[00:00:00] Elizabeth: Hi everyone. I'm Elizabeth Stein, founder and CEO of purely Elizabeth, and this is Lived purely with Elizabeth, featuring candid conversations about how to thrive on your wellness journey.

[00:00:18] This week's guest is Robyn Youkilis , an award-winning entrepreneur, speaker, board certified health coach, wellness expert, author of two bestselling books, and mama of two. I have known Robyn since our days at Integrative Nutrition almost 15 years ago. Robyn is a leading authority on the intersection of gut health, mindset, intuition.

[00:00:43] Entrepreneurship, integrating spirituality and fun along the way. With over 15 years of experience in the wellness industry, Robyn's goal remains the same, to equip others with practical tools for peak performance and physical and emotional health, while inspiring joy, confidence, and purpose. In this episode, we talk all things wellness.

[00:01:06] From Robyn's personal journey with food, including her past struggles with body image and dieting to her current focus on self-acceptance. Robyn talks about some of her favorite tips for improving her relationship with food and promoting over all wellbeing, including the importance of mindful eating, nurturing gut health, and trusting her intuition through meditation and energy work.

[00:01:30] We chat about stepping out of our comfort zones to start our businesses and being open to opportunities. Lastly, Robyn shared her recent decision to downshift in her business and career in order to prioritize her role as a mother to her two young children. It was so much fun to catch up with Robyn. I know you guys are gonna get so much out of this episode.

[00:01:53] Enjoy. Robyn, welcome to the podcast. It is so much fun to catch up with you. I feel like I haven't seen you in probably like at Expo Pre Pandemic. I don't know. Yes, you got it. It's so great to see you and to catch up. And we were just saying we are some of the wellness OGs over here, so I wanna take us back to, I.

[00:02:22] What year? If we were the same year? I was 2007. I was 2009. So basically the same year. Which 2009 was the last year. It was in person.

[00:02:33] Robyn: I was this, yeah, so I was the second to last live class. So that was a fully live year. I think you were in our stage. I think you came back that year some, I don't know, maybe it was the year that I

[00:02:42] Elizabeth: And I had so much fear about that and we'll get into fear.

[00:02:47] Robyn: Oh my God. And then, so the year after me was a hybrid year, so they did in person and online, and then it went fully digital. So Elizabeth and I able to go to school like we went to school. For quite some time with our notebooks and our bags and our little baggies of goji berries and mulberry and cacao nibs and all this little old school and the raw food world that was happening at Pure Food of Mine.

[00:03:13] Oh my God. And which one now? Like look where that story ended up. But yeah, we are those like 15 years ago, you, 17 years ago. Wellness OGs. And we have remained. Friends knowing one another all this time. It really is you. It's really a cool thing that we're, that we've gotten to be a part of and see. And to even be people who navigate like the way that we've steered it and seen the trends and the things that we continue to grow and build and how it all changes and evolves.

[00:03:38] It's just, it's very cool to have a running budget and all of it. So thanks for having me here.

[00:03:44] Elizabeth: Okay, Anne, do you remember the moment where you first discovered IN and what you were thinking about signing up for the program?

[00:03:55] Robyn: I can't believe you're asking me this because it is such a part of my story because I remember the exact moment.

[00:04:00] I also need to share with your community. I have a photographic memory and I'm an intuitive, and so things that are these like pivotal moments for me. I could, like if my mind could paint, I could paint the whole thing for you right now. It's wild. Okay. Let's hear it. The photographic memory is very helpful, I will say in the sense for my husband, because he's like, where's the remote?

[00:04:18] I'm like, it's in between the second and third couch cushions on the couch that's on the left. He's like, how do you, he's like, where's my ring? I'm like, you left it next to your T-shirt stack on the third shelf, in the closet on the right. Like I just. It's very helpful for him. I haven't figured out how to use the superpower fight as much for myself, but he's in his nurse so handy.

[00:04:35] I'm like, yeah. Anyhow, so I remember I was living in Los Angeles at the time and I was in Santa Monica at some little like side sidewalk cafe, and I got the brochure. I had the brochure. So where did the brochure come from? Was it. They mailed it to me mail, like in the mail. You remember the mail? Everyone, you sometimes would get exciting things in the mail.

[00:05:00] So I was, what was it? Was it G chatting? No, AOL Instant messaging or something. A girlfriend of mine at my day job, my 10 99 job, and I used to work as an event producer. At that time I was working, producing documentary film festivals at a great organization and I was chatting with my friend and telling her.

[00:05:19] I'm doing this, but all I could think about is this farmer's market sandwich that I made for my then boyfriend, now husband at the time, fully into the Santa Monica Farmer's market, like just the bounty and the gorgeousness of that. And prior to dating him and going to Farmer's Market with him on the weekends, my view of food leading up to that for the two years prior was really the Trader Joe's freezer section.

[00:05:40] I've always had a knack for food and putting things together, but it was the mid, late twenties and partying all night and just feeding myself whatever during the day. And this started to evolve with me going and seeing, oh, this is real food and this is what this feels like. And so I was chatting with my friend about the sandwich that I made in from the fresh sour dough and the spicy arugula and the farm fresh egg with the orange joke.

[00:06:01] And she's, you're really into all this health stuff now. It sounds like you live in la Of course. And so you should check out this school, that Institute for Integrative Nutrition, that two of her friends. So I think I filled out a form on the website and the brochure showed up in my hands and I sat in that cafe and I held it in my hands and everything in my body just said yes, and I could see like my future flash before my eyes.

[00:06:25] I could see myself doing this. She also mentioned it at the time I was here. I am all the like. Whoa. That was in your history. Whoa, that was in your past. I had no money at the time. I was still all, I didn't know you had to pay credit cards off to zero, so you didn't have this like monthly. It was all such a mess.

[00:06:41] But I figured out how to get a loan like from my mom, via my sister. I could pay in full, get the discount, got signed up. I had no idea what a health coach was or what I was gonna be doing with it. And at the time I was planning on flying back and forth, but that was the summer, I think where like, so he just trusted that.

[00:06:57] Okay. And of course I ended up wavering it on a bit. He was all in and I was like, oh, are we sure about this? But we did it and I showed up at school. I knew nothing. Like I really, I did not come from a meditation crunchy household. Woo, macrobiotic mother. I'm lucky I have a beautiful mother who cooked so much of our stuff from scratch and loved hosting, entertaining, and cooking, but I had no understanding of what it meant to be.

[00:07:22] Well, I thought my diet history was me trying to take care of myself and the grapefruit diet, cottage cheese diet, God.

[00:07:33] What this was from since then, 15 years later it's changed so much. But like at that point it was a very from the ground up. Oh, wellness means taking care of yourself. Wellness means eating more things that grow as nature intended, and it didn't have so much dogma attached to it, and so much ways that it's gotten twisted and untwisted.

[00:07:54] It was just really. A very pure vision on how to take care of yourself. And I learned it there. It would be many years later until I feel like I really made some progress and some healing with my own disordered eating. But that was definitely a foundational stepping point for me. So that's my answer to your question though.

[00:08:11] Yeah. That's how I remember where I was when I signed up for INI

[00:08:16] Elizabeth: love that. I love also hearing like your full body. Yes. In wanting to sign up because I had a similar experience and I don't remember what led me. I Googled something and is how I found it. So I did not have the pamphlet, but I just remember reading the website and they had to answer these 10 questions and call us today.

[00:08:36] And I. Read that and immediately left my desk job, went downstairs and signed up at that moment and just had a full body mess of this is, I knew I was meant to do it and so are you.

[00:08:48] Robyn: That's wild. Yeah. Are you a generator in human design? You're probably a generator. I think I am. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So that's a lot of several people have

[00:08:56] Elizabeth: said that, but I just wonder how many people in the program all have had that similar experience of feeling like this was such a purposeful, meant to be moment for so many people.

[00:09:07] Robyn: I think it's really cool in life. Like we, we hope that we have a lot of those moments, but we don't always, yeah. And for everyone listening, whatever, you're getting that around. It's just really cool. And it doesn't mean you have to have a business with it, or you need to be in the online marketing world.

[00:09:21] All things lead to different places. I think we shut ourselves down a lot with the, oh, what am I gonna do with this? I didn't know I was gonna open a coaching practice. That even wasn't even what I wanted to necessarily be doing. And now I'm actually 15 years later finding more of what do I want to be doing instead of just being a good soldier with my business, with my online business.

[00:09:39] Elizabeth: Yeah, I think that's a great point. Like I certainly didn't go in thinking I was starting purely Elizabeth and and I, there you go, do coaching. But I do think one of the big themes for me, and I think for you as well, I hear Joshua in my head still saying, feel the fear and do it anyway. And this sense of coming out of that program.

[00:10:00] Being open to saying yes, being open to opportunities in life and putting yourself out of your comfort zone, like I did not go in with that confidence and really came out. Having that sense of stepping out and that stepping into that fear. So how has that played a role for you? Because I feel like you were like immediately giving talks and doing all this stuff, and I'm sure like that what you thought going in that you'd be able to do.

[00:10:32] Robyn: Totally. So yeah, it's funny, I hear I have a lot of Joshua ISS in my head too, and just a highlight of I am, well this isn't necessarily your thing in that market, but just to reflect back to your listeners, finding those teachers, like it's always important to have people inspire. You have people whose things that run through your head because they really can change your life.

[00:10:50] So yeah, feel the fear and do it anyways. I will say I do think certain careers, professions, directions, you have a natural. Talent for and some things you develop and evolve. Like I said, I learned all the nutrition stuff. I knew absolutely nothing. But one thing I had very naturally is a fear. Feel the fear into it Anyways, I actually was trained in circus as a child.

[00:11:10] No way. I know it was a wild, so I went to a camp at theatrical camp that had a full blown circus and I actually ended up doing a play later in my early twenties, I should say, that had a circus and I got the part 'cause I could do circus. So That's so cool. It was definitely cool and it is wild. Part of my history, and I remember they brought in this new apparatus called Cloud swing, um, which looked like Spanish web, but in a half moon.

[00:11:34] So imagine like just a giant little rope swing in the sky, and they said it looked fun. You just swang it back and forth and you would tumble forward and tumble backwards. You had your wrist attached to. The thing with this device was apparatus rather, was that you had to go on the exact second when they say, huh?

[00:11:52] Because if you miss that window, you essentially dislocate your shoulders.

[00:11:56] Robyn: Because there's a point. I know. It's wild. There's a point in the momentum that you can hit the, uh, the cadence, the amount of beats to do the tumble or to do the trick. And if you're off. Even by a fraction of a second, you're gonna be against the swing and it pulls your shoulders essentially out.

[00:12:12] And I remember we were all standing this all the little like the trapeze kids, which was one of the trape kids who wants to try this. And I was like, I'll do it. And I remember sitting up in that swing and them swinging me back and forth and getting going with the momentum before we were doing any tricks or falls or things like that.

[00:12:30] And just this deep feeling of you've got this. I was shaking inside, but it's just, it's just 1, 2, 3, go and that's it. You don't get a, a, a moment to be like, but this, but I. But what if they, nobody signs up for this. It's just was the deep training of 1, 2, 3, go. And so I did the trick. And here why I was Jillian Lee, you're doing the trick of, okay, I don't necessarily know what I'm gonna do with this, but they've given me all of these tools.

[00:13:01] I have a lecture that I can give. And so I just went out and just freaking did the thing. I'm good at taking direction like that. Okay, here's the assignment, go do it. And even though I was still swirling in self-doubt. Fear and I'm not good enough. I don't know enough. I certainly didn't know as much as everyone around me.

[00:13:19] Um, it was just one to three go. And I think that has just served me and I think a lot of entrepreneurs, coaches, online, coaches in person, whatever it's that you're doing, we get stuck in the, it needs to look like me, feel like me be. Yeah. And I think that yes, you do need that to stand out and have a long career, but certainly not years one through three.

[00:13:38] Here's one through three. You just need to do the dang thing. I gave the, like corny, we're talking like. Feed the sugar blues and live more, way less like these little workshops that God blessed that they gave us. That's what I was teaching because I had an outline, I had a handout, and so I just did the thing.

[00:13:55] So sometimes just do that. We question and research ourselves into oblivion and like you got something in front of you, go and try it. Go get your real lived experience with the thing that you're working towards.

[00:14:07] Elizabeth: I love that. I think that's such a great tip. And I also think so much just, I forgot this part of my life and story of after doing IN feeling like I had to do all the things, so then I took my yoga teacher training.

[00:14:19] 'cause I felt like in order to do that I also needed to do yoga. And it's, you don't need to do all those things, like just go and do what it is that you're searching for.

[00:14:28] Robyn: But I'm like, see a little like tiny little wellness competitive part of me. It's like, I wish I had a yoga teacher, trainer. I don't really want

[00:14:35] Elizabeth: a yoga teacher.

[00:14:36] I taught one class and that was that.

[00:14:39] Robyn: We're all just like, I'm sure your community, like we are just strivers. We just wanna do the most and be the most. And I get it. And I do. I will say I have done certifications that even though I'm a generator, haven't been a full body. Yes. But I knew would support me in other ways.

[00:14:53] You know, I've done some. Physical training work in areas that I was like, I'm, it's not totally who I am, but it would be really nice for me to have that for myself. And I did and it was great. So some things are, there are these bright, shiny yeses and some things that's a softer yes and can have many reasons, but no, you don't need extra, you don't need more.

[00:15:10] It's really simple, really works. And I think where I would get into compare and despair with colleagues who knew so much more than me is where I really leaned into simple. The first years of my coaching practice were based on gut health. How you can digest better, you can hear your intuition more. How gut health connects to gut intuition.

[00:15:31] And, but I knew I wasn't gonna be talking about polysaccharides and lower intestinal issues. My thing was like, was anybody talking about how we need to be, um, calm in our bellies before we expect our bodies to digest our food? Anyone talking about the importance of chewing, like we are, A lot of us are talking about this, but are we really just like slowing down enough?

[00:15:50] To keep it that simple. And yes, I know the market's saturated. Yes, I know there's a lot of voices, but ultimately simple is what most people need, and people also need people that they connect with. So those two overarching messages are still always gonna hold true, like people are with me because they can hear it from me better, clearer, in a more fun way than they would from someone else.

[00:16:13] A hundred percent.

[00:16:14] Elizabeth: So how has, let's talk about a little bit about how your practice has evolved. So you started really focusing on gut, and we can talk a little bit about that and then where you are over the years and where you are today.

[00:16:25] Robyn: Oh my gosh. So this is definitely like an ever evolving. Depending what week you ask me.

[00:16:32] I am so guilty of not hitting repeat on a lot of things that I do, even though that's what I've teach in my business mentoring programs. I am just such the ultimate create new from scratch because I'm so intuitively driven. I. I need to, like what am I vi? What's coming out of me in this moment that like I have to express, I have to teach, so I have to connect on.

[00:16:52] So yes, it has definitely been a journey. I spent many years doing one-on-one until eventually a group program did evolve. My first rockstar roadmap program that started to write itself. And then many programs after that I programmed from within and I did the rockstar co coaching collective. Like I have been on Zoom teaching on Zoom.

[00:17:12] Hang on about six years before the pandemic, my God, to give you I know, I know. Wow, that's so impressive. I know. So all this to say, in all of these programs and in all the online coaching, which I evolved eventually a lot into business mentoring, running masterminds, things like that, I then this past year launched a program called Hot Mama.

[00:17:32] Which was more around the essence of me and the way that I live my life and how I get fun on the calendar and how I make it all work while prioritizing myself, while being the CEO of my family and while being the CEO of my coaching company and what's really, and so that's a very quickie from 2009 to 2023, I should say.

[00:17:53] And what's evolved much more recently is probably the most different place I've ever been at in my business in the sense of. I had a moment, I can't remember, about six months ago, where I just woke up and I was, it was like a moment and it was, I'm done on Zoom. I'm done teaching on Zoom, and this was why I was running three online programs at the same, three different programs all on Zoom.

[00:18:16] One weekly call for one of 'em twice a month for the others three, one was three. It was just a lot of Zoom. I just woke up and done. What does this mean? I'm in the middle of all of these programs. This is what my whole business built on. The past, I should say six months to a year has really been me really going into self-inquiry.

[00:18:34] Um, not on, I was just chatting with this about my friend Jess, about un generating myself because I'm such a generator generators For those who don't know in human design, like we're the mega sources of energy where like the big batteries and we can do and go, but really it has to be, we have to be completely lit up to do it.

[00:18:52] And the thing is, I've really trained myself to maybe not be so lit up to do it and just do the, you've got a task for me. I've got this. And spending the last six months to a year really being in a space of what do you really want? What is really lighting you up? And how do you step away from an online coaching empire that you've built?

[00:19:12] What does that even look like? What happens to all of your. ip, all your programs and products that you've created that are amazing, that are helping people and you wanna get out there, but like you don't necessarily wanna be the one marketing it anymore. And so it's been really interesting. So I've, while I've been thinking about that with my business, my life and my family has been increasingly asking more of me.

[00:19:37] And so I have a now 8-year-old. Uh, eight. She's eight. That little thing is wild. Two redheads with blue eyes. Little babies. So cute. So I have an 8-year-old and now 3-year-old. And it's interesting because when my 8-year-old turned three or four, so it started to get easier, I was more in the groove. And not that I was necessarily hard in the be, of course it's hard, but I was like, I was in my flow with her as a baby toddler.

[00:20:02] I loved it. And then I just found more spaciousness in my life. And then I assumed that would happen with the little one turning two, three, and it's been the opposite. She's not three, she turned three in end of May. And maybe it's because there's two of them or personalities or my 8-year-old being incredibly intense and just has always been an intense, serious child and she really needs a, a lot of grounding and holding and eye to eye parenting.

[00:20:32] And the little one. It's just this wild little special thing, and I just feel like my life, my family has been asking so much more of me, and where can I pivot or shift so that I have more left for them and so I'm not feeling like I'm jamming myself in my life and my career into the few hours I have before pick.

[00:20:53] And I have a nanny. We have babysitters, and this is with acknowledge. Honor and appreciate and recognize that I do have in having this support and having this help and also honoring myself and saying, my life is asking a lot of me right now, these little kids are asking a lot of me right now, where can I take off some things?

[00:21:15] Where, what am I trying to prove with my business? What? So I'm really in and evolve, evolving moment of where am I focusing? What am I doing? What lights me up? What's coming off my plate? And I do wanna share, I have just. Today actually officially closed all of my ongoing online coaching programs. Wow.

[00:21:33] Congratulations. I put that down. Thank you. Thank you. We'll see where they wanna go. Right? Like I, there's more I wanna do. I still have all my big hopes and dreams and they're all gonna happen, but maybe I'm running in year three for the next couple years until my little ones in kindergarten instead of.

[00:21:48] That I'm down shifting a bit instead of just running full steam ahead on all cylinders and all kinds of like, what am I trying to prove? And so close my online coaching programs and really focusing more on speaking gigs because I love being on stage. I love sharing this message to a big audience. It's like where I'm like, I'm my funniest one.

[00:22:06] The microphone and stake under me get, be in what's, what's funny about wellness? All these different things. And so more on. Speaking, my speaking gigs, less holding of people ongoing and more in-person retreat experiences, maybe a few times a year. And then, um, working with brands in a higher capacity and saying, you know, going to a brand saying, how can we co-work together?

[00:22:29] How can we collaborate? Are you interested in events? Are you interested in me being, educating your, um, CRM your customer audience space? So getting in bed with brands in a, a deeper, more immersive way. And cutting out anything for now that isn't that, because I don't want my daughter getting the ends of me every day and I do wanna say, I can make some changes.

[00:22:52] I can financially make some changes right now and I can lifestyle, make some changes. So I. That's a very long answer, but it's a very honest answer. 'cause we tend to see someone who's at a point in their career and think, oh, they've made it, or they're this and they've built that and it's, I dunno, it's a big moment of what would it look like if I was playing that way or doing that, or I closed that to make space for the next thing.

[00:23:13] And what if I leaned in a little bit more? And what if my kids. I let myself have more space to really land in my life. And so that's where I'm at with my coaching practice.

[00:23:27] Elizabeth: Congratulations. That's amazing. And I think being able to be open to that change and listen really to your intuition of it's okay, you don't just because you've been going really respecting that.

[00:23:42] I like when you said the question of what am I proving? Really asking yourself what, why I. So how do you feel now?

[00:23:50] Robyn: It's funny, it there is this duality around it. 'cause on one hand I feel like it's the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I was at a table recently with some dear friends, what's happening with your work?

[00:23:59] And I'm like, I'm downshifting a bit. And that was very hard. It was shaky for me. I felt very shaky and sharit. So on one hand it feels like the hardest thing I've ever had to do. And on the other hand, it also feels like the easiest thing I've ever had to do. It's both truths can be can coexist,

[00:24:17] Which is why it's so hard. And also this is an, an unfolding. It's not like I had the started having these thoughts. It's been what month? Mid summer or whatever you're, it's been more than half of a year that I have had these feelings. So this has been, and I just finally at the cycle of closing a live program, so this is like phase one, I would say, of hearing this conversation.

[00:24:39] So I still got a phase two, phase three, you know what I'm saying?

[00:24:46] A practice with so many tentacles and so many arms and so many layers to it. It's not like I've decided I'm downshifting, so that means X, y, z starting tomorrow. It has been a process and seeing where is my time going? Am I working less? Do I feel like I have less responsibility? I. Do I feel like I have more energy to be the parent that my children are asking me to be right now?

[00:25:08] I think some things have shifted and I think there's a little more spaciousness, but it's no way on a day-to-day basis does it yet feel the way that I'm, I'm striving for. So we are an absolute work. Progress. And I'm also forcing myself, Elizabeth, I feel like we're similar in the sense of I have new ideas coming in and I'm like, wait, but I could do this in the fall.

[00:25:27] Or I could, I'm so deeply programmed for the what's next, what's going on the calendar and in some ways, what's the next product? What's the next sku, what's the next launch? And totally. And I'm, in some ways that has served me so well. 'cause I do think when you're starting something, yeah, there's. Style down that work your what you love.

[00:25:46] It's, no, you do have to, you're getting something off the ground. Like you are working at night, you are working on the weekends, like you are hustling. Not for everybody, not all the time. Yes, there can be balance, but it's a like finishing a book, reality two books.

[00:25:57] Robyn: It's a reality of it. So we'll see.

[00:26:00] We'll see. It is, it has been really me saying, oh, I have this new idea. Write it down and remind yourself. I always, in my business mentoring, I teach for, for now and for later lists. So what's for me for now? So it is a daily reminder of I'm the CEO of my family and I'm trying to focus on two full days of work and that's like where I'm trying to focus.

[00:26:20] So that is the for now and then leading these immersive retreat experiences with hot mama, with like us maybe in my house of state. And these visions that I have me on state, well me on stage can happen very soon. That's cool. That feels very manageable and I'm calling that in. Creating something where my company needs to run it and to launch it even in the easiest gear, is still a ton of work.

[00:26:41] So, hey Robyn, don't do that this fall. You know what? Back to school is like with the kids. You know that it almost breaks your marriage every September. Not gonna do that this year. Not gonna do that this year. So maybe in the spring we'll revisit. It's really this constant checking back in, tuning back into my intuition, what feels present right now.

[00:27:02] What can be for now, what could be for later end. Finding peace in that. And the last thing I wanna say is coming back to when you said those Joshua iss, one of the most poignant things that I ever heard Joshua say was that life is a long time and I add the Jewish P God willing at the end of that because we're so superstitious.

[00:27:20] But life is a long time, God willing. And yeah, so life's a long time, like wow, like I have so many years ahead of me to do all of these amazing things and don't have so many years of this little 3-year-old. Wants more of me and this 8-year-old that really needs me to really deeply parent her.

[00:27:39] Elizabeth: I love that.

[00:27:39] Well, congratulations. I'm so excited to see where all of this unfolds, and I think it's just like great for anyone to hear of really listening to this thing inside of you that is not easy, but really listening to that inner voice to tell you and guide you on where you should be going in the next step of your journey.

[00:27:59] Robyn: So I guess it's the same thing. It's the same theme that I shared with both my, my origin story and my update story. It is the same damn thing, and I just choose to really. Honor it as best as I can in every moment. But man, it makes living with me tricky. It is.

[00:28:17] Elizabeth: We are. So I, another area I'd love to talk about in your journey is your own personal journey with food.

[00:28:23] So you mentioned certainly that in the beginning you did not have a great relationship with food and it would be great to talk about how that evolved and then how you've worked with clients and your community over the years. And some we'll dive into maybe some of those tips around. Relationship with food and primary

[00:28:43] Robyn: food and all the good things.

[00:28:45] Love. I'm glad we're diving into this because I haven't talked about it in a while and I forget that it's, it has become so much more easeful for me, which I've worked 15 years now to get it to this place that I forget about it, which, oh my God, isn't that the holy, that's the Holy Grail Inc. Before that, we forget.

[00:29:01] I used to have a food thing and like I need to manage it. So we'll say, I remember as a child, like I. Got hips and a booty at a, a young age. And I remember looking in the magazines and being like, I don't look like these girls. I need to look like these girls. And the girls at school were dieting and, and restricting themselves and, oh, I need to be doing that.
[00:29:20] And really just looking everywhere but myself for what I should be and what I should look like. And made a career of that before I made a career of unraveling all of that diet that I was on, telling myself I couldn't eat certain things. It just was a mess. I am 44 now and I am of the SNACKWELLS generation and the factory entons and just the what?
[00:29:41] A cabbage soup diet and just what a mess, and just this ever ominous message that we need to be smaller, thinner, or look a certain way, and thank God. It is evolving. I do feel that message, like I can fill my feed with women and men who are comfortable in their bodies, or at least showing that they're comfortable in their bodies and see all different body types.
[00:30:06] And that wasn't the case 20, 25 years ago, and we have a long way to go. But I will say that it does help me to like. Oh, she's so comfortable with skin. Fat, fat muscle, all the all being a part of person, it's.
[00:30:24] In my dieting, I would say part of why I wanted to go to nutrition school, 'cause I thought that would be the, the diet that fixed me. I was like, oh, if I eat in this healthy way, which was then, of course not of course, but a lot of people are aware of orthorexia and getting so strict around wellness practices, which is a diet or a diet mentality.
[00:30:44] Yeah, exactly. Or a whole other disordered way of eating in itself. So what I always say is I had, I didn't suffer from an eating disorder, but I had disordered eating habits. So in restriction and watching myself in constant body checks in never thinking I was thin enough, and all the space that took up in my head in searching for love and comfort in my kitchen cabinets instead of in a walk, and myself and a friend.
[00:31:07] Things like that, like I even, I was at Weight Watchers. I remember getting my tokens in Los Angeles, so I was just eating my feelings all over the place, which now is, yeah, if you need to eat your feelings a little, that's okay, but can you breathe around this moment? Yeah. And then can you find balance when you're ready to find balance again?
[00:31:21] It is such a nuanced conversation in how it's evolved and so went to nutrition school thinking that would heal me. It turned into a little another diet, and so it really took more years. Um, for that to shake itself out. But where I saw the most change and what I taught the most in my early years of my practice was around gut health because I learned I was over antibiotic as a child.
[00:31:46] I have a mild heart condition, and at the time, the standards in dental work were to give antibiotics every time there was dental work. And there was a mixup in my medication and I was being given an adult dose of antibiotics for 10 years of my life. Wow. I know. And I had chronic sinus infections, so I know, I, I don't even, I just skim right over it because I'm like, yeah, that thing happened.
[00:32:08] But yeah, that, that's a huge contributor. And I had chronic sinus infections, so I was also being given antibiotics for chronic sinus infections my whole life. And so I imagine I had done quite a bit of damage to my gut, which I had functioned. I was a very high functioning, high anxiety. Child, an adult, and when everything felt very noisy in the wellness world, I was like, to me, the gut, like I immediately made that connection of I hear so much from my intuition.
[00:32:35] That's where I hear it from. If I focus on nourishing that and calming all that down a little bit, I wonder if. I'll feel better too. Like I didn't need a book to tell me that. Yeah. Or a lecture. Like I've got that very intuitively, which I'm very grateful for. And so I really focused around gut health, fermented foods, probiotic, simplifying my meals, getting packaged things, even healthy packaged thing outta my diet, and just really going back to basics and doing that for years.
[00:33:01] And I think eventually what happened was I did get my good gut bacteria more back balance, which made my brain feel a lot better, which made my body feel a lot better. That big piece of bringing my actual physical body, my cells into better balance then started. Then from that foundational place, I was able to work more on the disordered eating because I was getting more of the nourishment I needed instead of the being deprived, um, nutritionally speaking because I was still recovering from all these diet foods, et cetera.
[00:33:32] And so once I had that foundation. I was able to do more of the mental work and more of the mental work was just more like letting go in years of filling my head with other things. The antithesis of diet, culture, and under learning about paleo and ancestral foods, but not in a dieting way, but just wow, if I feed my body these foods, like I feel a certain way and it's been such a process.
[00:33:54] I wanna say the undying of me probably took about 10 years. Now I feel like in the last and every, also having children really affected that too. One of my big turning points as well was when I was getting my body ready for maybe my now 8-year-old. I remember. I wanna get my body prepared for pregnancy.
[00:34:14] And I was pescatarian at the time and I started craving meat and I was working with Ben Parsley. Parsley Health was eight years ago. Oh my God. Parsley Health, who only had a couple health coaches, Ryan and friends with the founder, Robyn Zen. And I remember her having this idea and I was working with Dr.
[00:34:28] Robyn about what I needed and my mercury levels were really high. And just getting, making sure that I was, you know, good on paper and good in body for baby. And I had this moment where I was like, wait a minute. I'm like making this home. For this future baby. Like I live here. Like I need all this stuff to be in harmony for me.
[00:34:46] And I really held onto that. This is my home. So that was another, we have all these um, aha moments, right? These pivotal moments in our lives that really shape and shift things. And that was one. And then. Around my second daughter, I wanna say I had my first at 36 and I had my second at 41. We were really unsure about having a second.
[00:35:06] They were intentionally five years in between. She was the pandemic baby. And I will say it definitely took the pandemic to shut down. Like I'm a big partier to shut down Coachella with cancel three times. I was like, fine, I'll have another baby. Um. Perfect timing. So we had the pandemic baby, but I had her at 41 and my recovery was very challenging physically.
[00:35:26] And where I learned I had come so far was I remember at 41 after the year or two, after I had my second Dover, I couldn't work out. I couldn't think about restricting my food in any way because I just felt worse. I had such low energy. I needed so much ground up, healing and nourishment. Every time I went to exercise, I got injured every time.
[00:35:48] I got injured. Oh, like I could barely go for even just like light walks was the only thing I could do every time I go to yoga. Even taking it easy, I had a shoulder, I had a lower back and it took me a year being like, okay, I guess I'm not like, just be Robyn. I. Eat, like things that will build you back up, build your blood back up from a very east, west, traditional Chinese medicines, uh, point of view, warm foods, these things like clearly you are in adrenal fatigue.
[00:36:13] You are, your body is not, your baseline is not where it needs to be. And thankfully, like old health coaching hat, like I knew a lot of things to do to help myself, like really a lot of fat and more sunshine, sunlight in the day, these foods, and bringing this in a more balanced way. And then I will say after.
[00:36:29] Had Dover. That was at 41. It took two years after Dover, where I was finally able to go back to a workout routine that felt good for me and realize like I could let the, I could let my nerve, even the nourishment kind of chill, and I could come to a place where I eat now. What feels good? What am I craving?
[00:36:47] What sounds good to me? What did I have before? What's it like outside? Where am I gonna be today? And food for me now really is largely a beautiful enjoyment part of my life. And I've just learned after all this healing and all of these changes, like I do have a lightness around it. Do I still occasionally body check myself and see how my clothes are feeling?
[00:37:10] Yeah. And maybe I always will, and I would love to put that down one day. Am I judging myself? No. Am I sharing it with you and being totally honest about it? Yeah.
[00:37:19] Elizabeth: Amazing. So
[00:37:20] Robyn: still a little light, a light touch there of like human and growth. And this is my past into my present, but largely I feel really light around food.
[00:37:29] And like I said, I think it's taken me 10 to 15 years to get here.
[00:37:33] Elizabeth: Certainly a journey. For sure. So when you are working with somebody, how, where do you, where would you start with someone who might be listening to this right now and say, I have my own. Issues and relationship with food that I feel like isn't healthy.
[00:37:49] What are some of those tips that you can share that you think are really most impactful in your journey?
[00:37:56] Robyn: Yeah. I would say first thing that came through, because you're a thousand tips with all of you. Right? But I think the first thing is me trusting my, no other question on that. It's a whole other session, whole other masterclass.
[00:38:07] But I think the first thing that not, I think the first thing that came through is just to slow everything down. Over functioning, overworking, overspeeding ourselves. And so when we're making a choice about what we're gonna, we're going to eat, take a few breaths. Nothing is urgent. It doesn't need to happen right this second.
[00:38:28] And so giving yourself as much space, I'm gonna slow down everything when it comes to my food, how I'm thinking about it, how I'm ordering it. Take your time with a menu. Take your time in the morning. I know time is our biggest commodity promise in. From your morning, you'll have all the time you need to think about how you're supporting your body that day and what do I need?
[00:38:51] What feels good for me? Just slow everything down. Slow down your meal times be the last one to finish. Obviously this means you're gonna be chewing more, you're gonna be breathing more, you're gonna be more present. But I think it's that mentality of fish to go away, have to catch up with, to keep up and it's No, I do not.
[00:39:06] I can say no thank you to, except. To slow slowing everything down. Second, absolutely gut health. Now we have the science behind what I intuitively knew. I wrote a book about gut health now, nine years ago. Amazing. How much this is all evolved with the gut like. It's wild. But yeah, the science is there, how it supports your brain, how it supports your immune system.
[00:39:28] Like it's just everything is your serotonin. Everything is made there. And if your gut is not functioning optimally, meaning you feel good in your belly, you're not getting so bloated after meals, you can feel it. You can tell when you're digesting something well, and you can tell when you're not digesting something well with you're depending on what your poop looks like and how often you're going, how much you're hydrating yourself.
[00:39:46] And so I focusing on gut, gut health, working with a practitioner, I. I used to say, yeah, fermented foods and I have a rule of five plate and all these great little tricks, but really if you know something is off, there's so many health coaches now. There's so many functional medicine people and working with someone is not in your.
[00:40:03] Within your budget, you need to DIY it. My book, my first book, go With Your Gut is all about healing your gut. And everything that I learned on that journey is all in there available on Amazon, all the places. And it's all on my blog too. But yeah, really saying, okay, what do I need to do? How can I focus on this?
[00:40:18] And ideally, if you do need to work with a practitioner doing that. And then the third thing I would say is what I'm really into right now is I'm doing these sessions called Breakthrough. And it is using my intuitive abilities and com. That combined with training that I have around a modality called Universal Health Principles, um, which is loosely based on Body Talk, if anybody knows the system of Body Talk and it's working with, um, energy work.

[00:40:44] It's working with energy work. And so I really, the biggest shifts that I've seen in the current present moment, right, because we're not talking about 10 years ago, things were different 10 years ago. You know, give you guys a perspective here. My, when I launched my. First there was no Instagram stories.

[00:40:59] Okay. There was just feed posts,

[00:41:02] Elizabeth: which was like, that was new even. That was new.

[00:41:06] Robyn: Yeah. Instagram itself. I think I was booked on the live podcasts and that was a lot. Do you know what I mean? So, so what I'm talking about then is different than what I'm talking about now. I think now. The way that things move so fast and how we are all connected and that there's so much science behind how we're all connected.

[00:41:20] Working with energy, work with a practitioner, with someone, or even within yourself. I give some tools around that, around practices. You could do like brain balancing or self reiki, things like that. I think us going to our para into our parasympathetic nervous system, our rest and digest, and connecting to frequencies bigger than us.

[00:41:39] Beyond us is so responsible for so much of our healing in this moment. It always has been, but I think more than ever with everything happening in the world and our information age and the way that we communicate and how we see something on social media a minute, we are, our physical bodies are literally not designed to take in this much information at the speed in which we take it.

[00:41:58] We're not adapted to that yet. Just like people who have babies, humans who have babies have not necessarily adapted to the age in which. That's why there is higher risk of complication. We haven't, we just haven't evolved there yet. Even though I had my babies already, I had two geriatric pres pregnancies, like my second one at 41 took me two years to recover from.

[00:42:18] I had a very difficult childbirth. That's not true for everybody, but I'm just saying even though we think we should be evolved, majority, most people are having birthing humans or having babies. Babies. We're used to seeing Instagram now as it's been there for 10 years or so. We're not our. And so I think it's just more important now than ever to be getting some other kind of deeper work and support, whether it's in a group or something you explore yourself or just reading a book on energy work that you feel inspired by and bringing that into your everyday awareness.

[00:42:49] I think it's just so essential for healing and it's what I'm really called to right now because I think we've done so much. Yes. A lot of us still need work to do with physical body, with the food we're taking in with our daily practices, but I think we spend so much time working the things out in our mind that we need to spend more time working things out in our spirit.

[00:43:08] Elizabeth: Love that. Do you have a book that you recommend for people? I'll get some resources for you. Okay, perfect.

[00:43:14] Robyn: All right, so I should share quickly. Like when I read those books, I fall asleep immediately. But the thing is, I think you're supposed to because they tend to get, right, right? So if anybody listens to certain meditations or metaphysical spiritual work and you fall.

[00:43:29] Totally fine. I think there it's working. Exactly. So there is a frequency, I think those pages carry, or those audios carry, that is meant to put you in your parasympathetic nervous system for you to rest. So I think it's okay. So read it, pick it up again. Again, I, this one book I, I don't know, I think I'm in two years.

[00:43:45] I have me on page 30 because every time I pick it up I'm like, but I think find those communities, find the practitioners, find the. The places. One place for sure I can give is my meditation guide, the man named Peter. And he channels a light bean that he calls Orchy. And it's all vibrational healing work.

[00:44:03] So those are meditations that you can join live that are 20 or $25, for example, and you can be in that frequency and that energy work and it's very accessible. So I'm happy to share a link for him as well. And then, like I said, I work with a handful of one-on-one clients in those energy healing sessions more deeply.

[00:44:19] And. Wild. The things that come up in these sessions, like how did you know that had, I'm definitely, I'm getting warmer to it, but right on the warm edge of more deeply exploring my intuitive gifts. We're not quite there yet. We'll, that might be more in my like Grandma Godde phase. We'll, we'll see. Much is coming, which I trust.

[00:44:40] One being in the chapter and life is a long time. We'll see. Always.

[00:44:48] Elizabeth: We're gonna move on to some rapid fire q and a. Three things that you're currently loving. Could be anything. Prints

[00:44:56] Robyn: like this. I just got back from the visa. You guys are on, on video, but they're all, it's all the astrology chart and it's in Spanish, so it's, I can't speak Spanish, but it's like Virgo in Spanish.

[00:45:09] Libras. Libras the same. I'm a double Libra, so it's got all the like symbols and signs and this beautiful print, and I bought a dress in it too. Beautiful. And I think it's. Cool and chic to bring in these kind of other systems and ways that we're connecting to ourselves in something bigger than us and bring it into fashion that is like so a me example.

[00:45:27] Yeah. Love it. Oh, I forgot there's two more. Two more. Tell me the question one more time. Things I'm into three things Or that could be a product, podcast, TV show, anything. Okay. Three things in. Okay. So the second one, I definitely. Just getting fun on the calendar. My entire basis of my program that I was running Hot Mama is about getting things, big F, big F's on the calendar.

[00:45:51] That's like a big trip or something, even if it's two years from now, and then those little F's. So having cacao out in the sun, having my feet in the grass. So just for me, I'm loving that. I'm feeling like I'm really. Doing that. Like I'm making sure that those things that light me up around the calendar and I want that for everyone.

[00:46:09] I want you to make, get your fun in life is precious. And the third one, all my hot drinks are always just my, like I am such like a hot beverage in the morning, girly. So I love a product called and I'll get you all the length, uh, traditional. Gigi, the founder is in Guatemala and she sources all locally with the moon and she puts the traditional Mayan spice blend in there.

[00:46:35] So this cacao, I'm like very into. I love my matcha drinks with all my super food blends from my friend Sophie at her company philosophy, and even when I make like a super food coffee. So I feel like all of my. That is one thing that has been like since day one of my wellness journey is just like having so much fun with my superfoods, with my potions, with my warm beverages in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon.

[00:46:56] They just bring me so much joy. I am nothing without those drinks.

[00:47:01] Elizabeth: Love that. A favorite. I'll give you three because I know you probably have a lot of answers to this. A favorite book for growth.

[00:47:10] Robyn: Definitely, or you could say for sure, return to love is one that I come back to again and again. I know that's such like a, an answer that maybe a lot of people give.

[00:47:19] But I return to love from Maryanne Williamson. Like, whenever I need help, I just still, I just go, right? I'm like, what's on this page? And it is still just plans right there. So I'll just say one. That's it.

[00:47:30] Elizabeth: And lastly, what is your number one non-negotiable to thrive on your wellness journey?

[00:47:36] Robyn: Fun. Oh my God.

[00:47:37] Fun. Sorry, I'm double answering you, but I do, I really think people say like, how do you 40, how are you? 44. You look like a child. Like how and look I do. I take incredible care of myself, but I know other people. I take incredible care of themselves and I make sure that there's things that light me up on the calendar always.

[00:47:54] And I, and it's not to say that they come easy. It's not like my husband is always a yes for these things. It's not that my life. Carbs it out for me. It's that I say this is important to me and my spirit and living in my passion, living in my light. And so I'm gonna get this on the calendar. And often for me that means like a dj, an EDM show that I'm like obsessed with and can't wait.

[00:48:13] We have a less, so already on the calendar for September 9th or 10th I think. I was gonna ask, that's the next big F thing on your calendar. The next thing, the next big, I just got back from aza, so that's an extra F. And the next big F thing is that I'm going to fish. Those of her fish fans. Oh, have you not

[00:48:28] Elizabeth: gone yet at the sphere?

[00:48:30] Robyn: Oh, I haven't gone to the sphere yet because I had to choose Coachella. Oh, that was just

[00:48:33] Elizabeth: the one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was in

[00:48:34] Robyn: April. So we had a big family choice there of Coachella or Phish at the sphere. And we chose Coachella because I believe fish will be back at the spear, although please do not choose April.

[00:48:42] Again, that causes a lot of trouble for me, me and family. My husband's seen like over 200 Phish shows. I've seen a hundred, but those of you dunno. Phish is a jam band that's. Yeah, people equate to Grateful Dead and they tore a lot. And yes, we go a lot. And yes, there's songs that are like 25 minutes long, but Phish had a festival on the books that was right before the pandemic, I believe at this point it got canceled 'cause the town was having water issues.

[00:49:05] Yes. And so now they have a festival finally back on the calendar in mid-August at Monda Green. And so this 44-year-old mama two is going to a full-blown fish festival. So that is my next, and my little f. Swimming just be, I'm gonna tell myself like I have done enough for the day. I have shown up. I served my community, I've myself.

[00:49:30] Elizabeth: I love that, Robyn, with that, thank you for serving our community. Thank you for taking the time and being here. And in closing, where could everybody find you and connect?

[00:49:41] Robyn: Yes, so my business is your healthiest u.com. So that's my website, um, for my blog, for my programs, all of that, my coaching. And then my own personal website is Robyn eu.com and that's where you can learn everything about my speaking offerings.

[00:49:55] I lead. Large scale guided meditations, leap retreats, speaking topics on all these things that you've heard me chatting about. And then of course, on Instagram at Robyn eu, and you'll see how to spell my name in show notes. But if you wanna remember, my first book is Easy to Remember. It's called Go With Your Gut.

[00:50:10] So if you search, go With Your Gut by Robyn. You'll get to my name and to all the things from there. So please, if you're listening to this, send me a dm, send me an email, say hi. I'm very much as involved in my business as I was 15 years ago. We're. We love it. We love our work, and I love you, Elizabeth. This has been such a treat.

[00:50:28] Thank you. I'm so fun inspired by you. You're such a badass and it's just really been cool to walk along all of this beside you. So go. You go team.

[00:50:40] Elizabeth: So great to see you. Thanks Robyn. You're welcome. Bye. Thanks so much for joining me on Live Purely with Elizabeth. I hope you feel inspired to thrive on your wellness journey.

[00:50:52] If you enjoy today's episode, don't forget to rate, subscribe, and review. You can follow us on Instagram at purely underscore Elizabeth to catch up on all the latest. See you next Wednesday on the podcast.