before you started them.
And then put those things
on your schedule every week.
And they're not negotiable.
They're less negotiable than a
meeting at your kid's school.
They're less negotiable than a work call.
They, those are the things that feed.
the energy for everything else.
And so that might be going for a walk.
That might be for me, it's often
spending time in the sun and either
reading or meditating or whatever it is.
Um, it's things like morning
sunlight with my kids, those
things become non negotiable.
Um, and then that helps provide
energy for everywhere else.
And that also then.
Builds into that both family and for
me work calendar where everything has a
time and a place and we know who's going
to do the thing at the different time.
So there's not those open loops that
I feel like are often the source
of stress for women, especially.
It's not the getting the things done.
We're actually amazing at that.
It's.
Trying to manage all of that in our
head at the same time, like we are
thinking of what am I going to defrost
and cook for dinner, the kids need to
get to all these places, when is the
laundry going to get done, I've got
three work calls, all those things
are in our mind taking up bandwidth.
So instead of solving for the variable
of doing less things, solve for the
variable of doing them with less stress
and having no open loop so that you don't
have to give mental energy to something
when it's not it's time to be focused on.
Oh my gosh.
That was such gold.
And I love just hearing it from you.
Um, you know, these are the
things that I, I work on with.
My, my busy women, right, my motivated
women who really do want to make a
contribution, whatever that looks like.
And so I love, I think, somehow
hearing it from somebody who has 6
kids at home and is doing all the
things, um, versus, you know, I'm sure.
Not that my clients don't listen
because we continue to work on it.
So they, they get it eventually,
but you know, my kids are grown.
My kids are, you know, the youngest
just graduated grad school.
So, um, I, I know there's a
part because I was that person
who was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Easy for you to say your
kids are grown, you know?
So I, I love the, and I have to highlight,
I know, you know, this, cause you,
you mentioned it already, but yeah.
What a gift that you have given your
children by allowing them, I mean, that's
what people are like, Oh, you make your
kids cook dinner, clean, you know, you're
allowing them to be powerful human beings.
And so what, when you think
of that kind of, you know, I
know you want to shift this.
You know, lifespan should
be getting longer, right?
But not only that, those six humans,
when they go out in the world, the impact
that they're going to have is amazing.
Um, so I just want to highlight
that and that, and I know you, you
see the same thing with your team.
Um, and, but I do want to ask, it
couldn't have been easy in the beginning.
Like there had to be
discomfort with letting go.
With stuff.
Absolutely.
And a little bit more into the kind
of like esoteric side of that, a book
that was helpful to me was called
letting go the pathway to surrender,
which just helped me kind of have a
mental framework for realizing when I
was having trouble letting go, and then
having a more clear path to let go.
I do think you're right, especially for
moms, it's often hard to let go of what
feels like control of our kids, even
though it is an illusion of control,
especially if we're worried about them.
Safety and of course, I'm not letting
my kids run in traffic or there's
things that often get quoted as cliches,
also they know not to.
Exactly.
And it's because they've gotten to
learn little lessons in less risk
areas so that they understand risk
evaluation and risk tolerance, and
they understand their own capabilities.
It's like on a purely practical level,
there's been so much research done into
how kids being able to take calculated
risk, even when they could get minorly
hurt when they're little really helps
develop like their vestibular system,
their limbic system, and their ability
to correctly analyze risk, which
becomes much more high stakes when
they're on their own in the world.
And I feel like In some ways, for me and
I see for many adults, we are learning
on the fly as adults how to actually
both manage the practical elements of
our adult lives and to manage risk and
we see young adults all the time that
maybe get in some sticky situations
because they've had to learn that
in a pretty high stakes environment.
So I wanted my kids to climb the trees,
even if there was a chance they could
break their arm, and I wanted them.
To, you know, run so fast that
they fall and scrape their knees
or whatever it is, because that's
helping both their physical and their
mental frameworks develop for that.
Um, I do often think it's more difficult
for us as moms than for the kids.
They're naturally wired to
be curious and to explore.
But the beauty is that then when
they're teenagers, they have
those skills and They, in my
experience, make really good choices.
Like, I know there's so many cliches
about the teenage years, and so far,
in our house, they've been so joyful.
And I really am enjoying having
what feels like a little bit more
adult relationships with my kids
now, where I'm not parenting them.
They come to me for advice.
We have great open communication.
And when they want to do something, I
almost always let it be their decision,
because I know and I can trust.
Their ability to evaluate that.
And that started when they were little
and just learning how to walk and how
to crawl, and it paid off so much.
I also think when we honor in them, their
infinite capabilities, they lean into it.
And like I said, they surpass our
expectations and surprise us all the time.
Even your example with.
Oh, you make your kids cook dinner.
They love that.
They love having a chip of it.
And my oldest ended up writing a
cookbook with his friends called chef jr.
That is all real food recipes.
It got published.
It's my cookbook and it's amazing.
And
my gosh.
love the experience of that.
And he did it entirely on his own.
It wasn't me helping him
through that process.
He talked to an agent, he talked to
a publisher, they got a contract,
all these things because so capable.
Uh, 12.
I just wanted people to know
your oldest is an 18 or 20 year.
Yeah.
he was 12 when he wrote it.
He's, uh, 16 now.
Amazing.
And now he knows he can,
he can do things right.
And he can make a
contribution, um, which I love.
And I, I just, yeah, and I was joking
about the, Oh, they have to make dinner.
It is empowering.
And you get to see to, you know, when
the kids make friends, like you can tell.
What kids had some autonomy and
what kids didn't and you're right.
Those are the kids that go off to
college and do crazy stuff because
they just have no idea or think about
a baby that's always carried is not
going to learn to crawl or walk.
So, um, it's so important and I apologize.
I have something in my eye
for people watching video.
Oh,
Um, so, so incredible and, and so
valuable, I think for people to hear
from your perspective, Of and thank you
for the book recommendation because I'm
sure that'll be helpful for everybody.
Um, like you said, it's the same
thing with the self talk, right?
Anything that can help you notice like,
oh, I'm holding on to tightly or I'm,
I'm, you know, thinking about things.
This isn't the time for that.
The other thing I wanted to
maybe you just always innately.
I'm not sure if anyone knew this,
but I want to touch on, you said
something that is, again, something
I really have come to prioritize with
my clients, which is joy as self care.
Um, and you mentioned meditation
and sunlight and you know,
again, there's, I look at.
Self care or stress management as
this balance of the two, right?
These, you know, scientific, we know
we need to touch the earth and we
know, you know, meditation, breathing,
sunlight, nature, all those things.
But joy, especially for moms becomes
totally put on the back burner.
You'd be amazed at how many clients, when
I ask them what brings them joy, I get
this blank deer in the headlight stare.
They're like, I, I don't know.
I haven't thought about that for my,
you know, other beyond their children
and their family or, but I'm like,
yeah, but what do you, what, what, what
is it that you do that brings you joy?
I don't know.
I, I totally have lost touch with that.
So how did you get to know
that that was a priority for
healing and for your wellness?
I love this question, and I definitely did
not do it intuitively since the beginning.
Um, I think often it's easy to get
lost, especially in the early years
of motherhood, in your children.
Which, of course, we're very focused
on them, especially when they're
entirely dependent on us for everything.
But we can forget.
ourselves a little bit in that process
and certainly forget or feel selfish
if we do the things that bring us joy.
And I think it's two part.
I think as we do the inner work and
our mindset shifts over time, joy can
become the default software, but it can
take a little work because if we're in
that stress cycle, the default software
is not necessarily going to be joy.
Um, I also think it's helpful to just
also step back and reframe because
they've done interesting studies
that looked at the way that we.
reframe problems or consider problems
in our world and how we can, I'm sure
everyone's had this experience, be at the
airport and be so annoyed if the flight
is late or if there's a line or security
took forever or whatever it may be, and
forget about the fact that it's entirely
amazing that we can just fly across
let's just get on a plane and
Yeah.
And what they realized was humans
will essentially perceive and focus
on the same number of problems.
And if we don't have big problems,
we're going to find little problems
and make them big problems unless we
consciously learn to unpattern that.
And so I think when, for one thing,
when we focus on things like gratitude
and joy intentionally at first,
over time, they become the default.
And for me, for a couple of years, I
actually kept a journal that's now sort
of encyclopedic where every day I would
write down 20 things I was grateful for.
And I
I tell people three.
There's that type a.
But because it like, it does help
you to then start throughout the
day, even without intending to notice
the things you're grateful for.
And then that starts to become
the default programming.
And I realized the same with joy and
I know it's well talked about, but our
kids percentage wise pay attention much
more to what we model than what we say.
They hopefully listen when we talk to,
but I realized if we don't as moms.
Find the things that bring us joy
and model making them priorities.
We aren't giving our kids
permission to do that.
And we're modeling for our kids that you
lose yourself when you become a parent.
And that, that wasn't what
I wanted to model for them.
And it certainly wasn't an
overnight process to change that.
But I've noticed when I do things like
I feel great when I lift heavy weights.
And when I put that on the schedule
and they hear me say I'm going
to the gym and I'll be back in
45 minutes or whatever it is.
Hopefully that models it in a way
that gives them permission that even
when life gets busy and even when
they have kids that they can find
those things and do them or they
see me go outside in the morning and
meditate in the grass and get sunlight.
Hopefully that gives them at least the
permission to explore and figure out what
their things like that are going to be.
Um, and I think that's, it is a journey
and it is a slow shift sometimes, but
experiment and find the things that after
you just feel so excited and have more
energy than when you started and As much
as possible, just make those priorities
because it really will pay dividends
in your attention and your focus and
your motivation in all the other areas.
It just makes you a better human
and, and your kids enjoy their
time with you more when you're in
that place of joy and gratitude
and you've taken care of yourself.
So it does become but again,
that's it's such a difficult shift.
Um, but I, I wanted a little real life
wellness mama take on here's how I did it.
And here are the things I think about,
uh, you know, and, and I think that.
As a coach, it's almost unfair for
my clients that do have children.
That's the tool I get to use is, you
know, do you, do you want your kids to,
you know, talk this way to themselves
to feel, you know, to not do the
things that bring them joy, that, that,
that's always a really good, because
it's, it's like, no, it's like, well.
I wouldn't smoke when I was pregnant,
but I smoked when I was young, you
know, like those, those kinds of things.
It's like, we can use
those as great motivators.
And like you're saying, there's
also, it's, it's, it just
gives them the permission to.
Again, my goal is very similar to yours.
I don't want my kids to have to undo,
I'm older than you, but in their forties
and fifties, like I did all of those
bad patterns, it's like, Hey, let's
just give them an opportunity to, to
at least the things I know, you know,
they, they don't have to go through that.
So I love, I love that perspective.
And the beauty of it is too,
that I feel like a mom's.
kind of energy level sets the tone
for the whole house in some ways.
And so when we do that work, it
also ripples into them in ways
that they may not feel for years.
But like you, I had to unpattern
many of these things in my thirties.
And my hope is that they hear me now
even speak externally differently.
They hopefully see that different
relationship with my body.
And so maybe they won't have a
steep of a path of figuring those
things out for themselves, or they
won't have to undo so many things.
And Do all of as hard of work.
I'm sure they'll have their own journeys
that have their own difficulties,
and I don't want to shield them from
that either, but that just by being
raised with that, hopefully they
have a good foundation for that, even
if it's in small things like when
they have big emotions or a crisis.
I don't just tell them
like, Oh, it's okay.
Stop crying.
We talk about it.
And I walk them through like
what you resist persist.
And what are you feeling?
And where are you feeling it?
And I don't push them to let go of it.
But we talk about it because I don't
want those things to become repressed
Emotions that then get much bigger and
you get to deal with in a decade instead.
Yeah.
And they, and they do, I mean, they
live, you talked about yourselves
listening to what you say, or, you know,
it's that, that stuff that we don't
deal with just gets stuck in the body.
It absolutely gets stuck.
It's amazing.
Well, I would love to have you back
because part of me, I'm like, I
really, really, really also want
to talk about wellness because,
um, it's so, so important and.
Um, your book, you're the wellness
mama, five step, uh, lifestyle
detox guide is so incredible.
And I was somebody, and I'm going to try
some of the things in it because I was
someone, I tell people all the time, like,
you don't have to make your own stuff.
To have, because I had tried at one
point and failed and was like, no, I'm
not, I'm not making my, although now I
know there's some, there's some cleaning
things in there that I do want to try,
um, now that I've evolved and, and it
is just so packed with information.
Um, but I, I really want to dig into,
you know, clean personal care products.
And, um, what people can be looking for.
And I know that that's a whole
nother again, honoring schedules.
That's a whole nother conversation.
So if you would be willing, when you can
find the time to come back and talk to
us about that, I would really, I know
it would be of huge value for listeners.
I would love that.
That would be great.
Oh, my gosh.
Any last thoughts for what one step?
And I know that's so hard,
but I know you can do it.
What is one step listeners can take today?
Just get started to improve their health.
Yeah.
Oh, I guess to maybe have it
stack a couple of the things
we've talked about into one step.
Um, I think
Is that cheating?
No, that's great.
well, often it's the simplest
things that get overlooked because
they are so simple that they can
often also be the most profound.
So I would say maybe if you can find
time as soon as possible after waking
up before you touch a screen before
you look at artificial light to just
go outside and Write down three things
you're grateful for and maybe use that
also time to explore within yourself
the things that bring you joy and then
let that ripple into your whole day.
I think not only will that help your
circadian rhythm with getting morning
sunlight, there's so much research and
data to support that being an incredibly.
beneficial and free
habit that we can all do.
Um, but if you can stack in there, some
kind of ritual that then gets triggered
where you're focusing on gratitude or
joy, or maybe you're just hydrating with
some electrolyte water or whatever it is.
Um, I think it will help the habits stick.
And that's another big thing.
I know it's been talked about with books
like atomic habits lately, but anytime we
can add a habit to something we're already
going to do in a routine, it helps it
stick a lot better and then use the energy
from that to build into other areas.
I think it gets.
somewhat more personalized beyond that.
And we all have our own things
that we're figuring out our
own solutions that will work.
But there are those universal things
like morning sunlight, like getting
quality sleep, like choosing joy and
gratitude that will have ripples into
whatever other path you're going to take.
I love that.
And I'm going to actually circle
back to the beginning of your one
step and it's not find the time.
It's make the time because everybody
says they can't find the time.
Um, and I say that all the time, anything,
any of these things that you do outside
in nature, so in sunlight and either
sit on the ground or do it barefoot.
I mean, it's just exponential and
it's not taking any extra time.
So I love that before you touch screens,
go get some sunlight being gratitude.
I love how you add it and maybe
drink some electrolyte water, all
the things, but, but you're so right.
It's and you and I both love
biohacking and all the fun stuff.
The basics are often overlooked
and they are so important.
Um, so amazing, amazing
advice for listeners.
For anybody who doesn't already
know, and we'll, we'll have
everything in the show notes, but
where is the best place to find you?
Everything is housed at wellnessmama.com.
There's links to find the podcast
there as well and information on
wellness, which you mentioned,
which is my personal care company.
Um, that's all there as well.
And then there's links to lots of other
things that I have felt are important.
So people can find everything
at wellnessmama.com.
An amazing, incredible depth of, of
just valuable articles you've written.
So go check out Katie's website.
Thank you so much for giving us
your time and your wisdom today.
Thank you so much for having me.
This was such a fun conversation.
For everybody listening.
Remember you can get the transcripts and
show notes by visiting inspiredliving.
show.
I hope you liked this
episode as much as I did.
I will see you next week.