Redesigning Life with Sabrina Soto

Healing Through Food: A Journalist's Cancer Recovery Journey

• Sabrina Soto and Elina Fuhrman • Episode 99

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What happens when a veteran CNN war correspondent faces her toughest battle yet, a cancer diagnosis at age 40? For Elina Fuhrman, it became the catalyst for a complete life transformation, shifting from investigative journalism to healing others through the power of food.

When a world-renowned pathologist bluntly told Elina she needed to "change her life" to survive her aggressive cancer, she approached her healing journey like the journalist she was. Researching extensively and questioning everything, she discovered that many of her "healthy" eating habits weren't optimal for her body. This revelation led her to decline chemotherapy and develop her own healing protocol centered around nutrient-dense, properly prepared foods.

This episode strips away the noise and confusion surrounding nutrition, offering practical wisdom from someone who healed herself when conventional medicine offered limited options. Whether you're facing health challenges or simply want to optimize your wellbeing, you'll gain actionable insights about working with food as medicine and the profound freedom that comes from prioritizing your health.

Connect with Elina Fuhrman:

https://www.soupelina.com/

SoupElina on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/soupelinala/

Link for no coconut taste coconut oil:
https://bit.ly/45Kl9GS


Connect with Sabrina:

https://www.instagram.com/Sabrina_Soto/

www.SabrinaSoto.com


Speaker 1:

Welcome to Redesigning Life. I'm your host, sabrina Soto, and this is the space where we have honest conversations about personal growth, mindset shifts and creating a life that feels truly aligned. In each episode, I'll talk to experts in their fields who share their insights to help you step into your higher self. Let's redesign your life from the inside out. Welcome to Redesigning Life. This week's episode is somebody special. Alina Furman is a friend of mine and she runs Soupalina, and I'll let her tell you the story. But why I think this conversation is going to be so beneficial is because Alina went from being a journalist to a holistic practitioner of healing people through food, and I feel like now there's so much going on in the media of constant noise that it's hard to understand what's up, what's down. So our talk today is all it's going to be about healing through food, how you can facilitate that in your own life and how you could do it yourself and you know I'm a DIY girl. So, alina Furman, thank you so much for joining Redesigning Life.

Speaker 2:

Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be on your show. This is going to be fun.

Speaker 1:

We have had many hikes and we've spoken about this exact subject, but I wanted to have you on the podcast because I feel like, now more than ever, we are drowning in information about what's healthy, what's not, and it's confusing. Now what I want you to tell everybody is sort of your background, because you had a journey shifting from journalism to a wellness entrepreneur and it was inspiring to me when you told me the story. So what motivated you? I mean, I know the story, but tell my listeners what sort of motivated that shift in your life.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, that's right. I was a journalist. I was an investigative journalist, I was an international journalist, I was a war journalist. I did a lot of hard news stories, worked for CNN for many years, and it was my cancer journey that changed my entire life. I would have never been where I am today if not for the cancer diagnosis that I received now, 16 years ago, in 2009.

Speaker 2:

Still makes me take a breath when I talk about it, but where my entire world just collapsed and I didn't know what was happening. It was I was a young woman with two young daughters and married at the time, and all of a sudden, you know, I find a lump in my breast while showering and I immediately knew which is. You know, this is the testament to the power of intuition, even though I have absolutely no risk factors, nobody in my family has ever had cancer, and I'm 40 years old and just turned 40. And my intuition immediately said uh-oh, something is going on. And even though multiple doctors, initially just from visits, told me that, oh, it's probably nothing, when I went to do the mammogram, that's the first thing the technician told me. Before even the doctor analyzed the mammogram, she said I'm pretty sure you have cancer, and so that's when my journey really started.

Speaker 2:

And you know, and they talk, you know like there is a conversation about grief, right, and when you are faced with a life-threatening disease and health condition, you go through grief, you go through trying to understand what is happening with my body. Why is this happening? And first I was in complete denial. I'm like, nope, they didn't know what was happening. They probably made a mistake, not true? So then, when I did the biopsy again, another thing happened, very similar the technician that was actually doing the biopsy again and it's not looking good at all and which, since I have, you know, worked and spoken with so many women and it's not been anybody else's experience, because nobody, nobody tells you right there. But that was my experience.

Speaker 1:

I was going to say I thought that was even like. That's not helpful.

Speaker 2:

It's not, it's not. I can just say the angels, you know, somebody wanted to tell me, somebody wanted to give me this information before it was confirmed. So I had a moment to sit with it. So you know, even though it was shocking, I still had that moment where I was telling myself that no, it's not true. When they call me with pathology results, it's going to be clear, because it can be true.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I don't have cancer right.

Speaker 2:

Everything is fine. I had no symptoms at all. I was at my healthiest, I looked great, I felt great. There was absolutely nothing which is so tricky about cancer. It's often completely asymptomatic. So that was my turning point. My turning point was cancer and of course I was young. I was offered, or rather told, that these are your options and these are the medications. It's the standard of care, the surgery, the radiation, the chemotherapy, the drugs and then possible metastasis. Possible metastasis because there are multiple tests now that they do on your genetic makeup, where they can tell how your cells behave and what could potentially happen and how soon that will happen. Because cancer, the danger of cancer, is not the initial cancer, it's the metastasis and it's when it spreads to other parts of the body and keeps spreading. That's where the problem begins.

Speaker 1:

And at that point you're saying you were in great health. So I know that, with all of the recommendations that they gave you, you decided to heal yourself in other ways. So were you already a very healthy person, eating organically? Did you already have that in your routine?

Speaker 2:

No, I've always been healthy or I considered myself healthy. I always ate well, I didn't eat processed foods, but it was never just that, it was just how I was. You know, I didn't grow up in the United States, I grew up in the former Soviet Union, and so we always ate whole foods and that's kind of how I grew up. But I didn't know even the differentiation between organic and conventional. You know, you go to the grocery store and you just want to save a few bucks, so why would I buy something that says organic when you know you can buy a perfectly great stuff that is not organic? So yeah, no, it never even entered my mind. Now, that said, I've always been interested in medicine and I've taken pre-med classes.

Speaker 2:

I actually experimented with my health back when I was an older teenager, like 19 years old, when I was in college, I read a book by an Israeli doctor and I started doing enemas and everybody thought that I was absolutely insane. And I went on this apple cleanse and don't ask me, it was just so long ago, but I was just always interested in that. Completely. You know, I don't know, it was just curious. And then in school I um back in the former Soviet union I, I, I took classes, um, like medical classes, for like nursing classes, and then when I came to the United States and I was in college here, I took pre-med classes and then at CNN I also, besides my regular job at CNN International, I freelanced for the medical unit and I produced so many different stories on various diseases and conditions and things like that. So it's always been kind of eating, it's always been a passion In terms of eating. I ate healthy and I considered myself super healthy.

Speaker 1:

And so you decided probably your intuition, I would assume decided I'm going to take all of my journalism expertise experience and really dive into the research to heal yourself. And that's how Supalina started Exactly.

Speaker 2:

Exactly so. I started by just making an assignment out of myself and I was just going to experiment and see what works. And I dove into research. I wanted to understand cancer. I wanted to understand why is everybody afraid of cancer? Why is everybody telling me that I'm in such trouble where I feel great. You know what is actually going on. What are my cells doing? Why is everybody so alarmed? Every time I walk into an oncologist's office and I interviewed five different oncologists they all look at me with eyes this big and they're telling me how things are really grim, Right, Because it was an aggressive cancer, did you, and I'll fast forward.

Speaker 1:

So, from that moment until you were cancer-free, how long was it? Two years, and in that years did you do any standard treatment?

Speaker 2:

Yes, I did, I did, I did surgery, I did lumpectomy eventually. Initially I declined everything and then eventually I did lumpectomy. I started radiation as I was plugging along on my research and then I stopped and then I really and I declined chemotherapy. So you never did chemo. I never did chemo no.

Speaker 1:

So, during this time you're doing all of the research, what led you to soups?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So, as I was trying to understand my you know predicament where I'm at and what do I do about myself and how do I heal myself if I'm not going to do what the doctors are telling me to do and also another little nugget of information is because I was researching and trying to figure out. I was reaching out to various specialists in every field and I was led to a world-renowned pathologist who examined my slides from my tissue slides, from my surgery, and he bluntly told me that the only way for me to survive is to change my life. And I remember, on the phone, I'm like, excuse me, this famous pathologist is telling me that I need to change my life. I said what do you mean? And he said well, I don't know what it means for you, I just know that the way your cells behave, you have to retrain them. And I'm like what, what are you talking about? And he says you know, if you continue on the way, on the path you've been going, you're, you know you're not going to survive, and so change your life. And so when we hung up, I really sat with myself and tried to figure out what that means to me.

Speaker 2:

And so food, it was one of the things, you know, that was easier to control because, you know, I was immediately trying to see okay, there is air, there is household products, there's environmental factors, there's water, there is just so many other things. Right, but food seemed to be a manageable part that I could grab onto and figure out. And plus, I could totally. I cannot control the air I breathe all the time. I cannot control the water I always drink all the time. I cannot always control what I wash my hands with, but I can control what I put in my mouth. And so that became my number one priority is to figure it out. And what I realized is that I was far from eating healthy. You know, there were a lot of things in my diet that were not optimal.

Speaker 1:

They looked healthy but they were not optimal. Give me one example of one thing that looked healthy but it wasn't optimal.

Speaker 2:

Well, I did not eat as many vegetables in the like green vegetables I ate a lot of tomatoes and eggplants and onions and things like that but I did not eat the cruciferous vegetables, for example, like the cauliflowers, the broccolis, the you know, the bok choy, the pak choys, you know all of the. You know the varieties of the vegetables. I also eat a lot of salads, and salads are very hard to digest and so, which is how I transitioned into soups and my gut was not optimal, you know, because even though I was, I appeared to be eating healthy, my gut and the lining of my intestines were not absorbing all of the wonderful ingredients supposedly that I was eating, because I was just passing it through. It was just, it was just passing it through, it was just cruising through my body.

Speaker 1:

I had a naturopathic doctor on my show the Sabrina Soto Show and Dr Nygma and she told me that salads are not healthy for your gut biome. And it shocked me because I consider myself a very healthy person. So I just thought, when I have no other, if I have an option of a sandwich and a salad, always pick a salad. But that's not necessarily true. Why are salads so hard to digest? Because it's raw vegetables.

Speaker 2:

Well, a combination of things, Because, also, what we consider a salad right In the Western world, in the United States, a salad, is a bunch of leaves, right With a dressing and maybe like a few slices of tomato, a few slices of onion and a couple cucumbers. Perhaps right To me, at this point in my life, it's no longer a salad, it's just a bunch of leaves and leaves, just scrape. First of all, you know, you don't know how they were grown, you don't know there are so many variables when it comes to salad leaves. They're not inherently bad, it's just they don't provide as much nutrient density that you need. But also, in terms of digestion, they're harder to digest and your body is focused on digesting it and it's taking up all that energy on digesting something, energy on digesting something. And if your gut is not optimal which most people don't have optimal guts you're just not drawing any of the nutrients, the macronutrients, the micronutrients, the enzymes. They just don't have that.

Speaker 1:

And I also have heard a million times. It's just like getting your gut biome healthy enough to retain all the vitamins. What does that mean in layman's terms of like taking a probiotic?

Speaker 2:

Well, that's another myth. You know, and I've fallen for it for years. You know that probiotic is supposed to be like a good for you, but again, you don't know what bacteria you're actually missing out in your gut. You know, unless you've tested it, because you might be taking a probiotic with the bacteria that you don't need in your gut and so it's actually ended up hurting you.

Speaker 1:

So how do you get your gut biome to be healthy?

Speaker 2:

There are tests out there, there are holistic tests. There are several labs that unfortunately are not covered by insurances, but you can get a stool test, which is how-.

Speaker 1:

And if you can't get a stool test because you can't afford it, or whatever the case may be, what's the next best?

Speaker 2:

thing, I think. Then you just eat healthy, then you just assume that your gut is not optimal, which it probably isn't, especially if you've ever taken an antibiotic, which most people have, you know. You just assume that it's not optimal and you and you heal your gut and but by probably have a probiotic. Don't take no, not, you don't take a probiotic in a pill form. You take a probiotic in the yogurt form, like coconut yogurt. You eat the foods that will provide you with the same benefits but will not be in a pill form, and I'm a big proponent of whole foods versus supplements. Now, supplements have a place, but not in a continuous life. You know you do them when you cleanse, when you try to target certain issues, but you don't continue taking supplements on a daily basis.

Speaker 1:

Even like a vitamin D, where everyone is.

Speaker 2:

In my book. No, you don't need it on a daily basis. You know. You do it to get to an optimal level and then you maintain. You know with. You know, with some exposure, with daily walks, with circadian rhythm, with you know there's there's other natural ways to go about it than popping, popping supplements I have in my house, a cabinet, an entire cabinet full of supplements.

Speaker 1:

It looks like I actually have a vitamin shop in my house. The amount of supplements that I have, and I don't even know if I just get them to make myself feel better, but it is pretty embarrassing how many vitamins and supplements I have. So you're, you're, wait, let me go back to the gut biome. So so it's better for people to eat the green, all sorts of vegetables, a whole rainbow, but cooked yeah.

Speaker 2:

So again, there is. There is, there is a pattern to this. There are different ways to cook your vegetables. Right, there are soups, which I absolutely love, but again, soups, you don't boil them, you simmer them because you want the vegetables and the roots, and the spices and the herbs, you want them to open up and you want them to release their medicinal properties. You do not want to kill everything and just boil everything to death because medicinal properties. You do not want to kill everything and just boil everything to death because you're just gently simmering it. It's kind of like steeping a tea, just in a different way, right? And so then you can cook with your hands. You know hands are very powerful. You can massage your salads, and by salads again, not leaves, you know you can grate a beet, for example.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Now, I know it's red, can put gloves on, but I prefer doing it with hands. It can wash off, you know, and you massage. You massage really nicely. You can also smash your vegetables, like cucumbers, for example, and it even though it doesn't cook it, but it puts the energy into your vegetables and creates a reaction. And that reaction is also touching it with your hands, because our bodies are so magical. It allows your body to infuse them with your energy and, when you're chewing it, with enzymes that you need to process them and extract all the nutrients.

Speaker 1:

I know that you have a book, your cookbook but it's now. It's out of stock. So when it'll be back in stock? And in your cookbook you emphasizing using coconut oil? And everywhere I go, every post is about seed oils. I like they're just getting a bad. Are seed oils that bad for you?

Speaker 2:

Well again. So, first of all, the seed oil that I believe started it all is canola oil, because canola oil has become a go-to cheap oil in the United States to cook everything with and it is highly toxic and it's not even I don't even think it's real. You know there's so many. Have you ever seen a canola vegetable? I certainly haven't. You know, I've looked into this and I'm like it's just a rabbit hole I don't want to go into. I don't need to use it.

Speaker 2:

But in terms of you know, there's all of these different seeds. There are sesame seeds, right, sesame oil is used in Asian cuisine. There is sunflower seed oil. That's been used in Mediterranean cuisine, actually for many years. There is walnut oil. There's all of these different oils that are not as dangerous, I believe, than canola oil and vegetable oil is. Which is vegetable oil is? I don't even know what's in there. It's just a byproduct of different things seeds, and I don't even know what's in there. But when it comes to the ancient, I always look to the ancient medicine and to the ancient practices to see to kind of like a reference. Is that something I would consume? But also we have to take into consideration the way things are done in today's world, which is highly processed, and how the crops are grown. You know how much pesticide and chemicals and what is the soil treated with. So yeah, so there was all of these different dangers. Now there are some dangers with olive oil if it's not properly, if it's not a really good oil as well.

Speaker 1:

Right, right. It's so frustrating, honestly, because I feel like, especially as a mother, I'm trying to do my best for myself and for Olivia and Nate. And then it's like, okay, I'm going to go get olive oil, but now it's like even the olive oil could be bad for you because it's not your olive oil. And then if you actually have to look at the back and it could be a blend of canola oil and olive oil and it's just, I mean, I feel like, do I have to move to a cave or you know some farm and just live off my land?

Speaker 2:

It's maddening. Yeah, you just do the best you can. So my rule of thumb, right. So, when it comes to coconut oil, coconut oil is high heat, right, so it's easier to cook with it. Besides, it has lauric acid, which is really good for your gut and so, and you just use a little bit of it, it tastes like coconut. It makes my food taste good. They actually there is a coconut oil where they extract the coconut taste out of it.

Speaker 1:

Oh, you have to send that to me Whoever's listening. I'm going to have Alina send it to me and I'll put it in the show notes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I think Whole Foods actually has one that doesn't have, but there are other brands that have, ones that don't have the coconut taste in them, and when you're cooking those are the easier ones. I agree, because the coconut taste sometimes gets a little too powerful. Yeah, I agree, because the coconut taste sometimes gets a little too powerful.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, which is fine in stir fried, but, like in other foods, it just doesn't taste. Another thing that you use a lot in your recipes is filtered water. Yes, I think that when people cook, they're like oh, it's fine to use tap water because cooking it off and whatever chemicals are going to be cooked away, is that not true? Why is filtered water so important when cooking?

Speaker 2:

Oh boy, water is a whole other rabbit hole, and especially for us in LA. Water has so much from drugs to chemicals, to parasites, by the way you can get parasites from water.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I saw your post the other day with parasites.

Speaker 2:

I know, I know, but, alina, it was so gross, but it's so real, it's so real, alina, it was so gross, but it's so real, it's so real, it's so real. So filtered water is the best you can do. You know cooking anything. I even wash. You know things that I consume, like semi-raw. For example, when I massage my vegetables, I only wash in filtered water because I just don't trust the municipal water, the tap water, even with the shower and with the bathtub. You know, I buy the little tablets for the bathtub that remove the chlorine and all of the chemicals, and then for the showers I have filters. But now I was actually looking into that the other day, to tell you the truth, and there are some people that use multiple filters, you know, because it's not enough to just remove the toxic and all the chemicals, you need to reintroduce the minerals. So there is a filter to remove and then there's another filter to reintroduce and I'm like maybe I'm behind, I need, I need to look into that now too.

Speaker 1:

I swear the filter. I have a shower head that has a filter in it in my shower and I swear by it. I feel like my hair has gotten better, my skin's gotten better and if anyone's listening, it's in my Amazon store and it was like 20, I saw it was like $28. You just replaced a cartridge, but it's in the link in my Instagram. So I do think it's important, especially when you have hard water.

Speaker 2:

A hundred percent. And also, you know what was actually interesting? Some of my clients have told me because I never consume soups outside of the ones that I cook, because why would I right? But some of my clients have looked into other the retailers and places where they make soups, and no soups are made on filtered water. They're all made on regular water.

Speaker 1:

So, even so, when you are using tap water, even if you're boiling it, if you're boiling it, is it okay? I'm not boiling the soup, I am simmering, yeah, yeah, if somebody is boiling, is it okay to use tap water?

Speaker 2:

You can hard boil the water for 10 minutes and then cool it before having it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I guess that's that. Think about it If you're boiling your water in order to kill all of that bacteria, but you're also boiling your food, which is going to kill all the nutrients, there you go. I never even thought about that before. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that makes a lot of sense, and I do. I also know like how much raw food you. I know you're massaging, like you said, the beads and the smashing, but is there ever a time that you go out and just have a salad?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I do, I do, of course, of course. It's not like my whole life is very regimented.

Speaker 1:

It used to be, yeah well, we saw each other two nights ago. You were seated at another table. Did you eat the salad? I did not.

Speaker 2:

I did not. It was delicious. Well, a number of things was cheese on it, you know, and I didn't know what the dressing was like, and I didn't feel like asking them what the dressing was like, and so it was just easier for me to just not.

Speaker 1:

So the dressing? If it had seed oil you wouldn't be in it. No, I wouldn't have. But what if she? What if it was olive oil and vinegar, and that's it. I didn't know which olive oil it was my maintenance part. You know what you missed out? Because that salad was delicious. Let me tell you.

Speaker 2:

It looked really beautiful and the flour on top, it was just so pretty.

Speaker 1:

I took a picture of it. I feel like I want to do my best to be as healthy as I can, but I also feel like if you inundate yourself with too much, it's almost a detriment to your health in just the stress alone.

Speaker 2:

Agree, Agree, 100% agree, and that's why I only recommend doing those, you know, kind of like really regimented rituals is when you're cleansing, when you're cleansing, this is your time to really kind of go within, do everything right, you know, cleanse your body. It's like taking a long, long shower, except it's obviously extended, and then you can go on about your life and you're more mindful afterwards because you just, you know, cleaned the oil, you just cleaned your system, so you don't want to, just, you know, do things that will harm you or make you feel unhealthy. And then there's the other condition is if you have a health condition you have a chronic health condition or if you have a life-threatening disease or something that's actually impeding your life, something that's not letting you be the beautiful magnetic thoughts, not letting you be the beautiful magnetic, radiant you that you know you are, you know, then it's a whole different story than you know.

Speaker 1:

So okay, how okay? Sorry, let's talk about this for hours how I have heard from people that cleansing isn't important and obviously you have built not only your business, but you've helped a million like a lot of people heal their bodies. How often? If you're not dealing with a chronic illness, if you're just a normie or whatever you want to call it, you know, like somebody who's just wants to be healthier but is not necessarily wanting to heal anything in particular. What? How often should somebody cleanse?

Speaker 2:

Well, at least once a year, ideally. You know every quarter, every season, because you go into a season and everything changes. You know the temperature changes, your body needs different attention. But in terms of to answer that people don't believe in cleansing and I know there are still people, unfortunately, that don't Our body is self-cleansing mechanism, technically right. So why do we take showers and wash our hair? We can just go along. If we're cleaning ourselves on the exterior, why shouldn't we clean ourselves on the inside? It makes sense.

Speaker 1:

I have to admit I've never done a real cleanse before. I mean I tried. I bought, of course, in my cabinet a candida cleanse. I've done a parasite cleanse. I never took the supplements, so but you do, you do believe in parasite cleansing.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I'm on it right now. I'm cleansing right now With supplements.

Speaker 2:

You can do it with food as well. I am a very yes, you can. It's a little more involved because you have to create those things on your own Right. You know specific foods, you know. For example, there is papaya seeds that are very bitter. Papaya seeds are really great of expelling parasites from your body. So also pumpkin seeds. Raw pumpkin seeds are oil of oregano is so you can actually create the medicine yourself by grinding papaya seeds with pumpkin seeds are oil of oregano is so you can actually create the medicine yourself by grinding papaya seeds with pumpkin seeds. No one's going to do that. No one's going to do that. You know what I mean. There are ways to do this on your own, you know. If you're really motivated, you know. But there are ways to shortcut it and there are companies that obviously you know, put different herbs and make it all more palatable, but still the nutritional part cannot be ignored. Yeah, you can't just do the same thing you're doing and take the pills and think you're cleansing your mouth.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and earlier I said normies, which I didn't mean to say that, because I do believe that, no matter how, where you live, what you're eating, what you're doing, we're all dealing with some chronic issue. You know, and it's it's unfortunate, but it's, it's almost impossible because of the world we live in, you know, unless you are going to live on a farm, and just great good for you, by the way, invite me over. I'd love to come spend a week with you, but it is difficult and I know that. You know everyone wants to be as healthy as possible, but you deal with one-on-one helping people heal from chronic issues. What sort of transformations have you seen in your career doing this?

Speaker 2:

now with advanced cancer. She had a right lung removed, she had metastasis in her thyroid. She had surgery, but she was very much on the fence of additional surgery with her thyroid and chemotherapy. And we embarked on a whole transformational journey. And after three months she said she went to an oncologist and her oncologist gave her a clean bill of health. And she says I'm crying because I just cannot believe that my nodules and my thyroid are gone. She's off, completely off her medications. And she's not been. She's been on medications for decades. She's not taking any more medications. And she said that my oncologist actually wants me to speak to the Cancer Foundation because she just can't believe that.

Speaker 2:

I'm just all clear and I say to this I do believe because, well, first of all, she put in a lot of her own work in it, because it's a two-way street, I can guide people and show them the way, but they have to do the work and it is a very intense work, especially when you have something that is life-threatening. And she put in the work and it was the most incredible transformation. She looked different. You know, I had another client who was diagnosed with MS and was about to be put on very severe medications and we went on a journey and completely healed. She never ended up taking medications and it's been a few years and she's completely clear and thriving. A completely different person Changes your life, truly. Going on an intense healing journey changes your life completely, because you know she's dating this beautiful man that she met.

Speaker 2:

You know, as she healed and her priorities have changed. She left her big, high-powered job that she thought was her entire life and then it turned out that it wasn't. You know, because you ask yourself hard questions and you're no longer distracting yourself with everything that is around you. You're going within and you're healing the root cause. You're healing what actually brought you to this place and very often we don't know what it is. Some people do and they're just not willing to jump in. But some people, and a lot of people, I find, and myself included, when I was on my healing journey, I did not know. I didn't know why I had cancer and so it took me a long time to figure out why I had cancer. And those are, you know, very, you know very vulnerable moments when you have to ask yourself these questions and hear yourself answering those questions and then sitting with that and going, oh my God, I didn't know that.

Speaker 1:

I think that no matter. You know, sometimes it takes being hit by a truck with a diagnosis to change your life, and it's unfortunate that it takes that. But I think, no matter what I have found in my own life and in my friends and family when you finally put yourself as a priority and that could be in the healing of yourself a lot of things change in your life. Because when you make yourself a priority, you no longer put up with the and I'm going to say a curse word so if there's kids in the car, just turn it down.

Speaker 1:

You don't put up with the shit anymore because you realize how precious life is and how short of the time we have and we have to make it count. And even if you have all the money in the world but you have a pain in your side or a toothache, all you care about is healing that ache. You don't care about the fact that you have a yacht. You know it must be nice, but you can't even go on that yacht because your tooth is throbbing. So health is wealth and health is freedom, and I believe that in every vein in my body.

Speaker 2:

A hundred percent and you said it. You know it's prioritizing yourself and for many of us, especially women, that is a really hard pill to swallow, because we are nurturers by nature and we're always nurturing and nurturing ourselves feels like an anomaly. It feels, you know, you feel so much guilt, Like what do you mean, especially at a time when you're trying to overcome a health condition?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Thank you so much, Alina. I so appreciate. For anyone listening. All of Alina's information is going to be in the notes, including the coconut water, and I'll also put a link to that filter that I love so much. If you are listening to this and you love the podcast I hope you do Can you please do me a favor rate and review it wherever you're listening, because it helps to get out there to more people. Until next time, thank you so much, Alina, for your time.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much.