Gut Check: Healing Through Food with Charis Sederberg

What's Aliye cooking this week? 5 quick & delicious high-protein meals!
[Grab the recipes here]

Have you ever wondered how to truly nourish your body from the inside out, especially when you're on a healing journey? 

My guest today is Charis Sederberg, a former oncology nurse turned certified nutrition therapy practitioner. Charis supports her clients to achieve optimal health by helping them establish their priorities for healing through her Prime To Nourish Foundations model. 

Whether you're looking to improve your wellness or navigating a health challenge, Charis is here to show us how to prioritize the body’s essential functions for lasting, meaningful transformation. 

Snap a screenshot of the episode playing on your device, post it to your Instagram Stories and tag us, @soulspacechef, @primetonourish. We’d love to hear what resonated with you the most!

In this episode you’ll hear:

• How and why an oncology nurse turned to holistic nutrition therapy to support her health
• Why good digestion and gut health is essential for healing
• Why body awareness is crucial for a better quality of life
• The foundational tenets of health that need to be dialed in before any new diet or medicine will help
• The one thing that people ignore that is the foundation of good digestion
• Why fat is essential in our diets
• Nervous system resilience and its role in our gut health
• What is Yoga Nidra and how it can help with our digestion
• Why a healthy gut is essential for a high-protein diet
• Why animal-based protein is superior for high-protein diets
• How to tell if you’re not digesting proteins properly
• Why SITTING is important when you eat
• The one simple step to start with to improve your digestion

Links:

For more on how to restore your digestion with Charis click here, or visit her website here. 

Links:

• Aliye's cooking videos: Watch now on Youtube
• FREE High-Protein Meals Training

Transcript

Aliye Aydin: All So, I'm here with Carara Cederberg and she is a nutritional therapy practitioner and…

Aliye Aydin: I would love to know a little bit more about what that is. Those are some great words. Can you explain with what nutrition therapy practitioner is? What a person that has that title does? Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: Yeah, absolutely.

Charis Sederberg: Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here with you today. so I am also a  I was an oncology nurse, took care of cancer patients my nursing career and my own health was really suffering and I couldn't get answers and the medical model and so I went to the nutrition therapy institute which is a holistic nutrition therapy school in Denver, Colorado for my nutrition education.  So, I also have a bachelor's degree in exercise science and I took a lot of nutrition back then. That was, fresh out of high school basically. And so, I've always had a nutrition knowledge, but I just felt called to go to the nutrition therapy institute. And really, when I went there, my goal was to heal my own body. I really had no intention of helping anyone else with it.

Charis Sederberg: and then while I was in school, just kind my mind was blown to be honest. I mean, I had a lot of education about how the body works, physiology, disease process, and I just couldn't believe some of the things I was learning, and it really has changed and shaped the way that I view health. so it's been kind of fun.  So really a nutrition therapy practitioner is a holistic practitioner who views the body in an integrated way. So in medicine a lot of times we're trying to separate everything out.

Charis Sederberg: you have a doctor for every system And a lot of times, we struggle with that because really the reality is that our body is intimately connected and you really can't separate one system or organ from another. And so that makes things very complex and hard to treat. And so I can understand why medicine wants to kind of have things in their nice little box. But the reality is that our body is very connected. And so really that's what nutrition therapy practitioners do is they don't practice medical nutrition therapy. That is something done by a registered dietitian or a licensed nutrition professional.

Charis Sederberg: What we practice really is that holistic view of the body and how you can use nutrition to supplement your health or support your health. That's really the goal. Yeah, that's a good question.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah, I love that.

Aliye Aydin: So, is that what people come to you with is how do people come to you they've hit the end of their road on something or they have been told they have to eat a certain way? what tends to bring people you to seek you out?

Charis Sederberg: Really, the majority of my clients either come to me through a referral from a previous client or someone that I know that knows what I do. but most of the people that come to me either hear about me or find me on the internet is because they have kind of failed that western medical model.  they have gone through treatments, they have gone through meds, and things haven't worked for them. And so they're just kind of frustrated and they don't know what to do. And so that they've heard there's a lot of great information out there now, which is awesome. And they've heard that, maybe diet would help holistic way of viewing health would help. And so they're curious. And so I would say how the majority of people come to me is and That was my story.

Charis Sederberg: I went to nutrition school to heal my own body. I had all the tests, I tried all the meds, everything and nothing worked for me. And so I really had to go down that journey of figuring it out. And so that is why I started my practice is to help other people. And really most of my practice has been focused on digestion. That was my problem. I just didn't digest food very well. And so that's really something that I specialize in. However, and as I mentioned already, digestion is integrated with everything else. And so, it's a great focal point and…

Charis Sederberg: a lot of people know about the gut now and the importance of gut health and really digestion is just a component of gut health. but that process we can ignore.

Aliye Aydin: So, how can people like we talked about awareness earlier,…

Aliye Aydin: whether or not you're aware of How does a lack of good digestion come up? Is it necessarily pain or…

Aliye Aydin: are there other symptoms that could be happening besides just, my stomach hurts. I might not have digested that very well. what are kind of like key things you might be looking for or asking a client or potential client in that realm.

00:05:00

Charis Sederberg: Right. Yeah,…

Charis Sederberg: I think that's such a great question. So, really a couple so many thoughts.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah, I know.

Charis Sederberg: Maybe I'll start.

Aliye Aydin: I know. It's hard to pick.

Charis Sederberg: 

Charis Sederberg: It's okay. I'll start with this. So I think that unfortunately sometimes people get told that's fine if you maybe have a bowel movement once or twice a week. and people are meaning I think but at the end of the day what is normal and healthy for our bodies is to have at least one bowel movement every day. So it's a perfect example.  People come to me and they say, " I go less often or I go more often." Is that good? I've just, had my life structured around this. people who have IBS and, have to be close to a bathroom. I work from home now and that's how I manage it. And my answer to them is, you don't have to suffer with that.

Charis Sederberg: These things are, I hate to use the word normal, but the reality is you don't have to have this situation. And while you have over the time, whether it's months or years, just evolved to deal with this situation, that doesn't have to be your reality.

Aliye Aydin: What I

Charis Sederberg: And so awareness is partially feeling in your gut that something is not that you don't just have to spend the next 40 years of your life not traveling or working from home or whatever because you have IBS for example and so I think that's part of awareness also anytime you have a symptom that's really your body's way of telling you that something is happening and so sure you might eat something and it doesn't sit well with you and maybe you just get kind of a tummy ache or like you said

Charis Sederberg: or something like that, but that doesn't happen every day or every time you eat. We're looking at more of consistency and trouble on a consistent basis.

Aliye Aydin: All right.

Charis Sederberg: So, people who have consistent bowel irregularity, that is just not acceptable. people don't have to live with that. And so that was those two things I think are probably the most important things for awareness. It's just having the expectation that you can h have a better life in that way and that doesn't have to run your life. I think about a client of mine that was a high-profile attorney and he literally would never schedule any meetings until the afternoon because he said he basically spent the entire morning on the toilet because he was so constipated.

Aliye Aydin: My gosh. Yeah. Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: So, think about the impact of that on someone's life, on his work life. to me that's just not acceptable. So he had just kind of shoved it under the carpet and…

Charis Sederberg: I think a lot of people do that. And so I try and empower people to be like, "No, this is not how I'm going to live and let's figure out what's going on here." Right.

Aliye Aydin: Right. Yeah.

Aliye Aydin: So step one even encouraging that isn't normal there is an answer. We don't have to be uncomfort Right.

Charis Sederberg: And sometimes people, I took care of cancer patients that had a lot of GI surgeries and they may have had parts of their different bells, large intestine removed and absolutely that impacts your digestion, but that's kind of like the new normal and so we have to again optimize that new normal or someone who has their gallbladder out like those are things you're never going to get back.  But at the end of the day, people are suffering needlessly and it just doesn't need to happen.

Aliye Aydin: So, you talked about the foundations of as being really important to health and I really loved that idea because I think it's so true and I have witness this in people they'll maybe try a new food or…

Aliye Aydin: try something that's supposed to be healthy or that's supposed to help them and they'll go, " that didn't work for me." And they try it once and then they're like, " that didn't work for me." And what I love about the foundational thing is you're like, look, you're going to say this better, but if you're taking say a medicine that's supposed to help you or doing something that's supposed to help you, but your foundations are really not there, then that thing isn't going to help you. you have to really get those foundations. Tell me what those foundations were. They were sleep and some other things.

Charis Sederberg: Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: Really kind of like my main tenants for my practice and…

Aliye Aydin: I think

Charis Sederberg: what I support people with when I work with them. and this may surprise you a little bit, but the first one is really circadian rhythm. And the reason for that is because our body operates on a 24ish hour clock,…

00:10:00

Charis Sederberg: And so we've seen that in the literature in the studies with people who do shift work and then their health is greatly impact So we know that it can be very detrimental. But it literally affects everything. It affects your mood, your neurotransmitters, your hormones, your digestion. And so I love in using that integrated into what we do…

Aliye Aydin: Right. Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: because it's just a foundational tenant.

Aliye Aydin: All right.

Charis Sederberg: The other things are So obviously I consider myself a digestion expert. I help people very intimately with that. Really the digestive process is from beginning to Really it starts in your brain. But if you think about it starting in your mouth with chewing that is where the chemical part of digestion starts and…

Aliye Aydin: Okay.

Charis Sederberg: then it finishes at the other end. And so every step sets up the next step. So if you have poor chewing then you're going to have poor stomach digestion and then it just goes down the line.  And so that's really the way to kind of think about your digestion. I can give you a link for a free tool that you can offer to your audience also. it just is great way to create awareness and understanding about your own digestion. And so that's really the second part.

Charis Sederberg: Nutrition obviously is intimately involved and I really talk about nutrition in a much different way than A lot of people talk about macros and yes we know that vitamins and minerals are really important…

Charis Sederberg: but really macronutrients are where the energy comes from and…

Aliye Aydin: Mhm. Right.

Charis Sederberg: and some nutrients too but really nutrients are what run your body. Every biochemical process in your body relies on vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fatty acids. Our cells are literally made from fatty acids. you won't have proper cellular function if you don't have appropriate fat in your diet, for example.

Aliye Aydin: And this is what I try to tell people who are afraid of fat. still because I'll be like and then you add the fat to the dish and people are like, " can we add a little less or do I have to use that?" and I'm like, "Yes, you have to use it from a chef's perspective." I'm like,…

Charis Sederberg: Yeah. Yeah.

Aliye Aydin: "Because it tastes better." And then I'm like, "And I know it's better for you." I mean, I'm not talking about gobs and…

Aliye Aydin: gobs of fat or deep frying things necessarily, but people still have that fear of fat that I think is left over from years of us being told that fat is bad for us, right?

Charis Sederberg: It is so true.

Charis Sederberg: My god.

Charis Sederberg: I mean, that's how I grew up, It's just my generation or…

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. They're not true anymore.

Charis Sederberg: my, I'm 53. So, yeah, just fear of fat. So paranoid fat The fat causes heart disease and cholesterol. We know that those things aren't true. Even though a lot of people still operate under those thoughts and so the thing is that we have to be bringing those nutrients into our diet but we also have to be absorbing them. So a lot of people are familiar with the saying we are what we eat, but really we have to take it a step further and…

Aliye Aydin: Right. Right. Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: we have to absorb those nutrients so our body can utilize them for every process and that is part of digestion. and then another thing that I really focus on that people often don't even think of is nervous system resilience.  And I've kind of gone round and round about what to call this. And I just keep coming back to nervous system resilience because it really is just your ability to handle the day-to-day stressors and then also the big stressors that happen too. And so it's your nervous system's ability to withstand the pressure or the stress of that because your gut and your brain are intimately connected together.

Charis Sederberg: And so what I see a lot in digestion is people who have disregulated nervous systems,…

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Right. Right.

Charis Sederberg: which was I mean, that was really a big part of my digestive problem is they just don't digest food very well because we have a sympathetic nervous system and a parasympathetic nervous system and we literally can't digest food when we're in a sympathetic tone.  And our body doesn't know that there's no lions that we're running from. we're not fighting for our lives anymore out in the wild like that. our stressors are different now. And so figuring out how to regulate that. And that comes back to awareness, too.  And that was probably the thing that took me the longest to figure out for myself is that I really did have some pretty significant dysfunction in my resilience and I needed to figure out how to support myself and on a daily basis.

Charis Sederberg: And so a lot of people think that this is, meditating every day and it might be that, but I really try and help people find things that they enjoy that are actionable that are kind of a short little list of things like I'm feeling really disregulated or…

00:15:00

Charis Sederberg: I just found some bad news out or whatever the case is. What do I need right now for my body?

Aliye Aydin: Yeah, I think that's so huge.

Charis Sederberg: Excuse me. Yeah, exactly.

Aliye Aydin: I realized a couple years ago that I think I'd been disregulated for my entire life. I didn't even understand it. I just thought it was normal. And then I started working with a coach not in nutrition and other emotional relationship stuff and learning more about the nervous system. I was like, "Wait, but this is normal." She's like, "No, that is not normal. You don't have to feel like that all the time." And that was just like for me.

Aliye Aydin: And I totally agree with you about doing the small things to regulate our nervous system. I'm not good at sitting down and being like, I'm going to meditate.

Aliye Aydin: I'm more like, okay, I'm going to stop and take 10 deep breaths, which is totally doable,…

Charis Sederberg: Yeah, totally.

Charis Sederberg: And so when you were talking about before trying one thing,…

Aliye Aydin: right? Right.

Charis Sederberg: 

Charis Sederberg: and being like, " that didn't work." I think the other thing that people really have to get behind and understand is that these are things like that we're doing that we need to have consistency and we need to give it a chance because none of the things that we are struggling with whether it's symptoms or conditions or diseases nothing happened overnight I mean this has all been going on for many many years and so we have to give our bodies a chance

Charis Sederberg: to kind of feel the support and then lean into that. And I think my best example about that is that I love to practice yoga nidra.

Charis Sederberg: I don't know if you know what that is, but yeah.

Aliye Aydin: Not exactly.

Aliye Aydin: Why don't you share for people who don't

Charis Sederberg: And I can send you the link for the YouTube channel that I like. it's just a free channel. basically, yoga nidra, a lot of people also call it non-sleep deep rest. I think Andrew Huberman who has a podcast talked about it in that way. they've done lots of studies on it. It's not yoga. It's basically laying in a comfortable position and doing kind of like a guided I mean you might call it a meditation. It probably depends on what type you're listening to.  The one I listen to or the woman that I follow the most closely is probably more like a guided not really visualization because you're not trying to, get the You're trying to give the brain a rest. And so you're just following her cues and she's talking a lot about body parts.

Charis Sederberg: And so, it's like knee, ankle, toe, and it sounds if you were listening to it from the outside, you'd be like, "What the heck?" But it is the most calming and relaxing thing. And especially when you're conditioned to do it. So, I did it very sporadically and I was kind of in that camp where I don't know if it really helps me or not. And I was kind of forced into a position where I had to take care of myself. And my husband said to me, why don't you just do a yoga nidra every day? And I was like, okay, I can do a 10-minute yoga nidra, right? I mostly work from home. I have that, but I have a lot of clients who work out of their home and do yoga nidra. So, you can really do it anywhere. and…

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: when I was consistent after about two weeks, it was a complete game changer for me. I kind of have a lot of stress in my life right now and my mom is on hospice and I can have kind of a rough day with her, just sad and emotional. I do a yoga nidra and it's like a complete reset. My body knows that that is kind of like the safe place for me to turn off my brain, turn off my emotions, just give myself some rest is really a lot of what it is.

Charis Sederberg: even if it's for 10 or 15 minutes. So, I have my husband hooked on it now. I recommend it to everyone because I think and it's funny because I kind of feel the same way you feel about meditation and I know a lot of meditation teachers that are like, you don't have to be perfect. we're all perfectionistic. We have all the thoughts pop in our head, but that's okay. yeah, I understand that and get that. But the thing with yoga nidra is like you don't I never feel that way.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: I never feel like turned on from it. It only just downregulates me. and I heard someone suggest to me once to do it about eight hours after you woke up. because another thing that I've really struggled with in my life that's much improved in my school years is sleep. And sleep kind of falls into that circadian rhythm category because obviously we spend a good amount of our 24 hours sleeping or we should be. And so it's profoundly impacted my sleep in a positive way.

00:20:00

Charis Sederberg: And I know that that's just the downregulation of my nervous system. yeah.

Aliye Aydin: I love that.

Aliye Aydin: I love this because I've been doing a practice like that for a while, but I didn't know it had a name. It's something I kind of came to on my own. it's very much a present moment thing, It's like I can feel the breath coming in and out. And I completely relate to what you're saying about how it feels. And I'm like, " it has a name. That's really cool. I never know it was a thing." Yoga nitra.

Charis Sederberg: Yeah. Yeah.

Aliye Aydin: I'll have to look that up.

Charis Sederberg: I love it.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: I mean, it's just and find So, finding that thing for you is what's really important. And so, I kind of have this short list of things.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: I also love the float tank, which is a saltwater float tank. Obviously, that's not something that you're going to go do every day.

Charis Sederberg: I don't have the ability to do that, but that is kind of one of those things on my list. When I'm feeling kind of fried, I go and do that. And that is a complete nervous system reset for me too.

Aliye Aydin: That's cool.

Aliye Aydin: I love it.

Charis Sederberg: So I think that that's a great actionable thing that people can do is build that awareness for what you need. The breathing that you mentioned is amazing. Doing yoga nidra. I think going outside is really important. I mean even if you're in the city or somewhere, it doesn't have to be in Nature is a bonus. But go outside breathe fresh air, look at the sun, don't hurt your eyes, but the change of scenery is really important too. We kind of get into this little cocoon in our day…

Charis Sederberg: where we're just like work go and taking those breaks is just really important.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah, it's so true.

Aliye Aydin: It's so true. I wanted to switch gears a little bit back to so I have a high protein meal membership for women over 40 and I was thinking about this back when you were talking about digestion. sometimes the issue comes that it's a digestion issue.

Aliye Aydin: They want to do it. They're like,…

Charis Sederberg: Love. Absolutely.

Aliye Aydin: "This sounds great." And then suddenly they're like, " I guess I don't because I focus on animal protein." They're like, " maybe I guess I just don't digest meat very well." And then that's kind of where the journey stops. And I'm like, " gut healing is a thing." And so, can you talk a little bit more about a foundational journey with that might look like?

Aliye Aydin: If you start eating more protein and then you're noticing your digestive unrest, what are things that you can do to continue on that journey, not just give it up completely?

Charis Sederberg: So, this is really common.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: I would say 98% of my clients don't eat enough protein. I mean, I think I don't work with a ton of men, but it is just across the board.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yep.

Charis Sederberg: And I think that sometimes, and I would say that I have some vegetarian clients that self- select away from animal protein, not as for an ethical reason, but for the lack of digestion. they don't even realize it that they're not digesting animal protein. So, they try and shift towards plant proteins.  And you probably know that plant protein, you're just going to get way more calories trying to get the same amount of nutrition and amino acid profile that you get from animal protein. So, I'm a huge animal protein advocate. obviously, as high as quality as you can get is important.

Charis Sederberg: And really, I think people are so worried about protein too…

Charis Sederberg: because they think, my kidneys and this and that, but it's really not that big of a concern if you're in that kind of moderate range. And so when you're saying high, it's probably really more like a moderate,…

Aliye Aydin: Yeah, I'm saying 30 grams.

Aliye Aydin: I'm saying 30 grams per meal.

Charis Sederberg: right? No.

Aliye Aydin: That's where I start because I'm not a nutrition. I'm just like and that's how I write my recipes is 30 grams per serving of animal-based protein.

Charis Sederberg: That is totally appropriate for really anyone.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Right.

Charis Sederberg: Unless you're talking kids, but you're talking adults.

Aliye Aydin: No, I'm talking women over 40 adults.

Charis Sederberg: And so yeah, so that's very appropriate.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Charis Sederberg: AIM gives you all the amino acids. And that's the beauty of animal protein, Is like you don't even have to think about that.  And so you know that you're nourished and your blood sugar is going to be balanced and your metabolism is going to function optimally at that level. And so the thing with digestion and protein is that there's two things to think about. So really stomach digestion is where protein digestion starts. So you have to have a proper amount of stomach acid to be able to break down protein. that's just the bottom line.

00:25:00

Charis Sederberg: And really the way the body works is that really what the food is called when it's in your stomach is called kime. And so when your kime is at a proper acidity, it's been digested. That kind of churn and burn that we know that our stomach does. it opens the door to go into the small intestine is that and that's where the small intestine is pulling out vitamins and minerals and amino acids and fatty acids and absorbing them for use in the body.  And if protein isn't digested properly, it's going to sit in your stomach for months because it's not meant to be in the stomach for long periods of time and your body can't break it down. And so people often get burping after they eat, I don't know, immediately to an hour after. also people get kind of indigestion.

Charis Sederberg: I call it high bloating, which feels more like stomach bloating.

Charis Sederberg: Those are kind of more of the symptoms that people feel or they just eat red meat or something that's a little bit harder to break down and they're like, " it just feels a big glob in my stomach." Those are all signs that you probably aren't digesting protein very well.

Aliye Aydin: right? Mhm.

Charis Sederberg: So I would say step number one is to back up and think about how much you're chewing your food. And so really,…

Aliye Aydin: Totally. We did that in culinary school one lesson that she was three times and…

Charis Sederberg: the recommendation for chewing is 20 to 30 times a bite. I mean,…

Aliye Aydin: we're all sitting there chewing like are you kidding me?

Charis Sederberg: so awkward.

Aliye Aydin: It disappears…

Charis Sederberg: Yeah. Yeah.

Aliye Aydin: though when you do that totally.

Charis Sederberg: It turns into mush, which a lot of people can't handle from a texture.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. True.

Aliye Aydin: I love it.

Charis Sederberg: So yeah,…

Charis Sederberg: so the way I approach chewing with people is getting into that parasympathetic state. So really to shift into the rest and digest, you have to go from running around in your day to sitting down and being able to digest. So a lot of times it can just be shifting.  And this is a practice you can do with doing some box breathing, doing some just general deep breaths and really kind of slowing down. Those things are the things that are going to help cue your body. if you do that one time, it's probably not going to do very much. But if you do that every single time you eat, within a week or so, your body is going to be queued to do that. So that's really like step one.

Charis Sederberg: Step two is chewing thoroughly. So, what I tell people is figure out how much you're chewing now. So, if you're chewing your food and meat five times now, then try and double that and just work on that and get to a point where you feel really good about the amount of times that you're chewing.

Charis Sederberg: I live in a house with a bunch of really fast eaters. I have two teenage boys and my husband, I mean, had four brothers and everyone eats really fast and…

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Love it.

Charis Sederberg: so we make a joke of it and it's like a competition which works really well with boys and who can finish last. I always win but they're always vying for seconds, So, make it fun with the people that you're eating with.

Aliye Aydin: right. Yeah. Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: and just focus on one meal, because it seems overwhelming to try and do multiple meals, or Just focus on one meal. And so that's a great place to start. So I would say a lot of times when people focus on this and really give it the intention that it takes, they notice a difference within a week or two. And then, if you need stomach acid support, if you need digestive enzyme support, you can use those types of products for short periods of time because what it does is it gives your body the ability to digest better and then you can absorb the nutrients that you need to build the enzymes that you're trying that you're replacing. And so then you gradually just kind of wean off of it and…

Charis Sederberg: you're like, wow. I can digest protein." but for example, I digest fish and poultry really well. I have no problem. The red meat, I just need a little bit of support. So, I usually take a little bit of …

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: which is basically stomach acid, when I eat a steak or something like that, which isn't super often, but I enjoy eating it. And so, I'm not going to stop eating it. And I just know that my body needs a little bit of help.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah, I love that. And that's exactly what you were talking about.

Aliye Aydin: The first thing you went to is chew your food, not take a supplement, Because there's things that we can absolutely do because I think people get kind of like, " no, my digest is not working. When am I supposed to do? Okay, it's time to call the doctor." And the next thing you know, you're in this kind of rabbit hole of, " shoot." When maybe just chewing your food a little bit more or sitting down.

Charis Sederberg: Right. Right.

00:30:00

Charis Sederberg: Yeah. Absolutely.

Aliye Aydin: Sitting down is such a big one.

Aliye Aydin: We spend so many times just shoving food in our mouth while not even sitting.

Charis Sederberg: Yeah. I have a lot of clients who are women who are dropping kids off at school or go in the morning and…

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Right.

Charis Sederberg: so they often drink like a smoothie or a protein shake or something like that. And so I don't really try and talk them out of that because I think that that's kind of a big shift and hard to wrap your head around if you're trying to get three kids to school or…

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: something like that. And so I just challenge them to make that last longer. So, the perfect example is I had this client who had horrible bloating and IBS and she would literally barely make it through her drop off rotation and have to come home and run to the bathroom while she's drinking the smoothie. And so I said, why don't you just make it last through the whole thing? When you get home, you just finish it because even…

Charis Sederberg: though eating in the car isn't ideal, that was part of her day." So, we literally just started doing that. Within a week, she has no more issue anymore.

Aliye Aydin: I love it.

Charis Sederberg: she's not slamming the smoothie, And that's like a protein powder that's already broken down. And so her body just wasn't able to handle that. And we're not designed to eat things quickly. So, …

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Right.

Charis Sederberg: there's all kinds of little tweaks and things you can try and do, but I would just say don't give up. It's kind of like if you ever try to get kids to try new foods, you would never just stop with one time. that as a chef your pallet needs 10 to 12 or however many times, right? …

Aliye Aydin: Right. Right.

Charis Sederberg: so my favorite thing I used to always tell my kids when they were little and they tell me all the time now, in fact, my youngest just used it on me last night because they made him and my husband made something with mushrooms and I don't like mushrooms. I don't like the texture of mushrooms.

Charis Sederberg: I ate a couple of them, But he's like,…

Aliye Aydin: Love it when they do that.

Charis Sederberg: Maybe you haven't eaten it enough times yet. You don't know that it's could be your favorite food. All right.

Aliye Aydin: All right. at least you've been listening to me.

Charis Sederberg: Exactly. So, …

Aliye Aydin: That's super cute.

Charis Sederberg: I would say just be conscious. and give yourself a chance I'm going to give this two to four weeks and really try and…

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah,…

Charis Sederberg: institute some of these little things into your practice.

Aliye Aydin: I love that.

Aliye Aydin: And I think that ties in nicely to what you're talking about knowing your why. sometimes I wonder if people get into healthy eating because they know they're supposed to, but they're kind of They're like, "Ugh, I have to do this healthy eating thing." and…

Charis Sederberg: Yes. my gosh.

Aliye Aydin: it's never going to last if you're being told you have to do it, right?

Aliye Aydin: You really have to come to your own which could be so many things I feel I what are some other things better health diagnosis? Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: This is so personal for me. when I first kind of how I got into thinking that nutrition was going to help me was that I did a Whole 30. And so, a lot of people might be familiar with the Whole 30 elimination diet. And it took me three months to wrap my head around doing this, which is kind of ridiculous, Because I didn't want to give up dairy. I was in love with dairy. I had to have the cheese. how could I go through a whole day without that, much less 30 days. And so when I finally did it and I realized that that was really a big part of my problem that I just don't digest dairy very well, I think initially I was like,…

Aliye Aydin: Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: okay, 30 days, that's it. I'm just reintroducing the dairy. But it didn't go well and my system wasn't ready for it again. And I finally just had to sit down with myself and be like, what is here? is your goal to go back and forth because no one's giving you the telling you to give up the dairy? And I just said, maybe I just need to give it more time. Maybe I'm going to do it for six months. So, I just told myself, I'm doing it for six months. I'm going dairyfree. I was already totally off milk and creamer and all that.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: It really was cheese. And so I just told myself, I'm just not eating it right now. And I'm supporting my body. I know my body doesn't like dairy. I feel a lot better. My symptoms are a ton better. And so I'm just going to give it a little bit longer and allow my body to heal. And that was what I needed. I needed to be off it a little bit longer. And I tell people now I can have ice cream, which before I could never even have ice cream without some enzymes. And even that didn't really help me very much. But for I just say four times a year when my husband and…

Charis Sederberg: my kids and myself have birthdays, I want ice cream and we make homemade ice cream and I eat the ice cream and I'm fine. It's no big deal.

00:35:00

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: And then every now and then I'll have some goat cheese and that's all I really want, But it had to be that kind of mature conversation with myself of is this really that big of a deal? I think you're making it into way bigger of a deal. You are.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: and to understand the emotional connection, right? Yeah.

Aliye Aydin: I was just going to say that. Yeah. It's the emotional connection we have to these foods playing such a huge role.

Charis Sederberg: And mean, I think in some ways it's okay to have that to food.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah, totally.

Charis Sederberg: I mean, it's such a personal experience, a cultural experience, but at the end of the day, what I really wanted is to feel better and to improve my health. And I had horrible sinus infections. I was constantly on antibiotics.  I mean, I was just kind of a hot mess. And so, it changed everything for me. And then it also gave me the confidence to just stand up for myself, too, right? And know that I could affect my own health. And then that was just the catalyst for me to keep going. And so, my boys will sometimes say to me, " I'm sorry you can't have this cheesecake."

Charis Sederberg: And it's like I just choose not to eat the cheesecake, or I'll have a tiny little bite or something and…

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah.

Charis Sederberg: I'm satisfied with that. So, yeah.

Aliye Aydin: I love that. That's why I think food is so powerful it is so multi-layered. It's nutritional. It's all the things. And it's not so simple as just giving something up. I had the same experience with coffee, too. I started getting really sensitive to caffeine. I have a really strong emotional attachment to coffee being half Turkish and…

Aliye Aydin: I was like I just can't give up coffee. And then it was exactly the same thing what do I want here? Do I want to feel really terrible or do I want to actually feel better and what's the price here? And so yeah.

Charis Sederberg: Yeah. Right.

Charis Sederberg: And the same I would say coffee is really popular with that and also wine or alcohol. And I think the thing is once you do it for a period of time and…

Charis Sederberg: you decide you're just doing it for yourself. You're not doing it because Caris asked you to do it or anyone else. You're just doing it and then you just again have awareness and notice what has changed for you, …

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah.

Aliye Aydin: I love that.

Charis Sederberg: and that's the game changer.

Aliye Aydin: I agree. How can people get a hold of you…

Aliye Aydin: if they want to work with you or know more about what you do and that's on Instagram.

Charis Sederberg: So, my practice is called Prime to Nourish.

Charis Sederberg: So, P R I M T O and then the word just like it sounds. And you can send me a message there. I talk to people on free discovery calls. yeah. Yeah, I'm always happy to do that. I'm on Instagram at prime to nourish is my handle also. so yeah, I love chatting with people and trying to help them, guide them. I think it's kind of the nurse in me, too. I didn't really realize when I went to nursing school that nurses were teachers.

Aliye Aydin: I love that.

Charis Sederberg: And so, I think once I kind of embodied that, I was like, " I love talking to people and helping guide them a little bit," I also have a great service that's called, an audit. And so basically, you just fill out some information about yourself and everything you're going through and I give you my recommendations in a recorded video. And so it's a low price point. really easy barrier to entry. People really seem to love it. And then if we end up working together past that, you can just apply what you paid towards your package.

Charis Sederberg: And it's just a good way to kind of get a taste of a little bit of what I do and how I would recommend things for you.

Aliye Aydin: Yeah. Yeah.

Aliye Aydin: Taking the first step. I love that.

Charis Sederberg: Yeah. Yeah.

Aliye Aydin: Thank you so much for being a guest. I appreciate it.

Charis Sederberg: No problem. Super fun.