The Life Diet 365 is not a ONE-TIME Detox

What happens when you wake up one day and realize you’ve spent years pouring into everybody else… while slowly losing yourself in the process?

In this deeply personal episode of The Life Diet 365 Podcast, Ms. StraightTalk shares the real reason behind writing her book The Life Diet 365: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of You and creating the podcast.

This isn’t just a conversation about toxic people.
It’s about emotional survival.

It’s about recognizing how burnout, people-pleasing, stress, negative environments, emotional chaos, and unhealthy relationships can quietly drain your identity, your peace, and your purpose.

Suzan opens up about losing herself while constantly being strong for everyone else… and how she eventually realized that just like the body sometimes needs a detox, our lives do too.

Because not everyone connected to you is assigned to help you grow.
Some people are attached to your life only to discourage you, distract you, drain you, or keep you stuck.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• Why The Life Diet 365 is more than a book — it’s a lifestyle shift
• How emotional and relational “detoxing” can change your life
• The hidden cost of carrying dead weight, toxic patterns, and constant pressure
• Why protecting your future self sometimes requires difficult boundaries
• How saying “no” became an act of self-preservation instead of guilt

This episode is for the listener who feels exhausted from overextending, overlooked while over giving, and ready to finally pursue themselves again.

Every time you say no to what drains you…you finally say yes to your peace.

Check out my 2017 TEDx "The Gift of No"  https://bit.ly/thegiftofno2017

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello and welcome to the Life Diet 365 Podcast, the place where we detox the pressure, the people pleasing, and the patterns that keep us overwhelmed. I'm your host, Miss Straight Talk, and I keep my model simple. I'm not here to change your mind, I only want to offer you another perspective. And here's the truth: it doesn't take an hour-long conversation to create a shift in thinking. So whether you're driving to work, sitting in traffic, taking a lunch break, or trying to decompress after a long day, for the next 15 minutes, this is your opportunity to breathe, reset, reflect, and reclaim yourself. So exhale, release the pressure, and let's get into it. Okay, here we are, another episode of the Life Diet 365 podcast. And today's episode, I'm just gonna talk to you about the birthing of the Life Diet 365. The birthing comes from me writing a book. The book is titled The Life Diet 365: Life Liberty in the Pursuit of You. And the reason why I wrote this book was because I think I was dealing with some things in my life that I was trying to pretend that I wasn't dealing with, or some things were happening to me, and I was trying to pretend that they weren't happening to me. I was taking the position that, oh, I got this. Nobody's taking advantage of me. There's no negative people uh in my life. There's and I said, no, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let's sit down and put this pen to paper. And it really kind of evolved as a result of me looking back over my life at this certain period of time in my life. I had uh been a part of a uh large ministry in my city. I had actually been an employee, part of this the leadership staff, and it was it was a lot. I really loved it. I enjoyed the people, I made some great relationships, but when you kind of go behind the scenes in a lot of these large ministries, and that's not what this podcast is about, but I'm talking about my experience, you get to see some things that you would never imagine that you would see behind the scenes or hear things or see things. And I realized when I look back over the time that I had spent, especially as a staff member, that I had lost a part of myself. I had lost that part of me that was, you know, being very social. I was hanging out with my friends, I was just being me and just having fun with life. And as a member of staff, you know, you become stifled. Everything becomes about the ministry, about what's on the calendar, about the next event, about the next conference, about this guest minister, this guest artist. And it was so much that when I when I reflected on that, I realized I had lost a part of me and who I was. And I think that my husband was able to see it, but when you're in something and you're really entrenched in it, you don't really see what the people on the outside see. And I think I finally saw it. And then, you know, then I I have adult children, and there were things going on with that. And you, you know, when you're a mom, you're just you're always trying to protect and cover, protect and cover and be there. But I had to even take a step back, even with my children, to say, hey, you know what? I've done my part, I've done all I could and I can. And now you just have to figure this part out. So I think that the writing of this book was, you know, a culmination of some things that were going on in my life. And so just a couple of the table of contents was taking back my life, the detox, the cleanse, um, abusive relationships, negative thoughts and people, and you know, just a bunch of other things. So, but today I want to kind of give you the history or the backdrop of why the Life Diet 365 evolved, because you know, it's not about just saying no, you know, and that's really hard for some people to say no. It's not about just saying no, it's about survival, self-preservation, and protecting your future self from emotional pollution. And I believe that's where I had gotten to. And so, and I think that's how I got to this point of you know, a self-care message, um, perspective, and coaching and leading folks to say, hey, you know, let me think about these situations in a whole nother light. So this is why I wrote the Life Diet 365. And people hear the word diet, I cringe, I cringe, I cringe, I cringe, and immediately think about food, calories, or weight loss. But the life diet 365 is not about food, it's about people, emotional clutter, toxic environments, negative thoughts, and the exhausting weight of caring relationships that's draining life that was draining the life out of me. These things may be draining the life out of you. So as I talk about this, reflecting on me, I want, I may I may say you, I may say me, I may say us, but just know that as you listen, see how this may apply, what parts of it may apply to your life. So in all of this, suddenly I realized something. I I really did. It came to me, and I said, everybody and everything connected to me, everything and everybody connected to you is either feeding your purpose or feeding your stress. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It's feeding your purpose or it's feeding your stress, and only you get to kind of sit down and weigh in on where it may fall. So the Life Diet 365 was born, like I said, from my own personal awakening, and I started recognizing patterns in my life, patterns of overextending myself and losing myself at the same time. Now, I I don't understand how that could happen. I'm overextending myself and I'm losing myself, but I guess it became easy because I made it normal. I made that experience normal. You know, there are patterns of staying connected to people whose only contribution to my life was confusion, negativity, guilt, criticism, emotional exhaustion. And the hardest truth I had to accept was everybody connected to me is not assigned to my destiny. So I'm gonna say that again, but I'm gonna say it to you. Everybody connected to you is not assigned to your destiny. And I know we like to hold on to people and hold on to relationships for various reasons. We hold on to people because that's our longtime friend, that's our cousin, that's our sister. This person was there for me when I really needed them. But sometimes people are placed in our life just for a certain season. You know, summer can't try to hang out during the winter because it ain't its season. It's it's it's winter time. It can't skip a whole season and just hang out in the winter. I think you get my point. So some and here's the thing to realize some people are only attached to my comfort zone. And what I mean when I say that is if I'm comfortable in a space, if I don't want to advance any further, if I don't want my life to be different, if I don't want to see things in it from a different perspective, and it benefits another person, they love that. They are attached to the fact that I'm comfortable and not growing. People are attached to you because they are comfortable with you not growing. Some people are attached for the availability, that the fact that you know I was always available, I say yes, and I'm like, yeah, okay, I'll be there for you. I can do that. I can because it goes back to a previous episode where where what we do, our value is attached to what we do for people. And I had realized that some of that was happening in my life as well. Some are attached to um the inability for you to say no. And like I just said, I'm I'm just trying to be a helper, I'm just trying to be there for folks. And and then there's this there's where people benefit from the fact that we don't have any boundaries. And sometimes I I believe we think that we have boundaries, but we have to sit down and assess what is my boundary when it comes to this? What is my boundary when it comes to this person? What is my boundary when it comes to my work relationships, my social organization? What are my boundaries? There's gonna be different boundaries for different people and for different things. That's why I say the life diet is not a one-time detox, it's daily awareness because toxic people don't always announce themselves. They don't come into the room telling them some, hey, I'm a negative person. Hey, I'm gonna just not, I'm gonna drain you, I'm gonna use you up for all. Mm-mm. They don't announce themselves. Sometimes they show up as somebody that's always negative. You know who that is. You know who he or she is. Whenever you come up with an idea or something you say you want to do, they always come up with why it can't happen. Are you sure you want to do that? Do you think that you is that safe? Maybe you shouldn't. Sometimes you you just have to say, okay, well, you know what, let me just walk this thing out. Sometimes they show up um as manipulation disguised as love, guilt disguised as loyalty, criticism disguised as honesty. That is a big one because sometimes it can be our family members or our closest people in our lives that will have that criticism designed, um, disguised as honesty. So your job is, my job is to make sure that we're always listening, we're always in tune with how people are reacting, how they're responding. What are they saying? How are they saying it? This is how you get to sift through and figure out who's who and what's what. And then sometimes they show up um as dependence disguised as friendship. Now that is that's a whole nother episode in itself because sometimes um people come together because they're codependent. You know, I need you for this because it makes me feel a certain way. Then the other person may not like what you do, but they need you for something. So we're codependent on each other for something, and that's how we we thrive, that's how we survive. Um, and if you're not careful, you can spend years watering dead relationships while neglecting yourself. And I look back, I took some time during that season of my life when I when I finally decided to sit down and write this book. Um, I was like, you know what? Yeah, let me just assess some of these things. And yes, I do like this person, I do like this place, I like this space, but how good is it for me? Because everything that you think that's you know good for you is not good to you, or if it's good to you, it's not good for you. So you can kind of figure out how that's gonna land. To really understand the life diet 365, you have to understand the purpose of a detox. And a detox is designed to remove what the body no longer needs. Many of us are familiar with that. Many of us have done a detox, so we understand how that works. It clears out harmful substances and it reduces inflammation and restores balance, you know, all of that good stuff. Helps the body to function the way it was originally intended to function. And emotionally, the same thing applies to our lives. That's why I'm a I'm I'm a big advocate. I like to look at things in the natural and then I look at them in the spiritual because there's always some kind of connection to the two. Because some relationships create, you know, emotional inflammation. Yikes, emotional inflammation. That means that you know, there's inflammation is really the body telling you that something is wrong. We all know we we have those bells that go off. We should know those relationships that create emotional inflammation, some environments poison our peace. You know where that is. Um, some people drain our confidence, or conversations keep us stuck in fear, insecurity, and self-doubt. So removing what I call unwanted hounds from your life is not cruelty, it's emotional survival because you cannot heal in environments that constantly wound you. You cannot, that's why you know you have to kind of look at analogies on certain things. You know, it it doesn't make sense. If you scrape your knee, what sense would it make for you to go out on the concrete and just get on your knees and drag your knees across the concrete? You can't heal if that's constantly uh wounding you. And here's the part that most people struggle with. I believe I struggled with it. The people that you need to detox from are the people you love. Now, so let me just say this. So just because you you may detox from a person that you love doesn't mean that you totally throw them away, you totally toss them away. It's similar to when you detox your body. Once you get your body cleansed, you don't go out and start, well, maybe sometimes I do, go out and start pouring, you know, all kinds of grease and things into your body. You take it slow. You like, now I've learned how this certain food makes my body feel. Now I've learned how this uh certain body, I mean this certain food uh harms me. Now I know how these supplements can help me. So even if you do detox from the people that you love, once you detox, you you should be able to come back in a stronger sense to know where you stand and how they should stand in your life. And so now I'm not saying to throw people away, but like I said, the people you need to detox from could be the people that you love. It could be lifelong friendships, your family, work environments, church or social organizations. And you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna go back on that church thing for a hot second, and there's gonna be some, you know, some super spiritual folks that may not really like what I'm about to say. But sometimes you do need to step away, has nothing to do with, you know, uh, I'll say this for myself. That's what I'll say. Me stepping away had nothing to do with my relationship with God. I had to step away from the people, places, and things associated with that that just weren't good to me and they weren't good for me. Take it how you want. And I know this might be uncomfortable to hear, but your responsibility is not to keep everybody comfortable while you slowly disappear. So here's a here's a you know, a future thing for you to focus on, something that you should kind of keep in mind. Your responsibility, my responsibility is to our future self. The version that deserves peace, rest, healthy relationships, the version of you that deserves to blossom without constantly carrying emotional dead weight. And sometimes growth requires pruning. If you are an avid gardener or you someone that farms or into agriculture, you know that in order for something to grow, you got to turn up some soil, you have to cut some things away, and sometimes you have to pluck up and you have to replant. Sometimes becoming requires separation, and that requires an elevated level that requires a detox. Elevation requires a detox. And as always, I leave you with questions I want to ask. I want you to ask yourself. First of all, ask yourself, be honest. Do I need to do a life detox? Are there some people, places, and things that I need to detox from? What relationships survive only because I overextend myself? What environments are suffocating my peace? And that can be anywhere. That could be home, work, uh, visiting family, holidays, all that other stuff. You gotta check that out. And have I become used to dysfunction that I mistake it for being normal? And and here's and here's where I want you to find some joy in it. What would my life feel like if I stopped carrying people who refuse to carry themselves? So I'm gonna remind you the Life Diet 365 is not about becoming cold-hearted, it's about becoming healthy, emotionally healthy, it's about recognizing that protecting your peace is not uh selfish, but it is absolutely necessary. And every time you remove what poisons your spirit, you create room for clarity, healing, purpose, and peace. Because the truth of the matter is you cannot blossom while constantly surround being surrounded by emotional weeds. Whew, let's take a deep breath and woo-saw after that episode. Go ahead and give yourself an applause. I'm gonna give myself an applause because this was good. It was good for me and it was good for you. So now you know why I wrote The Life Diet 365. I'm your host, Suzanne Stroud, and I'm looking forward to you coming back to join me. And hey, we all know someone who sits in traffic in a car for 15 minutes or more. Share this with them. They can sit and listen to this while they're waiting in traffic. Take care. Bye-bye. And just like that, another conversation, another perspective, and hopefully another step toward reclaiming yourself. Listen, every time you say yes to everybody else, at the expense of yourself, you're teaching people that your boundaries are negotiable. You don't have to earn rest, apologize for protecting your peace, or explain every boundary you set. Because around here, we don't say no with guilt, we say it with clarity. Until next time, protect your peace, guard your energy, and remember what drains you will never sustain you. This has been the Life Diet 365 Podcast with Miss Drake Talk. Thanks for listening, and I hope you will subscribe and join me the next time. Take care. Bye bye.