Stopping by to have the conversation is Best Selling Author and a Dietician on a mission to bring back the true meaning of the word diet, Karie Cassell.
With a long list of credentials and accomplishments, thriving private practice, and the success of her book, “The Domino Diet: How to Heal You From The Inside Out”. Karie opened up with us about how healing isn’t just about diet and how it doesn’t start or end with diet either.
Karie believes that your thoughts become things, you are what you eat AND what you breathe!
Conversation Topics👇
⛓️ Parasympathetic + Sympathetic Systems
🌬️ The Breathe/Feeling Connection
♀️ Manipulating Your Central Nervous System to get a better Hormone Profile
🥕 What Veggies + Forgiveness Have In Common
Connect with Karie👇
Buy a Copy of The Domino Diet
Conversation with Karie Cassell:
Leanne: We've been super excited to have you on. Obviously, we both read your book and
Karie Cassell: Oh, good.
Leanne: Yeah, it was, it was wonderful. I'm a personal trainer. And so I've read a lot of like nutrition and different diet books. And what I really loved about yours was that it felt like a psychology book, but with a nutrition focus. And you don't get that a lot. And so you talk a lot about the stuff that I deal with, with my clients on a daily basis, like the self sabotage and the cravings. And you even mentioned one of my all time favorite books that "You Are The Placebo" by Dr. Joe Dispenza. And I want to talk about all that, obviously, today, but I was so curious first, like, what got you attracted to the diet and nutrition world?
Karie Cassell: Oh, it found me honestly, really. I remember I was 13 years older, younger, laying in bed. Well, I had just watched a show and Shirley MacLaine, I don't know if you remember this, this is gonna really date me here, she was talking about a book she wrote "Out on a Limb." And the book was alluding to the fact that you could meditate and all this language, which was completely different. So ironic that fast forward, I ended up talking a bit more about that in my book. But I remember she said, You could have anything you want. And I was laying there meditating, going, what am I want to do, I want to either teach piano because I was somebody who could play piano was going into Bachelor of Music, I thought, Oh, I'm gonna go into a career where I can really help my family with their health. I don't even know where it came from. But I do remember just having this sort of mind that would pay attention to behaviors around food. And then my parents ended up selling for a multilevel distributing company vitamins. It was called Shaklee, I think.
Calla: Yeah, My friend Jen uses that.
Karie Cassell: Yeah. Well, our house was just like shelves and shelves of all these vitamins. And I literally, I don't think I'm quite 13. And there's books also. So here I am grabbing the nutritional almanac book. And I'm constantly reading it. And Vogue magazine or whatever Sweet 16 or whatever it would have been back then. Just I didn't grab it. So it was as if there's there was these pieces, right that came in to kind of nudge me. Still, I didn't listen, I ended up going into the Bachelor of Music. And I, after about six months to a year I looked around went, I don't belong here. These people are different.
Leanne: Really, you did notice that though you had that feeling?
Karie Cassell: Yeah, and I strapped on a backpack. And I went to Australia, New Zealand for six months. And I went from somebody with very little confidence to that really bringing up a confidence level. And I literally stood on a dock in Perth or Fremantle one because they're still really close. And I heard "Become a dietician."
Leanne: Are you serious?
Karie Cassell: Yeah. And I'm like, what is that? I was working in alternative medicine at the time. So it felt like it had something to do with that. But I had to fill in the pieces after the fact. How was that for a long winded answer?
Calla: Oh, that's awesome. I love that. That's usually how it happens. You know, it is that voice of go this way. And that's scary, though. Because did you initially trust it? Did you know that it was the next or were there hiccups along the way?
Karie Cassell: Every, every turn was it's such a long answer. So are you brace yourself
Leanne: We've got time, We've got time.
Karie Cassell: Well put it this way, if if I have heard the nudge earlier, I would have enrolled maybe into the university to become a dietician and found out sorry, your grades aren't good enough. So I may have a boarded miss the mission. But because I was in Australia and and time was elapsing in that case, it allowed me to go back, do some upgrading because I was not in the science. I was in the arts. So I had to gather these courses to pump me up for this registered dietitian program. And that time allowed me to become what we call a mature student. So that your grades, they're a little bit more lenient with. So I just applied and sort of had this gut feeling I'm going to be accepted. I move. I'm now married. I move my husband and I up to the city where the university is and just on a whim, I hope I'm accepted.
Leanne: Or before you were accepted you moved? Wow.
Calla:I love that.
Karie Cassell: Yeah. And it gets worse.
Leanne: But wait, there's more.
Karie Cassell: Because I, this is really it's about your science program. I'm calling a dietitian program, but I know nothing about it. And so I'm standing in this lineup for a biochemistry course. And this gal asked me, Hey, did you apply for the Registered Dietitian? Because we have to you have to do internship along your journey. And I looked at her and what? Yeah, but she was talking about. So I, I had to race. There was a four hour period of time left for me to get this resume through the day when emails were not, it was fax machines. And so anyway, I managed to pull it off, not knowing what the heck I was applying to. And I didn't realize you don't become a registered dietician without the internship. So if it weren't for that nudge, also, I have become a registered dietitian, potentially.
Calla: Divine timing.
Leanne: Yeah, we've we've had - sorry, go ahead.
Karie Cassell: Yeah, all of those are not like, Oh, here's the clear path. No, it's like, dude. It's like a ping pong game.
Calla: You're on the right track, then. That's That's my trajectory.
Leanne: Grab the paddle. Get after it.
Karie Cassell: Didn't work. Okay. We'll go over here.
Leanne: Yeah. We've had a couple of other registered dieticians on and it's been very eye opening to see how they kind of veered away from a lot of what they actually learned in school versus their entire philosophy and logic now, and it's, it's barely even similar. Is that fair to say, Calla?
Calla: Yeah.
Leanne: Is that your experience?
Karie Cassell: I'm so glad I'm not alone. Yeah, really. But it took a while for me, I let I was one of those that fresh out. I had alternative medicine background too, though. So this combination was already unique. And I already have this sort of open mind to you can do things for yourself to be empowered. And that was always in the background for me. Whereas in some of the other medical curriculum, it was more about go to your doctor and they'll tell you what to do. Or, you know, they'll tell you what's wrong. And it took me years I mean, I was one of those like, beat the drum going, this is what you do, you eat more fruits and vegetables and you just gotta get moving and and then I hit perimenopause. A lot of stress was happening. And I had a lump on my pituitary gland. And on my thyroid, and my body acted as if it was pregnant, and a menopause at the same time.
Calla: That's a personal hell.
Karie Cassell: I was like, okay, so I was running marathons. And now I sure didn't want to, and I barely want to lift my head off the pillow type scenario. So yeah, what my messaging was, was great for those who were already in the healthy world, but not if you were struggling. And so it took for me to kind of go through, like an oscillator and, and twist me into reality, and became, oh my gosh, there's so many missing pieces. And it's in the mind somehow, and I don't know about the mind, I only know about the curriculum of nutrition itself, or the science or the body, mind, body spirit, I didn't know how to. And many people would come to me with emotional eating.
Leanne: Same.
Karie Cassell: Right. And the level of thinking that I had, it was like all medical curriculum, what are your symptoms? Here's your pill, here's your diet, what are your symptoms, here's your pill, here's your diet, and on and on, I would go and that you know, the Einstein quote, you cannot solve a problem with level of thinking that creates the problem. And for me, it was, oh my gosh, I have to change my level of thinking, to correct the problem. Their goal, the not looking at just the symptom level, that there would be cause to the effect and better go find out what's causing first. And that led to okay, if there's missing pieces, where do I go and I'm now in my 50s at this point, and I'm going I don't want another career. I don't want to go back to university . That's an awful lot of work. I'm burnt out and that ended up or lift my head off the pillow so to speak. And so the life coach hat comes along into the journey and there it was, it was all my this is self sabotage. Here's the four hidden barriers of success. And now I was able to talk about the mind level to the emotional eating to the nutrition like bridge the gap and developed The Domino Diet formula out of that, which became the book and an assessment. I have an assessment that I do with people prior to actually working with them. And it's, it's actually looking at their entire life, not just the nutrition piece.
Leanne: That yeah, no, that's great. Yes. So it was a life coach that sparked the mind, part of the puzzle for you.
Karie Cassell: Yes. I mean, I had already had a quest in me for the spiritual aspect. You know, this kind of immortal as you start going, Okay. What happens after you know that you're doing a lot of work to get to enjoy life? And what's my purpose, all those things. So that was already sort of what my quest. And what's interesting, and I kind of wrote about this is we spend a lot of our generate or sorry, our, our time in life, focused on the body. Maybe when we're younger, it's not so much. I mean, I don't I think I didn't even recognize I had a body till I was about 10. You know, I was sort of in this imaginary world playing with Barbie and whatnot. And it wasn't till I was 10. That someone said, Hmm, it looks like you put on some weight. And I was like, I didn't even know I had a body to the right. To the flaws of it. Right? The first segment, being very much you're in the imaginary world, I feel like mind and then or body, sorry. And then into our teens, we start to focus on the vanity aspect.
Leanne: Yeah, hyper focus, for sure.
Karie Cassell: Very much. And then we go into maybe our college and university years, and we start thinking about learning knowledge. And personally speaking, I think when you hit 40s 50s, you're more on the spiritual, but I think that's changing. I think people are fast forwarding to get there quicker. But rarely, are they simultaneous in our life? You know, Mind Body Spirit has talked about, well, what are we actually synergizing them all together, rather than in silos. And that I felt might be the missing link. That unless, you're bringing all three together, you're really only teaching treat treating a part of the body or part of the person? Oh, there it is. That's so how do you do that? And the life coach that was bringing it all full circle for me.
Calla: I love that I call those dots at the end of the sentence, like, Okay, I know where to go next. Yeah, that's really cool. So many times when we when we do speak to people in the diet and health industry, the first thing that people want to know is well, what makes you different? What Why is it different than what I've tried to do you think it is because of those the silos, those connections between the three is that what makes yours different?
Karie Cassell: Well, The Domino Diet formula itself, is, so I'll say it first is your thoughts that lead to how you breathe. And it's your thing, that creates a hormone cascade. And there are different hormonal cascades to primary. And it's your hormones that create your feelings, and your feelings, kind of activate your actions, and then your results. So in the beginning of that formula, which is way past the diet, you know, it's way the beginning is how you think, is how you breathe. And that's different. Most people are not talking about the parasympathetic system and the sympathetic system, which are your hormones. Most say, I felt like having chocolate, I was craving X, Y or Zen. Well, the truth is no, you have to have been thinking at first. And you have a control switch in your brain for lack of better words, that can create how you breathe, that can affect your feelings, not the other way around. So speaking, you know, my hormones are out of balance, for instance, which is a common thing we'll hear. Well, it's not quite like that you do have way more control than you think. So I think what's different about what I do is going to the the deep rooted part of it, the really activating higher your awareness of your thoughts, how you're breathing, and realizing that we are way more empowered with tools to create better structures of support around. So it's almost as if the diet becomes lost.
Leanne: It's like a result of
Karie Cassell: Yes, yeah. motivating people talk about intuitive eating. Well, what is that? Well, you get in touch with your intuitive side more. Okay, well, how do you do that? We have to have your thoughts and anybody who's into yoga for instance, knows breathing is a part of that. Well, that whole system is the same as getting to your intuition, and doing that before eating would be intuitive eating also leveled up. So personally, I think I bring in the science aspect along with the life coach hat along with the nutrition hat. And that's what makes it slightly different. That's at least the feedback.
Leanne: Can you go into the breathing a little more like how people can incorporate that into their not just their eating, but to, I guess, manipulate their central nervous system to get a better hormone profile?
Karie Cassell: Yes. So what we're very, very designed for and have for centuries and centuries, which is why we're actually here speaking, why we survived is the fight flight response. And it's in our DNA. Thank goodness, we still have it today. Because, you know, reacting in traffic, or whatever the case might be. The problem being that it's a default, almost as if it's our first reaction. And that wouldn't be so bad, except for it is producing cortisol. And, like, That's a fat storing hormone that is linked to more heart disease, and so forth. So when you breathe, without even you being aware, as we're all breathing 24/7 Thank goodness, our subconscious mind is doing it for us, where you'd have to stay awake to breathe. Well, the the conscious mind can change the breathing, but not unless you're aware. So two ways of answering that is to say, first of all, recognize that most likely could be frantic breathing, or driving in traffic and eating at the same time, or whatever the case might be that it can be more in the fight flight response. The brain is reading how you're breathing, so it knows what hormones you need. Do you need to fly away? Do you need to freeze, depending on the scenario,
Leanne: I'm a freezer, that's what I've learned.
Calla: And I'm flying.
Karie Cassell: In a fight with the spouse fight with a teenager fight with a co worker. It and you'll people who that's it, and they're out the door. They're fliers and freeze. I mean, that's all the psychology piece to relationships. And we can get into that. But for nutrition, how you how you are digesting. So you're literally producing cortisol as if you're running, say you're running a marathon. That's not a time to be digesting trust me, right. So your actual digestive system shuts down. And so say you're eating, fighting, or watching the news, or even eating that popcorn, while you're watching this scary scene. You're in flight. fight flight mode. Brain No, it's no different. Is this a true mammoth? Or is this just a little fight? I don't know. She's reacting a certain way based on her breathing. Okay, stop. And if you I mean, there's different ways to get to the parasympathetic system to, to switch off to the other pathway. But one that I've been taught the most is to breathe through your nose and out through your mouth, like you're blowing through a straw. Three times, roughly. You know, I've been talking a lot, so I need a couple.
Calla: Yeah.
Karie Cassell: Why breathing that way? In history, we don't know of a scenario where you'd be running from a mammoth and breathing. Blowing let's draw your brains going. Oh, so things are okay. Now. Yeah, we're good. sends off serotonin, dopamine, the calm down hormones. parasympathetic system, also known as the rest, digest, and create mode. So by simply breathing that way, into this, I call it the r&r response, you are in Superior digestive mode. So imagine how much heartburn and digestive disorders and stress at least response that constant in the body and heart disease may be being minimized to a large degree anyway, just by simple breathing. And what if you did that right before eating? What if you turn it off devices and didn't watch the news and simply went into this? I call it the power of the pause and breathe flip everything over to superior digestion and the ordering of those nutrients because you'd be digesting better. And with serotonin on board like that, you will likely feel fuller faster. Because it is one that feel it makes you feel fulfilled. So to me sometimes when we're eating especially when we're not really hungry, we're actually looking for serotonin. And that could be delivered just by a simple breath. So that's the domino effect. how you think got to be aware of your thoughts to control your breathing, and then the rest falls into place.
Leanne: That's so interesting because you basically just explained why people who are binging they just override their say she say, you know, their their fullness. And because they're looking for serotonin, is that what you're saying, but they're looking for it in food?
Karie Cassell: I would say if it's a binge, there's a good possibility that anxiety and fight flight feelings were there prior. Now, if you're in fight flight back in our DNA, I mean, this was centuries old, it would have meant go get that animal and eat the animal and carve the animal. Like, there would have been all this fight flight, hormonal response. And it's quite likely that that person who's into a binge may be deprived of eating for a segment of time. Our subconscious mind does not know are you on a desert island? Like, what's the reason you're not eating here, because I have a heart to pump. And I have your lungs to inflate, and it all takes energy. And it'll go into these triggers -Go look for the food go. So I'm going to guess that somebody who's in a binge, I mean, I would work with him and dig a little deeper. But it's possible that they went for too long without eating and they're in fight flight. And good luck. When you're in fight flight. It's as if to say, your rational mind isn't quite there as superior. That person can catch it and not go into judgment and guilt and all the things that would go in, you know, that would be quite possible. They would breathe, they would catch it and it would slow that train down. And that might take a little bit longer than just three breaths for somebody who's in a full, full blown binge.
Leanne: Did did you out of out of all the chapters and all the dominoes? Which one did you personally have the hardest time with? Or have the hardest time writing about?
Karie Cassell: Probably the actual diet part. Because I had already for 30 years, as a dietitian talked about the the micronutrients, and the macros sort of felt like math. There's books about that already.
Leanne: Tedious.
Karie Cassell: Felt like Been there done that. Well, when I was able to write about the mind and all these other places, I came to life, it was resurrecting my career, really. I mean, even the word diet appearing on the title "The Domino Diet" was a tug of war for me.
Leanne: I bet. Yeah. Most people judge that right away.
Karie Cassell: Oh, it's a four letter word, you know, literally, but it came to me in the middle of the night. So another woowoo part of myself, but I literally woke up in the midst of a sleep with the title being delivered to me. And I could see the Domino's and the words on the Domino's. In the middle of the night, and I I actually was trying to put the dietician to bed and resurrect this life coach piece. Don't bring them together. And here it was, this title was coming along, saying you're gonna do both. And so I yeah, I definitely struggled with it. And I sat with it the next day, I think it was, you know, of trying to collapse time here. I think it was the next day or the day after. And I saw that going. Why that title. It's the only one that seems to be sticking for one. And then I heard "Carrie. Remember what that title, the diet means." And I went it's from the Greek word diata. And diata means a way of life. And here I am being a life coach. , I then really strongly I could feel so strongly in the saying you are the dietitian on a mission to bring back the true meaning of the word diet.
Leanne: Oh my god, hi.
Calla: I know, I love it.
Leanne: I didn't even know that we have like warped and sabotaged this little word, especially in this country in it. It is it's a four letter word. People hear it and they're like, Ooh, you know? I didn't know that's where it stemmed from.
Karie Cassell: Yes. And since that time, it's become another four letter word for me, which is love. It's Oh, okay. I'm pivoting this. This is great. I'm bringing back what was centuries long of what it was truly about and taking away only last two decades kind of going. You're the ones who need to be out the door. And It's that's been fun. And now I'm I'm being called the Dieta Diva.
Calla: What a great title.
Karie Cassell: Great. And well, it takes a bit of explanation obviously, as you're hearing but they were diva actually comes from the word divine. Break that all down on it is, oh, I'm a dietitian on a mission to bring back the way of life of the Divine.
Calla: I mean check, Yes.
Karie Cassell: Every time I have a little goosebumps Yeah, like that.
Calla: I love when purpose comes together. And they never isn't the way that we anticipate it to be. Is it I think your story more than proves that.
Karie Cassell: I agree. 100% true. Yes.
Leanne: I think okay, since I am a trainer, I do feel the need to bring up you talked about how resistance training can help rebalance your hormones or stabilize them. Can you talk about that a little bit for all my clients?
Calla: I'm listening.
Karie Cassell: Well, I almost picture in my mind, almost like building a foundation. First, I'm a big proponent of walking first, getting the you know, the circulation going and the breath control. And it's inexpensive. And subconsciously, it doesn't seem so intimidating. It really gets an awful lot going now breath control, and all those things do come into play. But as you know, as a trainer, there can come a point where she wouldn't mind a bit of a quantum leap on seeing results, yes, and nothing. Nothing brings those kinds of results like muscle. And muscle as you know, the biggest ones being in our arms or button or legs, the more we can build, the more calorie efficient we become. Not to mention range of motion and strength overall, as you know, but I think it's important to understand that for every pound of muscle that you build, your on average could have burned about 25 calories more just sitting. And what we're doing throughout the day, and our basal metabolic rate, which meaning what we're doing just pumping the heart and so forth, when we have a bit more muscle on us. It's just what does it tenfold all the benefits that come with that? You're using more glucose sugar, you're using more triglycerides, that that's all helping the heart is helping with diabetes, and just strength in and of itself. But I think there might be another component that people don't talk about when it comes to resistance training. I mean, you're you're very mind body. Maybe not so much spirit but focused with concentrated breath. Yeah, aren't we saying that when you're when you're doing resistance training in it, that's not parasympathetic. That's definitely to me. So I think we're producing a bit more serotonin in that type of breath. As opposed to running, if you don't love the running, especially if you're not conscious of your breath. What are you doing?
Leanne: Yeah, yeah.
Karie Cassell: And it could be that we're producing more of the cortisol. So what does it come right down to the foundation is movement while conscious of your breath. And hopefully, you're connected to either your own self or nature or something that brings in that spiritual aspect. And resistance training, or yoga or walking or dance, can bring all of those I think, probably the unique factor to this and you could speak to way better than me is that you're building that extra muscle. Yes, probably more calories.
Leanne: Yeah. But it sounds like even that it just comes back down to breathing. If you're not breathing, right. You could be stressing yourself out more doing the exact same thing, as opposed to relaxing.
Karie Cassell: You could be somewhat counterproductive. I mean, I almost want to say maybe 60% is counterproductive, but there's a 40% that you're moving at least . And you know, for some people walking is a lot of effort to start with, they might be breathing labored at first. But why not be aware of that more? Why why breeze pass that? And not be all of us? I think I mean, I think that's why yoga is making a real upturn in our society, because of that centeredness, and it is mind body spirit and is taking in that breathing aspect, because I also wrote about when we're releasing weight, 90 or 80%, sorry, is roughly through carbon dioxide. And some of that type of training as the weight resistance training goes running, if you're conscious and yoga will do that as well. That deep exhale, exhalation is only assisting that. Right? I mean, there's a lot of hormonal things involved in that as well, but There I got a little deep.
Calla: No, it's so good. I like in the midst of regulating my hormones. So I'm like, This couldn't be more timely. And I even I feel like I can tell you this now I wrote and starred on my notes. I'm the audience you wrote this book for. Like, I'm so thankful that we're that we're learning directly from you today. I can't say it enough. Really.
Karie Cassell: My pleasure. Thank you for noticing that. You're in balance of your hormones. We all are ones changing. Menopause. Trust me, menopause happens. It's just part of nature. But there's a lot of imbalances that are not normal. So why don't we get to those? That then when the natural ones accrue? It's not so imbalanced in that sense.
Leanne: Do you think a lot of people could go there and whole entire lives with improper hormone ranges?
Karie Cassell: Yeah.
Leanne: That's gonna take years off your life. You know, at the end of the day, just from the stress, just pure physical stress your body is experiencing? I would guess.
Karie Cassell: Yeah, well, it's I think it's sort of preconditioning people for anxiety depressions. PCOS diseases, and, you know, Polycystic Ovarian disease, I think we've got a lot of heart disease that's connected to it. I just don't think it's been studied enough. I honestly infertility for instance, I wonder how much of it was back to poor dieting, the yo yo dieting effect. And the body going into this, I don't know if this is great conditioning to have a pregnancy, for instance. And I don't know if you're familiar, or not familiar with the female triad syndrome being in? It's very common in athletes, but it will. It's maybe not always called that for everyone. But it basically is if you're not eating enough, while being an athlete, your estrogen levels drop it well with women, right? estrogen levels drop, usually, your cycles met off and it's unpredictable, and then can stop altogether. All because of not eating enough.
Leanne: I had a bit of that. In college. Yeah.
Karie Cassell: So fast forward, it can kind of, did it heal that it rectifiers are easy triggers for things to occur to correct metabolism quickly, because all your subconscious mind cares about. It gives a rat's behind about Vogue magazine. Here is a lot about your heart, and your lungs and all the core. You can live without your limbs, but you cannot live without your core. So if it's not being satisfied. It goes off on radar, to make sure that you get what you need, and it shuts everything down until it does recieve it.
Calla: That's my journey. That's I mean, that's literally leading up to and like, I'm not there yet, as far as like feeling my best yet. But I know we're on the right path to getting it there. And what a difference just even knowing that it's gotten better I can I feel like a totally new person. But I also know that I'm not there yet. So there's still things that I have to work through. But I the hormone regulation is so key to literally every component I'm learning of life.
Karie Cassell: It is one one little tool is so simple I wrote about it is how do you handle your thoughts? So I have little ponytails and things hanging off of door handles, door handles, toilet handles, band Lister handles to be able to say, hey, how am I handling my thoughts?
Leanne: Oh, like reminders.
Karie Cassell: And then by asking the question, How am I handling my thoughts, I can correct my breathing. Balancing up my hormones throughout the day, because remember, I came from, hey, you're in pregnancy and menopause at the same time within imbalanced hormones, all from worry, all from stress. And if you can catch your thoughts, control your breathing, you can ask yourself also have I been thinking in the future lot or the past? If I'm in the future, thinking I'm probably in a lot of worry, anxious, anxious energy. If I'm in the past a lot, it's a bit more depression usually. And you can be correcting those because neither of them have recurred. They've gone and sure hasn't happened yet. So you can kind of repattern which is also balancing.
Calla: Yeah, my dad always says "Don't worry twice" and it always makes me so mad whenever he says that but he's so right.
Leanne: Thanks, dad.
Calla: Thanks, Dad. Yeah, that's so funny. What did you mean by veggies and forgiveness? Can you talk a little bit about that in your book?
Karie Cassell: Veggies and forgive must have in common. Yeah. Well, they don't always taste good to people. One, mostly that it's an inside job in terms of healing. When we talk about resentment, and talk, speak about feelings, and when you think about resentment, feel, feel the constriction in your body, right, you can feel almost like everything's contracted a bit. And that, of course, stems back to the breathing and the thinking. And it's, it's whatever you're feeling for that individual or that situation is actually happening internally for you. So like a pressure cooker, darling, up all those feelings, I think, leads to a bench with emotional eating leads to heart disease, and so forth, not just simply what happened in that 24 hours is what you're carrying all day. It's where your mindsets and being aware of that and being able to contain your thoughts and so forth and correct your breathing is kind of like the when we eat fruits and vegetables. There's a lot of internal wonderfulness happening as well. And when I usually speak about it, I get into the red blood cells and how they regenerate. So depending on how much time I have,
Leanne: You've got you've got the floor.
Karie Cassell: Well, the red blood cells, as we sit here, right now, we had new baby ones born today. And so old ones were shed, in 120 days, four months, you'll have a brand new baby batch, like the whole batch will be brand new.
Leanne: It's a girl!
Karie Cassell: Yes, exactly. And they're brand new. They're like, they're like, Oh, I'm everything that you did for me this whole 120 days or the opposite. And there's a lot of studies that show a that serotonin produces better, you know, hormonal chemistry, basically, as I mentioned earlier, how we eat certainly how we breathe a certain way, oxygen is part of our red blood cells. And how we're exercising, as trainers would know. Imagine that if you had a four month plan of up leveling, how you're eating and how you're breathing, and these red blood cells, how they would respond. And we know that those red blood cells communicate to every organ in your body, from head to toe, they carry oxygen, they carry iron, they carry nutrients to carry the cholesterol on the sugar, too. What if they're superior? And would that not mean that my body's healing from the inside out, when I'm up leveling them from that mindset, and that next set of red blood cells will be superior, so that I'm gonna think better next. And then so on and so on. So it goes. So the fruits and vegetables are a huge part of that. Because the antioxidants, the micronutrients, I talk about a lot in book that are part of those cell membranes. And we know even with eating healthier, fatty acids that those membranes become stronger. Even with bone breakage, we know that when we have more calcium, that they'll heal quicker. We know if you have certain injuries that more protein will help you heal. Well, of course, fruits and vegetables are part of all of this as well, but especially the red blood cells. So in a in a nutshell, pardon the pun, forgiveness piece, the eating the fruits and vegetables are what are going on behind the scenes inside that are often underestimated. And with the unforgiveness, how that's underestimated.
Calla: It feeds it takes over.
Leanne: I, I have a lot of clients that I want to talk about self sabotage, because I have some clients that a lot of them that do it. Some of them are totally unaware that they're doing it, but some of them are aware, but they still can't seem to break that that cycle. And you have this quote that I want to read because it was just one of those quotes that I was like, Oh, my God. It said, "The very reason diets tend to fail is because your thoughts and emotions keep you trapped and pull you back even after you've seen results." Can you go into that?
Karie Cassell: Um, well, it's a combination. If some of this is theoretical, some of these things. We're in our DNA, as I mentioned before, we have centuries and centuries and centuries old, long before we cared what we really, really looked at looked like and in that DNA was being accepted, so that we weren't outcast, so that we could stay warm, so that we were fed make sense. So what would we have done over the years to be accepted? We would have done everything to have or judgment, we wouldn't have wanted to seem out or the weak or the outshining or something that just seemed like look that might get me kicked out, too. We've been conditioned for years and years to be accepted. There's so there's some fundamental fears that are built into this DNA, one of which is the fear of being failure, you know, feel of fear of being flawed itself, again, back from the DNA, a fear of outshining? And so it would, it would be like this, if I run around the neighborhood, the neighbors are going to watch me, they're going to see me. So who cares? But let it's in there, right? telling your friends, I might even I might join a marathon. But what do you think about that, you know, that when you need, you're going to be all boring when you switch all these fears that are in there and might not be accepted. I mean, I'm just using a nutritional one. But it could be that you went to university, your parent didn't. Or you earn more money, your parent didn't see sort of like, squish it down so that they don't feel like you're outshining them. So that's another way it could more fear of abandonment. If I if I lose a lot of weight, my husband won't accept me the same. Right? All these are fears that are potentially all of them, or one that's primarily leaving in the background, the last one being fear of burnout. If I stick to this, my life will be boring. If I stick to this, I won't be accepted over for the potlucks? I don't know. I'm even sharing some things that happened for me. As a dietitian, you think they want to invite the dietician to a potluck? If I'm bringing veggies all the time?
Calla: I mean, I dealt with that with Leanne for the longest time in our friendship of like, why should I have when she comes over? Because Oh, you know, and it's like, it's so ridiculous. It takes away from the moment, you know?
Karie Cassell: Yeah. So all of these No, you have more tools. You've submerse yourself into doing this, for instance, you're hearing all these different? What about when you don't? What about when you're coming? Yeah, you just finished raising babies and your brains kind of mushy, you haven't even done self development. I put the train on the tracks, and there's a lot martyr syndrome of, well, if I invest in myself, what about kids, I won't be able to afford another wardrobe, all of this paradigm world and it's all fear of being outsourced. Now, what do you do? Well, that it takes time, obviously, we have to sort of go x given them. And I think it really, really helps that people are aware of the fact that it's not really their fault, that it's so ingrained, it's not to slap your hand every time that you felt guilt or a binge or a self sabotage, because in your DNA, you were built to survive. And this is how it looks. Hey, the good news is though, we do have warm shelters and lots of food around. So we actually can stop and say it's not our last supper, the house does not have to look perfect. We could go for the walk instead. And that there's a few fears that will come in usually that are I call it the three Ds in the book, where it's either going to come in as distraction. Go put the laundry in instead of go for a walk. Why, like all of a sudden it matters that that laundry is done. Again, that comes from the fear of acceptance in your house and or the fear of dissuasion like, well, if I lose the weight, I won't be able to afford the clothes anyway, like, seriously. But that's, you know that that's a common you've heard that I'm sure. And the other one is DEF CON ONE they call it, which is what on earth have I signed on for I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can handle the soreness of my muscles afterwards. I don't know if I can handle the fact that I'm going to be all sweaty afterwards and go back to the office. You know, there's all of this playing fear in the background. But if we catch it, being aware of our thoughts, right with our thoughts, we can repattern them. And each one of them might look different for some people. But it can be as simple as well that was then and this is now or every day in every way. I'm getting better and better. And it doesn't matter what somebody else thinks that's where I'm going so it depends on the individual but I'll find one that they can repattern that matches with
Calla: I'm sorry, can you say that again? It cut out.
Karie Cassell: Okay. So usually I'll it's kind of one of those fears are more primary be the shining or whatever the case might be. And finding a repattern that matches that is quite effective. That what parent doesn't want their child to actually have done better. That's part of the evolutionary process. All right, and I forgot about that. Yeah, whatever it is to repattern that thinking?
Leanne: Is there a amount of time that you can kind of get people to process through that? Or is it just totally individual?
Karie Cassell: As much as it is individual. It's amazing what that 120 days, that four months will do. Because you blow past that whole habits can be recreated obviously, mindset of I'm healing from the inside out, I have 120 days as a target for my blood cells to renew. And it's enough of a stretch. But it's not so intimidating that as you know, a full long year, for instance, because by the time, the four months have spanned your level of thinking is already improving, then on to the next and then on to the next. So four months is a nice sweet spot that I like to work with people because it gives them that inside feeling of healing. Mm hmm.
Leanne: Yeah. And it's encouraging just to know, like, Okay, I could do that three times over in a year, you know what I mean, and be a totally different person. And just four months.
Karie Cassell: Exactly, yeah. And what would it look like if we just changed our expectation of it and set one to two goals as opposed to 10?
Calla: I feel like I'm being told everything that I need to hear today.
Leanne: I saw your head just fly back.
Calla: I needed Yeah, I need to hear all these things. I'm on the right path, it just you do you have to work through it. And it's difficult to do. I feel very out of my body lately. So it's good to know that that's not always going to be the case.
Karie Cassell: And so, if we were working together, I'd say up until now, that's a re-pattern. Right there. Because your subconscious brain doesn't get a chance to get on the track for too long. No, up until now. Because every day in every way, I'm getting better and better.
Leanne: That's a nice mantra.
Calla: I know. I know what's going on my mirror
Karie Cassell: Emily Cooper, if I haven't correct, it's in my book
Calla: I'll have to double check off to go back in and look at it. That's so cool. You talked about doing four areas of assessment in one's life. Can you talk about those different areas and how that impacts?
Karie Cassell: Yeah, happily, my analogy is using four tires on your vehicle. Because in studies, it shows that we are rooted in our four areas, health, our wealth, our time, that is time as well, sorry, our career or purpose. Some people want to call it a vocation or purpose, and our relationships. And like four tires on a vehicle. It's not like we say one tire is more important than the other. So I try to look at that as an analogy to say we want all four tires plumped up and floating, obviously, so that we're driving very, very smoothly. But if one tires over inflated, or deflated, or vehicle drives out of balance, so far, I'm really, really focused on my career, which is a tendency that I have, it might mean, I'm not paying enough attention to the other tires. And they'll it'll sympathize. So generally, when I'm sitting with somebody, I'll say, let's rate your tires, from a scale of one to five and your relationship, would you give it a one or a five, and so on and so forth. So they may have come to see me related to health. And yet, when we do the assessment, their health might be that it's actually at a four. It may not be perfect. But they will say, well, it's not like I'm diagnosed with something. So maybe it's truly a four. Okay, and what about your career? Well, maybe.
Leanne: Is this on a scale of one to five?
Karie Cassell: Yes.
Leanne: Okay.
Karie Cassell: And so let's say they've rated on a scale of one to five, their career at a two or a one and their relationships because fight with whoever or it's lacking relationship. That's where the problem lies. That's where the challenge lies. And yet, we would have gone to health only we would have, okay, let's look at what you're eating. And I would have spent an hour talking about that, which is fine. But it would have been missing that where the thoughts begin, where the emotions begin where the hormones begin. Because if we're feeling discontent or unsatisfied in the other areas, we'll eat them. By discovering those things, is how I can bridge your emotional eating back to the relationship piece or the career piece, and then work on it. And I talk about a gentleman in my book, who by doing that, it was like a tow truck came along and took his health with his other goals in life, because he was very unsatisfied with his career. And he just needed the dial up the musician inside of him. And by doing that, he said, because he was struggling with gout and weight and so forth, he said, Carrie, now that I'm doing this music, if I want to be on the stage longer and having more endurance, what would I need to do? Probably more walking, hey, I'm like, yeah, the same thing I was telling you a long time ago.
Leanne: Now you're listening
Calla: It frees up this space to be able to take in that information and to understand it and see it for what it is for sure.
Karie Cassell: Like your health by itself, past your 30s, I feel is not when the vanity is not picking up the slack. It's almost like it's not big enough of a goal, unless it's serving something. And it and it's in my world, I call that a dream. If your health is serving a dream, like that's what it did for me. Because at one point I was starting to get I didn't care. I don't care. But when my dream resurrected, I wanted my health to elongate my life. So I could serve. It was not enough for me to just look at health without looking at every aspect. So back to the four tires.
Leanne: Yeah. I wanted to talk about because you did reference, like my, my favorite book that You Are The Placebo, and you talk about and he his whole book is about how emotions each have their own frequency. And they can be measured in Hertz. And it's, it's hard to digest in that book, but you broke it down so nicely. Do you mind doing that for our listeners?
Karie Cassell: Yeah, if I if I'm catching what you're hoping I'll illustrate. So yeah, Dr. Joe Dispenza. And Dr. Hopkins, David Hopkins, at different times did similar studies and were able to measure our emotions, energy, everything is energy, and energy can be measured. And that includes our emotions. And it turns out that our lowest measure of emotions is shame and guilt. Shame being measured at 20 hertz, pardon the pun, but it's hertz energy symbol. And guilt is at 30 Hertz. Fear occur just around 200 hertz, for about 150. And love is at 500 hertz, peace around 600 Enlightenment up at around 1000. And like a thermostat, our mind our attitude, our body, everything is operating in a particular mindset, right? And therefore emitting a particular frequency. If you're spending a lot of time and guilt, which is where I was, that is why I'm it morphed into symptoms. For me, I was going through a divorce, a lot of guilt comes up in that scenario. So says, If my thermostatic setting was set on 20 to 30 hertz, and everything was always me. And the pity party kept on going you think parties have an end? Well, not pity parties apparently.
Calla: Please leave by nine
Karie Cassell: There was very little serotonin, it was most secure cortisol, and all sorts of stresses were happening at that thermostatic setting. And it took time for me to realize that why there's quite, I mean, that 20 to 30 hertz up to 500. And I started the process, the fact that anger, where I would experience anger as well sitting around the 100 hertz, I would have thought was negative. And it can be, of course, but it's actually what can leverage you up to having courage, or put you back down to guilt. Well, for me, it was putting me back down to guilt. Every time I would feel angry about an exorcism, or that sort of scenario. Well, back to guilt, I would go, I realized, well, maybe it's serving me because there's nothing like that feeling that comes along. And one of these days, you just say that's enough. Like I've just added no more of that. That's leveraging me up the courage. And then the question becomes, what would I love instead? Is you ask the question, what would I love, you automatically put yourself back up to 500 herts. So it's a numerical way of looking at the science behind our our emotions that we're admitting every day. And if you want something that you love, your dream, will just call that because it's better than a goal. I think. It's like dialing up to the FM frequency. And if you're on AM, you can't be on FM and AM at the same time. just becoming aware of again, your thoughts back to those thoughts. Be aware of your thoughts so you can see where your emotions are and dialed up to what you would love. I hope I captured what you meant.
Calla: More than, that was fantastic.
Leanne: Yeah. Well, I do want to bring up cravings. I know it's like, it's on the top of every commercial talks about cravings when it's a health food and how we seem to be so out of control of them, and we are the victim of our cravings. Can we talk about the craving checklist?
Karie Cassell: Yeah, sure. Yeah, so sometimes we are craving love. We are craving something more purposeful in life. I almost think that sometimes food is sort of like this distraction. Like, actually, you wanted this. This is just not really what you're after. But physiologically, there are things that we could be craving that are legit, completely legit. Again, your subconscious mind is pumping your heart and it's inflating your lungs, and it requires sugar to do that, or at least a conversion down to sugar. Let's put it that way carbohydrates. So if you find that you're going through three to four hours worth of time without eat, like passing three to four hours, where the time without eating, it is possible that a craving that comes along for sugar is a legitimate, hey, I'm actually hungry, and I just don't feel the hunger, because I'm filling up on coffee or whatever the case might be. So craving sweets can be an indicator craving indicator of dehydration could be an indicator. Maybe you had hot flashes all night. Trust me, I know that one. And it's legitimate craving something salt, there can be a mood based hormone based in terms of PMS, or like a bluesy feeling. Or a lot of people will say that they craving chocolate, right? When they're feeling that particular they may not feel that depressed right away. But there's some times that craving for chocolate, it's not always. But in the craving checklist, you could say, oh, is it you know, a hormonal thing instead? Now if it is hormone, what else could I do besides just the chocolate and I didn't say not the chocolate, just, I would say first, well mind the breathing. If you're looking for serotonin, doing craft, listening to music, going for a walk, getting good sleep, can also be a part of that. And then see if you still crave that. And if you do, maybe you'll crave less of it. Then you'll find the compromises. Because when you're breathing into the parasympathetic system, that's where Rest Digest create lives. And you'll have creative idea, maybe a creative compromise compromise. Lastly, on the hormonal checklist, is what I mentioned sleep enough. If you're not sleeping enough, adults requiring roughly seven to nine hours of sleep, quality sleep, you may be producing more leptin, sorry, grenlin. And if you're producing more glenlyn, you're going to be hungrier typically, if you sleep enough, you'll produce more leptin, which is more gives you more fulfillment. Just even sleep alone as a hormonal based way of craving or not creating one.
Leanne: It is hard though, like I think, for people coming into learning about their health, and what's my first step to get better. And it is the only way to do it is is all encompassing. But that's where I think it's so helpful. The way you laid it out in your book is especially how you talk about the four tires, you don't have, like all four areas are not all struggling. Maybe they are against me for everyone. But there are usually more struggling than others. But if you bring up those weaker links, you could feel so much better than if you just kept focusing on diet, nutrition, diet nutrition. And I think that's where a lot of people totally missed the ball.
Karie Cassell: Yeah, it's a bit like a breath of fresh air, right? Oh, yeah. If you have all four tires flat, it's generally you're in burnout. And burnout is nothing like a focus like painting plates. I don't know painting something where an artsy part of yourself resurrects it instead. And that's what I was sharing with you with the other fellow in my book. And it becoming something I take a break. I don't have to think about calories. Nope. Yeah. All right, calories. Take a break from that and focus on this and then as a byproduct, or like a tow truck as I say it'll come along. But understanding I think first and foremost that you're not so fond of mentally flawed. There's a lot of physiological reasons. And that the focus has just been unfortunately, media hiked into the body onto the body and dictated by airbrushed images. And on and on and on, and I could go and bringing back the diet as a way of life. The only way to do that is to look at the entire life. Yes. Yeah.
Calla: Doesn't get much better than that. It really does. Karie, thank you so much. Thank you so so much for coming and hanging out with us. Where can people find you and get connected with you?
Karie Cassell: Anything The Domino Diet these days? Yeah, no, the website I have linked to my actual business regardless. So the dominodiet.com. Basically, you'll find me if you google The Domino Diet. For Nutrition Month, I have promos going on into spring I have promos and so forth going on. So it sort of changes. But generally, there's something little, little pearls of wisdom and little pearls that will go along with that. And there's a quiz that's just launching here right away on there. So it's all to do with those four tires.
Leanne: Oh, perfect.
Calla: What a great assessment. Thank you so much. We can we can attest there's tons of wisdom within within your book and obviously in this conversation alone. It's been really really beneficial to have you here. All right. Well, we'll talk soon. Thank you, Karie.
Karie Cassell: Have a good rest of your day.