Jillian Acosta, RD, LDN-Owner of the nutrition private practice & The Root Cause Method.

Jillian Acosta, a registered dietitian, specializes in functional medicine and the psychology of eating. Owner of the nutrition private practice, The Root Cause Method, she guides clients towards health and vitality in unconventional ways. Jillian believes many of the chronic illnesses exacerbated by obesity are deeply rooted in trauma. In her practice, she collaborates with physicians who administer ketamine, using this powerful tool as a means to help her clients transform their relationship with food, feelings and Self. Uprooting what shapes our relationship with food is essential, in her experience, for reversing and preventing chronic illness, and can lead to true embodiment, fulfillment, and connection.

Video Interview on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/Z3vaNwOdf-8

How to contact Jillian:

https://www.therootcausemethod.com/

https://www.instagram.com/jillianacosta_rd/

FREE Gift to our audience:
Free downloadable guide available on my website titled Turn your Triggers into Teachers - support in helping you free yourself from an emotional relationship with food.

Chapters

• 0:55 Transformation Through Nutrition and Healing
• 9:24 Healing Through Subconscious Exploration
• 20:37 Psychedelic Integration and Empowerment
• 28:19 Daily Rituals and Nutritional Guidance
• 41:48 Spreading Awareness About Suicide Prevention

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:55

Hi Jillian, welcome to Quantum Alchemist Master Podcast. It's a pleasure to have you here. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2: 1:01

Thank, you so much, I'm so well and I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:06

Beautiful, so I came across your page. I was just speaking to her shortly before getting on and I came across her on Instagram and I absolutely just love her page. I love her content. I think she's bringing a lot of light and information to things that not only women but all of us need in these times, and I count myself in. I've been doing a lot of changes in my nutrition and with my hormones, regulating all that stuff, and going through a lot of personal changes, so I figured it would be great to have you on so that you can kind of just share you know a little bit about you, your journey, how you got to where you are today, and also tell us a little bit about what it is that you do, your offerings and so forth.

Speaker 2: 1:49

Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for that. I mean, I never know where to start. Tell me about yourself. It feels like such a hard and simple thing at the same time, but Tell me about yourself.

Speaker 1: 1:59

It feels like such a hard and simple thing at the same time, but tell me about your childhood.

Speaker 2: 2:02

We'll start there and then we'll let it unfold. My childhood was a mess, um, I think you know I've always been, I've always been a seeker and I spent a lot of time alone as a child. There was a lot of complex trauma. It was a lot of a lot of, you know, wounding in the household from very wounded, unconscious parents, um doing the best that they could and um, and that resulted in a in a lot of conditioning and trauma in my story. And I started the path of personal development when I was around 16 years old. My mom kind of brought me into it. She was moving through it and I was so deeply unhappy and so deep in suffering and I think she recognized that because it was quite obvious and offered me kind of a way in and from that moment, although nothing really changed in the instant, it put me on this path of introspection and discovery and just this recognition that there was another way.

Speaker 2: 3:07

And although I had a lot more, I think, suffering to do, I was on that path and I struggled very much with an eating disorder path and I struggled very much with an eating disorder. I had a very distorted relationship with both food and my body and my worth and really all of it, and my relationship with food was out of control. I mean, I started emotionally eating when I was three years old, because I was in the midst of such intensity and it was this incredible distraction, pleasurable experience, escape. Incredible distraction, pleasurable experience, escape, you know shift in my internal state in an instant and it became the thing that I reached for all the time, to the point where I no longer had access to, or I didn't have access to, really any other coping tools. That was the one that was just so predominantly utilized. So that was the one.

Speaker 2: 3:57

You know, I was struggling with my body weight and I was inflamed and I was diagnosed with gut conditions and thyroid conditions at a really young age and had to take an elective in college, actually an undergrad. I was studying business and I took nutrition because it was like the other ones didn't interest me and I was deep in an eating disorder at that time and I figured that, you know, if I learned a little bit about nutrition fundamentals, then maybe I could learn how to be skinny and then I would be happy, because that's kind of really what we're all fed, no pun intended. And so I took it and I loved the class and, interestingly, I was in treatment at the same time for an eating disorder, and so I was like learning about nutrition while in this treatment center for an eating disorder and like kind of comparing and contrasting what I was receiving and what I was learning and experiencing at the same time. It was very interesting and I really, really I really understood that it was not about the food that like, even though I knew what to eat and I was being told what to eat from this, from this treatment center and from school, it had nothing to do with what was influencing my food choices. And I got really curious and set out on this path of like well, what is this thing Like? What is causing this? What felt like a hijack of my body? That like, even though I may not have like wanted to eat the entire bag of cookies, there was something in me that wanted nothing else but that Right, and it was like this internal battle and I'm like what is going on and fast forward.

Speaker 2: 5:39

A number of years later, I discovered the path of psychedelics and in an ayahuasca experience, my story was revealed to me, which was totally suppressed from my memory for over three decades I had no idea that the abuse that I experienced because of dissociation and all of the parts of my story and all the patterning and all the self-hatred and the of dissociation and all of the parts of my story and all the patterning and all the self-hatred and the unworthiness and all the things that started to make sense, and even though I could intellectualize it and make sense of it and understand the genesis of these behaviors and these patterns, it didn't necessarily eradicate them. It didn't really make them go away. I really had to go, layer by layer and through my own process, somatically into my body, into my consciousness, start to like clean house and like deep, deep, program the programming and really start to come into this space of seeing myself and my worth and really entering into a relationship with spirit and the divine and nature and the magic that's all around us. And in that process I went into solitude for a number of years and was in just this cocoon I see this butterfly behind you and it was like I was in such a cocoon. It was such a metamorphosis, incredibly extraordinary place.

Speaker 2: 6:59

I was in just this cocoon. I see this butterfly behind you and it was like I was in such a cocoon. It was such a metamorphosis, incredibly extraordinary place I was in and I started to harvest all this wisdom and all these gems and and it was just so loud that, like this is not supposed to be just for me, this is not just mine, like I have to. There are so many people, as you said, both men, women, all humans, that are on this path of suffering and dissociation from their bodies and self-punishment and all the things, and I think that food is one of the most abused substances in the world, and so here I am, talking about it and hoping that it resonates with people and that they can somehow find this path of self-liberation, because really that's it, that's what it is.

Speaker 1: 7:44

It's an inside job.

Speaker 2: 7:46

Yeah, always.

Speaker 1: 7:48

So tell me a little bit how you incorporate the subconscious mind, because I always like to share that and I work, not in nutrition, but very similarly, with trauma, addiction, abuse, all these things. So in the work that we do, the subconscious mind, you know, has a lot to do with these habits, behaviors and all these things. It's much stronger than our conscious mind and all these things it's much stronger than our conscious mind. So tell us a little bit about your program, starting with by the way, I love the name that you gave it. It's very beautiful. So tell me, walk me a little bit through that. How does that look like when someone comes in? Like kind of what layers or kind of touch, without giving too much away, and just really anything you want to share about how you approach nutrition differently.

Speaker 2: 8:43

Yeah, cool. So, first of all, I agree with you so much that like 95% of our behavior is driven by the subconscious mind and that's also where like trauma lives, and so I like to think of trauma as like the puppet master and like we're on the strings and it's, of course, it's not the only thing that's in the subconscious mind, but it takes up a lot of space Right and and so if we want to make lasting change, foundational, fundamental changes in our day-to-day behavior, thought processes, all the things, and it's like we got to look up the strings and see who's who's making us move and what I? I know that there are many modalities of, of and ways to access subconscious mind, subconscious programming, and you know, I I happen to like and I'm I'm considering this and kind of like reframing this, my own journey, that I always say I like efficiency. There is a little bit of a tendency of like it's not force, it's definitely not force, but it's just like there's been an urgency, but part of me thinks the urgency is actually real because we're in this really critical time of collective transition and so there is a sense of urgency of people to kind of wake up and we don't have the time to go meditate in the Himalayas for 30 years, like we.

Speaker 2: 10:02

There is an urgency, and so I find that psychedelics are incredible allies and tools and teachers and guides that can bring us right there with efficiency and and in a in a safe and supportive and gentle and trusting container, so much transformation becomes possible. And so you know, the name of my business is the Root Cause Method, because I really believe that the root cause of chronic illness is trauma, the root cause of suffering and weight gain and obesity and narcotic addiction. It's actually just trauma and pain and all the myriad ways that we as humans are so creative and trying to disassociate from the pain, push the pain down, self-medicate, and so the premise of my work is really helping people to create safety within themselves, to feel, because if we're willing to feel, whatever it is discomfort, grief, pain, sorrow, anxiety, whatever, then we no longer need anything, including food or any other substance to numb it.

Speaker 1: 11:12

Sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 2: 11:15

No, go ahead please.

Speaker 1: 11:16

I wanted to kind of interrupt you there, because I was just a guest on a podcast today and I mentioned that we tend and I include myself, I'm not excluding myself we tend to, let's just say, this is the darkness, right, and we tend to want to go around it above it, however, but through it. Of it, however, but through it, and that's really that's that's where a lot of the expansion happens and that discomfort in our soul journey of evolution, and it is through our own challenges. Right, look at you walking it's. You just went through, you walked through the fire, right, and now you're like all right, I got you. Now, come on, I'll walk with you. And another thing is we can't force anyone to walk through that fire, right, they can't force a horse to drink water. We can only offer our support. Whoever's interested. Then you know you can walk with them as far as they want to go. Right, that's pretty much. But yeah, I love what you're saying and sorry I caught you off, go ahead.

Speaker 2: 12:20

That's okay. I love what you mentioned because you know, I I always say the darkness is where the roots grow Like. Look at any, most plants have root systems underground. It's like the most like mineral rich, fertile soil, is where, like things take hold and and and give life. And you know, especially as women, but not only exclusively, but like, our power is in our darkness, like the womb space is darkness, it's just the most fertile potential space for creation and we're taught to fear our darkness. We're taught to be afraid of the dark, to love and light. And there's great, that's great, but that's half the story. And our power and our magic comes from being withholding, getting well acquainted with, loving our darkness.

Speaker 1: 13:19

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 13:20

We're a full spectrum of light.

Speaker 1: 13:22

Yeah, we get to experience all the colors, all the emotions. It's a spiral of continuous evolution, continuous awakening, continuous rebirth. In my opinion, there is no death. So yeah, absolutely, I love that it's so juicy.

Speaker 2: 13:38

And so, when you can, when you can cultivate the safety, when you can help someone feel safe, when you can feel safe within yourself to feel your darkness, to feel pain, grief, whatever, then it becomes the compost for growth, it becomes the usable material for your own evolution and you no longer fear it and you're no longer pushing it away in all the creative ways that are actually creating more and more disconnection from yourself, from your power, from your body, from your intuition, from your creativity, from all the things, and you're coming into deep wholeness. But this wholeness is so huge now, it's so expanded, it's so magnificent. This wholeness is so huge now, it's so expanded, it's so magnificent. And so, to answer your initial question, I have a program within my business called the Garden. Because the Garden, in my perspective, first of all, it's where I used to lay as a child, in the grass forever and honestly dissociate from where I was. I would just drown myself in the incredible, exquisite patterns of nature. I would get lost forever and it held me and it was like, felt like. Every single time I lay on the grass I cry because it feels like I'm being hugged from the mother. It just like I'm being so loved and so held and it's so beautiful and undeniable and, plus, I'm an earth sign, so I just like nozzle, but it's an energetic container where things grow and transform and and materialize. And it's not only the things we want to grow that grow, it's all things. And so there's like weeds that grow in there and there are kind of opportunistic, you know, species that that crowd out the space, and so we're constantly tending, if we're conscious to our garden and to what's growing and and being intentional with what we plant and and and breed, breed life into. And so it's a 13 week program and it's one-on-one, just me and the individual.

Speaker 2: 15:36

And in the beginning I beginning, I'm analyzing data. So it depends on what they come to me for If there's like gastrointestinal issues or you know their symptoms. Depending on their symptoms, I'm either analyzing blood chemistry or stool or dried urine or whatever. From a functional medicine perspective, I'm a functional dietitian and I'm creating a protocol for their unique physiology. So, depending on whatever I find here's, here's a structure. It's not a diet or a meal plan, but here's a structure then which you could follow that will be really supportive for your body and give you kind of something to grab onto. But when you deviate from that because of patterns of emotional eating, we literally use it as gold. It's golden because what it reveals is like insight into your patterns and your triggers and the nuances and what you really need, all those kinds of things, and so that's.

Speaker 2: 16:28

That is kind of more technical in the beginning of the program and simultaneously I'm getting to know their story and I'm getting to know their process and their, their patterning. And then they sit with ketamine. They sit with medicine three times over the course of of 13 weeks. Now I'm a big fan of naturally occurring substances and I have a license and there are liabilities, and so everything in my practice is above ground. And so they get a prescription from a provider for ketamine and I am holding space and I'm really intuitive and I'm really empathic, and so I'm creating an energetic container for them to safely experience what the medicine kind of brings forth in a way that feels navigatable for them, in a way that feels like, you know, they're dipping their toes into the waters of feeling, into the waters of the subconscious, into kind of uncharted territory where they can feel safe and supported and held in that. And then we just start to unpack together and so, yeah, that's how we kind of get into the subconscious. And then I have there's so many guided.

Speaker 2: 17:37

My work is very experiential.

Speaker 2: 17:38

It's like somewhat conceptual, but I'm really bringing them into their body in real time and, in that process, giving them the opportunity to experience their own capacity expanding and their capacity for feeling.

Speaker 2: 17:53

Cause when you, when they realize they they can, they can feel something uncomfortable and not need to like check out with food or whatever. They begin to develop confidence in themselves, their own capacity, self-efficacy. And then we translate that outside of medicine space into ordinary states of consciousness where something may come up and all of a sudden it's like, oh, I've been here before, I can feel this. Now I'm not four years old anymore where it was. Oh, I've been here before, I can feel this. Now I'm not four years old anymore, where it was too chaotic and I needed to dissociate. I can actually be with myself through this. And people have lost upwards of 40 pounds in 13 weeks in my program. And it's not just about the weight loss and it's definitely not because of a diet. It's because they learn how to hold themselves through difficult emotion and they're no longer using food to push it down. So the body changes, the physiology changes.

Speaker 1: 18:44

That's beautiful. Sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 2: 18:47

That's it. That's my take on nutrition and what I'm doing, and that's one of my offerings. There's another one.

Speaker 1: 18:53

Tell us about the other one, and then we'll dive deeper into this.

Speaker 2: 18:56

Sure. So. The other one is called Wildflower, and the premise of this program it's a group program and it's the premise really is like finding the beauty in the weeds. And wildflowers are technically weeds, but they're beautiful and they grow wildly and untamed and they're so magical and so it's really about. So this is a group program, exclusively for women. It's a cohort.

Speaker 2: 19:21

The next one's launching September 10th, so I'm not sure what time when this podcast will come out, but the next one is live September 10th and it's an eight week program for women on this path and it's all about teaching them, guiding them through experiences and community of women, how to use these triggers around food, how to use this distorted relationship with food to actually help illuminate what it is they're really seeking, what they're really needing in that moment, so that they can meet their own needs and they can let go of the disempowering patterns that, like, don't actually ever work.

Speaker 2: 19:59

And so it's this. It's so powerful. I just closed my, my last one, and it was like there's something really incredible when women come together in support of other women Whoa, and like the willingness to be seen in your process and be so met with love, and then hearing your story come out of the voice of another woman and just this collective community around female empowerment. It's so potent, it's something that the one-on-one work cannot provide. It's its own thing. It's incredible, and so I'm really excited Because I'm stepping more and more into group work. I've done public speaking and hosted live like facilitated live workshops and retreats and things like that, and the group, especially with women, feels very clear to me that that's the next step, that's the next iteration of my work, for sure.

Speaker 1: 20:55

That sounds beautiful. Yeah, together we can definitely achieve much more. So I love your offerings. It sounds very beautiful and we'll make sure to get this out. Actually, I'll. I'll prioritize. Noah helps us with all of our podcast stuff to bring it to the top of the list so that we can get it out within a week.

Speaker 2: 21:14

Okay, that's beautiful of you. I appreciate that so much. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 21:18

Absolutely. This is very much needed. So tell me, in your, in your opinion, how does the ketamine treatment, for example, differentiate from other, from like psychedelics or plant medicine, stuff like that? How do you, how do you kind of see that bit different from each other?

Speaker 2: 21:37

Yeah, it's a great question. So I guess, from the differences perspective, it's, first of all, it's synthetic, so it's not a naturally occurring substance, but it still induces an altered state of consciousness. It's still what I always say is plugs us into the divine, you know, into divine intelligence, and it is legal, which I really appreciate, because many of the other ones are still schedule one, unfortunately. Um, and it's repute, it's like reproducible in terms of, like, the dosing. You know, you can really know what dose you're taking and it's, it's very, it's, it's a prescription, and so you don't. You know, with mushrooms, for example, you don't, and it's, it's very, it's, it's a prescription, and so you don't. You know, with mushrooms, for example, you don't know the potency, and there's such a variance, and so it's very clean and reproducible. So you know exactly what you're taking. And one of the things that I really love about ketamine is that it's gentle, it's so gentle, whereas I love mushrooms and I love ayahuasca and all these other plants. But, like, sometimes they send you on a on a very radical, sometimes very abstract, sometimes very dense and difficult journey, um, always for the highest, for your highest good, with unconditional love. But it doesn't always feel like that and for people that are relatively new to this space of psychedelics or really you know, mustering up the courage of like looking at some harder stuff, ketamine is very gentle.

Speaker 2: 23:09

My experience, having gone through a lot of trauma, is that whenever I sit with mushrooms or ayahuasca my nervous system has been so contracted I get into this fear space because I never know how much what I'm going to encounter and like how hard it's going to be, and so I have to go through this kind of barrier of like regulating my nervous system in the medicine space and then I get to the good stuff, if I once I can move through it, whereas ketamine, because it feels so gentle right off the bat, it's very heart opening.

Speaker 2: 23:37

I don't have to do that, I don't have to do any of that and I'm actually able to just like, feel safer and go into the experience, knowing that I'm like, I'm supported and I get like a lot done and it's not like the productivity, but I'm able to like move through a lot, process a lot, grieve, a lot, rage, a lot, whatever wants to be felt I'm able to do without the barrier of the contraction of my nervous system, which I really, really love, not to mention that one single session of ketamine suicidal ideation is reduced in one single session of ketamine within four hours. You know that's profound and that's in the literature and I like to say that you know it kind of dissipates like the dark cloud that may be kind of hanging above somebody, and it's not like this wonder drug where it just like makes everything sunshiny and like with rainbows, but it dissipates the cloud so that you can then go into your process and actually feel the benefit of the work that you're doing, and so I love it for that.

Speaker 1: 24:42

So beautiful? I am not. I'm familiar with very familiar with psychedelics and plant medicine, but I am not very familiar with ketamine. I mean, I just know pretty much the basics of it. Yeah, so, and and the research behind it speaks for itself so far. So I am definitely glad that we have that available, especially that it's legal, like you mentioned, and they're a little bit hesitant stuff like that. Are there any commonalities that you can share without breaking patient confidentiality, Like, is there any support or integration after this? Do people have you know, have they reported kind of like visions, or is it more mild, kind of just whatever that you can share, that it's not oversharing? Just for those that may be interested in stepping into into that space as a possibility, they can kind of know a little bit more about it.

Speaker 2: 25:49

Sure, yeah, I love this. So in within my 13 week program, they sit with medicine on weeks five, seven and nine, and so there's a lot of pre-integration. There's a lot of integration immediately after the session, so like it's a long call where we go straight into medicine and integrate from medicine into integration, because the half-life is pretty quick and so once you're out, you're out and you're verbal and you can especially where there's so much neuroplasticity we go right into integration to process what just happened and then in between medicine sessions there are integration calls and then there's over a month of integration on the back end. So for me, integration is like 98% of transformation. You know, psychedelic experiences are really beautiful and illuminating, but it's like what are you going to do with what you find and how are you going to weave that thread into the tapestry of your life? Creating a new infrastructure psychologically, emotionally, you know, spiritually, creating a new infrastructure, and even physically, of course, because it affects the body, the nervous system, how you're, how you're engaging with food, how you're treating yourself it all affects the body. And so there's a lot of support in terms of integration and, as I mentioned, these experiences are typically more gentle.

Speaker 2: 27:01

So a lot of my clients end up like they receive like a level of self-compassion, or they access a level of self-love that has never been accessible to them before and through that lens they can see, you know, ways that they've treated themselves. They've been harsh with themselves, they've been punishing with themselves, or maybe the way that they viewed an event or a person, like a parent. They are flooded with this sense of compassion for other people and just alterations in the way that they view self other events is radically radically shifts self other events is radically radically shifts. Um, it's a lot of people end up crying during the experience because it's a, you know, an emotional release or they're, they're touching this, this place of compassion for themselves, and really reframing the way that they have treated themselves and seen themselves. And then that begins to translate to like out of medicine spaces where they become just more gentle and slower paced and and more loving with with self and other, because everything is a direct reflection of the relationship we have with the self. And so as you start to show up for yourself with, with more of that goodness, it starts to reflect into your relationships.

Speaker 2: 28:19

And the last module of my program is called Full Bloom of the Garden and I literally cry every single time because what I witness is somebody deeply reconnecting to themselves. You know, I'm a dietician and I and I approach this through the lens of health and wellness because a lot of people are struggling in that, in that realm. But what I'm really doing is helping somebody come back home to themselves, like reconnect to themselves, because they are their best healer, they are their, their greatest teacher, their guru. I am not, I'm, I'm like the one with the light, you know, the torch, just like bringing them back, helping, bringing them back home, guiding the path back in, and it's so others. I think the era for that is long gone. I mean, look where it's gotten us, right.

Speaker 1: 29:34

So I feel it's the time for those've seen the biggest shift in my own life. It's from reconnecting with my soul, from remembering that. So let me ask you a little bit more in regards to this. So it sounds like there's a lot of support, a lot of integration, which I love, and you have the one-on-one and you have the group. The group is only for women for right now, correct, correct. One for one is for anyone.

Speaker 2: 30:06

Correct.

Speaker 1: 30:08

Beautiful. Okay, so if there are any, I always ask for people if they're open to sharing some tips for audience that they could do. You can choose that. I don't know if it's supplements or daily practices or just anything. Whatever you want to just throw out there that can help anybody that's listening to this right now to start implementing or try.

Speaker 2: 30:32

So what came through? I love this. I am a huge fan of daily practice. I'm a huge fan of ritual because it's like your anchor point. It is. You know when you're in the mood and when you're not. It is, it is the thing that allows for the stability in our lives.

Speaker 2: 30:52

And what I what? What helps me tremendously when I used to like, oh I don, I used to like I don't want to meditate or I don't want to do my practice, and it was that, this shift that just changed everything for me was that when I started to view this practice as the safe place for all of the parts of me to be seen. It's like the place where I can let shame be seen and felt. I can. I can allow, allow my grief to be witnessed, I can allow for pleasure or eroticism to come forth or whatever parts of me want to come forth and be witnessed by both me and the divine.

Speaker 2: 31:33

It's like the place for that and I've learned to use whatever is alive in that practice. So if I'm feeling resistance to doing it, I bring the resistance into the practice and I feel what resistance feels like in my body, or like if I'm angry at my partner, and I have this like charge in me. I bring that in and I give myself permission to rage and I let myself feel it and I meet myself in that space and then complete like the cycle of it. Instead of just irresponsibly dumping it on anybody else, I get to meet myself in that space and gain the power from it and transmute it and not splash it all over somebody else, you know. And so daily practice is like giving yourself the full permission to let whatever is alive be felt beautiful.

Speaker 1: 32:29

Do you bring breath, work and somatic movement or flow into the space?

Speaker 2: 32:33

always yeah, I always start with breath and breath with sound, breath with sound and movement. So it's like a lot of undulation and like like whatever is, whatever is alive, and and moving the energy through and sounding it through, and then really landing in a space of meditation. And then it sometimes looks like a self-love practice where I'm just seeing myself and feeling myself and honoring myself. Sometimes it's gratitude, sometimes it's journaling or dance or card pulling or whatever. You know. There's flow, but it's every day and ideally every morning for me. That's just what works for me and, yeah, it's like a energetic shower.

Speaker 1: 33:19

Thank you for sharing that. Uh, same goes for me. My my thing is in the morning as well. It's kind of like my prime of the day before I go out. Um, and I noticed the difference days I don't do it. Oh yeah, yeah, it's not good.

Speaker 2: 33:36

Me too.

Speaker 1: 33:38

Me too.

Speaker 2: 33:40

I'm like maybe a practical level if you're wanting for your listeners. From like a, from a nutrition standpoint, protein is so underrated, like protein the rd, the recommended dietary allowance for protein, is severely inadequate and you know when would you increase your protein and I'm not talking about like factory farmed protein, like high quality, if you can, like, you know, grass-fed beef and free range chicken, wild caught, caught, all that kind of stuff, right, if you increase your protein and marginally like decrease your starchy carbohydrates, your refined, your rice, your bread, your pasta, your sweets, like that kind of stuff, your body composition will change dramatically 100% you don't have to do any, anything like yes, there are other things to do, but if you just focus on that little swap, your body composition will change dramatically.

Speaker 1: 34:38

That's beautiful. Thank you for touching on that. That is the exact change I've made. I'm Cuban, so that means there's a lot of carbs involved, especially in family gatherings. Right, we have a lot of bread, pastelitos, you know, rice and beans and all the goodies. So, yeah, that's most definitely the change I've made, especially here at home. Just increase the protein. All you know, organic.

Speaker 2: 35:08

Yeah, this is so funny that you say this. My father is Cuban, so my last name is Acosta and I've got Cuban blood in me for sure, and I'm getting ready to actually to make picadillo when I get off the call with you.

Speaker 1: 35:19

But instead of rice.

Speaker 2: 35:20

I'm making cauliflower rice and so it ends up being, you know, a nutrient dense meal, without this massive increase in blood sugar levels, because that's really the name of the game in blood sugar levels, because that's really the name of the game. You want to watch? The amount of sugar in the blood. Sugar is very inflammatory and is the easiest way to gain weight is excessive levels of sugar in the blood and those spikes in the glycemic index are just arming us quite a bit. Exactly.

Speaker 1: 35:48

Sure. Are there any supplements or anything that you'd like to recommend?

Speaker 2: 35:53

um to leave them with I mean there's some like, there's some foundational things? I my belief is that there are no. There's no one size fits all when it comes to, you know, medicine and health, and so that's why my work is very tailored. But there are some generic ones that are that everybody could probably use, extra of which are like magnesium. Magnesium glycinate, specifically, is one of my favorite types of mag.

Speaker 2: 36:17

Digestive enzymes are really amazing. A good b complex. We can't go wrong with that kind of stuff. Vitamin d um, yeah, but I would say you could take all the supplements in the world, um, but if your foundational practice is you're not sleeping well, you're not moving well, you're not moving your body, you're eating really crappy, the supplements are not going to move the dial. They may replenish some nutrients, but they're not going to like really impact your physiology as much as something, and something so simple, like if you do have, you know, a high carbohydrate meal with the pastelitos and all the things. Go for a 10 to 15 minute walk immediately after your meal. Walk around, because the body will utilize a lot of that sugar and it will shave 20 to 30 points off your glucose spike. It's remarkable.

Speaker 1: 37:05

I read an article about that not too long ago. Yeah, it's remarkable. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. All right, guys, you've heard it here. Let's get to walk, let's get to walking including myself. It's very beautiful. I feel like you've shared a lot of value with the audience and I would love to invite you guys, if you're dealing with anything in regards to nutrition, do you work with people that have like immune system issue, autoimmune issues, cancer stuff like that, where they can kind of tweak a little bit there?

Speaker 2: 37:42

Yeah, if they're in an acute phase, like if they're dealing with cancer and they're in an acute phase, I would send them to a specialist. But if they're in remission or wanting to prevent, specialist. But if they're in remission or wanting to prevent, for example, or have a recent diagnosis of an autoimmune condition like that's, that's absolutely. I mean, a lot of that is gut, a lot of that is a lot of things. But you know, trauma is embedded, it's one of the layers. But how trauma has kind of manifested in the body, how it affects our nervous system and all the things, it's all connected and so yeah, absolutely I support.

Speaker 1: 38:16

Beautiful. Well, thank you so much. Is there anything you want to leave the audience with or anything else you want to add?

Speaker 2: 38:22

Wow, I love that. That's very deep. It's way scarier when we think about it, but when we're in it, the body has like this reward system we actually get endorphins when we cry Like it's this embedded like encouragement system of like feel your feelings and there will be relief, there will be release. And so if you fear whatever you're avoiding, that's way worse. That perpetuates suffering. And so if you can find someone who can hold a safe space or that you trust or you want to start exploring with yourself, I invite you to do that, because the fear is worse than the actual thing itself.

Speaker 1: 39:20

Thank you so much. Now that you mentioned that, I just want to add something real quick before we get off. I invite you to talk to your emotions literally just like a friend. That's really a teacher. It's here to teach you something. It's here for a reason, um, whether it's alerting you of something or wants you to change something. So you can literally ask um, whether it's your emotion or whatever symptom you're having. You can literally ask um, what are you here to teach me? Just like a friend, like a normal conversation. Trust me, I'll speak back to you, believe it or not. Try it, um, and and and you'll see. I just ask um, is there anything I can start or stop doing? Um to make it better? Um, or to um? You know whatever it is, just talk to it. Don't, don't be afraid of it and feel it. Uh, it's just energy in motion. Um, sit with it, feel it. Don't be afraid of it and feel it. It's just energy in motion, sit with it, feel it.

Speaker 1: 40:16

I think the time just to run away. It's kind of like thinning out. I think it's time for us to sit with whatever is and just be fully be. It is the eternal now moment. There's really no escaping from my perception. You can change dimensions. You're still on the same level of consciousness. You still have to go. Even if so I went through a near death experience and I speak a lot in regards to that there's no running, there's no escaping, it's all consciousness. So you still, whether it's in this plane, the astral plane and the higher planes, you got to work through it. It does. There's just you still have to, you still have to process.

Speaker 2: 40:58

You're going to be met with it one way or the other.

Speaker 1: 41:01

That's it. Yeah, so might as well do it here in the now moment and just be of service. Your challenges are here for a reason. There is light at the end of the tunnel. It's all a transition. It's all kind of like that cocoon and butterfly, which is the reason I have it right behind me.

Speaker 1: 41:21

Trust the process, trust yourself, go within, try to quiet the outside distractions and, if not, if you're going through it, because we also need help sometimes when we're in a crisis, and if not, if you're going through it, because we also need help sometimes when we're in a crisis, when we're down, when we don't know what to do or we don't remember how to gain the answers and the resources from our own knowledge, from within. Reach out, reach out Depending on what you need. There are people that can help. You are not alone. I promise you you're not alone. Speak up about it, especially in regards to suicide ideation. I was there. I experienced it myself. It has been one of the darkest moments of my life and there is help. You don't have to do it alone and there's a way out. Please call someone, call a friend, tell somebody, just reach out for help. Okay, I will leave you guys. Is there anything else, jillian, before we? Um, I will leave you guys is there anything else?

Speaker 2: 42:15

um, jillian, before we jump off, that you feel, no, I just really appreciate what you just spoke into and and feeling people on the receiving end of that and and just you know it's it's actually physically, energetically impossible to be alone in this world. It's impossible. And so whatever story that is is a fabrication of the ultimate lie of the ego, which is that we're separate, and it's just a lie.

Speaker 1: 42:46

We're all one. Love is the answer in and out. Peace we're out. But thank you, that is so true and so beautiful. Thank you for your wisdom. I feel like you know. I love how you would just approach nutrition from like a 360, right, you look into emotion, you look into trauma, you look into the perception of the self. Subconscious mind it's just we're so. We're multidimensional beings. Conscious mind it's just we're so. We're multi-dimensional beings, we're so multi-layered that if we don't start looking at all the different perceptions and lenses and start to peel that onion, it could be quite challenging. So thank you for doing the work, for being of service, for your gifts to humanity. Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2: 43:31

Thank you as well. Thank you for being such a beautiful voice and platform for for so many to receive and for inviting me into this space. It's been a pleasure really.

Speaker 1: 43:42

Yeah.